Planning to Go

My manager called yesterday to ask me to reconsider. He of course
hoped I would have thought about the benefits of staying a few more
years. I've thought about it, and these are the general trends I'm
concerned with.

The company has introduced a new platform and has been shipping it to
customers over the last year. The system is scalable, modular, and
everything you could design into a system of it's type. Unfortunately,
the continued maintenance of this is a problem. We have moved past the
point of shipping a product than can be simply replaced, and the end
user ability to reconfigure added parts or replacements is limited (by
design). This will increase the amount of time service personnel are
tasked with maintaining and upgrading existing systems. I see why this
makes sense from a business perspective, as it makes service contracts
much more attractive to the end user.

As the service engineer, I foresee more weekend and night work as
upgrades to customer sites are performed without interfering with
their business. A growing number of these sites have disparate and non
transferrable security background checks, and maintaining these will
be a logistical issue dropped onto the shoulders of field personnel.

Given the slow growth in commercial construction, more focus will be
placed on existing systems as an avenue for revenue growth. These are
typically much more involved both in planning and execution. The days
of 2 hour solutions are gone, as projects on that level are sourced to
third party contracts.

The potential for personal growth in the company, both in increased
salary and more involved roles in product development, are confined to
positions requiring relocation to the east coast headquarters. I am
very happy where I am, but I understand I have arrived in a static
position.

Additionally, now that my plans are set in motion, and I've registered
and received a green light to move ahead, the thought of staying where
I am is so personally unrewarding that I can't imagine it. I'm sure
there could have been some salary negotiation or accomodation to keep
me where I am, but I'm on track for a better life, and my wife and I
look forward to my staying home every night for the next few years.

Basically, I'm excited about what the future holds, and am curious to
see what I am capable of.

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