I have almost always worked for a company that I almost instantly fit into. I’ve been very fortunate with my workplace history. Despite being in IT and being profoundly private, I enjoy getting to know the people that I work with. I loved my boss, and my co-workers within the greater team, and even a bunch of people outside those work boundaries.

I was incredibly comfortable in my career, and had gone out of my way to learn the unique facets of the concrete industry (including Gypsum operations, RMX plants, and Aggregate pit operations). I even got to push the button and blow dirt up. I travelled around the world for my company…doing things that were uniquely me.

I assisted with safety audits throughout Canada, and the USA. I worked with and trained our after-hours support team in India (reducing incidents in a huge way). I travelled to Brazil, to make suggestions as to how to integrate their operations into our support package. I worked with the business teams, as well as the software vendors, ensuring that our quality applications were working as expected and were being developed to our specifications.

I was “the guy” that did anything and everything it took for the Quality teams.

I felt invulnerable…which is why it shook me to my very core when I was WFR’d (work force reduced).

After the announcement, they kept most of us busy training our replacements, and ensuring that the work we did would carry on. It was…profoundly difficult. I loved the work, and I have always enjoyed training people…it was great to do one last time, before I began the next phase of my career.

Because who knows what the future holds…right?

For me personally, the moment I stopped working, I felt a sense of urgency to provide for my family.

I began talking with a local employer that sounded promising. They were a Microsoft Service Provider, providing services to businesses in and around the area that I lived in. So I was quite pleased when they indicated that they were interested in working with me based on experience etc. While I had worked with AWS previously, they were heavily embedded with Microsoft and I was clear with them what I had, and had not done previously…but was eager to learn.

It was like going back to where I started…Which is when I learned a very important life lesson.

Just because you speak the same “nerdspeak” as others, doesn’t mean that you belong, or are part of the team.

I listened and learned what I wanted to learn. Ultimately it didn’t work out…while I had a cursory friendship with one of the guys, the reality is that I was twice their age, didn’t smoke, and generally didn’t fit in.

I was a puzzle piece that didn’t fit. I was…embarrassed, and incredibly frustrated.

Which is when I learned that a company that I had previously worked with as a vendor was actually looking for me specifically and wanted to chat. They had learned that I had been released, and were curious about whether or not I would be interested in working for them…

I was a puzzle piece that appeared to fit.

Two years in, I am more relaxed, working at home, with friends and colleagues. Only time will tell if I’m the right piece for this puzzle, but at the moment…it looks like I fit well, and the puzzle image is starting to appear.

So take my advice, if you feel like a puzzle piece that just doesn’t belong, perhaps you are just in the wrong puzzle.