The Lowery Lounge: A New Year...a New Job

It's a rule that with the New Year some big change or changes have to come too right? Well - my current position with PepsiCo was meant to be an interim role and my end date was 12/31! I had been waiting for the right opportunity (as instructed by my boss' boss who said there was one coming around the corner) and it finally came last week! I was able to submit my resume for the new position (still with PepsiCo) last Friday. I had three interviews all within the space of Wednesday morning - 9:30, 10:30 and 11 AM...good times! The interviews (if you could really call them that) went great...considering I knew all of the people I interviewed with and have worked with two of them quite a bit. I had a job offer by Thursday morning and an official form sent today. I love it when things work out and work quickly at that!
My old role kind of separated me from the core business side of PepsiCo and placed me full time on an ongoing Project that is occurring in waves. This new position moves me back towards the business where I can have a bigger impact on optimizing current business processes and will be able to get more exposure to the corporate side of life. I haven't decided whether that is a good thing or not...haha. We'll see! The new position is part of a brand new team - so I don't have anyone before me to train me on my tasks - I get to plow my own way through which is at once both exciting and a little scary. Many of the people on the new team are people I have worked with in the past so we get to all help each other feel our way through the learning process. Hopefully it all turns out great!
I can't complain about the new job (yet) - it gave me a significant promotion and better than that allows me to continue working from home the majority of the time and travel when necessary. I officially start my new role 12/28, but I don't have a team meeting until 1/9...that doesn't mean I have free time though. In the mean time I was just in California to support one of the project waves (or releases as we call them) and will be heading to Carlisle, PA and Seattle, WA for the same reason. Good times!
California was great - not only were the people I was training fabulous and easy to train, but I was in Southern California. I didn't realize how much I missed the West until I was driving from Burbank to Ventura and was able to see the mountains again! The weather was uncharacteristically cold, but it was still pleasant weather on all accounts and I could see both the ocean and the mountains from my hotel balcony! Besides my trip to Montana three years ago I haven't been back to the West in almost 10 years! I think I'll have to work up reasons to frequent the west more often...starting with Seattle in January and for sure a trip to Reno, NV in September for our Family Reunion! YAY! I took some pics with my cell phone - so the pics didn't turn out all that great but I thought I would share anyway!