The next chapter feels familiar, in a good way

This week I started a new full-time contracting gig, working with the staff at the central IT office of the University of Massachusetts. I've worked with UMass before in a couple different incarnations, and in fact I've been a full-time contractor with them previously. So this is both very familiar and at the same time, new, exciting territory.

Way back in September of 2001, I was contacted by Modis. They're a big IT staffing and recruiting company. Through Modis, I worked on a training contact gig with the UMass system for a year. To this day, after working on more than 50 implementations all over North America, that 13-month experience getting PeopleSoft up and running at the Lowell campus remains one of my favorites. The people I worked with were tremendous, the organization backed up our efforts, and, best of all, the software worked as promised -- not always something you can count on, I've learned the hard way.

A couple years ago, when I was still at SunGard, I had great fun delivering a couple trainings for a different UMass group in Shrewsbury. They were a collegial, engaged and challenging group -- my kind of client. I had kept in touch with my former Modis connections over the years, and last month they arranged for me to interview with UMass for their advancement software implementation. So, after almost nine years, I've rejoined Modis and after less than a year, the advancement community once again. After the first few days, it's already a challenge I can sink my teeth into, it's a little different from anything I've done before, and yes, it's fun.