Career Path - I am "here"

I'm a member of a career-discussion mailing list (The WednesdayJobGroup). I enjoy the list; as a member recently commented to the moderator (who posted to the group):

... this list is a very Socratic community which is better than being a leads and job posting list in my opinion. Someone asks a questions and the issue gets chewed around, mulled over and debated.

Recently, the moderator suggested that members introduce themselves. This is my little "essay" on my background, my interests, and how I came to this point on my "career path".

Ever since childhood, I've had a love for science and technology. This is unusual in my family (mother: an art teacher, father: an architect, sister: one year of Elementary Ed; now an HR manager). In Jr. High and HS I took every science course I was offered. Entering College, I had a difficult time choosing between BioChem (I liked both Bio and Chem about equally) and Computer Science. I chose BioChem and within a short time had applied for a double major with CompSci.

Somewhere in my 3rd year, I switched over to Microbiology, mostly because

1. I had discovered I did not like BioChem as much as I thought (the 6-plus-hour lab course pretty much proved that),
2. I did NOT want to be required to take the senior level CompSci courses (nor to punch 4, count them FOUR, __boxes__ of punch cards for each assignment!), and
3. I wanted to graduate in 4 years, not in 5.

I like Micro but had no desire to "do" Micro, so then I needed to choose a Grad School program (the choice of "job" or school was a no-brainer at that point). I applied to a Forensic Science program, got a Teaching Assistantship, and realized by the 2nd week that Forensic Science was NOT my desired career. Too many body fluids (yick). I hesitated over telling my advisor (also instructor and dept. head) because I really liked him and his enthusiasm was contagious. When you talked to him you understood how Forensic Science was the most fascinating study on the planet!

When I told him, his answer was totally in character for him (and was advice I have held to this day). He said

"If you don't love what you are doing,
you should be doing what you love".

I left the Forensic Science program and applied for Microbiology programs (something I could get into). I thought maybe I'd go for a PhD, but found I don't really enjoy research. I met my (now) spouse and was introduced to his very new Sun workstation and Unix. I started "lobbying" for a Masters thesis project that would combine Microbiology and computer programming/analysis.

To make a long and messy story very short, I found a sympathetic advisor and a mutually satisfactory project (I even got my name on a paper). I discovered that I really like programming a lot when I don't have to punch all of those cards ;-) I leveraged the thesis into my first job (with a BioTech firm) where I quickly segued into Unix programming and data filters. I leveraged that job into my second (at a software company, doing Unix programing and scripts). And the rest, as they say, is history.

I'm in IT because that's what I love to do. Computers, science, technology, programming, web pages, the Internet, - these are my loves. When I look at lists of possible "career areas" (e.g the checkboxes at RealContacts or the "profession codes" on an IRS form) I am always surprised by how many there are... and I have a profound disinterest in the majority of the choices listed! :-),

Unless Information Sciences disappear totally (which I don't believe) I won't be looking for any career changes any time soon.

Unfortunately, like Barbara (on the WednesdayJobGroup list), I loathe the corporate cubical environment

  At 17:50 -0700 2003-09-01, Barbara wrote:
  >It had never occurred to me that adults didn't control
  >their own schedule, and I felt like a prisoner.

I've never verbalized it this way, but I concur.

In late 2000, I finally "broke out" of the employee/cube-slave mold and started contracting. Good idea. Bad timing. I had one great 6 month contract, followed by a not so great 1-year gig (that compensated for its faults by being a 100% telecommute). The second company let me go shortly after the dotBomb went off, spewing zillions of IT wannabes into the job-search pool. I have been unemployed for a year now, after a short, dreadful, 10-week contract last summer, from which, miraculously, I was "terminated". As a W2-relationship, the best thing about it was that I qualified for Unemployment insurance (which ran out last week. Bummer).

I keep looking for work; I keep applying. I came very close to a possible job in Berkeley but they decided they needed 24x7 availability and I can't do that from San Bruno. I'm still looking, applying, treading water... with no interest, desire, or plans to try a "career change". There is nothing I could like as well (let alone better) as what I do. There are jobs; I only need one.

My only real concern is that I have to be willing to accept "full time employee" status again. I know what this ultimately does to my stress levels and my mental health. My hope is to find a position with intelligent management that can understand that I do better work from my home office than I could ever hope to do from their facilities.

My WORK is what I do... and I love my work.

My JOB is everything else - commute, location, environment (noise, distractions, lighting, temperature), co-workers, "rules", management, project.

In my 20 years as a professional programmer, I have loved my WORK for most of that time (with a few exceptions wwhen I tried something "different" and got burned).

However, in that same 20 years, I have rarely even _liked_ my JOB for longer than 6 months at any time :/