Posts in category 'careerbreak'
- (https://b-ark.ca/M4mcca)
If I’m asked what I accomplished on my break, the first thing I’ll list is using my iFixit kit to repair the shoulder buttons on my old Nintendo DS Lite (easy repair, corroded contacts in the micro switches). Why? Because it was there.
- (https://b-ark.ca/wAu8wc)
So I’ve been plugging away at a little side project for kicks. I haven’t written code for a month, now, due to other issues and distractions but I have been thinking about it, and it occurs to me how novel that is: without the pressure of deadlines I can actually spend time thinking about the problem, ensuring I build the right thing first, without the pressure to deliver the fast wrong answer.
- (https://b-ark.ca/A_ECgs)
Three months into my career break and a couple of observations: 1) I thought I might eventually get bored. I absolutely have not. 2) Time flies. Fast. 3) I was concerned about becoming disconnected from people but in some ways the opposite is true as I’m so much more flexible that I can meet people where/when they are. 4) I am absolutely not ready to go back to work yet…
- (https://b-ark.ca/Ow_WSO)
So, to ensure we didn’t bankrupt ourselves during my sabbatical, I realized I needed to get a better handle on our budget and stood up Firefly III. I gotta say, so far, not bad! I particularly love that it has an API with what looks like complete functionality coverage. Just a shame open banking basically doesn’t exist… getting complete transaction data has meant writing Tampermonkey scripts and pulling down data manually. Hard to believe it’s 2023 and that’s still a problem…
Ending and Beginning
It’s official, I’m no longer an INVIDI employee. Let the sabbatical begin!
This is a copy of the note I posted to LinkedIn announcing my resignation from INVIDI. Since I didn’t syndicate my last blog post there, you’ll forgive a bit of overlap in the subject matter, but I liked what I wrote and wanted to preserve it on my blog. You know, Own Your Data and all that.
Continue reading...Turning the page
After 21 years in my job at INVIDI I realized I needed a change, and in that moment of change, some space to reflect.
The beginning
Twenty-one years.
For many of the folks I know, twenty-one years is a long time in a career, let alone in a single company.
But the strange thing is that, while on the resume it looks like I’ve had just the one job, in reality I had the great fortune to have experienced a remarkably diverse series of roles, and it seemed like every time I started to get a little antsy, a little bored, in need of a change, INVIDI offered me another opportunity, another challenge, another path to walk.
And it has been quite the journey, though one that has come to its natural end.
Continue reading...