One of those pivotal life events happened yesterday; I lost my .NET developer job after seven years with the company. I was the last developer left from the nutty 90's when there were five of us, but the small engineering firm decided they could no longer afford even a single developer on the payroll.
It was an interesting run. I started working for the company as an independent contractor back in 1999. That was when we lived in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (STEEELERS!!!) and where the company is still located. I liked the people so much while doing the contract work that I took a salaried position with them and worked in their downtown offices for six months. I was the company's first full-time developer. Then in 2000 our family moved to Vermont and I stayed on salary, working exclusively out of my home here in Vermont. Even though I was a teleworker for the last six years and didn't see my friends in the office, it was a small firm and we were pretty close, so the termination felt more like a divorce than a job coming to an end. Small business owners do what they have to do to keep the doors open, so I certainly have no bad feelings about being let go. The business was changing and revenue dropped substantially for the company over the last two years, so the owners did what they felt was best for the company.
Since nearly all of the company's business processes use the software that I built for them, I will continue to serve as an independent consultant when needed. But I can forget about those sweet two-week paychecks deposited directly into my checking account, and I'll need to make some decisions about my future. For starters, working at home agrees with me and my family (and my dogs), so it's going to be difficult working outside of the house again. Most salaried positions understandably want you working on-site, so that will be a tough call to make. Do I continue to work at home and go Independent? I've turned down freelance job requests to customize Community Server--and I do like working with Community Server--so maybe I'll hang a Community Server shingle out there. Also, part of my termination agreement was that any clients of my former employer for whom I provided application support can work directly with me. My former employer has no developers on staff now, after all, so that's another option.
Or I could get the heck out of software development altogether. As a wise (now former) colleague just emailed me, "a closing door opens other opportunities."
Will keep you posted.
[tags: Career, Teleworking, Employment]