Early on in my career I was a pre and post applications engineer for a startup that used industrial x-ray machines to test solder joints on things like cell phones, heart monitors and car braking systems. I’d travel with sales engineers as the subject-matter expert (SME) and I’d travel with field service engineers to install equipment and get final sign off for payment. It was a cool job! We were small and nimble and in that time of my life I loved the rush of it all. Traveling 60% of the year as an account manager and working on solving x-ray challenges for big manufacturing sites. I was a face-to-face representative for the company and I loved the autonomy I had and the trust they had instilled in me. Plus I genuinely loved the work. We were a family to an extent and I felt like it was an exciting time for me professionally.
Within a few years that company was bought by a larger company, that was bought by another larger company. This kept happening to me in my career, each small company I went to was gobbled up by a larger one. Then one day without realizing, I found myself just another number among thousands of other numbers working at the same company…far removed from autonomy or trust and that family feel.
With each new acquisition, something about that small business, family-like culture was lost for me, and with it my creativity and my spark. When Anna asked me to join her team at U4EA Farms, I was apprehensive about coming to a startup again, unsure if I was ready to get back into the hectic but exciting churn of a small business. It had been so long for me, and to join the cannabis industry to boot; an industry that is in many ways a new and budding industry, no pun intended. However I knew that after 26 years in big tech, I desperately needed a change and now was the time.
I just completed my first 30 days here at U4EA Farms as the Head of Product Development and wow, what a ride! Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, my head is spinning, but in the best way possible. Working in the cannabis industry, especially as a cultivator is WILD! The people are different, the vibe is different and in a strange way I feel more at home than I have in many years. I’m SO happy I made the switch.
The products at U4EA Farms are beautiful and the workplace has never smelled so good! LOL! While I don’t know what the future holds, the possibilities are endless and I can definitely feel that spark returning as I look to the opportunities ahead here with the family at U4EA. If there’s one thing I’ve definitely learned in these past 30 days is like Dorothy, I’m definitely not in Kansas anymore!
For this I’m so grateful!
