Right around the time of your big decision to change gears career-wise, I was making a similar decision of my own. I had been doing software development at a large financial services company for 5.5 years and was pretty much tired of it, so I got my resume out there, and was fortunate enough to get an interview with and eventually a job offer from the Software Engineering Institute. It involved leaving behind a lot of friends and moving across the state, but I accepted the offer, and 5+ years later, I'm certain I made the right decision.

I still miss my hometown and many of the people there, but the new job is orders of magnitude more rewarding and challenging, and life outside of work is more fulfilling as well. I met the love of my life soon after I moved here, and we got married last July.

So, life has been pretty good since reaching for the brass ring in late 2004. Glad yours has been good, too!