Current mood:	thoughtful
Current music:	Greenday- Longview

Where the heck was I?
Under a rock? Why yes, I have been. The kids thing is a fairly obvious thing, but what the heck else have I been doing?


Career change was a big thing that was fairly recent. I knew I was dead-ended in what I was doing and had to find a way out. How and when were big questions, of course. When I found out that I was having a second kid it seemed to me that it would make a lot of sense to wait until after it was born before seriously looking elsewhere. Heck, I even thought of completing a third cycle (another 2 1/2 years) of what I was working on. As we finished shipping the most recent cycle I found my group getting reorganized. The other good people left, but Will was coming and I figured I could hang on...

I really started second guessing my decision after the first time I did a skip one-on-one meeting with my new bosses' bosses' boss. *shudders* It was about the worst meeting I ever had. He had *no* clue who I was or what I or my team were doing. Frightening as I was one of his higher level employees and my team was a big part of his group. He spoke to me about what the product was (the product that I had spent 6 years working on) and gave me a basic introduction to the test org (did I mention 6 years. I literally almost threw up coming out of that meeting. Needless to say I went into a rather unhappy phase. I got in such a stupefied daze of existence. Bad enough that one day I drove my truck into a concrete pillar in the parking garage (yes, the same one I'd parked in for 6 years). I started looking, but was hampered by the imminent birth...

I went on paternal leave without any real resolution. They moved office buildings while I was gone (my first in the already mentioned 6 years). The day I came back I ran into a concrete pillar in the new garage (even harder than the first time). Subconscious, higher/greater power, I don't know, but I was being told to get the hell out.

So I began looking in earnest. Problem was that in a relatively high job level that was very niche. I was a tester that wasn't really testing--I was more of a program manager in test. I could have looked for a lead (management) position, but I didn't want one. I wanted to code, but I wasn't doing any coding on a regular basis. I liked PM'ing, but I wasn't a PM. There were no individual contributor test positions at level that weren't heavy coding positions. Ends up that even though I had great review scores I was hampered by my success--it's a big risk to take someone into a different discipline at higher levels. I could have theoretically taken a lower level position if it weren't for the fact that I couldn't afford to drop my income. So I decided to push as hard as I could for a PM position...

I got a few nibbles, but not a lot of bite, which ended up be for the best as I stumbled across a new PM position for a brand new group that was working on an application with a very creative bent. Very cool, I thought--I've always hoped I could do something with a creativity app, but not much opportunity for that sort of thing at the 'soft. Ends up they liked me a lot (and vice versa), but I was up against a possible "industry" hire. They went with the attempt at gaining some industry respect, but said "hey, would you consider this test position?". I'll happily *consider* anything and I told them as much.

Gave it some thought and I realized what was most important to me is not what my tasks were, but rather what I was working on. So I decided I *would* get the job and did. I was still held up a bit by their coding assessment ("you can code well, but you're not doing it") but I wouldn't take no.

Ends up this has turned into the most incredible experience I could have ever hoped for. I'm working like crazy, but the potential payoff is ridiculously high. The challenges are completely different than anyone that I know at ms has faced. The coding I've done is way beyond what I could have hoped for an opportunity to do. My skills and experience levels have gotten on a very fast track of improvement. We haven't announced the product yet so I can't say much about it, but I'm excited to share more once we have.

So there you are. There's my long-winded, boring career story. :)

What else have I done? Well... major home improvement sorts of things. Power tools are fun, but wow, did I bite off a lot. A story for another time. Probably seeing way too much of me, anyway. Don't want to overdo it. ;)