Well, I have not made a blog entry in a year and a half. Why? Not really sure, definitely have not had the blog bug. Has anything happened in my life? Definitely.

The last time I wrote, I had just returned from an excellent trip to Ontario. I was unemployed and my severance package from my old job had run out. I was living on EI and it’s not especially easy to live on EI.

So, I started the job search. Yes, I could have started the job search earlier, but a clause in my severance package had my severance cut in half if I started working, a real incentive NOT to work, I wanted to take my former employer for all that I could, and I did.

I wasn’t sure what type of a job I was going to get, I would have loved to stay working from home, but I didn’t think that was too likely. I also wouldn’t have minded getting out of IT, I could have, but my salary would have taken a nosedive.

I had a few interviews in November, not too many though and nothing that I was really interested in. I didn’t do much searching in December, I figured most places would not be hiring I’m December. I started looking, in earnest, after Christmas.

I had an interview or two for a job completely out of my realm, with Teck, a mining company, it didn’t work out. I had quite a few interviews in January and more in February, no offers though. I applied for a job early one morning in late February and I heard back from them within minutes, I was hopeful.

We had a phone interview that day or the next followed by a technical test, which I breezed through. My interview was set for the next week and I was looking forward to it. It was scheduled for a Monday afternoon.

I thought the interview went pretty well, although I wasn’t happy with some of my answers. I received an email the next morning though indicating that they were very impressed and the recruiter expected an offer to be made. This was, to say the least, good news.

I was offered a job and I started on March 21, 2022 with IBM End User Services. I was going to be a Team Lead for a group of 12 or so agents. I started my training and all was going fairly well when one of the dedicated leads resigned from his job and they pegged me to fill his shoes.

I was in charge of a team of 9 who worked for our client, indeed, the job search people who I had just used previously when looking for a job, although I didn’t get this one through them. I stayed on that contract for the past 11 months until they decided not to renew due to budgetary constraints.

This past Monday, I started with a new client and a larger team, we support Palo Alto Networks. It’s challenging, and I’m enjoying it thus far.

I am glad to be back to work, that’s for sure. Bills keep coming in and need to be paid and my 3 dogs definitely enjoy being fed. The year at IBM flew by. I didn’t do a lot other than work and hand out with the dogs. I kayaked a few times, went for daily walks with the dogs, but really didn’t do too much. I’m glad I went to Ontario twice in 2021 as I haven’t been anywhere else since.

I do have 2 trips planned for this year. I’m going to Idaho I’m May to meet some of the people that I work with and in October, I’m visiting Ontario again. I’m looking forward to both trips.

Well, that’s the last 18 months in a nutshell. I do plan on blogging more often, perhaps not daily, but at least weekly. If you come along, enjoy the ride.