I'm coasting right now, and have been since I had to enter the IT world again, back in 2007.
I like assignments to be challenging and rewarding, but my enthusiasm for the IT field has waned so much the past few years, I just don't find any of them rewarding. It's just a job.
When I first started my career, my brother-in-law told me an interesting story. Goes something like this...
At the start of your career, you're given some Silver Bullets, but you don't know how many. You're free to fire a Silver Bullet at any cause you want to, and if you fire one, you'll probably win. But of course, you could have fired your last one and you wouldn't even know. So before you go in guns blazing and fire a Silver Bullet, make sure it's a cause really worth fighting for, because it might be the last you'll ever win.
I think I fired too many early on being too passionate about trying to do the right thing for customers, the company, fellow employees, etc. While I won a fair number of causes, as time went by, the office politics, bureaucracy, and preference for doing the "right now" thing rather than the "right" thing just made the battles tiresome and not worth the stress.
So, sadly...I stopped caring.
Now, I'm content to show up, do my job, and go home after 8 hours. No more, no less. And, if I'm able to semi retire in a couple years, I'll leave and never look back. I'll leave the door open to do something on my own, run my own business, etc. But God willing, I will NEVER (and I mean NEVER) work in an office, cube, IT, 9-to-5 job ever again.
So I completely relate to coasting. Hadn't heard the term before, but definitely know the feeling.
I like assignments to be challenging and rewarding, but my enthusiasm for the IT field has waned so much the past few years, I just don't find any of them rewarding. It's just a job.
When I first started my career, my brother-in-law told me an interesting story. Goes something like this...
At the start of your career, you're given some Silver Bullets, but you don't know how many. You're free to fire a Silver Bullet at any cause you want to, and if you fire one, you'll probably win. But of course, you could have fired your last one and you wouldn't even know. So before you go in guns blazing and fire a Silver Bullet, make sure it's a cause really worth fighting for, because it might be the last you'll ever win.
I think I fired too many early on being too passionate about trying to do the right thing for customers, the company, fellow employees, etc. While I won a fair number of causes, as time went by, the office politics, bureaucracy, and preference for doing the "right now" thing rather than the "right" thing just made the battles tiresome and not worth the stress.
So, sadly...I stopped caring.
Now, I'm content to show up, do my job, and go home after 8 hours. No more, no less. And, if I'm able to semi retire in a couple years, I'll leave and never look back. I'll leave the door open to do something on my own, run my own business, etc. But God willing, I will NEVER (and I mean NEVER) work in an office, cube, IT, 9-to-5 job ever again.
So I completely relate to coasting. Hadn't heard the term before, but definitely know the feeling.