David L's thoughts on IT&T and having a career in it - and me looking at life
I normally read David Lempher's blog when nobody else is around to hear me laugh (eg. never at work because people there find me strange enough as it is already, without adding any more fuel to the inferno).
Today i took an exception and chanced that he may have returned to the continent again - but no, he isn't back but running around in the US - having the fun i want to have ;)
In one of this posts he mentiones what comes to mind when he considers his career and the industry he works in - i'll term it IT&T because that's a safe bet - and something he wrote made me think long and hard on what my own thoughts on the industry is.
"When I think about my chosen career and the industry I work in, all that comes to mind is speed! The speed at which ideas are conceived, the speed at which they are transformed into concepts, the speed at which they are delivered as bits and bytes, and the speed at which they transform many, many, many peoples lives!"
David Lemphers - Microsoft Evangelist
http://blogs.msdn.com/davidlem
Now, David isn't the bore and drap that this very deep thinking makes him look like - but it hit a core as to why i do what i do. I'm also sure that David didn't particularly write the post with that paragraph solely in mind.
So what is my thoughts on the industry? Two things...
Impact - what comes to mind for me is Impact. The Impact the techology has on peoples lives. The Impact that the rate of technology's "evolution" has on how we work, socialise (look at how many people use SMS to keep in touch rather than talking) and our own evolution.
Passion - Passion for technology has a way of shaping you, as a person. What Passion makes you do, to achieve more, to affect other people and what you neglect (neglect, as in the social aspects of our lives).
What drives me the most these days is discovery of the technology - areas I haven't ventured into and have mostly remained ignorant of its existence.
One of the reasons i chose the job at the place i'm at now, was that I would get a chance to move into another area of technology than what I had previously, and comfortably, worked in. The chance to see what I personally could achieve and also the challenge of the idea of changing.
I know many people have heard the saying that change is like a holiday - but honestly, most people are creatures of habit and rarely, if ever, venture into the unknown (relatively speaking of course) without a lot of prior planning (hence its no longer unknown) - but I, for some reason love change.
So - i changed industry - from an ISP to an ISV, with the hope that I would not only learn more but also that it might envigorate me and give me back my passion - I was close to burning out before, mostly due to a lack of motivation (which is generally a cause and affect scenario), but now each day I feel that i've gained something - learned something new and exciting.
But I didn't just change industry - I changed the face of my chosen framework, from ASP.Net to Windows Forms. The behavior model of the Windows Form was quite different than what i had become used to with ASP.Net - that is of course to say in terms of the UI (obviously) - the framework stayed the same (.Net..obviously), the projects changed scope and the team worked in a different manner.
Granted, i had other offers for more $$$ which would have placed me firmly into my comfort zone of ASP.Net again - but the challenge appealed to me.
Today, after reading David's blog i actually realised how happy i was again with my career and the industry i work in.