{"id":287,"date":"2008-06-03T21:49:52","date_gmt":"2008-06-04T04:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/?p=287"},"modified":"2008-06-03T21:49:52","modified_gmt":"2008-06-04T04:49:52","slug":"the-next-page-in-my-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/2008\/06\/03\/the-next-page-in-my-career\/","title":{"rendered":"The Next Page in My Career"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The other day I came into work to find the name tag normally affixed to my cube lying on the floor instead. Someone had probably gotten snagged on it while walking by. Given the sharp aluminum corners, I can&#8217;t really blame them for immediately seeking first aid instead of trying to put it back up. The thing is, though, once one of these tags has come off, they never stick quite the same again.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-288\" title=\"Eric's Name Tag\" src=\"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/name-tag.jpg\" alt=\"Eric's name tag slowly sinking into the sunset\" width=\"424\" height=\"229\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>On it&#8217;s way down again&#8230;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>About sixteen years ago, a guy named Grant Beckmann hired me to work at a company called Folio. From there, through twists and turns, mergers and spin-offs, and a lot of T-shirts, I find myself working for NextPage, essentially the same company at which I started. Sixteen &#8220;human years&#8221;\u00a0equates to something like\u00a064 &#8220;programmer years&#8221;, so I&#8217;m kind of the old man there. But since my name tag is\u00a0falling off <em>anyway<\/em>, maybe it&#8217;s time for something new.<\/p>\n<p>These\u00a0days, Grant Beckmann is managing the &#8220;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.wilife.com\/Default.aspx\">WiLife<\/a>&#8221; division of Logitech, which makes video surveillance systems for homes and small businesses.\u00a0He happened to meet my brother Alan, who also works for\u00a0Logitech (but out of Washington instead of Utah), and told\u00a0Alan that I was one of the best engineers he knew. In fact, Grant had been meaning to get in touch with me (which he ultimately did)\u00a0to see if I might be willing to come work for Logitech.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-288\" title=\"Eric's Folio Name Tag\" src=\"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/name-tag2.jpg\" alt=\"Eric's Folio Name Tag\" \/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0As Grant and I\u00a0met to talk things through, he kept making comments to people about me being not just <em>one of<\/em> the best engineers he knows, but <em>the best<\/em>. I can really only offer a couple of explanations for that:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>A\u00a0recruitment strategy based on flattery<\/li>\n<li>Head trauma<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>In any case, I suggested he stop telling people such stuff, since it could only\u00a0create impossible to live up to expectations &#8212; everyone would be supremely disappointed if there wasn&#8217;t any walking on water. Still, it did come in a <em>little<\/em> handy when negotiating an offer. &#8220;Surely for the best engineer you know you could sweeten the deal&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>After some really tough deliberation, I decided to accept that offer, and I&#8217;ll start working for Logitech in a little over a month. NextPage\u00a0is like home, though. Shannon asked if I would start looking for a new wife now too, since I&#8217;ve worked for Folio\/NextPage longer than we&#8217;ve been married. No danger of that, but it is hard to leave a good job at a place that has taken such good care of our family for so long\u00a0and to venture into something\u00a0less known.<\/p>\n<p>There were a lot of factors going into the decision, like new challenges and new opportunities to learn and develop in my career. I&#8217;m also thinking that a Logitech name tag might be kind of neat.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The other day I came into work to find the name tag normally affixed to my cube lying on the floor instead. Someone had probably gotten snagged on it while walking by. Given the sharp aluminum corners, I can&#8217;t really blame them for immediately seeking first aid instead of trying to put it back up. &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/2008\/06\/03\/the-next-page-in-my-career\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Next Page in My Career&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-familynews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1808,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287\/revisions\/1808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/esmithy.net\/sparks\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}