A break I had to have

I've just finished up working for thinkgroup where I've been writing web based enterprise software in .Net for the last three years. Despite the fact that I enjoyed working there, after three years I really felt I needed a change.

I'm going to take a break before I start looking for new jobs, this may not be a good idea in the current global economic climate, but its a break I think I had to have. I have no clear idea yet about where I want to work or even what I want to do next. And besides Summer in Melbourne is the best time not to have a job.

It seems quite logical to get anther job writing web based software in ASP.NET. I'm very passionate about it, I enjoy coding in C# and I think I am good at designing and writing software systems to solve real world business problems. In this area I would be looking for senior developer roles and good salaries, but there are also other directions I would like to consider.

I choose to study electronic over software engineering at university even though I already really liked programming. I was looking for jobs in electronics when I graduated, but after not finding one due to both a lack of opportunities and lack of effort on my part, I ended up taking a full time role developing software.

I'd still like get a job designing electronics or low level programming but I think I would probably need to get a more recent qualification and consider re-locating to increase opportunities. Another slightly more realistic option I'm considering is getting a job writing in anther language and framework. I'm interested in other languages and its a challenge I'd really like to take and I think I would benefit from in the long term.

While I'm on holiday I'll probably still do a couple of hours here and there building a simple weblog with ASP.NET MVC I started and I'll be playing around with Python and IronPython. I'd like to blog and do a presentation to the VIC.NET User Group on some of the cool stuff you can do with IronPython but I'll wait to see how motivated I am during my break before I commit to anything.