For me, it was when I reached a point where there was nowhere else in my area that excited me. For eight years, I had worked in both small and large agencies a

For me, it was when I reached a point where there was nowhere else in my area that excited me. For eight years, I had worked in both small and large agencies as a .NET developer, working on a whole range of sites - some tiny ones, mostly medium ones, and the odd behemoth. I had a few user group talks behind me and a good reputation amongst my peers. My breaking point was when I thought to look who else was hiring, and couldn't find anyone I was either excited or scared to work for. Sticking with agencies would've been no different to what I was doing, and the larger .NET houses were fairly boring affairs. I had made a career as a .NET developer without moving into enterprise, so I had no intention of doing that now. So, I decided to jump not to the next big thing, but for something different. I now work with startups outside of the .NET stack, and the challenge of switching from being a solid .NET dev to a beginner in various languages on the Linux stack is both exciting and scary. Sure, I could make more elsewhere, and I've put myself in a position to look stupid, but I forced a change and hopefully the change in scenery will push me towards a more complete understanding of development, and onwards to the next big thing.