Back To Square One

Professionally, this past year was quite a unique experience for me.

In December 2006, I let my company of eight years in order to help found a new company that was intended to help people with disabilities. While it was a great opportunity for me, the money never materialized and I ended up spending my savings during that period. That hurt financially and in retrospect it wasn't a prudent move but it was still a fascinating experience.

At various times during the year, I completed a couple of short-term programming contracts. Those were a ton of fun, and I enjoyed pulling together all of my varied skills to put on these little one-man shows. The trick is finding enough of these small projects, which ain't no small thing.

Back in August 2007, I joined another small company near London as a programmer. As it turns out, they needed someone to do technical support a lot more than they needed coding. Despite by best efforts, I got burned out from the constant phone calls and client care and I eventually had to resign from this job due to overwhelming stress. Today was my last official day with my current company, but they have a bright future ahead of them and I am disappointed that I had to leave.

I actually considered going back to my first company but my old position as Director no longer exists. I wouldn't enjoy returning if it meant kicking someone else out of a current management role, and I don't want to go back as a programmer only and lose the progress I've made in my career so far. That idea is somewhat awkward as well.

So here I am, back at square one. I would dearly love to find a job in people management for a software development team, or as a business analyst, or as a database architect. Overall, I wiped out my savings and ended up below the poverty line this year, which is hilarious. We'll just have to wait to see what happens with my career now...