I've gone from useless nit-picking of software applications as part of the company's extreme overreaction to Sarbanes Oxley, to working on multi-million dollar contracts with fuel suppliers and transportation companies. This is where the company does its business. The stuff I left is a bunch of pompous, vapid bombast created for God only knows who.

The first thing I noticed about my new department is that the underlings give the presentations. This means that management is interested in employee development. That may sound like it sucks to some people, and I get pretty nervous before giving presentations, but if I can get comfortable with the material, I enjoy it a lot.

That's because I like being in charge of things. My mother had convinced me all these years that whatever I opined and whatever choices I made were just plain wrong. Once I threw that out of my head, I find that I like being the way I never was before: assertive, decisive, and important. I like helping to make decisions that affect the bottom line of a multi-billion dollar corporate entity. Sometimes I even like wearing suits.