The Adventure Continues

On July 28, 2009 I shared the following note on FaceBook - New Adventures: Background for The Curious in which I explained why I was leaving corporate work and what I intended to pursue instead: teaching.

It has been a fascinating almost two years. 

I have learned a lot about myself, my family, my camera settings, my local libraries, farmers markets and schools.  A lot of my time has been spent working as Gabriel's champion in a world and an educational system that isn't designed with him in mind.  At all.  Ever.  I painted our house in Texas, and cleaned and dealt with competing flooring bids and learned that caulk is my friend, not my foe.  I packed and pitched and sold and consolidated all of us (more or less) into a much smaller apartment in Tulsa and rented out our house in Texas.  I cooked a lot.  I fell in love with Tulsa.

I worked on my teaching certification.  I fell into working as a visual impairment coach for a second grade girl and discovered a wonderful world with her.  I watched the country decide, state by state, that the miserable few dollars they allot to education was too much and saw thousands of educators laid off as a result.

I watched our financial reserves dwindle down to ... hey ... wait, I just found a quarter!

So I started looking for work where I knew I could have the most success - back in pure HR.  And I applied for this and for that and wasn't very excited about any of it, except that it beat living off of the change in the couch.  And I interviewed and I didn't like them and they didn't like me and on and on it went.  I said, "Hey, Universe.  I need to do something here so ... I'm just going to keep trucking and you figure out where it is I'm supposed to go."

And then it happened.  After months of applications that took companies weeks if not months to respond to (if they responded at all), I saw a job that was too perfect for me.  If you took my resume and wrote a job description, you would have ended up with this job.  And with a good company.  In Tulsa.  I applied and prepared to be ignored or wait weeks but before I had even had time to move on to the next application, I got a call.  And an interview - immediately. 

Then the next day another call, and a scheduled interview on the phone.  Then, in rapid succession two more phone interviews and an invitation to go to headquarters in the Denver area for final interviews.  My scheduled five interviews that day turned into seven during the course of the day as the Global Head of HR and one of the legal team were added to the schedule.  And one business day later ... a job offer that literally left me breathless.  Oh wait, I found enough breath to say "Yes, please!"  And the best part is - they are at least as excited as I am, perhaps more so.

So it goes, so it goes.  I started my new job today.  I am impressed with the company, with my manager, my team, my senior leader.  The location is good, the job is interesting, the resources are excellent.  For now, I'm back in corporate America and hopefully in a place and a time where it makes sense.