Chchchchanges

I haven’t had many jobs in my life and I have never “quit” a job for another one. The first job I had was in retail and that led into a design job for the company. Of course, nobody notices if someone leaves retail. That design job ended because the place went out of business, so I had no choice but to find a new job — which led to me to my most recent job as a web applications developer. But it is time for a change.

I will be leaving my post as an application and intranet developer to play the part of an Internet Services Director. Now, while the word “director” sound impressive, in this case it is rather misleading. I won’t be doing much directing, at least not of people, as it might suggest. But I will be involved in the direction of web sites for a handful of radio stations.

Since I got the intranet admin job, I have spent a lot of time studying good design and, more importantly, the behavior of people. I feel that the nuts & bolts don’t make a lick of difference if the intended audience can’t use the damn thing - and that all boils down to design and the how/why of people. I’ve written here at the Toast a lot in the past about what makes good web sites and what makes bad web sites. Now with this new job I get to test my metal to see if all that I’ve been saying is true or just a bunch of bullshit. I hope not the latter.

Recently my role as application developer took a nose dive as more work was being outsourced or purchased off the shelf - so the writing was on the wall. I quickly found myself as the “FTP Guy” that just knew where to put files on the server. I received files from the boss and the standard instructions were, “put this on the site and send me the link.” As exciting as that sounds, it led to much bordem, there was no creation happening. I felt I wasn’t being tapped or challenged, aside from what I thought of what was happening and being put on the web sites. Yuck.

It will be an interesting transistion going from applications to full blown public web sites, but now I will be able to flex my design muscle a tad and have some fun with the skills I love to use. Applications are great and I really enjoyed seeing them help people, but room for creativity within that realm is limited, especially once some ground rules were established - I couldn’t stray far from the conventions I made or confusion would have ensued.

My work environment will be quite different as well. I will lose a co-occupied office for a plush cubicle…but I gain and window and daylight! I will have human interaction too, something that was rather lacking in the previous position. Sure, I had someone else in the office, but we were always working on different projects. We could share ideas and solutions, but ultimately there was little collaboration on the way towards the final product. I will now be part of an actual team which should prove most interesting and exciting. I hope to maintain my Toys R Us atmosphere, but it will be of a lesser size for sure. No free parking either. But I will have a pimped out, smokin’ computer.

There will certainly be more thoughts scribbled out here over the next two weeks…and beyond…while I switch locations and roles. Here I go…