Fifteen years ago, in the summer of 2000, Rob and Rachel had
just graduated from George Fox University in Newberg, OR with idealistic dreams of changing
the world. We had completed our degrees in International Business &
Economics and were ready to start careers in “something international” (as I
used to say). Shortly after graduation, Rob’s first job was as the China
program director for International Family Services, a large international
adoption agency and relief and development organization. And Rachel: she walked
into the Portland headquarters of Mercy Corps for an informational meet &
greet. At that point in time, Mercy Corps was a large $129M Non-Governmental
Organization (NGO) with 1,400 staff members worldwide that distributed food,
shelter, health care, and job training in the world’s most challenging places.
They went where no one else would go.
Rachel asked her Mercy Corps escort: “How do I get a job
here?” And the Mercy Corps response, in my colloquial tone, went something like
this:
“Silly 21-year old idealistic girl!
Everyone wants to work here. We turn
down Harvard resumes every day!” [long dramatic pause … I’m sure there was a
long pause] “Look, okay. Theoretically if you really wanted to work here you
need to do two things: #1 Go Abroad.
Live overseas in a humanitarian aid capacity. If you can survive a couple of
years overseas, our recruiters will take your resume more seriously. And #2 Learn a Trade. We don’t hire
idealistic people, we hire professionals to fill specific roles. IT,
accounting, project management. When you get those two things down, come back
and we’ll see what we can do.”
As a specific result of this conversation, later that very
same month Rachel and I filled out our Peace Corps applications. Now life, of
course, is much more complex: we drove to Seattle to meet with the regional
Peace Corps recruiter who explained to us that if we weren’t married, there was
virtually no chance that we’d be in the same hemisphere together. So about a year
later, in September 2001, we got married and re-applied. Take that! In fact we
drove back to Seattle, met with the very same Peace Corps recruiter, and
slammed our marriage certificate on his desk. He rolled his eyes (I can’t
recall specifically but I’m sure he did this), congratulated us on our
perseverance, and sent us on our way oversees. In May of 2002 we began our 2+
years of service in Romania. That’s another story. Two years is a long time and
a lot happened in Romania. But here are the key points as they relate to the
rest of the story:
Point #1: Rachel, who had settled on “accounting” as her trade to
develop, began researching graduate schools for accounting, so that she could
be eligible to sit for her CPA. These grad schools require prerequisites, so…
Point #2: Rachel took two correspondence prerequisite courses in
finance and calculus from US universities to become eligible for grad schools.
She also needed to take the GMAT, so…
Point #3: Rachel studied for, and dominated the GMAT. She actually
traveled to Bucharest and took the test. She really dominated the GMAT, I am
still to this day very impressed.
Point #4: Even before our COS (close of service) in Romania, Rachel
had been accepted to all three grad schools she applied to, and we settled on
The University of Texas at Austin: the #1 accounting program in the country.
Not to discount myself, in parallel to all of this I (Rob)
am plotting a new course that will pivot me from a career path in international
econ to a new path in corporate America (not sure what happened to me in
Romania!). So I too am taking correspondence courses and GRE/GMAT tests in
Romania. Eventually I too get into my dream school at Rice University, earn an
MBA in finance, and eventually land my dream job in corporate finance at
Starbucks. But anyway…
Life is complex and meandering, just like this story. Rachel
thrives in the UT Austin accounting program, earning not just great grades and
an internship and full-time job offer with Deloitte, but also by developing
deep and lasting friendships with her colleagues. I supported Rachel
financially by working once again as China Program Director, remotely from a
small apartment in Austin, Texas. In return, Rachel agrees to move with me to
Houston, even though she preferred to move back home to Portland, so that I can
complete my two year MBA at Rice. Rachel studies for and passes her 4 CPA exams
the very first time while in Houston.
After my grad school we move for my job from Houston to
Seattle-Tacoma. Even though Rachel prefers to be in Portland, she agrees to
move for my job. I quickly landed my dream job at Starbucks and Rachel begins a
new career at Russell Investments.
Eight years pass. We have developed deep roots. I’ve grown
tremendously as a corporate finance professional at Starbucks, and Rachel has
developed into progressively more and more complex roles at Russell. We’ve
become parents to two boys who only know life in Tacoma. We get planted into
our community in the North End of Tacoma. We are members of the PTA, we have
incredibly close friendships, a church, social lives, a community. Life is
really, really good. We truly love where we are in life. We see ourselves
growing forever in Seattle-Tacoma. End of story, right!?
And then, life gets in the way.
That’s
how I remember Star Trek 2 anyway
We are perfectly content in Tacoma. But on occasion we put
our feelers out there to see what incredibly insane career opportunities are
out there. On a lark Rachel sees that Mercy Corps has a Corporate Controller
role open, and she applies. I am not surprised when they contact her for a
phone screen. She is, after all, qualified and brilliant. I am not, therefore,
surprised when she has her first phone interview. (Although now I am starting
to get a little nervous).
A few days later, her phone interview was a success and she
is asked to meet the CFO and the team in Portland, and now I’m starting to
panic. “I love my life! I love my job. I love my kid’s elementary school and
being walking distance to Metropolitan Market!”
A week later, her interview with the team and with the CFO
goes great, and they are asking when she can start. I am not too gracefully
freaking out internally and externally. I am beginning the Five Stages of
Grief. But as I am processing, I am logically sensing that this opportunity is
the one opportunity, out of thousands, that would actually convince us to
uproot ourselves from “the good life” and move back home to Portland. With time
and lots of prayer, I eventually become supportive, and then actually excited
for this opportunity.
In the fifteen years since she visited Mercy Corps, it is
now over 2x larger, with over $300M in annual revenue and over 4,000 staff
around the world helping the most disenfranchised people in the world’s
toughest places. In coming full circle after 15 years, this isn’t just some
feel-good idealistic job that Rachel is taking, it’s the one role that would cause us to do what we’re doing. It’s a
promotion of responsibility and a recognition of the 15 years of methodical
development that she has invested to get her to this point.
And as we are beginning to bifurcate ourselves from our
lives in Seattle-Tacoma, the Lord keeps opening door after door: we find a
beautiful new place to live in Lake Oswego, OR. We find a couple of potential
preschools for Greyson, we find the great school for Jude and begin to
transfer. And importantly with Starbucks, they are being very supportive. All of these separate aspects of a stressful move come instantly
into focus and settle into place.
Starbucks is letting me work remotely in Portland starting
mid-August, and is allowing me to stay on through the end of the fiscal year,
and perhaps a bit longer as needed by both parties. This gives me the time to
focus on the family and not on finding a new job. Everyone I’ve spoken with at
Starbucks is excited, sad and understanding that this is a difficult move given
all that we’ve been through together (yes, it’s like a relationship!). I’m
leaving my dream job so that Rachel can have her dream job.
I tell this meandering story for two reasons. #1: Because I want you to understand
the methodical 15+ years-worth of steps Rachel and I have taken together to get
us specifically to this place in time that sees us moving to Portland, and #2: Because I want you to understand
that we don’t take the decision to move away from our life in Seattle-Tacoma
lightly. It was a gut-wrenching decision. Despite that this was the right opportunity for us, we still struggled to accept it. At times we second guessed
ourselves and had to reassure one another that this was the right decision. We had to
take a step back and look at the arc that was set into motion 15 years ago, and
to say “this feels like the right thing to do.”
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