musings from the sleep deprived

I don’t even remember the last time I got to visit my Mom. Read more

Relief from the long hours and stresses of work appears to be on the way, both in terms of manpower and hours. Read more

Well, work came through. After several months of forms and approvals and waiting for order fulfillment, I finally got my new powerbook. Read more

So occasionally, I find myself embroiled in some whacked out, attitude driven political discussion at work. This is usually the result of an email thread someone, somewhere sends that ignotes the fires underneath me, forcing me to respond. Read more

So one of the reasons I’ve been so lax in posting is that my schedule switched over and I’ve not adjusted well.
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So I’ve been in this job now for nearly 7 months. Almost 8 now, in fact. I think i’m now fairly accustomed to the rigors of the job, what it entails, and where my ‘talents’, such as they are, come into the most use.
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So I’ve finished with my 3 weeks in San Josie getting trained up. I think things have gone well so far, and the learning curve, while steep … is right up my alley. I definitely have some additional things I need to focus on, like the F5’s, and maybe some Oracle brushup. Oh, and dig deeper into the network topology stuff as well, but so far, I’m pretty happy with the progress.
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I think I’m starting to get into the groove. I’ve been working tickets on my own now (with backup from the primary, obviously), and I’m starting to understand better what my role is, really. It hasn’t changed my accepting the fact that I still have a shitload to learn, but it does give me a better grasp of how things will generally flow day to day.
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Alright, I figured I should probably post a quick note here about how my time at my new job is going. eBay is, in short, one of the most massive technology installations I’ve ever been a part of. Actually, no… it is the largest, by far. I though Sun had large data centers? Nope. Hunter Douglas’ data center for the main SAP servers? Small time. Miniscule. The sheer number of servers, switches, load balancers, firewalls, database servers …. the list goes on. While I can’t get into specifics, all I can say is … holy shit.
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I’m really in some strange way completely excited now. I’ve just finished all the eBay paperwork, and sealed the envelope contained my acceptance of the offer and all the associated reams of paperwork. This marks a transition to a new part of my life, and I suppose thats always going to be an exciting feeling.

Dig it.

I have formally accepted the offer from eBay. I will putting in my notice with Sun Microsystems on Monday, and my first official day (crisis of some sort of another notwithstanding) with eBay will be March 28th.

I’m very very pleased. I could expound on this for some time, but I think the essence of how I’m feeling is already captured. This is all goodness.

As some of you know, I’ve been in the process of evaluating two job offers. One from my current employer, Sun, and the other from eBay. Its getting down to decision making time. At this point, all I’m waiting for is to have the respective offers on paper, in my hands before I formally make any announcements.

No matter what happens here, I will definitely say this: I’ve learned alot through this process. Its taught me what companies value in their employees, and what they are, and are not willing to do to retain that value. Furthermore, I’m now even more convinced that being completely upfront with everyone concerned in this has put me in a better position overall, and allowed me to maintain my professional and personal integrity in the process. I realize that doesn’t make any sense, but until they end of this decision making process (hopefully, within the next couple days), to say more would put one or both offers (and in the process, me) at risk. I should be able to post more here once this is all behind me, and I’ve made my selection.

For those of you who read this more than you talk to me, I did finally hear back from eBay at the end of the day Friday. Their HR rep called and left a message, indicating that he wanted me to give him a call back so we could discuss “next steps”. I’m pretty relieved now. I think this means that we’re now into the negotiation stage, and past the stage where they’re questioning whether or not I can do the job they need me to do. So yay!

I’m currently in the process of entertaining an offer from one company, and my current employer is countering with their own. At the moment, I don’t have numbers from either of them. In the meantime, I’m going to assume that both of them come in with good salary figures, and that all other parts of the compensation package (401k, medical, bonus plans, etc) are roughly equivalent.

At that point, I have some pretty deep decision making to do. I need to somehow quantify the important things in a job (non-compensation), rate them on some relatively arbitrary scale and try and see which one comes out on top. To some extent, I find this a useful exercise even if I weren’t in the job market. It help you realize the things you do think are important in your job satisfaction, and keep mental score as you go to your job everyday.
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Cynicism doesn’t really fit me. I don’t like thinking that way, nor having to think that way in order to rationalize a perceived behavior, but you know… thats just the way the world works sometimes. I suppose once you’ve worked for enough companies, or enough larger companies, you will eventually meet people who meet a certain criteria. Namely, those who would seek to rise through corporate ranks and achieve whatever element of success they want through manipulation and exploitation.

Is it so wrong to still believe the right way to go about doing that is by achievement, skill and honorable business practices? I suppose not, but perhaps its just naive to think that everyone would seek to take that path. I don’t even claim to be the holder of some holier-than-thou work ethic, or whatever, but to some of these people, concepts like loyalty, friendship and integrity have no place in their worlds. Sad, really. I suppose it has just always seemed the better path to prove value through deed instead of word. Furthermore, I know it works. It isn’t necessarily a fast process, nor easy. But its definitely satisfying. And not just ‘job well done’ satisfying, but also satisfying in the opinions that other people have of you, and how those get reflected back to you.

“Oh, I’ve heard about you … you’re the one who did X, Y and Z when noone else was willing to”

“Oh, hey, I finally get to meet you, I’ve heard so much about you from person A, B and C”

“Is the company taking care of you? We need to make sure you’re getting what you need”

“You let me know if you’re not happy where you’re at, I have room for someone like you anytime”

Tell me it isn’t satisfying to hear those sorts of comments. I’ve heard all of those within the last week. How you react to those statements is an entirely different matter, and depends on how humble you are, etc, but just to hear them makes alot of effort otherwise expended into the ether worthwhile.

So to those who would succeed through shortcuts, exploitation of relationships (or anything else, really), or manipulation of the truth to further your own ends, regardless of what other consequence that may have, or who else you might be hurting with those actions …. I tell you this:

You will never, ever hear those words. You will never, ever have the satisfaction of knowing your salary, position and compensation are DESERVED. I realize, those are hollow words, because you don’t care about that. Oh well. Your loss.