Come tomorrow, the day after Columbus Day it will be my sixteenth year working at NYS Assembly, although my time there hasn’t be continuous as I taken several leaves of absence to work over the Democratic Assembly Campaign Committee on various campaigns and projects over the years. I’ve been there longer then many youths between being born and their learner’s permit for driving. It’s been quite the adventure, I’ve learned a lot and continue to learn more.

December marks two full years as the Deputy Director of Research Services, where I have supervised a small staff of researchers, supervising the position I started out – a researcher – many years ago now. It’s a lot of compiling data and news articles on potential appointees to various government commissions, and vetting organizations requesting state funding, along with monitoring committee votes and bill tracking for the majority. The more interesting projects involve me writing a bit of code or designing maps, but that’s more of a side project then more mundane workings of government that involve running reports of property ownership, campaign finance and news and social media searches. And what seems like endless hours of interviewing and selling new talented recruits on the researcher position as a gateway to a great career.

Next year I’m hoping to move more into the data side of things with data services – running label jobs for mailings and social media targeting both for the legislature during the day time and for the campaign committee in the evenings. That’s more my kind of thing – still mundane but necessary. That said, my hope is to bring my skills with Census data and GIS – especially using the R programming language to further refine existing processes to even better target the people we want to communicate or in the case of elections at the campaign commitee – to vote for our candidates. I do worry a bit I’ll miss run a job, though fortunately every bureaucracy has a lot of steps, checks and people involved that can usually stop mistakes prior to ink hitting paper or mail hitting mail boxes. I think everybody makes mistakes, dealing with them with tact, apologizing and taking responsibility and action are key. And I’ve learned I’m not perfect and no one else is either. I’ll also miss working downtown and the colleagues I’ve worked with for years when eventually I move to that new division.

Are there days when I have moral qualms about it all? Yes, but ultimately it’s an occupation and it’s about making a good life for myself. I don’t want plan to stay long in New York State after my career with the Assembly and DACC come to an end and my parents are no longer around. There really is no reason at that point to stick around. I realize I’m just a cog in the wheel, and to be a change maker means often a high personal cost. So I keep my nose out of politics, I have my views but I don’t talk about them at work. Instead I focus on serving my clients needs to the best of my abilities, just like anybody else who has worked as hard as I have to earn my position.

At this point it would be hard to walk away. I’m invested in the system on many levels – my skill set and experience but most of all the pension system. I am not quite a sixteen years into the Tier 4, as I’m behind a year or two due my leave during most of late 2019 and 2020, along with many autumns off working on and managing various campaigns — but I also have six months of credit from my internship. Still I’m a little over 5 years until I reach the 20-year mark, for the bump up in yearly amount of pension earned from 1.6% to 2.0% times years of service, which works out to be a pretty big jump when you figure 20 plus years your multiplying out. I really do want to get that mark. I watch the rise of DSA socialists and what happened in Washington DC with the recent overthrow of the House Speaker and are reminded that not all things are in my control even while I deliver good results for my clients.

Ultimately a career is about making money and delivering good results and quality products to your clients. I am proud of my work even if it’s not something I totally love or embrace. Do good work, take care of the needs of your clients and they’ll take care of you. When you are in High School they tell you should think seriously about going into a career you’re passionate about. I never was super passionate about politics – if anything I resented melding politicians taking away our freedom. I grew up in the era of Columbine shootings, lock downed schools and the Bill Clinton Gun Control laws. Yuck. Yet I was good at social studies class and I saw the Democratic Party as an up and growing institution in the Capital Region and New York State, even if my personal views were more libertarian or even conservative then the party I ended up embracing for my occupation. I don’t always agree with everything my clients advocate but it’s good work and that’s why I ultimately ended up where I am.

Sixteen years is ultimately just a number, but it’s also a landmark in an era when people switch jobs so frequently. But I’m happy to deliver results for my clients and make a difference in the ability for them to get their message out, serve their constituents and make their case for election or re-election.