Introduction

Before I go on I want to introduce myself and my family and give some more context to what we are going to do. I am an almost 50 year old IT professional who has been working at a university in New York City for almost 20 years. I have been in IT for a very long time and it has been my source of income ever since I was 16. My wife has been working in marketing and communications for at least 5 years and was a graphic designer before that. She works for the same employer as I do. We have three children, two girls at the ages of 11 and almost 15, and a boy of the age of 10. They all go to public schools in Manhattan and we all live on Roosevelt Island, a little sliver of land in the middle of the Easy River, between Manhattan and Queens.

My company had a major shake up in the top ranks of the IT department and things are turning strange ways. While I do not mind a good shake-up (and we do needed that and the ones we had the in past were always good news at first) this one was different. Our new CIO comes from a different East Coast university and his approach (and, I admit, it's also the mandate given from above) is to cut costs. The president's current goal is to make our private university relatively affordable. It's one of the most expensive schools in the country and he wants to change that. Part of that strategy, of course, is to see where reoccurring costs can be cut etc. This is all fine and dandy. You must never do this while disrespecting the current culture, though. You do not do ahead and hire all your own buddies from your previous jobs and move current management to the side. Don't be an arrogant asshole!

I admit, though, that working for a university that provides really good compensation, benefits, job security, and an awesome work-life balance, makes you complacent and lazy. Just do the job, make good money, and wait it out. Things will change in a few years anyway. But that job posting I came across by chance shook everything up. I started to update my resume and my LinkedIn page, I created accounts on Monster, Indeed, and Dice. I even paid for the LinkedIn subscription. I was surprised how much interest there was for my skill set and experience. Unfortunately, most opportunities were just contract or contract-to-hire positions (which I am not interested in at this point of my career) but there were a few good leads. Blizzard was the first to offer. CVS Health came in next. I had another couple of leads. In the end, well you know from my last posting, it all worked out with Blizzard. Start date will be June 4th!

Tonight my wife and I are going to break the news to the kids. It'll be an interesting follow-up posting for tomorrow.