I’ve been with my company for twenty years. For the past fifteen years, I’ve been working remotely in some manner. From 2002-2015, this meant working from a small office in the middle of Iowa. When a decision was made to close that office, my boss gave me the opportunity to work from home. Working from home has been great – I’m a lot more productive outside the hustle and bustle of an office environment. From a personal perspective, I loved not having a commute, and I could even throw a load of towels in the washer in the morning and flip them into the dryer at lunch – freeing up valuable nighttime laundry time for clothes. [Editor’s thought: Trust me, this is more life changing than it actually sounds.]
Alas, all good things must end. My company has decided to consolidate its systems employees into four core locations. My living room is not one of those core locations. That’s probably a good thing, because it would be really crowded if a few thousand people had to work there.
I found out about this in early October. My employment will continue through the end of March. At that point, if I haven’t jumped shipped, I will receive thirty weeks of severance pay. That’s a decent chunk of change, and could actually put me in the awkward situation of attempting to delay the start date of a potential new job to avoid having the choose between the severance and a new job. However, at this point, the focus is on finding a new job. Unfortunately, I probably won’t be able to go to work in my pajamas any more.
Where to start? I’m 42 years old and my entire work history is with one company. But what are my skills, exactly?
My degrees are in business (Accounting and Marketing), but I’ve had some technical training on the job. Years ago, I developed Visual Basic COM components as part of an application rewrite. More recently, I’ve been a team lead and provided third level support. Not often writing code, but supporting applications and fixing them when things went wrong. And, of course, handling the paperwork that comes with supporting a system – IT inventory, disaster recover plan, and software purchase requests.
I’ve also worked a lot with various business areas within the company. I haven’t been tied to one particular business area, but have interacted with a wide array of subject matter experts. I’m worked with the business areas to gather, refine, and analyze requirements, and I’ve written detailed specs for programmers. Interesting, my wife is a CPA – so even though I haven’t taking any continuing education in accounting, our conversations about accounting topics have prevented my accounting knowledge from atrophying.
After poking around a bit on the internet, it appears that the best fit for this is business analyst. Interesting, my company actually uses the term business analyst to refer to many people who are actually subject matter experts.
So I need to figure out what kind of job I’m looking for, and pursue it. I’ll be writing a series of articles during my journey, touching on topics such as resumes, interviews, career fairs, and networking. I’ll be learning a lot as I travel through this journey, and I hope to prepare some of you who may have a similar adventure in the future.
P.S. – If you’re an employer in the Cedar Rapids/Iowa City area looking for an experienced business analyst with an expected salary of somewhere in the neighborhood of $95K. let me know :)
[Editor’s Note: Kosmo’s writing here over the years shows that he can handle just about any business career out there. Any company would be lucky to have him on their team.]
Thanks for sharing. I empathize with your situation. I’ve been with my current company for just over 25 years, somehow managing to survive the original company going public, then being sold, being run in the ground, and now recently being sold again. We are a large company and I know my area is not considered “strategic”, and being a good company man has caused me to not be as “strategic” about my marketability as I should have. I’m still employed, but in the next few months that could change and I’m not sure which direction to go. Keep us updated on your journey so that I can learn.
Thanks.
One thing you may want to consider is looking at job listings for your current role, even if you aren’t actively looking yet. This will help you get a better feel for the phrasing of specific skills in the marketplace. Expand your search to a broader geographical area to get a large sample of listings to analyze. You’ll want your resume to reflect the terms that most companies use, rather than company-specific terms for the same skill.
I don’t know whether to say congrats or sorry. You seem to be in a really good financial position and have a lot of time to figure out your next move. I got the same notification last month and am in the final weeks of my continuation before I’m terminated. I also have taken to writing about the next chapter and how I’m choosing to write it. Best of luck to you. IT is a booming industry and I’m sure you will find a new job post haste. Have you thought of moving to the sales or delivery side?
Question: why is your severance limited by finding another job at a different company? Unemployment works like that but most employers don’t stipulate cutting you off if you find a job somewhere else. Only example I’ve seen is do not competes.
Honestly, I have no idea. It’s definitely not a no-compete situation. If I’m still employed with the company on March 31, I get 30 weeks severance. If my final days is March 30, I get zero.
I’ve been reading about how telecommuting is going out of fashion. I too transferred from HQ to a small remote office in order to live near family. My company is also in consolidation mode after several acquisitions, and we have a much larger office about 70 miles away. That’s way too long of a commute for me.
My situation is a bit different though– I’m a decade older than you, and I’ve been financially set to retire for many years. So I see the possibility of getting a year’s severance as icing. No more resumes or job interviews for me!
If your financial situation allows you flexibility with respect to income timing, have you thought about becoming a contractor/consultant rather than employee? It sounds as if you’ve worked with many people in your company, and it may be that many of your current colleagues will be scattering with the coming transition.
I’ve definitely worked with a lot of different people within my organization. I work in an area that supports enterprise systems, so we work with many different business areas.
While my preference is to settle down into a job with one company (I like working in a familiar environment), working on a contract basis is definitely an option if a more permanent situation doesn’t pop up.
I hope your situation works out for the best. I agree that 70 miles is a long commute. I did that for a couple of years, and it was very draining. If I land a job with one of the companies I’m targeting, the commute would be 30 miles or less.
Use it as an opportunity to reinvent yourself! What are you thinking you want next out of life?
Congrats. It may not seem like it now, but this is definitely an opportunity. It’s nice that you have a little time to consider what’s next. Have you read the Strengths Finder book? It sounds like you have some skills that are definitely applicable to today’s tech-centric businesses. And, have some fun exploring… good luck!