Muffin HQ

Way back in the days, like 2004-2006, I worked at this disfunctional firm with some really awesome folks. Most of the people have moved on via layoffs, some are still there. I keep in touch with alot of them because they were really some of the best co-workers around. Tom G (see below for his beach house) used to talk about his “dream team” and about how he’d score that really awesome condo job and finally assemble his dream team. We’d all work on leased laptops from his house or a cafe and he’d pull together the money to make this building happen. I was on his A list, which I remember thinking at the time, wow, I am on *someone’s* A list. Not sure if I am on my own A list….

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you will know that I’ve been working since Sept 1st for a local engineering firm. It was around 10 months ago since getting laid off that this job came my way. Day to day, it is really perfect for me. Long term, not sure yet. I know that my brain and heart is not invested right now and its ok, because we all know from one looksy at my resume, I have a tough time with commitment. I am thinking about this because Jessica got offered a job with the local government, not sure doing what, but different than what she was doing before getting laid off. It also took her 10 months.  

Back to July 2009, Oregon’s annual Beerfest at the Waterfront park. I am sitting around with Jessica, Dave and Tom (and a few others). We all worked for that disfunctional company and all of us were currently unemployed at the time of the beerfest. The four of us represented four different decades and an interesting skill and experience mix. Spending time with my ex-coworkers helped me realize that there was nothing wrong with me and my unemployment, because Tom’s A list, all sitting at the table, drinking beer, we were all unemployed. I was looking at three people that I felt were smart, talented, maybe a little high maintenance, but still very employable people. Why were they not working? Why was I still not working?

Hmm, I was going somewhere with this post. Ah yes, A listers. Ok, so after i heard about Jessica’s job offer today, I was thinking, my generation of designers and architects are in trouble. If young professionals start choosing non-traditional career paths and not returning to typical office structure, then the “kids” getting out of school will be mentored by a much older, retiring, and potentially out of touch with the latest technology. Don’t want to sound age-ist but I will assert that a diverse office makes for the best mentorship experience. Maybe I am making some big generalizations here, will probably need to think about this some more.

What’s my plan? Pass all of my exams the first time. Send out “Suck It Bitch” cards to all the haterz that made my working life mizzerable. Then retire my license in good standing and do yoga everyday, all day long. And ride my bike and drink coffee. Sounds good doesn’t it?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 11:25 pm and is filed under architecture, deep thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.