On the Prowl for the Perfect Job

I’m at a crossroads in my career. At the end of June, I’ll have completed the organization of the World Conference of Science Journalists 2011. I have been working on this conference for two years.

It’s time for me to look for a job.

Thing is, I don’t want just any job. I want the PERFECT job.

I want to be excited again about work.

I want to jump out of bed every morning, my head full of ideas ready to burst out of my cranium.

I want to come home from work exhausted yet content.

I want to have fun at my job.

I want to work with interesting people that are as different from each other yet as harmonious together as the colors of a rainbow.

I want a job where I learn something new every day.

I want the opportunity to be creative.

I don’t want to be held back by office bureaucracy.

My heart keeps telling me that my perfect job is out there waiting for me.

And because I want creativity and flexibility and fun and contentedness, I’m not looking for a job in one particular field. I’m open to ALL ideas, no matter how crazy.

I’m willing to start doing something I have no previous knowledge or skills in. I’m willing to stay in the same fields I’ve been working in. I’m willing to work in something almost new. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is that this perfect job excites me.

What is my background, you ask?

First and foremost: mother of four beautiful and very independent children. They are the pride of my life.

I have a B.Sc. in medicine from Cairo University. I can practice medicine but haven’t beyond my one year of internship.

I spent seven years working as a fulltime mother, cleaner, washer, and cook.

I then started working as a science journalist. I was editor of the science department of an online website for about six years. I also worked as a deputy editor-in-chief of that website. And the director of communications for that media organization.

At the same time I freelanced for international media organizations – mainly by writing about science issues.

I also started founding the Arab Science Journalists Association and was its first president.

And I started working with the World Federation of Science Journalists.

A huge part of my existence started revolving around building the capacities of journalists around the world to cover science more professionally.

And while doing all that I got an MA in journalism and mass communication from the American University in Cairo.

I then continued my work in capacity building by working on a couple of training projects for Egyptian journalists as a program manager.

I also taught online and science journalism at a university in Egypt.

I dive. I climb mountains. I ride horses.

And I don’t just love to travel. I live to travel. And I love to live.

I’m a perfectionist at my work.

I’m great at multi-tasking.

I love watching people and listening to people. People fascinate me.

I’m a very passionate person – and it usually shows.

I’m good at thinking out of the box. I’m very bad at thinking in the box. I need to be kept out of that box for everyone’s sake.

My mom once told me I have a free spirit. I like that description of me.

Anyone who has followed me on Twitter will know I’d love to star in a Hollywood action movie where I can swing from ropes, kick down evil men with my cool karate moves, and jump from bridges.

I’d love to have my own travel program – National Geographic style (I LOVE NG) – where I can show people how much there is out there in the world to discover. I want people to know that life is here for us to live it, to feel it, to smell it, to hear it.

I’d love to continue writing about science, the environment, culture, travel.

I’d love to write my own book – fact not fiction. But I won’t tell you what I want to write about. My idea is too great to be divulged like this in public, for goodness sake.

I want to do something I know hardly anything about so I can pick it to pieces and figure it all out from scratch. I love doing that.

The one real constraint, which I don’t feel is a constraint at all, is that I must be based out of Cairo. But this doesn’t mean that I am limited to working within Egypt. I already travel at least once a month somewhere in the world. My life is readily adaptable as long as I’m based out of Cairo.

So there you have it. Send those perfect job opportunities along. You can do that by commenting to this message. If you don’t want your comment to be made public, just say so in the message and I won’t click on “approve”. If you have my email address you can email me. Figure it out. Think out of the box. If you really want to reach me you’ll find a way.