© iStockPhoto/aluxum

In my first Milestones in My Own Journey post I talked about how I ended up as a programmer. Now I’m going to talk about how I got out of it.

What do you do when you realize you spent a ton of money on a degree but hate your job? Honestly, you freakout first.

First, changing direction didn’t happen overnight. To make the change I needed to admit to myself that I really hated what I was doing. I would say that was one of the harder moments. I’d worked hard, invested years of my time and lots of money to have the career I was in. The only thing I was sure about was that I wanted a Masters degree. I’d had that planned before college but I had made the decision not to go directly from undergrad to graduate school.

Going back to school isn’t an option or necessary to change careers. I love academia so school was the most obvious choice for me at the time.

Once I decided I needed to make a change the universe helped. I got laid off from a job that was driving me nuts. I took my severance and happily packed my box and left the office my last day with no plans for the future. I don’t think I ever been happier to leave a job than I was that day. The only thing I was sure of was that it wasn’t going to be more of the same.

I took my time and found several graduate schools to send in applications. While I wanted on the results of hours of research, writing essays and getting recommendations I decided to have some fun. My research included contacting alumni from each school and different graduation years to find out what they had to say about the master’s program. I highly recommended if you’re thinking about any school that you try that exercise. Well worth the effort.

So did I work before I went to graduate school? Nope. What I did do was look for the required jobs to get unemployment but I spent the rest of the time taking art classes. I learned to make mosaics, made Papier-mâché using balloons and  did some figure drawing on South Beach.

I got accepted to New York University’s Interactive Telecommunication program.

What can I say about graduate school?
Well it achieved its purpose. I changed my career direction. Would I do it again? Definitely. Same school? Probably not. This has more to do with the fact that I’m not the same person I was when I applied to graduate school. My needs have changed. As with any educational endeavor you get out of it what you put into it.

So what’s next?
I thought I knew but now I’m mulling over my options. Is more schooling in my future? Probably. I take continuing education classes regularly. What about another graduate degree? Perhaps a doctorate? Not sure but what I do know for sure is it’s definitely not in my immediate future.

Stay tuned for the next chapter in my evolution. With me you never know what’s next. I reserve the right to change my mind and my direction as often as it pleases me.

© Shelley-Ann J. West

If you’ve read my About page I mention that I used to be a programmer and that I switched careers. In a series of posts I’m going to talk about how I ended up as a coder in the first place and how I made the switch from programmer to working in the user experience field.

I guess the best place to start is how I ended up interested in technology in the first place. It’s my Dad’s fault! My Dad is a big music junkie. I learned about subwoofers and bass amplifiers from him. Plus, I always wanted to know how things work. I used to take apart watches and put them back together. Honestly, when I was in high school I wanted to be an art teacher. I’ve certainly moved very far from that! The image in this post is a watercolor/colored pencil piece I did back then. You can blame Dad from the interest in art too, he used to be an architect.

I learned to code back in high school without a computer. Our school didn’t have them. I wrote my first piece of code on a computer after I graduated when I took a continuing education class at a technical school. I remember the teacher at the technical school saying I had an aptitude for it. I took that class because I was waiting to hear back from some US universities I’d applied to.

Months later I entered university as an undecided major and took a lot of aptitude tests. I took several classes in different areas to see what I’d like. I’d always been good at Math so it was no surprise to find out I had an aptitude for Math and Science. I did have one Psychology professor suggest I declare as a psych major. Considering my current interest in Cognitive Psychology it might not have been such a bad idea!

Anyway, so even though I could draw pretty well I declared as a Computer Science major my second semester in university. I thought I would love it. But I ended up hating it. Too much theory and not enough real world application at the time for me. Being the only female in my class was annoying for a number of reasons. Granted I was adjusting to my first co-ed learning experience since pre-school. In most of my prior school life I was used to being around smart women and not getting ignored by instructors because of my gender.

I eventually switched over to the Management Information Systems program in the business school. The male to female ratio wasn’t much better there either. Though the program had more women in my core classes, granted only four others. General business classes were a lot more diverse and I learned real world applications for the coding I was doing in my Management Information Systems classes.

I also learned I hated Accounting but I did love Finance and Economics. I kept a Computer Science minor for awhile before I dumped it. Even taking less credits in that program was just wasting my time. One cannot thrive in an environment where one is invisible.

Ultimately, I graduated and worked in a couple different places as a programmer. What I learned in the work place was that while I loved learning to code. I absolutely hated doing it all day. I hated being on call to fix crashed programs. It’s awesome to get called at 2am to fix a major piece of software because if you don’t people won’t be able to work at 9am when the office opens. I hated debugging other people’s bad code. I swear some coders don’t put comments in their code for job security. The logic being if you are the only one who knows how it works…well they can’t get rid of you. Complete bull crap though.

What I learned:

• Just because you’re good at something doesn’t mean you should make it a career choice
• Try before you buy. I could have saved myself a lot of aggravation if I’d done a few internships before graduation

I still code on occasion for fun not for work. And I’ve learned other programming languages since I stopped doing it full time. I like knowing how it works I just don’t want to do it all day.

In my next Milestones in My Own Journey post I’ll talk about what I did when I realized I hated my career with a passion.

I recently read My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire by Michelle Goodman based upon the recommendation of a friend. I have to say I thought that after read a bunch of other books about freelancing and doing it for over 5 years I didn’t think I was going to learn a lot. Not the best attitude to have, but I read on average 5 books at once so I don’t like to start a book unless I’m going to finish it.

The guide covers everything from creating a business plan, developing a marketing strategy and dealing with clients. Most people skip creating the business plan because they think it needs to be complicated and long. Well that need not be the case. The author discusses why having a business plan is important i.e. for clarifying what you are doing, why you are doing it and also can you make a living at it.

The section on pricing in the book is worth the cost of the book. Figuring out how much to charge is one of THE biggest challenges most people face. I know I still struggle with it. I want to be fair to the client but I also need to charge what my services are worth. Someone will always want the cheapest price they can get for a job but usually I know that person is someone I am not meant to serve.

If you are new to freelancing or just need a kick in the butt to straighten out your business this book is a must read. The section about contracts is great too. If you know any good contract attorneys send them my way!

Michelle blogs at anti9to5guide.com or follow her tweets @anti9to5guide

The quote on the front cover of Now, Discover Your Strengths claims that the book is a

revolutionary program that shows you how to develop your unique talents and strengths – and those of the people you manage

Well I don’t manage people often so the part about managing people wasn’t that meaningful to me but still intriguing. All that sounded great but how was I going to learn anything about my strengths. Well each book comes with a unique code that works only once online…so sorry you can’t borrow my copy…you then go to the testing website and complete the test. I’m sure the cynics will say that’s a nice way to sell books. If you’ve ever completed the Myer-Briggs test or any sort of personality test you are already familiar with the types of questions tests like these ask.

Strengths Defined

“First, for an activity to be considered a strength you must be able to do it consistently. And this implies that is a predictable part of your performance…The acid test of a strength? The ability is a strength only if you can fathom yourself doing it repeatedly, happily, and successfully.

Second, you don’t have to have strength in every aspect of your role in order to excel…excellent performers were rarely well rounded. On the contrary, they were sharp.

Third, you will excel only by maximizing your strengths, never by fixing your weaknesses. This is not the same as saying “ignore your weaknesses.” The people we described did not ignore their weaknesses. Instead, they did something much more effective. They found ways to manage around their weaknesses, thereby freeing them up to hone their strengths to a sharper point.

I really loved how they described constantly trying to fix your weaknesses as just “damage control”.

According to the authors most people think that with “enough practice almost everything is learnable”. I have to agree there are some things I have a natural aptitude for and others I don’t. I always know when I’m doing something that doesn’t come naturally. I am sure you have had the same experience. It’s like having teeth pulled without being put to sleep. I’ve had that done and I don’t recommend it!

There are 34 themes in the StrengthFinder profile and the book goes into detail about each one. Plus there are stories below each about people with those themes. In case you’re curious here are my top 5 strengths:

1. Empathy – Can sense the emotions of others
2. Connectedness –Believe things happen for a reason and that we are part of something larger than ourselves
3. Restorative – Love to solve problems
4. Individualization – Intrigued by the unique qualities of each person. Impatient with generalizations or “types” because you don’t want to obscure what is special and distinct about each person
5. Command – Desire to take charge. Share opinion.

Honestly I wasn’t exactly thrilled with my results when I first read them and even more so when I returned to the book and read the following.

There is one obstacle barring your progress: Your own reluctance

Two words popped into my head after I read that.

“Bite me!”

Then I kept reading.

I think I am going to focus more on my strengths rather than “damage control”. Why frustrate myself with a losing battle? Like we say in Trinidad – “It’s like spinnin’ top in mud”. You get nowhere.

Being empathic makes me a better user experience designer and so do all the other strengths I have. I always thought picking up on others feelings was kind of weird but after working in Bellevue as a teaching artist and computer graphics instructor with an autistic student. I better saw its value. I got a hug our last day of class. Not an easy thing to have achieved. And he made some money! One of his teachers bought his creation.

On page 130 of the book the authors write

…those things that “you can’t help but…” – are not mundane, commonplace, obvious. On the contrary, your instinctive reactions are unique. They make you different from everyone else. They make you extraordinary

Everyone doesn’t see the world the same way. Honestly it would be boring if we did. Now go discover your strengths!

As someone who works as a consultant or contractor both onsite and offsite I found her first chapter on “Authenticity – The Power is You” the one that really resonated with me. Especially in the job climate today with more candidates applying for positions it’s more important than ever to stay true to yourself and work the jobs that you enjoy or you won’t excel.

The day your company hired you, someone else did not get the job because you were the best candidate. They hired you because you had the best blend of skills, personality, and potential and a unique blend of values and abilities. Over any person they interviewed, the company felt that you could best execute the job, fulfill their need for talent, and satisfy their specific need for a discrete skill set. You got the job because you had a competitive advantage over all of the other candidates. That important competitive advantage? You. No one else can be you the way you can; this is your source of power within the organization. One of the keys to your long-term success in any organization is to own the person who you really are.

Sure you can take the jobs just for the paycheck but don’t work with people or companies whose values don’t align with yours. You will learn to regret it. You will dread working and you won’t do your best work. So why bother.

I highly recommend that you read Ms. Harris’s book. It has some great tips and ideas about overall career management. Chapter 4 is a gem “Perception is the Copilot to Reality: How People Perceive You Will Directly Affect How They Deal with You”.

So check it out. And after you read it drop me a line and let me know what you think.