I had enough of not doing what really inspires me, coming back home without the will to study more about my work. To work with exactly what you like and keep studying it more without urgent necessity, only because it’s fun. I had that before, and I want it again.
Not saying that this is somebody else’s fault, I have to be fair, it was my choice. I’ve been in the comfort zone for two years, and that is too long, it’s unacceptable.
I don’t have anything to complain about the company I’ve worked on. It is awesome. I have worked with many great people, made very good friends and would recommend it to anyone who wants to work with technology and wants a great work environment. It’s just that I need different experiences now. I want more, and I want it faster.
I was working with Drupal for a bit more than three years. And that was it, I was only working, with no projects besides my own particular random studies. No focus. No clear objectives. I was in my comfort zone and it took me some time to notice it.
After reading about investments, entrepreneurship, motivational stuff, methods to get things done and many other things, I realized that I needed a change in order to be able to look back with no regrets. It’s impossible to accomplish everything you want at once, and the hardest thing is to avoid that this urge to do everything, become the very reason of not doing anything.
So in the beginning of 2013 I started to write down everything I wanted to do in a piece of paper and to plan what I was able to accomplish. That’s essentially how to get things done. The chosen topics were:
- Work with a different technology
- Get a Masters degree
- Risk everything for something better while still able
The common thing between them, which is the most important, is that all of them involves learning. I didn’t think that everything would be successful, so here’s what I did. I applied to a post-graduation subject as a special student (so I could still work), told my manager that I wanted to work with something different (should’ve done it before), and applied to an intensive Ruby on Rails course in San Francisco.
Then everything went better than expected. I was accepted on the Neural Networks subject, got the chance to change technologies at my company (many thanks to my manager, who helped me so much) and started to work with Java, and I was accepted at DevBootcamp.
Long story short. I couldn’t handle it all at once, tried really hard, but Neural Networks while still working turned out not being the brightest idea. Got passionate about the subject and intend to study it on the future, but for now it served as learning that I can’t do everything at the same time. Kinda frustrating, nevertheless, a good experience.
Work with back-end Java is really different from Drupal and I liked all the learning that came with this experience. And it’s a great plus to be able to stay in the project for three full sprints that finishes a deliverable version of the application. So I can leave with an accomplishment feeling.
Last, but not least. the time has come for the third point. I found DevBootcamp while studying RoR (one of my particular random studies), and it just seems the right thing to do. People that are passionate about their craft, about software quality and efficiency. It seems to reach so many important levels, and is just beside Silicon Valley, the world center of technology, I want to be there.
It was the hardest decision I’ve ever taken, I’m leaving my three year and a half job this week, postponing my post-graduation, and still, I’m really excited about it. I’m investing on myself. Why did it take so long to take decisions? Well, it is what it is. It’s hard to be great, it’s easy to accommodate.
I’m pushing forward to have 100% focus on the DevBootcamp course. I’m going to be part of the cohort of August 26th. I’m leaving my job because of that, don’t know what is going to happen. The only thing I know is that I’ll do my best, and it will be fun.
Really hard decisions, but I’m decided now and I won’t look back. Wish me luck.