I dropped out of a PhD program when I was 23 and wrote a Master’s thesis instead. I walked into a headhunter’s office wearing Berkenstock sandals and said I needed a job soon after graduation. I had a feeling substitute teaching wasn’t a good career path choice. The woman I met with told me she didn’t usually work with people who had no experience but she’d give it a shot.
She did and I got a job at a company that had invented the mop wringer in the mid 1800s. It was quite a change from completing the design and build of a controller for a helicopter test rig. I was up to the challenge … except I wasn’t able to hand write a memo for the department secretary to type for me. My handwriting is atrocious. Penmanship is not my forte.
I asked my boss at the time if I could borrow is computer. He had an Apple II, I believe. He told me I could have it. He said he didn’t use it anyway. I wrote a project proposal that afternoon. My work journey began.
The only thing besides email that changed while I was a project manager was the software I used to manage projects. I don’t know what I did before. I succeed though. I’m not certain software improved my outcomes. I once had a boss who told me I should spend at least 10 percent of my time at work managing the schedule. He was fired soon afterward. He didn’t have a clue.
He meant doodling with MS Project. My entire job was managing the schedule. Keeping people motivated was also part and parcel. If he’d understood that, he’d have kept his VP position. I can’t remember his name.
I’m going to take the time that is needed to find a remote position, be it customer service or something related to project management. I’ve got what I need, technology-wise, to do what I’ll need to do. It’s 80F outside right now and the sun is shining. Technology is not involved. The only job I have today is to walk Fremont.
A Different Way 
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