2015/04/12

The long sabbatical

Yes, after that first hyped-up post the Back-end Programmer had a meeting with Fate. No, not that Fate, the Fate that visits us from time to time with big gifts. I have been really busy during those couple of years, just not with the back-end (or front-end for that matter) staff. Instead I was busy with the project of my life.

But as we all know, all good things have to come to an end and so I am back. Full force! The force of a tornado, or a tsunami, or-or-or just, you know, a running faucet (don't laugh, you don't know how much damage it can cause!)

Anyway, Win 8 development is no longer my priority and I am still trying to figure out exactly what I want to learn next.

I started working in a french-speaking (or, as we say it here, francophone) environment, so I guess for now learning how to work in French is my biggest priority. But all along there will be technical challenges to be faced and I will use this space to share my experiences as I go along.

Right now I am working on a big-scale Windows Azure PaaS project and there are many head-scratching (or even head-bumping) moments.

But because of the different environment, there are also many organizational ... let's call them issues, and I will talk about those as well.

But let me first ask you a question. Have you been in a position where you are feeling comfortable in your job, not very stressed-out, going along with the flow? Have you ever been in a place so comfortable that your entire being starts itching to get out, to move on? Do you remember the feeling that you just HAVE to break out of it, to go out of this comfort zone, look for something ... new? Different. Refreshing. Challenging. New.

Yes? Then you know what I am talking about. I spent almost 10 years at my last company. I think that I actually broke some kind of record because in our industry no one stays at the same company for that long. Everyone moves on. But I stayed. Mostly because I was meeting new people, travelling to different places, helping different customers, solving a whole lot of different problems, It was awesome! It was new, all the time! It was exciting! Until it no longer was. Until it became a part of the big gray ball that that keeps on moving, day after day.

It wasn't the pressure, because it disappeared long ago. It was the boredom. Planes and airports became boring. The constant change became boring. The clients became boring. And I became just a cog in the machine. I wasn't making any difference any more. I needed to break out.

And then the phone rang. The head-hunter was actually extremely open about the offer. Everyone that I met was honest - the project is in trouble and we need help. We need YOUR help. We need YOU.

This was the reason why I took this new job. It wasn't the money (although it's not bad), it wasn't the benefits (although they are great), it wasn't the technology (although it's the future). It was the desire to make a difference. The need to get up from the comfy sofa. To wake up. To break out.

So, are you comfortable?