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Melissa & Dave - Adventures at Sea

One stinkin' email

Back in February when we knew we would be coming home Melissa started emailing everyone she knew to let them know she would be back in town and looking for contract work.  About 100 emails later, she figured she might help Dave start to look for a job too.  So she looked up his favorite avionics manufacturer, Dynon Avionics, and they appeared to be hiring.  So she emails Dave a link to their jobs website page.  The next day, Dave emails her back a killer cover letter.  Mind you we sit about 10 feet apart.  But somehow email is still the best way to send stuff back and forth between our computers.  Anyway, the cover letter says how he is a pilot, owns his own airplane, understands all their technologies, has helped another small company grow to be larger, bla, bla, bla.  Dave then sends the cover letter through LinkedIn to the Dynon company president.  We then went to lunch at the marina and headed back to the boat an hour later to find Dave had already received a response from the president saying he wanted to interview him.  

At this point, Dave had to fess up and tell them we were still in Panama.  So they scheduled a phone interview.  And (no surprise) they loved him!  They wanted to in-person interview him, so that's why Dave scrambled to get Apsaras all settled and head back to Seattle faster than he had planned.  The first in person interview went well.  So Dave then attended a trade show with the president and the owner of Dynon.  Then another couple of in person interviews with some of the company engineers, HR, and marketing.  Seven weeks to the day of sending the killer cover letter Dave accepted a position with Dynon.  They did a small reorg to create a senior level position for him reporting to the president.  He will be running their sales, technical support and documentation groups.

So bottom line, Melissa sends 100 emails and is still looking, where Dave sends one stinking email and lands his dream job.  He gets to work on technology that he loves, in an industry that he loves right here in Woodinville.  He starts Tuesday, and he will be doing a bit of travel right off the bat (definitely Florida but probably also Germany). It is a small company (60-ish people), so he is looking forward to leading a small team in which he can really make a difference.

The reason that Dave was following Dynon to begin with is that his airplane is in dire need of a new set of avionics.  The company that supplied his equipment is out of business.  So he is looking forward to installing a new set of Dynon Avionics in his airplane - affectionately known as "Spike".

The upshot of all this is that we will be in Seattle longer than planned (likely 3 to 5 years), because this job means a full time employee commitment as opposed to contract work.  We don't yet know what we are going to do with the boat, which is still in Panama.  We may keep her and visit her on vacations.  We might have her shipped back to Seattle, or we might move her to Florida to sell her.  We will delay that decision for a year - since our marina fees are paid up till then anyway.

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