Don’t Grow Stale

It happens, you were hired for one job and eventually it turns into a different job than you were hired for. You went to college to learn and be passionate about something, but your job morphs into something that you didn’t go into college for. For example, you went to college to be a biologist, but a few years later you are a manager of other biologists. You still need the knowledge of a biologist to manage the people, but your skills grow stale. Eventually your team looks at you not as an equal in the field, but as a manager. This happened to me. I was a contractor doing computer science for the Air Force. I was happy programming away and making stuff work. The government was so impressed with me that they hired me as a federal employee. At first I was able to continue my research and program, but eventually they morphed me into a manager. I was managing contracts with people much more in tune with what needed to be done than I. Eventually I grew stale and had no way to get back into programming. I was no longer happy. Unfortunately I went from being what some would call a senior programmer to a junior one because I had lost touch with my skills. I basically would have to relearn a lot of things over again. I was afraid I would be stuck in a management position for the rest of my life cutting through red tape. Then an opportunity came to me. I was told about a job with a big private company, and the whole company worked remotely. If I were to land the job I wouldn’t have to move. I talked it over with my wife who was nervous. I was trying to leave my nice comfortable government job for industry. We decided to go for it. I was hired! Not only that it was a highly technical position and the position paid a lot more than my old job. After almost a year I’m still deep in the technical weeds and so happy I made the jump. So the point is, sometimes you need to take big risks outside your comfort zone to get back to the roots of what you wanted to do in the first place. As happy as I am with my job, I am again jumping outside of my comfort zone to be a motivational speaker on the side. I strive to accomplish more in my life than just work.