Heath's Random Thoughts

Moving On

Well, its official. I have been offered and have accepted a position as a Project Leader for Health Care Service Corporation. The position will land me with the IT Strategy team at HCSC with a leadership position and about a 35% increase in salary. For those of you not familiar with HCSC they are the parent company to BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois, BlueCross BlueShield of Texas, BlueCross BlueShield of New Mexico, and soon to be acquired BlueCross BlueShield of Oklahoma.

I was approached about this openning about 3 weeks ago from someone in my network. I hadn't actually be looking for a new job because I was happy here at Allstate but after hearing that it would be a leadership position I decided to go ahead and interview. After hearing the details of the role I decided I couldn't pass up the opportunity. I am excited to get started there. It will be only the second company I have worked for since I got my MBA in 2003. It accepted the position with somewhat mixed feelings because I have made a lot of friends and have built up a solid reputation at Allstate but sometimes you have to go where the opportunity is.

I broke the news to my manager at Allstate last week and he was very supportive of the move. In fact everyone has been very supportive which will make the transition easier. My last day with Allstate is September 9th and then I will start at HCSC on September 12th. Another nice benefit is that I won't have to move out of my apartment in Evanston because I live so close to the Purple Line (Elevated Train) which runs down to the city and drops off 2 blocks from work. So no more running up the miles on my poor Jeep and I will be able to avoid the ever rising gas prices. Though in the next year I will probably start thinking about finding a place to buy as long as it makes sense, but now I will at least have the extra income to put something back for a down payment.

It will definitely be weird not driving the reverse commute out to Allstate everyday after doing it for 2.5 years, but I think I can get used to it. My team is planning a going away shindig for the 7th of September and I will be spending the next couple of weeks going out to lunchs with co-workers to say goodbye, but at least I will still be around Chicago if I ever want to meet up with any of them.

Well just wanted to give the update on the job!

posted by Heath @ 2:48 PM