I have rarely, if ever, mentioned where I work on this page. I just quit my job, so I might as well. I have been a contractor at IBM for over nine years now. Nine years on a year to year contract. And in that time I have been a team lead, an AIX deskside support technician, a sysadmin, an NLS expert, and Thinkpad support technician. That’s crazy. IBM should have hired me, or dropped my contract a long time ago.
Leaving a work environment like IBM is not easy. IBM makes even the most stable and business worthy companies out there seem like fly-by-night ventures that could go away anytime. IBM is dying from the inside, very slowly. Slow is the key word when I talk about anything IBM does. Slow to innovate and slow to die. That’s not the rule everywhere inside IBM, but in general, that’s all I saw. I worked in a place where managing two hundred users on a print server was prefered to setting up a Windows domain. If it involved something new, it meant having to hire (or keep on) skilled people who could understand the technology. I am really glad to leave that kind of mentality behind. Many times I was denied the option to set up more complicated solutions because no one else where I work could even understand it, much less every fix or maintain it if I were to leave.
Wow dude. Good luck finding a new job, if you haven’t already. You’re one smart bastard… I’m sure you won’t have a problem.
I know how you feel though, making that kind of decision. I finally left the Navy back in October. Been kinda crazy-busy getting my new life in order, but I’ve been keeping up with you guys via your webpages until that time comes. Well… THIS webpage anyway, since no one else updates their’s. hehe
I’ve got a new job lined up. I wouldn’t quit without something better in todays economy.
I can’t believe you left the Navy. I forsee a bee attack with no one there to protect us!!!
Haha!! Don’t worry, cuz I’m still working for the Navy, just not as a watch-stander.
So, as a seasoned wasp-battling veteran, I’ll be able to talk the nervous rookie through the entire process and save the day!
Sh!t dude. I can’t believe you finally left that joint. I thought you were going to get swallowed up by that black hole permanently. Good luck at whatever you end up doing next. Just make sure they let you keep wearing the tattered T-shirts – anything else would be selling out.