Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Jobs Lost and Gained

Well, I was laid off twice from USWest/Qwest/Dex Media/R. H. Donnelley, Inc. and now I am working as a contract programmer for National Renewable Energy Laboratories.

I was out of work for six months the first time since I was in college. It was a new experience for me. I was pretty depressed for a long time. I finally got a gig through a former co-worker. That one lasted for 5 months. I still do little stuff on the side for them. It only took me 3 weeks to get my new gig.

Now two pay cuts later I am coding in Java 6 with Hibernate and Google Web Toolkit. I picked these up in my last job. Not a bad bit of refactoring, if I do say so myself.

I, like many others, decided to go back to school to get my masters degree. I thought I might get an MBA but I couldn't take all of the touchy-feely stuff. I am now in my second class for an Master of Information Services degree. Should finish in 2010.

I also started playing World of Warcraft (WOW) during my six months off. A very good waste of time. Have a few friends on WOW from my days at Dex.

We also get together semi-weekly for a game of Dungeons & Dragons. I run a 3.5 campaign while my friends alternates with a 4.0 campaign. I really enjoy getting together with the guys.

Well, I guess that was a good update.