Since the start of this year, I was very unhappy with my job. I was forced to change teams and I did not enjoy working for my new bosses, did not like the politics, and did not like being treated like a sales person. I did not like being told I had a sense of entitlement because I wanted to be compensated commensurate with my knowledge, skills, and certifications. I was also pretty upset with the volume of travel which I was being forced into. When I started that job I was assured travel would be around 50% and that I would be allotted time in the office to complete my reports. By the time I left I was sometimes out of the office for five to six weeks at a time. The straw that broke the camel’s back was having my (two years late) honeymoon surrounded with four on-site trips. For five weeks straight I didn’t have more than two nights in a row in my own bed and hardly had time to enjoy my honeymoon. All of that being said, I was an unhappy camper and made it known.
About two months ago I left the company with the intention of enjoying a summer break and relaxing. However, literally one day after I left a local recruiter reached out to me through TE forums poster Shaqazoolu. She expressed that she wanted to get together to meet me so that she could try to find me a local job. I’d never dealt with a recruiter before and didn’t really have any sort of urgency so I obliged and we met up. I wound up forming a great professional relationship with her and within one day (two days after I left my job), she had an interview lined up with a local company. Over the next six weeks I had no less than four on-site interviews and met with at least 20 individuals. I started my new job on Monday of this week and love it so far. My commute is only five to ten minutes longer so that’s great. I am a security engineer for the nation’s largest home health care company. My primary job role is to evaluate, design, and implement security controls such as firewall management systems, wireless IDS, and many other neat technologies. Our group is broken into engineers who are either system or network specific, so I’m obviously interacting a lot with the network team. It’s nice to not have to implement a firewall but have the power to audit it and make changes. Our network spans 50 states, over 20,000 hosts, and 100+ offices. We’re publicly traded on the stock market so we also have to maintain strict compliance. Needless to say I don’t think I’ll be getting bored any time soon.
I think the nicest aspect of my transition has been moving into a much more professional work environment and validating my security skills and knowledge. On day one I was working on projects and contributing, and that’s a great feeling. For the first time in a long time I feel like my skills are actually valued. For my first time working with a recruiter I don’t think it could have gone any better. I left my job and had a new one lined up in one day, without any effort what so ever, and without looking. I seriously miss working with several of the people I used to work with but I’m still in the same city so its not that big of a deal. I’m also like a mile from the local sushi buffet so my old friends know where to find me
Feel free to ask any questions about the interview process, recruitment, or just general questions about transitioning from consulting.
