johnwilker.com

It takes 10 years?!?!?

Towards the end of the day today AP got into a conversation with TB and TO. The best part was when AP says, getting streamlined with the kinds of processes we’re trying to put into place takes 10 years or so. “We’re doing pretty good after only one.”

What a load of crap. It’s unlikely AP has ever worked anywhere for that long, or even worked anywhere that’s spent 10 years implementing a Change Management and source code control process. SInce a place that takes that long is unlikely to make it to 10 years.

I’ll be the first to agree that change takes time and that for us there’s a lot of culture changes that need to take place, but 10 years. What a load of crap.

Of course this comes from the guy with a contractor mentality to his work. Make it hard for anyone else to know what I’m doing to ensure I am impossible (perceived) to replace. He seems to thwart the process at every turn, doing CMs job for them, still doing release notes, not forcing them to call the developer on support that weekend, not making them call the teams who need to fix the problem, essentially hand holding the CM team on a daily basis.

Well he can keep doing it since I have plenty of life I’d like to lead on the weekends, he can sacrifice his. I wonder if he thinks he’s still hourly?

Tags: Argent, Work

10 bucks for a fucked up duck

Had two interesting meetings today. Met with a friend of mine for lunch. Talked about his company and the things he’s doing there. Was really hoping he was gonna say, “we need web and system architects like white people need rhythm.” and actually he did say something like that, unfortunately he’s fighting the good fight, largely alone at the moment. The culture over there is very, “my department, my empire.” no one wants a group that is above that that doesn’t care about what group wants to hord what dominion on a technology. Sad since they are still small and growing. Hopefully he’s able to change opinions over there.

THe upside was we talked about work stuff, so he paid for lunch to expense it :) Free ninety nine can’t beat that.

Had to rush back to lunch to meet with one of our head guys. He was running late as expected so I was able to sit and read a few emails (mine not shis, duh). This was a follow up meeting to talk about where I am heading in the company. Which is still no where. On the plus side he’s very open to getting me some more exposure to other technologies, helping me round out my toolbox and all that. Unfortunately patience is a virtue I often lack. I’ve got to work on that I know.

The meeting went mostly well. I feel better knowing that there is at least a plan, to have a plan. Some direction, even vague one is better than none. I’m keeping my feelers out, just the same. Signed up for some leadership classes. UCI has a software architecture certificate program, might try to get in on that. Really trying to bide my time. Company is paying for Java training so that’s nice. Flex training is coming soon.

I’m still hoping Scotty can make something happen in his neck of the woods. Their being smaller will let me grow more I think, but we’ll see.

In the mean time…

Does anyone else think ClearCase and Clearquest aren’t the greatest thing since sliced bread that everyone makes them out to be? My god those two tools suck!

Tags: Work

How to go nowhere fast

or… How do I always manage to be the employee that does his job, works hard, keeps abreast of business and technology, steps up to manage projects and architect solutions, yet still not be the employee that is a) given the position with responsibility. b) Treated like he knows anything at all about 1-the business, and 2-The technology.

The answer is I don’t know. Believe me, if I did know, I’d stop doing whatever I am doing that puts me in that position. You think I like this?

I like the place I work. It’s largely evil, and only cares about money, not people (customers or employees), but the people are (mostly) good, They know their stuff, and the money is not too bad. That said. I’ve been overlooked recently in favor of other employees that, while not incompetent by any stretch, know a fraction of what I do, as far as the company and it’s people, and the applications we support.

My team has two System Architects… one of which can’t architect a thing. One manages to take a single project and “architect” it into a ginormous project that only he can work on, excluding all else. THe other does about as much architecting as I do flipping hamburgers at McDonalds.

And here I am, wanted to get into the architecture field, having the knowledge of our systems, having good relationships with people on all teams, having a reputation as a developer who can deliver and make the customer happy. And I get the run around. I get, “It’s 50% trainging and 50% experience” fuck that! I have the experience. We’ve got architects at our company that weren’t any good at coding, yet I’m not qualified? WTF

Then I talk to a good friend of mine at another company. Same business. He’s got a web architect, who doesn’t want to use Flash because it will lock them into a single technology, but some, no name .NET component that sucks for UI, that’s a great choice. It makes my head hurt that this bozo is doing the job I want, and sounds like he couldn’t program or architect his way out of a paper sack!!!

For Crying out loud!

Tags: Work

Are you really telling me how to do my job?

Some days I just want to punch, kick, or strangle someone. Today it was one of our “senior engineer” fellas. Now on a normal day I like him a lot. He knows his shit. Today though he honestly tried to tell me how to set up a ColdFusion server. I’ve installed and set up CF more times than him I can guarantee, and on top of that I know what I’m doing. For him it’s just an install.

I was flabbergasted, he suggested I google the topic. FUCK THAT. You google it. I know what I’m talking about.

Lately I have that spider sense tingle that life here is on a slow boat to no where. Career advancement… Ah to have that would be nice.

Tags: Work

No you can’t have my stapler

Among the weirdos I work with, several stick out as extra special weird. SK is one of them. I am fortunate enough to not be on many projects with him. He’s a PM, and I’ve dodged that bullet so far. However he comes around often enough looking for co-workers in my row. Twice now he’s taken special notice of my red swingline stapler.

“Hey, you have a stapler. You buy that?”

If i say no, I’m afraid he’ll steal it. Thankfully the truth is, “My Fiancee bought it for me, back up cowboy.”

Is there such a thing as a stapler fetish?

Tags: Work

New Bosses suck sometimes

It always amazes that when new people come in, they seem to go out of their way to not listen to the people who have been around for a long time. New ideas and outlooks are always good. They’re great! but at the same time those of us who have been here a while know some ins and outs that should be appreciated. Instead we’re treated like morons who can’t appreciate the way things work or “the process”

Frustrating sometimes.

Tags: Work

Coutrtesy Desk, not brain trust desk

The courtesy desk is in theory the first line of defence for the department associates. Turning away the truly lame people trying to return things with KMart or target price tags still on them.

They’re not supposed to (at least when I was there) make decisions without consulting the electronics department associates. I was one of those.

One night I go up to get our returns and find a small box. THe kind bracelets come in or a pair of ear rings. The little cardboard jobs with a lid. Well I open it up and inside are 6 little computer chips. The kind you’d solder on to a logic board somewhere. No idea what they did.

“what’re these?”

“Computer memory.” the courtesy clerk replies.

“Perhaps for a Radio Shack computer project or a really old, big calculator. Not for anything we sell.”

“they said each one was 1mb of computer memory.”

“well they lied.”

“Can you do anything with them? Put them on the shelf with a UPC?”

“Uh, no”

Blank stare………

“I’ll figure out how to claims them. THanks.”

That wasn’t the only time something like this happenned, that’s a different entry. In the end we just put the little ear ring box of computer chips under the register hoping it’d get lost at some point. We couldn’t claim it, since a claim goes back to the vendor, they’d immediately see that these six little whatevers were not PNY 1mb RAM sticks. By the way, at this time, a 1mb stick of RAM sold for about 50 bucks. Good thing the loss went against the electronics department, we weren’t high shrink or anything

Tags: Wal-Mart, Work