Making a Professional Pivot

As of writing this, we're in September of 2024. It's been a little over a month having left my position at PMC.

I love learning. Learning new things, or being taught new things specifically, along with the challenge of applying those new concepts is the way I work best and feel the most driven or fulfilled in the work that I do. The current job market, despite emphasizing a "learning environment" didn't seem to be a focus for most people. While I understand that companies want to hire people that add immediate value, I don't think they're thinking in the long term of any employees--this is is going to be growth and an increased value proposition. The current reality is more about what we need for the now. That to me says a lot about the current state of tech. My goal as an engineer is to learn from smart people and grow, but that just isn't in the cards presently. Maybe in the future.

So, if not dev, what? That's a good question. I've always loved art, photography, creative expression, and visual impact, but these are also things that hit the backburner any time I have a full-time job. I used to think that if I loved doing something I'd find time for it, but the reality ended up being that working in tech was so demanding that after my 9-5 my 5-9 was mostly spent reenergizing for the next day. Without energy, I wanted to do little else. Even with the first two and a half months of my job search, I used all of my energy day to day. So I decided to get back into art.

Now, what that looks like, I don't know. I had a lot of ideas, but they were all focused on how I could monetize things, make a living, etc. That's not the reason you do art, that's the result of hard work and dedication. For now, I just plan on re-learning everything I might have lost in the last decade and improving as I go.