Layoff leads to chance at childhood dream

In February 2008, I was informed I was being included in a company-wide layoff from Russound, a consumer electronics manufacturer in Newmarket, N.H.

After being recruited from Bose Corporation just 18 months earlier, I found myself out of work for the first time in more than 20 years. When I accepted the position with Russound, I had relocated with my family to rural New Hampshire, where there were few other sizable companies engaging in new product development for audio equipment.

In short, we had a big new mortgage and few prospects. The economy and the job market were bad and getting worse. After a couple of months without any success in finding a new job, I was beginning to feel desperate.

Our new house in New Hampshire is about two hours north of Boston in a little town called Strafford. It's too far to commute on a daily basis; even Manchester is more than an hour away. My wife and I discussed the possibility of expanding my job search beyond our local area, but in the end we decided against relocating a second time. We love our home in the New Hampshire mountains, and we resolved to find a way to stay here, no matter what.

After looking around and seeing just how few consumer electronics product management jobs were available in southern New Hampshire, I considered changing careers. I have thoroughly enjoyed my career in consumer electronics new product development. If you have purchased loudspeakers in the past decade from Bose or Russound, I more than likely had a hand in their development.

But I have always had diverse interests, and I knew there were other areas where I might find satisfaction. At my age, I had to rule out becoming an astronaut or a Major League Baseball player, two of my childhood dreams. My third childhood dream job, however, was to be a professional writer.

I decided to look into writing as a career while I continued to pursue more traditional opportunities. I researched magazine submission guidelines, local newspapers and the Internet. In the end, I opted to start with online writing opportunities.

My writing started to sell. Not only that, but clients who purchased my work were coming back to me and asking me to write more. Although my income was small at first, I decided that from now on, I would be a writer.

I changed my profile at a number of online professional networking Web sites to reflect that career change. I started to get calls and emails from my old contacts telling me they needed original Web content for their new businesses. Several had gone into SEO marketing and web development. Orders started rolling in, and my income has increased every month since I made the decision to write full-time.

Although it has taken some time to build up my income, just one year after learning I was laid off from my six-figure income position at Russound, I have found success in a new career that gives my family the financial security to keep our home. That this career happens to be fulfilling one of my childhood dreams is just icing on the cake.