I used to work in the printing industry. I majored in graphic communication at Cal Poly and even received a scholarship from the newspaper industry. At the same time, I quit the (now-defunct) on-campus print shop to work for the campus IT department.
I should have taken a hint. From myself.
It wasn’t long before I got back into web design, then more general IT projects, and finally as a full-time network administrator. Every move I’ve made has been towards something more technical, and I’ve enjoyed it all successively more.
Every corporate “IT guy” reaches a point where he’s tired of fixing people’s printers. He’s tired of removing spyware from Windows, he’s tired of migrating users’ Outlook profiles to new computers, and he’s tired of the politics revolving around the web filter and the size and quantity of everyone’s monitor.
At least, this one was.
After spending a couple of years deciding what I didn’t like (direct marketing, web design, email marketing, desktop support, Windows servers), I finally decided to dig into what I really did like: Unix and Linux. And it’s been very satisfying and very fun.
More importantly, it’s led to a new job opportunity. So my familiy and I have up and moved across the country. Goodbye beaches, goodbye great weather, and goodbye amazing sushi restaurants. Hello nice people, hello good barbeque, and hello cheap houses.
And hello, new job. I’ll be working as a Support and QA Engineer at Calyptix Security. Calyptix is run buy some extremely talented and intelligent people. For example, if you’re an old-time redditor, you probably remember this post, which caused quite a ruckus on the site, as accusations of hackery and tomfoolery abounded. It turns out, I now share an office with the gentleman (and scholar) who posted it. I only just discovered this about an hour ago.
Moving inevitably brings challenges and stressors. But it can also bring the opportunity to learn and grow. Because of that, I say: Change is good.
