In the Coracle

Rejoining the World

November 1, 2005 // Tags: Mt. Si Vineyard, Personal

Over the past few days, my family has gone through much transition - some good, some not so good. Of the three transitions, I can talk about one of them… in order to knock out some debt and build up our nest egg, I am currently looking for software testing contracts in the ~6 month length. It’s time to dust off my technical skills and go shop around a bit.

It’s an odd position to be in, frankly. I left Microsoft 4 years ago and deliberately chose not to invest the time to keep my technical skills sharp. In the last 4 or 5 years at the company, my primary role was group leadership, leadership development, staffing, planning, that kind of thing. Leading and managing teams. So my hands-on skillset is slightly (ha!) out of date. Raw testing skills are probably more of a “how are you wired” thing than a learned thing, so I think I’m OK there. And team management skills translate fairly well between the business and non-profit worlds. But since there are very, very few contract test leadership positions out there, I’m mainly finding hands-on roles. All of this, of course, affects the pay rates I can expect. I’m hearing a wide, wide range in hourly rates that I can shoot for.

God things are happening in the process, though. I sent out 8 or 10 resumes last Friday to job openings that I found on craigslist, and the first response I got was quite funny. The recruiter manning the anonymouse email address for one job sent: “Hey, Pat, small world - my wife and I just visited your church last Sunday…”. No kidding - of the two couples who came to visit us and worship together on Sunday, one guy is a technical recruiter for a local company with test contract openings.

I’ve had one interview - more of a pre-interview, I suppose - and another one tomorrow.

I have mixed feelings about this: I really have enjoyed being able to slow my life down, spend a lot of time with my daughter and have a good amount of time for reading and study, and the commute has been awesome. But I am also looking forward to interpersonal interaction on a technical level again - and being challenged to learn new things. It should be an interesting time.

Please pray for guidance and for the right opportunity to grab hold of us.

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Introduction

Welcome! I'm Pat Loughery, and I'll be your host here. Feel free comment on what you see here. I am a lay missionary to North Bend on the east side of Seattle, a husband, dad to 2 kids, a software test manager for Equiom, Inc.,, a software consulting company. I'm also a failed and (quite possibly future) church planter and a Doctor of Ministry student with Bakke Graduate University, and usually on this blog we discuss Christian spirituality (especially of the Celtic, post-Evangelical, post-Charismatic and neo-monastic flavors), photography, motorcycles, and other oddball things.

About the Coracle

I'm trying to live a deep and relational Christian life. As I study Christian spirituality, I find the Celtic stream helpful, challenging and liveable. One of the images from early Celtic Christianity is their sea transport - the coracle.

The ancient Celts traveled in coracles - handmade, wooden framed and hide-covered boats, to journey where the trinitarian God led them. Though the transportation was simple, the journey was profound. This image is an illustration of the way I experience God's guidance - an invitation to travel with him on his paths, not mine; at his pace, not mine.

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Rejoining the World