The more my work situation sucks ass, the more I think about the times that I did enjoy what I was doing for a living.  I really can only think of 2 times since becoming an adult that I actually enjoyed "work".  Oddly enough, I caught up with one of my previous mentors on facebook just a few minutes ago.  I really have a love-hate relationship with facebook.  I hate it, I’m kind of embarassed that I’m on it, but have found it to be great to catch up to people with whom I’ve lost contact.

As far as my IT career goes, my time at a cable company was probably one of the highlights of my professional career for me.  I moved to NY in my early to mid 20s with only about 3 years of "IT" experience.  Within a few months, I was being mentored by people that I still to this day to endeavor to be like. One of them (very high up in management, let’s call him SR) just absolutely commanded respect without ego.  He is technical, and probably one of the smartest people with which I’ve ever had the pleasure to work.  While I had the confidence to just randomly move hundreds of miles away from everyone and everything I knew, I still lacked a lot of confidence in my professional ability.  Thankfully, there were a few people here who saw through that and found ways to change that.  Within just a few very short months of joining that group, SR fought to get me a promotion and 22% pay increase.  He also put me on an extremely high level project that dealt with many other groups within our organization.  Originally it was under the pretense of "just go the meetings, don’t commit to anything, and come back and tell me what went on…"  At one point, his absence was questioned, which led to one of the most awesome yet intimidating moments in my life: him attending the next meeting and letting all know that I was his delegate, his authority, and to consider anything I said as him saying it.  That’s…a lot of pressure.  During this time, I also started working with one of his direct reports (GJ)…someone who was much closer to me in age.  I look back now, and I can see many times when GJ was looking out for me professionally and personally.  Oh man, I was so young and naive

I do long for that time back, or to find that type of environment yet again.  It wasn’t just the above, it was the friendship, the trust, and the challenges that that environment afforded.  We were dealing with new/cutting edge technology…one of the few things in "IT" that actually challenges me, and I can almost enjoy.  Also, I was dealing with some amazingly competent and intelligent people.  I think right now, I miss that the most.

Unfortunately, the above is way too short to truly quantify the impact they had on my professionally.  But I did actually let GJ know that as I talked to him on facebook tonight.  It’s weird to catch up with him now as I long for that back.  It’s clear I won’t have that at my current employer.