Jobs

For the last couple of weeks (months, actually), one major thought that's been on my mind has been my job and where I'll be in the future as it pertains to my career.

I've been of the mindset that no job is permanent, where if you're not changing jobs every so often, you will become complacent and the tools that keep you valuable to a company will become stagnant and old. I see and hear too many horror stories of people being laid off, or not advancing with the times, to want that to include me.

I was fortunate to find a "career job" right after college. I've stuck with it the past 6 1/2 years, because I have what motivates me to come into work every day and do a good job. But even at my company, I've had to dodge 4 to 5 rounds of layoffs, sometimes two layoffs in a year. To see my best efforts going into a company that is dwindling, to take the relationships I've built with my teams get cut down due to people leaving, and to worry about if I'm next, takes its toll on me. How can I plan for the future with no knowledge of how much I'll get to spend next year? How can I get ahead of the game when I have to continually stop and write down my knowledge, not knowing if someone else needs to take over for me if I have to leave?

I've been working in a field that directly applies to me - helping people with hearing loss use the telephone. So I see the efforts I make helping people like me out. But I'm always tempted to, even in this economy, leave and find a better way of doing things. Maybe I need to get out of this niche field and get into a more mainstream service - biotech, for one example, getting involved in cochlear implants or bionics; space, planning out the trip to Mars or putting together the next space vehicle; or even finance, figuring out how to best predict supply and demand for products and deliver them to the right places on time.

I'm rambling a bit... but it's just because it's on my mind.