I almost spent three months considering if this job transition was going to be worth it. I applied in early December and started almost three months later, and those three months were filled with a lot of research, planning, and pondering.

I was in deed very lucky to have my position at Wells, but there were a lot of things that didn’t make the job feel productive, yet I was getting a very good pay with a larger and more stable company. With a wife, a son, a mortgage, and bills at stake if a job transition went sour, I needed to make sure I was making a good decision before it was too late.

TechTracker wanted to do a small project with me before hand, which was good because it got me into the office again and I had a bit of work experience with two employees. I researched the company online, and weighed my options.

On Thursday I went down and got everything setup. I’m now using a brand new dual core Windows machine with 250 GB drive space and 1GB of RAM, a large monitor (CRT, but it’s doesn’t matter) and a Mac – not sure on the specs yet. Thursday went very well but didn’t involve any actual work, just lots of downloading, installing, and waiting.

On Friday I was ready to get started, and I began setting up some tests on a development server to fix one of the four bugs currently assigned. Within a few hours I had found the problem and had a solution in mind. The fact that I had so quickly found the problem for something that had baffled everyone before made it’s way around the office and I was already getting a great feeling. I continued working the rest of the day, but as I’m still not clear on exactly how they have everything setup, I’m going at a slow pace.

During lunch I can peruse the Borders store two blocks away, eat, walk around downtown, or maybe shop. On Friday I went out to the waterfront for a bit (it’s literally across the street) and just enjoyed it.

The environment is just as I had predicted – very friendly but also hard-working and very flexible with schedules and needs as long as the job gets done. There’s also the option of telecommuting, which I won’t really want to use unless it’s necessary.

If I’m this comfortable after only two days, I’m excited for the rest of my time there.