Off to the Races

So I started a new job almost two months ago. I had to get out of my old job or I was seriously considering going postal. I mean we all know that we make sacrifices in all of our choices, and a job is no exception. We work like mad men in order to make our careers worthwhile, whether its for the money, the work, or the people. Us programmers often sacrifice the technical side in order to promote the business, or less often, it’s the other way around. But I will tell you, there is nothing worse than working for a company that does neither side well.

When I started my last job, I was coming off one hell of a crazy 7 month cycle where I was a “consultant”, which pretty much meant that I worked my ass off, had no benefits, no stability, and made little money. Of course, little money is a relative term when you are a programmer.

Then I landed my last job, and for the first 6 months, I was having a ball. It was the first steady job making pretty good money that I had ever had. The people were nice, and there was no back stabbing. I was finally able to buy a house, which I wanted to do since I was 22, and it was the best thing that I ever did. In fact, I sit here now writing on my couch in my living room, with my laptop, looking partially at what I am typing and partially at the clutter on my coffee table and the signs on the carpet telling me that it’s time to shell out some more money for what will seem to be its annual cleaning.

The walls aren’t naked anymore, but I still have to buy a couple more frames for things that I’ve been meaning to hang for months. Then, maybe one day I’ll get off my ass and go to the labyrinth of cheep crap known as Ikea in order to get my guest room together. But my first and only experience at Ikea made me want to invite people over to my house and kick the shit out of them in my basement. Tyler wasn’t crazy. Ikea just fucked him in the head forever.

Now back to your regularly scheduled program, already in progress.

So life was good. I had a house, a little more money, a job where the people, for the most part, were fun and nice, and the work was relaxing and new, and it was sort of challenging, because it was, well, new. It was sort of like leaving a tough relationship that meant a lot to you but would never work out and moving onto the hot rebound chick who you thought would be something special too, but after a while, you found her to be hollow and not that hot in the first place.

But the newness was cool, and before people started leaving, it was fun. I remember hearing a lot of people complaining about the company, and I was like, man, you guys are crazy. I went out every night, went to work hung-over more times than I would like to recite and still did more work then was ever expected of me. It was like a year long vacation. But the good times never last forever, and that was definitely not a healthy trend.

After while, if you are a creative person like me, you really yearn to create interesting things. You want to be set up to succeed. You want to work in a collaborative environment. And that just wasn’t happening there. The few people who felt exactly how I did started to leave one by one, and I went from being happy to being comfortable to being absolutely stir crazy.

Then the stars aligned just right. My friend went independent, and I was always toying with working with him again, but I was a little nervous. And then, for some strange reason, an acquaintance of mine who lived in Hawaii but would come back to Mt. Airy every once and a while invited me out to stay at her place for a week. It was a great time. It was the perfect mix between fun and relaxation. I had a lot of time to reflect on things. I mean here was this girl who was a total free spirit. I mean she’s lived in Italy, Denver, Hawaii, and soon to be Boston. She just lives her life the way that makes her happy and be damned with the social norms. Having her invite me to her place gave me a confidence boost, cause, well, I’ve never really been the guy that people just invite places, let alone Hawaii. Or probably more so, I have never thought of myself as that guy. But, well, now I guess I am that guy, and after seeing someone live their life so fully, I realized that I no longer had any excuses to postpone joy.

So, in a simple twist of fate, it turns out that my friend had a job for me after all. I had just finished my first year at my old company and got a 6% raise to boot, but I wasn’t happy, and I knew that I could do much better for myself, and a 6% raise wasn’t big enough to keep me there, especially with how crazy the market has been. So I kept the pressure on, and thus I have a new job and another even bigger raise (whew hew!).

I can honestly say that I’m happy. The long hours sometimes suck, but I feel alive again. I’m creating things. I’m learning things. I’m joking around and working collaboratively like I used to. It’s mind blowing, and it can only get better.

Now I have to say that my old job was a great experience for me. I never really knew that I was good until I was put next to people who ranged from sucky to great. I also had a lot of time to bone up on my skills. I found a lot of blogs and pod casts that I read and listen to religiously now. In busy jobs, you never have time to stop and smell the roses. So when I had the chance, I stopped, relaxed, regrouped, and now, I’m off to the races.