Missing Link

Ok, not really. Well, maybe.

I’ve been fairly silent over the past week. That’s something that in and of itself isn’t too much of a shock… there are times when I go for weeks without posting anything, so why should a handful of days be special? Well – in this case – they were special.

For quite a while I’ve been considering a job change. There are a variety of reasons for this consideration – none of which I will go into in such a public forum. Back in December, just before Christmas, I interviewed with a company in downtown Indianapolis, for a position on their Information Security team. I felt myself to be a strong candidate – after all, for the past 10 months I’ve been building and managing a security program for a federal contractor. This position offered me things I couldn’t get in my existing position, and these were things I found to be highly desirable.

The hiring manager mentioned that he hoped to have an offer out before the end of ‘08, but if not, then shortly into ‘08. Christmas came and went with no word one way or another. A week or so into ‘09 and I sent a second followup e-mail (I sent the first when I got home from the interview). Again, no word. I’ll be honest – at this point I wrote it off as a “not gonna happen”.

Imagine my surprise, then, when on Tuesday, when I got back from lunch, I noticed an email from Twitter that the hiring manager had started following me. I can remember thinking “What the hell?! He ignored me, didn’t hire me, now starts following me on twitter?!” It was about that time he called to offer me the position.

And so, two days later – once I got the official offer letter – I resigned. I offered the company two weeks to transition my duties from me to my senior security analyst. They (and by they I mean a certain few – not the entire company – a long story that I won’t mention here) didn’t take it well, and have banished me to work those two weeks from the comfort of my own home. I am – to the best of my knowledge – still on payroll, and still earning my salary. That’s something.

So, for the next two weeks I get to work from the comfort of my new home office – with the notable exception of this coming Monday morning, during which I will be conducting an exit interview with the senior executive team of the company (CEO, COO, CTO and HR Director – Possibly the CFO as well). While my physical access to the office I was based out of has been revoked, my laptop and blackberry taken, my VPN access also revoked , I still have access to e-mail and that – apparently – is enough for me to work. Supposedly.

I am looking forward to the new job. It seems to be a good company, performing strong even in this dismal economy. They also offer a variety of employee benefits that go well above and beyond my previous employer. The work will be much more in line with what I want to be doing as well, so the whole deal is just much better.

If only I didn’t have to wait two more weeks to start….