Eight Years Ago Today

Eight years ago today, less than 24 hours after I walked with cap and gown down Locust Walk through the heart of the University of Pennsylvania campus, I started a new job at Econsult.  It was only the second "first day on the job" I'd ever had, my first job being with The Enterprise Center and lasting from 1995 to 2005. 

I had left that job as the number two person, with a position description that could best be summarized as "make sure everything happens."  I had gone back to grad school, and now I was an analyst, no longer needing to worry about a wide gamut of functions and being able to concentrate on running numbers and generating reports.  That more focused job description worked for me then, given that I was a first-time parent and needed to recalibrate what "work/life balance" now meant. 

Since then, I've had the opportunity of advancing within the firm.  And while my new work scope isn't quite "make sure everything happens," it has expanded to such concerns as thinking on the company's overall strategic direction, bringing in new business, and managing staff.  I couldn't be happier with the trajectory of my time here, or with the prospects of the firm and my role in it looking forward.  Work anniversaries are useful times to look back and look forward like that, and in doing so I am feeling particularly fortunate from where I sit.