Missing Link

In this economy a lot of folks are worried about their job, money, and generally making ends meet.  While part of me gets it and understands where this trepidation comes from,  I find myself unable to really relate.   I am one of the fortunate few who not only is employed, but also has an incredible degree of stability in that employment.  I don’t fear losing my job and being one of the many who are competing for the few jobs that seem to be available.

I’ve been very fortunate in this regard.   A few years ago, shortly before the housing bubble burst and sent the economy into the toilet, I was a co-owner and co-founder of the technology company Proxito.   I don’t expect many of you to have heard of us – in fact I fully expect that the vast majority of you haven’t.   We were attempting to do some fairly ambitious things with text messaging as our platform.  I think we missed the mark on what we were attempting to do – specifically by trying to bill ourselves as text messaging companies instead of content delivery via multiple methods – but that’s a story for another day.

We shut down operations in late 2007,  leaving both myself and Brian – the other co-founder – to try to figure out an important question: Now what do we do?

We both agreed that starting more companies probably wouldn’t be feasible – at least in the near term – as we’d fairly well exhausted our investment opportunities.  I opted to go back into the regular workforce in an area where I was formally trained – information security.  The job market was just starting to turn sour,  so it took a little while before I was able to find the right fit.  I ended up as the Systems Security Officer for a medicare contractor based out of Fort Wayne Indiana.

It was an interesting position, and I really enjoyed the work. While there I expanded upon my existing skill-set by adding in government experience while  also allowing me the opportunity to do policy development and l build a security program from the ground up.  It was challenging and rewarding, but wasn’t where I really wanted to be.  While I liked the work,  the corporate culture, along with certain members of the senior management, made it uncomfortable for me.   It became obvious to me after 8 or so months that I needed a change, for my own sanity.

And so, despite the fact that the economy had just fallen into the toilet and the job market crashed almost as hard as the stock market had, I decided to start looking for other opportunities. I was ecstatic when in december I was asked to come in for an interview with a company in downtown Indianapolis.  I was relieved when I showed up for the interview and the office, and culture, was exactly what I wanted in a place to work.

The job, an Infosec Admin position, was a step down in terms of job title and responsibilities.  It meant, however, that I could go back to playing with technology and making things work,  something I sorely missed.  I aced the interview and a few weeks later (ok, a month later) they offered me the position.   I accepted, and immediately turned in my resignation at the medicare contractor.

Two weeks later (a year ago, tomorrow) I started my current job.

I find myself working now for a company that, despite the economy and increasing jobless rate,  is performing exceptionally well.  Rather than cutting jobs, we’re adding hundreds.  It is by far one of – if not the – best technology companies to work for in the state, and our technology platform is internationally recognized as one of the best in our industry.   It’s a great place to be, and I am nothing short of ecstatic that I get to work here.

I often find myself thinking “I can’t believe I get paid to listen to music and play with technology all day…”, and it’s true – I can’t believe my good fortune.

So – why do I write this?   Is it because I want to flaunt my good luck and how awesome my life is?  No.  I do think it’s important to point out though that while we hear constantly the “doom and gloom” about the economy, and job market,   that it’s important to  keep some hope.  It’s not ALL doom and gloom.  There is some good still to be found.   It’s easy to become scared, and worry, and be afraid of what may happen.  It’s important, though, to be thankful for what we do have, and to know that it’s not ALL bad news.

Keep calm, and carry on.

(Special note:  The idea for this post,  including the image up top and title, come from a book mark Ann bought while we were out this weekend.)