Whew.

It’s been killing me to keep mum about this, but it’s finally become official.

I haven’t been terribly open about work in this space. As much as this is sort of a private space, in the sense that 99% of the people I know don’t actively or even passively read this, it’s also unwise to put anything on the web that you absolutely don’t want to come back and bite you in the ass. Or look bad during a job background check, let’s say. It’s been hard not to use this as almost a diary and share some pretty personal thoughts. By nature I think I like to be open with people. The heading for this blog does reference narcissism after all. So far I think I’ve been pretty good at not posting pictures of myself ripping bong loads, or sex tapes (although given what’s happened to the bank accounts of these people, maybe….). There has been a lot of news to report regarding work in the last few years but none of it was good, nor did I have any good things to say about it. So I thought it was better to leave it out. If you don’t have anything nice to say, and all.

For those who don’t know, the last three years have been fairly miserable on the professional front. I mean, yeah they’ve not been great for most people, but they’ve been getting progressively worse for me in that time. We lost people at work, then we went to reduced hours, and finally we were all let go and then some rehired as hourly workers in a virtual configuration back in November. Despite being one of those rehired, that last bit would have been particularly difficult to deal with if I hadn’t already applied for a position at Dartmouth College back in October. I’ve been lying in wait as that process has unfolded and tonight I accepted that position!

I’m incredibly excited and relieved that everything has come together as it has. Not only has it come about at the right time, but it’s also something that I’m genuinely interested in. The position is in the Web Services, and even though it’s not what I went to school for, it’s something I’ve been doing for years on the side at my current job.

I kept my mouth shut for a while, but the straw finally broke my back. I couldn’t stand watching my co-workers fumble with the VGA cable on the projector at the start of one more goddamned staff meeting. Since then I’ve been keeping our office hardware and software running as well as training and supporting my fellow employees when they have questions about how something works. Things have been particularly interesting and challenging since we went to a virtual office model, but I’ve muddled through. I’ve also done a little consulting on the side for SketchUp. So I’ve got a bit of a street style education in the supporting arts, as it were.

People thought I was being taken advantage of (and I was), but I was also learning quite a bit at the same time. For that I am thankful, because it’s made this new job more possible. Not that I anticipated this turn of events, but people always suggested I could do ‘something with computers’ if Architecture didn’t work out. Turns out they were right. 🙂 Speaking of;

This new position will focus mainly on supporting faculty and staff interact with, and manage, their departmental websites. My plan is to soak up the more technical end of things and perhaps move into a developmental position at some point. Part of starting this blog was an excuse to get some exposure to PHP but that hasn’t exactly worked out according to plan. Sure, I’ve modified some things very slightly but it’s not been educational. I won’t be deep in it as part of my job proper, but there will be people around me practicing these magics. I feel like the skills are there should I choose to take advantage. Now I’ll be getting paid to learn the stuff I was just going to goof around with before.

So with that, things get under way on January 23rd. Can’t wait! 2012 is starting with a bang!