I gotta get me a job in White Rock!!

I will be quite sad about leaving Metasoft, as it is a world class company that really knows how to treat its employees well. The latest example of this just arrived in my inbox:

ANNOUNCEMENT

It doesn’t happen often, but there are moments in the lives of all Canadians when it is time to put aside the pursuit of individual wants and dreams, commitments to family and making an honest living, in order to come together and … WATCH HOCKEY!

If you are willing to make that sacrifice, meet under the big screen TV in the boardroom at 10am tomorrow (Friday), for puck drop on the World Junior Hockey Finals, Canada vs Russia. Tim Horton’s will be supplied.

Making an honest living will resume immediately following the third period, with work hours extended to 5pm for those who chose to make the sacrifice.

As you know I left Epic in July because I was doing too much project management. I decided that sales was what I wanted to do and found a job at Metasoft selling software that converted documents into images (like PDFs for archival and TIFF for faxing). My challenge was to take a product that has been passed by by our competitors and advance it in the marketplace.

It turns out that to do that job properly, one has to be very good at following thin leads to determine if there is a general problem that can be solved by minor enhancements to the existing product. It also turns out that I have two problems with that: one, I am not very good at following the leads and two, I don't like it!

So, after some soul searching, I decided that this job was not for me and I needed to find another role. I realized that I had been trying to get away from my technical roots, and that was partly wrong. My most favourite job was when I was doing pre-sales work at Epic, so I figured I should try to find something similar at a new company. I found a local company, ACL, that looked right: 200 people, private, profitable, market leading technology, growing, management that seems to know what they are doing.

I had several meetings with them and it all culminated in an offer that I signed on Thursday. My role is a pre-sales role for the West team but I am not sure how many sales people I support, but it looks like it will be a lot of fun. I start on Jan 8th and I look forward to learning their software and their systems.

So I have a nice entry into the new year...a new job.

I am extremely proud to announce that as of August 1st, 2006 I am Metasoft's newest Sales Manager! Finally, I get into sales!! W00t!!

As you know, I have been trying to break into sales for quite some time. My problem has been that on paper, I don't qualify for many sales positions. However, I always knew that if they met me, they would realize that I absolutely could do the job. To combat that, I was looking for a Sales Engineer position that would transition into sales.

I saw the posting for a Sales Engineer at Hays and I went in to meet with the recruiter. And for the first time I actually felt that this recruiter could help me find a job that I liked. He spent quite a bit of time working with me to create a more effective resume and discussing my application. After I convinced him I was perfect for the job, he pitched it to his client (Metasoft) and that turned into a short phone interview with the president, Trevor.

We had a great phone conversation that ended with him inviting me to come in for an interview. Finally, a chance for me to prove myself! Right away, Trevor and I hit it off and I could see that this company would be a good fit for me both career-wise and culturally. I ended up meeting with him, their VP Product Development and one of their sales guys. Everyone there was so excited to be working there and excited about the future. It was quite contagious and a pleasant change.

This job won't require any travel, which is great and they actually fully support me working from home, so that means no commute either!!!

I am very excited about this opportunity and I can't wait to get started!!!

Next Friday is a big day for me as it marks the end of my almost five year stint at Epic Data!

It all began in the second week of August, 2001. Christine and I had just got back from our African safari and were planning to move to the UK in six months. The plan was that Christine would go back to Coast Hotels and I would find a contract gig programming. But instead of a short-term contract, I found a great job as eXpresso Product Specialist at Epic Data. In this role, I acted as the primary technical contact for all prospective customers who downloaded our trial. I also went on my first real business trip to Dallas, on Sept 9th, 2001. We all know what happened a few days later. Not a great introduction to business travel., eh?

In February 2002, due to various internal reasons, I was transferred into the Product Development group and became a developer. However, Epic treated me very well and involved me in many different projects, including corporate wide (involving a trip to the UK) training and developing our in-house knowledge management system. The whole time I was in development however, I was looking for a way to get more involved in the sales-side of the business and in October of 2003, my wish was granted when I became Epic's second Business Analyst. This job was awesome and I relished every minute of it; from going out with the sales guys on calls to delivering presentations and creating high level design documents. That year went by in a blur.

November 2004 brought yet another role change as I became one of 6 Solutions Managers. This time I kept the BA work that I loved and added project management responsibility, which I didn't love. But instead of just giving up I decided to give myself a year in that position to see how it evolved. Unfortunately, after a year I still wasn't as excited about being an SM as I should be and I began to explore other job opportunities. While the exploration was going on, I got transferred back into Product Development. And while I didn't really enjoy the work, I definitely enjoyed the team I was on, and I actually learned quite a bit.

In the last 5 years I have learned many, many valuable lessons and I leave Epic a much more knowledgeable person than when I arrived. I met and worked with some outstanding people and I hope to keep in touch with many of them.

I wonder what the next 5 years will bring?