Corporate America to Main Street America

Some exciting news – I quit my job in Corporate America to go work in Mainstreet America! Throughout my career I have always worked for large, publically traded companies. I have had the opportunity to live outside of Colorado and travel to various oil and gas fields. I’ve also done a lot of varied things in my career: reservoir engineer, production surveillance engineer, drilling engineer, planning engineer, and manager.

I’ve seen nearly the entire cross-section of my industry and somewhere along the way I stopped having fun. I stopped being excited about what I do and I started having a growing frustration with the processes involved and how decisions are made that don’t seem to align with the very thing that makes money in my industry – getting oil and gas out of the ground. Combine that with the level of uncertainty with my company in terms of strategy and decision making and I just felt the need to begin looking for the next opportunity.

I considered many positions at large, publically traded companies, with small start-up companies, and even with equity backed companies that have a build and flip model with significant upside financial opportunity. I found the big companies to be ‘more of the same’ and small start-up companies lacking in certainty of being around in a year’s time. Although completely different than my experience to date, the equity backed companies were more of a work really hard (i.e. long hours) for 5 years for a possible payoff.

I’ve had the luxury of being very picky because all in all, I have a pretty secure job with great pay and great benefits. The next job had to be better, not just different. So when I found a company that needed all of my skillsets to be used in one role, with owners who are talented business men with strong technical skills, that didn’t ask me to give up my work/life balance, my pay, or my benefits (and in fact are sweetening the deal), it was a very obvious decision.

So I quit my job in Corporate America. I’m going to work for a small privately owned company. No shareholders, no board of directors, no executive team, no reserves/compensation/portfolio management committees. Just a focus on getting more oil out of the ground to make more money. And working from the outdoor deck in the summer if I choose isn’t so bad. Oh and the glass of wine after work right out of the owner’s wine cabinet in his office is something I could definitely get used to. I am so very excited for this next adventure.