Yet another start

On Aug 16th I started a new job after almost 5 years with the last company. Like many I have lost count of companies I had worked for. Most of it is due to the new wave business philosophy; merger, acquisition, buy out, sell out, down sizing, right sizing, risk taking, etc. Back in 1970 I had left my first job at BARC (Bhava Atomic Research Center) in Trombay, India after about three months to join Oil India Limited (OIL) to be close to home with more money in my pocket. I resigned from that in less than three years to venture out to the west called America. My first job here was with a company called AmSEC (American Science & Engineering Company), which was also owned by my graduate adviser. With his sudden and tragic accidental death in 1977, the business was sold and I did not want to be a part of that. My real job came with UGPL (United Gas Pipeline). I stayed there almost 15 years and was able to move upward in a career building process. Then UGPL was bought out by MidCon (a Chicago company) which in turn was bought out by Occidental Petroleum. So, temporarily I was an Oxy employee. Then in early 90’s Enron came calling and it was hard to pass up. I spent almost next ten years with Enron on a high note, building my career again, traveling to many parts of the world until Enron came tumbling down in the same year when terrorists hit the twin towers in New York. By that time I was done with my career anyway; big office, big title, secretary, etc. Most of us are slaves of our ego and I was past that phase of my life.

I enjoy what I do, but since after Enron I have not been looking to make a career; I do what I like for the almighty dollar. So, after Enron I started with PPL (Pennsylvania Power & Light), then with GulfTerra (an El Paso Energy company), which became Enterprise in late 2004 after an acquisition by Enterprise Products. After almost 5 years with GulfTerra/Enterprise, an engineering company made an offer I once again could not refuse. Besides, I had never worked for an engineering company. I was the client so far. I would like to find out how it feels to be sitting on the other side of the table. So, here I am. I suppose some folks still see value in me and are willing to pay for my gray hair. I hope to retire from the routine in a few years.