2 weeks to go!

It still hasn’t fully sunk in that I have quit my main nursing job. But I am pretty excited about finishing up in 2 weeks. I thought making a blog post will help me come to realisation that I have indeed closed one door to open another.
Looking back I do not regret taking the cardiac rehab position as…

• I have learned a lot and in the process and met some great people who have become good friends,
• I wouldn’t have ever made the 6mwt app which ignited my curiosity into web apps and coding,
• I wouldn’t have met my good friend Steve who I consider to be a great mentor and fellow bro-grammer. We built brizinga in 3 weeks for the hack::Brisbane competition in 2012.
• I wouldn’t have started to think about problems such as duplication, lack of automation and decreased productivity in the health industry…which is pretty bad and quite common. Having the experience gives me the drive to help solve these problems. I just want to make software that shifts the focus back on to the patient/client and not the paper work that is needed.

Things I’m looking forward to…

• More time to increase my skills
• Creative Freedom
• Solving problems in a different way

Things I’m tentative about…

• Trading in the money for time
• Keeping Motivated
• Keeping Focused

Since I gave my notice to resign a month go, I have not looked back since. One of the major things that really pushed me over the edge to pursue this path was that I had applied for another nursing job (quite similar to one I have now, but in a different speciality), thinking that this would solve my angst in my current job. I got an interview with the panel and was very motivated to do well in the interview. But when I finished the interview I couldn’t shake this feeling that I was going to end up in the same place asking myself “Will this make me happy?”. I ended up withdrawing my application as I felt I was going to have the same dilemma…feeling stuck in another nursing job I did not necessarily enjoy and only dreaming of being a web developer. In the grand scheme of things, the best time to start is now before I have any more responsibilities…such as having a mortgage and kids.

It’s about leveraging my time and staying focused on the goal. I plan to take my Udemy Courses (that I have purchased over several months, but never had the time to do), I have a lists of goals on my Trello account to achieve, I will continue my education with CodeAcademy (PHP, Ruby), hopefully get into the Ruby Code School at NetEngine, apply to Thought Works Grad Program, I’ll also consider Lynda.com, CodeSchool.com and Tertiary Study.

The last month has been reassuring as I have been getting interviews and face-to-face contact with potential employers and clients. Overall I’m looking forward in pivoting my skills in a totally different environment.

If you have similar experiences I’d like to hear about it…the good, bad and the ugly…

Should I got to University?

So, its been busy since my last post and I’ve got some things happening in my life that are pretty exciting.

1. I’m getting hitched! So as some of you may know I am getting married which is pretty exciting. But I don’t really want to disclose too much other than that…It’s getting pretty close now and I’m just getting excited!
2. I quit my Cardiac Rehab Nursing job…I decided it was time to get real about my web dev dreams. I’ve been agonising over this for about a year and a half now. The economic environment isn’t the best (Thanks to Campbell Newman) and I’ve never seen the morale so low at work. My values do not match up with where the industry is heading so I’m jumping ship. There’s no creative freedom in my job, and I can advocate all I want for my patients but it’s gone too political now so I’m leaving. I’ll still have my other nursing job in hospital once a week (unless Campbell decides to sack more front-line staff). I know it’ll be a struggle money wise, but I’ll have time on my hands up skill. You’ll probably hear more about this in a separate post
3. I’m taking entrepreneurial dreams to the next level as I’ve been working as freelance web developer for the last 7 months or so and it has been going pretty well. I’ve got a portfolio that I’m proud of and have been getting interviews for jobs in the front-end market. I’ll be able to put more time and effort into my web dev career and skill-up. I’m tossing up whether to get that piece of paper or to stick it out for a few more months in the hopes of landing my foot in the dev door.What do you guys think…?