Category: Weblogs

Last April I wrote a entry on my Sun Blog  about why I like to Blog. I want to add two things to that list based on my experience changing jobs and beginning to explore ways to get financial planning experience.

Blogging is a great way to reflect who you are to potential employers. When I first sent my resume to Intuit I also put the resume on my blog. In my cover letter I mentioned my blog. I know that the blog is not why I was hired but I know that my new boss read the blog and I think it helped me  market myself. I should note though that the purpose of the blog is not to market myself but because my blog reflects who I am it does in fact become a marketing tool.

Blogging helps you implement learn – teach – learn. I am a great believer in informational interviews. My daughters get sick of me urging them to set up informational interviews with  people who work in the fields they are interested in.  I’ve done a few informational interviews lately and I think blogging about them has been a great way to crystallize my learning.  Intuit talks about the idea of learn teach learn that is what blogging facilitates. First I learn something. Then I blog about it and as a result I learn more.

I’ve taken a job at Intuit  and I’m leaving Sun. Wow, I can’t quite believe it is real. The job is an exciting opportunity and I am very excited about all the new challenges, but I am very ambivalent about leaving Sun. I have been here for 17 years. When I started at Sun I had two little girls 3 and 7 and my last name was Brown. Now 17 years later my youngest is going into her last year of college and will turn 21 in a few months, and my oldest has just finished two years of teaching elementary school. My life has changed dramatically. Having been divorced and remarried my last name is now Vermazen. 17 years is in a very real sense a life time. My time at Sun has been an amazing roller coaster. A high point has been working with absolutely phenomenal people who just awe me with their creativity, hard work and intelligence.

One of the things about working for a big company is that you can change jobs but not change employers. I’ve been a customer support manager, a software development manager, a configuration management manager, a real estate IT manger, and finally the IT director for Sun’s iWork program. For most of these jobs I am very proud of what I accomplished. For a couple of them all I can say is that they were low points on the roller coaster and real learning experiences.

Sun is an absolutely amazing company that I will always be proud to have been a part of. I have almost always felt like I could make a difference here and I  have never even for a moment doubted the reality of Sun’s high ethical standards.

Finally I am so grateful that Sun introduced me to blogging.  Creating a blog and being a part of Sun’s blogging community has been so much fun. I think I am hooked for life and I just hope I can create a successful blog away from the warm and nurturing environment of blogs.sun.com.   I don’t know how long my Sun Blog will be around.

Update 2018: Soon after Oracle bought Sun blogs.sun.com went away. I have hard copy of all my Sun posts but they are no longer available online.