Welcome to week #3 – as I spend my Tuesday night writing this blog post, listening to lofi hip hop – beats to relax/study to and pondering where my weekend went.
I expected this quarter to be quite relaxed; potentially taking a break from my 40 hours day job of being a Technical Project Management team lead, and focusing my energy towards wrapping up my academics and applying to job.
In reality, Bed Bath and Beyond took a dive along with the economy, and here we are sitting with my 401k account going down the stream (it’s okay, it’ll recover eventually) and dollar to yen ratio hitting an all-time record (in recent years) of 1 dollar to 146 yen. Though for the last point I did take advantage by having a <2 week vacation in my home country right before the term started, I unfortunately (or fortunately) decided to continue on with my day job. As much as I longed for the freedom and luxury of focusing on my study, I, too, am an adult that need to pay rent.
Regarding my career, I feel I am in an interesting position. I am currently a contractor for a vendor company that provides service to a multinational tech conglomerate that just announced legs to be shown in their VR tech along with a release announcement of a high-end version of their VR headset with a whopping price tag of $1499.
I work closely with the security team, which grinds their soul day and night, securing the user base of millions of users around the world. I advocate for security, work with my project coordinators to work with engineers to get things done, though it doesn’t go so smoothly as many may expect, especially if you have a technical background.
Would I be in the receiving side of such request, to properly code with security in mind, as I aspire to become one of the developers working endlessly to create a product with minimal bugs and hiccups? Or should I pursue a career continuing to be in a Technical PM side, advising and pushing agendas for engineering teams to follow.
The more I am in both shoes as I continue my day job and study at night, the more I feel being in a limbo. I certainly do like keeping things organized, but at the same time, I like getting actual things done with my hands. But am I going to be happy with the work-life balance as a developer that I aspire to be, or am I happy with the way I am right now? One thing for sure – is that I’m getting too comfortable in my current job.
That’s how I lost my last job, and I don’t want to repeat that again. I want to challenge myself to something new, and if the developer role doesn’t work out for me, I can always take a step back and go explore a project management-centered role again. As I get older, the career window may get narrower, but I think given the current climate, changes are bound to happen. As I write this post, I come to the realization – that I should, really get my stuff together and be ready to start tackling the long but rewarding road of job hunting.
Is future going to be certain? Well, GameStop stock is surprisingly still around and above $25 for about a year, but who knows that the next few months to year would hold. But I know from a fact that I shouldn’t be too comfortable with where I am at, and until I retire at a ranch taking care of chickens and taking care of a garden surrounded by dogs and maybe kids, I shouldn’t be afraid to try new things.
Until next time.
– Fusako
