Work: History

The great thing about unemployment is all the free time to do whatever projects you have a mind to do. The only downside is the lack of an income stream (and watching your savings go down as your credit card debt goes up).

Winter, 2005

Here I am, once again looking for work: full-time or part-time, contract or salaried. If you need someone of my skills & interests, please contact me. Rates negotiable.

Fall, 2005

I just came off of 18 months of fulltime work at IronPort Systems. Or, perhaps I should say I was "thrown off". I got the job (internal documentation) in May 2004 and lost it in October 2005 when the company decided they no longer needed what I was doing to be done.

They no longer need internal documentation?! Suuuurrrrre.

I felt pretty bad about things at the time. I still feel bad, but I discovered later that two other people were "let go" on the same day as me... and another, larger, group three weeks later. So, I can stop wondering if it was something "special" about me. Welcome to the Wonderful World of the Corporate RIF.

Been there; done that — but I got a better severance package last time. :-( Time to move on.

Winter, 2003

My first fulltime contract position, 6 months for Barclays Global Investors in San Francisco (Nov 2000 - May 2001), was delightful. I would have loved to stay longer but didn't want to join up as a "permanent" salaried employee for various reasons. Although it was nice to be asked. Sigh.

After that, I got three remote contracts (2 short-term and one long-term) working with Perl — web page stuff, CGI, database access, data filters, fun stuff. Sadly, the long-term contract began to fail about the same time the "dot bomb" went off... I was cut back to 15 hours per week, tried to find something else, didn't succeed. Then the contract wasn't renewed.

I got another short-term contract in Summer 2002 but it only lasted ten weeks; the project was very badly spec'd and I "didn't work fast enough" (their words). At least I got to apply for unemployment insurance...

I found another short-term contract in October 2003. This one lasted 5 weeks; I wasn't crazy about it but at least I got some income.

Fall, 2000

Unfortunately, while the gods were correct that I like Tech Writing, they were perhaps wrong in their assessment that I should do it full time for my job. Then, again... that might be overstating the case. Let's just say that while I am good at (and enjoy) documenting things that already exist, I find that I have a marked distaste for documenting vaporware (and a strong dislike for working under shifting specifications...).

What's next? I'm back to Perl programming and trying my hand at contracting this time.

Fall, 1999

It was not quite 2 years since I'd left Apple; if I could go back before October 31, I could get my seniority (and vacation accrual rate :-) back. That sounded promising.

When I started making discreet enquiries, 5 different people, independently, all said "Have you considered technical writing?". When 5 people ask the same question, maybe there's a good reason. If the gods thought I should try Tech Writing, who am I to question? Especially if it got me out of an untenable situation.

In late September, 1999, I returned once more to Ye Olde Rainbow Fruit Co. (It's like Deja Vu all over again!) I went back to the Core OS team, this time as a Tech Writer - doing my part to support Mac OS X by documenting it.

Fall, 1998

Just under a year after joining Incyte, I was on the move again, this time to Deltagen, a small startup doing functional genomics. When I arrived, Deltagen was using Unix (Sun) and Macs, exclusively. When I was hired (and for all the time I was there), I was their first (and only) "real" programmer. This gave me an opportunity not only to write Perl scripts but to do some CGI script work, a little System Admin., work on some web pages, do user support... in short, a whole lotta work and a whole lotta responsibility.

I put in an MkLinux server, brought the email in-house, set up a company Intranet, created a bunch of internal web pages, took over most of the user services and user support load, wrote a bunch of Perl scripts, did some C... Lots to do.

Sadly, in recent times, the company has shown strong signs of being assimilated by the Borg Collective (Redmond branch). Resistance is futile...

Time to start looking for something else, but where and what?

Fall, 1997

A week after leaving Apple, I began working for Incyte Pharmaceuticals. I was intrigued by their motto, "Welcome to the World of Point and Click Biology". Incyte gave me the opportunity to get back in touch with my Science background, and a chance to write Data Filters (my favorite kind of programming :-), on Unix systems, in Perl! Unfortunately, things weren't quite as peachy as I'd hoped (hours of great urgency, interspersed with days of waiting for the phone to ring), so...

Spring, 1995

Two years after leaving Apple, after several re-organizations (and the total disappearance of both my original position and original department), I moved back across the street to Apple for another round at the Rainbow Fruit Company.

(Shortly thereafter, Taligent underwent some transformations of its own, and became a wholly-owned subsidiary of IBM. The doors finally closed for good on Dec. 19, 1997. Former Taligentians may be interested in checking out the Taligent Alumni Pages.)

I was quite pleased upon my return to Apple to discover my time at Taligent "counted" as time at Apple; it was almost as if I'd never left.

Upon returning to Apple, I spent a year as Quality Lead for the Copland OS team. Unfortunately, the Copland team never really wanted a Quality Lead; my job become something more on the order of "Official Keeper of the Code Coverage Metrics" (yowza).

Spring 1996

I spent the next year employed in several different capacities on the MkLinux project: Firewarden, Web Gardener, and Stagehand, just to name a few. I answered a lot of user email.

Spring 1997

Beginning my third year back, I joined the Un*x Utilities group in the Rhapsody Core OS project. Unfortunately, the Utilities group turned out to be a Kernel group, and life at The Rainbow Fruit Company was getting a little weird (we live in interesting times). Counting Taligent, I'd spent 11 years in the company of Apple. I still loved my Macintosh, but it was time to move on. The Monday before Halloween, 1997, I returned from my 6-week "sabbatical" (I got mine just before Steve canceled the program) and gave notice. "Hi, I'm back; Bye, I'm leaving".

Fall, 1986

My next stop was Apple Computer, to join the A/UX development effort. A/UX was Apple's UN*X system; gone but not forgotten; well-loved by those who knew it.

I spent 6 years with A/UX, then was "redeployed" (something like a layoff), just before Thanksgiving 1992. I got 60 days severance (cool), then...

Winter, 1992-3

...moved across the street (in early February) to work at Taligent, the (formerly) Apple / IBM / and later HP joint venture on their planned (but never quite to ship) operating system.

Fall, 1984

My thesis project got me my first "real job", at Genentech, in South San Francisco, California. I always wanted to move to California).

I started as a "Clinical Data Specialist", but became a Unix tools programmer in less than 3 months! I stayed at Genentech for almost 2 years, writing tools, doing general system admin, answering Unix questions. Then, when the powers-that-were tried to convert the system to VMS (and me to a data base administrator!), I left.