In October, after four years at Pop Art, I decided it was time to move on. While I will always miss the incredible people I worked with, and the passion everyone brought to the job, the company had changed and it wasn’t the right place for me anymore. While negotiating my exit, I interviewed for a job at R2C Group, which I accepted.

However, in my first week at R2C, it became clear to me very quickly that it was a poor fit. I spoke to my managers, and we all agreed to do everything we could to address the situation, but in the end the company’s needs and my own were incompatible. I gave notice, and my last day was Christmas Eve. I didn’t have another job lined up.

At that point, I had the bills for January paid, and the plan was to take a break through New Year’s, and then come back and start freelancing until I found a new job. I was nervous, since we’re a single-income family, but I had good agents at some placement agencies in town, who seemed sure they could get me work. I wasn’t looking to freelance forever, but I was confident that I could keep the bills paid that way, until the right job came along. I was hoping that I would have that job within three months, though I was concerned it might be more like six.

Over the break, I lined up a few job interviews, including one at Metal Toad Media, a web development shop in downtown Portland who were looking for a front-end web developer, and had been referred to me by Dave Selden (thanks, Dave!). The job sounded good, but I tried not to get my hopes up. I mean, what are the odds that one of the first job offers to come my way would be worthwhile? My goal was to find the right job, not take the first one I found.

On Monday, January 4th, I interviewed at Metal Toad, and I thought it went very well. The company seemed like a great fit, with a small team of passionate, dedicated developers, and they seemed to understand the value that I could provide as a specialist. When I went home that night, I was cautiously optimistic, but still trying to keep my expectations in check.

The next morning I had a job offer waiting for me, which I happily accepted. I started work on Wednesday, and so far, it’s fantastic. The work is right up my alley, but still challenging (I’m learning how to theme Drupal), and my coworkers are a great bunch of geeks. It cracks me up that things worked out this way, since I was so mentally prepared for a long drawn-out job hunt, and here I seem to have the perfect job dropped in my lap on day one. I’m a lucky guy.