I’m not in architecture yet, but I think it would always be a dream of mine to design a university campus
I wanted write super reliable software after finishing school, so I thought I would get my Professional Engineer license (American). Passed my FE exam (thermo was fun), found a PE to work under, but then Software engineering was removed from the licenses list. 🫠 Now I work in safety-certified software, but I’ll probably never get to write that “P.E.” behind my name.
Advancing and becoming a team leader. Now I don’t want it. I want to be an ordinary employee who has very limited responsibilities.
Oh God yeah, I was offered a management role before, but the problem is every manager I I’ve ever known just seems burnt out and unhappy so I firmly told them no
Agreed. It’s middle managers all the way up. I thought it would get better, or I’d be the change I want to see, but it’s utter chaos at every turn.
Just give me a stapler and a broom closet and leave me alone.
Quit within a few years, unfortunately not. I really can’t see a path forward anymore.
Maybe it’s time for a non profession related goal, got any hobbies you would like to pursue further ? I just set up my own website for the first time so I’m pretty stoked about that
I own dullsters.net and i have been trying to clean out junk from previously abandoned projects and working on others. It has become a project in itself. There’s no shortage of 3d printers, computers, tools, and other things around here. I’m always doing some kind of diy. A lot of times out of necessity as things lately have been breaking more than usual. I’m also on a high level committee for an organization with the goal of growing an e-sports scene to help veterans. It just feels really weird to do cool and interesting things at home and have an easy entry level job that isn’t fulfilling and not seen as capable of anything more.
To eventually not hate my job, and unfortunately not
To buy a house. And yeah.
I started wanting to retire by the time I hit 55. Just moved to to Portugal to start a new life, I am 54.
Oh my fiancee would love to do what you’re doing, she’s Portuguese but never met that side of her family and loves learning the language, I hope your transition is going well, don’t forget to find some solid friends to help you settle
Thank you. It’s going well, I think I will be happy here.
I went to school to be a nurse. I specifically wanted to work in Labour/Delivery. Where I ended up moving after graduating was a saturated environment and I was lucky to get a new grad position on a heart/lung med surg floor. I did that for 4 years before covid stole the stars from my eyes. Now I run a bakery. I never got to do the one thing I thought I always wanted to, and I’ll never do it. I know I could go back, but I live abroad now and I’ve been out of the game 5 years. I don’t have any interest in going back to the US even if it meant I could have a shot at my dream job. Because at the end of the day, I’m happier and safer here.
My degree is in microbiology although it could have been molecular or biochemistry. I wanted to get a PhD and research gene therapy along with teach but it was just getting to be to much and without it the profession was not fun or rewarding so I went into tech. If I had to do over again I would have picked up secondary ed as I do like teaching.
I’ve had two goals since I was around 14 and really truly started to love writing software.
My first goal was to work for Google. I loved that Google had a “don’t be evil” approach to their business, and everything I saw about the working environment screamed fun. I eventually did work for Google, and during my time there they dropped the “don’t be evil” unofficial policy, and dropped the 20% time official policy. The work I was doing was cool, but management seemed really bad at their jobs. About 18 months into our project, we discovered that there were two teams in two different orgs working on basically the same product. After a week of “will we even have a job tomorrow” our team was the team they kept on. We had half the engineers of the other team, and now we were expected to implement all the features of the other team’s product into ours in half the time. It was a shitshow.
My second goal was to start my own tech company with a cool innovative project. Four years ago I had a great idea and thought this was the one. So, I left my job at Microsoft and started working on my own company. I’m happy to say that just a few days ago, I launched it! It’s an email service that has a new approach that keeps your email organized and is very spam and phishing resistant. If you want to check it out:
So I’d say goal #1 was achieved, but turned out to be shit when I actually achieved it. Goal #2 is in progress, and hopefully turns out a lot better than #1. :)
Very cool!
I take it you’re not the founder mentioned in the site’s About, but someone else heavily involved?
Also, why “Port87”? Because it’s unused?
I am the founder actually. :)
The name comes from the idea of a shipping port, where all of this tons of stuff comes into the country, but organization is handled by the port without you ever having to think about it. Then the 87 comes from when I was born. xD (Though I did check to make sure IP port 87 wasn’t used for anything.) The logo being a ship’s wheel is also an allusion to the nautical theme of the name. And fun fact, the background image in the home page is the Port of San Diego taken from the Coronado bridge. I took it while on my way to vacation with my wife. :)
One day I want to make a little Easter egg when you SSH into port 87 on port87.com with your username and password. I’m thinking some kind of little mini game where if you beat it, you unlock some special feature or discount code.
Ah OK. You mentioned quitting Microsoft to do it here, but the site says LinkedIn. So sounded like two different people.
Anyway, seems cool! Also the easter egg sounds like something I’d do :)
Yeah, LinkedIn is a subsidiary of Microsoft, so I use them kind of interchangeably when I talk about it.
TIL
Hi, former coworker. I don’t know if we ever spoke, but I somehow recognized your name on the Port87 page, haha. Good luck with the project!
Thank you! Feel free to send me an email at hperrin-friends@port87.com. Maybe I might recognize you.
Very nice I hope you reach the fulfillment you’re looking for, I made it to 30 before I started thinking about these things. I just kind of realized my life felt so… Empty.
Now I’m stressed, but I don’t feel empty. When I look around at the campus and all my work, I still feel stuck, but going somewhere. You know? I would love to get into a profession where I can figure out how to create things, like you’re doing, that seems like it would be fulfilling
To enjoy work. Yes it panned out but goal posts have moved to “enjoy retirement”. Almost there.
I wanted to be a psychiatrist, and then I took organic chemistry, so now I’m a therapist
Felt, in studying for mechatronics engineering, but calc 2 destroyed me so… I’m looking into a bachelor’s in comp sci or IT and seeing if that might be right for me
Classic
I thought I’d be able to afford a house and retire one day. LOL
Finally make more money than I would have if I had stayed in my threatened union pensioned position. I changed careers and started over at the bottom.
Yes, it took me eight years but I made it.
Make enough money to start a family and buy a house, and yeah.
Lol still trying to get into the career, been working on a transition into work that I’d enjoy. So, getting a role in it is my baseline at the moment.
