You're probably wondering what the ole Info Mountain goat has been up too lately. Here's the gist: I went from being new guy to the guy when it comes to .Net, web services and whatever else might be wrong with the production system. It's nice to be needed, even if it means logging in remote during the wee hours to push through a few patches. You'll seldom hear about this side of the business because recruiters and the like will try to divert attention to the massive amounts of money you'll make.

Well no crack against recruiters but most of what you hear is a lie. Sure you can make more money than say a certified BMW mechanic, but you'll also make slightly less than a quack late-night pill shill'n doctor or a really, really crooked lawyer. The truth about IT is that while you may have to work late hours, without extra pay if you're on salary, you'll probably like it. Anecdotally I'd say that 8 out of 10 IT professionals don't sleep well at night. Or rather, most IT professionals DON'T sleep at night. That's because we are up way too late playing video games, organizing our MP3s or engaging in illicit activities that some would deem immoral, others illogical, and most non-techs would agree they'd rather be sleeping than doing any of.

So we do it for the thrill, the excitement and the realization that anything that goes foobar does so with enough of a window that we can fix it before anyone wakes up and realizes it was broken in the first place. Strangely enough this is exactly the luxury that quack doctors and dirty, filthy lawyers don't have. From a standpoint of sheer career survival it appears as if the best mantra "do no harm". That is don't break things trying to "fix" things. As we've seen with Microsoft patches sometimes the cure is worse than the disease.

Such is life, we accept it and we live by it because the patches just keep rollin' in.

The professional moves on to better things

Sometimes starting something new is refreshing. Take for example my new job. Though I've yet to really flex my intellectual muscle and display my coding skills I feel happier and more fulfilled as an employee and as a person. Without being melodramatic I believe that the last few months of my prior engagement were slowly poisoning my psyche and sapping my soul.

I was afraid to say it but in the end that job turned out to be a colossal failure financially for me personally, but the silver lining is that my responsibilities exposed me to the right technology at the right time. At the very least I can credit the hard learned lessons as well as the tech for landing me my next gig. True, time will tell how relevant all of it will be but I firmly believe that the focus on detail and accuracy, which became ingrained in my personality, will serve me well in the future.

So why the sudden rush of honesty? Well for starters I've finally forgiven my former company and myself. I've forgiven myself for not noticing the signs sooner, for not asking the tough questions up front and demanding solid answers. I blamed myself for allowing small annoyances to persist and to become aggravated.

More importantly I've forgiven my former company for simply being. The concept was a good idea, at least initially, but long term I think that the critical mass required for success will not come from one service offering alone. I had inklings of that at the time but only truly realized it once I saw how another smallish but profitable company does business.

I am an inherently organized person and at some point I realized that organization is the key not only to success but also to a happy work environment for me. I firmly believe that a lot of stress and anxiety can be avoided if we simply plan things accordingly. I am in no way advocating mass bureaucracy, I'm simply saying that taking a level headed approach toward mapping out the next few months is the way to go. Thankfully I have found others that agree with that mentality.

Who'd have thunk that change could come so fast. No sooner than I was out the door there was an offer in a works. I suppose I should be encourage by the speed and downright overwhelming interest my work experience generated. On the other hand I'm first to acknowledge that the marketability of my current skill set is as dynamic as the world of technology that I work in.

The problem is that while I'm currently in the "right place at the right time" tech wise, who's to say that I'll continue to be able to choose the correct technology to "stay current" with. In some ways it's an odds against gamble that you'll make the right decision 100% of the time. I'm as thankful as I am cautious about my current gig and the tools and environment in which I'll continue to ply my trade