How is your career going?

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 3:43 pm

Things are changing for the institution I've been working for (SEE: 1st performance review in 11 years) and now we actually have to apply to our temporary jobs every semester. I'll honestly be amazed if this gig lasts me another 5 years, but as long as they're willing to have me I'll continue to do it.

Ralph-Wiggum · Post by **Ralph-Wiggum** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 5:31 pm

stessier wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2019 3:23 pm
Ralph-Wiggum wrote: ↑Tue Oct 29, 2019 2:52 pm Got an offer on the job I interviewed for a few weeks back. Nice to have an option but I'm hoping I can wait a bit longer before making a decision; currently have about 15 other applications out and am planning to submit some more. The job that offered is the only non-academic position of all the places I'm applying to; it still would be research based, but is a more formal, 9:00 - 5:00 sort of deal. After (looks at watch) 12 years in academia, the lack of freedom from a non-academic job is a bit scary.
But...money!

My brother has been in academia for about the same amount of time and I have yet to be able to lure him away from it either.

Unfortunately, my research experience makes some of the bigger buck non-academic jobs available to some people with a Bio degree (e.g. biotech) not really feasible. In fact, the job that I have an offer from pays only slightly more than my current post-doc and almost certainly less than I would start at with a tenure-track job. But as of now I don't have any offers for a tenure-track position.....

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 5:37 pm

I finished my "onboarding" (I hate that jargon, but it's concise and useful) with that invidious GPU manufacturer this afternoon and can finally start doing some actual editing for them tomorrow. I suspect that I lowballed my price quote more than I should've done. Oh well...now that I'm officially a vendor, it might lead to more lucrative work down the line.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Oct 29, 2019 11:22 pm

Just received news that Thursday (31st) will start EXTRA EARLY at 8AM (right now we start at 9AM, which was a lot earlier than 11AM a few months ago) and may have to do an extra large load so we can get Friday off. *sigh*

EDIT: Turns out, they just want us to finish early so we don't run into the Halloween foot traffic. Meh.

Friday was a normal day.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Fri Nov 08, 2019 12:39 am

Another week... Today, went at my personal record pace... Was in mostly Palo Alto area, and dropped 66 orders, clocked in 9AM, clocked out 6PM. Though that includes 30 minutes of helping others load van, and about 1.5 hours transit time to and from the area, 30 minutes lunch, and maybe 15 minutes return and cleanup. The actual delivery time is 6.5 hours, and let's just say the route isn't that efficient. However, all but 2 orders were dropped by 4PM. Took over an hour to drive back though...

Just heard that the Sacramento dispatcher is calling it quits. Yet they still didn't say ANYTHING about getting another dispatcher for San Francisco, which is sorta what they promised me. But I know verbal promise doesn't mean **** around here. I can use a desk job, as my knees are getting a bit creaky. *sigh*

raydude · Post by **raydude** » Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:59 pm

I was able to experience a really cool augmented reality showcase of the Europa Clipper spacecraft at work this past Friday. The lab was offering free Hololens demos in the main conference room of the Space Department building. I put on the Hololens and immediately saw a life-size 3D model of the Clipper spacecraft in the room. It was about 14 ft high and as wide around as a minivan stood up on its rear bumper. The solar panels were very wide and stretched across the length of the conference room.

The group had about 7 hololens setup for use. The cool thing was that the spacecraft had the same location and orientation for all the hololens users, so when one of the scientists I work with was trying to find the imaging camera I pointed to it, saying "I think this is the narrow-angle camera right here, Wes." And he was able to see where I was pointing and said "Yup, that's it. The wide angle camera is right above it, see? It's got the baffle on."

We also identified the magnetometer mounted on its long boom and some of the other instruments. It was pretty amazing to be able to walk around and chat about the different components as we saw them. And to see it all in 1-1 scale.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Sat Nov 16, 2019 6:23 pm

raydude wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:59 pm I was able to experience a really cool augmented reality showcase of the Europa Clipper spacecraft at work this past Friday. The lab was offering free Hololens demos in the main conference room of the Space Department building. I put on the Hololens and immediately saw a life-size 3D model of the Clipper spacecraft in the room. It was about 14 ft high and as wide around as a minivan stood up on its rear bumper. The solar panels were very wide and stretched across the length of the conference room.

The group had about 7 hololens setup for use. The cool thing was that the spacecraft had the same location and orientation for all the hololens users, so when one of the scientists I work with was trying to find the imaging camera I pointed to it, saying "I think this is the narrow-angle camera right here, Wes." And he was able to see where I was pointing and said "Yup, that's it. The wide angle camera is right above it, see? It's got the baffle on."

We also identified the magnetometer mounted on its long boom and some of the other instruments. It was pretty amazing to be able to walk around and chat about the different components as we saw them. And to see it all in 1-1 scale.

I think we are only about 5 or 6 years from Hololens being a much bigger thing. The new Hololens 2 is pretty amazing to use. Now that it's Windows Core on ARM, the battery life is better. I think by the next version the price is going to come down a lot and we are going to see consumer applications starting to become a lot bigger.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:45 pm

A stranger rang me up to ask if I will edit her novel. She saw my website and liked that I put my cats on it. (I didn't tell her Gus is dead...I gotta update that.) This would my first non-referral job, and my first indication that anybody's ever found my website (I've done zero marketing, so I'm surprised it's coming up in searches), much less drilled down through the pages.

She still hasn't sent me a writing sample for a quote, though. I think my hourly rate scared her off. I might follow up. I'm already as busy as I want to be, but fiction would be a welcome change from the soul-deadening conference descriptions I'm editing for NVI...I mean, that invidious GPU manufacturer.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sun Nov 17, 2019 1:07 am

This job is starting to suck. Days are turning dark earlier and we don't want to deliver in the dark. Speed falls way off and signs and house numbers turned invisible. I am prepared as I have one of those head-mounted torches that are brighter than most bicycle lights, and company has issued logo'ed safety vests. But still, it is best if one can finish all orders before sunset. However, it appears that someone decided they don't want too many early deliveries and they are DELAYING our start Monday to 10 AM instead of 9AM. That means we will likely be delivering up to 6 or 7PM. Given sun sets at 4.58PM, that is going to suck. But if they want to pay overtime...

At least I am not going into the mountain roads and whatnot in the hills of of Marin or some such... generally. As a San Francisco driver, the furthest I go is Palo Alto. Though every once in a while, they shift drivers around and one day I was delivering in Fremont / Milpitas Area when South Bay was out a driver, and they shifted a North Bay driver to cover my route. Figuring out new addresses slows me down too! One knows certain addresses and know how to drive directly there, even if Google often screws up.

Company also switched insurance broker and dropped Anthem Blueshield as a provider. It's now CIGNA or KPMG. There are bajillion little benefits and the online onboarding process ain't the easiest to navigate. However, it looks like my existing doc is on both Anthem and CIGNA, so I can keep him as my doc for now. And per-paycheck deduction actually went down slightly. But paying for stuff with my HSA account instead of my regular credit card is still a little weird.

And commuter benefits is a PITA. It was advertised as "You can use Lyft", then once you do pick it, you realize Lyft requires you to take Shared, and it can only route you something that seats 6 or more, which cuts down on availability and increases ETA, throwing your timetable out of whack. Something to do with IRS rules. *sigh*

Default · Post by **Default** » Sun Nov 17, 2019 2:10 am

We've had the headlamp thing for five or so years. Delivering in the dark sucks, no doubt about that. Wear boots that are at least ankle length and keep then snug. That helps when you hit an angled surface you weren't expecting. You don't want to tear anything.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sun Nov 17, 2019 11:21 am

Kraken wrote: ↑Sat Nov 16, 2019 11:45 pm A stranger rang me up to ask if I will edit her novel. She saw my website and liked that I put my cats on it. (I didn't tell her Gus is dead...I gotta update that.) This would my first non-referral job, and my first indication that anybody's ever found my website (I've done zero marketing, so I'm surprised it's coming up in searches), much less drilled down through the pages.

She still hasn't sent me a writing sample for a quote, though. I think my hourly rate scared her off. I might follow up. I'm already as busy as I want to be, but fiction would be a welcome change from the soul-deadening conference descriptions I'm editing for NVI...I mean, that invidious GPU manufacturer.

Hopefully this story continues, I'd be interested to hear if it plays out.

The ease of publishing ebooks has resulted in lots of crap being shoveled out. I think it has also led to a rise in cheap editors who don't even presume to polish such turds. Actual publishers don't seem to care (and ebook only publishers are skimming the swamp and publishing these floaters); I've read too many books that appear not to have been looked at by an editor at all (but at least in some cases was surprised to find out it was!)

Sudy · Post by **Sudy** » Fri Nov 22, 2019 1:48 pm

This actual conversation I had with a subordinate today pretty much sums up how my career is going:

Me: Morning! [You were late for your 06:30 shift.] I left you a message around 06:53, you can disregard it. Were you unable to call in?

Them: I was on my way but didn't think I'd arrive late.

Them: I was aiming for 06:45.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Wed Nov 27, 2019 1:56 am

Started felling off Friday as my nose started dripping. Went home and it turned into a full cold. Notified supervisor that I can't come in on Monday. Still wasn't feeling well. Pissed my supervisor off when I had to take an extra day (today) off and forgot to notify him Monday.

My cold is mostly over, so I guess I can do a long shift tomorrow. Hopefully it won't be like 120 orders or something crazy. Basically, we're doubling up delivery so we can take Thursday and Friday off. Ah, whatever.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sat Dec 07, 2019 2:36 pm

Survived a whole week, no longer sick, but not quite feeling 100%. And they moved our start time AGAIN, back to 11AM... in the middle of WINTER, so we will be delivering HALF of our stops in the darkness. Apparently, they think somehow us delivering boxes early causes PROBLEMS with their customer retention. So why have 4-hour delivery windows? We're not Amazon prime with choosable delivering windows (they charge extra for that).

WTF. I know I am one of the fastest guys around and even I can't do 70 stops in 8 hours when I have to drive 45 minutes down, 45 minutes back, AND walk around apartment complexes looking for one address, or run up 3 flights of stairs when the elevator's out of order.

And instead of hiring people who will be doing the routing locally because they knew our routes, they've outsourced it to their Chicago branch (after the trying to do it locally, then outsourced it to Sacramento... then Chicago) Apparently, they think it's better to have people who do NOTHING BUT routing (i.e. one set of crew that'll route EVERYBODY across the nation), rather than people who actually KNOW what to adjust in the routes. Argh.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:41 pm

After about five and a half years I"m getting out of the MSP world. I'll start doing IT at the city library in early January.

More money, less stress, a 5 minute commute instead of 45-60, government benefits and retirement plan. Also they'll let me check out books for free!

Feels good. This place has been understaffed for several years and another co-worker just left a few weeks ago. They haven't replaced him yet and now they've got to replace me. I feel bad for the guys left behind. Not TOO bad, though.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:45 pm

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Sat Dec 07, 2019 2:36 pm
And instead of hiring people who will be doing the routing locally because they knew our routes, they've outsourced it to their Chicago branch (after the trying to do it locally, then outsourced it to Sacramento... then Chicago) Apparently, they think it's better to have people who do NOTHING BUT routing (i.e. one set of crew that'll route EVERYBODY across the nation), rather than people who actually KNOW what to adjust in the routes. Argh.

If Chicago does the whole country, I can tell you that being local doesn't seem to help.

stessier · Post by **stessier** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:50 pm

Exodor wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:41 pm After about five and a half years I"m getting out of the MSP world. I'll start doing IT at the city library in early January.

More money, less stress, a 5 minute commute instead of 45-60, government benefits and retirement plan. Also they'll let me check out books for free!

Feels good. This place has been understaffed for several years and another co-worker just left a few weeks ago. They haven't replaced him yet and now they've got to replace me. I feel bad for the guys left behind. Not TOO bad, though.

Congrats!

If I may, what is MSP?

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:53 pm

Managed Service Provider

For when you're too cheap to hire your own IT staff.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 5:18 pm

Exodor wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:41 pm Also they'll let me check out books for free!

Um, orientation maybe an eye-opener for you.

Congrats anyway!

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 5:48 pm

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:53 pm Managed Service Provider

For when you're too cheap to hire your own IT staff.

Yep, we provide IT services to small and medium sized businesses. For some clients it makes sense - they're too small to need full-time IT. For others they're just cheap and often are too cheap to sign off on the right solutions for their business.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 5:53 pm

Exodor wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 4:41 pm After about five and a half years I"m getting out of the MSP world. I'll start doing IT at the city library in early January.

More money, less stress, a 5 minute commute instead of 45-60, government benefits and retirement plan. Also they'll let me check out books for free!

Going to the public sector for more money? My brain is confused.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Mon Dec 16, 2019 5:55 pm

coopasonic wrote: ↑Mon Dec 16, 2019 5:53 pm Going to the public sector for more money? My brain is confused.

MSPs don't pay well and the local city seems to pay their IT staff quite well.

Just don't tell the taxpayers.

Remus West · Post by **Remus West** » Tue Dec 17, 2019 3:02 pm

Friday will be my last day teaching at my current school. I accepted an offer from the district I grew up in to come teach at one of their high schools. They offered me a non-insubstantial raise to accept the position so I guess you could say things are looking up.

LordMortis · Post by **LordMortis** » Tue Dec 17, 2019 3:11 pm

Remus West wrote: ↑Tue Dec 17, 2019 3:02 pm Friday will be my last day teaching at my current school. I accepted an offer from the district I grew up in to come teach at one of their high schools. They offered me a non-insubstantial raise to accept the position so I guess you could say things are looking up.

I'm both sorry and happy for you. I know how much working to help under-served areas means to you. At least to date, you haven't been worn out of the profession.

pr0ner · Post by **pr0ner** » Wed Dec 18, 2019 2:47 pm

Between a step increase and federal employees getting at least a 2.6% cost of living increase for 2020, my pay is going up about 5.5% between 2019 and 2020, so I'm doing okay.

Hoping 2020 brings me a promotion to something new I'd really like to do, but if I stay in my current role, I won't complain.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Wed Dec 18, 2019 5:12 pm

I'm thinking about raising my hourly rate 10% next year. I know it won't last when the economy finally tanks, but for now I'm still getting more work than I really want.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Wed Dec 18, 2019 5:53 pm

I was just surprised with a little 20-year anniversary recognition at a staff meeting. My boss, who has been here since I started in 1999, dug up old pictures of twenty-something me to share with my twenty-something employees. It was hilarious and a little embarrassing and incredibly kind, all at once.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 4:35 am

Argh, the most frustrating shift so far. Got sent to the South Bay... start at 1100, didn't return until 2230, then spent 15 minutes cleaning up. Why the **** did the route planner put the apartments at NIGHT?! When I can't see ****? Then there's the dang apartments with virtually no map (or map that's not near a drive way) plus buildings that are not properly labeled... Even the residents don't know **** about their own building number.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 10:32 am

A year ago we lost the person who did most of our "marketing" (materials and organizing) and she was never replaced. One of the owners decided to handle it all herself. This has not worked well. She sometimes delegates, but micromanages when she does and needs 4 or more edits to things presented to her to ensure whatever it is matches her standards.

A week ago I reminded her that there wasn't anything put together for our holiday newsletters and in response she directed me to find something "that looks good and is on brand". I work in IT. IT people are not known for their style and color palette. If I was any kind of good at graphic design and art, I may not be working in IT. This task is a nasty mismatch. I imagine myself sending her a dozen or more "Does this look good enough?" emails and her getting increasingly annoyed with me.

As much as I want to help, this task has paralyzed me every time I go out to look for images and samples. Every single Christmas image looks about as good as any other and I can't tell if any of them are "on brand" ... As a result, the clock is ticking down and I have nothing to offer. My current ploy is to send her last year's email and asked her if she'd like me to clean it up (date/names) and re-use it.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 10:45 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 10:32 am A year ago we lost the person who did most of our "marketing" (materials and organizing) and she was never replaced. One of the owners decided to handle it all herself. This has not worked well. She sometimes delegates, but micromanages when she does and needs 4 or more edits to things presented to her to ensure whatever it is matches her standards.

A week ago I reminded her that there wasn't anything put together for our holiday newsletters and in response she directed me to find something "that looks good and is on brand". I work in IT. IT people are not known for their style and color palette. If I was any kind of good at graphic design and art, I may not be working in IT. This task is a nasty mismatch. I imagine myself sending her a dozen or more "Does this look good enough?" emails and her getting increasingly annoyed with me.

As much as I want to help, this task has paralyzed me every time I go out to look for images and samples. Every single Christmas image looks about as good as any other and I can't tell if any of them are "on brand" ... As a result, the clock is ticking down and I have nothing to offer. My current ploy is to send her last year's email and asked her if she'd like me to clean it up (date/names) and re-use it.

Delegate. Surely there is someone with an art-school or design background. Or even just a few creative bones in their body.

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:04 am

I don't have anyone working under me I could delegate to, and the other people who sometimes get tapped for art are production workers. These people sit 30' away from the owner who gave this assignment to me.

At best I can ask them, as a favor, to perform this task for me, if they can find time to fit it into their schedule for the week.

I once took a marketing class, but that mostly taught me marketing people are insane but useful.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:13 am

Paingod wrote: ↑Thu Dec 19, 2019 11:04 am marketing people are insane but useful.

Preach, brother!

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 12:11 pm

Should have bounced it back: "Sir, I work in IT. I'm not a designer. I have NO IDEA what our 'brand' is. You need marketing people."

gilraen · Post by **gilraen** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 5:37 pm

We are migrating from one hosting platform to another, and part of my responsibilities is to take all existing scripts from the old Unix server and make sure they run on the new one. Some of my scripts need a specific program (lftp, for those familiar with it) to run properly, and this program needs to be installed separately (isn't part of the OS).

So I tell the CTO and his team that I will need to install lftp on the new server. They never heard of it - they google it and see that it was created by a Russian developer. Let's just say I got a lot of entertainment value watching them freak out over it in the migration status meeting.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Thu Dec 19, 2019 7:56 pm

Because of the sensitive data some of our facilities handle, we need to undergo AT101 compliance audits for data centers in facilities that handle such things. I have 11 such facilities, every quarter my minions gather the necessary data, mostly data center access lists and door reports. Occasionally there's an incident where someone missed a procedure, usually the business granting someone access without going through the approval process. I typically can review and approve these in less than a day, and rarely does my boss kick them back to me for issues I missed.

This time they added a whole new level of crazy to the process. 9 of 11 facilities had issue, most which required back and forth with my boss until it was deemed sufficiently documented and resolved. We weren't allowed to start data collection until Monday this week, I was scheduled off today and Friday, and my boss is out for two weeks starting Monday. So that meant everything needed to be done by Wednesday. Usually not a problem...but the added detail meant only 9 of 11 were completed by EOD yesterday.

So from 9 am until noon I worked with my minions to finish the other two. One had no issues, the other, lots of issues. That last one elicited a video conference call from my boss to discuss. I'd been working on this at the kitchen desk, in between feeding the kids and reading them books. My daughter comes up to me and says hi to my boss. He says hi back, but when my son does it a short time later, he starts with "we need to talk about you working from home."

I reminded him I was on vacation today.

He backed off, but still...

I did tell him when I WFH I hide in the basement where the kids are not so bothersome. There is almost no need for me to ever be in the office these days...I'm based out of a plant now where I know maybe 5 people. My desk is in an area with almost no other human contact. And I actually work more hours when I WFH since I'm not spending an hour each way commuting.

A recruiter messaged me the other day out of the blue and if the job he was recruiting for was closer and not farther I might have responded...

msteelers · Post by **msteelers** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 12:20 pm

After nearly a decade working in radio, this is going to be my last week of broadcasts.

I'm lucky enough to have lived my dream job. I always wanted to work in radio, and I did just that. I started in sales and doing play-by-play for high school sports. Then started producing the afternoon shows. Eventually I moved up to co-hosting the morning show, and just over four years ago I became the host of the morning show. It's been a great and fantastic ride, but unfortunately it's time to come to an end.

Radio has never paid very well, and I've always had multiple other side hustles running. I described it as "planting seeds", hoping that one of them would take off. And now, I think I have multiple projects capable of growing. I just need to be able to give them more time and attention.

I have the opportunity to take over the day-to-day operations for a local entertainment company. The company is well established in Central Florida, and I've already spent the past few years helping it expand to South Florida. Now it's grown to the point where it needs to have better organization and workflows in place, and I've been tapped to make that happen. Eventually, we will look to expand the company and continue its growth. I'm also a wedding DJ. While that will continue to be a side hustle, I'll have more time and energy to dedicate to it.

I'm also going to continue doing voice over work from home. I've had two audiobooks published so far, and the third is in production. It will continue to be a back-burner project for me, but I like it enough that I'm interested in getting coaching and taking classes in an effort to improve. We'll see where that takes me.

So, this is a fairly bittersweet time for me. I'm excited for my new opportunities and what lies ahead, and also bummed that my "dream job" is ending. However, very few people have a long career in radio and get to walk away on their own terms. I'm proud that I got to choose when my career ended, and not have someone make that choice for me.

LawBeefaroni · Post by **LawBeefaroni** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 1:07 pm

msteelers wrote: ↑Sun Jan 05, 2020 12:20 pm I'm proud that I got to choose when my career ended, and not have someone make that choice for me.

When you walk away on your own terms, it's less ended and more open-ended. Good luck on your new direction!

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 1:43 pm

The delivery company I'm working at is trying yet ANOTHER box design, and took away the box handles AGAIN. No holes, no slat, just BLANK sides. This makes the boxes ONLY grabbable from the bottom. The supervisors kept insisting "it's to keep the cold-chain" (i.e. keep the insides cold). This is the middle of WINTER, for ****'s sake! And how many customers ACTUALLY COMPLAINED about their fruits and veggies being warm? We already ship foil packs and "ice packs" for stuff that actually needs to be kept cold!

And next time they mention UPS again, I'll point out that 1) we don't have racks, unlike UPS trucks, 2) All our boxes are the same size, UNLIKE UPS packages. Combined, they make it difficult to grab specific boxes or to break them out from rows and rows of them.

All this lack of handholds slows us down, while they keep telling us we need to speed up. WTF.

Jeff V · Post by **Jeff V** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 8:05 pm

Kasey Chang wrote: ↑Sun Jan 05, 2020 1:43 pm All this lack of handholds slows us down, while they keep telling us we need to speed up. WTF.

Handholds? Make your own.

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Sun Jan 05, 2020 8:47 pm

I use this: https://www.amazon.com/Bully-Tools-9920 ... 00KOMTHZS/