How I left IBM

Okay, the checks have cleared and I can talk about my separation from IBM.

Let me say at the outset that I reached some career pinnacles in my six years at IBM. I co-authored 4 software patents, was regularly published in the industry press, presented at technical trade-shows in Germany, The Netherlands and Miami and I achieved my long-term personal goal of becoming a software developer. It was, by all counts, a successful run for me.

But at the end, like most of the engineers on my project, I was pretty miserable, and I had been for months. For a variety of reasons, work had become a nightmare, and the future looked even bleaker.

In my last three years there, I worked on several projects that were associated with the product called Lotus Workplace, and each one was worse than the last. Long hours, frequent trips to Westford and Cambridge, Mass., poorly defined deliverables, bad management and clunky technology conspired to make life hell as a Workplace software developer.

About a month ago, I started looking for another job outside of the company because I was fed up with being treated like chattel. You can only get kicked so many times before you get up and leave. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of responses I got to my resume. I interviewed at three companies within two weeks of starting my search; all of them within 15 miles of my house. (One of my primary criteria was a manageable commute.) Within a month, I had a great offer from a very interesting software company. (We'll call them xWare.) Cool technology, great opportunity to learn, small company - all of the things that I really wanted, and it's 20 minutes from home.

I was mulling it over when my IBM manager informed me that I would be required to spend three days every week in Westford. That sealed the deal for me and I knew then and there that I'd accept the xWare offer. I asked my boss what it would mean if I declined to drive down there that frequently and she responded that I would be eligible for a severance package if I wanted to leave. Cha-Ching! Once she got the paper-work together, I drove down to the Westford office for the last time to sign on the dotted line accepting the package.

I had last week and this week off before I start the new job on Monday. I'm really excited and I'm spending a good deal of my time-off reading up on C#, the programming language I'll be using. I received the IBM severance checks and cashed them Tuesday. It feels great to be on this new course. Wish me luck!

It's been a while

Hello. Sorry I've been remiss in posting. We've had a whirlwind couple of months and I'll try to summarize our activities here.

Christmas was fantastic. The best in recent memory. Not sure exactly why, but everything fell into place and the holiday was perfect. I think it had something to do with Jude's Christmas-Eve dinner. Man, that was good beef!

Shortly before the new year, we heard that our tenants were moving out of the Rye house. (Good luck in your new home Marcia and Michael!) That meant that we'd be stretched pretty thin until we found tenants for that house and the new one that we are just finishing renovating. On top of that, my job at IBM became very tenuous and it was clear that I'd have to find other work. Things were looking grim.

Well, last week we found a great tenant for the Rye house. A nice couple coming back East from California. They are moving in on February 1. And just tonight we rented out the Portsmouth house to a lovely professional couple who really liked it as soon as they saw it. We feel blessed to have had such fine people find us.

My last day at IBM was this past Monday - two days ago. (Details omitted pending my severance check arriving in my account. More info will be forthcoming.)

So we're starting the new year off well. It began a bit shaky, but we are cautiously optimistic.