The New Economy, My MBA, My Career, and My Life‏

January 7, 2009

They say these days that the pace of M&A, corporate restructuring, and buyouts is increasing. The ‘free capitalism’ pundits, or better yet, the ‘free movement of capital’ pundits say that this type of flexibility is better for everyone in general, just like free trade. Funny, because after the last 11 years of my career, the impact on my family and I has been horrible. This is the short version…

I graduated with my MBA in Finance in Marketing from a top school in my home town on the East Coast, just over 11 years ago. I worked my way through my undergraduate degree with a major international airline. I was there 5 years and loved every minute of it, including the free travel tickets. But back then, the airlines were bleeding like crazy and many were already in bankruptcy. My company lost almost $2billion in my last year there, so I decided to get an MBA and find a corporate career, like my parents and everyone else’s parents.

So immediately after this MBA, I got an analyst job with a global pharma outfit whose name everyone knows. I doubled my income and ran into a mountain of corporate politics. After 15 months, my girlfriend and I decided to get married and head to the West Coast. At this point, life was a great adventure. We had money in our pockets, time on our hands, a pile of freedom, and multiple degrees to our names. I picked up some awesome work on the Coast, converting my pharma experience into some Healthcare Strategy contracts and printing a load of money. My schedule was flexible and we didn’t have kids, so I picked up another graduate degree in IT. Part of these contracts were for some IT development, so that was great! I doubled my income again, and was reporting to the CEO of a major hospital, 2 years post-MBA. Of course, real estate was insanely expensive, and it rains like crazy on the Northern West Coast, so we decided after the contracts were done to head to New England where land was cheap and lakefront real estate was a possibility. I didn’t notice it at the time, but my last contract out West was to restructure and close a hospital. This would prove to be a big indicator of my future.

I arrived in New England full of beans, money, and the excitement that comes with new real estate purchases. I pulled in a very junior Finance-IT job within 2 weeks. I also bought 2 pieces of lakefront real estate, and started building my dreamhome on the second one. But within 6 months, my company was closing several parts of their business. I ended up having nothing to do for the last 6 months, except networking of course. By the 1 year point, I had networked into a great job with the major utility company. It was more senior and gave me a great shot at continuing in Finance, IT, and Strategy. But within 6 months my boss was exited from the business unit, and I sat through 4 new VP’s within the next 18 months. Worse, I was hung out to dry with little to work on. I learned alot about patience.

Patience was a good thing at that point, because by month 22, the entire leadership team was cleared out due to profitability issues. I didn’t get the hook, but there was literally nothing to do, and it was also hunting season: I had been asked to identify as many locals as possible to get the hook, and was being targeted at the same time by the new CFO, since I was an MBA and not an accredited accountant. Given the lack of joy on the job, I decided to hightail it out of there. Unfortunately, it was at the time of the Internet crash and it took me 9 months to sell my house. I got hung out to dry at about the same time as my wife gave birth to our first daughter. I spent a long time rationalizing how this was simply part of my early retirement (at age 30!).

So we left New England and headed to the big, ugly metropolis that we never wanted to live in, and I dug up a job with a global electronics outfit. It was an awesome role with a great company whose products everyone loves. My wife and I truly started thinking we were settled; a relief given she was pregnant again with our second daugther. Unfortunately, the restructuring virus hit us again. Within 10 months, the head office moved to the other side of town and I was commuting 4 hours per day. The work was still fantastic, so I was convinced it was worth it. I finished up a major profitability initiative and moved onto an even higher profile project, a restructuring and divestiture that was going to be the final jewel in the turn-around crown for this major player. Problem was, after 6 months on the project, it became clear that I would be restructuring myself out of a job. It was hunting season again, and so the networking engine had to start again.

The strangest thing was that after all this Finance, Strategy, and IT experience, I kept getting run out of Finance departments because I wasn’t an accredited accountant. And the proof was in the pudding; after a full year of networking in the big metropolis, I was unable to pull in another Finance job. Things were simply too competitive inside the Big East Establishment. But in spite of that, I had dug up a new company, again on the Left Coast, that saved my career and gave me an executive role. It was an awesome position and I was instrumental in the doubling of the revenue stream within 2 years, and in launching several new systems initiatives for this young growth company. Every step of the way, my wife had pulled in contract work, and we were rolling in money right at the height of the 2007 credit boom.

But things started to get ugly. The 2008 credit crash was right around the corner, and the real estate bubble had already started popping right around us. Worse, once again, the accounting accreditation reared it’s ugly head again. The company was bought out by a highly leveraged parent, and within 12 months my boss was fired. Within 3 months from then, 80% of the leadership team was gone and the new CFO was targeting me, again, because I lacked the the dreaded CA/CPA designation. Luckily for us, we skidaddled just before the housing market crashed: our next door neighbour sold 2 months after us for 30% less.

We took our cash, our kids, and our pet goldfish and decided to head back to our hometown on the East Coast. We were both tired of all the restructuring baloney and the endless hunting seasons. It wasn’t the big ugly metropolis, but it was 10 times larger than that postcard New England town. My wife left first and got settled in a starter house, while I flew home on weekends for 3 months straight - no-one at work knew I had resigned but the President. Within 8 weeks, I picked up another seemingly great job in Finance, IT, and Strategy, this time for a major government office. We survived the credit crash of 2008 with lots of cash on hand, and bought a beautiful second house in the best part of town from the sweetest 80 year old lady you ever met. For some reason it was sold for 30% less than a similar house down the street did a year earlier, so we dumped a ton of cash into an inside/outside renovation project. It’s now worth double the purchase price.

So you think we’re home free, right? Well, 6 months into the new job, the government bureaucracy is killing me, and the CIO who hired me gets fired. Word is, they’re restructuring the department, and they’ve already outsourced all the major decisions to 2 separate consulting firms. The interim consultant is after my head and hunting season has started again. I haven’t been allowed to advance on any of my objectives for 3 months and I’m now told I’m not moving fast enough so HR has put me on probation. We’re into the worst recession since the depression, and I’m applying to jobs with lower salaries than I started with 11 years ago, before we left our hometown. And after 5 years of trying to start my accounting certification in 3 different cities, I am having to start the whole thing over, but will be left without an employer sponsor.

So lets’ see: 1 wife, 2 kids, three goldfish, 5 cities, 7 houses, 11 years, 8 employers, and 250k in savings later. It’s the worst Christmas of my life as I know I will be jobless within a month and if lucky, heavily underemployed within 6 months. We used to have this dream that I’d be able to make enough money so that my wife could simply work for her career, and not for the money. It now looks like our daughters won’t have a semi-full-time mama after all. My only consolation is that if my honey works full time, I only have to make 30k to keep the house.

Any you know what the hardest part is: I don’t have a single work reference who still works at the same employer. They have all been restructured and exited as well, and it keeps happening so I can never keep track of any of these people. I once had a phone call with a 21 year old recruiter who told me it didn’t make sense that I kept switching companies! Hah!

This situation isn’t all bad, and believe me, I know lots of people in much worse situations. But what does this tell you about the effect of the New Economy on my MBA, my career, and my life?

 

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