I have been on a long journey in my career over the last several years. The road has been winding and unpredictable. Today, I found out I begin the next part of my journey next week with a new job. This great news has me pausing to reflect on how I've gotten here.

I graduated from college with a math education degree, so of course I became a sportswriter in Idaho. After working for more than two years at two newspapers, I told my wife I would follow her wherever she could find her first teaching job, so she took a job offer in Southern California and that's how I got my online persona. A couple months later in the fall of 1999, I was hired as a sports copy editor.

Times were good for several years, but the Internet was taking its toll on the newspaper industry. I survived numerous layoffs for a number of years, but my number finally came up in March 2008, which is when my career journey began in earnest.

I spent the next several months job searching to no avail. That summer, I landed an interview with a Christian media company in L.A. The owner was so impressed he offered me a job as a writer and editor right there on the spot. I accepted and on my way out asked about benefits and the usual employee stuff. He told me he was running late but that someone would call me tomorrow and give me the details, including when I would start, which wasn't determined yet because the place was being renovated. I never got that call.

After a couple days, I called the place and got a receptionist and explained my situation. She told me someone would call me back. No one did. This happened too many times to count over the next week or two with more than one receptionist. No one could ever come to the phone when I called and no one ever called me back. I finally gave up and to this day, I have no idea what happened.

My search continued for the next few months and then I got a call in October from my old work. A position had opened up, and I was offered a 32-hour a week job (just enough part time so I wouldn't get benefits) and a slight pay cut. Since I was nearly out of Unemployment Insurance, I took it. Just after New Year's, I was laid off again.

With the recession in full swing, I was able to get an extension on Unemployment. That summer, I discovered an online media company that would allow me to write informational articles for its websites and a couple other client websites. It didn't take me long to realize I could do this full time. I wrote as an independent contractor for nearly a year, but the writing opportunities started to dry up in the spring of 2010. Unable to meet my personal weekly quota, I started to job search once again. However, after a few weeks, this same company was hiring copy editors, which is much better pay. I applied, took the copy editing test and was "hired" (again as an independent contractor) in May 2010. In 2011, I was having the best year of my life financially, but then it all came crashing down.

In the spring of 2011, I noticed there were less articles to choose from to edit. Eventually, it got to the point that the queue would be completely empty. It didn't take me long to figure out when they were adding articles to the queue, and I would grab them as soon as they were entered. I literally had only a few seconds to grab them before others would claim them. Still, I managed to edit 40 to 50 articles a day while others struggled to get a handful a day.

Unfortunately, this approach forced me to claim articles I normally wouldn't touch. This led to a couple bad reviews of articles I had edited and a reduction in my permissions, so in the December of 2011, I could not find any articles to edit, meaning I was back to looking for a job.

Since I had worked as an independent contractor, I did not qualify for Unemployment, so I took the first job I could find, which was at a wholesale printing company doing data entry for nearly minimum wage. I eventually was given the task of writing and editing the company's website and email blasts and even pricing all of the products on its websites, but no raise was forthcoming because the company was struggling financially. The owner assured me that I would get a raise once he found investors, which of course never happened.

Finally, in the fall of 2012, we were told that the company was being bought out. We were told this was a good thing. However, in December, we were thrown for a loop when a different company bought us out. It was our main competition and the rumor was that they were going to just shut us down. Well, once the sale was complete at the end of the year, a number of us were laid off and I was once again on the job market.

Today, I got the call that I was being offered a job to write for a web development company with a 67 percent increase in pay. Even better, is this appears to be a stable, growing company in an industry on the rise. Plus, it is a great casual atmosphere (no time clocks and the owner interviewed me wearing a T-shirt and shorts). I am looking forward to this next chapter in my career. I am thrilled right now, but at the same time I am cautious because I've learned over the last few years that, well ... you never know.