A Paradigm Shift

In my eight years in the IT field, I've always worked for companies that focused on information technology in one way or another. I was a network administrator at an Internet Service Provider; a programmer for a firm providing IT solutions for tradeshows; a programmer and sysadmin for a company that provided IT products and services to the education market. Every one of those organizations held IT as a core mission.

My current job is with a university center that does emergency management training, exercises, and policy planning and consulting. The IT component is simply a support function, yet I find the work infinitely more satisfying than anything else I've ever done.

Which brings me to the point. This truth, that IT can shine best when supporting something bigger is a fact that has escaped me for over eight years.

I've stopped thinking of myself as a 'senior programmer/analyst'. I now think of terms of simply what value I can bring to whatever mission we are working on. From designing a better database, to providing support to the people who are in the field, I'm thrilled to do it all.

More on this later, I've got to get some sleep.