Shields Down

I have been a Rands in Repose reader for a very long time, and I consider Shields Down to be one of my favorite pieces of Michael Lopp’s writing.

Resignations happen in a moment, and it’s not when you declare, “I’m resigning.” […] The moment happened the instant you decided, “What the hell? I haven’t seen Don in months and it’d be good to see him.” Your shields are officially down. Shields Down, Rands in Repose

If you haven’t already, give the article a read. In short, it’s about when it’s time to look for a new job and embrace a new opportunity. I’ve had several Shields Down moments over the last few years, with a really significant one in 2022.

I knew that my time at my employer was going to come to a close in the next two years, but I wasn’t sure about the precise timing, so I have been quiet. Now I do, and so it’s time to share.

I was already seriously considering looking for new opportunities all the way back in 2020, but with an ongoing pandemic I was not motivated to look for something new, and decided to stay at the company.

A wise decision, as it turned out, as I went through a pretty painful break-up at some point in 2021, which turned out to be a relationship slowly unraveling itself. I took the next two years to recover and was able to keep doing this job. I always knew that looking for a new job would be somewhere on the horizon, too.

Sabbatical

The start of this year then brought a sabbatical, too, and I enjoyed the time off. I felt pretty burned out when it began. But I was also still considering leaving my job when it ended, especially since there were pretty much zero Swift projects left over.

Prior to the sabbatical, I wrote the following:

I may come to the conclusion that I don’t want to be a software developer in the traditional sense any longer. I may also want to desperately return to the job. I don’t know what’s next.

When it was over, I felt more positive about programming again, but I wrote that I wasn’t sure if my sabbatical had helped that much in terms of enthusiasm at my current gig:

I wanted to take a break away from work to see if I’d still enjoy it after some rest, and I suppose we’ll find out where I stand in a couple of weeks when I’ve been at it again for a bit. If the answer is no, I will need to change some of my timelines that I have planned and start searching for something new. For now, though, the plan is to stay at DIVE for a little while longer, especially since there have been some interesting developments at work lately.

Back to work

It has now been a couple of weeks and although things have improved, it was becoming increasingly likely that I was going to have to leave sooner rather than later. I was certainly happy to do agency work with all of its challenges, but the projects have gotten longer than they used to be.

In fact, the projects may be taking perhaps too long. Mind you, I have enjoyed multi-year projects for sure, but lately it’s been a bit of a grind in a very boring kind of way.

My boss has been very supportive, including when times were difficult and I was not as productive as I would have liked to have been. (He was also fine with a three-month break. I told him I very much appreciated this flexibility.)

No more Swift projects

I knew it was my last year here when a key project that I was leading fell through due to departures at another company a couple of months ago.

This was a fun and challenging Swift project with multiple connected apps and a shared framework, but sadly with it going away, I am obligated to work on a less interesting web project.

I’m good with working on a “boring” project for a bit, but it’s bad news if I think I’ll be working on uninteresting projects for the foreseeable future. If there isn’t anything interesting on the horizon, that’s a bit of a red flag.

Remote work

The hour+ commute to work and a desire to step away from an informal remote work policy have all but guaranteed that I won’t be able to keep doing my job to the degree I wish I could.

Right now, I only go to the office once a week¹. That’s been the arrangement. That’s perfect for me, but with my employer wanting to transition away from that, my time at DIVE will be coming to an end.

Other team members are at the office every day, and at this point I’m the odd one out. That’s not really fun, either. It also adds friction to communication and teamwork in ways you don’t experience in person.

Besides, years ago things used to be different. I used to work at the office more often and remote communication was fairly standard. That’s changed over the years at times. If possible, I’d like to find something closer to home so I can be at the office more frequently².

Conclusion

In short, why I am looking for something new:

• It’s been almost ten years at DIVE, and the company has changed, as people have come and gone.
• Lately, a key Swift project fell through, and I really enjoyed working on that.
• I am not interested in a long commute every day of the week, which would make teamwork easier, especially now that I no longer have my own project to work on.
• Whatever personal reasons that remained for me to stay at this job have become less important and I’m more open to taking a risk at trying something new.

To that end… I am looking for new opportunities that are a better fit right now. I also announced these intentions on various social media channels.

(So if you are looking for a software developer, take a look at my contact page for more information. You can get in touch with me on various platforms that way.³)