American Dreaming – 1990’s / Part XVI

It was time to go. It was time to leave this organization. I knew that as surely as I knew my decision to leave my hometown, marriage and civil service job was the right move in accepting a role within this company. I thought that I had pretty much accomplished all I was about to within this organization.

My reporting relationships still appeared to be on a revolving lazy susan. I was alternately reporting to a series of upper managers with little to no support or understanding for what I (or any of my staff) did. It was almost as if they knew they needed us to keep the data center and networks functioning but, it wasn’t something that any of them wanted involvement in. The only attention I got was when there was either a hardware or technical issue that led to some degree of down time. It was usually a function that they didn’t want to pay for redundancy but they felt that they had a license to complain if not having that redundancy caused service disruptions. In short, I was in a no-win situation.

I started to canvass potential sources for a change of venue. I discussed the idea of taking on a consulting position with a few different firms. One such firm offered to place me in a position in a lab working with IDM on developing a popular workflow based application software. It sounded like really interesting work but, it would also mean that I would have to relocate to somewhere near the city of White Plains, NY which was about 120 miles away from my current home.

I considered this and actually accepted the job on a Friday afternoon. The paperwork was sent to me over the weekend and I took that interim time frame to drive down to the area around White Plains to look for potential future homes. I picked up my son and the two of scoured the area for the better portion of a day but, really couldn’t find anything that remotely looked appealing (at least to me).

That coupled with a few other reasons that led me to reconsider the position. When I received the paperwork from the consulting firm, I informed that I was not going to accept the position after all.

I also garnered an interview with a large software company to begin working within a lab in Boston, MA. This would have truly been a dream job for me. I prepped for a couple of days prior to this interview (which is something I had never done for any other job interview in my life/career). When the time came, I drove out to Cambridge and went through an interview process that was unique within my experience. I was introduced briefly to the director that I would potentially report to and then went through a series of interviews with a half dozen middle managers within the imaging and document management groups that, if I was the successful candidate, would be working with on a day to day basis.

I came to understand that there was a pattern of checks and balances within each of these interviews. I was asked similar questions and I recognized after a couple of hours that the managers were comparing notes on my responses as I went from interview to interview.

After about five hours with no breaks (although I was offered some), I eventually wound up back with the director. We went down to their in-house cafeteria a had some coffee and discussed the day. I was told that the managers had relayed their impressions to him as the day went on and that all of them were duly impressed with my manner and credentials. I was led to believe that I was perhaps the leading candidate for this job.

As I drove back home, I was elated. I jokingly characterized it as I was running ahead of the car I was driving.

During the next few days, I awaited anxiously any word on a final decision regarding this employment opportunity. I followed up my interview with a thank you note to the director. Unfortunately, for me, the decision was “no decision.” The job function that I was applying for didn’t get final approval so the job was never created. I was thanked and assured that they would keep my resume and interview records on file and … (the usual spiel). I was disappointed but resolved that I had to continue looking. The working conditions for me at the current organization seemed to be perpetually in limbo.