Well, it became official today. I am moving to another job. This time, however, by choice.
Around this time last year, I was told that I would likely loose my job when the contract I was on rolled into the next fiscal year. I had to find a job, so I took the first one that I was offered. The job was(is) doing pretty much the same thing I had been doing previously, but in a crowded office environment with only a few development tools available to us. The work was not too challenging for the most part. The hardest thing was trying to fix stuff when you couldn't find the latest code. Lack of source control was one of the first things I tried to fix. I started the project in November, and the project is still waiting on a server with adequate drive space.
Anyway, the point is that the physical office space and development environment were not what I would call professional. I also grew a bit tired of the same types of projects or maintenance. I decided that I wanted a change.
The new project that I will be moving to in about 3 weeks is a larger project. I will only be working on a small piece of this. There is also a multi-server, multi-cluster environment for development, testing, performance analysis, and simulation. It is also in a new office building. So, I will be on a large project instead of several small ones, in a professional office environment with a professional development environment and the tools to go with it. I am looking forward to this.
I realize that every job has its downsides and challenges, and I know that the grass is rarely greener on the other side. I know that it won't be a dream job (it could be, but that's not likely). However, it is a change, and I think I need a good change in my career right now.