Need job advice - Time to move on?

[Lauxa]

Last August I got my first long-term job since November 2003, when my first child was born. It started with 10-15 hours a week and near the beginning of this year they offered me 20-25, which I accepted.

At the time, I was working on my own project developing online flashcards for preschoolers. I was developing them in PHP/mySQL and some Javascript and had decided to rebuild the whole application using Zend Framework. I decided that I wanted a job that would allow me to learn and improve these skills and get paid for it.

In theory I should love the job, but something isn't working for me. I am the sole developer working on a sales and marketing application written with Zend Framework and Javascript. If I stay here for a couple more years, I'll have all the experience required to work any web application development job in town. I have my kids in a daycare that I feel pretty good about (my older daughter doesn't like it much because lack of older kids, but there should be more older kids there this summer and she will start kindergarten in the fall). They are gone from 9-4:30 four days a week, which gives me from about 9:30-4:00 to get my work done. That's 6.5 hours a day, or 26 hours, to accomplish 20-25 hours of work.

I can't focus. I sit and post on these forums or I watch hulu or read online comics or just Stumble around the web. I almost always have to do extra work on weekends to make up for screwing off during the weekdays. This means I can't work on my own projects on the weekends.

At times, I have had less daycare or even no daycare and had to sqeeze all my work into evenings and weekends. I feel I was a lot more focused during these times. I was also doing much better producing 10-15 hours than 20-25 hours of work. It often takes me 30-40 hours to accomplish 20 solid hours of work.

My passion and dream is to work in the edutainment field. I am considering quitting this skill-building job and looking for something in that field or working on my own projects.

If I decide to do that, I'll probably still stay at this company a bit longer. We are at a point where the software is prototyped to a point that Phase I can almost be used internally to the company. I would like to stay at least until I see that they have gotten back a useful product for the effort, which might be another month or two.

I would love to hear any insights and advice you can give after reading my story.

[teatime]

Hi Lauxa!

Something in your post reminded me of myself! I also work as a sole developer on a bunch of projects in a small development bank. I build Business Intelligence solutions for MIS and Risk departments.

In the last 6-7 months I have noticed a constant fall in my motivational levels. And I find myself doing more and more things that I shouldn't be doing :-P (like surfing unrelated websites). From time to time there are burst of motivation and energy that allow me to make sudden progress in my projects and so I usually have something to show for my time spent. Since the projects are very specific my employer depends heavily on me. Hiring somebody else is barely an option.

Though there is a lot of stuff to be done, it is not really challenging and so I feel a little bit unmotivated (especially because I have to use mainly very out-dated technology). I think constantly that I could be working in a more professional and technically more demanding field. I am thinking about switching or maybe become an independent consultant in the Business Intelligence branch.

I also know though, that we may finally accomplish a big project in a year, that would not only improve my position in the company, but would also elevate me to a whole new level on the job market. Besides the atmosphere here is great, people are great, and so I hold on.

I guess I cannot really give you an advice besides from sharing my story. On a final thought I can tell you that I have learned recently a great trick to boost my daily motivation / productivity. When I first get in the morning to my workplace, I try to be as productive as possible the first hour. In most cases this first hour throws me into a hurricane of productivity and I do a one week worth of work in a day. This also calms my consciousness if I find myself spending one day in the week for not-so-important things :-P

[Daffy Duck]

I think goofing off and browsing the Internet is a common problem. There's just so much information available at your fingertips. I'm also a web developer and I have this issue sometimes. I find it helps to make myself a list of what exactly I am doing that day and then I just keep myself focused on the list.

So if your problem is just focusing, then maybe techniques like that will help. If the problem is that you do not enjoy your work anymore, then it might be time to explore other fields, or maybe think of ways you can enjoy your work?

[Talkofthatown919]

If you want to do something involviing edutainment then by all means go and do it. Before you do anything visualize yourself already in possession of the goal. So if you want to know the right thing to do is go and chase your dream. I am not saying quit your job only unless you can afford to. If you not do what you enjoy after work.

So have a positive mental attitude and faith and take action.