I've officially taken the next step in my career. I'll soon be working at Fueled as an Android Engineer! I'm so excited for this next chapter and wanted to write a quick post talking about my thought process behind this change. My hope is to provide a little look into how I've come to think of career decisions for those who might be curious about this stuff.
Before we jump into the thought process, I'd like to take a slight detour and talk about how I think about careers in general. Most of these ideas are things I've learned about over the last few years and they've been really important in helping me make sense of what it means to me to be a working professional.
Job vs. Career
Job
A job is different from a career. A job to me is a contract where you do some work or offer services in order to get paid money in return. A job is a way for us to survive in this materialistic, capitalist world we live in — and that's okay! A job helps you take care of yourself, provide for yourself. You do not have to love your job. Your job doesn't have to be awesome, it doesn't need to fulfill you. It just has to … pay.
An obvious disclaimer here is that if your job is killing you, or is a toxic place then you most definitely can switch your job. You can go out there and get a better job for yourself.
Career
A career on the other hand is something more long term. It is something you build over time. I think of it as a series of jobs (or roles within the same job) in a particular domain of work that interests you. This is why phrases like having a writing career or a career in software engineering exist.
Due to the long term nature of a career, you don't want to be in a career that you hate. If you are in one, then it's best to leave and go out and get a job! Work jobs till you figure how you can jump back into a career again. Doing this is totally fine!
At any given point in time, you can be working a job or building yourself a career. Both are totally valid ways of living your life! I'm personally in the “building a career” phase right now, trying to build a career for myself as a Software Engineer.
I must acknowledge that being in a “building a career” mode is definitely a privilege. It's a privileged to be in a situation where you can focus on a career and not have to worry about making ends meet on a day-to-day basis.
If you're reading this blog post and are in a place where you're trying to go from having a job to building a career (as a Software Engineer) or are just confused about anything Software related, feel free to drop me a DM on my Twitter to have a chat. I will try my best to help!
Due to the long-term nature of careers, career decisions are often very contextual. They depend a lot on the work you have been doing, the work you want to be doing in the future, your financial situation, family situation etc.
My decision to work at Fueled was a contextual one as well.
Android
After spending the last 3 years working in an early-stage, fast-paced startup environment where I was routinely wearing multiple hats at work, I felt that the time was right for me to step into something that allows me to dive deep into just one thing. This one thing is of course building apps for Android.
I taught myself how to build Android apps in 2014 and have wanted to work on Android full-time since then. My job description at Fueled allows me to do just this! It's finally happening 😁
Processes, Support, Culture
Fueled has a super streamlined set of internal processes, a solid team of engineers (a lot of them senior to me — which is great!) spread across the globe, and a team culture of “making things” (which I learned about while interviewing). These three things combined will be super valuable for me as I try to grow in my career.
I'm excited to be a part of the Fueled team and contribute towards improving the processes, support systems and company culture!
I couldn't be more thrilled! I start work on 1st September. You can expect a lot more Android themed blog posts on here going forward as that's where I'll be spending most of my time writing code. Wish me luck! 👀