After living in North Carolina for 14 years, and working for the same fire sprinkler company for almost 11 of those years, I decided it's time to move back to the Charleston area. Why? Mostly because I felt like it was time for me to make myself available for a family member. What, you don't know that story? Well, maybe it's not something I need to share right now. Or maybe it’s just not something I want every one to know. Either way, nothing personal, I’m just not getting into that story right now.
Anyway, I was able to find a promising job at another fire sprinkler company. It was a very large company and had a lot of design work…at the time. I was learning some things I hadn’t been taught in the past 10+ years of sprinkler design. I was getting along with co-workers. I learned a newer version of a design program I had used for years. I even learned a hydraulics program and a seismic program that I hadn’t used before. This new company was able to set up a special testing day with the N.I.C.E.T. organization. I had to drive to Orlando, but I didn’t care. I had worked for that other company over 10 years and every time I asked when or even IF I could take the NICET test, I was given the brush off. (For the record, of the 34 elements in which I could initially test, I passed 20, so I am happy with that.)
Then, as if a storm blew in, the other two designers I worked with were laid off within a week of each other. Of course, I was immediately concerned with my own job. Luckily, the design manager let me know that the workload just hadn’t kept up with the pace at which this office was moving. I was then given a new project which had a 3 week submittal date. My supervisor told me that once I complete that project, there was no new work on the books, unless something came in during that 3 week period. Well, at least I didn’t come in to work on a Tuesday only to be dismissed by 8:30 a.m. I worked hard and did what I think was a good job on that project. I did, however, keep my eyes open for another job opening. I put my resume on Monster.com, Careerbuilder.com and several other job related sites. Soon, I had a call from a recruiting company in Texas.
After a couple of non-productive interviews, I was offered a position with a smaller company. Instead of offices from Orlando to Baltimore to Houston, this company has one office in Charleston and another in Bluffton. I was offered a compensation package that was better than any other sprinkler design job I had held in the past. My duties would, however, include more project management than this last job. Thankfully, I had done a good bit of that with my previous job in NC. I thought and prayed about this new job, mostly because it would take me to Bluffton for 3 or more days each week. I don’t necessarily want to be too far from here, but Bluffton is only a 2 hour drive.
After much prayer, thought and conversation with my girlfriend (yet another story I won’t get into right now for the sake of time), I decided to take this new job. Right away, I am doing more materials listing and fabrication listing than I had previously done, BUT, I had done it in the past so that made the transition much easier. In between listing jobs, I was able to knock out a design for a small metal building. Quite honestly, I could have done that one while sleeping. It’s a rectangular box. So I’ve continued with the listing and even developed an Excel sheet for the different components needed to install the job. It’s a work in progress, but I like it.
