Take THAT, the current economic situation!

I got a new job.

That’s not something that you hear a lot of these days, but I did it, and it surprised even me.

I haven’t really been looking hard for a job – I’d check craigslist every once in a while, make sure my resume is updated, etc., but I wasn’t sending out resume after resume hoping for some feedback. In fact, I only sent out one. I saw a job called “Mac & Linux Admin” on craigslist, read the description, and thought I should just do it, even if nothing else comes of it. So, after procrastinating for a week, I hammered out a cover letter, attached my resume, and expected nothing to come of it. Especially since I know how many resumes prospective employers get these days. Surely, I thought, someone who’s applying will be more qualified than me.

Market Indicators

In economics there are carrain things that people look to for information about the current status and future. Many of them are obvious – crop yield, for example. Some are less obvious, but still logical and acurate. One of the latter is boxes. Every durable good we buy comes in a box. It was shipped to you or the retailer in a box. The raw materials were in boxes. And so forth. So, looking at box sales and box companies is an indicator of what the market will be like in the future.

I am on a friends couch, about to start driving to Chicago, and one of the things that I’ve noticed throughout this process is my keys. Keys are one of those things that you rarely ascribe value, but are of great import in your life. And as I’ve gotten closer to leaving Portland, I’ve watched the number of keys I have dwindle.

Maybe I am romanticizing this a little too much, but leaving the key to my rented house as I left it for the last time was weird. That was where I had made a home. Where I had first lived with my girlfriend. Where I had bought my first real couch. Where I had first played Rock Band. Where I had enjoyed one of the best Thanksgiving dinners of my life. And, as unromantic as it sounds, mopped up blood and beer wine and vomit, sold off my college mini-fridge, and had a great life.

Before that I turned in the key to my locker at the bowling alley. I am not a great bowler, but I spent, literally, years at the bowling alley, not so much to bowl as to hang out with my friends and enjoy a night out.

On Friday I turned over my last work key. I loved that job.

Tomorrow I will leave behind the key to my friend’s apartment. The last key. My last key in Portland.

While I know there is a huge set of keys waiting for me in Chicago, this strange little indicator has definitely been a weird way for me to realize everything I am leaving behind.

Ending Joblessness (Update)

I spent a good amount of my short time in Chicago interviewing for jobs. That was my goal well before departing, so I’m glad I was able to make that work out.

Here’s one such story:

Upon arriving in Chicago I got a phone call from one company that I applied with wanting to schedule a phone interview. They didn’t know that I was in Chicago and could’ve done it in-person, but the phone interview was good. Mostly a lot of predictable form questions that I have come to expect and have pretty good answers for – “How do you like to solve problems?”, etc. This interview, I thought, went well, despite the fact that I had to jump off of my train mid-route and conduct this interview on the side of the road in Roger’s Park. I must have done pretty well, because the cheery HR woman on the other end asked me if I would do a second interview with the I.T. Manager.

The I.T. Manager called me a couple of days later read through a list of technical questions for an hour. Seriously. “What’s the difference between SATA and IDE?”, “Can you give me an example of a MAC address?”, “What is an IP address?”, etc. This bothered me for a couple of reasons, which I’ll get into later.

After this awkward exchange of information, I was asked for a third, on-site interview.

When I applied for this job, I knew that it wasn’t especially close to my home in Chicago. Going to the on-site interview gave me a whole new understanding of “long commute”. I missed rush-hour, but it still took me almost an hour of driving to get there. I had to take three highways. One of them was a toll-way.

I got there a little early and started doing some math on the back of an envelope (literally). That commute was going to be about 30 miles each way, at about 22 MPG, or 2.7 galons. At $4.50/gal, it’d be $12.15 per day for gas, plus $1.60 for the tolls, or $13.75 per day for the commute. Twenty days in a month at $13.75 is $275 per month and $3,300 per year. Plus 2-3 hours per day of my time.

Going into the interview, I knew I was going to be asking them for A LOT more money than I would be if it was going to be a short commute.

This interview was a little more loose and informal, but I was still being asked the kinds of questions that a brand-new HR person reading “Interviewing for Dummies” would come up with. And this was with the I.T. Manager. Who would be my boss. My requested salary was “within the range” of what they were willing to pay, I was told, but I still had my doubts about the job.

When I got home, I emailed the cheery HR woman and told her that I wasn’t interested. Here’s what bothered me:

1. The company claims that it is doing things to help the environment and reduce their impact, but any employees who live in the nearest large metropolitain area have to commute ~30 miles to get there.
2. The commute was unreasonable. No way am I driving >2 hours per day to get to a job…at least not for very long.
3. The working environment was dead. Cubicles too tall to see over, no noise, no fun, a boring office park in the middle of ticky-tacky little boxes, all the same.
4. Not to insult anyone, but the interviews were awkward, long, and impersonal. The interview questions might as well have been a web form. They revealed nothing about me and guarantee that you will only get even more people like your current I.T. staff.

I can do better.

Oh yeah, and the reason being quizzed about I.T. stuff bothers me? I’ve spent the last 10 years of my life working with computers and the last 5 in a verifiable, professional, hands-on way. Being treated like I’m lying on my resume makes me wonder how I’m going to be treated at work. I don’t mind being asked a few higher level questions by someone who knows what they’re asking, but an hour long vocational-school level test of minutiae is not appropriate in my opinion. For a great discussion on the topic, see this Slashdot forum.

I live in Chicago

I am a Chicago resident.
I am from Portland.
I have an apartment in Chicago.

This is gonna take some getting used to.

Corn Fields

Holy crap. There is A LOT of corn between Colorado and Chicago. A LOT. Hundreds and hundreds of miles of corn. And soy.

So, the obvious question is: What are we doing with all this corn and soy?

I never really cared much about farming, especially corn farming. Corn is OK. It’s there, it’s pretty good from time to time, but I couldn’t eat it every day. But now I’m curious.

From what I understand we are using most of this corn for two things: ethanol and cow food.

Right off the bat, without having researched this much, I am going to say that is stupid. I will back that statement up with some research later.

For now, though, imagine corn fields from horizon to horizon in every direction. It’s a CRAZY amount of corn.

Last Day

So, after just over a year, yesterday was my last day as I.T. Manager. I met this with mixed feelings. While I am confident that my replacement will be able to handle my duties, I am nevertheless reluctant to leave such a great job. My coworkers were great, my boss was great, the commute was awesome, and I learned lots of great things.

While I will be back in three weeks or so as a consultant on the project that we’ve been working on, it will likely be different when I return. At least I hope so. I hope that they will have moved on as a company, getting necessary things done in my absence, completing projects I hadn’t finished, starting new ones, etc. I hope that my replacement will have figured things out, gotten over being the new guy and be working hard at it all. I hope that when I return I will be a consultant, here to finish a project, and be able to move on with little more than a hiccup in the day-to-day. I also, however, hope that I will be welcomed when I return and sent off with more fanfare than other colleagues have received.
This has been a great job and I hope that I am able to find another.

R.I.P., FSJ

Rest in peace, fakesteve.

Too clever for our time.

Too pointed for your own good.

Bringer of laughter, joy, and derision.

The suspension of disbelief was a pleasure.

Your claims, so grandiose.

What you truly created exceeds the iPod.

Larry Ellison trading races,

will never leave our minds.

Be they frigtard, freetard, Googletard, or Microtard.

You re-invented the friggin blog,

may future generations hear of it.

Thanks, Bill

As you may or may not know, today is Bill Gates’ last day as a full time employee of Microsoft.

There are a lot of lists of the best and worst of Bill’s tenure, reminiscences of what he’s done (and should’ve done), and a lot of snide comments about his legacy.

Say what you will, but I can’t imagine anyone who has had a bigger impact on personal computing, business computing, and the industry in general.

Directly or indirectly, Microsoft has, I suspect, created more jobs than anyone. Besides the thousands of people that work directly for Microsoft, worldwide there are probably millions of people who have jobs because of Microsoft.

Think about it: What if Microsoft’s products worked quickly, easily, intuitively, and with little or no maintenance!? How many people do you know that would be out of jobs? How many fewer international phone calls would you have made? How much less stressed, more productive, and more happy would you be? How much less would you spend on Advil, Excedrin, Tums, stress-reduction toys, therapy, etc.? How much less would you get to spend on manuals, guides, training, certification, seminars, etc.?

What if personal computers were like tools? How many hammers do you buy in your life? One. Maybe two – if you lost the first one. Conversely, what if everything you used on a daily basis was as reliable, trustworthy, simple, and easy as your computer? Ugh.

Unfair comparison, I know.

This was actually supposed to be a sincere “Thank you,” to someone who contributed (and wil continue to contribute) a huge amount to the world around us. So, before I start ranting again: Thanks, Bill. You may be hatefully remembered, but you will certainly not be forgotten.

An Open Telegram to Ms. H. Clinton

STOP

STOP

UPDATE: Giving Notice

A couple of weeks ago, I told you all about my giving notice and the unexpected response.

Well, we worked it all out. I basically got what I asked for, with a little more.

In addition to another 4-6 weeks of work, if necessary, I will be “consulting” for them to make sure that this project gets completed.

I have mixed feelings about this result. While I want to make sure that this project goes according to plan, completes on time and meets expectations, I am also looking forward to moving on to my next project (whatever that is), and I don’t want to get stuck working part-time remotely for a year.

Don’t get me wrong – I love my current job. But what makes it great is the people I work with. Supporting them remotely won’t be the same.

Maybe we’ll come back to Portland in a couple of years. Maybe I’ll want to come back to this place. Who knows? I just don’t want an awkward, drawn-out, long-distance relationship where we grow apart only to try to re-kindle things and find out we’re in totally different places and should’ve just broken it off cleanly a while ago.