Here we are at the end of year that has proven tumultuous for myself as well as for a lot of other people, if you take into account the play that was on the world stage. As for what's gone on in that side of things; I've commented on it enough over the course of the past year, and will instead in this posting take a look back at what happened for me, and where it looks like I'm going.
One year ago today I was still employed by that private spaceflight firm in North Las Vegas. The future for the enterprise looked promising as that it had been less than two weeks earlier that we were going to expand. Sixteen new hires were reporting for work on the 4th of January, that first Monday back from Christmas vacation. This was mainly to staff up a newly created department that our Test team was going to help out. I had re-established a friendship with the Propulsion Manager who was one of the first friends I had made down here in Arizona in early 1999. As much as I hated living in Las Vegas, there was something to look forward to, even if at that time I was planning on finding work in Arizona so that I could return home.
Well, things turned out differently. Fourteen or fifteen out of those sixteen were laid off one hour after reporting for work. The owner decided not to expand the Propulsion department, and the buzz going around was that things were going to get worse. The next day at 4:30, forty of us were rounded up and laid off since "not enough money was coming into the company", which no one bought since the owner was financing it out of money he made from another business. Ron and I later on went out to the Fiesta Station to talk about this over iced tea at the food court that they had. We were not happy about it, but the upshot that he was going home to his wife in Florida and I was going home to Sheila. There was the matter of setting up unemployment from the State of Nevada, which both of us qualified for the full benefit since we had worked there for one year.
Before I even had a chance to digest all of this, I received a call from a medical device firm here in Tucson who needed a test engineer. The phone interview went well and I was brought in for one afternoon. I felt I had done well, and one of the managers, as she was walking me out, told me "by the way, don't wear that suit on your first day here. We wear jeans." That told me that her panel vote was going to be in favor of making an offer, and that must have been the way the rest of them felt as that I got the phone call the very next day.
That meant for one last trip up to Nevada to get my things, which was at that time the nicest problem that I could have, and Sheila and I drove up for that last one. The apartment was emptied out, and we stayed that last night at Fiesta Station, after which the next morning we had the final walk-through by the apartment management. Not one nickel was withheld from my security deposit. It was given back to them in the same state that it had been given to me. It was then the drive home, and the frantic process of getting an Arizona license plate back on my truck.
The work at the medical device firm went well. I didn't think about what I had gotten myself into and if I was in over my head or not. I dove right into it, took over a project in its infancy, and went from there. Things fell into place as I discovered some innovations as I was developing my process for how I was going to help get this one over the goal line. When it came time to test, we were ahead of schedule. Yes, I padded the test time somewhat, but by 20% so that we had margin in case of equipment failure or issues, which did arise.
After that I was done, and I started my sabbatical, thinking that I would be back early next year when they had another round of upgrades. I was told in a phone call that budgets have been frozen, and that they weren't bringing in contractors next year. This forced me to look more seriously. I mean, I was looking just in case, but I amped that up some after that phone call.
Well, I can now report that I accepted an offer of employment earlier this month. This is a test position very similar to what I was doing with medical devices, but this time around it's with radio transmitters running the spectrum from HF (high frequency) to satellite uplinks. It's a great job for a ham radio licensee with a degree in electrical engineering, and it's going to pay me well too. The past few weeks have been spent filling out paperwork to get this set up. A background check has been started on me. It's unclear if it will take a few weeks or a few months.
In that event, the nature of the offer does allow me to pursue contract work while I'm waiting. I don't know if that will happen. Through some other sources, there is reliable information that this should be done by the end of next month. And at that time I'll be ready. I've already got some ideas on how to streamline things.
On the personal front, I have been extremely grateful these past few weeks to have been home.....meaning that I'm extremely grateful that I'm not waking up in an apartment in North Las Vegas......that I'm instead waking up in my own bed, next to Sheila. I've told some friends recently and I'll tell you this here........I will never again take being or living at home for granted. My exile lasted over a year. Of all the blessings that the good Lord has allowed me to enjoy, the blessing of home, family and marriage is the one that I've been appreciating the most lately.
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