New Job

Hello All,

I know I've been a bit infrequent on the forums lately and I really wanted to hold off on writing a post complaining until I had some good news to share. The last six months have been pretty bad for me. Things got pretty crazy at work when all my management, project managers and competent engineers quit all around the same time at the beginning of the year and I was left with one other network engineer who wasn't really picking up his load. I haven't had a day off since the beginning of December and while I was used to long hours and people depending on me, losing all my friends at work and my awesome management structure was a bit disheartening and just chipped away at me for months. I think I still could have dealt with it but a TON of my projects that I was really excited about were put on hold indefinitely until there was management in place (ISE, Data Center rebuild, etc) and it didn't seem like it would be happening any time soon so I decided to start looking for something else because I don't want to be in a place where I'm not learning anymore.

I started looking about two months ago and I thought I was going to have to take a paycut. When I started at my job, I got really lucky with the pay and I know it. I was REALLY stressed about how much of a paycut I was going to be forced to take because I'm supporting a few people right now and the jobs I wanted were only paying around $100K and no bonuses. I got really discouraged after the first month and I started hitting up people I knew through Linkedin that I met through various events and conferences. I ended up having one of the guys that I met at Defcon reach out to me and get me started with the interview process at his company. Over the course of two weeks, I had 5 different interviews and I found out a week ago that I got the job. It's with one of the BIG companies out there and while I don't want to share which one on here, it's definitely one that's going to give me exposure to all the newest and greatest technology and training. To top it off, I'm getting a 35% raise which I definitely wasn't expecting at ALL and I won't have to ever be on call again.

For the first time in months, I'm feeling pretty relieved and positive. When I think back on it, I've had a lot of really amazing things happen in the last few months (CCDP, CCNP, finishing my MS, etc) but I was just too stressed and busy with work to really appreciate those things. It still hasn't completely hit me... but I did give my notice and I did it in a positive way that I'm definitely not burning any bridges as I go. I think as the next two weeks go by, I'll feel better and better.

Just wanted to share what was happening in my life

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Comments

Essendon

One word for you. You are AWESOME!

Glad things worked out for ya and not being on-call sure is a good feeling!

coffeeluvr

Congratulations!!

da_vato

Congrats!!! I just gave a slow clap in your honor

ratbuddy

Holy crap, congrats.

cyberguypr

I love you Iris (not THAT way, HA!) because life gives you lemons and you make lemonade quickly. Always love reading your stories. Best of luck on the new endeavor.

Iristheangel

Heh... I feel relieved but man... it still hasn't sunk in yet and I still feel sort of bad leaving my employer. I don't know what they're going to do and I hope they don't fall apart.

snadam

Congrats on the new gig! You and I both share this career experience (recently for me as well). Glad to see it paying off for you. It's a damn good feeling once you get that callback/offer. Best of luck at the new place.

broli720

Congrats! Glad everything worked out for you.

BradleyHU

congrats!!! and nice bump in salary...

iBrokeIT

Glad to hear all of your hard work has paid off! Congrats

lsud00d

Congrats Iris, Defcon FTW. Cheers to better and brighter things coming your way in the near future

ayubjon

WOW, Congratulations!

these kind of success stories really motivates me. Thank you. I'le go and continue my preparation for the next exam.

Dakinggamer87

Congrats Iris!!

joemysterio

Only 100k? I can't wait until I can say those words lol. Congrats!

Asif Dasl

Congrats and all the best in your new position!

devils_haircut

joemysterio wrote: »

Only 100k?

Yeah, that's what I was thinking

Congrats all the same!

arrogantbastard

Your career this far has definitely been an inspirational story

zxbane

Congrats, it is always nice to read your posts. Since you can't share the company you are going to, can you give any insight on the position you are going to? Just curious! Is it security focused, or networking etc?

White Wizard

Congrats! Love to see these kind of posts.

Iristheangel

joemysterio wrote: »

Only 100k? I can't wait until I can say those words lol. Congrats!

The best I can say is that it is relative. I live in California, have a $10k federal tax bill due from my consulting last year, am paying $3k a month to help certain family members pay their bills, and trying to balance paying for a wedding. Any other year, $100k is amazing. This year though I have a lot of financial pressure and barely scrapping by

Iristheangel

zxbane wrote: »

Congrats, it is always nice to read your posts. Since you can't share the company you are going to, can you give any insight on the position you are going to? Just curious! Is it security focused, or networking etc?

It is network focused but I'll have the opportunity to dive into whatever I want: data center, SP, security, VoIP, etc. Its a matter of how ambitiously I want to deep dive into something. I'm going to focus on Data Center this year and then try to balance out my ASA/security skills next year

kohr-ah

Congrats! I am glad everything is working out for you and life can hopefully balance back out!

MSP-IT

That's great news, Iris.

I knew you had previously mentioned how much you enjoyed your current position and the individuals you work with. Your story and drive is always inspiring.

EngRob

Congrats! It sounds like you are moving for the right reasons so don't be too big on the guilt for leaving your current spot. Like you said, if your projects dry up then you stop learning so you'll probably not give the usual 200% to the job.

Good luck on the new gig.

JustFred

Sorry to hear about things not working out with the other place, but also happy to hear you have moved on to new and better things that would only help you grow and be where you want to be. Awesome is the word. Have fun and keep learning. Do make time to enjoy the little things in life from here onwards.

coreyb80

Congrats and continued success!

tier~

Congrats and best of luck with the new opportunity!

Chitownjedi

Good luck and congrats.

TomkoTech

Congrats!

tprice5

Just goes to show the fastest way to increase your pay is to take a new position. I may make it a routine to look around for a new position every year.

Congrats and welcome back Iris