Decision 2012

A few weeks ago, I found out about a really promising job opportunity.

I did my homework and prepared well. I interviewed for the position on a day off and I felt really good about my interview at the time.

Needless to say, I was ecstatic when I got the job offer.

Funny thing…for months, the job market was really stagnant. But, within the last few weeks, I have seen a number of excellent opportunities pop up in the marketing and public relations fields in town. And this one was the right one for me. Call it: “Decision 2012.”

More on the new job later. Today is about saying goodbye to the old one.

That’s the odd thing about transitions in our lives. For every win, there’s a loss. For every down, there’s an up. For every hello, there’s a goodbye.

Next week, I will say ‘Hello’ to the new; today, I’m saying ‘Goodbye’ to the old.

As a long-term marketing and P.R. professional, I never really trained to become a proposal writer. When I signed on with Jacobs in 2009, I was hired to be a part of the public relations team supporting the TVA Ash Recovery Project in Kingston. The good news is the cleanup has gone very well. The cleanup went so well, in fact, that our team in Roane County was downsized by quite a bit when the cleanup moved from the more Time Critical phase to the current Non-Time Critical phase.

When my position was no longer needed in Roane County, the good folks in Oak Ridge offered me a spot in their business development area inside sales. It was a sort of a lifeboat; a chance to continue to earn a living while I worked to contribute to this team and learned some new skills.

I spent the last two years right here.

I wrote resumes and project descriptions. I learned a lot about tech editing and I honed my Microsoft Office skills. On one proposal, I even served as a subject matter expert writing a section about public relations.

At the end of the day, though, I always longed for a chance to return to my chosen field of work, which I now have the opportunity to do.

I’m grateful, too, for the chance I have had to help the Jacobs team in Oak Ridge. I’ve met some nice people here and learned some helpful skills. I hope I have made some worthwhile contributions and I feel that I have.

And now, as I head out, I want to say ‘thanks’ and wish the team well.

JG

Originally posted 11/6/2012