Thursday, January 23, 2014

Moving On


The life of a defense contractor is never boring. Projects run out of money and engineers must shuffle off to a new/different project. New to them, sometimes new to the company and usually different from the project they just left.

Sometimes they have to find employment elsewhere. Like at a different company. Fortunately, that's not the case. This time.

Yes, I find myself caught in the never ending funding spiral. It's always feast or famine. Everyone must suffer eventually.

While I knew this was coming, I thought I had a job to jump too. Turns out I do. Just not the one I thought.


It seems that one manager thought another manager was going to keep me informed. As it turns out, neither told me anything. Each thinking that the other would take care of that. One of them (once notified, by me, of the error) referred to this as a "miscommunication". I'm thinking that my own characterization of it as a Mongolian cluster bleep, could be misconstrued. So I held my piece. And thought happy thoughts.

So...

Surprise!

Don't know what I'll be working on come Monday. But at least I'm still employed.

For now.

16 comments:

  1. Hope it works out and you get an interesting project.

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  2. What Joe said; never a particularly comfortable place to be.

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    Replies
    1. Was just briefed in on the new project. It's actually pretty cool.

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  3. But at least I'm still employed.

    Count your blessings. I've seen plenty of blood flowing in the streets during my time... when the dot-bomb implosion hit my company (a web services start-up in SFO) went from nearly 300 people down to 75. Entire DEPARTMENTS were cut. It was about as ugly as it gets.

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    1. We stripped down to the bare bones about four years ago. Things got bad.

      On the upside, while there are no massive projects, there are a lot of little projects keeping us alive. Some good stuff on the horizon too.

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  4. Well, prepare for the worst and pray for the best. We'll be joining you in the latter!

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  5. Yeah, still employed is good. I hope you get picked up for something interesting and challenging!

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    Replies
    1. Like I mentioned above to Rev Paul, the new project has got me excited. This could be a change for the better. Small team, two companies working together, strong foundation in the research community as well. Could be way cool.

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  6. I had a neighbor that survived the 1970's Boeing slump. At one time he was the only one working on a 3,500 sq ft floor. Glad things fell your way.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks WSF.

      (3500 sq ft? Wow. That's a big office!)

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  7. Glad to hear that things are still good. Good luck on Monday!

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  8. Oh joy... But at least you HAVE a job!

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Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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