The Search is On

Early this summer I accepted a job offer from a financial services company in the Bay Area, more specifically, Marin County, California. The position had some attractive elements--the location, a distinct step-up from my previous position (to Chief Information Officer, a senior VP position), and a sizable income boost. My wife and I were both excited so I accepted the offer. I had been with the University for about 4 years and it was a good experience but I was ready to move to the next level. We really liked Reno and the surrounding areas but the opportunity was too good to pass up. The other senior management had identified some exciting projects on which I was to begin with, such as disaster recovery and business continuity, user-friendly remote access systems, SharePoint, social networking, systems for business intelligence, etc. We sold our Reno house in two weeks and made a tidy profit on that sale although we will miss our good friends and neighbors there.

Unfortunately, this company's primary line of business is mortgage lending. As most people know by now, the housing and mortgage business is not doing well at this point. My new employer didn't deal with the sub-prime mortgages that some analysts claim started the whole downward spiral but nonetheless, much like the other lenders and banks, they have all been impacted. Many of our competitors have closed their doors entirely, some almost two months ago.

Since I arrived our business has continued to wane, although there is a minor blip in activity lately, but certainly not enough to sustain the company in its present incarnation. My planned projects changed from implementing new systems to working with vendors to figure out ways to reduce licensing, sell assets, and cut personnel. We've had a couple of strings of layoffs and as of Monday October 1st, nearly everyone has received 60 day notice. Unless business picks up and the company is able to rescind the layoffs, we will most likely shutter the operations in December.

With that said, I'm trying to keep my group's spirits high and work toward providing necessary service to run the company. If things are still looking dismal come early November, we will begin to ramp down and consolidate systems. It's an odd time and although it's a somber environment, it's a unique time as people are more candid than they might be normally. It's a good group of people, many of whom have worked together for the past 4 years here and at least 3 years before in the same company.

I've begun my earnest job search as well. My wife and I would prefer to stay in the Marin-Sonoma county area but we're receptive to the rest of the Bay Area and Sacramento for the right position. We're in a good position financially and we're not locked into a lease for our accommodations at the moment so we have a degree of flexibility.