Spacehamster’s Blog

When I was younger I was pretty gung-ho when it came to my career. I felt that the best way to demonstrate my dedication to my burgeoning IT career was to move to Melbourne (like every other young Tassie Uni Graduate), get a job with a big multinational IT company, and spend long hours at work. I would even volunteer to come in on weekends to complete a job. It never occurred to me that this type of dedication isn’t rewarded by your corporate masters unless you’re very, very lucky.

Then there was the lifestyle. I found Melbourne a stressful place to live. There’s the constant battle to board a train for the daily commute to- and from- work. There’s the constant irritation of fighting my way through crowds everyday - I hate crowded places. The worst part is that Melbourne is landlocked - you can’t see the horizon and get a sense of scale. I felt like I was trapped in a concrete jungle, with no way out. Remember in Lord of the Rings, when old Bilbo says “I want to see Mountains Gandalf, Mountains!!!”. That’s how I felt.

Towards the end, my job was about to be outsourced to India, and there was plenty of pressure at work to meet impossible deadlines. The combination of dissatisfaction with my lifestyle, my dronelike nihilistic attitude towards my career - not to mention I was going to lose my job anyway - drove me to eventually leave Melbourne and return to Tasmania.

I’m quite certain a lot of people thought I was absolutely insane for leaving a well-paying job in “the world’s most liveable city” (hah!). Firstly, I don’t think Melbourne is all that liveable. Secondly, I abhorred the materialistic attitude and rampant consumerist greed I sometimes saw. Thirdly, I wasn’t going to just meekly accept being another victim of a cost-cutting-redundancy-payout-IT-offshoring exercise.

So I applied for a job in Hobart working as an IT programmer. In essence, I downshifted - which is something I thought only happened to highly-stressed corporate highflyers, not people like me.

The result? I’m happier than I’ve ever been, both on a personal and professional level. Because I’m working for a much smaller firm, I’ve been learning a much wider range of skills. In addition to regular programming, I’ve also had to dabble in everything from database design to web programming. And Tassie’s lifestyle is very relaxed and easygoing. I don’t have to fight my way through crowds just to buy my lunch everyday.

So what have I learned from all this? Don’t stay in a job you aren’t happy with. Always be true to yourself and who you really are. Words to live by.