Discomfort or Opportunity - When Do You Switch Career Paths?

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Hey folks, just on my way to work. I did a quick video before this one and this is just going to be another super quick one. This actually is, if you watch the previous one, I was talking about someone who was on a stream of mine and not being uh totally polite and then they actually had some good follow-up questions and one of the questions they were asking about was uh around careers. And so they they basically said, "Hey, look, like just curious like why why is it that you don't so I work at Microsoft like why don't you check out another company or like why don't you start your own?" And so uh I thought this was good to talk about not because I'm just going to tell you, you know, here's exactly what I'm doing and why. Uh, but more like just some thoughts on like uh I I think that my approach to this is perhaps uh you know different than yours.

One sec. My map just screwed up. Come on. Cool. Um so I was basically stating that for me my approach with things is uh less like you know maybe maybe there are other interesting opportunities out there right so I was saying let's use an example um a lot of a lot of things going on with AI obviously like I work at Microsoft there's a lot of stuff at Microsoft going on with AI there's stuff at Meta and Google and Anthropic and there's like there's lots of really cool exciting things going on. So, you know, aren't those opportunities that I should go consider pursuing? And like my my thought process around this is like at least the way I operate and I'm not saying this is good or bad.

Just something for you to think about for yourself is like a lot of my motivating factors like unfortunately I think come from uh not so much oh there's an opportunity I should I should pursue it or that's interesting I should pursue it and it's almost the inverse where um only when things maybe become too uncomfortable in a negative way I'm like I need a change like that is the forcing function I need a change to get out of uh whatever scenario. Um my camera's going all over the place. Got to get around. Yet another dumb driver today driving in two lanes. If you watch the last video, there was just like this is probably not exaggerating the sixth or seventh person driving like a total idiot today. Um, so for me like opportunities, it's less about having an opportunity and more about like a forcing function to to get out of a current situation.

And like I don't think that's necessarily healthy. Um, so that's sort of like an awareness thing that I have is like just because there's an opportunity does not mean I will go pursue it, right? And so I say that because the other part to this was like um you know why don't you start your own company? And I'm like hey that like that is actually something I've talked about where I'm like I think that is um an interest of mine. That is something I do want to do. Um when I don't know like especially for full-time like brand ghost that I have is a is a company but like as a full-time thing like I don't that's also the same challenge right it's hey that's an opportunity it's an opportunity to go do that but also like there's a lot of risk associated with that um I actually like what I do at work so it's like it's not a problem there is no forcing function for me to get out of that.

Right. So I think that's a bit of a challenge um for me because it's like someone could point out like don't you see such opportunities why don't you and uh it's just not it's almost like the riskreward kind of thing uh is not really there. And so I'm saying that because I don't know how you are, right? Have you thought about this kind of thing? Um, are you the kind of person that sees opportunities and and basically you will jump at every opportunity that comes up and like maybe there's trade-offs for that. Like I actually I don't know if I had to pick one or the other extreme, I would say that might probably be more uh more interesting, more learning opportunities like if you had to pick one. So perhaps um but maybe there's some trade-offs for that, right?

Like maybe you feel like, hey, I've been doing this perpetually cuz I keep seeing what cool opportunities are, but I also feel like maybe I haven't built up expertise in certain things because I have been doing that. I can't seem to like focus or or whatever it is. Like I don't know cuz I'm not that kind of person. But I think it's important to think about. So, um, like I said, I like this question when they brought it up, uh, because I do think that reflection is valuable because I don't think we do a lot of it or enough of it. Like I should reflect on getting this camera to not be so tipsy. But yeah, especially like in careers, right? These are these are things on a long time horizon, right? These are big parts of our lives. Make some space for that truck. And so if you don't go through periods of reflection, are you are you kind of just waiting for things to happen?

So like again, use myself as an example. If I don't do enough reflection and I don't realize like, hey, look, Nick, like you only wait for things to get bad before you make a decision. Like wouldn't it be nice to not do that? Right? I can reflect on this. I can say like maybe I need to think differently about this. Maybe maybe what I should be doing is pro more proactively seeking out things. Do I actually do I really understand like what I love to do and what I want to do or things I want to try? Like do I genuinely know that for myself? I like I I kind of think so. But at the same time I don't know like maybe maybe there are things I should be trying for example I have never worked uh even say within Microsoft doing like AI stuff is still obviously very new the way it's you know everything's going right now.

Is there something like that where I'm like, hey, this would be way more engaging to think about building like, you know, developer sort of tooling and infrastructure around like using AI like that could be that sounds super exciting. Cool. Okay, Nick, why don't you do it? Yeah, I I don't know. Like I I also am good doing what I'm doing now. I like it. I get paid well. Like it's almost like it's a level of comfort, right? So, I think that these are types of things I have to challenge myself more on. And so, I kind of wanted to talk about this so that you could do the same thing, right? It doesn't mean that, for example, if I was just using the last thing I was saying, it doesn't mean that I'm like, "Okay, cool. Well, I'm just going to go apply and I get a job now." Like, I'm not saying that.

What I am saying though is like why is my phone playing something? You can't I don't think you can hear it. My phone just connected to something and started playing audio. Very weird. Um I really don't get it. So yeah, I want I want you to kind of challenge yourself and think like do do you kind of understand if you are more on like the like me like more maybe more complacent, more I don't know like comfortable and you have to get very uncomfortable for you to kind of move um to pursue something else. Are you on the exact opposite end of that? What does that look like? If you reflect on these things, how has that been working for you? Right? Maybe you're on one of these ends of this of this spectrum I'm talking about and you're like, "Hey, this actually works super well for me.

Um, maybe you started doing something and you love what you do and you're like, "Dude, I would never switch out of this. Like, I get paid well. I do what I love. Hell yeah, everything's great." Maybe on the opposite side, you're like, "I, you know, have worked at a whole bunch of different companies doing completely different and I love that, right? learned so much, got paid well, had really cool experiences, and I want to keep doing this. But maybe you're not like that. Maybe that's not how it's worked out for you, and you're feeling frustrated and not understanding like parts of that. And I I think that the reflection is important. So, that's all I wanted to say on this one. Just a quick one to do a little bit of reflection. And um yeah, if you got questions about software engineering, career development, leave them below in the comments.

If you know how to fix my camera from being so loosey goosey, also let me know. Um, and then otherwise you can go to codeccommute.com and you could submit questions anonymously and I am happy to try making a video response for you and the rest of the viewers. Thanks and I will see you in the next one. Take care.