Almost a couple months have passed since I wrote about hearing that my employer would be laying off a large number of staff. It was largely a thinning of the ranks through early retirement and generous severance packages for those who would agree to leave. The company is refocusing it's human resources on specific research for which the team I call home does not fit. This kind of event always brings stress and sadness, especially since no one knew how or who would be affected. I had for some time given some thought to seeking new challenges, so the thought of leaving the company wasn't a new one. Thinking about and having the reality of having to make a quick decision are different things. In the end with a great deal of consideration I chose to leave. After close to six years of employment I "retired/resigned" last week.

I had tried to seek out new opportunities within the company in a role that would bring me closer to doing research in the field that I have the most interest but unfortunately with the time constraints I had it didn't work out.

The past six years will be the bench mark for my future career experiences. If I can find a group of people as good as the team I have had the pleasure of working with the past years than I will consider myself very lucky indeed. Many of the people I have worked with are like second family (most of who have gone themselves). Leaving isn't easy but hopefully new opportunities await. In many ways I feel the past years have provided me with a tremendous opportunity for learning and growth. Now that I have "graduated", it's time to put these skills to work.

Though I am officially gone. I am still there for 6 more weeks - Chientai and I will be writing what will be hopefully one of the better manuals on developing good user experiences for the Chinese market. Should be a fun final 6 weeks.

Categorized: Work and Working

Tagged: , Work and Working