On March 1 of this year, I sent out a cover letter that went a little something like this..
My extensive experience in the Business Intelligence space would make me an ideal practice manager for a large consulting firm. If you are looking for someone fluent in tech talk and business smarts, I'm a very strong candidate. I have seen technologies come and go and mastered a few of them. I make it my business to know those in the DW and ERP lifecycle. My business and technology smarts come naturally.
[..]
I am looking to work in an intense, results oriented, no-excuses environment.
Call me and let's discuss the possibilities.
They called. Now I am proud to announce that after five long months, the deal is done. And I didn't have to go to China.
I've been bursting at the seams over the past 60 days as this matter has ground to a conclusion, trying not to lose my cool or play myself. I am pleased with the results and I'll be getting started with the new guys in the middle of this month. I'm working out the details of transition with my current employer but the deal is done. Shortly, I will move from heads down work into heads up work. It's about time.
The most important part of the new gig is that I will have a team, a crew, a set of talented individuals through which I can accomplish a great deal more than I could through individual effort. I expect that I'm going to make a significant dent in my industry - that's the plan anyway.
It is a tremendous relief to finally get and sign the offer letter. I've had a bad case of senioritis and have been operating on half my cylinders except the stress has doubled. I've got to be productive in one place but thinking about another place. And the strangest thing was to recognize, as I did soon after I got a bite on my line, how uncomfortable I had become shrunken into the space I was allowed knowing that I could be operating on a larger scale. Here was somebody offering me a chance to do what I've been working towards (finally) since I quit my own business in 2005.
I kept it all inside. And now I can exhale.
So I'm going to be an exec at a small privately held software company. Well, it's about medium sized as software companies go. I'll have about 40 folks working for me, and we'll primarily be doing work with Microsoft technology in the middle-market, although we have a few big customers too. I'm going to learn what it's like to be part of the Microsoft Borg hive mind. The good news is that I step in well-connected and primed to take advantage of the connections I've made over the years. It's the network I've been living in for years, but now I get to pull some of the strings. I feel like I'm getting back on the busy track I was on back in 2001 when I was in Silicon Valley. It will be fun to have the cell buzzing constantly.
I expect that I'll be blogging a little less at Cobb (maybe down to 12-15 posts a week) and I may have to put my radio career on a short hiatus for a month or two as I get into my new groove. Other than that and the new watch, not much else will change. Oh yeah there's more money, you better believe it, and of course I get the title. Vice President. I like that.
There's a lot of work and challenges ahead. Much thanks goes out to all those who have put in their good words and prayers. You know who you are.
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