Colorado, winter and change in life can really make life “interesting”. With the life altering change last year of leaving Vertis, “formally”, going into winter was a bit foreboding both financially, socially and “what am I going to do every morning”-ly. After leaving Vertis and going “Independent” our life and routine changed fairly drastically. First, I was home all the time, which drove Jodi crazy at first and then the seasonal car business we started earlier dwindled to a crawl.

After 20 years of trudging off to an office, I found myself waking up, getting my coffee and marching down the hall to my computer and our home office. While I still had several Vertis deployments to wrap up, which requited some travel, for the most part, I found myself at home. With finances tight, I did everything possible to insure expenses were kept to a minimum. Jodi and I refrained from dinner out, extra-curricular activity and the like. Intrusion on Jodi’s space was an understatement, so I mostly went to the shop to give Jodi some breathing room. She’s been a stay-at-home mom for 14 years and the past 2 years working from home as a virtual assistant and bookkeeper for a few local business. So, having me around was a drastic change in her routine as well as mine. I adapt well, but she doesn’t. Although, I have to admit, after 9 years with a nice private office overlooking the Flat-Irons, I also wasn’t use to another “being” just 2 feet away, breathing, much less tapping away on a laptop and drinking coffee. Keeping to myself seemed like a good idea. On the other hand, vocalizing her annoyance was how Jodi coped. And… so it went.

Fast forward to February 2008. Back in January, I started the process of looking for a full time position again after taking a “sabbatical” from October to December, after the projects died off at Vertis through that time period. With that short breather behind me and taking a hard look at my past career and interest, I decided to focus on one particular position that suites me well. Sales Engineering or Technical Sales. My forte’ is customer engagements and since I recognize that I’m a “builder” not a maintainer, look for new challenges, quickly ramp up and engage with customers, build confidence early, work well with sales executives and communicate complex concepts and needs back to development teams, I felt that pre-sales, contract assignment and post sales work is probably best for me and any future job opportunity. Plus, add the fact that I have a very broad base of technical knowledge and interest, I knew companies could use my skill set.

It’s been interesting to say the least after 16 years in some capacity at Vertis getting my assignment changes through internal “who-you-know” processes and communications rather than hitting the pavement. It looks like I stayed with one company doing one job for many years, but in reality, I wore many hats and worked for different bosses, just received compensation from the same “organization”. However, the most recent position was a bit longer than usual.

Now I’m in the “thick” of the process and find myself looking forward to both a new opportunity and more importantly towards spring. Usually, any major move I’ve made in the past was in the fall. Not sure why, but that’s the way it always turned out. Now, I’m looking at a late Winter early spring change and I’m really looking forward to diving into a new challenge.

Why else is spring looking so good. Well, after such a “dry” and fortuitous winter, spring is looking hopeful and I know less stressful. Besides, I’m frankly tired of the cold and I love being outsides in shorts, short-sleeved shirt and enjoying the sun. While winter offers the suns rays, it’s still cold and this year has been no exception. Today, Thursday Feb the 28th was nice and warm and brought the promise of spring. Therefore, it felt like spring is near and I’m waiting for it and a new position to arrive!

Stumble it!