Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

My last entry to LJ was back in March. I haven't had a large block of time, or the inclination, to write a long, thought-out post.

The last job: Tech lead and I got along like Spock and McCoy. One time, I asked my agency to put me on another job, and they didn't. I stopped short of quoting the Gestalt Prayer at him. We got two more programmers. And the week before Memorial Day, I was informed that Friday would be my last day. This caught me off guard. I thought the task was ongoing. But they cut it short, and never gave me any heads-up. I felt betrayed.

Anyway, a few weeks later, I interviewed with a defense contracting company that was looking to bid on a position. Part of the interview was to write text about my capabilities that would go into the proposal. And they gave me an offer, pending the award of the contract.

So I kept interviewing. I had an interview with another defense contractor, which kind of went strangely because the recruiter verbally offered me the job a few days later, pending some sort of contingency, and I never heard from him again. And I had an interview (and job offer) with a bank in Columbus.

At the end of June, while I was on vacation, I received word that the first company won the contract, and that I would start the following week. I had to tell the other two that I would be out of integrity if I didn't take the position, as it would leave that company in the lurch.

So what am I doing now? Some programming and mostly system administration for a home-grown cluster of Debian-based systems. Can't say much more about it, since it's DoD-related. But it should last a year.

So....zorya_thinks asked, in my previous post, "Have you thought about walking upstairs occasionally and engaging your team members face to face? "

This question is kicking up a lot of stuff for me.

The short answer is "no". There's no guarantee that the folks I need to talk to will be at their desks and available to answer questions. Plus I think there's a company policy about not having meetings or conferences in cubicles, because it creates too much noise for neighbors. We primarily use Microsoft Communicator (instant messenger) and Lotus Notes (email) for communication. I don't even pick up the phone and call them..

But I hate asking people questions. Sometimes I get a look or a tone of voice that conveys to me, "I expect you to know these things." Or I'm rebuffed with "I'm too busy". Or I'm given the passive-agressive response of no answer at all.

After all, asking for help is a sign of weakness. I'm expected to figure this stuff out on my own. That's why they hired me, right?

When I worked at AGI two years ago, one of the tem leads -- Mike -- resented my questioning him. He'd respond with "Google is your friend!" or provide me a link to lmgtfy.com (Let Me Google That For You). It was like he was saying to me, "Go away kid, you bother me."

I don't know when or why I learned to not bother people with questions. I guess it was in elementary school. I suspect it was my 3rd grade teacher who was tired of my incessant questioning and implored me to leave her alone. (I don't think she ever taught a gifted kid before me.)

On Monday, I had an in-person interview with the functional manager of the project. We met at a local coffee shop. We talked for about 45 minutes.

On the way home, I received a call from the recruiter, informing me that they want to offer me the job (pending successful results of a background check). Later that day, I accepted.

I'm happy that I'm soon to be employed again. I'm sad to be leaving Dayton, though. I spent 21 years of my life here, and my daughter's still here. Along with a lot of friends and acquaintances I picked up while I was here.

Yesterday, I faxed in a form and my birth certificate. Today, I went for fingerprinting. Idon't have a start date yet,but I know it's going to be soon.

Yesterday afternoon, I updated my resume on dice.com. I added the system administration work I've been doing at Day-VEST the past few months.

Later that day, I received a call from Sogeti USA about a short-term (6-week) Perl task for one of their clients in the Cincinnati area. I discussed it with the recruiter. They originally wanted me to do this as a 1099 gig (meaning I'd be on the hook for my own taxes). Having never worked like this -- all my work has been W-2 (in which taxes are taken out before I get paid) -- I had no idea how much a good going rate would be. So after discussing the details, I sent him a copy of my resume, and confirmed the W-2 rate that we decided on.

This afternoon, the recruiter called back. They want me to start a week from Monday.

In the meantime, I'll have to submit paperwork for a background check and a drug test.