Wednesday, September 13, 2006

What a change.

"Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I'm free at last."

Some of you know, some of you don't, that I have recently broken out of the Cendant chains. I hadn't been happy at my job for well over a year, and was looking for the right opportunity to make a move. Trouble is, my skillset is specialized enough that darned few companies in Denver can use me, let alone pay me what I need in order to make ends meet.

I'd had Monster, Yahoo HotJobs and Indeed.com looking for jobs and sending me alerts for quite some time now, and nothing ever was quite right. Indeed.com, by the way, is my new favorite job search tool. Check it out when you need this type of service. Anyway. I opened an e-mail from Indeed one day, and it listed a job title that looked pretty interesting. As I looked through the description, I found myself thinking, "That's what I do!" I e-mailed the company, and said "I think I may be just the person you're looking for." 2 hours later, he called to ask me to come in for an interview, and 4 days later, I was offered the job.

As much as I wanted out of the over-structured, under-communicated, Chicago-centric world I'd been in, it was a tough thing to agree to break out of my comfort zone and move on. But I did. And I'm glad I did.

I'm no longer dealing with the travel industry, which is certainly what I'll miss most about my old job (I was there for 6½ years -- yikes!!). Instead, the ads I am responsible for serving will be concerned with getting butts into seats of the newest Jet Li film, or selling more video games to 20-year olds who've already mastered the one that came out last week. But it's still ads, and it's back to the Ad serving system that I know and love. How much of a geek am I?!? :)

The environment couldn't be more different. There are no cubicles in sight. I'm in a warehouse, where the chief marketing guy has his office in a short schoolbus that's parked in here. There are flourescent lights hung, but they're never on. I have a lamp on my desk that I bought (resisting the urge to buy the purple furry lamp), because the only lights in my part of the warehouse are covered with blue or green gels. The half-wall next to me allows me to peek over and watch the CJs (Cyber-Jockeys) while they're broadcasting, live. I hear "And five....four...three..." several times an hour, and if I look over, I see the "two...one" being signaled by the producer. It always makes me think of "Wayne's World."

Everyone here sortof wanders in somewhere between 9 and 10 in the morning, and whether I leave at 5 or 7, I'm never the last one out. I can wear my FCUK shirt and not only be tolerated, but fit in.

I'm close to the oldest one here, but I love it. I have a blank slate as far as process and structure, so my knowledge and experience are actually useful.

My commute is considerably longer (I went from a 7-minute commute with traffic to a 22-minute commute with no traffic), but I get to listen to more of the morning show, or learn some more Dutch or French with a CD.

It's the same salary, no 401(k), but I get stock options and the potential for an increase if I do well, and definitely better schwag.

What a change. I love it.