Career Change Decision (#8)

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Freedom of Place:

I was in Phi-Phi islands (Thailand) with my friends in December 2018. On the day we planned to go for a Scuba dive, we were roaming all the outlets to finalize the deal. In a shack(café), I saw a bunch of IT guys working on their laptops. They were on vacation. One of the guys- a certified Scuba diver offered to freelance his Scuba diving skills to take underwater pictures for tourists like us. 

This had a deep impact on me- He was on vacation yet doing his work remotely. On top of that, he was even making money in an activity that he enjoys.

One way to look at it is to feel pity for IT people as they had to work even on vacation. But, I saw a huge opportunity there at that time- the ability to work from anywhere. That was the first time I witnessed the wonderful concept of “Work From Anywhere.” 

Somehow, I didn’t like the idea of going to a particular place every day to do work.  If I have a specific skill set,  with just a laptop and an internet connection, I can work from any place- a café, restaurant, Kashmir or Thailand. This “Freedom of Place” is one thing I wanted in my next job.

Thanks to COVID, “Work From Home” has become a norm.

Freedom of Time:

Many a time, if I had something important or interesting to do, I used to go to the office at 5 or 6 in the morning when nobody was there. Those days used to be my most productive days. On those days, during actual office hours, I either used to chit-chat with colleagues or complete my pending personal work. 

This “Freedom to work anytime” is another thing I wanted in my next job.

Freedom of Choice: 

The biggest problem with my job at that time was that there were very few options to change the company. The skills I acquired with that job were applicable to a very narrow set of companies. I badly wanted to change that. 

I wanted to acquire skills that give me the flexibility to change the company if needed because I may like the work I do, but I may not like the attitude of the manager or the company's culture. If I find them toxic, I should have the choice to change the company.

Freedom to Freelance:  

Again, with just a laptop, internet connection and the right skills, if I can freelance my work to any person or company in the world, that’s a tremendous contribution to living life the way I wanted. 

With these ideas in mind, I made THE decision- the Career Change Decision.

Fortunately, things started falling into place after this. I got the admits to Universities, and I, too, moved my pieces quickly.