Don't Get Comfortable!

In hindsight, the last month has been rather interesting. One might think that because I am writing this at the end of 2023 that I might be referring to Thanksgiving, Christmas, and possibly the end of the year. I wish.

Where to start?

Overtime

I love my job! I love who I work with, what we work on, and that I work on technology for a living. Because of this, I have no problem working overtime. I am thankful that my employer not only allows me to work overtime, but they pay for working overtime - not all companies do this.

I have had coworkers, family members, and other people around me say that I work too much. Well, now "some bean counters" are telling me that I am working too much... I have been asked to cut my overtime in half. This should not be a problem. Unfortunately, I made it one.

During my most recent yearly review, the topic was brought up that sometime after the holidays I would likely be asked to cut my overtime in half. At the time, I did not think anything of it. But last week I started to do the math. The maths were not mathing. The little chunk that I thought I could absorb was going to be a much larger piece that started to induce what could have become a panic attack.

Thankfully, I have an amazing wife, an awesome supervisor, and most importantly a faithful God!

I am not the first to say this but learn to live within your means. I was not. I made excuses such as "we are making memories" and "we have five growing boys" and many others. But if I had been more financially diligent, then a cut to my overtime would not have been so concerning.

It is my intention to start living as though I am not working any overtime. It is going to take some major adjustments, unfortunately, but there are only benefits from it. It will prepare me in case my overtime is completely taken away in the future, any overtime I do work can be used to save for later or invest, and much more.

The Market

In the midst of my near panic attack, I started to consider whether or not I should start looking at the market. If the issue was "lack of" money, maybe I could get more elsewhere. But could I?

I have been blessed when it comes to jobs. From the age of 16, I have only ever been without a job for three months and that was when I moved states when I went away for college. I have been offered jobs without looking for them (which is not uncommon). I have been offered substantially more money than my job at the time without negotiating. I have been "lucky" to move jobs not long before my previous job lost their contracts. When I say that I have been blessed, I have been BLESSED!

A few weeks back, my wife was helping one of our kids fill out some online applications and ran across an "ad" for a Network System Architect for $130,000 per year. I told her that if I explored the market there are plenty of jobs that I could qualify for that have a higher salary. After she gave me a look, I pulled up Indeed and showed her a few postings and their listed salary ranges. She was pretty surprised.

I had to ask myself: Am I doing my family a disservice by not attempting to get the salary that my skills could garner? I have never been one to chase money. I wanted a job that I enjoyed, that challenged me, and that was secure. From a young age I wanted a job that I could stay at for decades and retire from. Money was never a goal, just a luxury.

So, after seeing the math not mathing, I created an Indeed account and started to look at different postings. There were plenty of jobs that appeared to offer just as good of benefits as I currently get and a pretty large increase in salary. But after remembering some conversations I have had in the last few weeks and seeing the jobs that were posted, I have put in no applications.

I have been a professional programmer for 17 years now. I have been a Team Architect (Lead Developer) for the last two years. I have only ever had great performance reviews - to my recollection. I love to learn and have a desire to make all things better. I know that no matter what job I am in, I will do everything I can to succeed. But I did not put in any applications because the tech stacks I have been a part of did not seem to be in demand...

Expand Your Skills

I have lived in a Microsoft world when it comes to programming. The only IDE I have used that has not been Microsoft Visual Studio was Borland C++ Builder and that was back in college for a class. I have played with VS Code for fun but am far from proficient in it. Every application I have been involved in written was grounded in C# or VB.Net. I have only ever had Windows desktops and laptops and all of our applications are deployed to or installed on Windows servers.

When I looked at the postings on Indeed that were remote and for Senior Developers they were often for tech stacks that I have little to no experience with. I messed with Python for about a week when trying to do a CS50 course on edx.org. One of the applications I currently work on is mostly React, but my experience with it is very limited (less than two years). I have never worked with Angular or Vue. I have no experience with GoLang. I am very limited in Cloud development.

I am not much of a podcast guy, but I have been binging one for the last month. One of the topics they discussed was building your career. At the time, I did not see a reason for me to do that. I have a great job and it is extremely unlikely that they would ever let me go. But I never considered if I would see the need to leave.

I started this blog because of the podcast I have been listening to. The goal at the time was to try and give myself a push to get involved in the tech community outside of just my job. Maybe even inspire me to share some of my ideas or keep a track of some side endeavors. Hopefully give some young techies knowledge they do not necessarily teach in the colleges. Now, an added goal is to push me to expand my skills.

Advice

Be smart with your money. I can understand that it may be hard to take that advice from someone who clearly has not been smart with their own, but please make this an exception. I will avoid listing ideas on how I think I could have been smarter with my money other than to say again: learn to live within your means.

Find your balance between work, personal, and career. I always tried to be the person that once I was off of work, I did not want to touch a computer. I saw no reason to stay up on the latest tech, to do side projects, etc. My family meant more to me than being ready for career changes. My family still means more to me, but without my career, I will struggle to take care of my family's financial needs. Do your job, make memories, but also try and find time to stay fresh in the industry.

Build connections. I am not a social person by nature. If I have to choose between going to a conference or staying home, my instinct is to stay home. I see myself as awkward, do not like to take part in most "modern" conversations, am long winded when I do talk, etc. All of that being said, I can see the value in knowing people throughout the industry. References, insight into hiring opportunities, and more.

---

I once heard a Pastor say that "God is comfortable with you being uncomfortable." The premise behind the sermon was to trust in God, even when you do not know what is going on. But this does not mean that you just sit still and wait, but that you ask him for direction and guidance. I know that God will get us through this, but I also know that He's telling me to be better prepared.

He'll do his job, now it is time for me to do mine.