oliviatamccue

 March – May 2013: Stroke of Luck and off to Medical Industry

Previous job leads have not borne fruit.  It is unclear if it needs patience or a different approach.  Confidence is an interesting thing.  We feel more confident when the recruiters call us for an interview.

I got a gentle stroke of luck to land on a senior position in a Medical device company, close to home and in industry that has direct relevance to our well beings.  Just that I have enjoyed my employment break so much, it is a dampened excitement to get something that matches up well with what I have been looking for.

Just to name a few differences:

From a company of 300,000+ employees to a company of just over 1000 employees; from a permanent position to a consultant position; from high-tech industry to medical device field; from IT management to program management in marketing; from applications management to product development; not to mention from IE 10 to IE 8; nor from SQL2012 to SQL2008; the contrast is amazing.

Differences aside, there are not small similarities.  And there are so many skills and experiences that can be leveraged.  I am naturally grateful for what I have learned in the past.

As a consultant, one could be a bit remote from office politics, and enjoys the feeling of earning tangible $ every day as well as the overtime payment protection of working more hours.

Opportunity of a permanent position presents itself when it is too early to call.

June – August 2013: Hits and Misses

It is not so much what the decision is, more what we make of the decision.

Misses –

• The friendship and comradeship for a company I have worked for many years.  That every one of the 300,000+ employees is a phone call or email away.
• Miss the perceived sense of security and certainty.
• Miss the respect and authority established over the years.
• Day of self-doubt when interviews do not end up with an offer

Hits –

• Time for so many activities I enjoy.  Every day is full of stuff that I like to take up.
• Time to reflect and put the first half of career in perspective.  Realization of how much has been done, and how to apply the experiences in different settings.
• The experience of retirement days if not months.
• The exposure of non-profit organizations and how to get in.
• Refresh on latest technology and its trend – cloud, software-as-service, blogging and mobile application.
• Connect with people
• The confidence and reality that we can move on to another challenge – change is possible.

How we set our goals affect what we get in the end – I start off the journey, with the top reason to do something different and relevant.  It is certainly different, and time would tell if it is relevant.

Posted in Career Management, Dear Diary