I suppose a recent event would make sense because no one really wants to look back TOO far.
I never blogged about my job going away in 2022. I really hate those words. “My job went away”. No, I wasn’t fired, no, the company didn’t go out of business, but what did happen was, the job that I got when I moved to Minnesota, affectionally called RAS Sitecore Developer went poof when RAS was bought out by another company. Oh, they promise, “We won’t change anything” and they swore “everything will stay the same” and it did. Until it didn’t.
At first it was just rumors, APEI was going to move everything into Sitecore and I was excited but then… then in April of 2022 it became APEI is going to move RAS into Sitefinity cuz it’s cheaper (Well, it’s fucking well cheaper for a reason!!) Anyway, first they teased me with a Sitecore 10 upgrade and I did it! I finished the upgrade.. but it never went live because.. RAS went away.
I saw the writing on the wall. 2 days after my birthday, 2022. April is such a bad month for me. I quietly started updating my resume on LinkedIn and I thought about the possible option of moving to Sitefinity with APEI.
Jump forward 2 months to an old friend’s birthday. I send him birthday cards every year, we briefly touch base and then we go quietly back to our own lives. Weird, right? Well this year he asked me how I was doin and I said “My job is goin away” and he said, “hmmm, we’re hiring” and I was like “nuh uh” and he was like “yup” and I was like “nuh uh” and he was like “uh huh” and I was like, “you couldn’t afford me” and he was like, well the job was for a junior position but I’ll see what I can do. I didn’t think much of it but less than a week later we were chattin job description and pay and less than 10 days later, I submitted my resume for a newly created senior level programming job.
Interesting side note, there was one Content Management System (CMS) that was missing from my portfolio. This was a personal goal but I wanted to experience ALL the major CMS’s. Kentico was all that was left. This new job offered me Kentico training.
Needless to say, one week later, and I was scheduling interviews. One day short of a full month after my old friend’s birthday, I interviewed with FOUR people (exhausting day). This was July 1st and a Friday. The next full business day, July 5th, they offered me a job. HOLY SHIT! It was as wild a ride as Riding the backside of 2018 when we moved from Kansas to Minnesota on a whim when we discovered we simply could not afford Colorado.
I had plenty of time to decide so I used the time to get caught up with dental and eye doctor appointments. Got new glasses, removed some dead teeth. Used sick time. No judgement. I wanted to retire from RAS, I never planned on changing jobs. I had a good team a great boss and s wonderful support system. I didn’t want to leave!
I gave my resignation on July 18th. Everyone freaked. I got calls and emails up and down the ladder of people wanting me to stay, but what I couldn’t get was any kind of guarantee about my job. No one could promise me anything (and now as I see that old company flailing in the water, there was no way I could have successfully stayed). Needless to say, though, they tried. For nearly a whole month they tried. My effective date of resignation was August 29th but they didn’t let anyone outside of my immediate chain and HR know until August 10th. I had so many people supporting me. From all aspects of the company, HR, tech, all the way up to a Senior Director of Applications and a VP of Client Relations. Naturally, my Sitecore Sisters knew. That’s a whole other story. LOL Some of them even knew before hand because they were my references. But the chain didn’t want me to tell anyone because they were trying so desperately for a counter offer. Maybe.. just maybe.. I had a tiny spec of hope but that died in early August.
They gave me a nice virtual farewell party. Sitecore Sisters and I did get together in person but for the rest of it, it was just online. I did receive a nice gift card and a eCard that I have printed and will keep always. I cried. As I mentioned earlier, I had never planned on leaving this job, it was supposed to be where I retired from. I miss the people so much. If I had a time machine, I would go back in time and buy APEI and make sure they went the Sitecore route, make sure they kept the same contracts as prior to their purchase and made sure everyone could stay together.
Anyway, I did ultimately stay on as a contract, but they couldn’t even get that right and I didn’t have a signed contract until October and most of the stuff they might have needed from me was done by then. They had needed help with the stories to give to APEI about how things worked, but I wasn’t there. They bemoaned my absence but they made it through. Basically I came back just in time to finish up 2 stories I had not finished before I left (but had left instructions on how to finish them).
My new job? I don’t have my Sitecore Sisters, but I did create something similar called Thunder Sisters and it’s all the ladies on the tech team. We’re not as close as my Sitecore Sisters, but we’re still young, right? There’s still hope?
I hope that this can ultimately be the job I retire from. I do have room for upward movement and promotions. I’m looking at Website Systems Manager next. The future is mine.
This blog is part of a 52 week challenge