2022 In Review
January 3, 2023
2022 was a heck of a year for me, both personally and in terms of my career.
The Beginning
It started out great. I had a great backend engineer gig at Foxtrot (a chain of convenience stores, think fancy 7/11 mixed with Starbucks). Within the first three months of the year I got promoted to Senior Backend Engineer, my then-girlfriend and I bought a house, and on top of it all we got engaged. I even started to take flying lessons. Things were great!
The Middle
From March to September I found myself slogging along with a seemingly never-ending project at work. The project was plagued with problems most will be familiar with: changing requirements and mismanagement both by project and upper-level organization management. I was constantly writing and re-writing subtle variations on the same code. It was mind-numbingly irritating. We finally launched in September to little fanfare and little celebration; a pathetic sputter to put an end to a grueling cycle of work and rework that really had me second-guessing my career choices.
It was this irritation that drove me to really begin pursuing a freelance career on the side. I had always wanted to jump into the freelance and/or agency world and so I figured I might as well put my money where my mouth was and get that going! I figured if I couldn't control the code I wrote at work then maybe I could do so with my own work. And so I spent the latter half of the summer putting together plans and lists of potential clients. It was all going pretty well!
Then September came and, with it, the first hint of trouble reared its head.
The Trouble Begins
In September my company announced it was laying off something like 10-20% of its corporate workforce. Fortunately, the product and engineering departments were relatively unaffected. My team of ~11 lost a single person who had only been with the company a few weeks. Still, it was enough to spook me into seriously entertaining recruiter emails and meetings. This started a job-search which ended with the only interview I have ever walked out on.
The Interview Treadmill
Within the slurry of recruiter emails and LinkedIn messages I received on a near-daily basis, I was contacted directly by the CTO of a small startup just coming out of stealth. It seemed really promising! I got along great with him and I really appreciated his views on technology and code quality. The tech stack was right up my alley: React on the front-end with Python + PostgreSQL on the back-end. It seemed like a surefire fit. He passed me on to the final round of interviews.
The final round of interviews consisted of a day of interviews with other members of the engineering team and the CEO of the company. This company fits into the "standard" of tech interviews we all know and "love." Basically, I had two whiteboard interviews, an "architecture" interview, and then the aforementioned interview with the CEO. Long story short, I didn't fit in much with the team and felt completely disrespected by the CEO. In case you're wondering, the CEO signed on to our virtual interview a full 10 minutes late and was walking on his treadmill during the interview; not exactly signs of respect.
And so, I politely withdrew my application from consideration.
The Fall
After this experience, I resigned myself to weathering whatever storm may be on the horizon at my current company. After all, it paid the bills and, while I may have disliked what I was working on, it was a pretty relaxed and stress-free position that gave me time to focus on my family and side-projects. Throughout the fall months, I continued work on setting up my freelancing side-hustle (and even landed my first client!). My path forward was stable, if unexciting. Or so I thought...
The Trouble Arrives
On Friday, December 9, 2022 I was informed my position was terminated, along with about 80-90% of the corporate staff. The back-end team I was on went from ~10 people down to 3.
I was disappointed but not devastated. I knew I had savings and they offered a decent severance. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do next but was also relieved I didn't have to go back to work with that company. My fiancé, who knew how unhappy I really was at that job, was basically thrilled. Not that I lost my job, mind you, but that I didn't have to deal with the mismanagement and toxicity that had developed at that company.
What's Next?
There's no good time to get laid off. It's a terrible thing to experience no matter the time of year. In some ways, though, just before the holidays is the absolute worst time to get laid off: recruiters and hiring managers are on vacation; end of year budget considerations need to be made; everyone just kind of feels burnt out in general.
In some ways, though, these reasons make the holidays just about the best time to get laid off. I could actually try to enjoy the holidays with my friends and family. Most importantly, I could use that time to reflect on what I want out of a job and where I want to look for my next opportunities.
Long story short, I decided to spend some time really focusing on the freelancing side-hustle I mentioned before. I have been hard at work cold emailing and calling clients, trying to make deals, and really become a part of the business community in my town. I don't think I really expect to be able to jump in and freelance full-time forever just yet; I will likely end up getting a job sometime this spring. By then I would like to have put together a solid stream of business to keep an alternative income flowing in. The eventual goal is to jump back into it full-time and be able to grow it into a full-blown design and development agency.
I know the road ahead is hard but I also know that it's build on solid Digital Ground (I am so, so sorry for that pun; it's the only time I'll use it, I swear).