in the nick of time

Being out of work for an extended period of time erodes your confidence.

Turns out, being at a new job does, too.

I wonder how many ways I can find to make myself feel like an inept idiot? I'm pretty good at it.

I did finally figure out why this new situation is - or was - so disconcerting.

Back when I was a rookie accountant it used to be the norm that you’d work for years on the same clients. You’d typically take them over from someone who’d left your accounting firm or become partner. The good part about that was there would be plenty of files to review and usually the partner in charge to fill you in. So year after year, you’d get to know multiple businesses and their owners. Eventually, one of them would start to grow and, liking you and your work so much, and needing more help, they’d hire you away as their controller. You could step right into that role without any down time at all. If you got any luckier, they’d continue to grow, and you’d end up CFO.

It’s not like that anymore, or at least not in my case. Sarbanes-Oxley may’ve played a role in it, too.

Now if you get hired as an ‘inside’ accountant, you’re going in nearly cold. Sure, numbers are numbers, and you may even know a lot about the business model that’s hired you, but they’re all a bit different, and there’s a huge learning curve that would’ve not been there had you been working with them all along.

I am lucky this time. The complete nerve rattling that I expected to last several months only lasted a week and a half.

Yes.

I probably forgot to say….three years, five months, 16 days, 549 applications, 27 interviews. Someone finally said yes.

ata, four years later

Yesterday was the fourth anniversary of the demise of my absolute favorite company/job ever. Judging from the flurry of activity on the social networks yesterday, it seems to have hit us all especially hard this year, and none of us knows why. Does it take that long to fully morn a death and face reality?

Being in the finance department, I saw and knew more of the truth of what was going on rather than having to depend on the rumors that swirled. It wasn’t just MatlinPatterson that came calling. I remember more than one “investor group” sending in their army to do due diligence, I just can’t remember now who they were. I do recall doing my own research on MP and coming to the realization that they would not be an investor who would tolerate bottom line red ink for long. Most of our directors told us little to nothing, or at least that was the case with the director of my area. A few had the decency to warn their departments to pack their desks ahead of time and be prepared for the worst.

Nevertheless, the day it actually happened was a shock to all of us.

There isn’t much to say that hasn’t been said already. One thing, though…to this day, I have yet to hear of any company who inspires the kind of loyalty, longing, sadness, outright emotion that this company did in its employees. I don’t know what the magic was, but if I were a business owner, I’d aspire to that. Working there was maddening, fun, frustrating, tumultuous, exhausting, exciting, and made you half crazy. I don’t know how you’d go about creating an environment like that. Was it the people or the industry, both, or something else?

I think I can say that we’re all still looking for it. Someplace we can call home, someplace we want to stay.