Breaking Up Is Hard To Do
Author: John on June 02, 2015
Whether you are the breakor or the breakee, breaking up is hard to do. I can still rememeber years back when I broke up with my girlfriend at the time. I was the breakee and it was not easy. Emotions ran wild and I took it really hard. But in the end, it turned out for the better. I met and married a much better person.
As of this Friday, June 5th, I am breaking up from my Corporate marriage. I have been working for a large corporation, whether that be Merrill Lynch or AT&T, for 20 years. Currently I am with AT&T, approaching my 14th year with them. But I am leaving that life for a new one. My new job will be as a full time Ruby developer. Something that I have been slowly training myself for over the past 1.5 years.
I wasn't looking to leave AT&T. Overall, I've been happy there. And the environment has been fairly stable. I have repeatedly received high year end evaluations. I have been told how valuable I am to the team and how others look to me. And that is great. However, as can be the case in the corporate world, I'm in a job 'band'. I've asked to be bumped to a higher band so that I could grow, but at this time they have not been able to accommodate me.
So this time around, when I was asked by someone looking to hire a developer, I said, "...tell me more." After learning about the new opportunity, and thinking really hard, I decided to accept the job offer. It was not an easy decision - as I mentioned above, I've been with AT&T for almost 14 years. I get paid pretty good, and have excellent benefits, including a nice 401k plan.
But I made the decision to move in order to solidify my future. I believe that working as a full time Ruby developer, I will be able to grow my knowledge rapidly, as well as expand my compensation potential. Along the way, I will be building a solid path for my retirement - I can code from just about anywhere, at anytime.
Once I've been at the new job for about a month, I will write again about how things are going. Hopefully I will not come back and utter the words of Gob, from 'Arrested Development', and say: "I've made a huge mistake."
Learn Something New Every Day
Last Edited by: John on November 14, 2015