Welp, here's the update on my professional life. I'm working on three contracts, so money is coming in. Hopefully, this money will make the search for a new employer less urgent and allow me to be picky. Additionally, one of these gigs is going to be a fast-paced, agilely developed Rails application for a new political action committee (what's the emoticon for irony?). I'm excited.
Of course, in the next month or two I'd like to find a full-time job. My ideal position is a small, agile organization where people play roles when necessary instead of clinging to titles. I'd like to play more of a lead developer role - it's high time for me to stop simply taking orders and start participating in a greater diversity of architectural, business, and strategic decisions in the software biz. For a long time, I've felt I've had too much yet to learn to take on a great deal of responsibility. No more - I'm ready.
If Tasha and I were better positioned financially, I might go it my own, but it's just as well - I could stand a bit more experience. And I still intend to continue freelancing on the side, so I can take the move to self-employment gradually. But it's been absolutely exhilarating to see how much opportunity is out there, and anyway I was getting too complacent for my own good. Only risks yield the big rewards in the market.
Tomorrow I'm headed down to Raleigh with my buds from the Central Virginia Ruby Enthusiasts Group (site's down) for the Ruby Hoedown where I hope to meet some interesting people and learn about non-Rails applications of Ruby. I've already been using Ruby to write scripts for a friend's business, and it's a blast. I'm particularly hoping to talk to somebody about cross-platform GUI libraries for desktop app development with Ruby. If you're there, holla atcha boy.
Read this article
