Hate your job, just quit.

Make the jump

If you hate your job, stop complaining and just quit already. Its not worth it. You’ve heard the saying “Life’s short”, guess what? It is. So quit already. Get a plan together and pull the trigger. Let’s play pretend for a minute. Imagine a situation where you love your job. You go to work everyday looking forward to work. Let’s say for example, you make mobile apps. You’re in an application development software company. Each day, you’re presented with the opportunity to accomplish something like making a mobile app, or at least a piece of one that is exciting for some reason. You went to school to be a developer, and now you live in Dallas, Texas and work as a mobile app developer. You make iOS and Android apps all day long. You might not get paid a lot, but heck, you love it and would do it even if they paid you less. You’re happy. Remember, this is pretend mobile app development land. In fact, you go home and work on your own mobile app projects at nights. Chances are, you’re probably not complaining about your job. Chances are your co-workers see your application work and are proud to have you around. You probably have 3 of the 3 things necessary to keep someone happy at their job. You have enough salary, you have the opportunity for advancement and you find purpose in what you do. Congrats.

I hope we all have the opportunity to do something we love with our lives. But, your mobile app development job will change.

A job like this, if kept in the same place too long, gets old. Humans were built for more than work. The mobile app you’re making today, won’t offer the same excitement in 18 months after you’ve built it 7 times. Your development skills, your design skills will get better as time passes and thats a great thing! One of the huge benefits of a corporate job. Skills training. Each time you are asked to develop that mobile app, it will be easier. However, the services you provide, as custom as they seem today, will become mundane. There’s on major thing that cause a once exciting task to become boring. You’re becoming a better app developer! The gap between what excites you and what you need to know is shrinking. This means you’re getting closer to mastery. Keep in mind, the pessimistic stages of career development.

We all need three things stay happy with our work. Money, Opportunity and Purpose. I bet the money you’re making is staying the same (unless you’re offered ownership in the application development projects you’re on). The opportunity to move up might be increasing (but at some point you will have to stop with the mobile app build and get into middle management). The purpose factor in your work is will diminish as you get better. It diminishes because the mobile app you just made is no longer out of reach. Its not a dream, its not a challenge. You won. Its like getting the Nintendo game you’ve asked your mom about for 3 months, and once you get it, you beat it in 3 days. You summited the mountain. Mobile app conquered.

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A little developers secret.

Corporate America is looking for efficiency. This is even worse in publicly traded companies. Your company will never pay you a contractor rate the other Dallas based freelance mobile application developers can swing. Big corporate companies get you to trade your skill for “security” and longevity of a paycheck. Meaning the constant bi-weekly pay with no end in sight is alluring. Most bible development pros aren’t sales pros. They are Android and/or iOS developers. So its easy to trade in the freelance gig for an official app building desk job. Its ok. Just don’t lose your focus on the end game. FYI, Make sure you have an end game. This is your purpose.

Developer beware.

If you’re like me and have ambitions beyond the cube. The side-hustle might be your best bet. Let’s say making the next native iPhone smash hit app is your dream. Don’t expect your company (that you don’t own) to fund it. They have little interest in making you better unless you can provide more value at the same pay scale. Here’s some advice: keep the side hustle and the mobile apps development day job COMPLETELY separate. Here’s why. Let’s say you did create the next native mobile app to take the iOS or Android app store by storm. If you used any of the company equipment or time to build the app, all the code you made, the applications, the design… its property of your company. So if you want to work the side hustle to make your own apps, make sure the development is completely separate. Don’t build anything at work, don’t even log in to the hosting platform.

Motivation for mobile development and apps

So back to the initial comment of “hating your job and just quitting”. Get the mobile app side hustle going. Use the positives of the cube as motivation. Hone your skills. Learn some new application development tricks. Keep your side hustle apps separate and give yourself some runway. There’s tons of Android apps and even more iOS mobile developers. Get your application going. Build a separate revenue stream and set a goal to quit. Don’t burn bridges when you leave, but don’t stay once you reach the goal. Do it. Go be the best mobile development force in the world.

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House of Sticks does more than just badass video production. We have a mobile application development team ready in Dallas to take on any Android or iOS platform app you want. We build custom apps. We start with UX design and see the software building all the way through. Our custom iPhone development can be used for any mobile device Apple makes. The Android game is tricky due to all the screen sizes but we make it happen on a daily basis from our offices in Dallas. If you have a mobile development project for your company, our developers are waiting. Along with our design folk who look at their iPhone screens all day anyway. Our enterprise apps are fueled by server development – We set up the databases and make any mobile project fly.