For the past couple of years, I’ve been working a contract for an investment bank. I finish up in 5 weeks. It was a nice work with good pay. The people are great. I was very comfortable doing it.
I was working for a company that I had worked for before. This time around, I used some of my experience with offshore development and helped set up the offshore development team. I helped introduce SVN and we stumbled through collaboration in the enterprise. It started out being very difficult and challenging, but then got easier and easier as the offshore team became more confident and didn’t really need me around much at all. It’s bittersweet– I’m proud of how well they are progressing while seeing myself fade more and more into the shadows. All as it should be.
But it’s time to move on. More challenges await.
One of the tough decisions of being a contractor is knowing when to leave for something more challenging. Every time a contract comes up for renewal, the client has to decide if they want to keep you and you have to decide whether you should stay on. If money were the only consideration, the choice would be easy–just stick with a job until they stop paying you. But stay in a place too long and your skills start to wane. You become a company guy instead of an industry guy.
The market changes and you have to adjust to it. If you stay in one place too long, you end up stranded. This philosophy has worked for me so far. In technology, as in so much else, diversity it king.
I work in one of Eric’s offshore teams.. and I must say that Im very sad knowing that he is leaving. Its very difficult for me to put it down in words how much I’ve learnt from him and how much unknowningly he has changed me.
Anyone who knows him will sure tell you that he’s a great guy to have around and a fantastic mentor.
I truly look up to him and admire him in every sense of the word.
I’ll miss you!
@Priyanka
Wow. Thanks for the kind words Priyanka.