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Moving on up, to the west side

TechOps Guy: Nate

So I made the decision, I gave my notice to quit my current gig a couple of days ago. Out of respect for most of my fellow co-workers, I offered to stay the standard two weeks to transition some stuff to other people. I could leave tomorrow and be fine (or yesterday for that matter), doesn’t really matter to me.

I just wanted to thank all of my friends, co-workers, acquaintances, recruiters and those I have interviewed with over the recent weeks for the positive support you have given me. It really helped make the decision much easier. I’ve worked hard, harder than most people I know work in their careers to get where I am today. I’ve sacrificed a lot from a personal level, because I didn’t want to get caught off guard like I did during the last recession. And when I saw signs the economy and society in general was peaking, it was more motivating to get to the top of my game and stay there. And I believe I’m there now(have been for a while). Really takes the stress of a down economy away.

I went through four different job offers before settling on a “Web 3.0″ startup in Seattle. They seem to be growing fast and in great need for someone like me. This was the best and most active job search I’ve had in my career, I’ve turned down companies before but I’ve never been so pursed by them both before and after I turned them down. It feels so encouraging that there is such a high demand for folks such as myself, that made the decision even easier — if I don’t have to put up with the current situation that has been festering for years (before I started even!) with no end in sight then I don’t have to. It’s a very fortunate position to be in I have no problem admitting that, I know people who are in, how should I say it, less than ideal career situations but aren’t as fortunate to be able to find a more healthy work atmosphere at another organization.

My work is my life( I’m working on fixing that still), so having a positive professional experience on the job is very important to me. Becuase my work is my life, myself I know of nobody more motivated, more dedicated to their work at least in my field. Which makes it that much harder when an employment situation doesn’t work out.

Anyways, on to the category of jobs, my new gig is hiring many more people, including what appears to be a mid level linux system administrator, if you are looking to make a move, drop me a line with your resume and I’ll pass it along. I would expect the position to have career growth opportunities given the size of the company and where they are at (they are a pretty young company but not your 10-20 person startup).

Other positions include a lead PHP developer, and a Java developer, I can send you more complete job descriptions if you are interested. And of course willing to split the referral bonus

One thing I have learned though, is think twice(or three times) when the position your interviewing for was for someone else who left suddenly. There may be very good reasons why they left, or maybe not. I first noticed signs of problems more than a year and a half ago, but decided to try to work through them and see if things could work out, no such luck! My current position is my 3rd position in which I replaced someone else. The first was my first job, the previous guy was a flake(showed up to work maybe 25% of the time), the second I forgot why the previous person left but the company was halfway decent and I got a lot of stuff accomplished until the economy ate them. And my current is of course the same situation, and the previous two people left for much of the same reason I am, in fact I’m told that I have held my position longer than anyone else had held it at the company. What does that tell you?

Oh and in case it wasn’t obvious, my current job is probably open, I can’t reccomend anybody senior going there, for reasons I won’t get into here. But if your a junior or mid level admin without a lot of career aspirations then it could be a good fit.