So...Back again. What? you mean my 1 follower is no longer reading this? Well, much has happened in the last few years. I say "last few years" but it is looking like its been much longer than that. So what has happened to old Panvamp since '08? Turns out that IBM laid me off in 2009. I am surprised that it took that long. For a company that has an ongoing reputation for laying people off, I managed to make it 14 years. So I bid "good day" to Big Blue in March of '09. (Interestingly enough, my father was laid off at just about the same time. He had over 30 years.)
Next up, some people know that I was having problems paying my then out-of-control mortgage. Well, it turns out that if you sign an agreement to lower your mortgage payments, they don't take it too kindly when you no longer have employment. So, in May of '09 we lost our house in Georgia. I even pawned all of my firearms. I sold computer stuff. I threw all kinds of things away. 2009 was not a particularly good year for me and my family. But I will tell you...
It probably was one of the best things to have happened to me.
One thing that people often don't think about the benefits of being laid off. "What?! Are you crazy?" you ask. No friends, there are most likely many benefits to being laid off (other than spending more time with your family). The big benefit to me was, in all honesty, I HATED that job. I detested getting up in the morning, going to that god-awful place, and doing that stupid mindless job, even if I was making great money. It felt like instead of being laid off, I was paroled.
I could have done without losing my house (I really loved that house). But see friends, even this was not all bad. More on that in a moment.
So what did I do? Did I sit and cry? Did I feel sorry for myself? A little. But after it passed, I hit the streets. We got a rental house thanks to a really nice guy named Craig who gave us a chance. I did get another job. In May of '09 I began working for a company called Cbeyond in Atlanta. I realized something happened when I was with IBM. My love of technology, of computers, of all things digital had faded. I began a new career as another new phone support agent, Tier 1.
And I LOVED it. I remembered why I got into this field to begin with. I picked up Cisco quickly, and all of the other products we offered I was able to build on my previous years of experience. I was now supporting internet, HME, web hosting, firewalls, backup systems, you name it. And I realized that I was fairly decent at Voice and VOIP products.
I was a Tier 1 contract agent until January of 2010. In January, I became a permanent Tier1. In February of the same year I was promoted to Tier 2 tech support (the single largest pay increase of my career to date). As luck would have it, in August, Cbeyond announced that they were opening a call center in Denver, Colorado. They needed a Tech support instructor. They offered to move the candidate and to give them a permanent job as Operations Training instructor.
I applied for and got the job.
We moved to Denver in August of 2010 and have been here ever since. We still rent our house, but we are rapidly approaching a time that I might be able to buy a nice one of my own again (even though renting is not that bad). I am still not rich, and money continues to be a struggle, but I am far better off than before where we could not even afford to keep the power on.
Take heed, friends. Life can be difficult. It's easy to lose a job or a house and feel that there is no way that things can get better. But they can. If you make things happen, they WILL COME. Learn from this post. Never give up. You can ALWAYS start digging out of that hole.
So I will be blogging more. I swear it. I am going to even delve into some telecom topics, as I have a new-found passion for voice and data technology. Let me share it with you.
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