Today I spent the entire morning with one of my bosses. We went to an ITMA meeting. Let me start by saying that ITMA stands for Information Technology Management Association. Basically, large companies pay to be members, and there are monthly meetings regarding different topics.
Just to give you a quick visual picture of how out of place I felt at this meeting: It was performed by Cisco Systems Engineers. They demonstrated different router and network steps to make remote connections more secure. They were security professionals. To the point that they had thumb print recognizers to log into their laptops. And following the meeting (from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.) they sat at our table for a catered lunch.
Next, alot of big companies in the Grand Rapids area had their CIO’s (chief information officers) and I.T. directors there. Companies included Steelcase, Spectrum health, Herman Miller, and Bissell Homecare Inc, etc. “Wait, vanberge… didnt you interview with Bissell” ? Yep!!
So you dont have to scroll down, I had just completed my second interview at Bissell when I accepted the job with Mercantile bank. So I called Paul @ bissell to let him know he could take me out of the running.
I chatted with Paul from Bissell during the intermission… And he got to meet my current boss, and I got introduced to the Bissel big wigs. Paul from Bissell also told me that they ended up hiring a guy that had worked with them before as a contractor. But, if he was not in the running, I would have been one of the top two. It just really was a good feeling overall. I felt like a real “professional”. I felt like I was meeting “colleagues”. I got free breakfast, lunch, and coffee. So, hopefully by now you can see how I felt a bit out of place. But, I did learn alot about Cisco networking products!!