An Interesting Time

There are times in life when things go a direction that you were never really prepared for and are not sure how to handle. I recently went through one of those times. I have been a contractor with my current company for a little over a year. In that time I have been working for a single financial company. I have tried to do side projects and improve my skills as best I can, but for the most part I have been doing the work as if I was solely employed by said financial firm. I like what I have been ding and feel like I have done my work pretty well.


Then the winds of change have began to blow. The market took a little bit of a down turn, the price of oil began to skyrocket and suddenly there were less and less of my co-workers around me. Those of us with the badges that designated that we worked for other companies slowly began to reduce in number. There were lunches to say goodbye to people who generally came into our group after I got here. It was a little strange. I got scared.

With everyone seemingly losing their jobs around me I did what I thought I had to do. i posted my resume on Monster.com. I did not what to do a full out search, cause my contracting company has a pretty good track record of moving people from on engagement to another, and I have really enjoyed working for them. There have been a couple things that have irked me over the past year and a third, but overall things have been really good. Yet, I thought it was my personal due diligence to take a look at what else was out there. I did my research using salary.com and glassdoor.com (this site is pretty cool). I decided that it was going to take a 10% raise to get me out of my current position.

I started to receive calls from IT recruiters. I have to admit that some of these guys don't even seem to look at a resume before they try to contact you. I would get a call or two a day. Some people looking at the systems I have used, others looking at my experience. Some jobs sounded great, others not so much. I even got contacted by the other major consulting firm at my current engagement, the one who was laying off people as they were rolling off of the team. It was a little weird. There were a couple that sounded interesting. An investment firm in King of Prussia, the company that owns Victoria Secret and a local insurance firm. I started some interviews and clearly was impressing I guess. Most were pretty standard. There was one that had me complete an Excel proficiency test, which I thought was ridiculous, but whatever... if that is the first impression that they wanted to give so be it.

I went through a couple rounds with the insurance firm and they made me an offer that was almost 10% more, which I thought was okay. If not for their lousy education benefits I may have jumped at it right then. They were looking for an answer the next morning. Instead of being pressured into answering right then I went over and spoke with my VP. I let him know that I received an offer and we chatted for a bit. He asked me to give him until noon the next day to see if they could run some numbers. It was refreshing to not be told just to leave the company. I was a little worried about that. So I left the office and felt pretty good about things. I was hopeful that my current company would come close to the offer that I was being offered by the insurance firm, cause while the instability of consulting is something that I don't want in my life forever, for now it is just fine.

So I went home and tried to take my mind off of it. I didn't want to think about it. It was out of my hands at that point. You can't sweat the things you have no control over.

The next day I came into work and got down to business. I actually didn't check my company mail for a little bit. I was to busy with setting up my day and getting ready for the work that I would do that day. It was about 9:30 when i checked, not really expecting anything, but there it was. A message from my VP asking me to give him a call. I took a deep breath and dialed the phone. It was one of the shortest conversations I have ever had.

THEY BEAT THE OFFER.

So I am a pretty happy guy. An 11.25% raise and I get to keep my education benefits which are really going to pay out beginning next year. Oh, and I took my resume off monster. Those calls can be very distracting.

Oh What a Lovely Tofurkey Day

So yesterday was Thanksgiving. I have quite a bit to be thankful for this year. Life has been pretty good lately. I have the most amazing family and friends, I have been staying busy and getting ahead on the things that are important to me right now in life. Overall things are good.

Now I didn't head home for thanksgiving this year. I am working today (Friday) at both T. Rowe and Apple, so doing the drive just wouldn't make that much sense. Instead I spent the day at home slept in and cooked myself dinner.

I am still in my month of no meat, so I tried to make a tofu turkey. This was an experience to say the least. I tried to make this dish by hand. Lets just say that the sides were really good. There were some pieces of the lump bird that were quite tasty, but overall I am going to call it a culinary failure. I hear that twink's store bought tofurkey loaf was pretty good. I think we are having leftovers on Monday. YAY. The sides actually were really good, but I thin that next year I may go with Turducken as opposed to Tofurkey.

Overall, the day at home with Onyx (Ben's Cat) was quite relaxing, which is good cause i am going to need it. today was PT, then work, then work again, home around 12:30.

Peace Out

A Good Weekend and a Busy Week Ahead

I had a blast this weekend. It has been quite a while since I had a really great weekend (not including Erin and Kyle's Wedding. Of course there are some things that I probably should not have done, but no skin off my back. Between going out with Mark, Julia and others on Friday, to Sushi on Saturday, to the Social that night, it was a good time. I hope that my weekends continue to be this good over the next few months. Actually, I hope they continue for ever, but i'll take what I can get.

As for the update that I am sure you are all waiting with baited breath for... Here is a couple new pictures of my leg.

Notice the lovely colors and strong contrast between elements. The purples and blues are quite astonishing.

It is actually getting better. It feels better at least. I can get pretty tight during the day, but it feels stronger. The hardest part is flexing my leg, but I guess that is why I am going to therapy.

Well, it is going to be a busy week. My role at the day job will be shifting a little and I will be putting in 18 hours this week at the A. Store (between now and Thursday). This weekend is Andy's Bachelor party, so I am sure that will be interesting as well.

Until the next post, Peace Out

I Have Had Great Co-Workers

So I was thinking the other day about how strange the last year or so has been. I left the comfort of school, a group of people who were very supportive, caring and lived life with integrity and fulfillment. These were people that I look at as having chosen careers which they felt good about, that they felt fulfilled by their lifestyles. I was very very worried about leaving a place, physical and emotional, where I was content and felt like I knew myself. This was May 2006...

Fast forward to September 2007, friends are heading back to classes, I have moved four times and have had gone through two jobs and three companies. I have been laid off, and won awards. Lost and found the love of my life. It has been crazy... and yet it has been great. There are a few things I would want to go back and change, but professionally I would keep it all just the wayit has gone. The work has been challenging sometimes, rewarding sometimes, enlightening sometimes, but the people, my co-workers, they have been great all the time.

At Chase, I had a pretty big group. There were 12 of us in Delaware and another 400 or so globally. It was very high pressure, when there were problems there needed to be solutions. It was an environment where there was literally a trillion dollars going through the system that we were supporting a day.... A TRILLION DOLLARS. With all of that we had a really good time. It was a group of really interesting people, from very varied backgrounds, but we just gelled. It was alot of fun to work there. It was fun to work with different people and as you learned about them, the things the liked and the things they cared about, it became even better.

After leaving Chase I started with Sogeti, which has been a different, but no less rewarding experience. First of all I am a consultant. In theory, this means I can move from company to company, as different work becomes available. I hope that this lets me get experience in a number of different industries, but the thing that worries me is the people. Who will I be working with? what type of role can I play? Will I fit in with team?

In my first assignment at T. Rowe Price I have been pleasantly surprised. The people here are fantastic. I really like my co-workers, even if I am "just a contractor". They are a pretty fun bunch, and they have made me realize that I need to work around good people in order to be happy and successful.

So, after a crazy year, I am hoping things calm down a little, but not to much. I hope I am not moving for at least six months (fingers crossed) and when I do move on from T. Rowe, I am placed with a really great group of people, like the ones I have had the pleasure to work with previously.