Diary of a Network Geek

Oh, God, how I hate interviewing…

But, it’s a requirement for change, so I do it. Well, both interviews I had this week went well. The first was with a search firm and was on Tuesday. It was fairly standard. They mainly had found someone with all the right buzzwords on his resume. (That was me, incidentally.) They ran me through the standard questions about where I’d been, what I’d done and why I was looking to leave. Then, they gave me the info about the job, as they understood it. And, too, they let me know about the environment and the person I was interviewing with, so I could guage my answers and so on. Standard stuff.

The second interview was with the actual job and was yesterday afternoon. I met with three people in IT. One was the person who I’d actually report to and the other two were people I’d interface with. One of them was a manager who was originally from Scotland and he was a hoot. He had a bit of an accent, but was easily understandable and was full of life and fun. Really, all the people there seemed really happy and in fairly good moods. I can’t say where it is just yet, but it’s an oil-related business that deals with ocean-based vessels and platforms. Very interesting stuff. And, their main headquarters are just a few miles away. My commute would be like 5 minutes, or less. Pretty good for Houston.
There is a bit of travel involved, and there would probably be international travel, which could be fun. But, they’re pretty tight on salary, so we’ll see what my headhunter can do for me. Of course, my resume reads like their job description and I know that the headhunter had someone in from San Antonio, so I think they might be flexible. I mean, how many guys can there be in Houston that have 10+ years experience with Novell and have Linux experience, too? Not many.

In any case, I think I made a favorable impression, so now it’s a waiting game. I’ll keep you posted!

Oy, where to begin…

First of all, you may have noticed that the blog has been a little quiet this week. In fact, it’s been several days since there’s been a real post. Okay, there are several reasons for that.
Chief among those reasons is some personal family stuff that caused a bit of chaos around the house. It’s rather delicate, so I won’t get into it, other than to say, it’s a reminder that kids are like the ocean. You’re never sure what’s coming on the next wave and don’t turn your back on it, because the riptide can suck you under. But, that being said, the problem is being resolved, so, no worries.
The next thing is all the outsourcing rumours at work. I know, I know, I haven’t mentioned this before, but only because it hasn’t been out in the open. Now that it is, I feel okay with talking about it. There’s nothing solid yet, but today, HP is in talking to people about their job and how they do it. Sounds to me like they’re getting ready to make it happen, though the official word is that nothing is set in stone. Yet. Anyway, folks were talking about their “meeting with the Bobs” all day yesterday. Me, I’m just looking for the guy with the red Swingline. (Oh, wait, that’s me!)
So, the last thing is that I’m not going to be the last rat on the ship, for a change, and I’m out there looking. And, in fact, I have an interview with a “placement agency” today and, most likely, a job interview through them tomorrow. A Novell position with Linux. Less than 5 minutes from the house. That could be cool.

Well, I’ll keep y’all posted.