Well, the day has come, my time at IBM has come to an end. It's been a wonderful 16.5 years, but I gotta say, the ending was a bit more abrupt than I had anticipated it being.
When IBM purchased Internet Security Systems (ISS) back in 2006, it was a time of trepidation for most folks employed at ISS. We had no idea what being blue was gonna mean. Ultimately what it did mean was that we had a great place to work, although it was not quite the same environment that we were used to as Internet security systems.
For myself it was a time of continued learning and exploration of Internet security and the things that could be done in that field. I enjoyed working in various departments from Level 3 support, escalation management team, and finally on the quality assurance team for various products. In the years that I worked for IBM I received positive reviews yearly and I made every effort to continue to expand my knowledge and understanding of the various technologies and requirements to allow me to not only do my job, but to do it well and be prepared to go forward to whatever was next.
I had the privilege of working for managers, both local and abroad, and I found their guidance and counsel invaluable in helping me to further my career with IBM. I cannot think of a single manager that I worked for that I did not both respect and enjoy working for them. The numerous products that I supported while working at IBM ranged from vulnerability detection and resolution, mail security, network intrusion protection, as well as application identification.
Sadly, all that came to an end at the beginning of this month when IBM laid off a significant number of employees in the security field. I was notified at the beginning of last month that, despite having nothing but positive reviews for over a decade and a half that I have worked at IBM, I was being laid off. There was no reason given, no rationale put forward by upper management to explain the necessity of this wave of "resource actions", they simply dumped it on the first line managers to tell employees, such as myself, that IBM no longer needed us. Just to be clear, I do not blame those first line managers, nor do I lay any blame on their managers. Oh well, it's IBM's loss and I have no doubt that it is gonna come back to bite them in the butt in the long run.
So now I embark on a new journey in my life...retirement! Fortunately, I had worked at IBM and Internet Security Systems long enough to accrue the number of years necessary to technically retire from IBM. Additionally after reviewing my retirement portfolio with a licensed and reputable fiduciary, it became clear that it was not only financially possible, but also feasible, for me to go ahead and retire early. Sometimes unexpected events, like being laid off, can lead to something positive and in this case it definitely has.
I'll always be grateful to the friends and colleagues that I worked with at both Internet Security Systems and IBM, I will miss their camaraderie and unique points of view. All that said, I'm looking forward to doing whatever I want, whenever I want, for as long as I want and not having to worry about getting up to going to work! (well...unless I chose to do so <insert snarky grin here>)
So long IBM and thank for all the fish!
