Oxford life. Thirtysomething challenges. Music leanings. Anything really.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
My new life
I am turning a corner, and beginning a new career.
Nobody told me that getting back to work after travelling would be so difficult. No, actually, they did, and, what do you know, it turned out to be true. It's taken me over 12 months to work out what to do. Things have been more complicated by the fact that I wanted to change career too.
I had been a coder, earning plenty of cash churning out lines and lines of Visual Basic code. Lucrative it was, but ultimately, I didn't enjoy the repetition. Coding is fine, but not all the time, thank you very much. I also found the idea of working for one company all the time daunting - I have found I would turn down opportunities for permanent work because the idea of an eternal job depressed me.
New Zealand made me realise how much I enjoyed writing. I also craved variety. And I do still like IT-related things. The geek in me is strong, it can never be silenced completely.
Which leads to me today. The career solution? Freelancing. After a period of networking, suddenly I am set up. I have a researcher job with Fasttrack, interviewing new and expanding companies. And on top of that, there is work with Bunnyfoot, designing usability studies.
RM want to offer me work, and there are plenty of one-off opportunities around, too.
Suddenly, I have lots of work and I am my own boss. It's scary and exciting.
The worst thing is keeping my own financial records. And not writing blog entries in the middle of the day like this. Doh!
Nobody told me that getting back to work after travelling would be so difficult. No, actually, they did, and, what do you know, it turned out to be true. It's taken me over 12 months to work out what to do. Things have been more complicated by the fact that I wanted to change career too.
I had been a coder, earning plenty of cash churning out lines and lines of Visual Basic code. Lucrative it was, but ultimately, I didn't enjoy the repetition. Coding is fine, but not all the time, thank you very much. I also found the idea of working for one company all the time daunting - I have found I would turn down opportunities for permanent work because the idea of an eternal job depressed me.
New Zealand made me realise how much I enjoyed writing. I also craved variety. And I do still like IT-related things. The geek in me is strong, it can never be silenced completely.
Which leads to me today. The career solution? Freelancing. After a period of networking, suddenly I am set up. I have a researcher job with Fasttrack, interviewing new and expanding companies. And on top of that, there is work with Bunnyfoot, designing usability studies.
RM want to offer me work, and there are plenty of one-off opportunities around, too.
Suddenly, I have lots of work and I am my own boss. It's scary and exciting.
The worst thing is keeping my own financial records. And not writing blog entries in the middle of the day like this. Doh!
// posted by Andy @ 3:58 pm 
