It’s funny how life works. The highs and lows, ebb and flows are what makes life interesting.
My first career was in live production. Lighting, Sound, Rigging. Doing concerts, theater and conventions. I honestly very much loved that career. I spent the last five years of that career as the Technical Director for a fairly large theater, with a mid-sized events arena, located in a smaller market.
The problem was, being in a smaller market, there was a fairly low cap to my income potential. Eventually, my wife and I realized that in order to make the income I had projected for myself required a change, either moving to a larger market, or changing careers. The biggest downside to moving to a larger market was I would inevitably end up working on the road, which isn’t a great environment for a family, plus my wife prefers the size of community we live in.
Since I had been involved with programming since the third grade, furthering my education in this area was a natural fit. The college I ended up attending required at the time a minor for all students going after a Bachelors degree. While many of my Computer Science compatriots chose a Math minor (which only required a handful of extra classes), I viewed my degree from an investment standpoint. I figured if I was having an issue getting a job as a Software Engineer, there was very little chance of getting a job as a Mathematician, especially with a Math minor. So, I did a minor in Network Administration, figuring there would always be someone needing a computer fixed.
This choice ended up being a wise one. I finished my degree two months after the dot com bubble burst, pretty much killing the software industry in the Unites States. Between 2002 and 2009, I worked as a Software Engineer for about two and a half years. The rest of the time was as a Network Administrator (a few times working as a Software Engineer who also did Network Administration for the companies I worked for).
In 2009, I was asked to help build a pirate themed restaurant. At the end of my live entertainment career, I was able to help build a theme park that was installed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. I worked on two contracts for that park. The first was doing lighting, audio, video integration and show control for a “haunted mine ride”. I received a second contract doing lighting, audio and show control throughout all the walkways of the park, and a few specific themed areas.
With that experience, I was able to design the show segments, lighting, audio, special effects and show control for the restaurant. Several of the special effects I build were using small, discrete controllers, based off of the Basic Stamp processor. I had never done this before, and was an enjoyable learning experience.
After a few years working with the themed restaurant, thing started to slow down, and I needed to find other work. I did some contract mobile programming in the interim, but finally went after a full time development job. I ended up getting hired by an airline as a C# developer.
After working here a few years, I ended up transitioning to another company as a PHP Software Engineer. Through some individuals I had worked with previously, I ended up, on the side, starting to build displays for a local Children’s Museum. The museum has a great staff that builds and conceived most of the displays. They use me to add electronics, or build really odd projects. As part of this, I learned how to build interactivity with devices like Arduino’s and Raspberry Pi’s.
In the last six months, the company I was working for and I split ways. I used my side contracts to bring in income during this period (plus a descent severance package), but eventually, my wife insisted I get a regular job again (at some point I’ll do a post on the contracting mindset vs the employee mindset). I ended up as the I.T. Lead Instructor and I.T. Manager for a tech college.
A month and a half after I took this job, the corporation that owns the college (and several others) made a shift in their approach. In short, they decided to no longer take on any more on-ground students, and moving all new students to the online university that is part of their portfolio. They made the commitment to support all current students through graduation, which game my position a specific timeline.
During this time, I’ve been waiting for another project I’ve been helping to design to officially start-up. That project is still coming, but there is no specific timeline yet, and my job here ends in a little over two months. Once again, my wife was becoming very uncomfortable with the unknowns coming up.
Here’s where the stars aligned. My mother, who is also a Software Engineer, has been working for a trucking company for many years, helping with devices to reprogram the vehicle computer (modern version of chipping a vehicle). Several years ago, they came out with a device not intended for deals, but for end users. As part of the project, I was able to design and build a web platform to allow updating of the devices.
After the project, a discussion was had on the possibility of bringing me on full time. My mother was told due to history in the company, they did not like to hire family members. Bummer. I really like the project, and the people I worked with.
Flash forward, and a few weeks ago, they ended up letting go one of their developers. A few days ago, my mothers manager had a discussion with her on finding someone that would be able to program on these custom chip devices. She reminded them I could pick it up pretty quick, but they had said no before. Due to my background, my history with the company, timing, and just plain dumb luck, within a day I was brought in for an interview, and offered a job.
As one of my friends put it, part of it was odd skills they needed, but also was the connection to get me in the door. There’s a lot to be said for that. This is where networking is so important. Don’t pass up networking opportunities, because it is much easier to find a job or a project when you already have relationships.