On career
Can't sleep, which is bad, as I've got to be up at 6:30 to get up to a ferry to San Juan Island. More on that later sometime, or not.
I'm going around and around in my head about school and work and how to get it all to fit together nicely. Here are some factors.
Lately I've run into several people who worked at Amazon or Microsoft for a while a few years ago. They are currently a filmmaker, going to massage school, not working and just taking photos. All because they put in a few years at the right place at the right time. While I don't think I'll be retirement-rich off of my Amazon stock, it is truly worth considering. If it doesn't change from today's price and I wait 4 years until it fully vests, I could easily buy a house, or do a lot of other things. That is more tempting than I can describe. The (intentionally) frustrating part is that the huge majority of it won't vest until I've been working there longer than 2 years. Golden handcuffs indeed.
I really want the usability engineer position. Currently I don't have the usability testing experience that they want for the job. My current thought is to ask them if they'll give it to me at the end of this calendar year, after I've taken the usability testing course in the fall. At that point I'd try to work flex hours (or part time?) and do the day program (part time?). This would be good for several reasons:
- the UE position is design-career-relevant, unlike my current position
- I'd get a sense of usability work
- I would continue to have a professional income while in school
- I would continue to vest
- With that job I wouldn't mind going to school part time and taking longer to finish
- I'd feel less lame about quitting my current position if I gave them 8 months total and stuck with them through the holiday crunch (Amazon usually requires you to hold a job for a year before switching to another position)
Alternately I could throw myself at the mercy of the Usability staff and ask if they'll take me on sooner and train me. It could happen. And I could do it.
Or, I could keep working in whatever job and do the evening program. The only advantage to that is daytime-job-compatibility. Disadvantages of the evening curriculum: it's a little too new-media oriented for my tastes. I wan the rhetoric, not the website-design. And it's more expensive, being self-sustaining, not funded by the state. So that's less attractive. Hmph.
Need to facilitate usability folks deciding to hire me.
Off to try to sleep again. Wish me luck.
I'm going around and around in my head about school and work and how to get it all to fit together nicely. Here are some factors.
Lately I've run into several people who worked at Amazon or Microsoft for a while a few years ago. They are currently a filmmaker, going to massage school, not working and just taking photos. All because they put in a few years at the right place at the right time. While I don't think I'll be retirement-rich off of my Amazon stock, it is truly worth considering. If it doesn't change from today's price and I wait 4 years until it fully vests, I could easily buy a house, or do a lot of other things. That is more tempting than I can describe. The (intentionally) frustrating part is that the huge majority of it won't vest until I've been working there longer than 2 years. Golden handcuffs indeed.
I really want the usability engineer position. Currently I don't have the usability testing experience that they want for the job. My current thought is to ask them if they'll give it to me at the end of this calendar year, after I've taken the usability testing course in the fall. At that point I'd try to work flex hours (or part time?) and do the day program (part time?). This would be good for several reasons:
- the UE position is design-career-relevant, unlike my current position
- I'd get a sense of usability work
- I would continue to have a professional income while in school
- I would continue to vest
- With that job I wouldn't mind going to school part time and taking longer to finish
- I'd feel less lame about quitting my current position if I gave them 8 months total and stuck with them through the holiday crunch (Amazon usually requires you to hold a job for a year before switching to another position)
Alternately I could throw myself at the mercy of the Usability staff and ask if they'll take me on sooner and train me. It could happen. And I could do it.
Or, I could keep working in whatever job and do the evening program. The only advantage to that is daytime-job-compatibility. Disadvantages of the evening curriculum: it's a little too new-media oriented for my tastes. I wan the rhetoric, not the website-design. And it's more expensive, being self-sustaining, not funded by the state. So that's less attractive. Hmph.
Need to facilitate usability folks deciding to hire me.
Off to try to sleep again. Wish me luck.