Up to that time in my life, I had been a carefree nomad, working various part time jobs month to month, barely getting by, with no aim or objective. But my new family status had made that type of life impractical, irresponsible. Yet, I had not adequately positioned myself for the alternative.
I had not completed my degree, nor did I have any formal training to speak of. My nomadic life had moved me from one college major to another, from one college to another...and therefore a proper education was out of my grasp. I needed a steady salary and insurance....and I needed something immediate.
After applying and interviewing for countless jobs, within one week of each offer I received two offers that met the immediate needs.
One offer was working at a document imagining company that would take business documents and copy them to microfiche. This was the first job offerered, I had interviewed well and the offer was immediate. I accepted it right off the bat, no questions asked.
The second offer was working at the local University for the IT department. My initial job would be as a courier for the Computer Services Department. This job would entail driving a Cushman cart around campus delivering computer printouts to the remote sites. This offer came several days later.
I had accepted the first offer, yet the second had much more appeal to me. There were several reasons for this. First, my family had a history of working for various State and Federal agencies. My Dad had worked for the V.A. My brother, mom, and sister, had worked for the State of Arizona. The State offerered more stability, a steady income, and the requisite insurance my family would need. But, even more interesting to me was the possibility to learn young computer industry from the ground floor.
I had not had a great deal of computer experience in my past. At the Library were my wife and I met, they had an old TI 99/4 in the basement that I played on. I had actually read through the BASIC manual and taught myself some rudimentary BASIC. And Lori's uncle had a APPLE II in his house I played with on occasion. But my skills were very amateur. It was 1983 and Computers were not yet a household appliance.
Yet, in my heart, the choice was too simple. I never showed up for the microfiche job. Yes, very rude of me. They later called me and told me how rude it was. But I had decided on the job at the University, and thus the next 33 years of my life was put into motion.
From courier I learned the job of remote computer operator, then tape librarian, and eventually becoming a mainframe computer operator.
From there, I became a Production Support Analyst. With that job I left the University (twice), eventually finding myself working Production Support for a small Airline. I eventually moved into Application Development, and now I am a Senior Manager for Application Development at one of the largest Airlines in the world.
I say that term, Senior Manager...fully knowing that my roots are very humble and rest on one lucky, fortunate decision I made primarily to meet the needs of my young family. My job has since become an obsession for me, the need to succeed and to demonstrate my long honed skills. My poor spouse has received the brunt of this obsession as I have been beeped while she was in labor, during baptisms and funerals. She has been alone while I have been working long nights, away out of town, and over install weekends. She has been punished by my beeper going off at all time so the night and over weekends.
That I know and understand my humble beginnings is an understatement. I think about it often. There but for a Cushman cart and a rude non-call to the microfiche company I would not have gotten to where I am today. But even more importantly, but for my young daughters needing a roof over their head and good insurance, I may still be the living the nomad existence of my youth.
My career is my career, for better or worse. Had I been better prepared when my spouse first became pregnant, much of what I have done since may have been very different. Who knows how different, or what different paths the five of us may have taken. Often, I feel defined by my career, when in truth I am more defined by the very basic need to be supportive of my wife and young daughters during a very trying time. Yet, the career is hovering large out there, like the Hindenburg ready to explode and bring my whole life crashing down. What lifted my career to the current lofty altitude in the first place was the needs of my family, but now...looking back...I may have given that career too much dangerous gas.
Observations. A life "lived".
Cheers, nca
