Michael

About a week after I had started the project in California, I was working late one night. Everyone had left for dinner and were supposed to come back by 9:00 p.m. No one had returned by then. As I went to leave, I realized that I had been locked inside the control room. I didn’t have my badge yet, so I couldn’t get out.

At that point, I answered a phone call in the data center. It was from the site director. He asked for one of the project leads. I told him that no one was in the room but me. There was silence on the other end. I respectively asked him if he knew how I could get out of the data center since I was locked in. He told me that he would be over in 10 minutes.

He arrived right on schedule with a high ranking representative of the California Lottery. You must understand the picture. I’m sitting all alone in this huge data center; the only one working late. It made such an impression that I ultimately got a job offer from the site director.

Within four weeks, I had an official job offer and a plan to move to California. This created some challenges as I knew that this would be the beginning of the end of my marriage but more importantly I would be moving away from my daughter. It was a very difficult decision, but deep down inside I knew that it was the right one and that everything would work out.

It was a great move. I climbed up the corporate ladder very quickly and my daughter ended up living with me from the eighth grade through college.

Two major life changing turning points in one week. No complaints from me.

Michael