I have received inquiries (1) regarding the two jobs. Specifically, people (again, 1) want to know what they are. One was a contract job to implement an ecommerce site for real estate listings and what are called virtual tours. It wasn't anything fancy by itself, but the thing is, they wanted me to do everything. They wanted me to define the product, come up with a schedule, spec out hardware and software and services, design it, implement it, test it, document it, and maintain it. Everything. It was pretty daunting, but I had some good advice from friend Phil. Little of it was anything I hadn't done before. What was different was doing it all and also being completely self-directed.
The other job was a permanent position at the LBJ Foundation in conjunction with the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT and the LBJ Library. This one is a rather open-ended job, most likely being a lot more than just programming. The LBJ School gets a lot of requests for assistance from various organizations (governmental and not) to determine and implement policy. The main guy here is concerned mainly with technology policy. Part of what they're looking for from this job is someone who does research on new technologies, reads up on them, and possibly tries out the more interesting ones to see how they work. Out of that would come both useful work for the LBJ School and Library as well as the organizations coming to them for help, but also (hopefully), useful recommendations on the capabilities of various pieces of software and perhaps even useful insight into relevant policy considerations. They are looking towards a general plan of having software that they can deploy to help all sorts of organizations "do stuff." It's vaguely defined right now, but there's real potential.
Last weekend I had a lot of time to think about it. Well, I didn't really need the time. Psychologists say you decide first and then rationalize. That was true in my case. Both of these jobs came along in early December, but the contract one moved more quickly. We had gotten to the product definition, which I presented to them on Wednesday the 8th. We hashed out features, target audiences, and other non-technical requirements for the project. The following day, I met the LBJ people face-to-face for the first time after many emails and phone calls. We sat down and they described for me what they wanted this job to become. I more or less decided to take it right then, but spent a few days firming up the decision and making sure it was rational.
With the contract job, I felt it was something that would really stretch my abilities. I was also intimidated, but I tried to avoid letting that influence anything. In the end, I don't think it did. The contract job offered (much) more money, but they were only looking at a six month gig to start. It was quite possible that it would grow into more, but given my experience, I wanted more security. Then there was some flip-flopping on their end that left a sour taste in my mouth. First they wanted to make it a contract. Then after our initial meeting, they offered a full time job as a regular employee, which took me a bit by surprise, but really appealed to me. Then after a couple days, they unoffered the job, saying they wanted to define the project better. After we defined it all, then they said they wanted to go forward, but switched back to making it a short-term contract. Needless to say, that was a little off-putting. Even so, I probably wouldn't have taken it. While that job offered more responsibility and money than I'd had in any job before, there wasn't anything fundamentally special about it. Jobs like that come up all the time. I'm not saying I could get them, but that's a relatively normal sort of job. The LBJ job was different. They wanted a programmer, a liaison, and a policy advisor. It is a unique opportunity, one that doesn't come along very often. I had to jump at it. It helped that the people I met were smart and easy-going, with the lefty liberal bent that I favor. Apparently they discovered this site and thus my incoherent screeds against the Bush administration, which actually raised my standing, something I did not expect at all. Also the run-on sentences. And the fragments. So to sum up. Job 1: money, responsibility. Job 2: security, growth, and just a better feel. The thing is, both of these jobs are better than any other job I've been offered in the past. Better than any job I've interviewed for, even the Amazon one (thanks to mute who could get me in the door, but couldn't get them to recognize my talents. Their fault, not his.). Quite possibly better than any job I've even applied for, and in my ~15 months of un-/semi-employment, that works out to a bunch. When it rains...
So. I start on Tuesday. It was going to be Monday, but apparently that is a holiday for them. One of the benefits of working for the LBJ Foundation is that, even though it is a private organization, they have the same holiday/vacation policies as the federal LBJ Library since they work so closely together. I'm going to be employed by the Foundation even though most of my work will be for the School because the UT and federal hiring practices are so byzantine and wrapped in red tape that I would never have been hired. The first project will be working with the Beaumont Foundation. Insofar as I've gathered, they are a group of lawyers wrapped around a big pot of money. There was this big class action lawsuit against Toshiba* . It was about, of all things, faulty floppy disk drives. It was finally settled for $2.6 BILLION dollars. That's a whole lot of money. Apparently, funds from the settlement that weren't claimed by some deadline (I am inferring this part) were to be allocated to a fund to help bridge the digital divide in America (that I know). Basically, my new boss will be helping the Beaumont Foundation spend $300 MILLION on Toshiba equipment that they will give away to poor and underprivileged kids across the country. It's pretty crazy. So this will be the initial source of money and the testbed for the new projects, whatever they might be. I realize how vague it all sounds. It isn't so much unknown as difficult to articulate. No doubt I will post more about it as parts get fleshed out; it's pretty exciting. Oh yeah. And one other thing: they're going to want to make all of the code that we write to be Free Software. How cool is that? The things you can do when profit isn't a motive...
As far as the real estate people go, I have directed them to my friend Phil, who I think will do an excellent job for them. The lady with whom I had most of my dealings was disappointed by my decision in a way that warmed my heart, but she also understood my reasoning. Hopefully she and Phil will come to an agreement and that will all work out.
That enough for you, Jothan?
Semi-ironically, I bought a Toshiba laptop shortly after Christmas. It was a really good deal: 14.1" LCD, 20GB HD, 1.2 GHz Celeron (PIII Celeron, not the P4 one), DVD-ROM, and 256MB RAM for $800 (real money, not after rebates). Practically everyone who sells this (1200-S123) is charging $1100 and up. I am in fact typing this on it right now. It is too cool. Plus Jessica and I have computers to use at each others' residences now. Yes, I have been a terrible, geeky influence. And it will only get worse: I will have a new laptop of my choice as part of my compensation (from Toshiba, of course). I will delay my acquisition until 802.11g (aka Wireless-G) is available built-in. And maybe those 17" LCD Apple Powerbooks will infect Toshiba. That would be so awesome.
¶ 483 Posted at 03.08 AM ⇒
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