For the first time in almost exactly six years I will be starting a new job. On August 11th I will be begin my employment with Nicolas Creative in Shrewsbury, NJ. My position will be unchanged as a PHP developer.

Back in the days when I worked in retail it seemed like every year, or less, I was either working in a new store or working for an entirely new company. And that’s because I was. That’s how retail worked. They moved managers around based on their current needs and changing companies was commonplace as one company always sought to improve their staff by recruiting from other companies. And they always brought their friends with them. From one perspective it was fun because you were always meeting new people and learning new things. Other the other hand change is hard.

After leaving retail I bounced around a few jobs but this time not by choice. I was in IT during the dotcom bubble and it subsequent burst which meant I found myself “dotcommed” a couple of times. After a brief layover driving a forklift for a piping company I found my current job. My role in the company changed over time as the company grew from three employees to over 25 but I got to do what I enjoy the most at this point in my life: develop web applications.

Overall the last six years of employment have been very good to me. It was nice to finally stay at one job with one company and be a part of its success doing what I enjoy doing. Unfortunately while my job has been static I have not been. My abilities as a developer grew and so did my financial responsibilities. Nothing screams “reality” like a mortgage! Although I have enjoyed my current job and am very proud of everything I have accomplished, there comes a time when you realize that you need to move n to something that suits your life better. For me that was the opportunity to work for Nicolas Creative. It doesn’t mean I was unhappy at EMerchant Services, LLC.

I’m glad that my primary duty as a PHP developer will not be changing as it seems just about everything else is. I will be working out of an office which I have not done in over two and a half years. I will have to get used to working with digital documents and I will also have to actually follow a dress code (or hire document shredding Melbourne). The types of projects will be different in scope as well as the client for each project. I will be working as part of a team instead of virtually alone. I will also be working primarily with existing code at first instead of virtually exclusively with my own code.

But overall it sounds like fun. The opportunity to learn new things and develop larger projects is there and they’ve got a lot of great ideas to explore. Time will tell what I will take away from this opportunity but, one thing I can be sure of is, I will have a lot fun doing it.