Getting a Job

I haven’t really looked for a job in over 20 years. Folio Corporation hired me before graduating from BYU, and I continued there through acquisitions and name changes until being invited by the same person who hired me at Folio to join him at Logitech. After five years there, I hit the job market a couple of months ago.

Logitech had been a great job — cool technology, a product our customers like pretty well, good people to work with and lots of things to learn. It was also tumultuous. Something like this:

Year 1: My boss quits. Logitech lets a bunch of people go.
Year 2: My boss’ boss quits (that guy from Folio).
Year 3: Logitech closes the Utah office, lets a bunch of people go, but lets me work from home.
Year 4: Logitech tells us they want to sell our group, and attrition begins.
Year 5: Logitech (so far) fails to sell our group, and lets a bunch of people go.

Although Logitech kept me around, the fate of our product was unknown, so I started looking around.

I kind of deliberately didn’t contact my friend from Folio — I wanted to see if someone else would hire me at some point in my career. I did interview at a place where another friend was, and despite tons of relevant experience and a good initial interview, they didn’t make me an offer. I had to laugh at myself for blowing what should have been a pretty easy win — I guess interviewing isn’t something I’d had opportunity to get good at.

After the easy path didn’t appear, and being humbled a bit, I went into full search mode. I also prepared more for interviews and that seemed to pay off — I got offers from the next three places where I interviewed.

I decided to work for StorageCraft Technology Corporation. They do computer backup and disaster recovery software. Maybe not quite as fun as video cameras, but they seem to be doing pretty well. This is my first week working for them.

One of the hardest things was giving up working from home. Commuting sucks, so in an attempt to ease the pain a bit, I bought a new car!

My dread of commuting has been pretty justified so far.

Day 1: Arrived at the freeway to find a motorcycle littered across the on-ramp. The rider seemed in OK shape, but while we were checking on him and clearing the debris of his bike off the road, another car went flying off the ramp and rolled onto its side. They were OK too, fortunately, but still.

Day 2: Approached the freeway, where traffic was nearly stopped, with several police cars on the on-ramp. I decided to take an alternate route that day.

Day 3: Made it all the way to the point of the mountain before encountering an accident off the side of the freeway.

The work itself… still not sure. These first few days have been a blur. I have only a slight idea of what’s going on, and apparently I really needed to start about a month ago because I’m totally behind.