My Job Search Update is That I'm Still Searching

 

Job search updates are usually for after you find your next gig, where you express your excitement about it and muse about what you learned along the way. I'll cut to the chase: I'm still looking for a job. But, that shouldn't preclude me from musing about what I've learned so far. Although I do hope that the update that shares the news of where I'm landing comes soon!

1. I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up. I am a very methodical, future-oriented, planner type. So you would think I'd have lots of clarity about something as fundamental as where I'm going when I wake up every weekday morning, or if not then at least great desire to find that clarity. But, after a lot of self-reflection (and journaling and prayer and therapeutic conversations), I still couldn't describe for you the perfect job. Perhaps I'm getting closer to non-negotiable elements to my next job, but that's well short of an acceptable answer to the obvious question of, "well, what do you want to do?" And, I'm learning to be ok with that.

2. I can't describe it but I can say yes or no. While I can't imagine what a perfect job would look like for me right now, I do know myself well enough that when faced with a potential opportunity, I have an immediate gut feeling about whether it is worth contemplating or not, and that immediate gut feeling is never wrong. Perhaps you can map this onto specific characteristics, such as "I want to make an impact" or "I want to work with awesome people," but I think the gut feeling is just that, something that is not related to any trait or calculation but that is no less real and no less right.

3. There are clues in what I'm excited to do for free. Perhaps it's my consulting training, or if I want to be charitable about myself perhaps it's my personal temperament, but while I've been unemployed I haven't been disconnected from people and issues, and when I connect with people on issues my first impulse is to think about how I can help, and not just offer to help but really dig in and do something that moves the ball forward. As I'm currently unaffiliated, any help I do provide is disconnected from anything that benefits any organization I'm a part of and offers me no direct compensation. But it is a clear signal that this is something that energizes and motivates me, and in this harsh world there's nothing more important to being sustainably happy and successful than that.

4. Not knowing is hard. We can't help but find our identity in things related to our jobs: that we do something of value day in and day out, that our schedule is full with important tasks to perform, that we're part of a group that's doing something. Not having any of those things, one can't help but feel unmoored, naked, forgotten. Compound that with the anxiety of going from earning money and having benefits to making nothing and paying for benefits, and it can be the perfect storm for crisis mode. It takes intention and perseverance to fight for a place of inner peace, trust in the process, and (as a person of faith) belief in the perfect provision and timing of our Creator. Meaning that feeling stressed and down is the human default, and we have to struggle our way to a better place. I certainly have felt all these feels along the way.

So that's where I am as of today. Will keep you all posted!

Happy Birthday to My Baby

 

I won't say what age Amy is turning today, but I will say we've been married 26+ years, which means a lot of cycles of ups and downs and lefts and rights. Blessed to share this roller coaster with you baby!

The Sun Never Sets on Huang Family Operations

 

 

We have a saying in our immediate family, which is that at any given time, someone among the five of us has to be making money, spending money, sleeping, and having fun. It's not literally true, but it's not far from true, particularly when Jada is 12 time zones away so her day is our night and vice versa.

The saying is usually invoked to emphasize something that is often true in our family, which is that we keep relatively individual and varied schedules. Sure, there's a bunch we do together as a family. But there's a bunch that we do on our own, too. And, our preferences are varied, too, so for example Amy and I are early to bed and early to rise, and we keep Asher on the same schedule, whereas Jada and Aaron are night owls.

I think the saying is also invoked to remind everyone that there is a place for both work and play, resting and striving. Which is to say that, in order to spend money, you have to make money, and also that it's not good to go go go without resting, and it's also not good to not get out there and have some fun. I guess there's a lot to this simple saying of ours!

Travel Log: Florida, July/August 2026

 

Destination: Orlando and Miami

Date: July 30 to August 5, 2026

Party: 4 in Orlando (Anuj, Eric, and Jeremy), 1 in Miami

Itinerary:

Day 1 - fly to Orlando, get groceries and check into unit, pick up 2 friends at airport

Day 2 - pick up last friend at airport, afternoon golf round at Providence, dinner at unit

Day 3 - morning golf round at White Heron, dinner/sightseeing in downtown Orlando

Day 4 - morning golf round at Orange County National, drop off 1 friend at airport, hang out at ICON Park, drop off 2 friends and car at airport, Brightline train to Miami, check into unit

Day 5 - walk Miami Beach, pick up rental bike, bike to Little Haana + Little Haiti + Perez Art Museum, bus to airport, pick up rental car

Day 6 - morning golf round at Colony West, sightseeing north of Miami Beach (Samson Oceanfront Park, Newport Fishing Pier, Oleta State River Park, Bal Harbour Shops, Harding Avenue in Surfside, Brittany Bay Park

Day 7 - morning golf round at Grand Palms, sightseeing south of Miami Beach (Cape Florida Lighthouse, Rubell Museum, Lowe Art Museum, Deering Estate, Pinecrest Gardens, Matheson Hammock Park and Marina, Coconut Grove), return rental car, fly home

 

Spending:

Transportation $1,005

Accommodations $0

Food $251

Entertainment $569

Total $1,825

Travel Log: Manhattan, July 2026

 

Destination: Manhattan

Date: July 27 to 28, 2026

Party: 2 (Amy)

Itinerary:

Day 1 - Amtrak to NYC, walk Lower East Side sights, check into Hotel Mimosa

Day 2 - check out of hotel, subway to northern edge of Central Park, walk Central Park, Amtrak home

 

Spending:

Transportation $102

Accommodations $187

Food $114

Entertainment $0

Total $403

Prove Yourself

 

For a while now, I've been following closely the plight of today's young people entering the workforce and encountering uncertainty in landing that first entry-level job. Through my previous job I tried to understand this from an employer's and university's perspective, and as a dad I'm processing the same topic through our oldest two who are on the precipice of the start of their careers.

Being a child of well-educated immigrants, I feel deeply that school is an important foundation upon which you built your employability. But I also know it is a tumultuous time for workers, employers, and universities alike, given the growing uncertainty in our global economy, the advent of AI, and the proliferation of non-university paths to credentials and careers.

As a cold-blooded capitalist, all of this chaos doesn't surprise or bother me; indeed, it's how things work out, is through free market exchanges and innovations and failures and successes. If anything, I want there to be more direct and proportionate feedback to the system. If a student flakes in college, they shouldn't expect a good job offer. And if a university doesn't provide a quality education, it won't properly prepare its students, and students and employers alike will choose away from those schools. 

Innovation doesn't take us on a straight path but it does lead us to progress. Students who try crazy things like travel and entrepreneurship and volunteerism may find they unlock skills and confidence that help them stand apart from others even if they lack the grades or pedigree their peers have. And universities that experiment with alternative forms of education delivery (e.g. streamlined 3-year degrees as opposed to 4-year degrees, internship experiences baked into the degree requirement) may similarly unlock a path to career prep that students and employers take to and want more of.

But let's step back for a second. I suppose that life is just one big game, one of signaling and networks and cause-and-effect. But, fundamentally, jobs go to those who can contribute to their employers, and they do so because they have a set of hard and soft skills that an employer can work with to get value out of. In olden days, that skill set was more defined, which lent itself to an apprentice model in which you prepared for a career by learning the craft of that career, and as you learned it you became more ready to take on that career.

Nowadays, the white collar workforce's skill set seems far more nebulous. Sure, there are hard skills that can be defined, and we should (employers and universities) be more rigorous about expressing what those skills are and measuring who has and doesn't have those skills. Indeed, we are woefully weak about this, relegating much of what passes for a credential to the branding of a school rather than an actual and unassailable analysis of whether a graduate from that school actually knows how to do X and Y.

But what today's employers really want, since a lot of what entry level white collar workers used to do can now be done far more quickly and cheaply by AI, is a much squishier set of traits, which are hard to gain and similarly hard to measure. The accumulation of "reps" that make up someone being described as "experienced" can be hard to access if you're only 22. But, you still need to get those "reps" in. Does it matter how many years of college you got through or where you went? Absolutely. But, those are merely proxies for, do you possess a set of foundational skills that I as an employer can work with, such that I am willing to trade you their money for your time. I think that's on today's youth to prove, and universities to provide.

Travel is an Optimization Puzzle to Solve

 

After 31 consecutive years of work or school, giving myself this summer to leave one job while looking for my next has afforded unique space for lots of productive things, including travel: excluding day trips and overnighters, I was able to see Cabo, Virginia, Connecticut, and Singapore/Kuching, as well as my current annual visit to Orlando/Miami. Travel is, of course, a great privilege and wonderful teacher, so I'm pleased to have made space for a lot of it this year.

It will come as no surprise that I treat travel much like I treat the rest of my life, which is that it is an optimization puzzle to solve. Not that I efficiently script out every minute: even if I had the time for that kind of prep, I think I've grown comfortable with the fine line between exhilaration and terror when I leave some aspects of a trip to chance, not quite knowing in advance how things will play out but finding it fun to figure it out along the way, and roll with good and bad as needed.

But, there is a sense in which travel is a sort of game, in which I have to figure something out based on multiple dimensions. Which is kind of how life works, too. You have to worry about finite time and money. You want to have the best time possible, and maybe do something impactful along the way, whether learning something or giving back or at least not being a total asshole to those whose home turf you're invading.

Of course, different objectives are differently important and different times, which is part of the challenge. I may want to conserve money, but if something really cool presents itself that costs a lot I might still do it. My belly might rumble midday from running myself hard with an aggressive itinerary, but if I can hold off a couple hours and get to a really great spot for food I'll do it instead of settling for something more immediate but less appealing like fast food or a museum cafe. 

Here's another fun one I often puzzle over, which is how heavy or light to pack. For 12 days in Singapore, I basically packed 4 days' worth of clothes, and I did 2 1/2 loads of hand-washed laundry mid-trip to recycle those clothes back into good use. It's a pain to hand-wash and it takes up time, but I prefer that hassle over a heavier load. (Of course, one can also find a laundromat, which introduces money and convenience considerations.)

Perhaps the biggest thing to puzzle over is what to see. A lot or a little both have their pros and cons, and assuming you literally can't see everything possible then you have to make some choices about what's worth the time and money. Of course, you can carefully lay your plans and they can blow up in your face: the weather doesn't cooperate, something turns out to be temporarily closed for renovations, or on a more positive note you literally stumble into something completely off your radar screen that is adjacent to somewhere you did have on your itinerary. This too is part of the fun, both in bracing for these uncertainties and then dealing with them in the moment.

Needless to say, travel is one of the finer pleasures in life. I feel lucky to be resourced enough to do it in general, and fortunate that this year allowed me the choice to carve out extended time for multiple excursions. Not every activity was A+ but the whole package was something I'll never forget.