International Marketing and Sales for a company that used to be private (owned by 3 OSU grads) and was bought out a while back by a corporation. We are the only group in the world that does what we do as well. Night and day difference being private and public, and when the next nice opportunity, in a private company, comes along I'm probably leaving. In almost 5 years have had three different managers and only one of them has gone a sales presentation with me. None of them have been to the field or done anything remotely close to understanding our operations.
I'm paid well, have a 4 mile commute to work and lately have been left pretty much alone, as I am the last technical sales person still standing. Have seen the world and had some great side trips to places like Normandy, Waterloo, Corregidor Island and The Battle of The Bulge area.
I loath the quarterly generated reports....we don't do anything in a 1/4 the largest western job we have ever had took us 6+ years to sell. This never sets well with the crowd that wants you to go to a trade show and sign up work during the days of the show. Other things that drive me nuts; the name dropping, the goofy mottos, leaders who can't lead and the traveling (now log about 120,000-130,000 miles a year) which almost brings me to tears every time I get on a plane, especially to Asia. The emphasis put on forecasting is amazing and almost always wrong, which reminds me of the saying "The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable."
My dream would be to go back and finish my Master's in Forestry (at OSU of course) and get the hell off the beaten path.
Whether the American Dream is something that's real or not, well don't know. But am grateful, fortunate and blessed to be where I am plus I get to go to the mountains, with 2 of my doggies, backpacking nearly every year and in my world that's as good as it gets.
