So for the last 5 months I’ve been working at an Agency over in Brighton and I really enjoyed my time there.
In those last 5 months I learned Angular JS and Drupal 8 (in a headless fashion too), I used Vagrant, played with Amazon AWS, Netlify and Heroku. I also started deploying projects using Capistrano as well as picking up a lot of neat tricks along the way. My git skills improved and I got introduced to GitLab. I even got to experience using Toolset in WordPress (although I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Ever.).
All of this work was for big clients who you will definitely have heard of. I felt privileged to be part of such a brilliant team at an outstanding, vibrant and innovative agency, headed up by the friendliest business owner I’ve ever worked for. Perfect.
But I was cream-crackered. Totally.
The commute destroyed me, with Southern Rail strikes and an already overcrowded A27 my journey was taking me at least an hour each way every day. On one occasion it took me two hours and thirty minutes just to get to work. I realised that two hours per day is ten hours per week which is longer than a normal working day for most people. I put on weight, killed a set of tyres and a set of brakes, put strain on other commitments in my life and my work-life balance desperately needed addressing. I’d also burned through the best part of £2500 in work-expenses. Yes, you read that right… £800 of that was on parking alone.
As per usual, emails and phone-calls kept coming in from recruiters (despite not actually actively looking for another role) and I discarded them as per usual.
However, I did receive an email directly from the owner of a startup that caught my eye and after a few conversations I decided that this was ‘the one’ to go for. So I have, and I start on Monday 20th. I’ll tell you more once I’m settled in a bit. It’s 32 hours per week which also leaves me some time for a little spot of client-work here and there too which is obviously a massive bonus. I’m looking forward to the future.
If you’re wondering what I’ve been up to on my week ‘off’ between jobs, well I’ve done some running, started learning React, spent a little more time at the local Swimming Club, caught up with some friends that I haven’t seen in a long time and I might of kind of erm possibly bought a PlayStation VR which is breath-takingly awesome.
If you’re wondering which Agency I was at but you are too proud to stalk my LinkedIn profile, it was The Unit who are now obviously looking for a developer to replace me.
To the future…