Serious career advice

Pigbenis

Pigbenis

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I'm in a bit of a conundrum at the moment, and I'm looking for some advice. A bit of background I graduated from Purdue in Dec 2009 and was hired by a large consulting firm based out of Chicago. I'm a consultant, but 80% of my work is (was) web development. I had some major life events which required me to move back to Cleveland. Unfortunately my firm doesn't have an office in Cleveland, but my boss let me move back here and work from home. Right now I'm making 68,5 and I work from home every single day. I wake up whenever I want to, I work maybe 6 hours a day, I work in my pajamas, I watch porn, etc., etc. I've been doing this for 2 years; I'm living the fat life at the moment. The problem is I don't think I'll ever be able to grow within the firm while working from home.

To make the situation a little crazier the group I work with has recently switched from doing web development / CMS work to Microsoft Dynamic AX development. It's extremely profitable and my group is now raking in massive amounts of dough. The problem is I don't know if I really like it. What I enjoy to do is mobile and web development. I'm concerned if I stick with AX development and things don't work out with my firm I wont be able to get back into the web development world.

So I have 2 options - stay or leave. I'm concerned if I can make that same amount of money in Cleveland only 3 years out of school. Moving from Cleveland is not an option.

So here are my concerns in an easy to read format

  1. Can I grow while working from home while being nowhere near an office? I don't think any of you guys can help me with this answer
  2. Is switching my career path right now a good option? Not sure if I like Dynamic AX. Answer to this relies largely on concern 1.
  3. I'll be giving up the fat life when I leave. Am I making a move too quickly? Should I wait?
  4. Is Sam's burst DPS really that impressive?
 
Joeboo

Joeboo

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This doesn't really answer your question, but as a side note of something to consider, I had 3 close friends who all had IT/Comp Sci degrees out of college, and got jobs in their fields immediately. 2 of the 3 worked from home(1 every day at home, 1 2 days a week in-office, 3 days at home) and those 2 were the first to go at their companies when layoffs came around. The third one is still with his company in the office everyday and doing well. Working from home is great, but you can also slip to the back of peoples minds and seem somewhat expendable if you aren't in front of them in the office at least part of the time. I'm sure some people work happily from home forever, but in my limited experience companies are moving back away from a lot of telecommuting, and those positions are a little less stable & reliable. But if it comes down to it, if there's multiple people doing a similar job/position, and someone needs to be laid off due to downsizing or whatever, the guy who is never in the office is probably going to be the one to go.

Now, if you're the only person in your company that can do your job, then more power to you and you don't have much to worry about.
 
McCheese

McCheese

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Can I grow while working from home while being nowhere near an office? I don't think any of you guys can help me with this answer
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Roughly 75% of my company's employees work from home. That said, there is definitely a noticeable difference between many of them; i.e, you can generally tell the ones who wake up whenever the fuck they want, hardly work, and surf porn all day from the ones who act like they're in an office. I think you can be perfectly successful in most companies nowadays as a teleworker, but it requires a lot more effort and discipline on your part and your results/work are going to carry much more weight than if you worked in the office.

No offense, but given what you said about your typical workday, you don't sound like the type of person who should be working from home. Granted, maybe the work you're producing is insanely good, but all of the successful teleworkers I know are ones who wake up at 7:00am and sit at a desk in their home office from 9 to 5 as if they're on-site. On a personal note, I've been given the option of working from home but I refused because I know I don't have the discipline necessary to do it while still maintaining the quality of my work.
 
Pigbenis

Pigbenis

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McCheese_sl said:
Roughly 75% of my company's employees work from home. That said, there is definitely a noticeable difference between many of them; i.e, you can generally tell the ones who wake up whenever the fuck they want, hardly work, and surf porn all day from the ones who act like they're in an office. I think you can be perfectly successful in most companies nowadays as a teleworker, but it requires a lot more effort and discipline on your part and your results/work are going to carry much more weight than if you worked in the office.

No offense, but given what you said about your typical workday, you don't sound like the type of person who should be working from home. Granted, maybe the work you're producing is insanely good, but all of the successful teleworkers I know are ones who wake up at 7:00am and sit at a desk in their home office from 9 to 5 as if they're on-site. On a personal note, I've been given the option of working from home but I refused because I know I don't have the discipline necessary to do it while still maintaining the quality of my work.
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I was being somewhat facetious there. I get my work down and rarely have I ever had any complaints about the quality. I guess my problem is it's a bit more difficult for me to seek out more work once I've completed my tasks.
 
Hachima

Hachima

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Given your situation, it sounds like you have a lot of time to learn on your own. Any given day shouldn't leave you exhausted, and the time saved from having to commute adds up. Whatever transition you want to make should be a lot easier if you want to keep up/learn things other that what you do at work.
 
Gravel

Gravel

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I'd say you just need to decide if you're comfortable with where you are. It sounds like you aren't, so start looking for something else. You have the advantage of not needing to take something, so you can just put some feelers out. If you don't get an offer you like, stick with where you're at. I'd definitely recommend taking some time for self development.
 
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