Announcement #2

I figure I ought to write this post considering it mainly affects my life, though it should also prove to be an adjustment for the entire family as well. The big news is...*drumroll please*......*no seriously, do a drumroll*...I got a promotion to what is most likely my dream job!

I don't want to go into too many details about the whole story because there are a few people at the office that are still very set in their ways in terms of "managing" my free-speech. Earlier in the year, I was disappointed in the way my opportunities were turning out. I have always had a strong desire to work in the Asia Pacific region, particularly in a Chinese-speaking country. Well, about halfway through the year, I came to realize that the opportunities I was developing fell through.

BLOCKED!

It was somewhat sad and disappointing that my ambitions were not being fulfilled, and to top it all off, I was essentially dinged at work because I wanted to take the initiative (on my own time, even) and improve the efficiency of some of the internal processes that I worked in every day. In short, me != happy camper.

Brittny's note: For those of you uninitiated into programmer speak "!=" is how you express "does not equal" in many programming languages.  So Eric was saying he wasn't a happy camper.  I now return you to your regularly scheduled Eric blog post :P

So I did the next most logical thing: I start looking elsewhere for opportunities to grow and develop my skills and talents. I searched for opportunities all over the country, from New York to San Diego. After a few months, I had a few job actual job offers in hand, but at the same time, I was reluctant to accept any of these other offers because I really enjoyed the people I worked with and I felt like I was part of a stable, long-term company that I could work for until I retired. Of course, that was only if I could find a legitimate reason to stay, namely finding a way to develop my talents, abilities, and career paths. When I expressed my concerns and desires, I was fortunately able to discover some unforeseen options I could pursue, but they were not guaranteed.

The key part of the story is this: I had a specific offer letter in hand, but I wanted to stay and pursue these new options. I really did not know what to do. I prayed constantly for days on end to know what to do. I went to the temple and pondered my various choices that lay before me. Yet still after all I did, I still felt confused, distraught, and like I did not have a real answer. After weighing the choices, I decided to go with the new options, even though I was not certain to get them. Immediately after I made the decision, a feeling of peace came over me. It was simply night and day, and I knew that I had made the right choice. It reminded me that God answers prayers in His own way and own time, not according to my schedule. It was a good lesson to relearn.

So as you can tell from the title of the post, the new local options worked out for me! Now I get to really shift into an excellent career space that I always wanted to be in. I've accepted a job as an Emerging Markets Manager in charge of applying our company's products to the Digital Home market, things like Set-top boxes, internet-connected TVs, and video game consoles, oh yeah! Innovation, research, and creativity--everything that I wanted in a job. The pay raise is much appreciated, too!

So that's the second big announcement as of late, but stayed tuned because we have more coming up soon!