On welcome employment

[da]

So after my first two weeks at the new job, I feel I can now say something more interesting than "I'm here, I'm busy."

I'm working at the same University as d., in a position I'd describe as "Tech Support Plus Plus". I'm supposed to be the Debian expert for the IT staff attached to the Computer Science department. Usually, my work will be "things that improve the infrastructure of the CS department" such as simplifying printing from Unix, and making users' X11 environments more friendly. I'm also responsible for the undergraduate CS Graphics Lab, which has associated professors and TAs who I'll fix problems for.

I spent a chunk of the first two weeks getting my office arranged (soon to be re-arranged, as we're all moving into a renovated, nicer space in a neighbouring building).

As I first arrived, my co-worker Phil won my everlasting esteem for finding me a disinfectant spray bottle and towels, even before I asked. My predecessor left the office in... a somewhat titchy state. (That discovery set the general tone for looking into my predecessor's work as well.)

The work so far? It hasn't been particularly challenging, as it's mostly been garden-variety system administration tasks to go with the start of the new term, but there are signs that this will change soon. There are at least four larger projects my boss wants to see me accomplish by December, and he's encouraged me to find additional useful work of my own choice. Yay.

The environment? Collegial, I suppose. I'm finding it surprisingly nice to have people stop by my office to engage me in technical conversations. This surprise probably sounds wacky to my friends besides mynatt (who, like me, has worked from home the last few years)... But it's a welcome change to me. I'm a more social creature than I've been letting myself believe.

Comments

drop-ins

[(Anonymous)]

As someone else who worked from home for years, and recently "got a real job", I am nodding in agreement. People stop in even to ask if I know where we keep X (on the network, I mean, not in which cupboard) or how to do X. It's so refreshing, even several months in, to have that sort of interaction.

--fishbot

Re: drop-ins

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Fishy!

On this note, one thing I'm worried about, is that since we're both fully employed now, we won't feel as strong a need to hang out with perl geeks once a month and the local Mongers will die out... Eh, as long as it continues to be easy to hold meetings, I'm sure we'll be fine.

Re: drop-ins

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah... I was late for the last meeting, and then everyone was too tired for beer afterwards. It's not the 'fully' employed that gets me, it's the triply-employed.

The monthly meetings aren't in danger, but my recreational coding is. I got three lines into my colour thing, and haven't picked it back up. And the rhyming thing. Not to mention a dozen other cool ideas that I've probably already forgotten. Ah well.

Re: drop-ins

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

Heh. Feel free to toss stuff up on the wiki for me to play with, either for colour or rhyming.

In fact, I think I owe Lloyd a reference...

The magazine looks great BTW. Stylistically. Haven't gotten into content yet. :)

Re: drop-ins

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks. I didn't do anything but the style, so you can stop now if you wish. ;) I was very pleased overall, if not completely.

I can probably put up some pseudo-code for my ideas for the quilting/colour project. That would be a start. Fortunately with Perl, going from pseudocode to code is often a no-op.

--fishbot