Written to ground my intentions as I make career decisions (i.e.- quit my job) that will drastically change my current state of living
What Am I Looking For?
Despite asking this question after every positive Hinge encounter, I realized that I hadn’t asked this question in a while for how I wanted to live my life.
For the past two years, I had simply accepted the way of living and prioritized how to pass time versus chasing after what I wanted to do in the first place.
How did we get here?
When I passed the 2 year mark at my current job, I thought to myself “What’s next?“. I came to the realization that it was a question I hadn’t asked myself in several months.
As with all difficult questions (mainly due to the vast unknown of the “future”), I started by reflecting back on how the past 2 years went.
How I spent my time in the past two years / 24 months
- Started working in February 2022 (WFH in Texas) [Month: 0]
- Joined my first team
- Spent every waking hour and weekend learning how to sew
- Prepared to move to Northern Virginia and picked up knitting
- Moved in Sept 2022 (Hybrid in Northern Virginia) [Month: 8]
- Adjusted to NOVA and made several knitting friends online
- Worked a lot of late hours (conversely, did not work as much during the day)
- Rotated to a new team in Feb 2023 [Month: 13]
- Learned a lot about database migration and API development
- Started getting attached to work and staying at the office til 8pm
- Team picks up a new project in May 2023
- Enjoyed the team dynamic and the manager
- Loaned to another team in July 2023 [Month: 18]
- First time I began to feel like I was the only one truly dedicated to working on the team
- Left behind my half-baked design for a project I was leading
- Picked up two new projects that I had to lead for the next 3 months on loan
- Moved in Aug 2023 [Month: 19]
- Distinctly remember walking in the parking garage from my car and felt a rush of anger into my body, which I played off as “taking responsibility and ownership”
- Returned to first team in October 2023 [Month: 21]
- Continue to work on the existing project from the first team
- No real end in sight - lots of drama/politics from leadership
- Reorg in Jan 2024 [Month: 24]
- Previous manager leaves the org, morale is low
- One team member is PIP’d
- Another team member transfers to a sister team
- Only two existing team members left
Naturally, all good things come to an end. The second team that I joined provided a team dynamic where every member uplifted each other and the manager supported us dearly despite the unknowns of the project.