Got My Mojo Back
Since complaining of a lack of work a few weeks back I've been thrown a life-line and now find myself with a spring back in my step and enough work to see me through the year - if not longer. In a year where it feels like every prospect I was given fell through (my annus horribilis), one of the bigger ones finally came off.
It's crazy how a lack of work affects me. Financial worries and stress aside, it makes me lose almost all interest in my chosen career.
Whenever I'm really busy and have no time to spare I always say to myself that when I'm next in a quiet spell I'll use the time wisely and learn new skills. But then, when I'm the quiet spell, I lose my mojo and any interest in learning new IT skills. Then when work picks up I kick myself for feeling like that and wasting the chance.
Never thought I'd use such an obvious cliché but I think I "strive under pressure". Now that I'm back in a position of having lots of work on I find myself with a new thirst for anything and everything IT.
Last week was one of those weeks that makes glad I do the job I do. During the week I worked on two new websites as well as fixing the odd bug and making amendments to existing apps.
- Languages I Used Last Week:
- PHP, HTML, CSS, C#, SQL, JavaScript, SSH, FTP, RDC, MXML, ActionScript, LotusScript.
- Tools I Used Last Week:
- Fireworks, Textpad, Zend Studio, FileZilla, HeidiSQL, SQL Server Management Studio, Visual Studio 2010, RDC, PuTTY, Vi, Flex Builder, Lotus Domino Designer.
This list just about sums-up why I love my job. I love having to know so much stuff and being able to delve in to a many and varied pot of skills. Variety is the spice of life, as they say.
Back To My Roots
As we speak I'm working on a traditional website. It's LAMP-based and has a backend CMS, but, in essence, it's just a plain old website. This is normally the kind of work I shun, thinking of it as "below me" and not real work. But I've now realised that (assuming the customer is willing to pay a reasonable amount) it's just as rewarding as any other work - if not more so. I've really enjoyed it and think I'll stop telling people "I'm a web developer" only to later say "I don't really do websites" if they happen to mention knowing somebody who needs one. What kind of business practice is that!
It's been nice to get back to basics. No XML. No Flex. No Web Services. Just good ol' fashioned HTML and CSS. That's where it's at.
I'll talk some more about the website I'm working on at some point as it makes an interesting case-study. I might even add it to Rockall's dire-looking portfolio page.
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Glad to hear things are picking up. Ready to hear more about it when you get a chance.
For me, I get in the same stupor. As long as I can be immersed in something I'm really interested, but if something changes I easily move on to another interest.
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Glad the winds are filling your sails again. I'm also glad to see you've changed your view of taking certain kinds of jobs (or rather, that you've clearly stated your position) ;-) A home builder company back home (Father and Son) had a good, and catchy, slogan: "No job's too big, No job's too small - we're Father and Son, we'll do it all!" In later years I think when business was down, the changed the last four words to "give us a call!", but the sentiment was the same: eager to work.
But I share your mood when work is off. When it's off, it's like you've been jilted by a scorned lover and you want nothing to do with it. That's usually about the time carpentry looks really appealing to me. :-)
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My slogan if I had one would be "If it's for the web - I'll do it!"
Funnily I'd thought of the jilted lover analogy too. When you've been dumped by a member of the opposite sex the last thing you're thinking of is a way to find another one.
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Glad to hear it Jake.
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Good on you Jake! Keep up the spirit!!!
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For me, I tend to become more inefficient. Somehow everything gets slower, and if there is just a teeny weeny bit of work left to do, I spend aaaages on it.
Then, suddenly, when work is there again, I become a monster of concentrated efficiency.
well, comparatively speaking, of course.
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That sounds just like me. Until this year I'd never not had work on at any given time. This was perhaps in part down to making work take longer just so I had something on.
Glad to know I'm not different.
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Re: available work I would say you already have most of the skills to develop .net solutions (c#, SQL, HTML, Javascript etc). It might be a painful year or so at the beginning but then you will never look back!.
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