balancing the boat.

chairs – 7 aug 2018

For the past few years, life has been all about re-balancing the boat after surge
after surge. But one thing had been constant: my job. While my “in country managers”
and reporting structure was always changing, I was working with the same group that
I had been working with for 21 years. It was staable, steady work.
I enjoyed it. I respected my team. They are family. They have been with me as I’ve
gone through the stages of life: moving, new babies, teenagers, kids heading to college.
My job wasn’t just work; it was a big part of my life.

In some little (ok, not so little) corner of my worry-brain, I knew that I would become
a target of a resource action. When the shoe dropped, it was a relief in some sense. I no
longer had to worry about that happening. It happened. But then the other worries… What’s
next? Will I have the skills?

Luck was on my side. I have been following the growth of Data Science for years. I started taking
Coursera classes over five years ago. I started attending Meetups. But with family and work, I
didn’t have the time to commit to a true course. My severance package from IBM gave me a
not quite golden ticket, but at least a bronze one. A chance to enroll in the Data Science class that
I’ve been eager to take for quite some time.

So here I am once again, balancing our family boat after yet another surge had rocked it.