Exit Plan

Once upon a time in a dungeon far away in the west coast, a wise man (who wasn't drunk at the time -- at least not to my knowledge) told me:

You should always have an exit plan.

I have always followed that advice by making sure I can always get out of the work I'm doing now. This same wise man also told me to get a kingsize bed upon hearing about my marriage -- yet that's the one advice that I took too late. Our recent king-size bed purchase has made it clear that some people simply see "the truth" earlier than others. I am slow but I'm trying to catch up.

So.. today I started working on my most recent exit plan since it's about time. Now, don't get me wrong. I love my current job. I enjoy working on nearly impossible situations where some geniuses will recognize the low ROI (Return On Investment) and refuse to work on them. It's not because I am smarter since I'm obviously not getting paid as much as those geniuses -- in fact, I get way less $/hour than these smart people. Sometimes I don't know why I continue to spend so much time at work -- though CherkyB will probably say that I'm spending that time at work to avoid family so I can make preserve my happiness in marriage... but I digress...

In any case, there are multiple options to choose from (or so I would like to tell myself). My exit-plan involves moving onto the next project or going onto the "future" project. The next project is going to be another fire-fighting experience since the smart people are already planning to move onto the "future" project. The future project is just starting so I have a chance to work on stuff that may not materialize, which ought to be good for bragging rights before it eventually gets canceled/redirected. Recent history at work shows that the path to promotion is to work on "future" stuff and not the #1 immediate priority that everyone seems to talk about but so few people actually do significant work for. Hence, knowing that I probably should move to the future project, I started investigating the slightly less glamorous option. Some people eat their favorite food first. I tend to save the best for last.

I scheduled an appointment with the manager that I'd like to work with if I should choose to move to the next project. We discussed several possibilities and they all sounded like viable options - for getting out of the current work. The scary thing about the possibilities is that the next project sounds even more "exciting" than the existing one! Like moth flying into fire, I was naturally drawn to the hot opportunities presented... wooo!

But I must resist... I still need to evaluate the other exit-plan options -- just in case I need an exit-plan to get out of the immediate exit-plan. Unfortunately most of those "future" folks are out of down discussing future possibilities so I will need to wait till next week. Patience is a virtue in the strategy of exit-plans.

So... back to my current job... today I also got updated on another possibility of getting sent out of the country to work on something important. We always seem to have important issues. It's almost as if we didn't have important issues, then we wouldn't be important anymore. Well, this email thread included a bunch of names I didn't recognize so it must be pretty important. If it turns out that I am really needed there, then we are going to need some help with RyanC or I can't go.