In IT, there are jobs, there are careers, and there are passions.
Back in 2006 there was a guy in my monitoring team, a 7 year veteran of IT who had made his career being one of those “server guys” who knows every variation of component in every model of the “big 3” server vendors. Looking at the chassis, he knew which video card or disk controller needed to be ordered when something was on the fritz.
It made him a reasonably competent monitoring guy. He understood the failure patterns, and was able to help us instrument for them. He wasn’t particularly passionate about monitoring, but his career to that point had given him some valuable and unique insight.
Back in 2006, VMWare was getting big, ESX (and ESXi) was just hitting the streets, and this guy’s eyes lit up. Since he already got on well with the server admins and data center ops guys, getting the scoop on this new tech was not hard. He stayed late, helped with testing, read up on the topic.
VMWware hired him a couple of years later. He’s doing pretty well for himself, in fact.
Job. Career. Passion.
There are people who never find this. Or who know what it is but never get the chance to reconcile the 3.
But as someone who has been lucky enough to get to that promised land, I can tell you that it’s worth the effort.
Think deeply about your passion – meditate on it, pray on it, ponder it over an IPA or a glass of 21-year-old scotch or a fine craft root beer – and then pursue it.
Trust me when I tell you that the effort is worth it. The journey is worth it. The struggle and the chase and the ups and downs are worth it.
Love is worth it.