Posted on: 24/06/2005 09:57:25 - 1 comment
Tagged in: blog.
It is my last day in this job today and next week I am off work and I plan to do as little as possible. Largely speaking I am not in the least bit sad to be finishing today. Why? Well although I have enjoyed my development role in this section it has been the most isolating twelve months of my geek life. Nobody in this office has the slightest clue as to what I do. The usual sentence is "I've no idea ask tek, he'll sort it"; which I find pretty poor considering this is a medium being used to penetrate, annex and consolidate international markets. Whilst it is true that people drive cars and have no idea how the engine works or indeed how to fix it that is simply out of IGNORANCE. I've never been an ignorant person, I always try to be as informed about both my job and things that interest me as I possibly can. That way I hope not to make mistakes. The rest of my team does not work this way and in consequence I have spent twelve long months keeping my mouth shut and just getting on with it sat at my desk wondering. Yep wondering! Wondering if this has been a waste of twelve months of my life in terms of achievements. Today I will hand everything over to someone that has not even a tenth of my ability and knowledge knowing all too well that when I start my new job I will be getting phone calls from them asking me to help them advance the site, systems and infrastructure that I have worked hard to put in place. And in all honesty the idea incenses me. You see I was on a fixed term contract for this job (12 months) and the state of play at the moment is that in reality it would have been prudent to keep me on for at least another six if not twelve months to continue to work on this system. That was not the case because there was some thinking from upstairs that "someone else can do this and we won't have to pay them because they already work somewhere else". Technically speaking I think you could say that I was effectively sacked from this position (which is the technical way of looking at it).
Irony
Of course the ironic thing is that I am starting a new job doing this exact same thing but centrally for my place of work and so table has actually now turned. I could make it a priority now for my old position to be reined back centrally to my new position and so continue to work on this system; this would be a legitimate thing to do as well. Which is amusing to me. I won't however do this because I want to sit back and see how they run (trip and fall) with it. I mean they had over 20k's worth of development out of me. Were talking a system that was as powerful if not more so than the dsbs and to complement it I wrote a network client that authenticates itself against said system using XML as a transport, with SAX parsers at either end. File uploads from the client (and this is not over FTP), the communications at the XML layer were Base64 encoded but the actual un-encoded data was encrypted using RC4 stream ciphers (Note: Base64 is not encryption it is an encoding technique to ensure receiving system can cope with the chars at the transport level as true encryption produces chars that are not XML valid). Heavy duty stuff really. I mean the encryption layer is about as secure as I can make it and is production strength, one byte out of place and the data is useless and you will never in a month of Sunday's decrypt it. Were talking keys that are 2048bits in length, effectively you'd have to break in to the server itself to get to the database; even then you'd be faced with said encryption. Put it this way if I was to tender for a contract to do a similar sort of this I wouldn't even get out of bed for less that £50 an hour for this level of development but because I truly believe in my place of work I took these level of technology there because I believed it to be worthy of my time and efforts. I could have sat here and bunged a loose system that would stand up to the test easily and then sat back for about 11 months just watching my wages coming in and believe me, I could have done this easily as the other thing that has left me with a bitter taste in my mouth is the absolute total lack of line-management in the last 12 months. I'll tell you the difference between this role and my up and coming one. In 12 months I've not at any point had any objectives set on paper. Not one. The section I will be going to have already had a meeting with me and set my objectives with a timetabled structure that is tight but do-able and I'll be honest, it is full of interesting things with a wide range in variety and challenge. I guess since it is my last day I should not be so bitter. On the flip side I have, socially speaking, had a great laugh with the people in my office so I guess I can walk away thinking about that and try and forget the fact that it has been crap in other respects.
I'll tell you one thing I'm looking forward to having some me time in the next week and honestly speaking I am really looking forward to starting my new job on the 4th July. I'll be working with someone that has less developer knowledge than me but has a thirst to learn. They in turn have a lot of experience working in there position and so I can learn from them too. They are keen to get there feet wet in PHP and MySql which is great because I won't be isolated, ideas can bounce back and fourth and I think we're gonna get on great!
I'm gonna be lovin' it!
Posted on: 15/06/2005 23:11:44 - No comments
Tagged in: blog.
Well I am meant to be working but for some reason I am hitting a mental block. I think perhaps it is overload to be honest as I am flat out in the day as the realisation that I am leaving is dawning on people all of a sudden there is this large surge in people wanting things done, you know the stuff they should have been getting sorted with me in the last twelve months. Soon I'll be handing everything over to someone else who has been nominated to "look after it" when I go. It is a sad kind of feeling really as it has been my baby for twelve months and it will cease to grow. When the next, if there is even a next, developer comes along they're going to have a real tough time extending the system; why? Well I wrote it and it makes sense to me but I'm not so sure it will make sense to someone else heh.
"Bodies"
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor
Let the bodies hit the floor beaten why for
Can't take much more
One - Nothing wrong with me
Two - Nothing wrong with me
Three - Nothing wrong with me
Four - Nothing wrong with me
One - Something's got to give
Two - Something's got to give
Three - Something's got to give
Now
Let the bodies hit the floor
Push me again
This is the end
Skin against skin blood and bone
You're all by yourself but you're not alone
You wanted in now you're here
Driven by hate consumed by fear
Let the bodies hit the floor...
Which kinda sums it all up for me. I can't write about the irony of my work situation because it would reveal too much but lets just say that I am teh win!
It's been a while since I did a roll call of sites I enjoy reading:
Bumble! - Spank'a'delic
Kev! - Homeless shelter for the freaks
Skeddy! - The newest analytical dude around!
Neil! - The fellow Northern Monkey!
StatVoid! - Less than silent, leaving hope!
Since the start of this year I have been working so hard I have had little time to get my old domain sorted out. So if someone wants to buy it off me then make me an offer (iamjust.me.uk). It really doesn't matter to me, if nobody wants it then that is fine also as I will eventually do what I said and get off my arse and make it in to a community blog its just at the moment with ending one job, starting another and in the midst of all that doing freelance work I really have no time or wish to get right on with it. Think you can make a go of it? Cool BUY IT off me.
Posted on: 08/06/2005 15:23:17 - 5 comments
Tagged in: blog.
Well Monday was a heavy day. Presentations in the morning, I thought mine went well considering I had pooter problems over the weekend and was all a panic that I wasn't going to be able to complete my power-point for the morning. Finally got it all sorted and on to a disk. I walked in to the room and nobody from the panel was there yet. I had mentally prepared myself to walk in, slap my disk in and get right on with it. I'm not to bothered about speaking in front of people, I have no problem in doing it; I just don't like doing it. It wasn't just the interview panel I was doing it in front of either, an entire section had been given an invitation to the presentation. Wow. Daunting yes as these are people I have contact with in my present role and so I was to make a real mess of this then I would need to face these people again and again and again.
We were given two briefs to choose from:
1. Identify a Web Development project to which you have made a significant contribution. Describe the site, the user experience, the development and your role.
2. Imagine and tell us about a new high-profile web site or online service you would like to develop and launch in the future, the approach you would take to the project and what you would contribute.
Maximum of 12 minutes and questions would be asked by the panel afterwards.
Not an easy choice of briefs at all. It might seem it but believe me it really isn't. If you go with the first you run the chance of showing them something that is not appealing in the least bit, questions could be posed about the authenticity of your contribution (most developers work in teams, my current role as the only developer for a section is rare) against the rest of a possible team. I mean how can you prove it is yours and what you contributed to it. Do you show them something personal running the risk that they might perceive you in the wrong way?
I went with the second in the hope that they would recognise the future potential of what could be done. So I talked about developing an Information Management System. Basically a content management system framework with plugged in extras like communication and prospectus management. I won't go in to everything I spoke about because that would be boring for most. However if you want a list of the bullet points I used to prompt me on my presentation then you can get it here. I had written another presentation which I had scrapped in favour of going more off the cuff with a list of bullet points. This way I could gauge reactions and adjust and change my delivery to suit that.
I was first up and so if anything was going to go wrong with the laptop and projector it was going to happen to me. I can only thank the great geek god that it didn't and I started off well in the presentation; keeping eye contact with everyone and moving from slide to slide nice and smoothly. I was given the two minute warning and I finished off about ten seconds after that. Questions were fired at me which I answered without hesitation and in full, no erms or hmmm's; just answers.
Then I had a nice two and a half hour wait until it was time to meet the other candidates for dinner (or lunch if you're a Southerner). I didn't really bother talking to any of them as I wasn't feeling sociable heh... Besides I had to go through this last time and I wanted to get myself mentally prepared for my formal interview as I was one of the first up.
I thought I did a good interview last time but this one was a better. I think it was a strange set of questions; the first being "Give us your critical view of our homepage". Well let me first point out that the guy that designs it was sat on the panel in front of me and secondly it is very hard to be honest but remain positive when someone gives you such a soap box to stand on heh! Couple that with the fact that it had changed the previous Friday to a new one and you have a very sticky first question indeed. I answered well though; in fact even I was thinking good answer. I think it came to me quite easily because I happen to like the new one. Even so it I had to show a critical view too and I did, trying to soften the edges of that up in order not offend my friend who developed it. I did feel slightly disadvantaged (or even possibly advantaged?) by the question as the external candidates won't have known the person who develops it was sat on the panel! I'm not going to list all the questions because I can't actually remember them all but I do remember leaving the room thinking I have given that as much as I can so que sera sera...
I didn't hear that day and by the morning I was convinced that I had not got it as they usually come up with a choice pretty quick. My impression was that they had chosen someone else but were having trouble contacting them and they are not allowed to contact anyone else until the winning candidate as been contacted and I was contactable... so...
It got to 10:00 the next day and still no call and by this point I was fully resigned to the fact I had not got it, what a downer. I was in the middle of a meeting when my mobile rang and I zoomed out the room answering the call. "Hello is that tekkie (name changed to protect the innocent heh)"? "Yes it is", "Good how you feeling this morning"?, "Pretty stressed and tired having had no sleep, are you going to put me out my misery"? "Well what I have to say next might not help that", "Oh that doesn't sound good", "We'd like to offer you the job, will you accept"? Cue huge Cheshire grin on my face, "Yes".
After a short meeting with all my conditions sorted out I formally accepted and on Independence Day (oh the irony) I will take up the post of Web Developer for the entire Educational organisation that I work for. The scope is MASSIVE for development and it is a permanent job and I am set for the next decade at least in this role.
I am a happy man. My Dad would have been proud.
Posted on: 02/06/2005 10:10:56 - 1 comment
Tagged in: blog.
Ok so next Monday I have a job interview. This time it is at the same place I work now but for a different section. It is the usual hardcore process of a full day; introductions in first thing, presentations and then a formal interview with a panel of four people in the afternoon. Of course I am now getting used to this extreme process having gone for a few jobs here. None the less it is harsh as an interview process and I guess I am lucky to have had the experience a few times now; for an outside candidate it will probably be overwhelming but hey tough luck. I've yet to complete my presentation and I've took tomorrow off work to finish it.
We had a choice of two questions and I have chosen to give a presentation on "a project I would like to undertake and how I would go about doing it". Of course tekkie is going to talk about a content management system and since these are second nature to me and I have in the past written them in under 48hrs I feel pretty confident about my delivery of said presentation. Lasting no longer than ten whole minutes with time for questions after I won't find it hard. I'm actually more concerned about the actual interview later on in the day. I guess that is because I am last up (again). Now I found this to be helpful last time as it meant any nerves I had had long dissipated and I was able to stir up the panel (as they were bored) and I think this worked in my favour. This time though I am first up for the presentations and so if there is a technical problem I am the test subject. I know the techies here and hopefully they will have tested the kit beforehand (they didn't last time and it failed for the first candidate heh).
Well I hope I get it.
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