Change of Plans

So Charles and his career have always been a little... uncertain. That's the beauty/curse about Nursing. There are SO many different options and routes to go with it. He has had a hard time choosing the best path for himself. But for the past 3-4 years he has been able to finally narrow it down to 2 major choices: Hospital Administration or becoming a Nurse Anesthetist. Both required more schooling.

At first he decided to become a Nurse Anesthetist. But then he learned he needed 1-2 years of experience working in an ICU. So he took a paycut and transferred to an ICU. While there he started to get a little frustrated with the waiting game and started looking more into the management side...Hospital Administration.

This led him to choose THAT route instead and so he went back to school full time (while working full-time and a half) and obtained his MBA in a year and a half. Amazing, I know. :) So after he had a degree he searched and searched for over a year for a management position.

He applied for jobs all over Utah, Arizona, and was even flown out to Las Vegas for interviews. I don't know how someone could stand so much rejection. I know I would have felt like a total loser, but if he felt bad, he never let it show. It was really hard getting into management because with the economy, they were actually cutting a lot of management positions, so just getting an interview was something... but they never panned out.

So, after a year of rejection after rejection after rejection, and drowning in a pool of student loan debt, and work hours getting cut left and right, Charles decided he should go back to his plan to become a Nurse Anesthetist.

For the next 6 months or so he worked on taking his GRE, filling out applications, flying out for interviews, and waiting to hear back. He was really worried that he wouldn't get into a single school. That was really hard for me to grasp because he has an almost perfect GPA in both his undergrad and graduate work. Plus he had a Master's Degree and 2 years of experience in the ICU.

So I was pretty surprised when he got rejected from one of our top choice schools in CA. He only applied to 5 schools. He got interviews to the last 4. So he flew out to Kansas, Missouri, and was ready to fly out to North Carolina in April. The last school was here in UT. Well, After going to Kansas, he was certain he didn't like the school or the area, so he decided not to go there, and of course that was the one he got accepted to. We ruled out North Carolina because it was too far from family, and we KNOW it would have been hard to be so far away... especially with a new baby on the way.

So that left Missouri and UT. Well he got wait-listed for both. So here we were, still stuck in limbo. No answers. While we waited, Charles continued to apply for management positions here. I couldn't believe there was an actual possibility of him NOT getting into a school. It felt so unreal. He applied for 2 jobs with the University of Utah Hospital. But one wasn't actually hiring for another 10 months. He got called for an interview at the other one. And then out of the blue, he was called for another interview for a random job he never even applied for. He didn't understand how that happened, but he thought "Sure, why not? An interview's an interview."

Turned out, someone in the HR department at the U. of U saw his resume and thought he'd be a good fit for the management position. He interviewed for both. This is where the crazy thing happened...

In one week's time, he went from over a year and a half of rejection after rejection after rejection, to being offered a spot at the school in Missouri, the school in Utah, AND a the management position at the U. of U. that he just kind of stumbled into. We also heard that he was almost offered the other U. of U. job except that an internal candidate applied at the last minute and had more experience.

We went from 0 to 3 options all at once. It was amazing. Everything out on the table at the same time. Had it worked out any other way, we would have just desperately grabbed the first thing that was offered. But we were given the blessing of choice.

We had been all set to move away and start student life all over again, we even had a family willing to rent our home from us... and now we get to stay. We are SOOO excited and grateful. We knew that whatever was supposed to happen, would happen. It just shows that God knows what's best for us and that we just need to be more patient and wait for HIS timetable. HE knows what's best, and we will be more blessed. (Guess I need more of that patience with this pregnancy!)

Charles' job starts next week, and he's really excited about it. We have better benefits, good enough pay so that he only has to work ONE job instead of 3, he works normal 9-5 hours, no weekends, no holidays, and gets vacation days. No more scrubs, which I'm kind of bummed about. I don't iron if there's any way out of it, so we are buying him all "No-Iron, wrinkle free" dress clothes. Haha! We'll see how this works!

Anyway, we feel so relieved to have found his path and we're all really happy for and proud of Charles for working so hard to find it. He has always been business-oriented and so this really is a good fit for him. He's already got a business trip planned for San Francisco, and it sounds like Germany is another frequent location for travel. Pretty cool! He's a little nervous, but I know he's a fast learner and will catch on quickly.

Way to go Charles, You rock!