Do you TRULY LOVE what you do? If not, why do you do it?
This are two of the most important questions we should all (regularly) ask ourselves and have the courage to answer honestly. If you hear yourself answer "no" or "not really" too often, then you know it's time for some change.
For those that don't know me, I work at Microsoft. I was, up until a few weeks ago, Product Manager for Windows CardSpace - an incredibly exciting product that will revolutionize how we authenticate ourselves and exchange sensitive information online. Before that, I was a Product Manager for Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and before that was a Program Manager for WCF. Before that I worked as a Principal Consultant and then Solution Architect at Microsoft UK. Before Microsoft, I formed and ran my own specialist software consulting business and built some pretty hard-core systems for customers throughout Europe. More on this in another post.
I asked myself the questions at the beginning of this post several times this last year and I heard my replies go from "yep, sure" to "yes, but ..." and then "no, because ..." too often. I began to ask myself "when am I happy?" and "what do I love to do?". The answer was always "I am happiest when I am designing and building great software".
Time then for a change!
It turns out that, whilst I am a little rusty, I still have the chops ;)
Following my first developer interview for over 10 years, I recently started my new role as a Software Development Engineer for (get ready for "Product Name Gone Wild" ) Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals ... or "DataDudes" as we prefer to call ourselves! :)
It's only been a few weeks now, but I can't even begin to express how excited I am now to wake up and get into work in the morning. I even look forward to Monday mornings now, eager to get in and create an elegant solution for another pressing problem.
I'll be posting more about this transformation in role from marketing to developer over the next few weeks while I settle in to the role and learn to navigate the huge amount of code in this powerful product we're building!
So I ask you once again: Do you TRULY LOVE what you do? If not, why do you do it?
Answer yourself honestly now!