Some bits and bobs
Mar. 8th, 2018 05:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayAfter several weeks of incredibly mild weather here (no snow, lots of rain, not terribly cold), winter has decided to remind us it isn't over. We had a storm today and another nor'easter is heading in tomorrow evening/Saturday. Then another one might hit us early next week.
Ugh.
I know, I know, the UK can also have some nasty winters...but still not quite like our version of nasty.
So it's likely that my plans to go to writing group on Saturday might not happen :-( But I made it out shopping (to the giant shopping centre I'd never found before!) last weekend so I haven't been a total recluse.
I bought clothes. It was fun. I enjoyed getting compliments on my cute new outfits this week. What's happening to me?
As for other stuff, I'm still doing a lot of training, reading, and prepping for the concept of a job hunt. I now have a LinkedIn profile (DM me if you want to connect). Doing all of this, brushing up skills, monitoring job boards, etc, is giving me a much clear idea of what I want to look for and what might be realistic. I know that I don't want to just do the same job except in a different office. That's not a step forward, and a step forward is what I want. So I'm starting to get a clearer picture of what that means. I'm starting to work out what a small step would be and what a big challenging step would be, and feel like I've got the confidence to maybe push myself further than I thought about originally.
It's actually exciting, which I never thought I'd say.
One of the courses I'm doing is on data science with Python and I should run my very first machine learning model soon. Eep! I've been learning about feature engineering, types of predictive models, and so on--even if I don't get a job using Python, I'm learning a lot about machine learning and data science techniques, which should be useful whatever I do. It looks like my next role will be supporting the data needs of data scientists even if I'm not an actual data scientist myself (because I'm not convinced I actually have the smarts for that).
It's nice to feel excited about my field again. I was chatting to a coworker about Git and he said he couldn't see the point in learning because we won't be implementing it at work any time soon. And that's when it struck me that a lot of the reason I lost excitement and got demoralised at work was because of that kind of thing: there's no sense learning it because the company will never implement it, so why bother?
And he's right, in a sense. Our company is incredibly slow to adopt new technology or update anything, so staying up to date in the field and learning new skills is pointless if we only see them as things we can use today in our jobs. If we're planning to stay with the company until retirement, then it's ridiculous to teach ourselves this huge skillset we'll never have a chance to use. The time could be better used for other things.
Except that "why bother" thing became a habit that ended up making me unhappy in my work and now that I'm focusing on a future somewhere else, I'm realising how much that disheartened me. So I guess my learning from this is that I need a job where I'm engaged and part of engagement, for me, is learning new things and using them. It's why I've identified that I can't just switch companies to do the exact same thing, even though it's easier. I keep seeing jobs that describe what I currently do perfectly and thinking "oh, hey, that's the kind of thing I should apply for because I already do it!" and then kicking myself a bit because that's not a good reason for me to pick a position.
At least I've figured this out before I start apply for jobs. I want something with a bit of challenge and a chance to grow, not same thing in a different office.
It's exciting but a bit scary, too. The reason it took me so long to realise I'm not happy in my current job is because it's become so comfortable and it's hard to step outside my comfort zone. But I've got another twenty-five years of working ahead of me, probably, and I want to enjoy that time. There are too many people in my current job who are coasting into retirement, determined not to try anything new, and I don't want to become one of those people.
In less career and future related news, Star Trek Discovery was amazing and I need to blog about it. Legend's of Tomorrow has become the Arrowverse show I actually keep up with and I suspect that's because it's the queerest. I <3 Sara/Ava.
And Holby City is keeping me going. I <3 Serena. And Dom/Lofty. And Jac. And Frieda forever. My medical soap is so great.
Ugh.
I know, I know, the UK can also have some nasty winters...but still not quite like our version of nasty.
So it's likely that my plans to go to writing group on Saturday might not happen :-( But I made it out shopping (to the giant shopping centre I'd never found before!) last weekend so I haven't been a total recluse.
I bought clothes. It was fun. I enjoyed getting compliments on my cute new outfits this week. What's happening to me?
As for other stuff, I'm still doing a lot of training, reading, and prepping for the concept of a job hunt. I now have a LinkedIn profile (DM me if you want to connect). Doing all of this, brushing up skills, monitoring job boards, etc, is giving me a much clear idea of what I want to look for and what might be realistic. I know that I don't want to just do the same job except in a different office. That's not a step forward, and a step forward is what I want. So I'm starting to get a clearer picture of what that means. I'm starting to work out what a small step would be and what a big challenging step would be, and feel like I've got the confidence to maybe push myself further than I thought about originally.
It's actually exciting, which I never thought I'd say.
One of the courses I'm doing is on data science with Python and I should run my very first machine learning model soon. Eep! I've been learning about feature engineering, types of predictive models, and so on--even if I don't get a job using Python, I'm learning a lot about machine learning and data science techniques, which should be useful whatever I do. It looks like my next role will be supporting the data needs of data scientists even if I'm not an actual data scientist myself (because I'm not convinced I actually have the smarts for that).
It's nice to feel excited about my field again. I was chatting to a coworker about Git and he said he couldn't see the point in learning because we won't be implementing it at work any time soon. And that's when it struck me that a lot of the reason I lost excitement and got demoralised at work was because of that kind of thing: there's no sense learning it because the company will never implement it, so why bother?
And he's right, in a sense. Our company is incredibly slow to adopt new technology or update anything, so staying up to date in the field and learning new skills is pointless if we only see them as things we can use today in our jobs. If we're planning to stay with the company until retirement, then it's ridiculous to teach ourselves this huge skillset we'll never have a chance to use. The time could be better used for other things.
Except that "why bother" thing became a habit that ended up making me unhappy in my work and now that I'm focusing on a future somewhere else, I'm realising how much that disheartened me. So I guess my learning from this is that I need a job where I'm engaged and part of engagement, for me, is learning new things and using them. It's why I've identified that I can't just switch companies to do the exact same thing, even though it's easier. I keep seeing jobs that describe what I currently do perfectly and thinking "oh, hey, that's the kind of thing I should apply for because I already do it!" and then kicking myself a bit because that's not a good reason for me to pick a position.
At least I've figured this out before I start apply for jobs. I want something with a bit of challenge and a chance to grow, not same thing in a different office.
It's exciting but a bit scary, too. The reason it took me so long to realise I'm not happy in my current job is because it's become so comfortable and it's hard to step outside my comfort zone. But I've got another twenty-five years of working ahead of me, probably, and I want to enjoy that time. There are too many people in my current job who are coasting into retirement, determined not to try anything new, and I don't want to become one of those people.
In less career and future related news, Star Trek Discovery was amazing and I need to blog about it. Legend's of Tomorrow has become the Arrowverse show I actually keep up with and I suspect that's because it's the queerest. I <3 Sara/Ava.
And Holby City is keeping me going. I <3 Serena. And Dom/Lofty. And Jac. And Frieda forever. My medical soap is so great.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-09 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-09 02:23 am (UTC)Linked-In
Date: 2018-03-09 02:27 am (UTC)Do work know you have a Linked-In profile?
“Updating your Linked-In profile” was always used as a euphemism for “actively looking for a new job” at work! HR were always trying to get IT to tell them which staff were using it in the office.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-09 05:51 am (UTC)Re: Linked-In
Date: 2018-03-09 12:37 pm (UTC)If they work out I've got a profile, I'm not sure there's much they can do about it at this point, but I've done what I can to stay fairly inconspicuous to them.
no subject
Date: 2018-03-09 09:20 pm (UTC)It reminded me it was about time I updated the non=Rotary bits on mine, as I hadn't touched it for three years!
no subject
Date: 2018-03-14 06:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-14 07:13 pm (UTC)