All Things Patrick

I’m sorry for waiting so long to type this up. I’ve been thinking about this for a while and something that happened this weekend prompted me to sit down and type.

Recently I was able to talk to an old high school friend of mine. We discussed what we’d been up to since the last time we’d talked and while it lasted longer than it should have (got to love questions for detail and then complaints about the discussion lasting too long ;)) we discovered that both of us had been going through some crap at about the same time. He thought my ordeal was worse, but on the flip side I wouldn’t want his troubles.

The question he asked of me though was, did you ask God why you were going through all of that. As Phillipe [Matthew Broderick] said in Ladyhawke, …the truth is I talk to God all the time…. On the other side of that I never asked about my ordeal - the part that bothered me wasn’t necessarily getting fired, it was that someone I trusted stabbed me in the back due to their insecurity about their job. Either it was my fault for being too trusting (this isn’t the first time something similar has happened) or God was simply reminding me that people are human.

However, I think what my friend was more worried about has been my erratic career. I think the best thing my consulting career has taught me thus far is that no job is permanent. And looking back to several times when my dad was worried about his own job, even government jobs are not secure. Plus, I’m not sure that my goal has ever been to have a safe, secure, permanent job so it’s not been something I’ve worried about.

We should all be familiar with the basic principal of the circle of life. We’re born, we consume, we die, and are consumed. Everything in nature has it’s part to play in the circle of life.
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After a recent lunch (a couple weeks ago) with my fellow dev co-workers from Spidertel at the China Star Super Buffet we grabbed the customary fortune cookies and headed on our way. Granted the fortunes are printed en masse and completely random, sometimes they’re quite interesting.

You will never need to worry about a steady income.

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I’ve had a busy week & hopefully I’ll get to sleep in tomorrow

Since my last project ended Aug 31 due to lack of funding I figured I’d come & fix a couple of my parents’ computer issues, including setting up the new file server. While in Kansas City I got several emails & phone calls about a couple of job offers.

Monday I had barely left KC before I had to stop & wait for a phone interview with River City Studios (here in KC). After that I finished heading back down to Tulsa & spent the night.

Tuesday morning I drove over to Oklahoma City for an interview with OPUBCO. Besides several specific topic periodicals they also publish the Oklahoman. They were 1 of the first newspaper companies to use computers to do their typesetting.

I spent about 1.5-2 hours talking with the IT manager there. 1 of the points he made during the interview was the fact that he believes that the newspaper is going away & he’s looking at ways to move the company towards a new way of doing business. He’s looking for about 5 new PHP developers (UI or backend).

Afterwards I drove back up to KC to finish getting some things prepped for the next interview.

Wednesday afternoon I flew out of KCI headed for Las Vegas. Both plane tickets & hotel were paid for This is the company I had to do a code challenge for as well as a phone interview last month. The consulting agency that contacted me about it said that 50% of those that take the code challenge pass & about 90% of those they end up hiring.

My hotel was so new the Taxi driver didn’t know where it was, nor did it show up on GPS. It was out in 1 of the new development areas. The only time I even saw the strip was when I was at the airport. Lots of gambling devices in the airport, but surprisingly (refreshingly?) they were absent in my hotel.

Las Vegas was not on my list of places to move to. My first thoughts that came to mind for Las Vegas was sleaze & crime. I did some research & it seems as long as you stay off the strip it’s like any other city. Somebody suggested I find a place outside the I-215 loop if I move out there.

The guy that picked me up this morning for the interview, & later drove me back to the airport, is originally from NYC. He said it was like being on vacation year round. The route he took to get to the office took us through a bunch of nice looking neighborhoods. Not a lot of grass, but lots of evergreens & palm trees.

I figure I can last anywhere for at least 6 months so if I do get the job in Las Vegas I’ll probably move out there. It also puts me close to California & the mountains for a while.

I’ve been looking at the various jobs & projects I’ve had in the past as well as looking at what I want to be doing. I’m wanting to end up somewhere that has a lot of different clients & a lot of different projects - I’m thinking that way if 1 of the clients disappears or a project dries up I’m not out looking for another project again.

The companies in KC & Las Vegas are both marketing companies & take on a lot of projects from various clients - the difference is size. I’m guessing the 1 in KC has about 20 employees (they’ve done static pages for years, but just recently started adding backend stuff). The 1 in Las Vegas has a couple hundred employees & fills the entire building they’re in & will be taking over the building across the street as well as soon as it’s finished. The 1 in Las Vegas is currently turning away work because they don’t have enough developers.