Lucky

• 2008
  April 18th
• Comments
  1
• Filed in
  design
• Tagged
  jobs, musings

I had a really long discussion with Ash the other day about job hunting and finding that perfect job.  She recounted a discussion she had had with a co-worker who had just left and that he told her that as soon as he met his new employer and walked into the company, he knew it was where he was meant to be, that he had finally found his “Dream Job”.  He said he was so happy to know that he was walking into a place where could do what he always wanted to do.  We talked some more about what her “Dream Job” would be and it over the course of dinner I realized that I am a very lucky guy.  Not only do I have a great wife and partner, but I don’t have to constantly be looking for that perfect job, because I do it every day.  Ironically enough I accidentally fell into graphic design, it was just not something that I ever thought about.

Let me back up a bit, when I entered college I knew - KNEW - I wanted to be a computer science major.  I really liked computers had been working on them ( Commodore 64, Early Apples, etc) since Junior High writing very tiny programs and in High School designing the yearbook.  So, I was convinced that CS was my path - until I failed out of my first CS class, ADA 101.

I realized then, after miserably failing almost every assignment, that I would never be a Computer Scientist or Engineer so I searched for a new major and Information Management seemed to fit the bill.  In the meantime I got a job working at the faculty computer resource center where I did created websites and flash movies, forms and quizes as well as presentations for the resource center set to thumping techo.  When Information Management didn’t pan out and my ‘career counselor’ wasn’t helping I talked to my boss at the resource center, who suggested that graphic design might better suit me and it was at that moment that I set out on what would become my dream job.

When I graduated from WVU, unlike my wife, I knew what I wanted to be - what I already was - a web designer/developer and I never realized it before but I was very lucky to know that as some people struggle with that problem most of their lives.  I do my dream job every day, I get to work on the internet and hopefully help to make it better, more usable, and make it look nice.  Unlike most other people my dream job isn’t dependant on a company or organization as long as I’m elbow deep troubleshooting code or getting my fingers messy in Photoshop, I’m happy.

And sure, the environment I do these things in matters as well as all the ‘other stuff’, but in the end if I’m allowed to make great-looking websites with clean, validating code, then I’m happy.  So yea, I’m pretty lucky and I just wanted to acknowledge and document that I get it now.