Spoken For

Increasing Faith. The announcement that our team will be let go prior to the new company's acquisition did not shock me. We had heard several rumors prior and expecting something coming. My only reaction was a bitter one since we knew it was upper management trying to protect their teams in Israel. According to the management, “that was something they should have done many years back.” The sad thing is, no matter how talented you are, how tirelessly you worked, how loyal you were to the company, it all doesn’t matter. Even our director who squeezed and squeezed us for many years, suffered the same fate. We both went through the same resume polishing session. It was difficult going back to the market looking for a job after 10 years. I felt like a fish out of water.

This was the scariest time of my entire career. I have never been laid-off. Sure, I have had friends who had been laid-off, I sympathized with them, but never fully comprehend what they were going through. With me, being the only bread-winner, I had to find something, and it had to be quick. The Cobra “subsidized” program for health insurance was incredibly high, something ridiculous like $2000 per month for the family.

After several interviews, I had 2 offers. I was quite distraught because I was warned that I would have to work crazy hours in both of these companies. Just when I was pressured to pick from these not so attractive offers, another opportunity literally fell out of nowhere. As I was talking to my manager about the fact that I would like to get into an application engineer role, another manager heard me and connected me with the sales guy. Less than a week, I got another offer in hand. Little did I know, this would be the most fulfilling job I have ever had. I love everything about it. Yes, love is a strong word, but I truly love everything about it. I enjoy interacting with customer and solving their issues and best of all, I could do that remotely. Aside from the fact that there was no break in employment, (in fact, I was double paid for 3 weeks because I was on a consultation basis at one company), got a compensation package for being laid-off, a bonus for completing transitional tasks, a sign-on bonus for joining new company, a salary increase, and a big commission for being tied to sales team. All in all, I got to spend more time with my family and my income for the year was 1 ½ times than previous.

Looking back, was there a need to be worried if I had faith in God? God turned something bad into good in a way that I never imagined. If I wasn’t forced to leave my job of ten years, I would not have gone out and looked for new opportunities. As I am writing this, my current company of 7 months just got acquired again. Coincidence? Should I be concerned? Is God testing my faith? This time around, I know things will be okay. I look in anticipation of where God will lead me this time.