From the early days as an IT Technician to my first web developer role, going self-employed for the first time, managing a team of developers and going back and forth to office work before ultimately realising I'm "unemployable" and returning to running my own business as a WordPress freelancer. The entire history of my work roles and all the pros and cons of working for myself can be found in here.
I’m sat in the concert hall at the Brighton Dome waiting for the keynote before I leave to head for Gloucester. It’s been a great day with some really motivating talks – considering I came for networking potential rather than specifically learning, I’ve taken away some great points and things to try out on topics… read full entry »
It’s Tuesday morning, 6:50am. The kids have just asked me if it’s morning yet and can we get up, and I send them back to bed knowing full well the alarm is going to go off in 5 minutes, but every second I can spend tucked in bed wrapped in limbs and duvet improves the… read full entry »
I had a couple of clients (rightly) tell me off this week because schedules had slipped and this wasn’t communicated as well as it could have been. I only have myself to blame, and I don’t mind being honest about it. I should have better anticipated the impact of the summer holidays and time off… read full entry »
So, it’s been just over a week since I returned working from home. A week of exercising self-control, willpower and planning. A week of trying out a new routine, of getting used to waking up in the morning thinking “I don’t want to go to work… oh”. The ~Grand Plan~ for this time round was… read full entry »
As I count down the days til I’m back at my desk at home, I feel like I’m in sort of “work limbo” right now. I’m actively seeking and quoting for freelance opportunities — some of which are looking more positive than others — but I still have a huge amount of work on at… read full entry »
Keeping with the “posts I didn’t think I’d write” theme, I have some slightly less traumatic but otherwise Important Life Stuff news. Having earlier this week spent the Nth (I’ve lost count) night waking up — tossing and turning — stressing about work, I decided that enough was enough this week. The reasons are many… read full entry »
One of the things I am really keen on doing this year is to improve my workflow / development process. I have a very “make it up as I go along” approach to building a website (as demonstrated by my live dev ;)) which I think is fine for personal projects sometimes, but when you’re… read full entry »
I’ve waxed lyrical on and off social media recently about the benefits of going back to work on my mood (and sanity) and I think, in the process, somehow given off this impression that working for myself was the worst thing I’ve ever done and nowt but a bump in the road of my career…. read full entry »
So apparently working 9-5 and then 7-10 each and every day kills all desire or inclination to blog. Boo. :[
This time last week I made a cryptic reference to stuff that might be happening here in chez Jem – because I know how much people like cryptic posts and don’t find them in the least bit annoying ;) Well, I think I’m probably OK to spill the beans now… I am returning to work…. read full entry »