Change from mobile
Hungary. My mother country. A small one, actually, in the heart of Europe. Mobile penetration is relatively high, although the vast majority is feature- and low-end phones and not smartphones. Definitely not a good market for smartphone applications - people don't have too much money to spend. There are not too many software companies, either, doing mobile development.
Take a family with a few kids. Far away from any help from grandparents. Would be great to move closer to them, but the country is so centralized that one cannot afford leaving the capitol without risking to lose the opportunity to work in mobile industry. Besides, the sheer size of Budapest (i.e. the capitol) requires hours of commuting each day - time spent with being away from family without any meaning.
Which option to choose: stay and work in mobile, but suffer from distances and the lack of help OR move and enjoy less hassle, but work in a so-far not-well-known industry?
I chose the latter.
Not as if the new work wasn't exciting. It's just different and I don't know how much I'll be missing mobile from which I got a lot, to which I gave a lot, from which I didn't get as much as I expected.
Perhaps it's time to be passionate about something different. Time will tell if it was a good decision.
Cheers.
13 comments:
Hi, friend,
I found your post at forum nokia, and followed it here. best wishes for your change. I understand that sometimes we should take a balance between work and family. And I also believe that you certainly won't just get rid of mobile application development from your life forever. The world is so flat and the internet is so convenient. You can still do mobile and make money even if you are far in a small village.
Best wishes.
N97 Applications
Ciao,
hope for the best for you!!
Alessandro
Thanks for your kind words, guys. I'm really grateful!
Hi Gabor. My best wishes! Mobile will be always there for you ;-)
Hi Tote,
This is really surprising news for me. I still cannot believe this. You have been contributing to mobile world for last many years and it is really appreciative.
I always ruminate those lovely days we all champs had spent in Singapore. I would really miss your presence in this small world.
But I would wish you to come back whenever you feel thirsty about the mobile world.
All the best for the future,
Kiran. (Kiran10182)
Thanks Max! :)
@Kiran: thanks for your kind words, pal! Yeah, I also remember Singapore - it was a lovely place and we had a good time spent there.
Everybody tells me that I shall not be afraid of losing focus from mobile. I hope it will happen that way, but for now I can only say: let's see!
In any case, good luck to you, too!
Congratulations and commiserations. I think you've made the right decisions. Some things in life are more important than work.
My advice is to throw yourself into the new technology and not look back. If you do change your mind one day, mobile won't have changed that much. :-)
Besides, before your career is over there'll be a lot more jobs in mobile programming than there are now.
They say a change is as good as a rest, and with 4 kids you must need a rest!
All the best.
Mark
Thanks Mark! Nobody needs a better friend than you. Good luck to you, too!
First of all, good luck with your move! All the conscious changes are eventually good changes.
And.. do you really have to choose? Certainly, you won't be working full-time on things mobile, but you are still free to think and do mobile stuff yourself (didn't you tell that you save couple of hrs of commuting a day + grandpas/moms can make it easier with kids?).
Who knows, maybe relaxing from the day-to-day mobile business and exposure to the server side will eventually bring you terrific new ideas that would never come to cubicle.
Certainly you do not have to follow the open source -> startup way and in any case you need to settle things up and relax for getting fresh perspective first. However, if you do want to continue with mobiles, current move may actually be the best way possible ;)
Well, no, I don't HAVE TO choose, indeed. Nevertheless, what I've during working hours so far was strongly related to mobile - it wasn't surprising that I did the same in my spare time, too. This time it will be different: I'll take some rest first, concentrate on the moving stuff and then I'll see what I will do when all my kids are in bed, everything is calm and I still have energy. :)
Good luck to you, too, Artem! :)
Hi Gabor,
First of all, best wishes for your new job.
Echoing the sentiments of others, I was also surprised at first.But the harsh realities of mobile apps business certainly cannot be ignored.
And one last thing,do keep blogging.
Bye.
Mayur.
Good to know that you don't have to choose, Gabor :)
When you have enough rest, shoot me an email. I may or may not have something by that time (something in line of mobile related startup or just fun pet project that would benefit greatly from a mobile professional). Or certainly feel free not to shoot such an email :)
P.S.
I am the same Artem as OpenID artemmarchenko.agilesoftwaredevelopment.com
I prefer OpenID, but using Google account allows for comment emailing
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