New game plus
This is a personal story. I don't usually publish stories like this, but this story is directly relevant to the history of this blog, and it's important enough to write down.
I started a new job recently. I'm working as a Power BI consultant. I feel like I've made it.
Origin
My career began in oil and gas, as a facilities engineer. After four years of that, I had no longer wanted to continue down that career path. I had a senior colleague that was really good at Excel formulas, and Power BI had just come out around that time, which he was experimenting with. His wife was equally good. I wanted to be them.
Rubacava
In 2019, five years ago, I started a new job doing SharePoint and Power Apps, and for my work login, I set my password to "Rubacava". Rubacava was a small town, a place of limbo, in the computer game Grim Fandango. The souls of the dead go there to seek passage to the afterlife. The journey takes four years. I thought that I would give myself the same amount of time, about four years, for me to reach "the afterlife". One day, I will be so transformed, that I will no longer be an engineer, or be associated with it.
That job was the first step. It was at that job that I started work on Power Apps, which was a new product at the time, and it was at that job that I felt it important enough to start this blog. Every day, I typed in "Rubacava" when I logged in, as a reminder that I was on a journey to transform myself.
The company that I worked at was an engineering consultancy in the oil and gas space. It was still adjacent to my previous role, but from that year on, I took small steps to becoming more and more removed from my previous identity as an engineer, and more and more solidified someone who does... something else. I couldn't quite describe it. I made up my job descriptions. When introducing myself, I told people that "I make apps". I learned a lot of PowerShell and JavaScript for my own benefit, and used them at work to great effect. After around 2.5 years of this job, I quit, to prove myself elsewhere.
Limbo
I took a string of short contracts. I wasn't afraid of 6-month terms, or even 3-month terms. I worked at a gas producer, in operations and continuous improvement. Then at a government department, in finance systems.
Then a big, multinational engineering firm, in corporate services, doing Power BI reporting. I worked with accountants, and sales people, and HR, and project managers, and all facets of the company. I had to learn about their work, in order to work with their data.
After a year, I became a permanent staff employee. My first child was born in this period. I stayed at this job for around 20 months.
Opening
In my contracting phase, I initially looked for Power Apps jobs. I started this blog on Power Apps, and despite how uncomfortable it can get, I enjoy working with it. However, I thought that focusing on Power BI would probably be more lucrative, with more jobs available. I think I've found good success with Power BI as my main weapon and the rest of the Power Platform as my sidearm (instead of the other way around).
I found my current job by chance. I was happy to work in corporate, in the engineering firm. It was a stable, frustrating, but stable environment. One day, I got a message from a former boss, from my contracting days. He said that a consulting firm was looking for a Power BI developer. He has worked with them closely before, and regards them highly. I didn't think much of it, but sent my resume in anyway. After going through a few interviews, and a very difficult aptitude test, they sent a job offer and I accepted.
I was content to stay where I was, but this was the chance to finally have the job that I really wanted.
New Game Plus
When I entered this job, I felt like a graduate again. It was a new office, and all new people, new culture, new landscape of relationships, ne industry, and new expectations.
However, I came in fully armed.
It was like New Game Plus: starting over a video game from the beginning of the story, but with all of your items and abilities from the first time you played it.
Everyone expected me to be good at my skills and my tools, and I was at least competent enough to pick up a real task in my first week. Much of what I did was related to finance and accounting from a systems perspective, and my recent string of past jobs prepared me for exactly that. I had been on the both sides of giving and receiving purchase orders. I've been business-unit level meetings, and meetings with global heads of departments. I had a lot of things to learn and a lot of questions to ask, but I also brought new technical skills that are complementary to the group.
The last five years of my career was exactly the preparation I received to be ready for this job.
It's also exactly what I wanted to do. I've completed my journey into the afterlife.
This is the best entry into a company that I've had yet. I hope to stay for a long time.