As I wait for the site designer (that's me) to finish building this website, I wanted to get started instead of looking for reasons to procrastinate.
So let's talk about myself. Why I'm here, who I am. And then you can determine if you still want to be here.
You may be wondering why this is a post, and not an "about me" page. Truth is, I believe we're all changing. All the time. I could make a static "about me," or you could see that there is no point, because this entire blog is an about me. So here we go.
My name is Joe. For many years I've stylized my name as "JOe". No explanation.
I currently work in a data center, providing portions of the internet. For those that may know, a data center is a big room with a bunch of computers, and alternating aisles of hot and cold air. I've been in the technology space for about 10 years, going from repair bench work, to babying a school district's systems, to stepping into the cloud as I am right now.
Just like the rest of the world, my hobbies have changed. When I was younger I wanted to be a photographer. Actually first I wanted to be an ice cream man, but then I found out I was lactose intolerant. THEN I wanted to be a photographer. I gave that up when I realized I have no vision. Then I wanted to be an artist. I gave that up when I realized I couldn't freehand a straight line. Then I wanted to be a poet. I gave that up when I realized I have no attention span. After that I wanted to be a programmer. I gave that up when I failed my 3rd math class. Somewhere in the middle there I wanted to be a musician. I also gave that one up when I realized I have social anxiety, and that being bad at math means being mad a music theory. Go figure.
As a millennial I very constantly heard "Go into tech. That's where the money is" from all of the adults in my life. There's a few things you don't realize about that when you're just a kid, though. The first is – every other kid was hearing the same thing as they were growing up. Because of this fact, competition in this industry is insane. We've all heard the old adage: "When companies compete, consumers win." and this holds true in the labor market. If I've learned anything from taking the same math class repeatedly, it's that you can take equations and reverse them. "When employees compete, companies win."
Don't get me wrong, there are upsides to the high competition. I've met a lot of incredibly talented people already, and my career in this industry is still in it's early stages. These people have been willing to teach me, train me, vouch for me, befriend me, etc. I've had opportunities that I will forever be grateful for, and definitely did not deserve. This competition also means that innovation continues at a staggering pace as people try to compete with each other. So take this as you will. When sellers compete, everyone wins. The scores are just different.
The second thing that you don't realize as a kid is that you're hearing this advice – "Go into tech..." – from adults. Adults that don't know anything about the technology sector. Think about that. Think about who you would take career advice from now. Think about what technology looked like 20+ years ago. Think about what career advice you would give to the younger generations now.
I think we're all on the same page here.
Anyway, let's get back to why you're here now: me.
Once I started an actual career and left the misanthropy inducing life of a retail slave, I worked as a repair bench technician. This meant repairing laptops, desktops, cell phones, tablets, etc., for others. I was employed by a notable, large electronics store that badged us with a somewhat offensive name and dress code. But I learned a lot here, made some life-long friends, and repaired some of the most disgusting computers you could ever see – both physically and virtually.
When I finally had enough of trying to repair computers in a clip-on tie, I moved on to a public sector IT job for a local school district. Let me lay out what I learned here:
- Public sector can be just as corrupt as private sector. They just hide it differently.
- It's very difficult to be fired for incompetence, and people are keenly aware of that.
- Pay is lower, but stress is not. It's just different.
- Your boss will be okay with you joining a union because that union will suck.
- That secretary's keyboard has been there longer than the secretary has been. It has never been cleaned, and it's older than you.
- The idea of "supply and demand" does not apply to IT workers.
- Teachers hate you because the network is down, students hate you because the network isn't down.
- If we bought updated textbooks we couldn't pay the superintendent's salary, and that's just unreasonable.
- Kids are stupid.
As you can probably guess, I'm bitter about how some of public sector works. Everyone tends to think that you have any control over how often Windows crashes, or the fact that they haven't had a new computer for 10 years. You get used to shrugging your shoulders, uninstalling "Coupon Printer", and leaving during a lesson so the teacher can't ask you more questions. What you don't get used to is Kindergartners thinking that you're there to play with them and trying to grab your hand.
So now here I am, working in 'the cloud'. There's a good chance that I physically installed the server that you're accessing this blog from. I couldn't tell you that. I've begun to doubt that tech is where I should be though. I've spent the last ~10 years just doing it because it's what I know, what I'm good at. People have just been telling me that I'm the "tech guy" since high school, so I got a tech guy job.
If you look back at all of the things that I wanted to do, there's a common theme. Creation. I want to create something. I want to make something. Just as anyone else, there are a lot of thoughts in my head and I urge to have them exist just as I see them, as I hear them, as I feel them. That is why I – and consequently, you – are here. I have begun to create. Create music. Electronics. Poetry, prose, and monologues. There are things that I want to exist, and I intend to make them so.
And what is the point of creating if not to share?
So since you're here, I ask you to stay. See what I've created, or intend to create. Teach me something. Connect with me. Let's make something together.