It’s been awhile, I know. But quite a bit has happened over the past nine months. Thankfully, things are calming down somewhat, and I can come up for a breath of air—and get back to things like regularly updating this blog. Here’s a brief recap:
In July of last year, the company I worked for, Dexter + Chaney, was acquired by its chief competitor. Of course, when any acquisition occurs, employees on both sides have that very genuine moment of pause as a million and one thoughts go rushing through their heads. Will there be layoffs? Who do I report to now? What becomes of all the work I’ve done and projects I’m involved with? How will my role change?
Thankfully, though this is the largest transition I’ve encountered in my professional life, it has also been a fairly smooth one. I retained my position, albeit in a much larger organization, with a lot more work. Now, here’s where it gets interesting.
My wife and I had been considering making a significant move, as living in Seattle has proved to be more challenging as cost of living has skyrocketed. Rents were jumping to astronomical levels and the dream of buying a home there was pretty much over as home prices boomed, but wages remained stagnant.
The Portland, Oregon metro area, a couple hundred miles to the south, however, hadn’t quite had the same speculative growth. We were considering moving there and starting over. It just so happens that aforementioned acquiring company, Viewpoint, was based there.
So, now a conundrum became an opportunity. We immediately began searching for homes. My wife looked for new work, and I made damn sure to maintain my role with Viewpoint. And, despite a few temporary frustrations—like almost getting crushed by a derailed passenger train on our move down—it all worked out well.
Now we own a home in Portland. My wife took a lateral career move and now works three blocks from our home, and I have dug in, becoming the primary content producer and media and public relations manager. Of course, transitioning into new corporate environs and getting to know a whole new—and significantly larger—team has certainly involved its fair share of hiccups, but on the whole, this has been a good move.
We have a new city, new people to meet and networking opportunities, and new career paths and goals to look forward to. I’ll take that any day of the week over complacent indecision. Onward and upward!