It has been a confusing few years. I have gone from one job at a small company to a very different one at a mid sized company. I have lived alone, moved back home, lived with my girlfriend and finally moved back home again with her. I have had many different plans and goals and some have been accomplished, some abandoned, and some obviated by circumstances. I am constantly re-evaluating what I want to do and be. This makes it difficult to definitively state what my plan is. All I can do is say what my plan is now.
I have been going to school with the aim of earning some form of bachelors degree. This is ever more seeming like a plan B. For a long time I have been of the opinion that the really successful people in the world do not need a college degree to achieve their success. I reluctantly embraced a return to school, and have been taking classes again. After a careful examination of the Bachelors degrees that are reachable, I have come up with CIS or Business Management instead of the more interesting Computer Science. I have become more and more interested in programming and although CS is the degree that would get me there, the required classes seem too onerous to be a real option.
I have been attempting to learn programming and to meet programmers. First, I went to the first Los Angeles "Drink Up" hosted by the website Github. This website offers code hosting, version tracking, and bug tracking. While there, I met a couple of guys who run Lemur Heavy Industries, a guy who wrote this Rails Tutorial and had some good conversations. I have also met some programmers while playing Ingress. Add to this the very enviable work situation of my friend OrangeWolf in programming freelance and as an employee. I want to do the kinds of things that these people do. I want to make useful application and work on new things.
I want to have a job where I am creating things, not where I am playing hall monitor to keep people from deleting their browser history or telling them why they have to use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox. I understand that every company needs tech support, to fix broken computers and help clueless computer users, but I don't want to be that guy.
My plan now is to learn programming skills wherever I can and to build a portfolio. I need to build a cool website as an exercise in building something and as proof of what I can do. I plan on going to programming related social events and meet as many people as I can. The hard part is that these goals have no timeline and I have nobody to be accountable to but myself. I also have school taking up my time. I will need to find a way to set and achieve the goals on this while maintaining my progress on school.
One of the most important skills in life is being a "Self Starter" and I need to figure out how to make myself into one.
I have been attempting to learn programming and to meet programmers. First, I went to the first Los Angeles "Drink Up" hosted by the website Github. This website offers code hosting, version tracking, and bug tracking. While there, I met a couple of guys who run Lemur Heavy Industries, a guy who wrote this Rails Tutorial and had some good conversations. I have also met some programmers while playing Ingress. Add to this the very enviable work situation of my friend OrangeWolf in programming freelance and as an employee. I want to do the kinds of things that these people do. I want to make useful application and work on new things.
I want to have a job where I am creating things, not where I am playing hall monitor to keep people from deleting their browser history or telling them why they have to use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox. I understand that every company needs tech support, to fix broken computers and help clueless computer users, but I don't want to be that guy.
My plan now is to learn programming skills wherever I can and to build a portfolio. I need to build a cool website as an exercise in building something and as proof of what I can do. I plan on going to programming related social events and meet as many people as I can. The hard part is that these goals have no timeline and I have nobody to be accountable to but myself. I also have school taking up my time. I will need to find a way to set and achieve the goals on this while maintaining my progress on school.
One of the most important skills in life is being a "Self Starter" and I need to figure out how to make myself into one.
1 comment:
One of the most important skills in life is being a "Self Starter" and I need to figure out how to make myself into one.
Yes and no.
Yes, it's an important skill. I don't think you have to change yourself into what you think a "self-starter" is. You've shown initiative in the parts of your life that you felt is important - most notably in your crafts. It's just a matter of refocusing those energies into building your career/professional life.
Now that you've set your goals, prioritize your life to meet them. Know that set backs will happen and mentally prepare yourself to deal with them.
As a perpetual starter of projects and novels, I will leave you this thought. I've found that starting things is easy.
Equally important to having the initiative to begin something is the drive to finish what you start. Persevere through the setbacks and dig deep within when you encounter hurdles and set backs. Look deep and decide now what you're willing to give up (and for how long you'd give it up) to achieve your goals. Also, think about what you *won't* give up to achieve your goals.
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