What I Want to Learn Part IV

I didn't write about it when I should have.

Yesterday was a double shot of anniversaries of two huge events in my career.

First, on October 1, 1998, I started at a new job at a software company called Quintrex Data Systems (QDS), which, by that name, no longer exists. I had my last day at Jordan Systems, a software company which, by the way, also no longer exists, on September 30 and started at QDS the next day. I was very excited to join QDS and, long story short, I stayed for a dozen years. QDS introduced me to a tool called RoboHelp, which I eventually mastered to the extent that I became a RoboHelp Most Valued Professional on 10/17/2002 - or at least that's the date on the certificate that the CEO of QDS gave me. I have that certificate on the bookshelf directly in front of me because I'm proud of that accomplishment. During my time at QDS, I attended a WinWriters conference in Boston, MA, in 2004 and a WinWriters conference in Long Beach, CA, in 2007. In addition to networking with some of my technical writing heroes at both conferences, I was able to see both coasts of America without paying for seeing it. Of course, since Karen went with me, there was her plane ticket so it wasn't free, but I know I would have never gone to both coasts as cheaply as I did.

My brain works in a quirky way because mentioning money is a great transition to the other reason why October 1 is also an anniversary of a second event in my career. It is the 10-year anniversary of being reaching my 12-year anniversary of being a QDS employee and, on that same day, when I tendered my resignation. I had been hired by the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa and had negotiated with that company to have my first day be on Monday, October 18, 2010. 

I know that there is a lot of venom about the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa - look for posts on this blog by the "Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa" label - to read venomous and angry and anguished words about that hellhole. To say that I used to be very angry about the way I was treated and how my time at that company ended after only 177 days or 5 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, is accurate. I also have realized that I had to be hired at the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa in order to arrive at my current employer. To fully appreciate my time at the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa, I had to learn that it's okay to have a career with mistakes and errors. Upon reflection, leaving QDS to join the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa was an awful mistake - I can't wax poetic and say, "Oh, it wasn't so bad." I have to be honest: calling a former employer a "hellhole" is the correct adjective. Trust me.

At the same time, I love to write about the "what if I had chosen B instead of A" episodes in my life. In my journal, for example, I have tackled the following scenarios more than once:

• what if Karen and I had never had a New Year's Eve party on 12/31/1994? It was at that party when I learned from one of our college friends that he had a job at a great company in downtown Cedar Rapids and that I should send my resume to his manager. That company was Network Data Processing (NDP) and it was my first job as a technical writer. 
• what if I had never left QDS and had never been hired by the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa?

I don't know what else would be different in my life other than I firmly believe I would not be in my current job situation if I had never been hired by the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa. There's no scenario in which I still end up being hired at Pearson in April 2011 without leaving QDS. There's no scenario in which I learn as much as I have about content reuse and *true* technical writing at Pearson in order to be hired by my current employer. While yesterday's anniversary involves the Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa and is not an anniversary of a "good" point in my career, I still need to remember that God has a plan for me. Spending time in that Unnamed Hellhole in southern Iowa certainly would NOT have been MY plan!