No, not in the New age sense — I’m talking about my former career that I’m now resurrecting.

I’m about 12 years in and 12 years out of a career in software engineering. Recent pressures and circumstances have moved me in the direction of honing my rusty software skills.

Eventually, I’m hoping hire out as a freelance remote software engineer, giving a greater sense of flexibility, control, and exposure to various software technologies out there.

It’s a wide, wide world that has changed radically in 12 years. Some areas of software have developed from a very loose art to a studied, organized, professional science, while pockets of the wild, wild west remain.

Attending local meetups, I’m struck by that. On one hand, free, readily available professional-grade source control for software changes is incredible. On the other hand, local speakers still reference other developers as “guys” despite the fact that 10% of the audience are women (to be fair, software engineering podcasts seem to make an effort to change over to terms more all-inclusive).

And 10% women? I had hoped that had changed in 12 years. But, then, again, my town is very conservative and has strange warps. One part of town may look like 2020, others still look like 1960. And attitudes run in parallel.

While my LinkedIn profile links my two vocations, you can find my developer persona over on codeonward.com or on Facebook or github as crjcodes.