Barbarian's Curmudgeonly Rantings

I'm doing a lot of job search activities right now. On the high end, I'm searching various locations for database or programming jobs and other things that are suited to my well-documented skill set. I'm not finding many of those. (Or more accurately I'm finding ones that would involve a two-hour one way commute or for which I only have half of the required skill set or that match in only a very remote sort of way ... my PBX training is more than 10 years past, but I've gotten two inquiries about PBX administration for a system with which I've never worked.) On the other end, I'm applying at bookstores, PetSmart, and other retail locations that I think I could tolerate for more than a week without going insane.

One thing I've notice with a lot of these companies is they have a need that's obviously not being filled, but they don't have the job listed anywhere. I speak of course of someone to set up their job application process. I've run into website with the usual lazy-ass programmers using the "This page only supports X browser and Y Operating System" ... where X is some flavor of Internet Explorer and Y is a Windows XP or greater. (I'll admit that I'm not a Java programmer, so that's probably not the job for me, but it does sound like they need a real programmer at that point.) Some of the onlilne applications have just been plain clunky. They work, but they could really use a bit of editing and someone to improve their interface.

Then today I started on one that has a PDF application form ... which you fill out and drop off at their physical location. Now I can understand that they might not have dedicated HR to review applications submitted electronically and making applicants drop off the form in person might weed out some of the lazier people right away, so I'm not complaining about that so much. What I will complain about is that this isn't actually a PDF form, but just a static document. Good Gods people, use the tools that you have! If you're going to put out a form, then make it a frickin' FORM!

"Hey, while I'm applying, do you need someone to make your application process into something useful or do you like trying to decipher people's handwriting?"

OK, I'm heading out into the garage to try to make some more things to sell ...

Is there something about having an MBA that makes you incapable of following simple instructions like "Include in Final Table? Only Mark 'X' if Yes" This is not my wording and admitedly not what I would have used, but the Excel worksheet should have a simple boolean value in that column of data: either an X or a null value. So why do I find question marks, random 'No' entries (not for every record, of course), "No Name?", and in a few records on one worksheet, what seems to be sentence fragments.

Now I get to clean up the data and make random determinations as to if these records should actually be included in the final import or not. Whee ...

Well I was making pretty good progress today until I used the wrong function and instead of inserting a block of data into a workbook page I deleted and replaced the entire thing. Oops, indeed. Luckily I have a not terribly old backup and most of the work of the last week has been planning or working in a different file. Yes, I have to recreate a lot of the tedious bits that I did yesterday, but at least I know what and where to rebuild and I won't have to spend as much time on it.

I also have a nice new backup in no less than two places.

So last night before dinner we both decided that if the snow was as bad as they were predicting we were just going to just say "screw it" and stay home today. We then did our best snow dance in the kitchen much to the combined amusement / horror of the cats(*).

Bah! I say, Bah!

While there was a few scant inches of snow on the driveway, the roads weren't nearly bad enough to justify staying home this morning. My commute took about the usual time; road conditions lowered maxium speed, but with lighter traffic the average speed was actually much higher than usual. I did slid one time, but it was when I was turning into the driveway here at the client site ... hardly anything to get excited about.

Still, I think I will be leaving early today. It's best to be safe, you know?


(* - Bella in particular was really unsure of this whole dancing thing, especially since I had scooped her up so that she could participate. She didn't flee in terror from the subsequent bouncing and singing, but she couldn't quite decide if she liked it or not.)

I am working on a project to convert the prior programmer's horrible Excel "database" spaghetti code application into something that can actually be updated and maintained. Of course the end users, being accountants, want both the results and the interface to remain in an Excel workbook. Yeah, yeah, I can do that ...

Warning: Geeky programming stuff ahead!

( Enter the Stupidity For A New Age ... )

... and then I shot 'em.

I haven't posted an update in a while. Like most people my recent life can be summed up in a short sentence: things have been happening recently; some good, some bad. The bad things are mostly health related and I will not bore anyone here in my general post with the details, suffice to say that the problems will either get better or eventually they will no longer be a problem.

So, then there's the good news ... apparently the way for me to get really good solid IT job offers was to quit my previous job at Envirotest and accept a part-time consulting gig covering Milwaukee area clients for a firm from Madison. I had my first client visit on Monday, things went well and I was happy and looking forward to more nice, easy visits just like that one ... so of course I got a full time offer on Tuesday.

At first I was reluctant -- I haven' t worked full time in a long time and the part-time gig certainly paid well enough for me to afford to be somewhat lazy ... but the full time gig not only paid somewhat better, but it's very firmly back in my field of database development. (Data migration, parsing, and reporting to be specific.) I resisted the first time, but when they called back again a few hours later, I told them I'd think about it and by Wednesday, I let them know I was interested and would accept the job.

So naturally I got three more leads and/or follow-ups from other jobs after that. Where were all these offers several weeks ago? Sheesh.

Anyway, I'm going to be busy during the week for about two months, then it cuts back to 4 days a week so I can be a little lazy again. It's projected to go past the end of the year, which in the language of most contract positions means probably at least a year or so. The only downside? I'll have to wear a tie again, but considering I've been dressing in a uniform for work for the last two years and I'll be making ... er ... about 4 times as much per hour ... I think I can tolerate that.

Of course after checking my wardrobe, it looks like I need to go do a little shopping ...