A couple weeks ago we listed our house. It sold in four days. The plan at the time was to find a new place and maybe downsize. After the sale a former colleague contacted me about a job opportunity. We talked, he made an offer. A couple days later, after much discussion with the family, I accepted.

So it’s with this post that I let you all know that I’m on the move again. This time back to Vancouver.

I’m joining the team at Central 1 Credit Union as Product Manager, Direct Banking. I’ll be overseeing their suite of MemberDirect banking products starting in March. Having worked in the credit union system for a big part of my career I’m excited about returning to my roots in banking and helping to shape Central 1′s products.

Over this past twenty-one months I’ve met a lot of great people here in Calgary, made some new friends, helped move UX forward a bit more (with Calgary UX), seen my son off to his first year of school and watched my wife blossom in her career. I’ve had a lot of wonderful opportunities to grow, learn and share and I’d like to thank everyone for that.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank the team at nForm. When I joined them back in 2009 I wasn’t expecting such a short ride. I’ve been truly fortunate to have worked with such a great group of people and will miss you all. Your support in this decision has been greatly appreciated.

Next stop: Vancouver is a post from: benry blog

Share this post

I was expecting to just take some time off for a bit or to do just a bit of contract work, but a few opportunities came up. In the end I decided to join Edmonton-based nForm User Experience as a Senior User Experience Consultant. nForm does great work and I’m looking forward to working with them on a number of exciting projects.

Farewell CM, hello nForm is a post from: benry blog

Share this post

I wanted to take this time to thank the many people who contacted me, commented on my blog or took the time to ping me on twitter over the past couple weeks. Your words of encouragement, leads about job opportunities and willingness to extend your networks to me was greatly appreciated. Your friendship and kindness has helped keep me positive about this change and helped me land on my feet quickly. For that I am thankful.

I’ve landed is a post from: benry blog

Share this post

I, along with 11 others from Habanero (many at Hab longer than I), were let go. You can read all about the reason and the outcomes if you want. It’s a first for me. In the past, career change has been either driven by me or by the merger, acquisition or sale of companies I’ve worked for. Never money or economics.

Disappointed pretty much sums up how I feel right now. As many of you know I made a big change to join Habanero and moved my family from Vancouver to Calgary to work for the company. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that I expected a better outcome.

But now the task of finding new work begins. And I have to be positive about the future.

What I wanted to talk about though in this post are some things to consider about your career and about creating a safety net so if you ever find yourself in this situation, you’ll land feet down and moving forward, not standing still wondering “what just hit me?”. Here’s my list:

Always keep your portfolio and resume up-to-date

Funny enough, I had just tweaked my resume a few weeks earlier – I usually keep it up-to-date with recent project work and had fallen behind. It can be hard after-the-fact to recall past work, successes and stories. One thing I did forget to do though was grab copies of my work (e.g. wireframes, sitemaps, workflows, strategy and planning, etc.). Not all employers are going to be supportive of giving you stuff after you’re gone. So be prepared. That way you can show what you’ve got when new opportunities arise.

Never doubt the power of family, friends and networks

They say that more people find jobs through who they know than anywhere else and that those who find work fastest have the support of many people. Family and friends are critical parts to your recovery.

Start with family. Tell them what happened. Let them help and be supportive. After I got home and cleared my head I first called Daria (my wife) to talk to her about the changes her first words were “we’ll be OK”. Immediately I felt better. As my friend Robbin said so wisely via email “the good news is that jobs are replaceable, and family, not quite so easily”.

Spread the word. Next, I updated Twitter, Facebook and sent out a few emails to key contacts. As the word spread people offered up ideas and suggestions on where to look, extended their contacts and networks to me and played a big role in keeping me positive on the first day (and the days following). It’s an amazing feeling to see so many supportive people pop-up and say “what can I do to help?” By the end of the day I had leads on some contract work, an interview booked and a potential gig to consider. Not bad for Day 1!

Get references. Seek out those who will be able to speak to you, your work and the outcomes. You’ll need these later when you find your next job. Doing it now will make it easier.

Reconnect with your network. All kinds of possibilities can fall out from a simple email or phone call to update on where you are at. Contacts from your past project work are also a great resource. Let them know what has happened, where you have landed so they can keep an ear out for new opportunities.

Don’t forget about the people you left. Drop them a note to say you’re OK and give them your new coordinates (email, phone, etc.) so they can keep in touch. Make arrangements to hook up again soon. Don’t just disappear!

Update your profile. We all have so many places where we say what we do. Be it Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, associations, your email signature, etc. Make sure you update these.

Consider all your options

Maybe you’ve been thinking about a different career direction, going solo, or have been thinking about exploring or expanding on some other areas in your skill set. Now is the time. Be frank about what you want to do, especially if you weren’t happy doing what you did before (not my case) and seek those opportunities out.

Plan for hard times, not just good times

Live practically, keep your debt in check, your savings robust and make sure you don’t over extend yourself. It makes it easier to ride out these changes and downturns when you aren’t under financial pressures too. Not every job end comes with a big buyout.

On changing jobs is a post from: benry blog

Share this post

Yesterday I resigned from my position as Manager, Web Services at North Shore Credit Union. My last day will be February 29, 2008. A tough decision as I have a great role, a supporting team and manager and have worked hard over the past 5 years to build NSCU’s web strategy and roll it out.

Where am I going? I have accepted a position as User Experience Consultant at Habanero Consulting Group a Vancouver-based company that provides IT consulting services and solutions including business intelligence, collaboration, Dynamics, sustainment and websites/eCommerce. I will be in Vancouver for the interim then moving West East to join their growing Calgary practice around May of this year.

If you are a vendor/partner I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the contributions you have made in supporting our advancement of the web channel at North Shore Credit Union. If you are a peer (past or present), I have enjoyed having the opportunity to work with you and collaborate on projects in the Credit Union space hopefully our paths will cross again in the future.

Changes: leaving the credit union is a post from: benry blog

Share this post