Can I Manage the Colts?

It appears that a second job offer might be on the table. This is all happening so fast. Yet, it encompasses every spare waking minute of mine.

I cornered Elvis the other day and asked for a meeting, since we all had some down-time. He's the type to flop on the couch, crack open a beer (okay, it was an iced tea), and open the conversation by asking what I really thought of the New Orleans Saints' defensive attack on Favre. Were they trying to disable him?

See why I like it at Fozzie's? Football is considered viable (and preferred) conversation-starter. I earned some serious brownie points when, during our informal watching of the BSC championship game, I called Holding, Personal Foul, and Off-Sides. Personally, I think it disarms men when women know football. I have absolutely no idea what we're all going to talk about when the Super Bowl hooplah dies down. The Olympics? I think not.

Again, I digress.

So I talked to Elvis, brought forth my career documents, and was ready to tell him to offer me a job, goshdarnitalltofreakingheck! I had it up to HERE with people quasi-sneaking around me on this job thing. The VP of HR gave me some hints on Monday. EVOO gave me glaring promises last week. Jim Henson (via Elvis) gave me some insights a month ago. Even Edison's been hinting around. I caught sight of the VP of HR's stack of papers in a meeting, during which she was editing the job description EVOO described. Scanning the title, I realized it's a terrific opportunity. People in this type of jobs are usually hand-picked from the nation's best MBA programs. I'm honored, truly I am.

[And I'm not ready to spill the beans about this particular opportunity. Consider it strategic on my part.]

But the more I thought about it, it's not *exactly* what I want to do. Granted, I have no idea what the specifics are, but I'm not crazy about the 30,000 foot view.

Hence the Elvis cornering. I needed to know if this was all I was going to be offered because I was going to seriously contemplate hitting the national job market. In short, it wasn't. After a long and quite candid conversation, he essentially asked me what I want to do. I defined the exact job I want and his next question was "so who do you want to manage?"

I fought the temptation to answer, "The Colts, silly!"

I have no IDEA which departments I should manage in the hospital. Where did that come from? While I certainly NEED to get some hands-on managerial experience, I was counting on someone handing me the departments to manage...not being granted whatever departments I want by the CEO. A wee bit blindsided!

He never really answered me about my "dream" job I described in the meeting. However, I'm studying that organizational chart to figure out which departments exist (then I can figure out which ones I will have a decent shot at not running into the ground!).

Two senior administrators and two very different opportunities. I need that Vegas sign more than ever!!