Today is Monday morning, and we arrived here Thursday night. Overall, we've been having a good time so far. I've gotten to see some old co-workers (primarily from a job I had three years ago) and one close friend from MIT. Quick thoughts...
Jaded about work world
I still feel quite jaded about the work world basd on interactions we've had so far. My MIT friend's company is going through a pretty major "reorganization." While budgets weren't being cut and there weren't reductions, per se, they expect some attrition because of skills mismatch and general malaise. Two people that used to work for me now work at Cisco and Lucent, and the descriptions both of the apathy and the corporate "process" entertained me. Another works for a high tech startup now with a very negative corporate culture. The company is now on its third VP of marketing, and this particular guy is viewed as a part of the "old regime" that no one has time for. Even my friend who works for Google - the company written as a paragon of culture in the press - is looking to leave after the IPO. My former boss is heading up a company now that seems to face some early challenges, but he's doing a good job looking at the glass "half full" by looking at easy opportunities to make a difference.
My former boss did tell me that if we moved back down, he'd get me an offer in about 15 minutes. The husband of one of my former employee's is the CEO now of a hot startup, and he has also expressed some interest in growing his team to prepare for an IPO. Unfortunately, neither of them at this point are looking for me to help them with "hillwork" but rather to be a member of their staffs. It is unlikely that I would move back here though to take on this type of assignment.
Specificity of the workforce
There is another interesting thing that came from those conversations, and that is that while I'm "employable," it's not necessarily for any specific skill anyone remembers me for but rather that I'm a good guy to have around for other reasons (leadership, fun, etc.) Good for an employee, not good for a consultant.
I had lunch with a former coworker who actually did do consulting. He told me that his strategy for consulting gigs was to look for the "living dead" and sought a full-time opportunity when the nuclear winter in the Bay Area began to thaw. He provided the data point that while the "gross" was about 25% lower than his former Lucent salary, his net was more because of all the writeoffs. His problem was that he was a bit of a generalist without specific consulting expertise (like security consulting) and saw that consulting wasn't going to be a good long-term opportunity for him as a generalist. Another colleague of mine left the consulting world. Her current company actually hired a product marketing consultant who did do some "hillwork" evaluating a new market, but actually got started because some very specific consulting expertise on the wireless side.
I have a friend who called me from Seattle to tell me about his woes in finding a job at Microsoft. The reality is that he has found that the workforce is getting very "specific" now with very little need for generalists. Interesting...
Jaded a bit about the Bay Area
It's kind of odd, but despite the great weather here, I think the place is kind of depressing (at least the Peninsula is). Much of the Peninsula is getting very old and dated. Businesses seem to flip. Housing prices have gotten even more stupid than they were when we left three years ago. Our friends from Seattle that moved back down here were looking at an 1100 square foot, 3 bedroom, 1 bath home in Menlo Park that listed for $849,000 and ultimately went for over $1 million. How stupid!
I've heard that the East Bay is perhaps a bit better - not necessarily because the homes are cheaper but rather that they are just better for the same amount of money.
Also, I've been told that the materialism is scaling back here with more of a return to lifestyle and family as a priority. It's hard for me to observe that in this short visit, though.
Observation - Is my older daughter getting more "brave?"
Historically, my older daughter has been the one who has been more reticent for "thrill seeking" rides. She even doesn't like swings. My younger daughter, on the other hand, will swing as high as I can push her and just laugh.
My wife and kids went with friends to the Menlo Circus Club together and had a great time swimming. They have a daughter the same age as my older daughter and another daughter one year older than my younger daughter. Spending the day together made my younger daughter want to learn to swim even more! My older daughter is really getting into diving boards! (She did her first with another friend of ours at home at Edgebrook almost immediately before our trip.)
As a family, we also got to go to Happy Hollow. We went with a former coworker and his two older daughters (his youngest daughter who is closer in age to my kids was at a sleepover). It was nice to see how their 11 year old was so caring of my younger daughter. It was also interesting to note how much by older daughter liked "following" the bigger kids - she actually referred to them as "grown ups." Overall, Happy Hollow is targeted at kids much younger than my former coworker's kids but they were incredibly good sports. Amazingly, my younger daughter was a bit afraid to go on the big slides. (It was something we saw too at Enchanted Forest, but we assumed it was because she was tired...) Normally, it's my younger one that's the thrill seeker and my older one that is more conservative. Maybe this trend is reversing... I guess we'll see at Disneyland!
Finishing while at Disneyland on Saturday...
Don't chronicle it; just enjoy it
I had a phone conversation with a friend from the Bay Area who periodically takes significant sabbaticals in his career. He's gone to Italy, to Maui, and to live in Sonoma. With significant experience in taking sabbaticals, he's given me both the advice that I should really enjoy the time and that there's no need to distract from enjoying the time by chronicling it. The other thing he told me is that it won't be hard to jump back into the fray when I want to. He's done it several times. He also told me about another former coworker who is also took the summer off after his consulting gig at Cisco expired, and he's taking the family on a driving trip to Michigan.
A teacher?
My breakfast with a former coworker brought forward an interesting prediction. Because of her problems with her husband's heart (mysterious - the guy was in terrific shape!), she's in a very similar situation to me. She told me about the "standard protocol" and the need for doctors to follow it to avoid malpractice suits. While every doctor has different levels of tolerance to deviate from standard protocol, you will hit a limit.
The other thing she told me was that there will be many whom I've visited on this trip who have known me at different stages of my career, and many will remember this period in my life years to come and use it as an example. I thought that was an interesting prediction... Maybe even one I agree with.
