Magerealm

Every once in a while everyone needs a change in their lives.  If you go to long without having one, you become complacent and too set in your ways.  I recently decided that I needed such a change and that employment was what needed to be changed.  For the past 5 ½ years I have worked in the PKI group inside of Wells Fargo, but on Monday I will be working for a major internet company in the Phoenix metro area.

Because I was at Wells Fargo for so long I because the primary architect for the PKI, designing the interaction of the various components, what should be firewalled from what, how they would communicate, and how the systems would be built.  This included major hardware consolidation using virtualization, database consolidation, clustering and redundancy systems, and overall network design.  By the time I finished all of these projects, I had the entire network design for our systems memorized (mainly because I designed it).  I had also reduced the amount of work for scheduled maintenance down to the point where there just wasn't much left to do.

This basically left me at a point where I had to make a career decision.  I could:

1. Keep doing what I was doing and recognize that my career wouldn't advance any further.
2. Switch to an official architecture position inside of WF.  Because of how the positions are designed, this would have meant giving up any hands-on tech work which I feel would have made my skills rusty and outdated within a couple of years (and thus the architectures I would come up with wouldn't reflect what could or should be true anymore).
3. Switch to a management track
4. Look for a position outside of WF

After evaluating all of these choices, I decided it would be best to look for a position outside of WF.  After an interview on a Monday morning I received an offer the next day that I just couldn't pass up (they gave me most of what I asked for, plus the position will allow me to advance while staying fresh with the technology).  At this point I contacted my manager to let him know where things stood and to give my notice.  Having been with WF for so long I felt obligated to give them more notice than is customary (1 month instead of 2 weeks) so we could make sure that someone was ready to take over my responsibilities.

Now, obviously there is some trepidation about moving to a new company, but I know I can handle it.  There will be the a couple of weeks of getting used to the new environment and my new coworkers, but that will pass and I begin to get into a routine (though it doesn't sound like my day-to-day activities will be all that routine).

Apparently the fates believe this change is good as well.  Over the past month I've been to PF Chang's twice (once with my coworkers for another coworkers good-bye lunch, another time with my parents), and on both occassions I got fortunes in my cookies that have actually been applicable.  The first, "You will find the desired link within the next month," seems to my change (within the next month) will get me what I wanted.  The second, "There is a prospect of a thrilling time ahead for you," would seem to indicate that I won't be bored in my new position.