Kevster

Well, as a follow-up to this thread and this thread, I have accepted a new communications engineering position in Sacramento. I gave my notice today and my manager was expecting it at some point in the future (he was recommending we all look around), and was happy that this new position will be a definite boost to my career. It started filtering through the company this afternoon that I gave my notice, and people have been calling/stopping by asking me what my plans are (and do I know any good companies in the area that are hiring).

Now comes the happy/hilarious/hellish experience of selling our home and relocating up to Sacramento. Mrs. Kevster is happy about this too, since we'll be closer to family and a lot closer to outdoor activities that we like to do.

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I think over again
My small adventures, my fears.
The small ones that seemed so big,
For all the vital things I had to get and to reach.

And yet there is only one great thing, the only thing:

To live to see the great day that dawns,
And the light that fills the world.

-old Inuit song

Hoser

But how is your weiner going to like it in Sacremento?

avlena

congrats on the new job!

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Have a groovy day!

Itsme

Congratulations. Please say hello to Arnold when you see him around town.

starkiis

Congrats. It seems everone is going north. Lots of work. We were thinking of transferring up there noy sure yet. Good luck very busy place.

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MAKE THIS YEAR YOUR BEST YEAR EVER. ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF IT.

Sirrich3

Congrats!

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Thesifer

Congrats.. Do they have internet in Sac Town? hehe.. oh they do? So around here.. it'll be just like you never left. haha

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Kevster

Ok what is really hilarious is that Ahhnold was in my hometown of Auburn today. I'll be staying with my folks initially and from there the drive to my new company's office in Elk Grove will probably take an hour and 15 minutes each way (not accounting for traffic in Roseville and downtown).

The company is spending a ton of cash to upgrade their network to bring them into the 21st century bigtime, even though they're a small rural carrier. They want to do IPTV, high-speed intenet and residential VOIP, as well as WIMAX for better high-speed access for their rural customers. They will be rolling out G-PON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network), which will enable them to do 2.5GB down and 1.25GB up (per the spec). I have an engineering background in optical networks, as well as carrier transport, DSL, MPLS & layer 2&3 VPNs, etc. so I can definitely help them in that regard. I will be part of the development engineering group that figures out how they're going to do this and any new technologies that will be coming along in the future. I wanted to do this for my current company, but with the aquisition by BT, all that ceased and is being taken care of my BT's people in England.

The nice thing is that position pays well - one thing that my current job hasn't been doing so well. My coworkers and I had no raises for 4 years until a 3% raise in January, we lost all bonuses, most of our overtime pay and oncall compensation - this resulted in my annual pay decreasing over 30% from 2001, coupled with Mrs. Kevster having job difficulties it put a lot of stress on me at times trying to pay the bills. It came to a point at the beginning of the year that I realized I couldn't afford to work there anymore and thus I started actively looking for a new position. The hardest part has been trying to find a good fit, and I think this is probably my best one.

My wiener will probably have a grand time in Sacramento, though it's been getting spoiled with the Southern California climate. I guess it'll have to get used to 4-season weather now instead of the 2-season weather we have down in So.Cal.

ray

Congratulations on the new job and I am sure you will thrive in the new environment up there. Just one question...will you make it to SoCal get togethers?

VTGreg

Congratulations on the new position.

When you say rural areas, what type of population are we talking about? Does the organization currently receive any loans from RUS?

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It only ends once... Anything that happens before that is just progress.

Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.

Kevster

When I say rural, I mean areas where the number of phones per mile of cable is typically 20 or less. They're an Incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) in 23 states, roughly 260 counties across the U.S. In states like West Virginia and Tennessee, they are the predominant ILEC in the state. Typically they are in small/medium towns and rural areas where larger telcos don't want to go because it obviously isn't as profiable to operate those services as urban centers.

cheapie

oh he probably will. hopefully he'll thrive as well.

Kevster

Well my last day at British Telecom Global Services (formerly known as Infonet), was yesterday. It was a strange feeling, but it is something I'm definitely ready for. Now I'm just busy packing and going through stuff at home deciding what to throw away, what to keep, etc.

ray

fixed

cheapie

just bustin' your b@lls man.

Paymaster

Welcome to my neck of the woods (I'm in Folsom, very close to Sacramento).

Be sure to change the location of your pin in the G/A map...

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"eh, take your opinion and shove it... somewhere else other than this thread" ~ welfareloser

Kevster

LOL - Paymaster I am looking to buy a house there in Folsom or Orangevale. Mrs. Kevster and I will probably be renting at first to see how the real estate market does (or doesn't) in the next 6 months or so.

Kevster

Ok here's yet another update:

I'm currently working for the company I accepted the offer from up in Sacramento. I have been driving down from Sacramento on Fridays in order to help Mrs. Kevster getting stuff packed and our house ready for sale (it goes on the market this Thursday). Driving back on Sunday is starting to get old, but I'm trying to make the best of it - the car I'm driving gets about 36mpg so the gas cost isn't bad. I have also moved 2 car-loads of boxes and things up to my parent's place in preparation for the big-move, and to help reduce the volume of stuff at our house.

Guess who calls me last Friday asking if I'd be willing to entertain a counter-offer after I turned them down for this new position? I really do like this new job I have, and I'm learning a ton of new stuff already. If the counter-offer is substantially more, say 15-20%, should I go take it and stay in So. Cal? Thoughts? Opinions?

avlena

wouldn't you be burning bridges with the new company you're currently at? I dunno, if you already accepted and have started working, it seems incredibly rude to say: "okay, I quit, cuz one of the other offers came through and it's better! thanks for the great 2 weeks!".

Kevster

Well actually, it would be three weeks.

I feel the same way about it, too. I wouldn't just be burning bridges here, I think I'd probably be soaking them in napalm and lighting them off with a flamethrower if I did it. I like what I'm doing at my new company. I like being up here too, even though it's 106 here today. My parents suggested I just humor them and see what they throw at me since they've jacked me around long enough for me to interview with another company four times, accept their offer and start working for them in the amount of time it has taken SCE to come around to a decision.

MrGreg

Wasn't your manager at the old job suggesting you "look around"? Does that mean the old company isn't doing well? If so, I don't know why you'd considder going back.

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-The nerd formerly known as vectorcalculus

Jeffbx

I wouldn't do it. Counter offers are almost never a good thing to consider.

1) They tell you that the company is to shady/too cheap to pay what you wanted until you leave or threaten to leave. This would indicate that there are some a-holes running the place or they are strapped for cash. In either case, I would bet that if you took it, that would be the last increase you would see for quite some time.

2) By taking a counter offer, you let BOTH companies know you can be bought & your loyalty may be suspect. That gets you on a 'do not hire' list on the company you turned down.

3) Counter offers are often made in desperation by the company you're leaving, and SOMETIMES are merely vehicles to get you (the valuable worker) to stick around long enough for them to find a replacement for you. Then you are black listed from company #2 since they already think they're overpaying you, and they know you'll leave anyway for a higher offer from another company.

All around a very risky choice.

Kevster

Just to clarify, this is NOT my old employer. This counter-offer is from the other company I interviewed with and kept dragging their feet trying to decide what to do with the position and having to interview a minimum three qualified people for the position (mandatory company policy - this is the local power company so it's a bit monolithic in it's adherence to policy). This company has a historically loooooong hiring period (I know other people who work there and they told me the same thing), and the time from when I interviewed to now is about three and a half months.

I talked it over with Mrs. Kevster and she is already looking forward to relocating to Sacramento. I think I'll tell SCE thanks, but no thanks.

In other news, there's a Senior DWDM Engineering position still available at Southern California Edision!