Before we get into anything that actually matters, I manually added two people to the subscription list. Yeah, I know, sounds a little culty, but relax. Anyone can sign up, but a couple people in my life had no idea this even existed and that felt like bullshit on my part. One of them has been sending me job listings every single day like it is his second job. Not occasionally. Every day. I have met him in person once almost eight years ago. So yeah, he is on the list now whether he asked for it or not.
The other guy, I have worked with for about ten years in different roles. Sometimes side by side, sometimes reporting to him. He is also the only person from TireHub who reached out to me after everything went down. This guy and I have sorta passed the mentor role back and forth like a football in the past, and I hope he smiles reading this.
Let’s also clear something up. This is not a hostage situation. If you do not want to be here, leave. There is an unsubscribe button. Use it. I do not want people hanging around out of obligation. If you are here, it should be because you like watching this slow motion car crash unfold, not because you feel bad for me. Pity is for funerals, not this.
Now lets get to the update.
Currently I am sitting at my brother’s kitchen island in Grand Rapids, and I just walked out of a damn good interview. Not the kind where you replay every answer on the drive home and convince yourself you blew it. The kind where they are already trying to pull a panel together before you even leave town. She said it out loud. That is not me spinning it. This is hope. About damn time shit started to stick.
On paper, not much has changed. Same chaos, same uncertainty. But it feels different. And a big part of that is you all helping keep my head straight. Being a single dude in a big house by yourself sounds great until it is not, and y’all have been showing up in ways that actually matter. Dinners, random drop ins, calls, texts, and I even had friends roll up with their own BBQ and turn my deck into an impromptu cookout. Cant say I dont have amazing people in my life. Being up here also means I get to see my brother and hopefully my son before heading back to Nashville, which matters more than anything else going on right now.
Now the job hunt.
A couple weeks ago, nothing. A 2.5 percent callback rate, which is just a polite way of saying nobody was calling me back. At some point you start wondering if your resume is broken or if there is a guy in a windbreaker following you around telling hiring managers you have some kind of career ending atomic herpes and should not be allowed near a conference room.
Then it flipped.
And not gradually. Just boom on fire.
Two interviews a day for the next three business days, and 4 over the previous 3 days. Different companies, solid positions, real pay with real people. After weeks of silence it almost feels like a setup. The part that really blew my mind, not one of these is operations. Not one. Every single one is Learning and Development. Feel like I won the lottery.
I am so over being straight ops. I mean, I can do it, and I am damn good at it, but it does not make me go home at night and feel like “YEAH I KILLED IT TODAY”. It is the equivalent of a dishwashing job for me at this point, I can do it well, it pays the bills, but I always end up with other peoples shit under my nails. Helping people get better at their jobs, fixing training that companies think is good, using all that Ops experience to help someone turn their career around. Thats where I want to be.
Out of the nine companies talking to me, only one is in Nashville. The rest are scattered all over. Connecticut, Arizona, Michigan, Tennessee two times, Georgia three times and North Carolina. That tells me pretty clearly that staying in Nashville is not the most likely outcome, and I am more than fine with that. I always said I was going to finish my Masters and apply around the world, taking the first good job I found. Instead life happened and I took the TIreHub position in 2018. This is just me making good on a promise to myself I guess.
So my next move is very clear. When I get back to Nashville, the house is going up for sale. No more waiting around. I have a friend who already offered me a studio apartment that is fully set up and Mazie Mae approved, which matters more than most of you realize. That gives me options. Sell and go straight to the new job, or sell, move into the studio, and figure it out without dragging a house behind me.
And if I end up back here in Grand Rapids, I am not going to complain about that either.
So yeah, things are different. Not fixed, not done, but different in a way that feels like something real is about to happen. Like there is electricity in the air and I am just waiting for the shock to hit. The light at the end of the tunnel is not a train this time. It might actually be the sun.
Q is a meat Popsicle living in Nashville with hopes and dreams of running away to retire earlier than all his friends. Skilled in the witchcraft of not giving a damn about the Jones’ and filled with a did it or damn it mentality. His thoughts are his own, and he is no role model.
