Thirteen Years at a Job

July 31, 2021

Yesterday was my last day at the job I’ve had for almost 13 years. That startup company, makes spinal implants and was recently bought out by a huge medical company. I started there just a couple of years after they launched and rode it all the way until after they sold and I completed my part of the integration. I’m very reflective today and thankful for the experience. I learned so much, made so many great friends and did well financially. It’s an interesting perspective taking a company from start to finish and learning the entire business lifecycle.

Maximizing Opportunities

There were lots of ups and downs at this company. There were bust and boom cycles, a grueling 8 year clinical trial, my friends getting laid off and finally success. I wanted to leave a couple of times, but I instinctively knew there was a pot of gold at the end of that rainbow and I wasn’t willing to walk away from all of those stock options. We had one employee get fired and another quit just weeks before the sale and they completely missed out.

The biggest lesson for me has been in maximizing my opportunities. I am years ahead financially from the stock options, bonuses and severance package. I wisely invested most of these proceeds and will pay off my house from the final paycheck. I could have easily squandered all that money on cool stuff and taken a year off. Instead, I moved my retirement date five years closer and will be debt-free, except for a small car payment.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate for the How to Engineer Your Layoff eBook and a long-time reader and fan of (Sam) Financial Samurai. This eBook has been invaluable to me in the past two years, and I recommend it highly.

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Giving Back

I’m currently interviewing for a new job and it’s a process I don’t enjoy. At my last interview, the VP of Clinical asked me why I wanted to work in the medical device industry. I responded that it’s a lucrative industry and I’m well paid for what I do. I also described how we have done over 20,000 spinal procedures so far and changed many people’s lives for the better. Our product is a small miracle for some people and it changes their lives in a big way. His face lit up as he described what their product did for their patients. Both of the companies I’m interviewing with right now have “medical miracle” type products and I would love to work for either company. When I leave work for the last time in a couple of years, I want my career to have meant a lot more than just fixing servers and writing code.

The Bottom Line

A job is a lot more than just a paycheck. It’s an opportunity to grow, improve and succeed. It’s also an opportunity to contribute to society in some meaningful way. If your job doesn’t offer you all of these things, you should consider a new job and possibly a new career.