Having not thought about changing jobs at all, it’s been weird to have one appear almost by magic. I’ve been in my current gig for about five years. I make a point never to discuss real business on this blog, so I’ve been pretty vague about what I’ve been doing. But most of you know that I’ve been telecommuting to California from Iowa about one week each month, and this is the eleventh year that I’ve been doing it. In 2001 the startup where I’d been closed its doors. I sold my condo out west and prepared to start a job search here in Iowa. Then an old friend offered me a great gig, and I continued the telecommuting arrangement for another five years.
When I first came to Iowa in 1997 I did some moonlighting for a small (now defunct) company. I met two engineers - really great guys - and we’ve kept in touch. Every now and again we’d get together to talk about possibly starting a new company, but nothing ever gelled.
About two weeks ago I got a call from one of these guys offering me a full-time gig at his software engineering consultancy here in Iowa. I’d met his partners several times and we’d talked informally about maybe doing some new product development work. I’ve been doing back-end web software development, while their emphasis has been on embedded systems. (For those not in the know, an embedded system is a computer that doesn’t look like one. Think about the package tracking hand-held devices that UPS and FedEx drivers carry. That’s an embedded system.) Again, nothing went past that informal stage - until now. The consultancy had been getting more offers for back-end web software development - stuff that’s right up my alley - and they decided to take on the work. And that means that they offered me a job to make this new line of business grow. And I took them up on it.
My current gig has always been scheduled to end at the end of 2007. I’d had verbal commitments that the current job would continue past that time, but nothing formal had ever appeared. So I told my current employer that I wasn’t planning to renew with them at year’s end - and that I’m available as a consultant if the need arises.
What about all the travel? I’m hoping to do a good deal less of it. Most of our new clients are in the Midwest, but we have several Bay Area clients and prospects, too - so I suspect there’ll be continued need to run cross-country from time to time.
Comments