A Time For Everything

The first 8 verses of Ecclesiastes tell us that there is a time for everything:

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: 2 a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; 3 a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; 4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; 5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; 6 a time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; 7 a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; 8 a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.

 I would add to this, 'a time to stay in your current job, and a time to move on.'  It is now my time to move on.

I have been with this company for almost 13 years, starting in October of 1999. I moved from Alabama to Dallas, Texas to take this job, and after 10 years in Texas, relocated to Northern Kentucky when the company was acquired in a merger.

In those 13 years, I've worked on HR, Payroll, Time & Labor, Finance, Accounting and e-commerce applications. I've been a developer, systems administrator, DBA, systems analyst, business analyst and even had to do some basic project management. "Jack of all trades, master of none" could almost be my job description it seems.

In those same 13 years, I think I've learned a bit about how IT works, and how it doesn't. I've seen org changes that improved the delivery of IT services, and I've seen org changes that seemed to have no rational basis. I'm definitely better at my job due to all of my experiences. I guess you could liken it to both positive and negative testing, as it were.

Starting next Monday, June 18th, I will be working for one of the regional medical systems. I will be working on their Kronos system, which is a Time & Labor Management application. In its simplest form, it is an electronic time clock and scheduling system, but it can do much more than that. I will be essentially responsible for the entire system, from functional and systems administration, to technical support and upgrades, to train-the-trainer knowledge transfers.

Honestly, I can't WAIT to only have one system or application to worry about. That, and Kronos is far and away the market leader in their product niche. Healthcare is one of their primary vertical markets, and they bring a lot of tools to the table to make managing the workforce much easier. I'm very excited about this opportunity, and can't wait to start my new job.

I will miss a lot of co-workers and business unit partners at my current company, without a doubt, but there is a time for everything.