Keep your friends close. You never know when you’ll need them.
The morning I was laid off, I sent a lot of text messages. The second text I sent – which was during my actual layoff meeting – was to a Signal chat that I’ve had with Duane and Jeremy for going on a decade.
Within a few minutes, I was getting texts from Duane with the potential for a contract with his company – MNP – to help his team out. Duane’s been in a newer group there, working on “innovation”. It’s not an easy term to define, let alone explain to anyone else, so let me put it this way…
MNP is a Canadian-only version of companies like Ernst & Young (EY), PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), KPMG, and so on: initially accounting, but branched off into other services. And like those other Alphabetized Companies, they’ve understood that custom services help in places where they have existing customer relationships. The Innovation group is meant to do that: fill the gaps.
Duane’s been building a team for nearly two years. But it’s small, it’s junior, and he’s overworked. A Senior Technical Consultant isn’t a terrible role, it makes sure my bills still get paid, and it’s a landing spot until I can get my life sorted out. Hopefully. Maybe.
But here I am. Today is Day 1. Learn the team, learn the details, start helping out. Should be interesting, if nothing else. And working with Duane again in the role we like – solving problems – is going to be its own reward.