Lion Rampant, one year later
Oct. 23rd, 2008 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pyatOne year ago this week I handed in my resignation at the Canadian Office Products Association. I'd worked there for 3.5 years. They weren't bad years at all, and seem even rosier in retrospect. I had a corner office and would go hours without twitching a muscle.
I quit that job to take a position in sales and market development at Lion Rampant Imports, Canada's largest distributor of RPGs, wargames, and assorted nerdly goodness. I started working there on November 13th. By the 16th, I was starting to think I'd made a mistake. By the 21st, I was asking people for freelance work.
On December 3rd, at 8:19 AM I wrote:
45 minutes of close conference with a rubber duck in the tub last night have convinced me that I'm wasting my time at Lion Rampant...
...at some point soon - maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon - I'm walking out into the void, whether or not I have a job waiting for me. I'd be happier as an unpaid househusband.
"Maybe not tomorrow" turned out to be "less than an hour later."
I walked into work at 9:01 AM, looked at the list of calls I had to make, wrote a resignation letter, and walked out at 9:07 AM. On the bus home, I was in a sort of state of shock, mingled with absolute and utter relief, and a sort of pride at being "master of my fate" and so forth. As I settled in at home, this turned into a mix of guilt, with relief certainly the more powerful feeling. I'd worked 14 days at Lion Rampant... and 6 minutes.
As it turns out, quitting was the smartest career move I have ever made. By that afternoon, I had two job interviews lined up. The second one was for CCI Inc.. I was hired there as a freelancer at triple the pay I was getting at Lion Rampant, and was hired full-time in January. I work in an exciting neighbourhood, and get to hang out with cool people who work nearby.
This past summer, I bumped into Lion Rampant's president at the local game store. I spoke with him for a few minutes, and learned that the fellow who hired me was laid off a few weeks after I quit, along with some other staffers. I'd have been laid off as well.
It is not often that life rewards us so clearly for making a rash decision.
I quit that job to take a position in sales and market development at Lion Rampant Imports, Canada's largest distributor of RPGs, wargames, and assorted nerdly goodness. I started working there on November 13th. By the 16th, I was starting to think I'd made a mistake. By the 21st, I was asking people for freelance work.
On December 3rd, at 8:19 AM I wrote:
45 minutes of close conference with a rubber duck in the tub last night have convinced me that I'm wasting my time at Lion Rampant...
...at some point soon - maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon - I'm walking out into the void, whether or not I have a job waiting for me. I'd be happier as an unpaid househusband.
"Maybe not tomorrow" turned out to be "less than an hour later."
I walked into work at 9:01 AM, looked at the list of calls I had to make, wrote a resignation letter, and walked out at 9:07 AM. On the bus home, I was in a sort of state of shock, mingled with absolute and utter relief, and a sort of pride at being "master of my fate" and so forth. As I settled in at home, this turned into a mix of guilt, with relief certainly the more powerful feeling. I'd worked 14 days at Lion Rampant... and 6 minutes.
As it turns out, quitting was the smartest career move I have ever made. By that afternoon, I had two job interviews lined up. The second one was for CCI Inc.. I was hired there as a freelancer at triple the pay I was getting at Lion Rampant, and was hired full-time in January. I work in an exciting neighbourhood, and get to hang out with cool people who work nearby.
This past summer, I bumped into Lion Rampant's president at the local game store. I spoke with him for a few minutes, and learned that the fellow who hired me was laid off a few weeks after I quit, along with some other staffers. I'd have been laid off as well.
It is not often that life rewards us so clearly for making a rash decision.
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Date: 2008-10-23 11:56 pm (UTC)