In five days I will officially be unemployed.

This is an exciting change for me. This is also a terrifying change. After three years I’ve decided to leave my position with KPMG to pursue a career in software development. This decision didn’t come lightly and is the result of a lot of thought, exploration, and consideration. I won’t dwell too long on the reasons for my departure, but it ultimately comes down to being unsatisfied with my work tasks and career progression. While I loved the subject matter of my work, Information Security, the nature of consulting requires that a lot of effort be invested in areas including people management, sales, and project management, and these aren’t things I get too excited about.

And so, I found myself at a crossroads: I could (A) continue on the consulting path, executing interesting (on paper) projects and having big name clients, (B) leave for an industry position, work internally and slow down a bit, or (C) I could do something completely different. I’ve opted for the third choice. While I’ve greatly enjoyed the work I’ve done, I’ve always felt there was something lacking. I got to advise on technology, and specifically the security aspect of it, a great deal, but I seldom got to work directly with it day-to-day. Even after I became a certified delivery engineer for the CyberArk product, the majority of a project was spent making PowerPoint presentations or Word documents.

Enter software development, and the purpose of this site. I’m not new to software development. I’ve been programming in some capacity since college, but I’ve got a lot more to learn to be employable. This is going to require a lot of work, and I’m going to need someplace to highlight that work and its output. It’s a well known strategy that if you want to get into software development and don’t have a traditional background, you’re going to need to build a solid portfolio. So I’ll be making posts here occasionally of the things I learn, but probably more importantly, I’ll post the projects I’ve produced. I have an extensive learning path laid out, and I’m excited for what I hope to create along the way.

So what’s my motivation for this change, and why am I willing to quit my job just to study software development? Three major things stand out:

  • A passion for technology, and the opportunities to help build and create with it
  • The mastery of a set of tools, and the application of those to complex problem sets
  • The challenge of mentally-intensive work, and the reward of success