Today is my last week day before my new job starts. I left AT&T two weeks ago when my contract as a Project Manager ended after nearly four and a half years. I’m returning to my previous career as a Technical Recruiter.
I’ve been asked frequently why I wanted to leave project management after building a good foundation there with a Fortune 10 company. I have a few reasons, in no particular order. Before going into that I have to say that if I found the right PM role first I might have taken that, but I didn’t.
When looking for a new job I had to decide what was important to me. I needed some flexibility which includes being able to leave work to take care of my son if he’s sick or take him to various doctor appointments when needed. I had that while at AT&T since the two bosses I had there were very flexible with schedules. Maybe the flexibility came from my dependability in the office and/or from the lack of big projects since AT&T started the process to acquire BellSouth. Either new job, PM or recruiting, would be less flexible than I was used to, but recruiting offered a better likelihood of freedom.
I wanted a job as close to home as possible. We live in a very central location in metro Atlanta, but traffic is horrid and a 15 mile drive in the wrong direction can easily turn into a 45-60 minute commute on a bad day. I ended up with a two mile commute which includes no highways and has only four traffic lights between my house and the office.
I wanted an opportunity that would pay me the most money for my skills. A lot of the PM jobs I was looking at would have been a pay cut from what I was making. I had been spoiled as a contractor who was billing through a friend’s company where they only took a small cut of the bill rate. I’m sure there were some jobs that would have paid more, but a lot of those required travel and that isn’t something I want either. I have 14 years before my son goes away to college and want to be here as much as possible while he’s still a “captive” child.
I wanted a smaller company where I could feel like more than just a number. Clearly that’s what I was at AT&T as a contractor. They have around 300,000 people working there and contractors are at the bottom of the barrel. I like to be able to speak to the CEO and VPs as if they are normal people, since they are. The CEO of my new company was a fraternity brother of mine while we were at UGA and is a few years older. I enjoyed that anonymity for a while at AT&T as it gave me more time to invest and focus on stuff around my house while I worked from home some days, but it got old. I could bust my ass on a project and in reality it didn’t matter how good the outcome was, AT&T wasn’t going to miss their numbers or change directions for what I did. I probably actually worked less than 10 hours a week and yet still received praise for my projects. That’s insane.
As much as I love praise, I have a desire for financial reward that might be rooted in my beginning my career in sales. I had no desire to move up to a management position in a Fortune 500 company. Many people can be happy with a pat on the back and a 3-5% raise per year. For me, I decided I need to be compensated appropriately for being a more valuable employee than someone sitting next to me. In sales and recruiting, the better you are the more you will make, especially at smaller companies that don’t cap commissions. That could be one of the many reasons I like investing. If I’m good I make more money. Since I believe I’m good, I stick with it.
Of course, I also wanted a job I could enjoy. I think “enjoy work” might be an oxymoron, but I know I wasn’t enjoying my last two years at AT&T – at least not the work part. The people were cool. Hiring someone for a new job gives me a good feeling. Competing with other recruiters makes work more fun too.
I mentioned the financial part of my decision a couple of times above. That’s because the end goal is to continue working my five year plan. I want to have more than $400,000 in our investment account by January 2013 and then start investing in real estate and be able to stop working for someone else. My wife’s career is certainly doing it’s part to get us there. I had to have a job that provided a higher income and yet could leave my brain still somewhat free to stay focused on investing.
Enough about that, how does this affect My Trader’s Journal?
- My primary focus for the next few weeks and possibly months is to prove myself on the job and build my roster of contractors. That means less investing time (if any) while on the job and no blogging while there.
- All trades will come from limit orders entered over the weekend or in the evenings if I can find time.
- Trade sizes will likely be larger since I will be trading less often I need each trade to account for a larger part of my portfolio.
- All posts about my trades will be written in the evenings after work.
- Future posts may include tips on how to find a job since that’s what I’ll be doing every day.
- Less social networking to promote my blog.
Highlights about the company where I’ll be working.
- Founded two years ago.
- Started 2007 with six employees. I’ll be the 23rd. Expected to double in 2008.
- $14 million in revenue and still growing rapidly. Expected to double in 2008.
- Good mix of men and women with an average age probably in their mid-30s.