{"id":5,"date":"2022-01-07T04:54:39","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T04:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mutex42\/?p=5"},"modified":"2022-01-07T21:08:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-07T21:08:23","slug":"diving-off-the-deep-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/mutex42\/2022\/01\/07\/diving-off-the-deep-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Diving off the Deep End"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why?  This was basically the only response I received when I started telling friends and family that I had quit my job.  Why would you quit your job at Microsoft?  Weren\u2019t you making a pretty good living?  Did you not like your boss or your team?<\/p>\n
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In reality, it wasn\u2019t any of those things.  And that\u2019s what made the decision so scary.  The conscious choice to leave all those things behind, a comfortable job on a great team at a respectable company, felt like I was diving off the deep end. <\/p>\n
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But I had made my mind up and had to leave.  Don\u2019t get me wrong, I loved my team and Microsoft was a great company.  The real catalyst for my decision was the feeling of mental stagnation that had been nagging me for the past few years.  My job itself, was challenging at times with regards to project management and communication, but I hadn\u2019t found it very mentally stimulating.  I was lacking the excitement of learning new things or tackling complex problems.  When I did finally make up my mind to go, it felt like a long overdue weight had been lifted.  It\u2019s true what people say about \u2018golden handcuff\u2019 jobs that can snare you into complacency.  <\/p>\n
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My golden handcuffs were broken by my first \u2018hello world\u2019 program.  I\u2019ve always been a tinkerer at heart.  You know the kind.  The kid who\u2019s always asking why or how everything worked.  Or the kid who would disassemble and repair his own bike, computer, cellphone, etc.  When I finally got around to writing my first hello world program, it felt like a gate had opened and angels were singing chords straight to my little tinker tooling heart.  I know, it sounds corny, but it just felt right.<\/p>\n
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After discovering my new passion, I started taking computer science courses at Oregon State University while still working my day job.  I pulled this double agent act for over a year before it became readily apparent that I wanted to spend more time learning about how the internet worked and how engineers first started tracking electrical signals through gates as 0\u2019s and 1\u2019s vs. my actual job.  I knew I had to make a choice as my second year of courses began.  The classes were getting harder and I was burning out pulling double shifts for both work and studying.  <\/p>\n
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And that\u2019s when I took a leap of faith.  I broke those golden handcuffs, turned in my letter of resignation, and dedicated myself fully to becoming a programmer.  And for what it\u2019s worth, I would make the same decision time and time again. I haven\u2019t regretted a second of it.<\/p>\n
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Since leaving Microsoft, I\u2019ve been constantly learning and building new things.  I haven\u2019t felt this mentally stimulated in years.  Some of the personal projects that I\u2019m proud of include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n