Natural Lighting.

As much of a pain in the ass as moving to Seattle has been, I must say I love my new job. First off, check out these pictures of my cube/office. Yup. That's a window I've got - with a 16th story high view of downtown Seattle. A window! I can watch stuff. Like the weather (Thunder and lighting rolled through shortly after these pictures were taken.) or window washers or traffic. The other side of the building, with the conference room, has a great view onto Elliot Bay.

Aside from being delighted at my window, here are some important reasons I love the job.

• This position 'fits' me. In most any job, I can use my HTML and baking. At Widemile, I get to use my HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP, SQL, Photoshop, Dreamweaver skills; along my 'softer' (and more elusive) web and user interface design, technical writing and database design skills. I get to practice my skills frequently in the real world, for actual clients. Yay! Also, my skill set is different enough from those of my co-workers that I can frequently come up with an unheard-of technique or code base to accomplish something. Only my video-gaming skills have not yet been required. Seriously, anyone wanna play Tetris DS?
• All my coworkers are awesome. It's been more than a year since I had to work with any jerks. Nobody likes working with jerks - they can make your day miserable, and the same jerks are still being sucky jerks the next day! But everyone at Widemile is smart, hip, and easy to meld with.
• It's a 38% raise from my previous position. The old job was a fabulous opportunity to prove my mettle, and I completely understand that retail-industry jobs don't pay going market rates. But money does talk, and I do listen.
• With such a small company, everything I do matters. (Since the hiring of myself and the person before me, the boss needs to order 3 pizzas when he's buying lunch. I wonder if being a 3-pizza-company is some kind of dot-com milestone?) There's exponential opportunity for my personal and professional growth. It's pretty sweet.

Previous job coworkers: I miss you too. You were all awesome, and every tool, challenge, and encouragement you gave me helped me get where I am. You know who you are. Thank you.

PS. Gamecrazy's deals for Black Friday include both Final Fantasy III (DS) and Final Fantasy XII (PS2) for $30. Holy moogles, batman!

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