Between Worlds (Jobs)

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Friday May 27, 2022. My last day of work for the company I've been with for over 13 years. By most accounts, I should be still heading into the office today. After some toying with the idea of making a job change over much of the pandemic, I had decided to be content. The work was challenging and there were new opportunities to advance the state-of-the-art (in magnetic sensing) for some potentially big customers falling into place. Despite the usual grumbles that come with any workplace, I was happy-ish. 

Enter the cliche irony of opportunity presenting itself when not looking. One of my colleagues, and former customers, had moved from his previous company to a much larger entity. As fate would have it, his division was spun off into a private company via a merger. The spin-off was to create investor opportunity for a now hot technology: Quantum computing. The company, Quantinuum, is poised to grow fast and their hardware development side was in need of help in keeping projects up and moving and (I think) saw the benefit in having a technology savvy project manager. 

My colleague thought I might be a good fit for the job and reached out to me along with his manager. The technology sounded exciting. Despite my reservations on leaving the wonderful world of magnetic materials behind I decided to learn more and apply. The position offered the opportunity to work with concepts that initially inspired my desire to go to graduate school, help evolve said technology as well as grow my career. After a few rounds of interviews, I found myself with an offer and opportunity that I felt I couldn't pass up.

I gave ample notification and tied off a lot of "loose ends" before departing my, now old, job. I'm now in a two week limbo between jobs. This was somewhat deliberate. I've never had time off in my professional life where I haven't had to momentarily stress on what pile of stuff I'd have to come back to or have emails to reply to when there are urgent questions. 

I'm walking into a fresh start and this time is largely mine. Although I'm not entirely sure what to do with the time. Here's a partial list, in no particular order, of things I'd like to accomplish:

• Keep eating healthy-ish during the time period (I don't eat much when I'm active)
• Get all my steps
• Install baseboard trim in my basement (trim is bought)
• Do some fishing (I did some this weekend, but I'd like to catch something this time too)
• Do some journal reading to learn about the new technology area I'll be working in
• Play some golf (clubs in the car, need a tee time)
• Get back into writing (here I am!)
• Eye exam (scheduled while writing this)
• Get in a few big fat naps
• Plant my veggie garden (tomatoes are well started, I need to add some soil/compost to the beds)
• Play some guitar (maybe a jam session?)
• Backyard brush clean-up and planting (some hostas are in)
• Meditation/head clearing (10 min daily would be ideal)
• Relocate furniture in house. [planning on getting (new to me anyway) stuff]
• Brew some beer (I've had the stuff, just need to get moving)
• Garage reorganization (seemingly perpetual project)
• Help my co-parent sell her motorcycle (it's up on Craigslist if anyone needs a bike)
• Square up my side gig (take inventory, order product, finally select next 3D printer/tool)

I'm sure there are 1000000 other things I'd like to do. Does anyone else have musty old manuscripts from grad school still sitting about that you occasionally think about completing? However, I think I'm becoming more pragmatic about my goal lists. I'll take a clean house, a new pair of glasses and no weight gain as a draw. Anything seen to completion beyond that will be a win.