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.
