(no subject)
OK, I did promise a catchup in the next entry, but that isn't going to happen. So like Microsoft, I'm just going to push the expected date forward and forward until I say "It will happen at some point in the future that isn't now".
I'm up to my neck in dissertation work at the moment, the 30th of this month is the absolute deadline. A month of dungeon coding has done what was necessary to complete (and for that matter start) my software. I am now the author of one microblog message analyser and exploratory tool. It will be made open source some time after the end of this month.
In the meantime, despite my exhaustion and the horrendous demands on my time, I'm making ends meet with a part time job as a teaching assistant. It's a role I've undertaken before, but I've been given considerably more responsibility this time. Instead of being a glorified textbook on legs, I've actually been given some latitude to stand in front of the class and teach, as well as grade assignments. It's satisfying but time consuming. I'm developing a renewed appreciation for the dedication that good education deliverers have to give. It certainly doesn't stop when the session is over - there are always more questions to answer.
Although this little pocket money earner will keep me going until the middle or end of December, I'm eager to have something more substantive lined up for January. I've just completed my first interview for a computer programmer position, and I'm waiting to hear back from the company. I hope I get it, I feel that it went well. I was able to answer all their technical questions, although I didn't have experience with all the frameworks they suddenly asked for. I hope I still did enough to swing it though, as the position is a trainee one - too much experience can't really be expected. Either way, I'm glad of the experience of a technology industry interview. Now that I've done one, the subsequent ones shouldn't be so mysterious and nerve-wracking.
I feel good anyway. To be getting interviews already shows I must have made a right decision in switching over to this industry. Once I get a good foothold, I should be set to start building up experience and a portfolio. Of course there's also the thorny issue of salaries. I don't feel that everyone who is after people with development skills is necessarily playing the game as it were when it comes to offering the standard rate for the position advertised. Furthermore, some companies have very exotic requirements, with the list of technical requirements including so many languages that the Highlander himself would probably find he hadn't lived long enough to have learned all of those. A touch of realism wouldn't hurt such companies I feel. Whilst the going rate for a junior position is around £20,000 outside of London, one company in Bridgend, wanting a list of languages so vast that I suspect some of them were made up, were offering £11,000. In fact I don't think that's even minimum wage. My colleagues and I agreed that position is destined to go unfilled for quite some time, excepting the discovery of some code hobos in a dumpster somewhere. I've no doubt that these people are currently loudly complaining that This is supposed to be a recession, and people are supposedly crying out for jobs, but we've been looking for someone to take this position for four months now, and no one good has applied. I don't think they're going to twig on any time soon.
Speaking of salaries with relation to London actually, I wonder if anyone here happens to know what a good or at least acceptable salary for London would be? I've got one option on the table with a company in London who are offering £22,000 for a fixed contract of two years. The thing is, I don't know anything about London beyond it costs more than here, and people have been grimacing whenever I've mentioned that figure. I'm beginning to get the distinct impression that it wouldn't go at all far there, and that my address would read: 4th Bench, Beyond The Violent Hat-Wearing Hobo, Hyde Park, London if I took it up. My rubeish nature is showing, I really don't know what I'd need to live to an acceptable standard out there.
OK, I intended to go on, but I must get back to work now, I've not added any words to my writeup in the past 30 minutes. Condition red: procrastination detected. Until next time.
I'm up to my neck in dissertation work at the moment, the 30th of this month is the absolute deadline. A month of dungeon coding has done what was necessary to complete (and for that matter start) my software. I am now the author of one microblog message analyser and exploratory tool. It will be made open source some time after the end of this month.
In the meantime, despite my exhaustion and the horrendous demands on my time, I'm making ends meet with a part time job as a teaching assistant. It's a role I've undertaken before, but I've been given considerably more responsibility this time. Instead of being a glorified textbook on legs, I've actually been given some latitude to stand in front of the class and teach, as well as grade assignments. It's satisfying but time consuming. I'm developing a renewed appreciation for the dedication that good education deliverers have to give. It certainly doesn't stop when the session is over - there are always more questions to answer.
Although this little pocket money earner will keep me going until the middle or end of December, I'm eager to have something more substantive lined up for January. I've just completed my first interview for a computer programmer position, and I'm waiting to hear back from the company. I hope I get it, I feel that it went well. I was able to answer all their technical questions, although I didn't have experience with all the frameworks they suddenly asked for. I hope I still did enough to swing it though, as the position is a trainee one - too much experience can't really be expected. Either way, I'm glad of the experience of a technology industry interview. Now that I've done one, the subsequent ones shouldn't be so mysterious and nerve-wracking.
I feel good anyway. To be getting interviews already shows I must have made a right decision in switching over to this industry. Once I get a good foothold, I should be set to start building up experience and a portfolio. Of course there's also the thorny issue of salaries. I don't feel that everyone who is after people with development skills is necessarily playing the game as it were when it comes to offering the standard rate for the position advertised. Furthermore, some companies have very exotic requirements, with the list of technical requirements including so many languages that the Highlander himself would probably find he hadn't lived long enough to have learned all of those. A touch of realism wouldn't hurt such companies I feel. Whilst the going rate for a junior position is around £20,000 outside of London, one company in Bridgend, wanting a list of languages so vast that I suspect some of them were made up, were offering £11,000. In fact I don't think that's even minimum wage. My colleagues and I agreed that position is destined to go unfilled for quite some time, excepting the discovery of some code hobos in a dumpster somewhere. I've no doubt that these people are currently loudly complaining that This is supposed to be a recession, and people are supposedly crying out for jobs, but we've been looking for someone to take this position for four months now, and no one good has applied. I don't think they're going to twig on any time soon.
Speaking of salaries with relation to London actually, I wonder if anyone here happens to know what a good or at least acceptable salary for London would be? I've got one option on the table with a company in London who are offering £22,000 for a fixed contract of two years. The thing is, I don't know anything about London beyond it costs more than here, and people have been grimacing whenever I've mentioned that figure. I'm beginning to get the distinct impression that it wouldn't go at all far there, and that my address would read: 4th Bench, Beyond The Violent Hat-Wearing Hobo, Hyde Park, London if I took it up. My rubeish nature is showing, I really don't know what I'd need to live to an acceptable standard out there.
OK, I intended to go on, but I must get back to work now, I've not added any words to my writeup in the past 30 minutes. Condition red: procrastination detected. Until next time.