After more than 5 years working graveyards and weekends in news, I decided that I was ready for a more family-friendly schedule. I started looking for a new job, either in or out of the journalism industry, and last week I found it through a Craigslist ad. It was for a PHP/MySQL developer position (Web programmer for you non-techie folks) at an Orem company called Rocky Mountain Printing. I interviewed with them on my day off last week, took a little programming test for them, then this week they called to let me know they wanted to hire me. It felt like the right fit from the first moment, and after sorting out a few HR-related items and talking to the brass at ABC 4, I officially accepted the job.
I’m very excited about this new opportunity. I think it will be good for my career and help me develop even better tech skills. It also means a little bit better salary and a much better schedule, but it also means a move down to Utah County. (Sarah doesn’t want me to commute full-time, since that means more time away from the family.) We like our home here in West Valley City, but we think we can find something great in American Fork or Lehi or whatever, since home prices down there seem much lower than here in the Salt Lake valley. We haven’t officially listed our home yet (all of this just came together in the last couple of days), but Sarah has already posted a description of our home at westvalleyhomeforsale.blogspot.com if you’re interested in buying it from us.
My last full-time day at ABC 4 will be Sept. 29, but my boss talked me into working an extra couple of weekends so they have a little more time to replace me. So I’ll be working seven days a week for at least a few weeks. Wish me luck with both jobs!
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Update 25. Sept 2008: “Change of Career” wasn’t a very interesting title. Informative, sure, but not interesting. I like spicing up my blog posts with movie or song titles, so I’m going with Sheryl Crow for the new headline on this one, but you could also argue for Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes by Jimmy Buffet or Take This Job and Shove It by Johnny Paycheck.
Congratulations! We hope the move works out well for you.
Good luck and congratulations! It takes guts to apply for a new job and change a significant part of your life.
I always knew you would find your inner programmer. 🙂 I’m still in Grad school, but will be taking a job in Lehi in a few months. Congrats on the change!