O4D - thinking out loud

Fizzle

01 May 2015 - Comments
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So I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front. There's a reason for that. I've been rethinking the whole career change thing...

Career change 1, Owen 0

I'm spent. It's okay, I will re-energise quickly with a little downtime. However, reflecting on where I am at, I've realised that the 3D career change requires more from me than I'm willing to give at the moment.

Realistically, I'm about halfway through. I've got the skills but not the client-base. I'm also blessed to have two small boys. For me, right now, they are the deciding factor. I want to have energy left over for my family after work, rather than being totally spent for the next 12 months plus building up a client list.

So unless there's a fairly spectacular turn around, I will be returning to the world of software and big data in the next couple of months. I'm actually pretty excited to get stuck back in to what is an incredibly vibrant and fast changing industry.

Who knows, I might come back to world of 3D at some point. Never say never, and all that. But for now I'm going bye bye.

What I've learnt along the way

This whole adventure was always an experiment with a lot of unknowns. Here are some things I've learnt along the way:

  1. 3D software crashes a lot.
  2. There are a lot of incredibly generous and helpful people out there. (Despite what you might think if you've watched the news recently. People aren't all bad!)
  3. Second babies are even more exhausting than first! (Way more exhausting.)
  4. Career changes are marathons not sprints.

In retrospect, trying a career change and having a second child at the same time was not a killer combination. I kind of knew that, but it proved a lot harder than I'd imagined. Also, I don't think I paced myself well for what is effectively an endurance event; I set out much too fast.

That said, it has been a great experience and I've met a lot of great people along the way. I definitely don't regret the experiment.

Thank you

I just want to say a huge thank you for all those people that humoured me, met up for coffee and were generous enough to give their time and advice to a random stranger. You are stars. Your generosity is definitely something that will live with me from this whole experience.

Until next time ...

Tags: Journal


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