In chapter 19 of my book Get Back Up I am now the Test Manager of Microsoft Publisher. In six short years I’ve progressed from configuring hardware in a lab to testing product software, then I became a test lead and now I was a test manager. Not bad for a guy without a college [...]
In chapter 18 of my book Get Back Up Suzie and I have left San Jose for Redmond, Washington, where I would be starting a new role as a test lead on Word, Microsoft’s word processing product. I had done all I could in the PowerPoint group to move up in the organization, but since [...]
In chapter 17 of my book Get Back Up I am now working at Microsoft. I started about as low in the company as I could, working in their test lab, where one of my jobs was to keep the lab clean. As I’ve said before, it doesn’t matter where you start as long as [...]
In chapter 16 of my book Get Back Up I find myself unemployed again, but this time with two children. I couldn’t afford to screw around and had to find a job fast. During my last couple of weeks at Ashton-Tate I had already started sending out my résumé and I already had a couple [...]
In chapter 15 of my book Get Back Up a lot changes for me and my wife. Monday, February 26 would be my first day as a full-time employee at Ashton-Tate and on Saturday, February 24th our first child, Nicholas, was born. During this time I was working two jobs. I was transitioning from a [...]
In chapter 14 of my book Get Back Up I decide it’s time to get that job in tech. After all, it was the main reason I came to California. The job at Wendy’s almost destroyed my back. I couldn’t go through that again. One weekend, I came across an ad for device testers. I didn’t [...]
In chapter 13 of my book Get Back Up I find myself without a plan. After multiple business failures and a bankruptcy, I don’t want to think about anything. Luckily or unfortunately, depending on how you want to look at it, I was in a place where I could do just that. We didn’t have a [...]
In chapter 11 of my book Get Back Up we lost everything. The shoe repair was closed and we lost all our investments to foreclosure or bankruptcy. We couldn’t feel any lower, but we knew we needed to start over. While we lost all the material things we’d acquired during the last few years, one [...]
Chapter 11 of my book Get Back Up finds me at a crossroads. I’ve been told by multiple doctors that I have Failed Back Syndrome, and there’s nothing they can do to fix it. Even the workers’ comp people say I’ll never work again, and they give me a lump sum payment to close my [...]
After my failed attempt to return to the restaurant business, chapter ten of my book Get Back Up finds me back in sales. Unlike selling real estate and life insurance, however, this sales endeavor was made much easier by the fact that the product was liquor and beer, and unlike other products, I didn’t have [...]
