26 days since last post. There is a reasonable reason for this. Apart from the full time work I’ve been doing on Project A, my boss came to me and said he would really like my expertise on Project B. 3 weeks later I find that Project B seems abandonded by Company Z. They deployed their own software packages, built the business logic, got it running and ran away.
What they didn’t check was that logs fill up at 60gb a day (only a 70gb disk) and after a little bit of time after deployment, things stopped. They fired all the developers on the project and said “Hmmm, how do we get this to work?”.
In steps Hyro. We swing away for a week. We work out that solving this riddle would require the source to the project. It took a week to acquire. The companies that Company Z produced the software for started jumping down my neck. "It’s software. Surely you can fix it cause you’re software guys".
That week we were able to identify the problem. Two pieces of software using the same port. You’d think outta 60gb of logs, a port problem would be at the head of the messages.
So. I have had no time to myself. Put away too many hours last week, plus I have to travel ~2 hours a day to get there and back again. Talk about a waste of time when it is precious.
But I’ve made the 3 months probationary period at Hyro and they are proud to have me on board. I have beaten their record for getting up to speed and managing Project A. Previous record was 9 months. I’m on 3.
A while back we got a resume from someone who was willing to work for free to get the experience. He had a masters in IT. We put him through the java test and he didn’t score very well. The boss had already made his mind up that he wanted to see what he could do so we hired him. We also paid him. Didn’t need him working 2 jobs. That would be unfair to his ability.
It came down to: He wasn’t able to solve problems on his own. Refused to try google for answers before asking someone else. Made working on code as a team difficult. Didn’t take much advice from others. Didn’t have very good communication skills.
Here’s hoping it’s not another month between posts
-= Comments
1. Zooba | May 10th, 2006 at 12:57 am
Congratulations on setting the new record
2. Andrew B Coathup | May 10th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
Yay monkey achiever. That makes you a big swinging monkey.
Have you considered moving closer to the city? I once lived ten minutes drive from work (unless you crash your car into the receptionists car on the way, which I did once, funny story). It was great living so close. At the moment you have 2 hours of dead time.
Hmmm, hiring rubbish people, I am going to try to avoid that.
3. pimaster | May 11th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
I don’t think I’m interested in moving out. I pay next to no rent. Food is always cooked and my old folks are great company. My brother isn’t too bad either when he gets some sleep.
If I moved out it would probably be too expensive to live on my own. Then the security of my hardware becomes an issue.
I have the laptop with me most days, but I never get a seat to use it on. 17″ hardly stays in your ‘zone’.
Just need to find a way to relax and make the train time ‘down time’ for the brain. At least then I would be ready for work / sleep.
4. Beth | May 20th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Congrats russ, I’ve made my 3 months too, now its a lot harder for them to fire me, lol… actually, what can I say, they love me I throw scrunched up bits of paper and planes at my work mates while I’m waiting for stuff to build and deploy, I talk and laugh loudly with everyone, I set up Word AutoCorrect to write silly things when someone types the word “the”, I feed them biscuits and fruit, I make sure our project manager doesn’t have too much to drink at farewell lunches, I even answer the phone when the receptionist isn’t in. And as an added bonus, during my free time, I write a bit of code for them. As you can see, I’m indispensable.
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