Bouncing Back From the Brink

[jvp]

"The brink of what?" you might ask.  Desperation.  Insolvency almost?  Perhaps depression.  Fortunately, this (long-ish) story has a very happy ending.  Grab a cup of coffee or your favorite adult beverage and strap in.

I'm located in the Norther Virginia area, which as some know isn't the cheapest area in the country to reside.  I'm mainly here because we spawned the explosive growth of the Internet right here in the mid-90s (note: the Internet as it was existed a lot longer than that, but the industry right here kicked up into high gear).  I've stayed here ever since, moving from job to job very slowly.  I generally like to hang around a place until I feel it's absolutely not worth my time, or something so significantly better comes along.

Or I get kicked out.  That happened in June of 2017, and it was the start of an awful downward spiral for me professionally.  And mentally.  I was working as a high level network architect at Verisign at the time.  For those unfamiliar, Verisign is probably one of the most important companies on the entire Internet.  Why?  They own the .COM DNS domain entirely.  If they go away, break, or otherwise have a problem, you're not going to be able to surf to your favorite .COM website.  You won't be able to send or receive email from a .COM site.  There's a bunch of stuff you won't be able to do; .COM is so ingrained in our Internet usage.  Anyway, I finished up a very large project re-designing the network for their data centers and figured I'd be moving on to testing it in the lab to verify it.  But, they had other plans for me: ushering me out the door.  It was part of a small 8% layoff, so a healthy severance was given.

I figured I'd be OK until I found another role, but what soon dawned on me was that: summer isn't usually a good time to be looking for work in tech.  It generally picks up again in the fall.  The severance lasted; I didn't need to sell my car, my house, or a kidney (no one would buy it, anyway).  But by fall things were getting ... tight.  I still couldn't find an architect-level role, and had to get back to work quick.  A small data center company had need for a Senior Network Engineer, which is something I can do in my sleep.  The pay was a LOT lower than I was previously making, and the work was stuff I was doing 20+ years prior.  However, they had plans to hire another Network Architect in the near future with the opening of their new data centers; the recruiter said I could demonstrate my chops and move right into that new role.  Since I needed the cash, I took the role.  It sucked, but it kept my lights on and food on my table.

Barely.  During my stint there, I had a disaster hit at home that required a bunch of money to repair.  Think: septic system not doing its job, and you'll get the general idea.  I wasn't making enough to cover it, nor did I have enough left in my savings account (see: previous layoff).  So, hey, look, I have a bunch of very expensive camera gear that I'm not using that much.  I sold that, paid for the repairs, and stayed in business.  That is until the CEO of this little company decided to pivot his entire business 90*, and sell off the chunk that I was just hired into.  That meant a massive layoff was planned for August of 2018.  It wasn't a selective layoff where they got rid of the "new guys" or the "low-hanging fruit".  My boss and his entire organization was chopped.  So was his boss and his entire organization.  Large swaths of folks were notified that they'd be jobless by summer's end.

Well this sucks.  Didn't I just play this game?

I burrowed in and started job hunting immediately.  I had another healthy severance coming if I stayed until August, but I decided that if I found a better role before then, I'd pass up the severance and think long-term.  I came close with a couple of very good companies.  Really close.  But ultimately my location played against me, and I found myself jobless in August.  Again: the severance kept me going, kept my lights on, etc.  But that savings account wasn't looking too healthy.  No "rainy day" funds other than the severance I was actively spending to pay my mortgage, car loan, and bills.  I finally found an "Architect" role in late November of 2018 and got back to work, and at a slightly higher salary than I was making at Verisign.  Which is good.  But...

The job sucked.  It sucked because there was literally nothing for me to do.  I was hired by a VAR, or "Value Added Reseller".  Basically: they re-sell IT-style equipment (servers, network gear, etc) and add "value" by helping the customers design and then implement.  This means sales people need to get out and SELL.  Otherwise the guys like me have no work to do because no one needs us.  The problem is that sales dropped off a cliff for the tail end of 2018 and early 2019.  In fact, I have no idea how this company was staying afloat and public, no less.  My boss kept reassuring me, "Don't worry, it's not you.  My entire org is at a measly 23% utilization overall."  Don't worry?  Um.  Really?

On the plus side: I was sitting on my ass and literally doing nothing.  But, I don't actually consider that a "plus".  It's a huge knock, in fact.  I hate being bored.  HATE.  IT.  No matter how many different folks in the company I asked if there was any way I could help... nothing.  And, the unfortunate hit me in early April of this year:  another layoff.  Third one in two years.  This time: no severance.  I'd only been there for 3-4 months and they just didn't have the funds or interest.

No severance, no income, and nearly nothing in my savings account.  And a mortgage and car loan to pay.  Hm.  I didn't wait long.  By May, I'd already cleaned the Corvette up, removed my modifications from it, and shopped it over at the local Car Max.  They bought it up without any hassle, which zeroed the (small) car loan and left me with an excellent amount of cash.  Good.  I can pay my mortgage and buy food!  That was the most important, even though it sucked that I'm now Vette-less (still got my pickup, so I can get around).

And this is where things start turning around.  There is a light at the end of this tunnel, and it's an interesting shade of... blue?

Of the many places I applied to: one was IBM.  Literally the oldest tech company in existence.  They needed a guy exactly like me: network architect for the the cloud and hosting side of their business.  The location was listed as "Multiple cities" which I thought may mean: "remote".  Late May, their recruiter pinged me and said, "The hiring manager would like to have an hour long call with you next week.  What day is good for you?"

"Name the day and time.  I'm open."  The manager (name: Jeff) and I talked the following week.  He said that yes, remote is absolutely permitted.  In fact, he works out of his house 100% of the time unless he has to travel to one of IBM's buildings for a meeting.  His three other guys also work from their houses all around the country.  His thought was: his team interacts with IBM'ers all over the world.  That means there's no real need for them to be centrally located.  Throughout the conversation, Jeff hinted that he would, in fact, be calling me back for an interview with his three guys.  But he never came right out and said it.  But, what did happen was he mentioned the area of the country he lives in.  In fact, it's not far from the Carlisle, PA fair grounds.

"Oh, I'll be up that way at the end of August for the big Corvette show at the fair grounds."

There was a noteworthy pause.  Then he said, "So... you're one of THOSE guys, huh?"  Hm.  We'll have to remember that one.  ?

The actual interview happened the very next week and it was probably one of the best interviews I've ever gone through.  In a lot of cases, tech interviews turn into quiz interviews.  You as the candidate get asked "quiz questions," like "How do you do this task on this router?"  Things that require: memory!  Or, active use in a current role.  But the thing is, as you progress in tech, you begin taking your hands off the keyboard more and more, and those skills atrophy.  You can't remember them any longer because you're thinking about more strategic things.  Fortunately, the IBM interview was none of that crap.  They literally went through my entire resume and asked me about it.  "You did this thing when you worked for...  tell me what happened with it?"  The best part of this interview was the laughter.  We all generally had a good time during it.

Unofficially, I got the job offer the next week.  It was for the the amount of money I asked for, which is FAR in excess of anything I've ever earned.  And I can work from home 100% of the time.  My soon-to-by manager came to Virginia before my official job offer (ie: in print from IBM) and took me to lunch one day since he had a meeting locally.  He asked me, "So tell me about your Corvette."

"Well, um, I had to sell it last month to pay my bills unfortunately.  But, it was a Z06 that I took the race track all the time and beat the snot out of."

"Oh excellent!  I used to race my Porsche when I was down in Florida."

Remembering his comment about "THOSE guys", I said to him, "Oh, geez... sorry about your car, man."

"I haven't officially hired you yet..."  Yep, we're off to a great start here. ?

 

--------------

As of the end of June, I've been a network architect for Big Blue.  I'm working 100% of the time at home in my own home office here, which is perfect.  My coworkers and I stay in constant contact with one another by various online means.  My manager Jeff is fantastic to work for and totally gets my sense of humor.  A month or two ago, he used our internal communication software to send the entire group a slide he was presenting at his boss' up-coming all-hands.  "Let me know what you guys think."

"Hey Jeff, do you know when during this 2-hour all-hands you'll be presenting?  I need to know when to take my nap."

"Right at the end, smart-ass!"  Yeah, I'm home.

This is one of the best roles I've ever been in.  The work I'm doing is perfect to and for me.  And there's a lot of it to do, too.  In the short time I've been here, I've already made a small impact, which is great.  In fact, the job is so much fun that I find myself putting in way more hours than I should.  I start at around 0700 each morning, barely take 10 minutes for lunch, and then stop at around 1700-1730 or so for dinner.  An hour or so later I'm usually back in my office, ostensibly to log into my gaming PC and start playing some games to relax.  But what I'm finding is that work is MORE fun than the games.  2200 rolls around, I look down at my watch and realize that, then think, "Hey, maybe I should stop working and go to bed."

Which is just silly.  And awesome.

If there's a down side, it's that I'm not 26 anymore.  I really can't work 15 hour days even if it is fun, without burning out.  I'm exhausted, but in a good way.  I'm not complaining, at all.  I'm just trying to figure out how to slow myself down.  ?

 

[BamaBud]

Cool story, dude.

[DWARREN123]

Sounds like things have worked out well for you.

Good things should come to good people but they don't always, so be thankful for what you have and enjoy life.

[holyjohnson]

Congrats on the Dream job!

 

Glad it worked out for you.

[ASH]

arent you the dude that used to be on another forum we dont mention  that bought a new zr1  corvette every year ?   

[jvp]

1 hour ago, ASH said:

arent you the dude that used to be on another forum we dont mention  that bought a new zr1  corvette every year ?   

Heh, no I didn't ever purchase "a new ZR1 every year."  I've pretty much always had a Corvette of some flavor though.  The most recent was a 2017 Z06 in which I actually went to the plant and built the engine myself.

[astepup]

If you need a way to figure out how to slow yourself down...buy a Dodge.

[ASH]

On 11/22/2019 at 10:17 PM, jvp said:

Heh, no I didn't ever purchase "a new ZR1 every year."  I've pretty much always had a Corvette of some flavor though.  The most recent was a 2017 Z06 in which I actually went to the plant and built the engine myself.

ok it was someone else  , i know i remember some dude posting his corvette like  obssessed  with them .  i think the last one he posted was a dark cherry cranberry  color 

[jvp]

4 hours ago, ASH said:

ok it was someone else  , i know i remember some dude posting his corvette like  obssessed  with them .  i think the last one he posted was a dark cherry cranberry  color 

Well, over the years of my being on "the other site" I've had 3 or 4 different Corvettes including a dark gray 2010 ZR1 and a dark red 2017 Z06.  But I didn't, as you say, "buy a new ZR1 every year."  And yeah I was, and am, obsessed with them.