I Think I've Got It

September 23, 2004

While I was plowing through my estimates the other day (the "wah, I don't wanna" stuff I wrote about last time) an idea started forming. While I was making mockups in Photoshop last night, the thought solidified. I'm in a rut.

At work I do the same thing day in and day out. There's almost never anything new; it's all just a widget getting bolted onto an exisitng project. My freelance projects are both the same, and I didn't even get to write the original version of one of them.

One of the things I liked about Brady was the (somewhat) constant influx of new work. I could make a new site, or a new type of Web application. Every couple months I'd be doing something new and building up my skills. Here, I'm starting to stagnate. Sure, I know VB now, but I knew it while I was doing ASP -- ASP's just a brain-damaged version of its parent language.

We'll skip the rut I'm in in my personal life. That ain't changed in about a decade.

I need a change of job, and I need a change of scene. Now I know for sure that I want to leave here next spring. (And I don't want to leave earlier because I've moved during the winter before, and I ain't doing it again.) I'd actually like to get back into client-based work like I had at Brady; that suits my sure-feels-like-ADD personality rather well. And I think it's obvious why I need to get the hell out of Pittsburgh.

In the meantime, I need to force myself to get this project done, then start working on the resumé right after New Year's. And hopefully by next May I'll be somewhere that isn't here.

September 21, 2004September 24, 2004