Please allow me to introduce myself. I have spent more than 30 years as a reporter and editor in a profession that has become increasingly volatile and insecure. I started in the pre-Internet age, wearing out the proverbial shoe leather covering beats, first in Pensacola, Florida as an intern, then in Clewiston, Florida, for a few months, followed by a decade in Mobile, Alabama.

Just as this whole Internet thing was gaining prominence, I moved to the Washington, D.C., area to work on a B2B newsletter, then a tech/business newspaper, until beginning to cover federal government technology in 2003, with Federal Computer Week.

In September of 2016, I was laid off from a company called Sightline Media, perhaps better known as its previous owner, Gannett Government Media. It was my second layoff in less than three years, and my third altogether, and it was all I needed to convince me that a career change was long overdue. Now, I am days away from beginning a new career, as a federal government SME for Cisco Systems marketing.

This blog is intended to explain how I made the leap, and to detail the learning curve I know I will encounter along the way. I hope the insights I can share here will help other ink-stained wretches who are ready for greener pastures.