JOBS


I included "jobs" as a major section of this site, because I've always thought that your job in many ways defines who you are. For some people this isnt true, as they're in jobs they'd rather change, but I think most people are doing what they set out to do for work.

My working life has been an amazing rollercoaster ride. I currently work as a Scuba Diving Instructor on a small island off the coast of Thailand. I've been doing this for about 3 years now. But it wasnt always this way...

In 1996, the year I graduated college, I took a sales position at a tiny internet company called UUNET. I was employee number 388 or something like that. Years later, this company would be known as WorldCom and would have tens of thousands of employees all over the world. When I took the job, someone in HR metioned something about stock options. I had no idea what stock options were. It was just another piece of paper I had to sign on orientation day, somewhere between selecting a 401k and a dental plan. A couple years later, that little piece of paper would buy me a house and a bunch of fancy cars that no fresh-out-of-college kid should ever own.

But in January of 2000, I accepted a position at a very small start up software company named eTantrum. It was a tough choice to leave UUNET, the company which gave my a fantastic start, and made me more fortunate than I ever could have hoped, but the festive corporate culture began to dwindle, and I decided to move on.

That move was a bittersweet one. I was one of 30 employees at that eTantrum, and it was a great feeling to have such an impact on the daily workings of the company. I was the Director of Marketing, planning out all of the aspects of our big marketing tour.

As many of you may know, April 2000 was the beginning of the end for the growth of the tech industry. The market crashed, investors got scared of the tech sector, and we lost ALL of our funding. In order to keep the company alive, all the executives voluntered to go without salary until the crunch was over. Well, the crunch never ended. We all went 8 months without pay when the company finally laid everyone off and closed its doors. It was a sad day, as we had a great product, with a great idea, that just ran out of time and money before it could be sent to market. The last few months of that job were some of the most intesnse of my entire working life. Every day, sometimes every hour, some new major development would come through looking to save or doom our little company. We hung on the edge of extinction like that for the longest time.

As things were nearing the end at eTantrum, several of us that had made the sacrifice of going without pay decided that we worked well together, and that we'd like to start our own company, using the lessons we learned from the first one. They always say that you learn more from your losses than you do from your sucesses, and this is very true. With 6 other people, I started a consulting firm named The Shadow Group. The Shadow Group was a consulting firm that specialized in computer network security. Shortly after we started, we began to get acquisiton offers, and before we knew it, we had several. By the time March of 2001 rolled around, we had narrowed it down to one group, and we sold the company of May 2001.

I worked for the company who bought us out for a year as per my contract. Then I took the money and ran. I spent 2 years living out of a backpack wandering around the globe. Then I bought a small plot of land in Thailand and started working here as a Dive Guide and Dive Instructor. I had a short stint where I ran a bar for about a year. It was the bar I've always dreamt of. Right on the beach. Literally. The waves touch it at high tide. In the end, it was too much work and too much time for a business that was operating at a loss. So I stick to my diving and some other odd occasional ventures, and live the easy life.

Before all that, I've had jobs as varied as working as

...and the list really does go on.

Some were crazy, others were the worst, but I liked each one for the experience.

I want to try a few other careers in my life time, and my latest kick is that next I want to grow wine grapes in Italy. After that, who knows....?


Mail Home