March Madness

I March of 2000, I left Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, where I had been working part time for the previous six months, and quit working at the bookstore where I had been writing catalogs, and started working at Meridian Advertising. I stayed at Meridian, where I was a senior copywriter, through March of 2003, when I started working as a marketing director for Eye Travel. That lasted until March of 2005, when I began writing manuals for Blue Care Network.

And so, as March comes to a close in 2006, it is time for me to once again move on.

For the first time, though, leaving is not my idea.

I began working at Blue Care Network on a three month contract. After a few months, they extended me through the end of year, and then, they started extending me on a month by month basis.

I had hoped that this job would last until the move, but unfortunately, March happened before the move, and so this job came to an end.

I made a strategic error last summer, when they started to talk about filling my position with a full timer. I wanted the job to last until I left, and in the back of my mind, I wanted them to otusource the job to me after I left, so I told my manager our plan to move. I had hoped that she would be willing to outsource the job, but she was not comfortable with that arrangement, and I had also hoped that with a definite end date in sight, she would keep me on until I left.

That, too, did not happen.

And of course, when she got around to interviewing candidates, I was not interviewed.

So tomorrow is my last day. This job was nice. I performed well, and my coworkers will miss me. But now it's time to move on.