The Job

Last week I was offered a new job, and I gladly accepted. I will be a PHP developer for a company in Grimsby. It should be fairly similar work to that I was doing in Guelph, and I’m looking forward to joining a new team and building on the skill set I have developed so far.

There were lots of reasons I wanted to leave the situation I was in, but mostly, it was just time. I’d been there for just about two years, and I think I wasn’t learning much any more. My job description had changed from pure development to server administration, client relations, business meetings, and all sorts of other tasks that led me to feel like I was at times making negative progress in getting whatever the current task was done.

In September, the company decided to outsource its data entry and some of the product development to India, and with that change, we lost half of our IT staff: one went to India to set things up there, and one was laid off. One week prior to this announcement, we release a new version (100% new code-base) of our major product. This release was done according to a schedule dictated from the top of the company, and the product wasn’t ready. Understandably, our clients weren’t impressed with the new product, and roughly half of my day was spent fixing client problems. I spent most of the fall simply putting out fires, adding in band-aid solutions to problems with a bigger scope than I was able to address in any meaningful way.

Add onto that the slightly more than an hour commute to and from work, and I just didn’t have it in me to work for this company any more. I started looking about two months ago and after a few interviews found this place. I got a good vibe from the management team, the interview took me less than fifteen minutes to get to, and I think that I can thrive in the environment they have. I’m looking forward to starting there and seeing how it goes.

I’m also looking forward to getting two hours of my day back every day. Not having to commute is a big plus, and I’m starting to think up ways I can fill up my time.

Hope it all goes well.