big opportunity, but big move

As of Wednesday night, I’m going to be out of work. I have a few leads that I’m chasing, and of course I’m always actively looking for more, but one in particular has caught both my attention and my imagination.

It could not have come from a more unlikely place – a singular posting I made on a forum many months ago that I simply assumed would continue to be ignored. Well, someone paid attention and contacted me, and is apparently interested enough in me to have floated the possibility of a job offer.

Yes, there is a fleeting possibility that I might get to work on a project destined for the Automotive X-Prize. How cool is THAT??

For those of you that aren’t huge automotive nerds like myself, allow me to explain what the Automotive X-Prize is. Do you remember that funky spaceship that Burt Rutan made, and that Virgin billionaire playboy Richard Branson has decided to turn into a commercial space tourism venture? Well, that was the original X-Prize. There are now a few different X-Prizes up for grabs, and Automotive is one of them.

It’s pretty simple, in general terms: create a saleable vehicle that can seat either 2 or 4 people, performs to a minimum standard, and gets 100 mpg-equivalent (US). Yes, 100 mpg (2.84L/100km) is a pretty staggering figure, but it’s entirely feasible.

In any case, back to the potential opportunity at hand. Someone who has already committed to fielding an entry in the AXP (Automotive X-Prize) saw my posting, and asked me to call. I did, and we had a very interesting chat about cars and this team’s plans for creating a vehicle. Ever the fountain of obscure automotive information, I managed to bestow at least as much information as I received, with the result being a follow-up phone call the other day. That one lasted even longer, and ended with me being asked if I would be willing to move. It wasn’t a job offer – there’d still be a lot of details to figure out – but it was a clearly communicated intent towards that.

My reaction? HELL, YEAH!!! First off, I’m a car nerd. Second, I love getting my hands dirty. Third, I love learning stuff, and there’s no substitute for learning by doing, such as taking a few cars apart with your bare hands and putting it back together to form one much better car. I would be getting paid to learn about cars, learn about extremely efficient cars, test our theories, and put them into practice by actually building an entry for the AXP. The current proposed timeline for the AXP would see the preliminary qualifying competition in late 2009, and the final contest in 2010. I’d be playing with cars for TWO YEARS, and getting paid for it! Drinks are on me!!

The only downside? The move. This team is not in Ontario. It’s not even in Eastern Canada. It’s in the West (which is fine by me), which is a bit move. Add to the mix the fact that my wife is now 6 months pregnant and that Christmas is fast approaching, and you understand that we wouldn’t be able to move until April at the earliest, after the baby has arrived. Of course salary hasn’t been discussed at all, and although the intent to hire me is there, it’s being done on the basis of the two phone calls and few e-mails we’ve exchanged – the team hasn’t seen my resume. So any optimism needs to be cautious.

At the same time, when could I EVER find another opportunity like this?? It hits all the right buttons: sustainable transportation, cars in general, using my hands to do more than just work a computer, giving my career a much-needed change in direction, and doing some very cool stuff with some well-equipped people. It’s not a decision I’m going to take lightly, but as heavy as it is I can’t just dismiss it either.

What will come of it all? We’ll have to see. I have what I’m assuming is a combination of homework and a test; I have to figure out a fairly complex spreadsheet and see if it suggests any strategic loopholes that could be taken advantage of. Thus far it’s a pretty tough nut to crack, but spreadsheets and I get along well, I’ll figure it out.

Meanwhile, I’m just going to dream about greasy fingers and designing a car that gets better than double the mileage my Beetle’s capable of. Heady stuff.