Anytime I tell people that I left my previous position after over two years with that company they always ask, "What went wrong?" I usually like to start by saying what went right before things started going in a direction that I did not agree with. We'll try to do this as best I can without violating the confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements I signed.
So, what went right?
Participated in a management rotational program - This is something I had really wanted to do after college to get a bigger picture of how a business actually works. I had read many books that attempted to illustrate the inner workings of a business, I went to all of my entrepreneurship and small business management classes, but I had never seen or been a part of all areas of a successful larger company (around 200 employees at the time of my start date, so small business by most standards but as big as I was willing to go at the time). I worked or shadowed in all areas of a software company: development, QA, marketing, sales (relationship management is the professional term...), services, training, support, and had exposure and access to senior managers. We even had a lunch series with the CEO and co-founder where we could pick his brain, and learn from his experience building this company over the past 20 years. This program was not as structured as I would have liked, but since it was being offered by a small company where there are not as many resources for given tasks we had to be flexible about when certain meetings could occur. Our team of six recent graduates completed two company-wide collaborative projects which were presented to senior management. The international opportunities research project involved building a competitor database, prospect database, and identifying features that would need to be added to our solutions to be seen as a feasible solution for international prospects. Our client life cycle project focused on the relationship of a specific client from the days when they were a prospect signing their first contract with us, seeing how their needs changed as they grew in size or experienced other business changes, and trying to foresee future needs based on their relationship with us. We even talked to the client with the permission and guidance of the relationship manager which was huge several months into the new job. The rotational program was invaluable in terms of providing a solid foundation for my future positions and career.
Developed and matured as a professional - It is really a night and day comparison from where I was at in 2006 coming out of college, and where I am today. I have always worked in client-facing jobs since my first job working on the tennis staff at a country club in high school, so connecting with co-workers and clients has never been an issue. However, working within a software company on the services team I had to really work on and improve the types of communication required for the different audiences. When dealing with the client or our consultants I had to really take a basic and practical approach for the more business-side projects team members as opposed to communicating technical details to our QA team when reporting issues or when working with the client's IT or tech rep during implementations. I improved dramatically after several projects were in the bag, and even had clients mention to managers of mine that they thought I was much older than 24 years old when talking over the phone or through email exchanges. I'll take that compliment as a sign of growing as a professional.
Collaborated on small to large scale project implementations - Some companies take the approach that you are dedicated to one project at a time, and they set the expectations with the clients that this will be the case. Our company had projects of all sizes, and we were assigned to around 20 projects at a time - 10 or more would be considered larger implementations that could last 6-12+ months. This worked out well for the most part, as you would be waiting for deliverables on several projects and could knock out tasks on other projects or take care of a smaller project in that time. There were of course waves where it felt like every project had deliverables due, and then it would pass after a few weeks and slow back down. I would work on these projects independently managing the timeline and deliverable schedule directly with the client if it was a smaller project, or work with a project manager, consultant, our support reps, and a larger client team if it was a larger and more complex implementation. Experiencing the butting of heads, schedule conflicts, delays on either end, scope creep, pressure from many directions, and everything else that you don't read about in text books or experience in case studies was huge. I am pretty sure my spine grew several more inches having to stand up to internal team members and to clients on certain issues all while maintaining a good relationship and moving forward as smoothly as possibly. With this experience I could work in many different types of positions, and it will serve me well when a management title is thrown my way.
Experienced an acquisition, IPO, internal restructuring, and integration - The company I worked for was acquired several months before my first interview while I was still in school. I remember reading in a Jack Welch book (among many other places) that 99% of mergers and acquisitions fail, so I remember asking the HR associate if she thought that the new parent company would mesh well and allow us to operate as we were. Would the great company culture change? The culture is what sold me initially on the company as it was rare to find that west coast type of company in the middle of the corn fields in Indiana. The HR associate said no way, and I trusted this response especially after visiting the offices twice for second and third round interviews and seeing it for myself. Four months after starting there the parent company went public on the London exchange, and now we were a public and global company of thousands of employees. From there on out the culture did begin to change as sacrifices were made to appease analysts and shareholders. After about a year, an internal restructuring started and neared completion by the time I left. During this time we were also integrated with another company that the parent company owned, and many meetings were held to slowing connect the two companies. Now, I had almost accepted a different position 8 months before I actually resigned, but am glad that I stuck around to experience all of the changes and to piece together what I thought was going right and what was going wrong. Through all the changes in two short years I gained valuable insight into all of the changes, impacts, and employees' opinions during the M&A, IPO, and integration. You cannot teach that.
So, that's what went right. Why did I leave? I think you can infer from some of the above statements that certain aspects of the company changed dramatically from when I had started. These changes combined with my personal recognition that I was working in an industry that I did not particularly care for in a position that was not the right fit caused me to resign. It was a good paying job, I had just been given a significant raise and bonus, it was somewhat secure, but I was not passionate about it. I could have stayed there, bought a house or condo, and settled down, but there were more and more days where I was not looking forward to showing up due to the mis-alignment and lack of interest in what I was doing and who I was serving. I do not want to get stuck in a rut of living for the weekend as so many people my age complain about but do nothing about.
I think it is also important to note that I did not just up and leave as some people do when they leave a position. I had and still have great respect for my team, my managers, and the entire services department, really. I worked with all of them to try and transition my project portfolio as smoothly as possible to minimize any impact internally or experienced by the client. I stayed past 5 PM on my last day after a 10:30 AM exit interview so that I could finish up transition process docs for some of the larger projects that were being passed to co-workers of mine. I even planned and gave my two week notice at a time when many of my projects were either close to wrapping up or barely started where the impact of a transition would be minimal. I look forward to staying in touch with many of my former co-workers, and definitely did not torch any bridges. I'm sure there were some hard feelings from certain people towards me when I left, but that's out of my control and part of business. I did everything I could to leave on the best terms possible, and have done this in every previous position. A strong finish is extremely important to me, and I would hope you do the same when in this situation in the future.
So, what now? Well, I'm taking some time off to travel and visit friends that I haven't seen in awhile while searching for jobs and new cities that I may want to re-locate to (kind of hard to take a month off while working). Some people joke about the early retirement and being voluntarily unemployed in this horrible economy, but this is really the first month I have had off since I was 4 years old. I always played several sports each season growing up, then I got to the age where I could work on top of going to school and playing sports, and I only took off a few weeks before starting work right after college ended. It feels good to get back to neutral, rest up, and enjoy life. I went to Nicaragua at the end of July, and I just finished a 20 day road trip from San Francisco to New York City by plane, train, and automobile. I have only been away from work for less than a month, and already am researching opportunities and sending out resumes. I know which cities I enjoyed being in and visiting people, and I know what I want to do. Now, it is just a matter of will I be hired with my current portfolio and experience, or will graduate school be required?
I always thought that I would shut this blog down at the end of position #1 after college, but in the rare case that this information is actually valuable to someone I will keep it going. I will let you know how it turns out. In the meantime, enjoy yourselves.
