Job Offers and Work

The other day a good friend of mine sent me an email he received regarding a possible position in Fort Worth, TX. In his email he said that it would mean that I probably wouldn’t have to travel anymore. Good point. On the other hand, I kind of like to travel. That doesn’t mean I like being stuck on the road for weeks on end like I am doing, now. But, I do enjoy traveling around a bit. I get to see some pretty interesting places and meet all kinds of people. I go skiing in the winter, and when it’s 108 back home in the summer I get to go to cooler places. It also makes for a cheap vacation when I take my g/f and aside from her flights and meals everything else is paid for. Nice.
But the big reasons I have to think real hard about those jobs?

Well, first off, I have a TON of flexibility in my work. When I am home my commute is about 120 feet. I don’t fight rush-hour traffic and I don’t spend my life listening to talk radio while stuck in traffic. I work in my boxers during the summer, or my fuzzy PJ’s during the winter. If I need to go to the mall during the day I do it. If I want to go have lunch with a friend of mine? No problem. Go play golf with my old man because I’ve been too busy to see him much lately? Again, usually not a problem. I just have to make sure I am getting my work done and I am otherwise left alone. Try that at Corporate X.

Secondly, I don’t do the same thing every day. None of the:
Get up at the same time
Sit in traffic
Go to the same office
With the same boss (I’ve seen my boss 2 or 3 times in the last five years).
And the same employees
And the same problems
And the same network
Work my 60 hours without overtime.
Go home
Eat dinner
Go to bed
Get up at the same time
Etc., etc. etc.


Every week to me is something new. It’s new people, it’s a new project, it’s a new opportunity to fail or succeed, a new opportunity to learn and better myself. Mostly, it’s not the same 9-to-5 grind bullshit day in and day out and I love it. I’m not even sure I can go back to a 9-to-5 grind job right now. That would be very difficult.

And last, but not least, when you read into the job descriptions you will always see something that reads very similar to “…. maintain the network 24x7 ….” What you should be reading is that they are going to strap a pager or smart phone to your ass and that you will be on call 24 x 7 and get woke up at all hours of the night and have to work weekends. Fuck that. I’ve done it. I’ve put my time in and I have no desire to go back to doing it again.

My boss says that the reality is that I am already on call 24 x 7, and that is true to an extent. I would never turn a client down that called me in the middle of the night. But, they don’t call me. They call the poor sap that is the network administrator and wake his ass up in the middle of the night because if they call me it’s going to cost them out the waazoo. The number of times I have been woken up in the middle of the night to help a customer? I can count them on one hand. So it’s really not the same and someone would have to pay me buckets of cash to take on that role and responsibility again.