10 years ago today I started a new job at Whitehill Technologies as a Product Consultant. That job would start me on a path that would lead me to where I am today. I survived 3 company acquisitions, 5 managers, 7 products, 5 desk moves, and countless office pranks. After working in the same place for 10 years, I thought I’d take a few moments to recollect how I got here and what has transpired in that time period.
In January of 2006, I was let go from CompuCollege. There’s a whole other story behind that fiasco but ultimately it lead me to applying for a position at Whitehill. I had an interview on a Friday on the same day that I was scheduled to take my last MCSA exam. I went into the interview confident, and came out feeling even better. I had never had a better job interview, at least from my perspective, that at that point, I didn’t even care if I didn’t pass my MCSA test. I was that happy. A few days later, I got an offer and my life changed.
The job started and I learned very quickly that it wasn’t like working at other places. This was a place filled with a lot of fun people and lot of camaraderie. It took me awhile before I found my place but before I knew it, I was already jumping onto new products and new opportunities.
The job also gave me a chance to do some travel for work. That was something I had seen very little of in the course of my work career. Things seemed to be taking off quite well and before I knew it, we were being sold to a company in Texas.
Not long after, HR went through the office and fired half the staff. People that had been there a long time were let go and it became quite clear quite quickly that this new company didn’t have the same sense of humour we had. It was a very somber time to be there. But somehow I had drawn the lucky cards and managed to get through the whole thing.
That year sucked. We worked for a company who basically couldn’t have cared less about us. They were after the software we had bought from someone else and had no idea what to do with our little business unit. But a year after we were sold to them, we got bought again. This time by a large corporation with hands all over the world. I was really excited to be able to say I was working for Oracle. That didn’t last.
Turns out during the first year, a lot of the same was happening. People were fired and things were changing. I worked there for 3 years and although I am glad to have the name on my resume, it was also not a good time to be working there. Somehow I had managed to avoid being cut but it really didn’t matter as I was working for a company that just didn’t understand (or cared) what we were doing. Then one Monday morning, we all got called into the conference room and wondered what was happening.
Turns out, in a surprise move, Oracle sold our business unit to Thomson Reuters. But that same day, a clear message was sent to everyone who was there. This is going to be different. It was. We were all treated really well and in the weeks that followed, it was a huge breath of fresh air.
Since then, it’s been all forward. I left the department that I started in less than a year after joining Thomson and I found what I truly wanted to work in: training. As more time has passed I’ve come to realize that training is what I do the best and what I enjoy the most. It just happens to work out well that I work for a company that will pay me well to do something I love.
I’ve had some bumps career wise in the last 10 years. I wanted out of Oracle more than anyone will know but when you get paid a good salary and the work is not horribly bad, it’s hard to walk away from that. The latter half of last year was rough with some of the class stuff I was dealing with. Thankfully it’s all been addressed and I’m charging on to this new year.
I am more grateful and thankful for what I have been able to accomplish and where I’ve been able to go in these 10 years. Assuming the company remains as they are, I see no reason to leave unless someone wants to pay me to retire. Here’s looking at what the next 10 years will be.
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As a side note, people ask me all the time about my travels for work. Here is a list of all of the places I have traveled to specifically for work. Some of them I have been back to several times (London, New York, Chicago, Cleveland, LA) and others were one offs that I never expected. Total mileage accumulated over the 10 years of travel is around 600,000 kilometers.
Edmonton
Dublin (Ireland)
Toronto
Minneapolis
San Antonio
Plymouth (England)
Albany
Atlanta
Jersey (British Isles)
Livingston (NJ)
Johannesburg (South Africa)
Baltimore
Cardiff (Wales)
Philadelphia
Little Rock
Las Vegas
Montreal
Miami
Morgantown (WV)
Indianapolis
Columbia (SC)
Phoenix
Buffalo
Cincinnati
St. Louis
Liverpool (England)
Austin
Sydney (Australia)
Brisbane (Australia)
Boston
Birmingham (AL)
Providence (RI)
Cleveland
Albuquerque
Allentown (PA)
Los Angeles
London (England)
Blue Bell (PA)
Hartford
Omaha (NE)
Portland (OR)
Columbus
New York
Chicago
Vancouver
San Francisco
Houston
Scranton
Pittsburgh
Dallas
Tampa
Seattle
And if you’re even more bored, here are some maps that shows the travel for the bulk of that 600,000 kilometers.
World Map
North America Map
European Map
Africa Map
Australia Map
