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    <title>cmdln.net_2008-06-25</title>
    <expansionState>0,2,4,5,9,17,23,32,43,51,61,72,81,97,98,106</expansionState>
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    <outline text="Intro" Offset="00:17">
      <outline text="Musings on three years"/>
    </outline>
    <outline text="Word of the Week: deep space" Offset="03:50">
      <outline text="http://catb.org/jargon/html/D/deep-space.html"/>
    </outline>
    <outline text="Rant: Three Year Itch" Offset="04:51">
      <outline text="Seems like the previous generation stayed at jobs for a long time">
        <outline text="My uncle was at HP for most of his life"/>
        <outline text="A college friend's dad was at IBM most of his life"/>
        <outline text="One of my career mentors was at IBM for the better part of a decade"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="At some point this seems to have changed">
        <outline text="Coincides with the bubble"/>
        <outline text="That was my first job change, to move to an up and coming internet company"/>
        <outline text="Second change was when the bubble burst"/>
        <outline text="That trend has continued for me"/>
        <outline text="As a hiring manager at several jobs, so I was not unique"/>
        <outline text="Earlier on, was critical of three year job stints"/>
        <outline text="Lately, accept it as the norm"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Used to say at some big companies could have multiple careers with the same employer">
        <outline text="Especially true of IBM"/>
        <outline text="My old mentor did this during his long stay"/>
        <outline text="Was there a tendency to shift focus every few year even with longer employment spans?"/>
        <outline text="If so, would suggest it is not the market, but something about engineering"/>
        <outline text="That's somewhat comforting to consider"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Not constant career changes, at least">
        <outline text="Have been able to stay within programming"/>
        <outline text="True of the better candidates I have seen"/>
        <outline text="I only consulted during my first few jobs"/>
        <outline text="I have known some consultants who just can't stay on longer projects or switch to product development"/>
        <outline text="Most of my career has been product development"/>
        <outline text="Most of those jobs I left because of big changes"/>
        <outline text="Change of ownership"/>
        <outline text="Struggling with growth problems"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="This has been so consistent across employers for me, feeling an itch to change now">
        <outline text="At the three year mark with my current employer"/>
        <outline text="It makes it hard to keep day-to-day frustrations in perspective"/>
        <outline text="Are these severe enough changes that leaving is warranted?"/>
        <outline text="Or are the irritations just normal for a growing company?"/>
        <outline text="Unlike past jobs, the core of the business is unchanged, still growing"/>
        <outline text="Company makes most of its revenue on subscriptions"/>
        <outline text="While we are trying to launch a new service, not trying to drop subscription aspect"/>
        <outline text="I lack the perspective to figure out why I am feeling the itch"/>
        <outline text="Nothing to compare it against"/>
        <outline text="On consideration, it is most likely normal growth"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="As a hacker, there is also the risk of boredom">
        <outline text="Especially with product development, don't want to change technology constantly"/>
        <outline text="Run the risk of being left behind"/>
        <outline text="If core technology is still available, still supported, less of a risk"/>
        <outline text="Despite the recent criticism, enterprise Java is not going away"/>
        <outline text="Lack of opportunity to play with genuinely interesting new technology, though"/>
        <outline text="Could just adopt JSF, GWT since I am the principal"/>
        <outline text="Experienced enough to realize the cost, risk is not worth it"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Not just the technology, the domain too">
        <outline text="Most domains are pretty constant"/>
        <outline text="Our boss is trying to effect a change in the industry, growing service model to new types of security"/>
        <outline text="Skeptical he'll be successful"/>
        <outline text="Someone has to try, that's how innovation works"/>
        <outline text="Odds are against him, success is the exception"/>
        <outline text="Again, could capitalize on the new opportunity"/>
        <outline text="Makes more sense to wait, see if the market reacts well"/>
        <outline text="Even so, had my fill of video for a lifetime, working on compression"/>
        <outline text="Makes the itch worse, given how slow most industry change, otherwise"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="What other opportunities am I missing?">
        <outline text="Always that question in the back of my mind"/>
        <outline text="Perhaps as a consequence of missing out on the dot-com millions"/>
        <outline text="Maybe some truly novel start up is worth the risk"/>
        <outline text="Gets easier to resist as I get older"/>
        <outline text="Have worked for a variety of startups, seen how hard it is to succeed"/>
        <outline text="What about other opportunities, to follow specific interests like security, public policy or journalism?"/>
        <outline text="Many of these *would* require a career change"/>
        <outline text="Probably some retooling, which is a big sacrifice"/>
        <outline text="On the other hand, the podcast has continually surprised me"/>
        <outline text="Who knows what doors it might eventually open if I stick with it"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Thankfully, even if I change jobs, some things are continuous">
        <outline text="Easy enough to find a job with many of the same technologies"/>
        <outline text="Even if I have to switch languages, other knowledge transfers"/>
        <outline text="System design, database design, algorithm selection, ability to learn new technology, skills"/>
        <outline text="Career can evolve incrementally even if jobs are short lived"/>
        <outline text="At times, felt it was worth taking a riskier job"/>
        <outline text="Rarely have been on the market long, even during some bad downturns"/>
        <outline text="Have had to consider consulting, which I hate, but would pay the bills"/>
        <outline text="Not sure I am up for a big leap at this point, maybe in six or nine years"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="Feeling the itch a *little* bit with the podcast, too">
        <outline text="No desire to stop"/>
        <outline text="Feel good about my routine, and the things I think work"/>
        <outline text="Don't feel I have come anywhere near mastering it"/>
        <outline text="Still much to learn about audio"/>
        <outline text="Also still learning tricks, techniques to improve content production"/>
        <outline text="The itch I have been getting lately is to strive to be more of a journalist"/>
        <outline text="Do more of my own research"/>
        <outline text="With a day jib, it is a bit harder to be flexible, open to find, follow a story"/>
        <outline text="Do fear I will run out of topics, though"/>
        <outline text="Wonder how much longer I can keep producing content before I start repeating"/>
        <outline text="Have made small changes in the past"/>
        <outline text="Will probably introduce some small changes for year four, too"/>
        <outline text="Thankfully, don't have a history of short projects to bias me"/>
        <outline text="My hobbies and interests have been too dissimilar to evoke this itch feeling as strongly as work"/>
        <outline text="Would really have to be overwhelmed or go through a drastic change to lose the opportunity for surprising experience"/>
      </outline>
    </outline>
    <outline text="Outro" Offset="29:32">
      <outline text="Contact me">
        <outline text="Email to feedback@thecommandline.net"/>
        <outline text="Web site at http://thecommandline.net/"/>
        <outline text="IM to command.line@skype"/>
        <outline text="Listener comment line is 240-949-2638"/>
        <outline text="del.icio.us tag is &quot;for:cmdln&quot;"/>
        <outline text="http://twitter.com/cmdln"/>
      </outline>
      <outline text="I'd like to thank libsyn.com for AAC hosting and Wouter de Bie for MP3 hosting"/>
      <outline text="These notes and the show audio and music are covered by a Creative Commons license">
        <outline text="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/"/>
        <outline text="Attribution, non-commercial, share alike"/>
      </outline>
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