Oh, hey

I nearly forgot to mention, for any of you who are not Twitter followers (those folks knew 2 wks ago)...

The night before I left for my vacation, I found out I was being made Of Counsel at my firm. This is something I initially asked for at the end of last year but was told that the timing was no good, and I thought I'd have to wait until the end of this year. But then my boss decided that since I was busting my ass extra hard in 2010, she would push to make them do it in mid-year. It almost didn't work, but they caved. This is sort of like "making partner" but not...it's a promotion to being one of the leaders of my group, and some job security to an extent, but I still have to keep busting ass and see if they make me a shareholder next year if that's what I decide I'm after. (If someone knows the answer to this question, can you clue me in?) It did come with a sweet raise, although with cuts over the last 2 years this has really just brought me back to my starting point.

At many times over the last 4 1/2 years I have thought about jumping ship, as I have blogged about here from time to time with varying stages of vagueness, but as I look back I'm SO glad I didn't. Once in awhile, sticking it out through something tough and finding a way to turn it around and make it work really does pay off. I wish more people would realize that when they become unhappy with where they're at.

Today I got the handbook they give to new Shareholders and Of Counsels. I spent an hour reading it, and was sad to learn there were no secrets in there. They must save the good shit for verbal telling only, never to be committed to paper.

Sadly, I have to become a shareholder before I'll get to go to the annual retreat in Vegas with the crazy parties. I am now not eligible until end of 2011 at the earliest. But I'm 100% fine with that.