A Rather Odd Piece of Circumstance

In the period of time after giving my notice at my last job and taking my new job, my position was posted.  Being the curious sort that I am, I went ahead and looked up who was applying - after all, you are always curious (I am, anyway) as to the caliber of individual that is replacing me.

As I was paging through the resumes, I caught a funny note on one of them: the name of the company I was going to.  Sure enough, the individual who I was replacing had applied for my old job.

Move ahead 2 months.  Talking with Fear Beag about how the replacement for my position was going.  Not well, he says - turns out, the person who I replaced there was reapplying for the position seven years after he had left the company from that position.  Buy out of his employer and then layoff, as it turns out.

 It is a little discomforting to know that two people at my level are out looking for work - this is bit of midterm anxiety that needs to be paid attention to, reminding me all too well that my career field seems to be (at least around here) shrinking.  It does also reflect how careful one should probably be about one's work life; after all, in a small pool everybody knows the fish.

But there is something vaguely interesting about the fact that the two individuals that were the effective bookends of my career have seemingly crossed at some level at my previous job. A rather odd piece of circumstance, a sort of life affecting impact that one seldom has the chance to see all the way around.