Ch- Ch- Ch- Changes
So, here’s the thing: Look at the header. It’s changed.
Yep.
We’re moving. Out of Florida.
(Say it ain’t so!!!)
Not too many people know this, but I used to be a very good market researcher in the aerospace & defense electronics industry, made a really nice salary, worked from home, and didn’t realize that I was providing my services cheaper than the company could get a consultant for, despite earning a really nice up-north-big-city salary while I lived in a small Florida town with a microscopic mortgage.
So, when I completed the heavy lifting and had the job cruising along smoothly in maintenance mode, I was cut loose along with a bunch of other folks that represented 20% of the SG&A budget of an $8B company. Three weeks after the results of a 3-month project I spearheaded to develop an electronics industry market model was presented to the board of directors of the company. So, someone thought my work had value, although it would not surprise me to find that the people using the data did not know that the person that gave them the data did not develop the data models themselves.
Ahem.
I heard I was replaced by an MBA over 10 years younger at half the salary. Nothing I could do about it, I was too young to claim age discrimination, and even if I could, the company and my management were all in Canada.
Effin’ Canadians. There is neither good steak nor any parking in the whole country, so don’t bother going there, m’kay?
In short order I received a call from a major competitor located 50 miles from my front door. “We want to hire you, but we need you to do a project for us so we can see what we’re getting.”
No problem, coming right up!
You know where this is going, don’t you?
Yeah, I took it in the keister. Turned in the project, the job magically got put on hold, and I got screwed.
So, I spent a bunch of time out of work. I had a few interviews, but couldn’t nail ‘em. I begged, borrowed, and even played poker at gulp-stakes to pay the bills. Eventually, I wound up selling cell phones at Radio Shack in St. Augustine for $9.10/hr plus commissions. Yes, it sucks as bad as you imagine but I got tired of my kids coming home from school and seeing me hitting ‘refresh’ on Monster.com, still in my pajamas.
“It’s awfully important to win with humility. It’s also important to lose. I hate to lose worse than anyone, but if you never lose you won’t know how to act. If you lose with humility, then you can come back.” — Paul “Bear” Bryant
Then I landed a slightly-less soul-crushing job as an inventory specialist for a small manufacturing company. I’d also spent half my career in analyst and management roles doing materials management, so it was right up my alley. Then I spent 8 months sitting around staring at the walls while the company went through a dry period without new business coming in. I still had a paycheck, but it wasn’t much of a job. And that paycheck was incredibly small, not much better than Radio Shack.
I’m proud to say that even though I owe so much I’ll be lucky to pay off the bills by the time I retire, we never missed a payment. Not once. It’s been a tough, tough ride and it’s long from over and we still might fail in the end. But I’m proud of how I’ve managed this black-hole time of my life. I’ve interviewed with so many people that told me stories of people they know that had been laid off, and those people went bankrupt because they were too proud to take the jobs I took.
Hope I don’t offend anyone out there, but that’s false pride. I took a lot of crap from managers I wouldn’t have hired and customers that would be ashamed of themselves if you showed them a tape of how they behaved a year ago. I never defined myself by my job, but by how I went about my job. I like to think that is possible to retain dignity and professionalism, even if I’m wearing a name tag. When my family’s future and my good name are on the line, there’s no job I’m too good/smart/qualified/underpaid to take. I have way more respect for the kid working his way through school at Radio Shack than I do the guy that screws over Amex for $1500 because he can’t bring himself to take a job that requires him to fill out an application.
“Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.” — Booker T. Washington
Anyway, around Christmas, I received an e-mail through my network letting me know there might be a job for me if I was willing to relocate. Former managers of mine, including one that was a friend of the family for many years. Three months later, I have another new job, this time incredibly challenging and one I’ve only done tangentially in the past, but the pay still only gets me about halfway back to where I was. But, it’s enough to make the move.
No, I’m not putting company names on the intarwebs, but I will say that in two weeks I will be a resident of Huntsville, AL. Hopefully in some kind of short-term corporate apartment while my kids finish school in Florida. Yeah, THAT’S going to suck.
As for this website, I’m planning to stick around for a while. I’m still a Floridian, and love Florida for all it’s quirks and blemishes. I love what I do here, the site is getting better every day, and the results are showing in the stats. If I get the sense that I’m falling out of touch with the uniqueness of Florida, I may change things up here. But, not right now.
So, I’m terribly excited and incredibly sad at the same time. I’m hoping that this move will allow me to continue the rebuilding process in my career, and lead me back to bigger and better things. I fully expect to be back in Florida eventually, and will enjoy being a tourist on my visits “home”.
“I was born in Alabama, but I only lived there for a month before I’d done everything there was to do.” — Paula Poundstone
Comments
4 Comments on Ch- Ch- Ch- Changes
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John McDonald on
Tue, 26th Feb 2008 5:49 am
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Tim on
Tue, 26th Feb 2008 6:23 am
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Mr. Fabulous on
Tue, 26th Feb 2008 12:03 pm
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Tim on
Tue, 26th Feb 2008 12:16 pm
Sounds like you’ll be back! Florida has that affect on people I’ve noticed…(I know I’m stuck here for some unknown reason) I’m watching the financial news and they’re pretty grim about the economy, so congratulations on landing the new job and good luck with everything.
Thank you, sir.
I get the sense you are on your way back, sir. And there are far worse places to make a comeback than Huntsville, AL.
I’ve been there too, my friend. In SC I worked as a convenience store clerk while Mrs. Fab went to graduate school, because there was nothing around in Twiddle-Your-Ball-Sack, SC. I did the job with pride.
You will be missed, Florida Boy.
Thanks Fab, I appreciate that.
Now I’m getting all verklempt… The New York Giants are neither in New York nor are Giants. Discuss.
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