Starting Over (Again)

Posted on May 31, 2008 | Filed Under Work, Programming

Starting a new job at a new company is always a tad bit stressful. And, in my current position I’ll be working as a contractor which I’ve never done. Right now I think that it’s working just fine except for not getting the best digs within the company. (I prefer to have my own desk…but that’s just me. :-) )

Anyway, one of the things that I’ve noticed about my current and previous employer is the very strange enterprise architecture they choose. Or, maybe I should say, the architecture they stumble upon. I’m always left with the feeling that it’s all a little haphazard.

I mean, I love writing software in Perl. And I love having job security due to dozens of core, middleware services that all do similar things. But, come on, couldn’t things be designed and thought out thoroughly before plunking down tons of dollars and time to create these monstrosities? And shouldn’t different technologies be investigated before writing a many-many-thousand-line prototype? And why does everyone have to settle on XML as a message format, and then stack that on top of something else that provides its own communications format (like XML-RPC and TIBCO’s RV messaging) that also uses XML? That’s sort of like trying to do VOIP over an old-style modem connection.

Sigh. Oh, well. I guess we as software developers get to create our own job security instead of trying to do things the best way.

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Sea Dog Blue Paw

Posted on May 14, 2008 | Filed Under Beer

Okay, I’m still attempting to blather on about random stuff so the few people who might read my blog pay attention.

So, my topic today is tasty beer. I just had a Sea Dog Blue Paw beer, which is probably the best microbrew beer I’ve had since I first discovered Pyramid Apricot. Both are flavored beers, which might make me a bit girly, but I’m okay with that if it means I like tasty beverages.

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Moving On

Posted on May 9, 2008 | Filed Under Work

Changing jobs is a tough thing. Even when you feel that it’s the correct move, the idea of leaving good teammates and coworkers behind has a semblance of death to it. I’m sure there’s probably an article out there that describes the psychological aspects of this. But I’ll just say that it’s a little sad even when it’s a voluntary move.

One thing that I read recently that made me feel slightly better was this article (http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Up-or-Out-Solving-the-IT-Turnover-Crisis.aspx). Until I read it I had doubts that I should leave my current employer. But thinking about the Dead Sea effect, and critically thinking about whether I had moved past my “Value Apex”, I realized that regardless of internal politics and mismanagement I needed to leave. Otherwise, I risked becoming part of the Dead Sea effect.

Something all companies should pay attention to:

This point bears repeating. Indefinite retention is impossible; employees always quit. The key part is understanding why, and how to leverage this inevitability towards everyone’s advantage.

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