“If you want to do anything worthwhile in your life, you got to be hungry” – Les Brown
It’s been a full year since my last post in this series that covers my experience in the pursuit of my dream job. In the time since, I’ve moved back to the Washington, DC area and taken the job at the U.S. Department of the Interior. I would be flat-out lying if I said I wasn’t actually happy with the way things are right now on the professional front. I love it at DOI. I work alongside a great team of professionals in the Branch of Building Operations and the things we do for both the Main Interior Building and South Interior Building is about as righteous as it comes in this industry. Furthermore, the autonomy I’ve been given to do what I do best is refreshing. If I didn’t have greater ambitions, I think I would definitely feel comfortable rising through the ranks in the Office of Facilities & Administrative Services.
But, to steal the title of the Lloyd Banks debut album, I do kinda have a “hunger for more”. I really do want to be a Foreign Service Facility Manager. I feel like it’s my destiny. Last month, while I was out in Las Vegas for IFMA Facility Fusion, I sat in on an education session being presented by a representative from the Department of State’s Bureau of Overseas Buildings Operations…you know, the same organization that oversees my dream job. The presenter was named Eric Guthrie and apparently, he’s part of the training team in OBO. He taught about what OBO was doing to prepare its staff to be as compliant as possible with the Federal Buildings Personnel Training Act. I was impressed with the presentation…even more so with the training plan he shared with me to prepare myself as I am a Federal facility manager, after all. Of course, I ran into an FSFM recruiter at the expo and we chatted a little bit. He mentioned that there is a vacancy coming out at the end of this month. But, as I kinda promised myself 3 years ago, I won’t pursue that job until I know I’m 100% ready and I don’t think I’m there yet. Nevertheless, I’m still very much hungry for that job. At some point, I will be a Foreign Service Facility Manager.
