I am fully aware that the title may sound a little dark but stick with me.
I recently accepted a job offer at the company that I interned with over the summer. All things considered I should be extremely excited. I like the team, I like my manager, the pay is good, I’ll have medical and dental insurance (you know you’re an adult when…), I don’t have to worry about scrambling for a job after graduation, and I won’t have to worry about any more technical interviews for the time being. Like I said, I should be extremely excited, elated, over the moon. But I’m not. And that’s OK.
So why am I not absolutely stoked about my situation?
Well, like many others my ideal job would be as a software developer. If I’ve learned one thing about myself over the last 4 years, it is that I am happiest in my jobs when I am coding, and I quickly get bored and antsy when I don’t. If you asked me a year ago where I thought I would be now, I would probably say I would be an Engineer I, developing software at a mid to large-size company in San Diego. But here I am, having accepted an offer as a Test Engineer 1 at a small company in San Diego. At least one of my expectations came true!
As sarcastic as that may read, I am happy that I get to stay in San Diego.
While I would prefer to be at a larger company with more structure and more specified roles, and I would prefer to be on the development side of software rather than the test side, I see this job as a steppingstone. It will teach me how to interact with multiple groups, from upper management to software developers to hardware developers and even to the sales team. It will teach me how to properly generate and annotate test cases for when I am the one developing the software. It will teach me how to be a better developer for the testing team I work with in the future. I know I can succeed in this role, and that will show when I choose to move on.
The short of it is, having this experience will make me a better developer.
I don’t need to be excited about my new job, role, or title. But I should be and am excited for the things that this job will teach me, and I am excited for what may come after. Over the last 9 years that I have been in the workforce, one thing is abundantly clear. Every role has something you can take from it. Skills I learned when I was 18 managing a group of 15-year-old lifeguards still carry over to the work I do today.
Every job experience has value.
