I now run the IT depart­ment for a lab­o­ra­to­ry of about 45 peo­ple. I’m in charge of all instal­la­tions, upgrades, main­te­nance, back-ups, and secu­ri­ty for both hard­ware and soft­ware. I make the annu­al com­put­er bud­get, decide if/when any­thing needs to be pur­chased, and am involved with any devel­op­ment projects that come up. I can design my own projects if I feel like they’ll help the com­pa­ny. I’m involved in mar­ket­ing, design­ing ads for mag­a­zines, fly­ers, trade shows, and web­pages.

I have a huge desk that cov­ers three sides, and share an office (not a cubi­cle) with one oth­er per­son. I have a health plan, two weeks paid vaca­tion per year, and most of the time I make my own work instead of some­one telling me what to do. The indus­try is grow­ing, secure, and has lit­tle impact from gov­ern­ment cut­backs.

My boss is a good man with a great vision. The com­pa­ny pays for any train­ing or class­es that I take. I can spend as much time as I need doing tuto­ri­als or read­ing

I’ve signed the con­tract. I’ve been giv­en a time­card, a lock­er, and a set of keys to the office and stor­age room. The hours are flex­i­ble enough for me to fin­ish cours­es for this term, at which point I’ll switch only to work.

As with all my pre­vi­ous jobs, the first pay­cheque goes to my grand­moth­ers, the sec­ond pay­cheque I split with my friends, the third pay­cheque goes to my sav­ings.

I’ve start­ed the per­fect, per­fect, per­fect career.