(no subject)
As promised, here are the details on what I mentioned in my last entry.
The first is the biggest, as you might have guessed: I got a job as a Unix Tech Support Specialist at IBM's new Technical Services Delivery Center in downtown Dubuque. I got the job offer on Wednesday morning and I sent my acceptance of it shortly after getting it, and after calling my relatives to tell them the good news. Assuming all goes smoothly (and at this point I see no reason why it wouldn't), I'll be working there sometime in June. Details are still sketchy as I haven't gotten a reply to my acceptance yet, but I did mention that I was out of town for pretty much the rest of the week so I'm guessing they held off on sending me details until this week, when I would be back.
I'm really excited about this! Who knew that I'd be able to land a job with none other than Big Blue for my first job in the computing industry? And yet, it's happened. The interview went great. They started it about ten minutes early, and there was actually a mix-up as the first interviewer called out "David." It turned out that there was another guy named David who was also going for the Unix position, but I was the one who responded; I'm not sure if the other David was even there at the time. In any case, the interviewer was an older guy, and also quite laid back, which worked in my favor. He went through the basic questions to assess what skills I already have, asking me if I knew how to do [insert task here]. Not only was I able to say "yes" honestly to 8 of the 10 questions, I mentioned what tool I'd use after the second question. He then went on to tell me about the job, room for advancement, and what I'd need to do, since I'd never worked with actual servers before, and IBM these days is pretty much in the server and mainframe market. All the time I was leaning forward with a smile on my face, as I was very excited about the prospect of working with commercial Unix variants, something I hadn't really gotten an opportunity to do before. The second-to-last thing he said was "Don't cut your hair, or we'll fire you!" He'd mentioned that the dress code was up to each manager, and in his case he didn't care if people came in wearing a T-shirt and sandals, so he didn't mind my long hair, which I really liked.
So, this means I'll be moving to Dubuque, although when depends on when I start the job. For those who don't know, Dubuque is a city about 90 miles east of here, on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, and across the river are Wisconsin and Illinois. It's a beautiful place. This will also mark the first time I'll be living outside of the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area, so that will be a new experience. I'm looking forward to it!
The other event was the fishing trip I took with my dad, one of my brothers-in-law, five of my cousins, and the girlfriend of one of my cousins. We went to Bear Creek, which actually consists of two streams, and camped at a free campground in between the two streams. Since we were trout fishing, it was all done either on the shore or by wading into the stream. I only caught two fish the whole time, while my dad and my cousin Chris caught the most fish. The highlight for me of the trip was being with my cousins Nick and Josh, the latter of which I rarely get to see, fishing and talking with them on Friday morning. That is until I slammed my naked toe (I was wearing sandals and shorts since I don't have a pair of hip wader boots) into a small tree stump and my toe started bleeding profusely. I hobbled back to camp, which was about a mile-and-a-half trip and took me through four stream crossings. We ended up leaving that night due to heavy rain, though Brian, my brother-in-law, and my dad didn't really want to leave, and the drive back was pretty nerve-wracking given that my dad was pretty tired and we had the truck so full of stuff that he couldn't see out the back and I could barely fit into the back seat. We made it home, though, and the next day my dad and I aired out the tent by setting it up in his garage. Overall I'd say it was a mixed bag.
My break from Starmen.net is almost over; I'll be back on there starting Tuesday. Hopefully by then I'll have a plan to reduce if not eliminate the self-consciousness and fear that keep me from expressing myself there.
That's all for now.
The first is the biggest, as you might have guessed: I got a job as a Unix Tech Support Specialist at IBM's new Technical Services Delivery Center in downtown Dubuque. I got the job offer on Wednesday morning and I sent my acceptance of it shortly after getting it, and after calling my relatives to tell them the good news. Assuming all goes smoothly (and at this point I see no reason why it wouldn't), I'll be working there sometime in June. Details are still sketchy as I haven't gotten a reply to my acceptance yet, but I did mention that I was out of town for pretty much the rest of the week so I'm guessing they held off on sending me details until this week, when I would be back.
I'm really excited about this! Who knew that I'd be able to land a job with none other than Big Blue for my first job in the computing industry? And yet, it's happened. The interview went great. They started it about ten minutes early, and there was actually a mix-up as the first interviewer called out "David." It turned out that there was another guy named David who was also going for the Unix position, but I was the one who responded; I'm not sure if the other David was even there at the time. In any case, the interviewer was an older guy, and also quite laid back, which worked in my favor. He went through the basic questions to assess what skills I already have, asking me if I knew how to do [insert task here]. Not only was I able to say "yes" honestly to 8 of the 10 questions, I mentioned what tool I'd use after the second question. He then went on to tell me about the job, room for advancement, and what I'd need to do, since I'd never worked with actual servers before, and IBM these days is pretty much in the server and mainframe market. All the time I was leaning forward with a smile on my face, as I was very excited about the prospect of working with commercial Unix variants, something I hadn't really gotten an opportunity to do before. The second-to-last thing he said was "Don't cut your hair, or we'll fire you!" He'd mentioned that the dress code was up to each manager, and in his case he didn't care if people came in wearing a T-shirt and sandals, so he didn't mind my long hair, which I really liked.
So, this means I'll be moving to Dubuque, although when depends on when I start the job. For those who don't know, Dubuque is a city about 90 miles east of here, on the Iowa side of the Mississippi River, and across the river are Wisconsin and Illinois. It's a beautiful place. This will also mark the first time I'll be living outside of the Waterloo/Cedar Falls area, so that will be a new experience. I'm looking forward to it!
The other event was the fishing trip I took with my dad, one of my brothers-in-law, five of my cousins, and the girlfriend of one of my cousins. We went to Bear Creek, which actually consists of two streams, and camped at a free campground in between the two streams. Since we were trout fishing, it was all done either on the shore or by wading into the stream. I only caught two fish the whole time, while my dad and my cousin Chris caught the most fish. The highlight for me of the trip was being with my cousins Nick and Josh, the latter of which I rarely get to see, fishing and talking with them on Friday morning. That is until I slammed my naked toe (I was wearing sandals and shorts since I don't have a pair of hip wader boots) into a small tree stump and my toe started bleeding profusely. I hobbled back to camp, which was about a mile-and-a-half trip and took me through four stream crossings. We ended up leaving that night due to heavy rain, though Brian, my brother-in-law, and my dad didn't really want to leave, and the drive back was pretty nerve-wracking given that my dad was pretty tired and we had the truck so full of stuff that he couldn't see out the back and I could barely fit into the back seat. We made it home, though, and the next day my dad and I aired out the tent by setting it up in his garage. Overall I'd say it was a mixed bag.
My break from Starmen.net is almost over; I'll be back on there starting Tuesday. Hopefully by then I'll have a plan to reduce if not eliminate the self-consciousness and fear that keep me from expressing myself there.
That's all for now.