The Next Chapter

 This post will ultimately end in great news but permit me to share my experience.  This is likely a bit of a long rant until I get to the great news.

Empathy - In August my role was terminated at a dynamic startup led by great people.  I know these leaders well and they were having to make extremely tough decisions, which they should be commended for. I am glad I was not in their shoes. The CEO helped me change careers 25 years ago and hired me at 4 different companies.  I wish the company nothing but success.

Confusion - Jobless, I faced a huge internal and emotional debate.  Should I retire or continue to work?  I was leaning towards retirement because there is a tough IT market out there.  I became a Players Assistant at a local golf course, which would help me afford the sport that I love.  I work with some amazing people and I hope to continue this relationship.  I had resolved to myself that I had to retire

Anger - Next is the eye opener!!!  Paying for health insurance in the United States of America is astronomically expensive.  For two people we landed at around $1500 per month, through healthcare.gov only to learn that in 2026 this figure is expected to double.  Wow!  There is no way to live in retirement paying ~$40K/year for health insurance.  The insurance cost alone made me realize that it is not yet time to stop working.  This could be an entire rant by itself, but I shall spare you.

Turmoil - I applied for about 100 opportunities all potentially aligned to my skills and passions.  The software used to apply for these roles in some cases is absolutely atrocious.  With my 20+ years focusing on software testing this experience was tedious and even heart breaking at times.  I am going to call them out this time, but Workday’s ability to parse a resume accurately is not a good experience.  It was so bad that I stopped selecting that option and leveraged cut & paste into the forms.  Form field validation was also a negative experience.  Blocking an advancement in the flow because my first and last name was all in caps.  Wow!  Out of all of those applications I landed 2 interviews.  The people who interviewed me were great, but I was starting to lose faith.  Roughly 60% of the applications were rejected, stating they are going with another candidate.  The other 40% resulted in silence.

In addition to considering retirement, I am eligible for Medicare in January 2026.  Navigating government website implementations requires a Law Degree, a Phd in English, and at least a Masters in Computer Science.  Government websites are the definition of complexity and extremely poor quality.  Trying to get help via a phone call is also a nightmare.  The complexity is so real.  

I also chose to apply for unemployment.  That is another tragic tale of crappy implementations of software, poor quality, and over complication.  For example one week I applied to 8 jobs then the next week I applied to zero, because I was preparing with laser focus on upcoming interviews.  Even with the preparation I totally blew one of the interviews, but I learned.  I would not be paid for the week with zero applications.   The Texas Workforce commission seems to think all jobs are created equal.  The system would send me jobs that were  nowhere close to my experience.  Ugghhh!

During one of the interviews I found my slipping back in the habit of responding to a question without thorough and complete thought.  I did learn from this!

Grateful -  Over my career I now realize that I have been fortunate to meet so many people.  Colleagues and friends emerged selflessly to offer their support.  Thank you!

One of my mentors aligned me to a part time consulting opportunity, which truly helped us not go deep into our savings during this trying time.  

A friend helped me land the Players Assistant opportunity at a local golf course. 

One of my colleagues went to the moon for me, advocating that their company needed to fill a gap in their engineering practice.  Without this person I would not be able to make the announcement below.  

Former coworkers in the recruiting profession also went to bat for me.  Your expertise, your effort, and your guidance was appreciated.

One final note to everyone who gave words of encouragement or added an emoji to a statement made on LinkedIn.  You inspired me in many ways.   I was inspired to reread The Phoenix Project.  I am also reading “CTO The Toolbox” by Sergio Gago Huerta.  And I am excited to learn from a new book all testers and engineers should add to the library, “Taking Testing Seriously” by James Bach and Michael Bolton.  I was in a mental place where I had given up on looking for a job.  Reading these books got me re-engaged.

Blessed -  I am extremely happy to say I am not retiring.  Instead I am super excited to embark on a new adventure as a Senior Staff SEI Platform Lead (SEI = Software Engineering Intelligence) at Cloudera.  This role aligns perfectly to the things I have been learning over the past 5-7 years.  Interviewing with company leaders at Cloudera was amazing.  These were true dialogues.  They were transparent, which was refreshing.  I am excited to knock this opportunity out of the park.

One more time THANK YOU!  

To all of my friends and colleagues still looking for their next opportunity and adventure, please do not give up.  If I can help in any way contact me.  There is a path forward!