First Day of the Rest of My Life

PLC Control Software

I got a job!!!

On February 12, I will be restarting my career as a Electrical Controls Engineer at Material Handling Systems in Louisville, Kentucky. And I couldn't be happier.

The job and company may not sound as interesting as my previous work of designing tablets for Blackhawk pilots, but it is honestly a dream job, as far as realistic jobs go (we'll see if I still think that after working there a bit). MHS designs the control systems of companies like UPS and Amazon so that parcels can move and sort automatically throughout the warehouses via conveyor belts and other machines. This problem is, on its face, simple but I see a million ways to fine tune the processes to make them more efficient and robust. It's a perfect combination of my talents, interests, education, and work experience in programming, electrical engineering, and mechanical engineering.

Warehouse conveyors

The company has been growing explosively over the past few years and expects to keep it up. They are already one of the biggest companies (maybe THE biggest? I forget what they told me) that do what they do. They have projects all over America and a few in Europe (including Brussels - maybe they'll send me back there one day!).

I'll be in Louisville next week, living at the same address (new apartment number though) I used to when I was in Louisville before. I think that's hilarious. The building has been renovated and is now infinitely nicer than it had been. The apartment seems a bit smaller and costs $100 more, but the neighborhood is still ideal. And do you remember how I threw out everything that couldn't fit into my sedan? I don't own much, so I don't need a lot of space. I will now have Kiki with me though - she might crowd the apartment. But if I grow out of the studio, then I can move next year. Easy.

Visit me for the Derby Festival!

It took me a couple months longer than I would have liked to find a job, but since it is just so perfect of a situation, I'm not really complaining. My target was Thanksgiving. I attribute the delay to four things.

1. The stigma of finding a job without presently holding a job. My mom warned me here, and it was worse than I expected. That's explicit feedback I got from some recruiters. I don't recommend leaving a job before you have another, if you can help it, but I did have the time of my life last year travelling the world, so it was worth it.
2. Shifting engineering fields. Systems engineering isn't the most directly applicable to programming. So I needed to learn how to pitch myself to prove I have a capable programming mind. I went through soooooo many interviews trying to figure it out.
3. Uncovering my market value. I worked with a ton of recruiters over the months, in many metro areas, throwing out differing target salaries based off of my Raytheon salary with an understanding that I'm viewed as a risk by changing fields.
4. Persistence in occupation and location. I put much more effort into pursuing good jobs in good cities. I stopped chasing ones that I didn't think I would enjoy, as picky as I can be. I just spent half a year finding myself and didn't want to settle for anything below the bar I set! Though I certainly got worried after so many months on the job hunt, wondering if I'd ever meet my own standard.

I did most of my job hunting through Glassdoor, but this job came through an application on Indeed. All told, I applied for this job on January 3 and exactly three weeks later I got an offer, after one phone and two Facetime interviews with the recruiters, then one phone and one 5-hour in-person interview with MHS. Big thanks to Sam and Whitney at ProLink Resources for seeing something in me and fighting on my behalf.

Louisville is my favorite city in America. Remember the S-tier rating I gave it, along with Charlotte? So excited to move back. Southern hospitality is waiting to greet me.

Apartment sneak-peak

By the way...

Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, Happy 2018, and Happy 60th to my dad!

Look forward to a few more posts in the next couple weeks summarizing my travel. Should be easy now that I don't have to worry about applying to jobs.

Love you, Dad!