I Quit My Job - Now What?
I did something a bit reckless yesterday. I quit my job. My cushy 9-5 (9-7, really) where I made a nice salary doing production html work. I’m sure you’re snikering to yourself - “You fool, what the hell are you thinking quitting your job in this dreary economic climate.” Well let me tell you that this decision didn’t come easily. It was only after a great deal of deliberation that I decided to make this leap. When all the back and forth was over, I could come to only one conclusion: I love making web sites way too much to continue sacrificing my work’s integrity. This sounds harsh and idealistic, but making web sites is more than just a job to me. I am not satisfied with doing production work for corporate clients whose concept of web standards has remain static since ‘99. I need to get back the things I initially fell in love with about the internet - beautifully detailed design, Engaging interaction, and super clean CSS/XHTML. So I’m going freelance and I have a plan.
My goals for month one are pretty heady.
Goal #1. Get a notebook. I can’t very well sit around looking cool in coffee shops all day without a new Mac Book Pro. I mean, that’s all freelance designers do, isn’t it?
Goal #2. Start and finish at least one client project. Know anyone who needs some work done? Hit me up - dangerbucks [at] gmail dot com
Goal #3. Try and get out of the lease on my apartment so I can move to silicon mountain (aka Boulder). They say these people called venture capitalists live there and they throw their moneys at cool looking people on Macbooks in coffee shops.
Goal #4. Involve myself in the community. This one is easy. I’ve gone to a couple tech meetups in Boulder and thought they were smashing so I will continue to immerse myself in this way.
*Edit Goal #5. Get this tumblelog up to snuff and put my book on here. This should be higher in the list but since it came as an afterthought, #5 it shall be.
That’s plenty to keep me busy for the first month. I’ll still be working full time at my current job through Feb. I plan on keeping this tumblelog updated with my experiences so check back for updates or grab my feed.
6 months ago