So, every recruiter and intervewer asks me, why did you leave these jobs and pursue another one. I can't say, "for more money you asshole" so, I sit there and come up with politically correct answers. I went to one the other day. The talking head said, "I am looking for a 2 year commitment out of the person I hire for this position, are you willing to give that to me?" what am I supposed to say? Of course I said yes. But seriously folks, if he lasts 2 years, I will eat my resume with salt and pepper. He's only been there 5 months. If he would put it in writing that I get a 2 year contract and won't get laid off for 2 years, sure, you got a deal. But they won't do that ever. It's an 'At Will' state. They can can your ass faster than you can say unemployed.
So, here is my work transition history in a politically correct scenario. I publish it here for all to see.
My husband and I and our 5 month old son moved to California in 1990 from Nashua, New Hampshire and lived in Mira Mesa – Worked for Jessop’s Jewelers in Mira Mesa first in retail sales, then as a purchasing manager. I had worked for their sister company in Boston (Shreve Crump & Low) and did a transfer.
When Jessop’s was bought by a Canadian newspaper conglomerate and I had to start working @ Horton Plaza, I really needed a job closer to home and get out of retail.
My neighbor in Mira Mesa said she had a job for me @ Allenbach Industries in Carlsbad; it was a software Duplication & Packaging company- Before CD’s were all the rage. Shortly after I started working for Allenbach, we moved to Vista to be closer to work and a better school system for our son.
In 1993, I started there as a Customer Service Rep. and worked my way up to a Project Manager where I was writing technical instructional specifications on how to put the software packages together on the assembly line. I bought all the components that went into the packages (manuals, registration cards, labels, etc.) and kept track of the inventory for several large software companies.
We moved to Temecula to a better community and better schools and then unfortunately, in 1996, Allenbach sold their operations to a larger company, shut down their operation in Carlsbad and moved it to San Jose where I telecommuted from Temecula for 6 months after that. I was working from home at that point in Temecula and I needed to find another local stable job.
In 1997, the company that did our flooring in our new home in Temecula was hiring Customer Service reps, so I took the job at Interior Specialists. After a year, they promoted me to Production Coordinator where I was involved in purchasing all the flooring selections and scheduling the installs for over 30 different new home communities. I was dealing with Subcontractors and Vendors on a daily basis. It was a great job, but no longer was I challenged. I longed to learn more about the business and grow within the company - but there was a glass ceiling there, no women were ever promoted and only men were the managers. I aspired to better career opportunities.
In Feb. 2000, I found a job with a small infill builder in Rancho Bernardo called Benamel Development. John Silverwood was the President and Owner. He and his wife were running this small company. He needed an Admin Assistant to help him build about 30-50 homes a year. It was a good start for me in the New Home Construction industry. I became more and more interested in all the aspects of the industry and in a year grew my position into more of an Operations Manager position where I wore many hats. Purchasing Manager, Contracts administrator, Options Manager, Customer Service Manager, Sales & Marketing Manager, Office Manager and I was the assistant to the president. It was a great job. I loved it. Unfortunately for me, he ran out of land and sold his last piece of property to KB Home. There wasn’t any more for me to purchase. All the current jobs were coming to a close. Once again, I had to find another job.
2 of my friends from Interior Specialists were now working for another flooring company called SC Design. They were based in Carlsbad at the time. They had another operation in Rancho Cucamonga. Their short term goal was to have both operations merged into one building in Temecula. They needed an Options Manager to handle the builder accounts. I took the job and started out with them in January 2003. Unfortunately, after I was hired, I found out they didn’t have any Builder Accounts doing Options with them. So, they had me do design center renovation/remodels and coordinate the new construction of their building in Temecula. Then, when those tasks were completed, they made me Operations Manager to split some of the Production Manager’s responsibilities. She didn’t want to be responsible for overseeing Accounting, the running of the building, the warehouse, the front desk and the production coordinators. So, I took over those responsibilities. When I was given the job of collections for accounting to be my main focus, it wasn’t my forte and I couldn’t get my arms around it. In October 2003, they reorganized the division and let me go.
I had worked well with one of the superintendents from Fieldstone when we were building a design center in Carlsbad for a joint venture they had with SC Design, he recommended me to the VP of Operations at Brehm Communities. I went in to talk about being his admin assistant and ended up being their Options Coordinator. They had a woman who was close to retiring and needed a hip operation; she was to train me on all she knew and then retire after the surgery. After about 9 months of her training me and working together, she ended up not retiring. I was working in the corner of her office and there wasn’t any opportunity for me there. They had one PA and 2 Contract Admins and a Director of Purchasing and that was it. I didn’t see any room for me at Brehm to grow.
So, in Nov. 2004, I took a job @ Empire Communities/Prestige Homes in Ontario. Great new challenging opportunity for me with lots of growth potential. Mr. Previti’s home building division of Empire Companies. He had sold his homebuilding division of Forecast Homes to K. Hovnanian and had a 3 year non- compete clause that was up Jan. 2005. He couldn’t build entry level homes to compete with Forecast for 3 years. We were building high end homes & Move up homes. The Director of Purchasing could only bring me on as a Contract Admin at the time, but really needed a right hand person to help her get the company up and going. In Jan of 2005 she promoted me to PA. We had 6 projects to get in the ground by Jan 1 and it was a mad scramble and no systems in place to do it. We got it going. She was let go in April 2005, we had a new Director in May. Then in June 2005 they let about 30 more people go including the Purchasing Manager and the Options Coordinator. They were never replaced. I was still plugging away with one contract admin, one PA assistant and the new Director of Purchasing. In October, the new director quit. At the end of October, we merged with Mr. Previti’s son’s company, Frontier Homes.
Their purchasing operation is in Hesperia which is 90 miles one way from Temecula up the Cajon Pass and back. So, once again, I found myself looking for a job closer to Temecula.
In my search for a position closer to home, I found one at Innovative communities in Escondido. They had lots of land and lots of work to accomplish. Their land lay mostly in Yuma, Imperial Valley and Palm Springs/Coachella Valley. Their builder partner, Ashbrook Communities, recruited me to be their Purchasing Manager for their new Inland Empire Division. Eventually, they would open up a division in Temecula. I would be working directly for the president of the division, learning off-sites from their senior superintendent and doing what I loved, learning the business again from the dirt up. However, shortly after I took the position, they couldn’t get funding, the master developer was dragging their feet on the final mapping process and the CFD hadn’t been finalized. We didn’t see closings happening this year. On July 31st, they canned the whole new division, let about 11 people go and closed down that operation.
Consequently, this leaves me once again, looking for another opportunity to be a hard working PA for a strong homebuilder.
No comments:
Post a Comment