I've gone and done it now, I've quit my job. I did this with another job already lined up and with an offer letter in hand, but it doesn't really change the fact that I'm in for a major transition.
Mobile content is their game. Whatever that means. I'm sure it's something super-cool, and it's buzzword worthy if nothing else.
The company has one of those happening late-90s-style dot-com offices, with coders plopped down in front of their pretty LCD monitors, caffeinated beverages at hand, and nerf guns at the ready. Nice open spaces, chill lighting, a foozeball table in the breakroom, blinking lights coming from the hardware residing behind glass doors (that are glass, presumably, to show off the blinking lights).
On the one hand, I'm thinking "cool!" but on the other I recognize all the signs of a situation that's simply not sustainable. Indeed, my very job will be something that seems like it could float away on a whim - I'm the Linux Guy, but my main role initially will be to help migrate some systems to an Active Directory environment. Yeah, lots of job security there.
I took the job knowing it'd be... well that it'd be an experience, and god knows I need an experience of some sort. I'm in a pretty substantial rut at this point, personally and professionally - I migrated all the systems here over to Debian (which went very well) recently, but I'm afraid that I'm running out of things to do in my current position. And personally, well... does World of Warcraft count as a social life? No? Didn't think so.
Do I think this company will be around in 5 years? I don't know, maybe. Do I think I'll be working for the same company even if they *are* around in 5 years? I doubt that. But the worst thing I could possibly do at this point in my life would be to become complacent and lethargic, coasting along at my current position... and god knows I've fucked things up by coasting in the past. I need to be challenged or I'll let my mind drift and waste away, which isn't doing me any damn good.
Underlying everything though is a deep founded concern that I'm sliding into a doomed career, and that I should really be trying to bail myself out before I get in too deep. Will I manage to hang in there to become one of those wisened sysadmins, knowing every system inside and out, who have become so invaluable due to their wide range of expertise? Or will I, like so many others, fall by the wayside as ever improving automation whittles away at the job market?
It's a little unnerving to think that as technology advances I'm in a field that will require fewer and fewer people - though, I suppose, the same could be said for most fields, the sysadmin is likely to be the first to feel the pain.
A part of me thinks I should go to a community college and really learn how to be a technical writer. As long as there are products, there will be documentation - and there is no artificial intelligence or program that can possibly change that fact. It's a field with longevity, one that will survive, and as I understand it writing skills are becoming less and less common in the workforce. I don't claim to be a brilliant writer, but I'm certaintly competent enough to hold a job of some sort where my primary duty is to put words together.
Am I getting in too deep? Am I burying myself under a load of experience that's going to preclude such a career jump in the future? I think that's a valid concern, and it's something that continues to bother me. For the short term this is undoubtedly the most lucrative path for me to follow, but what about in 5 years? 10?
I suppose only time will tell.