Honestly, when I was first searching for a proper post-grad job back in 2006, I was making a slight effort to get out of my comfort zone and find a job using a language that I had only used in class but not really in the workplace. Java seemed to be the language that would give me the most opportunities, so that’s where I cast my net. In the end, that didn’t pan out. This job found me due to my Perl skills listed on my resume. The language that I had used for years but decidedly set aside has kept be going for almost 4 years now. If I think about it, that’s rather fortunate, isn’t it? It allowed me to get my feet wet in the real world, though, honestly my feet were already figuratively soaked at that point, but that’s besides the point.
Perl, Perl, Perl.
I had to be the jack of all trades. I was an application developer, interface developer, consultant, quality assurance checker, business liaison, all wrapped in one. Those were crazy times. Well, as you know, times change. I’ve mentioned this before, but yeah, my job was phased out. That’s never a great feeling, eh? In the end though, the company decided to hold onto me. And now here I am trying to get up to speed in Java. I was actually a little concerned about having to make this change since it’s been many years since I last touched the language. I think it must have been my artificial intelligence class in 2005. Seriously. Over the past week I’ve been feeling better and better. If there’s anything I should be more concerned about, it’s learning the project I’m on. Besides the fact that the technology behind the project is in a different language altogether, it’s actually the evolved version of the project I was on before. The concepts are familiar but different. It’s blowing my mind. Also, my job focus has narrowed significantly. I said that the previous project had me wearing different hats, right? This new position has one hat, and one hat only. That aspect kind of makes me sad, but I guess it’s necessary due to the amount of focus needed.
Anyway, I suppose I’m writing about this because it amazes me how I’m managing this transition. I expected it to be rocky, and it is, but…I expected worse–not only from the job, but from myself. Am I selling myself short? Yeah, I am. However, in this case I was taking one of those “hope for the best, prepare for the worst” stances. Going from language to language is a scary prospect. I kind of feel like I was thrown into the deep end. I guess I knew how to swim all along=–I just forgot that I had the skill.
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