My Story

I will start with some background about me…I am a software development consultant and I’ve worked for a huge software company (maybe the biggest) for the past 7 years. This is the company I’ve always dreamed to work for, and I love what I do; but this a big corporation and in the past 5 years I have seen how the level of bureaucracy, incompetence and visibility appetite have increased to scary levels. I work with some high skilled and brilliant professionals – but they are getting more and more scarcer – now almost every internal meeting that I attend I feel surrounded by egocentric muppets who have no idea about this business, and do not care about our customers. So, if they do not care about our clients why should I do?
I love travelling and photography, especially in exotic locations, for that reason after my 5 year of being in this company in Latin America, I managed to get relocated to Dubai in the Middle-East, which was a strategic hub to many places in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Almost every holiday was a new adventure to places like Oman, Seychelles, Nepal, Korea, Hong Kong, etc. Financially Dubai was a good option as well and with some discipline we could settle down all our debts. However, my feelings in the office were not getting any better; the level of boredom, stress, and lack of meaning were increasing. Then I realized that the things that motivated me to work hard 5 years ago were not valid know. Now I do not want to be admired by colleagues by my technical skills, or have money to spend on gadgets in Amazon. Now I appreciate more a quiet afternoon in a hammock with a good book, camping with my wife, a cup of chai, or taking pictures for endless hours…
I decided to get out of this rat-race. My only motivation in my job is my love for the things I do, not the visibility or a bulky bonus. I do not want to be promoted – not interested, period. Now I just want to be at home by 6pm to do more interesting stuff. Two weeks ago my first son was born – and now I have another reason for being at 6pm at home…then during the last week I resigned. We decided to look for something on a small company on a greener place than this desert – it’s going to be lovely with our son – so many places to visit. But before I would like to take a career-break of 4 months and enjoy the first months of my son, and plan some other stuff that I have on mind. For that, I am planning to go back to my home-country. We missed so many things living abroad, and it’s going to be cheaper there than Dubai anyway.. Let’s see what happens…
I do not know why I’m writing this here.. Anyway, maybe I just want to know if anyone had similar experiences..
jdpl

So you have discovered there is more to life then work! Good on you. Congratulations on becoming a father, kids are awesome and certainly refocuses your attention on what is important in life.

BTW, after 12 years in IT and 10-12 hr days, I now after many adventures and years of wondering, live in the South Island of NZ and work in the wine industry and get to have precious and wonderful time with my family. All it took was the will to believe that life can indeed, be a life lived less ordinary.

What's your plan IT man?

Good for you, IT-man. It's inspiring to hear when people make unconventional decisions, as long as it means that they're following their hearts. I hope you and your family are doing awesome.

Great, inspiring stories on here guys! I was also working crazy hours (at a job I did love though). It was definately hard to leave it to go and travel, but its so important to realize that there's more to life at work and there's nothing wrong with taking off a few months to travel, or to live an unconvential life exploring the world. Glad to know that there's other like minded travellers out there!