So it’s been a few months since I last posted. I hadn’t forgotten about this blog but we had a lot of big things happen and we got busy. I hope add a bunch of new posts with new pictures over the holiday weekend.The biggest news that we’ve had since we last posted was changes in our job situation.
Nicole had kicked her job search into high gear after we moved to Ballston. However thanks to the poor economy she was having a hard time getting any kind of response from the places she was applying to. In October nicole made contact with a small market research firm called BioInformatics. They needed a scientist to help with some of the work they were doing but weren’t in a position to hire a full time person. Instead they asked Nicole if she would be interested in working for them on a contract basis. Nicole was a little hesitant at first since it wasn’t full time and the pay wasn’t great but she opted to go ahead and take the contract work since it would give her some real experience on her resume. We kinda looked at it as a paid internship that would help nicole get some much needed experience and so she wasn’t just sitting at home banging her head against the computer trying to get a response from companies. After working for them for a month their work load continued to pick up and she was working more frequently 4 or 5 days a week instead of the original 3 they contracted for. Also we think nicole made a great impression with the people at BioInformatics and by the middile of November they had offered her a full time position. Although their offer wasn’t ideally what Nicole was looking for she was thrilled to get the offer and loves working with the people there. So as of the middle of Nicole is gainfully employed and happy to not be sending resumes into black holes of job postings. Considering the economy and the number of people out of work with work experience nicole did a great job getting her career jump started.
Nicole wasn’t the only one who got a new job in the past couple of months. At the end of October after 4 years with IBM I left the company. I was sad to be leaving IBM after so long but it was the right thing for me to do since I had become increasingly frustrated over the course of the year. The biggest thing I learned about keep myself happy at work was that I require a team atmosphere. Over my time at IBM I saw my immediate team shrink from a local 8 person team to a local team of 3. I was still a part of a larger team but it was very distributed (5+ other sites) and I found I didn’t work as well with a distributed team. Also the new product I was working on had such unrealistic deadlines and goals that I found myself not motivated to even attempting to meet the deadlines. With those things in mind I decided it was time for me to look for a new opportunity.
After a surprisingly short job search I accepted a new Senior UI Developer position at a place called Plateau Systems. I think they will be a good fit for me as the majority of their development staff is located at the same place. Also their strategy is to move their product over to Flex which I believe will be the future of web application. So i’m excited to be working with a team again and on new technology again. For those of you wondering what Plateau Systems does is they write HR software for large corporations/organizations. They software is primarily used to manage people’s performance/compensation reviews and to track professional development. The product may not be flashy or sexy but its complex enough to provide some real challenges in working on.
The best part about my new job though is nothing to do with the work but where the work is. My new office is two buildings over from our apartment. That means I get walk to work. It’s unbelievable to me that in a span of a couple of months I’ve gone from a commute of 55 miles each way to get to work to one that is a couple of hundred feet. It’s amazing to have so much time back and my stress level is so much lower without having to deal with DC traffic. Also with the apartment so close I can go home for lunch which is fantastic. So for right now i’m really enjoy my new job and hope it will stay that way for quite awhile.
Ross
