NASHVILLE, BABY!!

So I was reading some of the posts on here the other day and realized what a dark tone they took.  I was seriously unhappy with my life and struggling.  But a lot has changed since the last time I posted here and I thought I’d add a little postscript and update.

I had hesitated to be too open about my job search before now.  I didn’t know who might see the blog, although I doubt very many people actually read this, so my secret was probably safe.  But I had been in a job search mode for about 3 years.  Truthfully, almost since I’d been at RockTenn, if something interesting popped up I’d apply for it, but I was in a serious job search for about 3 years.  RockTenn was just not my kinda place.

I remember when I first started, another newbie HR person would go on and on about how much she LOVED RockTenn.  What a great company it was, what an awesome boss she had, how thrilled she was to be there, what a rock star our department VP (my boss) was.  It was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes every time she said things like that.  It wasn’t that I hated it then, but I had learned over the years not to love your company, to keep it all in perspective.  And RockTenn didn’t strike me as the type of place that you would “love” anyway.  It was not a warm, fuzzy, employee-friendly company.  It was a pretty impersonal, command-and-control, no-nonsense place.  Nothing wrong with that necessarily, but a touch cold for my taste.

I had good business units though and particularly liked and respected the EVP of the division and the President of the joint venture company that I supported.  But that wasn’t enough.  I had 4 different bosses during my 7+ years there, none of which I particularly liked or respected.  So I started looking.

In the past, it hadn’t taken me long to find something else, but this time it did.  Some of it was the economic climate, some of it was probably me.  Atlanta is always a competitive market for HR professionals and, particularly at the Director level, many times the higher level openings would be filled internally.  I had decent traction on my resume.  I had a lot of phone interviews and a lot of in-person interviews.  I got called for interviews 4 different times for 4 different positions at Home Depot, including one at the same time that I interviewed for the job I finally accepted.  I was a finalist for positions at Equifax, at Zep Manufacturing, and at Genuine Parts.  I was a top candidate for positions at Paradies and Jackson Spalding, positions I withdrew from.  I was offered a position at Graybar that I turned down.

I had some of the worst candidate experiences I’ve ever had in my career.  At Equifax, I was one of two final candidates for the position and no one ever called to tell me I hadn’t gotten the job.  At Zep, they liked me a lot, but wanted to see if a headhunter could find anyone they’d missed in their own recruiting, so they made me wait for a month while they searched and then called to tell me I didn’t get the job after all.  At Genuine Parts, they put me through all the interviews, had me do their assessments which included meeting with a psychologist, and then decided to split the job between 2 lower level HR professionals.  Discouraging.

There were quite a few times when I would “give up”, but I never really stopped looking.  I had gotten moved to my 4^th boss at RockTenn and it was someone who had been a peer.  I was disappointed in the change.  She never really welcomed me into her little clique.  I was always on the outside looking in.  In many ways, I didn’t care.  But it wears you down over time when you don’t feel included, when no one seems to care or to value what you bring to the table.  My business unit did, but my own boss didn’t have any interest in me and certainly didn’t care about me professionally.

I had not planned to move from Atlanta, although I did apply for jobs in other cities.  But one day there was a job listed on LinkedIn in Nashville.  I thought Nashville was a cool city and, on a whim, I applied for it.  I had no expectation that I would even get a nibble from it.  But that throw-caution-to-the-wind action ultimately changed my life for the better.

The short story is that I got offered a cool job in a cool city with a cool boss.  Nashville has an energy that I like and I no longer mind getting up and going to work every day.  My boss cares about me as a person and as a professional.  I have neat coworkers and have already gotten to work on big projects that are important to the organization.

 

 

I’ve embraced my new city and I’m determined to see what makes it tick.  I have been to the Grand Old Opry.  I went because two of the actors from one of my favorite TV shows “Nashville” were on the bill.  Avery Barkley and Deacon Claybourne, known in real life as Jonathan Jackson and Chip Esten.  The whole experience was amazing.

 

Jonathan Jackson, aka "Avery"

Chip Esten, aka "Deacon"

 

I took a bus tour of some of the famous filming locations for the show and got to see this:

 

Rayna Jaymes' house

Scarlett O'Connor's house

Deacon's house

Making my "debut" at The Bluebird!

 

And I went to a show at The Bluebird Café, a songwriter’s In the Round night, and got to experience just how amazing it really is.

 

In the Round Songwriter's Night at The Bluebird Cafe

 

I also went to a (disappointing) football game at Vanderbilt, sitting in the cold rain watching Georgia lose, but it was fun all the same.

 

Bulldog Central in Nashville

Georgia on the field before the Vanderbilt game

 

I still have a lot on the agenda to see and do, but I’m enjoying life again and I’m not feeling like I took a wrong turn.  I kept thinking I needed to blow up my life and I kind of did, but in a way that didn’t involve me completely starting over.  And it feels GREAT!

 

My favorite billboard in Nashville