At the ranch in Wyoming Tuesday the 28th of September


Following another wonderful weekend in Wyoming, we returned to face the inevitable changes that are wrapping up our time in Denver. Pat flew off to firm up his work plans in California and look for a house to lease. I returned to my new job knowing that there was not much point in continuing there.

So yesterday I resigned from Virtela Communications after four days of work. Some readers who know me from work may recall that this was the place I targeted for the next phase of my career here in Denver after relocating. After the six weeks of fruitless house-hunting, we finally decided to seek work. I went to Virtela and interviewed, received an offer, and went to work. I thought working in the Network Operations Center would be satisfying work - but the repetitive regimented call center activity was very deadening to me, and there was a tremendous amount of undocumented intricate detail in how things were done that would have led to months of unproductive struggle to achieve competency.

I thought after the years of frustration with the situation at the last job this would be a welcome change, but it looks like I'll have to move on to the next opportunity to seek any satisfaction. This next time will likely be in California, as Pat appears to have an offer and we are probably leasing a house there. Goodby Denver - wish I could say it was fun being here.

When I told the hiring manager at Virtela I felt I was going to need to resign, he went on at some length about how likely it was that I would not find work elsewhere. He pointed out how older IT workers like me could go years without finding any opportunity - how even younger IT guys with multiple Masters degrees were not finding work for months and years. It was pretty dreary stuff to have to listen to. But I have to act on optimism and not stay stuck in a bad situation doing something I despise out of fear that I can't achieve anything better. Guess we'll find out what my opportunities are soon enough. Worst case - I'll become a house-husband and get my Cisco CCNA certification followed by some new job searching. Pat's salary will make this possible.

So it will be almost exactly three months after departing California that we return. A quarter of a year.


Text © 2003-2004 Stanley J. Wolf