New job

I recently decided to take a new job opportunity. I am leaving L3Harris to join a start up called Critical Frequency Design founded in January by a former program manager at Harris. A trusted colleague of mine at L3Harris was contacted earlier this year by the former program manager and founder of CFD. Since starting the company, which has thus far offered contract engineering services to various aerospace companies, they have done very well. One of the main goals will be providing ruggedized high bandwidth communications between sensors and processors on the joint strike fighter F35. Many solutions utilize recent advances in photonics technology, which is my and my colleague's primary area of expertise and why he was solicited. In telling me of this opportunity in confidence, we thought of the opportunity to leverage how well we work together and he put in a good word for me, so we were both offered jobs and equity in the company.

Why did I do this? A lot of reasons, actually. For about a year, and especially since the merger with L3, the corporate culture, especially around the process for internal research and development spending (where I have spent a lot of time, having had issues obtaining a security clearance), has deteriorated with more of my time spent justifying what I have done or am proposing to do rather than actually doing it. Also, in a very large company, there appears to be very little incentive for actually doing or making anything worthwhile and far more financial incentive to simply be assigned to programs associated with high dollar values. These large programs exist to be inefficient and employ a large engineering workforce so that L3Harris can charge large sums of money to their customers. For this and other reasons, I had been looking for ways to move to Raleigh with a smaller company. Really, only I have wanted to move to Raleigh. I have wanted to be closer to family members of whom we can derive and provide support (i.e. the Agle's in Raleigh, my sister's family in Charlotte, and the Stoddard's in Wilmington). Sarah, understandably, finds 10 hours car rides (both ways) highly stressful especially with our kids, so I thought the only way to be closer is to move closer.

I have tried to find a good fit for me professionally there. It has been fairly difficult but I have found some good leads and potential opportunities for the future. The majority of work in my field is centered in the DC area, California, or Boston. If I change fields, switching to computer vision and machine learning e.g., I have much more options and some good ones in the RTP area, however, these jobs are fairly competitive (not saying I couldn't get them if a made a concerted effort, however) and many of them are also with large defense contractors (BAE, Teledyne, ARA) with whom I would probably have similar cultural issues to L3Harris. At my new job, I will be an entrepreneur, developing new products and services directly to customers and will be highly valued for my natural strengths of creativity and innovation. My salary and benefits have both improved, and I know I could get a job if it doesn't work out (many at L3Harris have said they would have us back in a heart beat, there's just so much work in defense right now). I also have equity and financial stake in the success of the business, which is an exciting opportunity but may ultimately prove to be worthless. Also, my new employer and Charles (trusted colleague and CTO of the new company) have said that they would be okay with me working remotely from my preferred location, although CFD is based out of a VC incubator 5 minutes down the road from L3Harris.

As for whether or not we will move to Raleigh, definitely not for at least another year I'd say. I wouldn't be nearly as effective working remotely, especially during this critical time of when we'd be defining the future of our business. Also, I realized one night as I was taking Natalie out for ice cream that moving would likely be hardest on everyone but me. Natalie got quite emotional thinking of leaving her friends at school and church when I started asking how she would feel if we moved to Raleigh. Also, we are still in the middle of obtaining funds from an insurance claim and then making repairs on the home, with the soonest possibility of being done probably Feb.-March. I do want to see and visit family more, maybe we could invest more in airfare and car rentals with my increased income (but probably not as I pretty sure Sarah would say). There is also the opportunity to open up and manage a remote/satellite office of the new business myself in Raleigh, especially if we grow significantly in the next year as we're projecting. Probably more likely is the possibility to leverage the increased freedom I now have to develop technically in adjacent fields (like RF design and machine learning/computer vision) at my new job so that I am ready for job interviews when the next opportunity becomes more eminent. There is one company (defense company, 50-100 employees) in particular that I think would be a great fit based in Cary, but I would likely need to gain some RF design experience. Also, as per my comments above, I would really only be willing to make the move if I weren't dragging my family with me but we all felt motivated to go together.

Lastly, I'll say that things have been pretty great lately, Natalie and Sarah went out to Frozen II tonight and they won't stop singing "Ah-ah_Ah-uah" at various pitch levels. Angela and a church friend are going to see it this Saturday so I'll be the only one left out. We've had a cold front come with lows in the 50's at night which has been awesome. The girls are really making strides academically and socially and Emily is still super duper cute but super whiny at night. I'm also just trying to enjoy this time of my life more as I realize this is prime time to be making more memories together. Lately, I have returned to Crossfit and my herniated disc injury has improved with me gaining core and supporting muscle strength and learning what triggers pain and how to modify to avoid it. My overall energy level is sooo much better with intense exercise. I remember always feeling fatigued and just like crap for the past few months that I had stopped going. Unfortunately, they are closing down my current Crossfit box so I'll have to find a good alternative before the end of the month. Anyways, I have unloaded, good night.

- Micah