Jobs

Good bye California…. hello Idaho!  I told my primary class on Sunday that this would be my last week teaching because I was moving to Idaho.  One of the cute little five year old girls that I teach responded by saying “where are you moving Ida-who”?.  It’s kind of weird to think we are moving after six years here. 

It was winter of 2004-2005 and I was dating Cameron.   He was planning on graduating from BYU in the spring of 2005.  The economy was great and he was applying to several jobs in the area and had one offer to be a financial analyst in Las Vegas for a home construction company called Richmond American Homes.  He randomly received a phone call from a company called McMaster-Carr Supply asking him to fly out for an interview.   He knew nothing about the company and had never even applied there but thought it would make for a fun experience to go interview.  He found out that they data mined his resume off of Monster.  He flew out two days later for the interview and stayed in a nice hotel on the beach in Santa Monica.  A few days later he received a phone call from McMaster offering him a position in their management training program.  After learning about many of the benefits of this company (mostly a free MBA.) he decided to take the job but wouldn’t start until after graduation (5-6 months later). 

Spring came quickly and Cameron graduated and was to start at McMaster-Carr the first of July.  I couldn’t imagine my life without him so we planned a wedding that summer.  He still left for California in July and started working.  He came home in September to marry me.  We have been in California ever since. 

It’s now February 2011 and Cameron knows he will be graduating with his MBA from UCLA in the spring.  The economy is crappy and there are not many great jobs out there.   We both want to get closer to our families—mostly for our kids.  We start passively looking at other job options.  He talks to several people who all seem interested but say they can’t hire this year because of cut backs and tell him to check back later.  So we continue looking and are happy that Cameron has a good job.  

Then in Cameron’s last quarter of school his professor sent out an email to all his students in all his classes stating that he had a friend who knew the CEO of Hoku Corporation, and he wanted to hire someone in management for their plant in Pocatello, Idaho.   The email also stated that they wanted this person to know Mandarin Chinese.   Cameron read the email and looked at me and said “would you ever want to live in Pocatello, Idaho?” Cameron had no idea where Pocatello was.  I told him that it wasn’t my first pick of places to live but it would get me really close to my family which I would like. 

He wrote the professor back and said he didn’t know Mandarin but would be interested in the job.   Cameron sent his information to the professor’s friend but didn't hear back.

We continued looking at companies in the northern Utah area but nothing wonderful seemed to be coming our way.  June came and Cameron graduated and we had Kate all in about the same week.  The end of June came and Cameron received a phone call from the President of Hoku Corporation who also happens to have an MBA from UCLA.  They talked on the phone for over an hour and a half and they ended the conversation with setting up an interview for the following month in Idaho.  We had already planned to bless Kate the end of July in Utah so we just combined the two events (blessing and interview).    July 26^th came and Cameron drove to Pocatello from my parent’s house.  He said he thought the interview went well and we flew back to California later that week.

Time seemed to move very slowly waiting to know if we were leaving.  He communicated with the CEO of the company a few times in August.  The first of September came and they extended an offer to Cameron.  After a lot of research into the industry and this company, and after negotiations and prayer we decided to accept the offer.

Cameron is excited to join the company.  It is headquartered out of Honolulu, the plant is in Idaho, and the majority owner is a Chinese company.  Being in a new industry will also be good for him.

Last week the professors friend called Cameron and congratulated him on getting picked to join the company.  We aren’t sure how many students at UCLA showed interest but he said there were a few.  Cameron starts October 3^rd.

Now to pack….