Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Don't Quit Your Day Job!

First, please go back to Friday's post and then take the poll to the right.  And thank you to all who responded.  This is really interesting to me!

So I tossed a grenade last Thursday and just left it hanging there.

My position over the past year has morphed.  Yes, it's only been a year.

I joined as chief engineer in what was the final year of a project.  There sounded like enough work that I could make an impact (let's face it ~ there's not a lot to engineer when a project is winding down).

There was also a successor project that was ramping up.  Let's call them Thing 1 (my project) and Thing 2 (the next project).  A few months later, the chief architect left Thing 2 and my manager moved to Thing 2 to take that position and I was moved to de facto technical project manager.  That meant some more paperwork, some more meetings, but still a position where I provide technical direction.

During my last Meg trip to Arizona management announced that the government wanted to stop Thing 1 and go full speed ahead on Thing 2.  I was given a choice of where to go ~ there was more work to do on Thing 1, but with reduced staff and scope; on Thing 2 I would fit in somewhere but they already had a chief engineer.  I opted for Thing 2 since I wasn't sure how long Thing 1 would be supported and they had a senior person who wanted to step into my role.

Bad choice, but the only logical one.

We've all got a mission in life; 
We get into different ruts.  
Some are the cogs on the wheels;  
Others are just plain nuts.

I'm no longer a cog.  Now just one of the nuts.  It looks like I have something lined up with another company, another project, another Government contract.

I'll be doing development, but I'll be doing solo projects.  That's not as good as being in a position where I can leverage what I know and what I do, but it's higher profile, quick turnaround, hopefully more fun.


It looks like there are only a couple of developers and a bunch of intelligence analysts.  I know a lot about intelligence analysis ~ enough to know that their jobs are secure if I'm the competition.  The first blog year, I was working with intel analysts pretty much exclusively.


There's zero travel in this new position, so Meg needs some new outlets.  I'm open to suggestions.


A Little T-Content

I had one interview for this position.  I wore my charm bracelet (although I thought about skipping it), lip gloss, and tights under my suit.  My hands and arms were clean ~ no body hair showing.  I wore Aerosole shoes.


I need to figure out how much Meg will be present in this job.  Certainly the bracelet and socks/tights will continue.  I may make an effort to show no body hair from day one.  I will have a little time between jobs; perhaps I will get my brows trimmed and try to keep them neat and on the femme side.  Maybe I can keep my nails buffed, now that they've grown back after the gel nail fiasco.  If I can find a good brown mascara that won't flake, I may consider adding that.  I don't have a lot of time to decide though.

I do want to start off on the right heel.









4 comments:

  1. Dear Meg,
    You are a treasure. I am soo glad you have another job. You can always come up to LI, for a weekend -I have room!
    Hugs
    Diane

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  2. Good luck. Be careful out there. In today's world it is important to find whatever job security you can. It seems like your career has been twisting in the wind due to the vagaries and lack of knowledge of the government.
    Pat

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  3. "I do want to start off on the right heel."
    probably not but
    You do want to start off on the right feel.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good luck....

    Maybe you can schedule "business trips" to selected cities, so that Meg can see the full light of day?

    ReplyDelete

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