Last week our company moved into our new permanent office space in the Seattle Design Center, which is an upscale interior design gallery building. There are glass elevators in the lobby area, water fountains, and two Wolfgang Puck restaurants. It is fancy. And with us there it feels a bit strange, as we are kind of a rag-tag group of software geeks, designers, and writers, and totally unlike anyone else in the building. We are not posh! It is weird to get used to, but it is a very lovely place to work. Parking is free, and it’s in a part of Seattle south of downtown, where things are mostly industrial so it feels more relaxed.

The office has a set of floor-to-ceiling windows with a beautiful view of the Seattle skyline. Everyone in the office has plenty of space and light and control over the temperature. It feels really good to have my own desk and finally more of a sense of permanency. Ever since my first year of college I have been working internships and contracts which are always temporary, so this is the first job I’ve had where I finally feel like I’ll be staying awhile. I still do contract work but at least I have the same employer throughout. I really enjoy the feeling of permanency with the variety that comes with working on projects with a definite start and end point. I guess that setup works for me; it keeps things interesting enough that I don’t get bored and keeps me on my toes when deadlines are looming. I often find myself pushing myself to work harder and faster to accomplish tasks that generally should take longer than I allocate for them. We are starting to call these SharePoint miracles when they happen.

I still have a hate/love relationship with SharePoint, but…it’s something I have a knack for and there is a high demand for it now. Business will keep coming in as long as I am willing to focus on that application. I may not be the best visual designer but I know I am a fast and efficient implementer, which is a niche where there is a great gap. There are a lot of people who are purely visual designers, and others who are only software developers, but it is rare for there to be a solid overlap between the two. I seem to keep finding myself in jobs where I fill in this gap, and it makes me happy when I am working. This is a rare thing indeed.

I often wonder what I would do if I were not in this line of work. Am I meant to be in technology or art? I don’t know. My conclusion always ends with “nothing.” I love art and crafts, but I don’t know that I could make a living that way. I don’t think my body could hold up either, if I were to crochet or paint for 10+ hours a day. I keep reading about Etsy sellers who end up quitting their day jobs to sell full time but I doubt I would have the stamina for such a thing. But who knows? Anything can happen.