The Smile Returns

For the passed week I have been getting tons of comments on how happy I look. The last 3 months have been quite a roller coaster ride. The new path my career began to take a year ago seemed to come to a sudden end. Worry about which direction my career would take, the stress of constantly being home, financial worries and weekly humiliating trips to the unemployment office have been draining. For the most part, I have even stopped writing.

About a month ago, behind the scenes pieces began falling into place. While I had hoped that was the direction things were going the uncertainty created a lot of confusion, as I was trying to make important decisions. The contract for my new job was finalized today. It is the first time in my career that I was in a position to negotiate a contract and it is an opportunity with tons of potential.

I am now the Chief Development Officer for www.1quickcup.com It is a start up company based out of New York, that sell coffee for the Keurig brewing system. There are individual pods that are put into the machine and brewed for a single cup of coffee. It allows each person to have the kind of coffee they like without the messy clean up that goes with a traditional coffee pot. There are over 200 flavours of coffee, tea and hot chocolate to choose from including French Toast, Chocolate Glazed Donut, Kahlua and German Chocolate Cake. It is the perfect solution for any office.

My position allows me to use a wide range of talents and abilities. I am handling customer service issues and order processing. I am responsible for maintaining almost 500 eBay auctions, plus what will eventually be even more on Amazon. I am handling some web work on the companies main website. I also have some Project Management responsibilities. My experience in QA, 5 years managing a warehouse and private lessons based on the Dale Carnegie method have all helped me to be a significant contributer in a short period of time. I am getting tons of valuable job experience and my ability to contribute to success of the company will advance my career.

There are pluses and minuses to working from home. This is the best place for me and my family right now. It will be interesting to see where things go from here.