Today I received a great present, even before my actual birthday.
After a few months doing some stuff I really hated I will finally get back to systems development.
Doing the technical interfacing with the “business-side” and managing the technical side of software development projects may be very interesting to a lot of people (and I know quite a few who actually like it very much) but for me it was just plain bad.
I did learn quite a lot from the experience, though, and got a new-found respect for people who do it or have done it for a long time. Even if they actually like it and consider it “a lot of fun”. I just happen to think you are crazy, that’s all. You know who you are! ;-)
But seriously this a very worthy job and a very important function. Vital, even. But it must be performed by the right people.
So today it was officially announced, among a larger batch of changes, that I will leave the technical counseling and project management jobs and will get back to being a systems architect.
I know I have my work cut out for me. I know there is an awful lot to do. I know I will have to deal with some things I have no knowledge in. I know I will be deep in it. And I can’t wait to get to it!
This won’t happen tomorrow, of course, there will be a transitional period when I have to continue doing what I am doing now but this doesn’t seem so gruesome now that I know that in a few months I will be back to being full-time systems architect (or computer screen rat, whatever you prefer to call it).
At some point it was all I could do to stop me from dancing around the table. But then you don’t do that when you’re a hard-core techie. After all we all have a reputation of nerdiness and bad temper to maintain, right?
(Professional) life is in balance once more.