Post: What’s Happening?

So, first post and all that, what to write … let’s talk about careers, change, self-learning.

Careers

I am in my mid 40s and have been working in IT/Software for many years now. When I got out of school (Comp Sci, 2012, yes I know later in life and all that) I thought I wanted to be a software engineer. I asked my boss to help facilitate me moving out of IT into engineering, since I had the piece of paper, it only seemed right that development was my natural path. Boy, was I wrong, but not in the way I thought. Development took a meandering path, and became a hobby rather than a career, and I think I made the right decision. Ultimately though, one never really knows if they made the right, or wrong call, when deciding on a career move do we? We think we did, but until we are in a position to sit back and reflect, it’s all guess work (educated guess of course).

Back to my story, I asked for the dev job, and didn’t get it. Even after 6 months, the answer I got was he was happy where I was. LOL, of course he was happy where I was, it made him look good, and the customer was happy. Why would they want to lose me to some stupid career advancement stuff, right? So, I decided after 11 years at the same place, that I was no longer welcome. See, this is something I learned since then, that a real good boss (supervisor, manager, director, etc.) should want to see you move up and on. They should not want to hold you back, even if you make them look good. It’s something that I hope to one day embrace if/when I take on the leadership role, and something that I would suggest anyone reading this think long and hard about.

I swore to myself, and promised my wife, I would never get myself into a place where years go by without any advancement or movement job wise. Regardless if I enjoy the work or not, it’s not good to lose time and not be growing. If you have been in the same role for 2 years or more, it’s time to find a new challenge, well that’s just my, like, opinion man.

My next place of employment has been providing my family with paychecks for a little under 8 years (at the time of this post), and in those 8 years, I have held 4 different positions, following my silly little 2 year rule. At this point, I am at the 2 year mark, and looking for a change, but maybe not this time. I am starting an MBA program later this year, and this position pays really nicely and isn’t really tough. Maybe it makes sense to sit and ride another year or two while trying to find a point where I am in the right place at the right time, and am able to see some advancement. And, at the same time, take a look around to see what else is there outside of my current employer. There are a LOT of companies out there, and there are a lot of job listings on LinkedIn, there, ripe for the taking. Maybe it comes down to pay, or maybe it’s just time for a change … stay tuned.

Self-Learning

Teach yourself something, that’s what I told myself, and decided to just do it. I figured out a project that I wanted to try to do, not knowing if it’s even possible. Is there such a thing as the thing I wanted to build? Did I have the chops to do it?

The short answer is yes, and yes. Yes, it was possible to build what I wanted to build, and yes I had the chops to do it (remember, I have this piece of paper that says I do). So, instead of patting myself on the back and saying bravo, I decided to go for it. Several months later, and many late nights trying to get to the next thing fixed and commited to github, I had a working prototype.

Let’s talk about babies, and no I don’t mean the literal ones (that are really fun to make!). I mean the figurative ones, the projects that you created with your own blood, sweat, and tears. I had one, my boss loved it, his boss loved it, and up the chain they loved it. Then, someone else decided it was too complex, and that they knew of a way to make it better and supportable, and so they did. So, here I am holding my baby in my arms, pissed off that it’s not the one being used, but at the same time, the goals of my project were achieved. So, really, I did solve the problem, and really I did make a positive change in my workplace … so I won right? Why doesn’t it feel that way? Is this my ego talking, and I am just not used to hearing it speak? I am guessing that is the answer, and this is what a real software engineer (remember I wanted to be one right?) goes through.

Change

See above, the other two topics of this post (which is way to long at this point) talks about change, change is constant. I am trying to embrace it, wherever I can.