So I just spent the day with my clients in Chicago (Lake County). The 'project manager' from my company wasn't able to make it, so I was flying solo. The purpose of our visit is to meet with four different computerized maintenance management system vendors and watch their presentations about their software. Lake County is going through the process of purchasing a new software and FEA has been helping them through this process. It was overwhelming and kind of interesting to be sitting there as the 'expert' in the room. The vendors knew that I could sway the opinion of Lake County, and Lake County kept asking me all of these questions when the vendors weren't there about what I have seen at other organizations and what my opinion was.

I'm pretty sure I made up most of what I said, but I think it sounded believable. The longer I'm in this career, the more that I realize that it is not so much about the experience that you have, but about the experience you can draw from others and make others believe that you really know what you are talking about. All I know is that by the end of the day, I definitely felt older than I usually think I am! I think I like playing the role of the young kid that doesn't know much more - there's no accountability in that role!