Life On the Off-ramp
Since I’ve retired (life’s career off-ramp), my attitude has changed on a lot of things: politics, self reflection, work habits (that’s a joke). With the Covid Crisis, life is more like having a wreck heading down the off-ramp. But, things go on, as they must. Like coding. Most people divorce themselves of their work career, thinking they’ve had enough of that rat race forever. But, not me. I’ve always enjoyed coding, and I have looked for ways to not only pursue it, but I guess, to justify it, since I don’t need to make a living with it any more.
I certainly didn’t want to tie myself to part time work, because even then, you’re going to be tied to deadlines and certain work hours. Volunteering is the ticket. So, I hooked up with IT4Causes, a local nonprofit that specializes in providing professional expertise to other nonprofits, but without the ‘professional’ pricing.
And it was a good choice. I’m exposed to different people, different work cultures, and different problems. No pay, but plenty of challenges. Typically, a client will want to:
- Build a new site
- Convert an existing non-Wordpress to WordPress
- Resurrect a site that’s been hacked (I’m working on one now)
- Make a site faster
So, we get a lots of exposure to different challenges. And even though all our meetings with clients are now Zoom calls, you’re still “in the game,” as far as working with other professionals.
I’m not so much into “giving back” or “pay it forward,” as I am “I like doing thiis.” And I guess, I’m part show-off. I like showing people what I can do for them, technically.