Big Career Decision
This past Sunday I received a verbal offer from Zend to be the Editor-in-Chief of DevZone and to play an active part in the PHP Community. The job is near perfect as it involved writing, podcasting, some coding, organizing the content for ZendCon and being a member of the “press” at various PHP conferences throughout the world. All that and I could stay right here in Iowa. So why not take it? Well, because life can be complicated.
There are a few defining moments in life and this has been a huge one for my career. The past few weeks have required me to think about where I want to take my career and at one point during the interview process I was asked where I want to be in 5 years. Believe it or not I had no answer. I knew before I could make this decision I had to get that ironed out….and I have. I can rehash the decision but here’s just a snippet of the note I sent to Zend (note: I did call to tell them all this verbally first which is PC);
My decision has come down to three things. First, there is my family. My wife, Kate, is the single pillar in my life that keeps my world in balance and makes any successes in other parts of my life possible. She made it very clear to me she’d support me in any decision I make. That said, she never really nudged me in the direction of Zend which gave me immediate cause for concern. Secondly, my manager has agreed to work on structuring my current job to include some of the things that makes the opportunity with Zend so attractive. Sure, it won’t be on a global scale but it is a real effort on their part to keep me.
The biggest motivation, though, is where I take my career in the long term. One thing I don’t want to have come out of this is for me to feel that by staying in my current job that I’m somehow “settling” and be perceived as adverse to risk. Please know that simply isn’t true. During my trip to Cupertino I was asked where I see myself in 5 years. I babbled awkwardly trying to search for the answer. In fact that question was left unanswered until recently. At heart I have a real entrepreneurial spirit and now I believe strongly that happiness in my career means owning my own software business and I feel the past 11 years have set me up with both the technical know-how and the soft skills to make it work. I have to chase that dream. I have to do it now.
So no need to ask me what’s next for Tony Bibbs. It is all right there…I’m staying put. In the meantime I will take my duties with the State serious but I have some very clear objectives for myself moving forward and that’s an exhilarating feeling!