It is with mixed emotions that I announce that I am
leaving Erie Insurance. An opportunity arose to take an independent consulting
contract as an agile coach and trainer. It will allow me to work 2 days a week
so I can spend more time with my boys. I also get to travel a bit and pursue
more writing opportunities.
ERIE has been my ‘home-away-from-home’ for over 18 years.
I feel a bit like when I went to college – ready for a new adventure, but not
entirely sure where the road will take me. Knowing that things will never be
the same, but knowing that they must change.
The hardest part then, and now, is saying goodbye to old
friends and trusting that our paths will cross again.
My last day was yesterday. During my final days, I said
goodbye to so many faces and was reminded of so many wonderful phases of my
life. The phases didn’t all seem wonderful at the time, but they have all
shaped the person that I am and for that I am grateful.
When I was in college, the Internet was not widely
available (Gasp! How did we survive?).
As friends graduated and moved on, it took effort to stay connected – you had
to actually write down phone numbers and addresses and call or send a letter to
stay in touch. It was easy for friendships to fade.
I’m less worried about that now. Partly because
technology makes it so simple to stay in touch. But mostly because I have lived
long enough to know that the friends that stick around are the friends that I
need. And if we’re meant to meet again, we will when the time is right.
It seems fitting to end with a quote from Steve Jobs’
Stanford commencement address:
Again,
you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking
backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your
future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma,
whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the
difference in my life.
Diane,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your thoughts from your youtube video titled "How agile help you become a better BA". I'm currently a system analyst for an insurance company(Amtrust Financial Services) in atlanta. I'm at a point in my career where i'm a bit tired of being silo-ed as a programmer. I feel that my personality better fits in a BA environment. Your insight and your wisdom in agile has been an inspiration for me to move on from this "fragile" workplace to a more agile friendly one. Today i have an interview for a tech BA position. It's agile and i see with the position the "hats" are vast. I'm truly fired up that i have the opportunity to display my passion side(BA) and my tech side(IT). In September i will be pursuing my CSPO i signed up for on scrumallliance.org Again thank you for your insight and i wish you the best in pursuing your passion more than day-to-day paycheck ^_^
Thank you for the kind words, Alphonso! Best of luck to you!
ReplyDelete