Do I really want stressful work?

A while back, I attend my high school's 45th anniversary reunion.  While there, I met an old acquaintance who remembered me, but who I didn't remember.  Yet, we struck it off as it we were closer than we were way back when.  And he volunteered to pass my resume on to one of my friends who could help me find a new job as a project manager.  Monday, this gentleman sent me an email. But am I really interested?  I sent the following in response to his email:

Thanks for getting back to me.   Although I am rusty, having been out of the field for 5 years, I'd be interested in getting back into the field if the right position were offered.  (I would want to do well by the firm hiring me.)  In addition to project management, mainframe programming is acceptable as well.

Given the length of my commute, I would not be willing to work in Lower Manhattan.  But anywhere in Westchester County or near Grand Central would be a viable commute for me.
Looking forward to hearing from you.


Trying to get back into a skill set incompletely developed after 5½ years of being idle scares me.  GFJ and I had the following exchange about this last night:

What about the job from someone in Long island?

I sent an email back to him today saying I am interested in talking. I hope to hear from him soon.  I told him in my email that I am only interested in looking for work in Westchester or around Grand Central station. I refuse to go downtown Manhattan anymore. But I'm not really looking for a high responsibility job. after being out of work for five plus years, I don't know if I could handle that responsibility again.

You can do it.

Maybe. My last experience wasn't the best one. And the one at the bank wasn't that great either.

You just have to be positive and don't look in the rear-view mirror but through the big glass in the front of the car

I didn't think that I could take over the company and start a new company on my own but I was able to do that

You have the right attitude.

You just have to be positive

I would at least talk and see if I could do it.

You have to go in with a positive attitude that you can do it

It's hard when you're not sure if you could do it anymore.

You have to say you've done it in the past and pick yourself up by your bootstraps and going with the attitude of positiveness.

Yes, GFJ is positive person.  But is she being a Pollyanna when thinking about my skills?   I wasn't able to complete the transition to being a project manager.  Nor was I that good at the job when I did it.  

Do I really want to take the risk of failure? 


PS:  After chatting with this fellow's friend, I was told that he'd pass my resume to a colleague in charge of "Mainframe Personnel."  As I would expect, I have not heard anything further along these lines....