Yes indeed! Its been a while since I last posted a blog and making up for the action missed with a loooooooooonnnnnnnnnng blog :) Had been caught in the humdrum of what is called life.
Had been contemplating for months together about quitting the consultant lifestyle and putting away my rollerbag. No more Monday pre-dawn flights or late night flights on Friday anymore or worrying about not being in the same time zone as Somnath...I had enough reasons, it was just that I was scared to act upon it. Would I be able to venture out as a 'Jack of all trades' and be able to succeed elsewhere? The fear of failure was holding me back for the longest time and I was losing on a lot of fronts...the pleasure of shopping for groceries without worrying about them rotting away before I got back the next weekend(believe me its not easy to buy 1 potato, 1 onion and 1 vegetable on one trip to Safeway :)), time to indulge in hobbies, getting to know our house(its been a year since we bought it but I still dont use all the rooms yet) and most importantly...my health.
July and August had been one of the tougher months for us when everything seemed so difficult all of a sudden. Felt as if I was being pushed into a corner by circumstances but I guess something good(that's a real understatement...something really gr8) happens and what seems to be giving up turns into a resounding victory :) And so I found myself putting in two weeks notice on Aug 10th at work with the intent of trying something local or just putting up my legs and RELAXING...After a decade of working, the thought of becoming a home-maker was a bit daunting. I was worried it would hit my self-confidence but knew that I needed a breather. My health worried us and the job was not making it any easy. Come to think of it, I dont think I had too many options. Health won cos that is what is of real importance isnt it? Making the decision was hard but once I announced it, I felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off me. Somnath has been a steady rock of support all this time and it was easy to just hand over all my worries to him since he is soooo cool :) while I get all stressed out.
But as they say...life had something else in store for us. One weekend..I had just one weekend during which I started making plans of an extended vacation in India and what I would do when I was at home etc etc...and on Monday got inundated with calls from Microsoft. Two different teams called me so also Amazon and I was like...what's going on? Here I have been worrying about quitting a gr8 job(minus the travel) and not being able to get a new one and within 2 days of announcing my intent to leave, I get 3 calls on the same day! Anyway..I decided to just give interviews during the week...what did I have to lose? Had heard that MS interviews are really gruelling...read horror stories on the net about the day long interviews...and thought...let me just try it...if nothing I'll get an experience of what it is so that I can get back from my vacation and then try again.
Telephonic technical interview on Wednesday went fine and had the onsite gruelling one set for Thursday, Aug 16th. Had 6 rounds of interviews...after I finished the first 3 and was being scheduled for the last 3, I started breathing a little better :) Cos they had told me that the first 3 would determine whether I would have the latter 3. At 7pm, I finished for the day. I didnt care at that point whether I got selected or not..I hoped I got selected cos it was so gruelling that I promised Somnath, I would never step in there again if I didnt make it this time :) Got home and went straight to bed..yeah at 7:30pm.....was exhausted. Woke up an hour later, picked up Somnath from the airport....narrated to him each and every minute detail of how I had spent the day(I dont need to appear for an interview to do that ;-) Poor fella is used to it by now :)) Monday morning, got a call from my recruiter with an offer. A good one too ;-) And that is how I landed my next job on Aug 20th before my last day at the current one on Aug 24th :) And suddenly it was all sunny again :)) It was a gr8 feeling! I wanted to quit on a winning streak and there couldnt have been a better one than this one :) Needless to say it was a fabulous morale booster!
We celebrated with a trip that Somnath had dreamed of since a long long time....that's coming up in the next post ;-)
Had been contemplating for months together about quitting the consultant lifestyle and putting away my rollerbag. No more Monday pre-dawn flights or late night flights on Friday anymore or worrying about not being in the same time zone as Somnath...I had enough reasons, it was just that I was scared to act upon it. Would I be able to venture out as a 'Jack of all trades' and be able to succeed elsewhere? The fear of failure was holding me back for the longest time and I was losing on a lot of fronts...the pleasure of shopping for groceries without worrying about them rotting away before I got back the next weekend(believe me its not easy to buy 1 potato, 1 onion and 1 vegetable on one trip to Safeway :)), time to indulge in hobbies, getting to know our house(its been a year since we bought it but I still dont use all the rooms yet) and most importantly...my health.
July and August had been one of the tougher months for us when everything seemed so difficult all of a sudden. Felt as if I was being pushed into a corner by circumstances but I guess something good(that's a real understatement...something really gr8) happens and what seems to be giving up turns into a resounding victory :) And so I found myself putting in two weeks notice on Aug 10th at work with the intent of trying something local or just putting up my legs and RELAXING...After a decade of working, the thought of becoming a home-maker was a bit daunting. I was worried it would hit my self-confidence but knew that I needed a breather. My health worried us and the job was not making it any easy. Come to think of it, I dont think I had too many options. Health won cos that is what is of real importance isnt it? Making the decision was hard but once I announced it, I felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off me. Somnath has been a steady rock of support all this time and it was easy to just hand over all my worries to him since he is soooo cool :) while I get all stressed out.
But as they say...life had something else in store for us. One weekend..I had just one weekend during which I started making plans of an extended vacation in India and what I would do when I was at home etc etc...and on Monday got inundated with calls from Microsoft. Two different teams called me so also Amazon and I was like...what's going on? Here I have been worrying about quitting a gr8 job(minus the travel) and not being able to get a new one and within 2 days of announcing my intent to leave, I get 3 calls on the same day! Anyway..I decided to just give interviews during the week...what did I have to lose? Had heard that MS interviews are really gruelling...read horror stories on the net about the day long interviews...and thought...let me just try it...if nothing I'll get an experience of what it is so that I can get back from my vacation and then try again.
Telephonic technical interview on Wednesday went fine and had the onsite gruelling one set for Thursday, Aug 16th. Had 6 rounds of interviews...after I finished the first 3 and was being scheduled for the last 3, I started breathing a little better :) Cos they had told me that the first 3 would determine whether I would have the latter 3. At 7pm, I finished for the day. I didnt care at that point whether I got selected or not..I hoped I got selected cos it was so gruelling that I promised Somnath, I would never step in there again if I didnt make it this time :) Got home and went straight to bed..yeah at 7:30pm.....was exhausted. Woke up an hour later, picked up Somnath from the airport....narrated to him each and every minute detail of how I had spent the day(I dont need to appear for an interview to do that ;-) Poor fella is used to it by now :)) Monday morning, got a call from my recruiter with an offer. A good one too ;-) And that is how I landed my next job on Aug 20th before my last day at the current one on Aug 24th :) And suddenly it was all sunny again :)) It was a gr8 feeling! I wanted to quit on a winning streak and there couldnt have been a better one than this one :) Needless to say it was a fabulous morale booster!
We celebrated with a trip that Somnath had dreamed of since a long long time....that's coming up in the next post ;-)