I’ve been working as a software developer for the best part of 20 years now and I’ve always had commercial realities impacting my work and the work that I really want to be doing. There was always someone else (ultimately) making the decision on what needed to be done, how much time could be spent on it and how much it should cost. While I’ve enjoyed most of the commercial projects I’ve been on, I’ve always longed for a job where I get paid to do what I really want to do - research! Well, by research I mean being able to experiment with various tools and frameworks to find a better way to do something - making discoveries on the fly and being able to just go with it. Time and money constraints generally keep this kind of thing confined to work at home.

Now I have been given a great opportunity to work with a group at a University that will allow me to do more of what I want to do. My job is part-time development and part-time research. I’ll be enrolling as a student and my job will contribute towards a PhD. I might not be affected by the same commercial constraints, but there is a lot for me to learn and I still need to produce results. One thing I’ll be doing a lot more of is writing and presenting. All the additional writing is one thing, but I am somewhat anxious about presenting. The leaders of the research group I am now a part of are very encouraging towards sharing work and research, particular at conferences, and it appears that there are no free rides here. That’s right, if I want to go to any conferences I’ll need to participate!

I quit a job of 14 years to risk a contract job offer for less money to do this. Some people think I am bonkers, but I have no regrets. Ask me again in 6 months.

I want to write about my experience as an old (nay, experienced!) developer moving into research and the PhD candidature process. I also want to share the work I am doing as much as I can. This is a good thing, right? If nothing else, these posts might help me with my writing.

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