DarqByte

So at some point in Finding Nemo, Dory says “just keep swimming.” She says this in a way to keep Marlin pressing on to find his son. And in Meet the Robinsons, Lewis is quoted (sort-of) as saying “keep moving forward.” Sometimes, these two quotes are what I and many other people need to remember when things aren’t going as well as we’d like.

I’ve been trying to keep these quotes in mind lately. My MBA courses are fast approaching, so my life will be much more hectic soon and I’ll have to start picking and choosing what extra stuff I’ll do outside of work and classes. I’ve been trying to work here and there on OMGN, as well as in general relax here at home. I’ve also had additional work come in from different people I know and friends I have. I’ve apparently developed a decent network of contacts in regards to my professional career. I’ve just got to figure out how to budget time to still get my other ambitions dealt with while I take classes.

So I’m just trying to keep my eye on the prize here. The road may be long and tough, but I’ve just got to keep on swimming and pressing on. This applies to my career as a whole, not only to just taking classes to advance it. I’m at a point in my career where I feel like it’s time to make the next step and move up the ladder. At all of my jobs to date, I’ve never advanced beyond the “entry level” for my career path. That makes sense, as I haven’t really been in the general workforce for decades. I’ve had jobs for about 9 years now and I’ve been working as a professional developer for 5 years. In the grand scheme of things, that’s not very long.

But it doesn’t change the fact that I want this new challenge. I don’t think the opportunity at my current employer exists for me to move up. Part of it is probably this economy, but my employer recently restructured some people above me, and it looks like they’re trying to remove additional people at the tier just above me, the one I strive for. So I have no idea how I can continue to move up. But I’ll just keep on keeping on, because I feel I’m very valuable to them and I’m pretty sure they do indeed value me quite a bit. I think my boss appreciates all of the work I do, and I really like working with him and the people around me.

I’m pretty happy with where I’m at though. All things considered, I’m in a really good spot in my life. I’m just in one of those moods where I want more…