Recent blog entries for bigkevmcd

Amazing how things change so much in 5 months.

On september 5th, while I was on a plane somewhere over Europe on my summer holiday, my employer went into liquidation.

While I had an inkling that things were terminal on the day before I flew out, it was still quite a surprise to me that things happened so fast.

I got an e-mail which I read in a Cybercafe which went something like this:

"Hope you're enjoying your holiday, sorry you don't have a job to come back to".

I tried to enjoy the second week of my holiday as much as possible, but, my wife was fairly concerned, and it wasn't really the fun it should have been.

Why did Web4Test go bankrupt, who knows, I've heard various different versions of events and people have blamed various senior staff and external organisations, but at the end of the day, we had no money left, not even enough to pay us our notice period.

I spent 3 frustrating weeks chasing employment, registering myself with different agencies, and applying for anything going.

Then I got a phone call from one of my ex-colleagues, apparently the University from which the product we were working on was originally spun-out from, had bought the IPR for peanuts, and was attempting to make a go of it.

They offered me money that in my position I couldn't really afford to turn down, and I went to work for them.

All the same machines, with the same software were installed, so it was a case of getting some hardware connected together and setting the system up.

I'm not too sure what my other ex-colleagues think/thought, though they've never been outwardly hostile...so...I take it they're not too displeased (I was the only one willing to take the job).

I got taken on, on a 2 month contract, paying low- contractor rates, but better than my previous salary, and, they were paying me upfront which solved my cash crisis.

I applied for a couple of other, more permanent jobs, and got an interview for a "Linux Systems Engineer".

I love interviews, I'm not nervous (or at least if I am, I don't clam up :), and I'm confident enough in my abilities that I shouldn't get tripped up.

So...I got a permanent job offered to me, and then the Uni had a think about things...

While I wasn't leaving them, they weren't bothered about offering me a permanent contract, and as my temporary contract ran out the week before christmas, I was keen to not-be unemployed again.

So...I got put in the difficult position of choosing between the University and their grandiose plans of dominating the e-learning space (while giving me two days working at home a week, to save the murderous 4-5hours a day travelling), or choose to make a break from the system I'd been working on for the previous 15 months. The other job wasn't really a vast improvement on the travelling, and they weren't offering me the option of working at home, so, after much deliberation, I opted to leave the Web4Test system behind.

Working at the Uni, I saw the W4T system in a different light, I realised how powerful and flexible the system is, and just what we'd achieved.

Yeah...there's some flaws, tho' not many of them are user- viewable, and the technology was certainly cutting-edge, the Xmetal-SOAP combination is better than anything I've seen, sure it was under heavy development, but it's a great solution (stand up Dave Cole for the implementation).

But it's unfair to name Dave solely, I really enjoyed working with, and have a lot of respect for my fellow developers, Michael Holligan and Des Reid, I think that the development team really knew what we were doing, and we went a long way in a short team, it's just that we got sold short by short-sighted people, with flawed or hidden agendas.

Anyways, I've been here for the past 6 weeks, here being a Leith based Internet Development company, and I'm a Linux Systems Engineer here.

I've found the switch from being a Developer with SysAdmin on the side to a SysAdmin quite frustrating, I love developing software, and it's really my only creative outlet, so, who knows what might happen.

Anyways, thanks for reading :)

Hmmm...

More than a week later.

My boss told me that I'd be considered in anything that was happening.

This doesn't make me feel much better.

At least I'm getting out of here for a holiday, and I'm gonna kick up my feet, and bore my way through some contemporary fiction/non-fiction, accompanied by my trusty personal CD player.

First diary entry on Advogato

Job Fears

I'm in a difficult position, my employer's in deep financial trouble.

The game could be up in around 9 weeks.

Do I jump now, or wait and see if a buyer's found?

Linux jobs are hard to come by in my native city.

It doesn't even have to be hard-core Kernel hacking :)