It feels soooooo good to be working with php again. For the past year, (at the 2 contract jobs I had) I was working strictly with html and css, mainly html emails. While I don’t mind working with css, I enjoy working with php and sql so much more. And not only am I working with php again, I’m even learning a new framework, CodeIgniter. It’s what they use at work.

I had my first taste of it today when I started on a new project. I think I’ll pick it up pretty quickly. While I haven’t used a framework before, I have worked with a “layer” concept at a previous job. We had separate directories for database, presentation, and domain layers. CodeIgniter has model, view, and controller “layers”. What I really like about CodeIgniter is the fact that you can put together an array of data in the controller layer to send to the view layer, and in the view layer, you have variables that have the names of the keys from the array that was passed to it. Or at least as far as I can tell, that’s how it is.

I’ve even been in a good, upbeat mood the past couple days. I really noticed it today. I don’t know if it’s just because I’m out of my apartment or it’s because I’m back working (with something I really enjoy even) or it’s just things turning back around in my favor. I’m not going to analyze it, and I’m definitely not going to take it for granted (or at least I’m going to try my damnedest).

Hopefully this means I’ll have a good birthday this year (it’s next Saturday). Now I just need to figure out what I’m gonna do to celebrate it.

What have I been doing for the past couple months? I was working and looking for a job. Huh? Well, I was working a contract job. It was supposed to be a 3 month contract with the option to make it permanent. It ended up being a 4 month contract. They just didn’t have enough work to keep me on permanently. They wanted to keep me on (or at least that’s what I was told), but they just couldn’t.

I am still looking for a job. I do have an opportunity I’m waiting to hear back on. I’m hoping I hear back soon. I don’t know how long I can handle sitting around my apartment. I think I’m going to need to find a coffee shop to hang around in. But that could get expensive.

As I found out before I got the contract position, there aren’t all that many web developer/programmer job openings here in the Fargo/Moorhead area … at least not ones that don’t require .NET experience. But as long as I can find at least one opportunity here, I’m going to wait it out. I have money in my checking and (2) savings accounts that will last me a few months (at least). I just hope I don’t end up depleting those accounts. The savings accounts were for a house hunt I was hoping to start. But that is obviously on hold for the foreseeable future.

Why do I want to stay in the Fargo/Moorhead area? For starters, it’s something I’m familiar with. I’ve lived here since Oct. 1998, and I grew up about an hour south of here. But it’s not just that. My family is in this part of the state. Yeah, I don’t visit them as often as I probably should, but at least I have the option of going to see them and not having to plan a vacation to do so. My friends are here. I don’t have all that many friends, I’ll admit that. But the friends that I do have are true friends. I don’t know what I’d do without them. I don’t make friends very easily … being a shy introvert doesn’t help that fact.

I also want to stay here because of the people here. I mean come on … when you have volunteers make 3.5 million sandbags in around a week’s time (during a snow storm) to help save the community from flood waters (and WIN), whether they were directly affected by it or not … that’s a place I want to live. And that’s just one example.

I may bitch and moan about the cold weather during the winter, but that just gives me something to talk about. LOL When it comes down to what’s important, this place isn’t such a bad place to live. So I’m going to wait to hear back about my current opportunity and keep looking for others that may pop up. As long as I have the resources to wait, I’m going to. Family … friends … community. Those are things that make me want to stay here. It’s gonna take a pretty damn good opportunity to lure me away. I just hope the lack of opportunity here doesn’t force my hand.

The Company
It seems like a really good company to work for. They seem to care about their employees and what they think rather than just pushing them to get stuff done. They’re more than just a web dev company, but I’ve only interacted with the web dev side of things. The rest of the work they do is pretty cool (marketing related). It’s just not where my area of “expertise” is, so I don’t have any interaction with it.

The People
The people that I’ve met so far are pretty cool … dare I saw awesome. Some are crazy … but in a good way. They’re all friendly and seem to have accepted me. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t feel like a complete outcast … well maybe sometimes. But that’s because of my own feelings of self doubt and stuff.

And thanks to this job, I actually know people IRL that I follow on Twitter. Some I’ve interacted with (@AmazonGrace, @fargoirish, @lemur, @krondek, @copaland), and others I’ve just seen around the office (@istafish, @lala_k). I’d love to hang out with them outside of work some time … as long as I was welcome. Who knows if that will ever happen. One of my goals for this year is to be more social. And hanging out with people that are techie like me would be good for me. Maybe after I’ve been around longer, I’ll get some invites.

My project managers are great too. With my lack of self confidence (I’m working on that … it’s another of my goals for this year), I tend to feel silly when I ask questions or feel like I don’t do the work fast enough or apologize for asking questions. But they’ve been telling me that I’ve been doing a good job. That’s a really good feeling. I had that a little bit at my last job, but not as much as I’m getting here (and I’ve only been there a month). It’s good for me (and my very fragile ego). I just need to learn to accept the praise and not feel like I’m a screw up waiting to happen.

There are some pretty good looking guys working around the place too. I’m not gonna go into details as to who and where since there are possibly people from the office who will read this (since I push updates to Twitter). It was bad enough in high school that the ENTIRE school knew who I had a crush on. I don’t need that happening at work. And just ‘cuz I think they’re “easy on the eyes” doesn’t mean there’s any more to it than that.

The Work
I haven’t gotten a whole lot of work yet, but I have gotten a few tasks. I’ve worked on some landing pages, changes to an email campaign, and setting up pages for brochure request forms. I’ve also been told that I will probably be working on some Expression Engine sites as well. So far, everything has been basic html and css. They have a custom CMS for the website that I’ve been working on. I haven’t gotten to work with php, and I don’t know that I will. I miss it. Yeah … that makes me a geek, I know. But that’s me. I don’t know what the rest of my time there will entail, but I’m looking forward to it.

What IS taking some getting used to is the processes for how things are done. Where I was last, we would publish changes for a task after we were finished with them. Even when there were more than 2 of us, the development process was pretty “causal”. Where I am now, they have more of a procedure for doing things. They have code releases and do branching off of SVN and do unit testing and have QA people. I’ve never worked in a situation like that before. It’s definitely a good thing … just something that I need to get use to. After working as part of a 2 person team for a little over a year, I’m used to doing a lot of stuff myself. And we didn’t have the resources to do a lot of that QA stuff.

The Future
I don’t know what the future holds. I’m working a contract position that is to last 3 months. That brings me to March (or so). Yeah, there is the chance that it could turn into a permanent position, but I don’t know how much of a chance that is. It just depends on how much work they have and if they’ve been happy with my work.

I did have a dream a week or so ago about things. I was talking to someone at work and made the comment that I’d only be there for a couple more months. Then Mark said that he was writing a proposal to keep me on permanently. It would be nice if that dream came true … that they wanted to keep me on. I just have to keep my chin up, work as hard as I can, and make as good an impression as possible. The rest will take care of itself if it’s meant to be.

What do I need to change? Well, here’s my list (thus far), in no particular order.

I think that’s a pretty good start at a list. And everything on that list is doable as well. I just need to get motivated. To start, I need to have people riding my ass about things so that I actually do them. Once I’m in a routine, it will be easier to keep going. And once I see results, I’ll want to keep going. I’ll post updates on my progress every now and then. I’m sure I’ll tweet about it a lot more than I’ll blog about it. If you don’t see anything here or on Twitter about me making progress, PLEASE ride my ass about it.

Yeah, having both the education and experience in the field you’re looking for work in is the ideal situation. But unfortunately, that’s not the case for me. I do have an education, but it’s in a completely unrelated field. I have a BS in Meteorological Studies but I’m looking for work as a web developer. What does the weather have to do with website? Absolutely nothing. LOL I did take a computer concepts in meteorology class in which we had to put our reports online. That was my first taste of web programming.

All of my knowledge in the world of web programming/development has been self taught. I’ve done websites for myself … I took over maintaining the website for my first employer out of college … I’ve done websites for a couple local bands. I learn best by doing … by actually sitting down and writing code. If I want to do something but don’t know how, I’ll look it up online … either tutorials or examples.

For the past 4 years or so, I’ve been working as a web programmer. I have furthered my knowledge in php and learned mssql. I had never even seen mssql before taking that position a little over 4 years ago. My database experience had been limited to MySQL, and that was just basic INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, and SELECT statements. But now I consider myself quite experienced in mssql. I’m not expert, by any stretch of the imagination, but I know what I’m doing. And if I don’t know how to do something, I know where to look to find out how to do it.

While I am very proud of the fact that I’ve taught myself what I have, I’m starting to wonder if not having a degree in a computer related field is hurting me. Most of the positions I’m finding around town are for .NET programmers. I’ve never even seen .NET. Yeah, I’m convinced that I could pick it up, but employers are going to want someone who can sit down and start coding right away rather than someone they’re going to have to train. I DO want to learn new aspects of the web programming world, but I’d rather find a job that uses the areas I already know with the opportunity to learn the new stuff. That way I could be useful right off the bat and ease into the new stuff.

Am I just kidding myself? Is an education more important than experience? Or DOES experience carry more weight? Am I okay with one and not the other as long as the one is experience? What do you think?

Before this all happened, I felt like I had all my ducks in a row. I was doing good financially, for the first time in my life really. I actually was able to put money into savings rather than live from paycheck to paycheck. I was working on saving up enough money to cover closing costs so I could buy a house. My plan was to start house hunting at the end of the summer next year. I was well on my way to achieving this goal. But those darn ducks just wouldn’t stay in that row.

Now I am in a place of uncertainty. I don’t know when I’ll find another job. It’s kinda slim pickings around the area. I’m not finding anything new being listed. But even if I find something in some other town, I’m not home free. I have to give 60 days notice before I can move out of my apartment. And I’m not gonna give notice now because I’m still holding out hope that at least one of the opportunities I’ve already followed pans out or that something new shows up soon. But I can’t wait forever.

So, here I sit … in a state of suspended animation. On hold. I can’t make plans because I don’t know where I’ll be and when. This sucks!

The last 4 years haven’t all been peachy. Back in September 2006 I was laid off. It wasn’t because of my work. It was a situation the company encountered. They basically laid off all but about 5 people, and they weren’t guaranteed a position for very much longer. But then about a month later, they offered me my position back. I was the only one they brought back. I’ve basically been with them ever since.

I say “basically” because the company no longer exists. The client that we had been working with hired myself and my boss at the beginning of this year. So I’m still doing the same thing, but my paychecks come from someone else now. And I’ve been working from home since the start of the year.

I definitely love what I do … making ideas come to life online. I do have my bad days, but I think that’s mainly because I work at home. I’m the kind of person who needs to get out of my apartment from time to time, so working from home makes me go batty some times. That’s why I wish there was a coworking location here. Maybe when I win the lottery I’ll set one up. I can dream, can’t I? LOL

While I do love what I’m doing, I’m starting to get more interested in other aspects of the web … namely social media. That’s kind of ironic since I am definitely NOT a social person. I’m the girl who sits in the corner watching people have fun. But I need to change that.

I have no immediate plan to change my career plan yet again. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. But I think that in my spare time I might start looking into the whole social media field. It might turn out that it’s not for me. But it doesn’t hurt to look into it. I’m at a point in my life where I feel like I need to get more involved with things. I’m not getting any younger. LOL I think that would help with the working from home thing and feeling like I’m trapped in my apartment.

Where will I be 4 years from today? Who knows. I would like to think that I will still be involved in some aspect of web programming. Maybe even in some other aspect of the web. But since I don’t have a crystal ball and since I can’t see the future, I have no idea where I will actually be. I just hope that wherever I am and whatever I’m doing, I’m happy. That’s all I want. To be happy.