New Client Observations
I have to say, I’m probably the happiest on a contract that I have been for years. Honestly, on Saturday I was wishing it was Sunday so I could go to work sooner, and evrey night I am so fired-up to work that I can hardly sleep. It is a great feeling.
The project is at a very intense stage; I came in late to replace someone who wasn’t performing. This company does not hesitate to make rapid personnel changes, and on the flip-side, many people get frustrated and quit fast. For example, a guy I’m working closely with has had 6 managers so far this year (the record is 8 managers for someone in our department).
An Oracle DBA contractor who started last Tuesday was walked out the door today- he was kind of an idiot as first thing he did when he was given “the keys” to Oracle (passwords) was “change the locks” (system passwords) causing many production jobs to fail that depended on those passwords. He kept bragging how he did Oracle DBA for 20 years and then BAM!!! the door smacked him on the ass as he was being walked to the front of the building.
And check this out- the guy that hired me, got pulled off the project on Friday, so I no longer report to him after 5 days. This is not a good sign for him, and I hope he is OK as I really wanted to work for him. But I honestly like EVERYONE I work with- very unusual for me. Some incredibly great talent that is being frustrated with this project.
On a side note, this is a true “alpha-male” operation (although the main programmer/business knowledge person is a lady consultant who has been at company at least 8 years). Almost every major male “player” is taller than me- and in pretty good shape. I’m 5′ 11″ and most of the main folks are around 6′ 2″ or so. BELIEVE IT OR NOT- there is an Indian guy and an Asian (CIO) that are taller than me!!! But I guarantee that I am stronger than any of them 
The main project manager is from South Africa, like 6′ 3″, 250lbs in great shape, and used to race Motocross for 3 years- and he is the best project manager I’ve ever worked with.
I am so happy to be part of this team… we are going to deliver a kick-ass application.
I received some negative/skeptical comment about the ability to deliver “a kick-ass application”. I am not going to post the crap, especially since we are well on the way to doing that with a team of super stars. It will take plenty of work (the next 2 weeks will definitely be 60+ hours/week). And this is just User Acceptance Testing on 10/19; real roll-out is 12/15.
My previous boss (in the Valley) sent me an e-mail and I’m kind of proud of it- I want to deliver “flawless” code again and keep this new project on track:
I’m am glad that you were happy here at XXXXXXX. I know that I am very grateful for the fine job that you did for us. By-the-way, I still have your glasses sitting on my desk in case you want them. We have still not finished with the Letter Conversion. There are some significant problems with the AS400 Letter Conversion program that need to be corrected. Your piece of the action, of course, works flawlessly!
October 15th, 2009 at 6:32 pmMore people ought to recognize what this is and exactly how it can benefit, I thoroughly enjoyed this page and I hope that others did aswell. BTW I hope you don’t my if I link this to my site, becuase i know my readers would need this, Thanks. Thanks
August 1st, 2010 at 11:26 am