warpaint

new job is ok, aside from the fact they my boss is a complete dickhead. he spent yesterday on the phone arguing with a supplier over what was clearly a typo and today he is on the phone questioning one of his consultants expenses and petrol costs, and is looking up on maps where the filling stations where this guy filled up on petrol and whether it was for work, or if it was to drive to work, which is not covered. asshole.

he is one of those old time cockney wide boys, who likes to throw his weight around and talk loud in an attempt to appear important. i am always suspicious of these types of people and in my experience the people tend to know a lot and are good at their jobs dont really feel the need to waste time on petty things, and also they tend not to make themselves as conspicuous when dealing with such things. i subscribe to the theory, 'the more you know, the less you have to show'. have seen his type before in other places and he is playing exactly to type.

i had a telephone interview yesterday at an investment firm and they want to call me in for a face to face interview next week. its been my 3rd interview in the space of the last 2 weeks and i can feel myself getting sharper. yesterday was about an hour of technical grilling and i came through it ok.

i also have another telephone interview lined up with a big american investment bank. its one of those rare occasions where i applied directly and they actually got back in touch with me. will see how it goes, but its positive that they looked at my cv and didnt laugh and then throw it in the bin immediately. judging by the spec, i might not be what they are looking for, but we shall see after the interview. you can never have too much interview practice.

i can sense that 2 of the guys here are quite keen to move on. its a bit of a dead atmosphere and working with captain cockney could start to really grate after a while. he is getting on my tits and this is my 3rd day there. one of the guys asked for a few tips and and some common questions that you tend to get asked in interviews. being the seasoned contractor in comparison to them, they are keen to get some info out of me. he seems like an ok guy and appears desperate to move on. he sounds like he knows his shit, but he could come across not well in an interview because he is very quite and not very articulate. told him to go for interviews and to take the first few as nothing more than practice and to sharpen up.

extra long weekend because its a public holiday due to the fact some oligarchs are gettting married. who gives a fuck.

today i have mostly been listening to warpaint - undertow. enjoy.

4 days

its been an extended 4 day weekend, though i have been on an extended weekend for most of the year so its not big difference for me. its another 4 day weekend at the end of this week because of the royal wedding. its clearly important to somebody that they have made it a national holiday, but i dont a know a single person who gives a shit about the royals or their wedding.

anyways, i start my very brief 2 week job tomorrow. its bloody miles away and will take me an hour and a half each way but its got to be done and to be honest i am starting to get cabin fever at home. it gets me out of the house and off the streets.

weather has been lovely this past week. its been hot and sunny, unseasonably so for the time of year. have been going to the gym regluarly and am feeling good, physically. have out in some really quick times on bike this past week. will keep up the momentum. am also waiting to hear back about a couple of other contracts this week as well. i really could do with something coming through.

today i have mostly been listening to tribes - we were children. i liked the song when i heard it on a radio show, but i dont like the video. they are a bunch of camden hipsters and i think its a bit of a lame scene and unoriginal. embedding is fucked on youtube. listen to it here.

elephant stone

i didnt end up getting that contract i went for last week. agent gave me some bullshit about how they wanted to hire 2 permies instead of a contractor and that they wanted to split the role because they couldnt find the right mix of skills in one person. that last bit might be true because i do know that they have been looking for a couple of months but i think it makes the company look silly when in the entire pool of talent in london they cant find what they are looking for. there are some cowboys in london but i have come across some very clever people as well.

they also did ask me some strange questions and scenarios. what would happen if the server that was the schema master was lost or stolen, you transferred the schema master role to another server, and then later the original schema master is reintroduced into the network. what would be the sypmtoms you might see from that?.

you have 2 sites and an unlimited budget for equipment storage and networking and you have to design a resliant VMware virtual infrstructure, but you are only allowed 2 physical ESX hosts. draw out how you would do the design of that?.

its a completely ridiculous scenario in my opinion, but i went with it.

i went with replicated storage and an ESX server at each site giving me a fully operational site failover. they didnt like that and said they would prefer to not have DR and would have gone for HA with 2 ESX servers at the same site. errr..ok????, i thought you said it needed to be reslient???.

its like saying you have an unlimited budget to build a house, but you can only have no more than 2 doors or windows. what do you want?. normal people might go for a door and a window so you can get into the house and you also have a window to look outside and get some light. they went with 2 windows and thought it would be ok to climb through them to get in or out.

i suppose i came out of the interview positive because i knew i was right. in hindsight i shouldnt have been as positive. oh well, in the words of jay-z, its on to the next one.

the next one in this case being a short 2 week contract to cover for somebody going on holiday at a firm. i got the offer today and i start next tuesday. am also up for a couple of jobs at banks, so we shall see how that pan out over the next few weeks.

saw a documentary about robert plant the other night. maximum respect to him for not getting back together with led zeppelin and just going on a $100m tour, and instead doing his solo stuff and things that interest him. madonna, u2 and the stones must look at him like he is mad. how can you NOT want the money for a big yacht?

today i have mostly been listening to the stone roses - elephant stone. another band for which there is a clamour to reform, but its being resisted thus far. i really like them. not sure if i would go see them if they did reform. they would be playing huge arenas and it just wouldnt feel authentic. this does. enjoy.

productive

its been a productive week so far. i had an interview yesterday which seemed to go ok. i will hear back from them either tomorrow or early next week. its not an investment bank but it pays more than i have ever earned at any bank, and it looks like a much more interesting role, although watching paint dry would be more interesting than my last role.

if it doesnt come through i have been put up for a couple of roles back in investment banks. one of them sounds quite dull but the money they are paying is insane. its plain madness. i would need my head tested if i got a shot at it and i turned it down. everyone has their price and that role is paying way beyond mine. i doubt i will get a shot at it though, so its a bit like wondering what i would do if i won the lottery.

i also spent a couple of days painting my flat. it wasnt dirty but a fresh coat of paint makes it shine a little brighter. it looks even nice now than it did before.

thats all folks. will here about a couple of roles next week. its going to be interesting. i can feel it in my bones. something is going to happen and soon.

today i have mostly been listening to help stamp out loneliness - record shop.

painless

that turned out to pretty painless. i mailed a few people this morning at my agency telling them i wanted out and i had a call with my boss at the bank, and that was it. i handed over what little work i had done and i am off on my merry way. i felt a spring in my step and like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. it was sunny as well all day and that made me feel even better. i said goodbye to the few people there that i used to talk to in the other teams and that was me done.

i also got a few calls about possible other opportunities at other places and a few of them sound interesting. will pursue them with haste come next week and i think i will paint my new flat as well so it looks nice and clean and fresh, and more likely to get rented out. i could do with the money, at some point. hopefully i will also be able to get a decent nights sleep tonight because my job had been stressing me out and i havent been sleeping well over the last couple of weeks.

weekend is supposed to be beautiful so i will be out on my bike enjoying it.

today i have mostly been listening to arcade fire - city with no children. no video for it. no bother. its a wicked song. enjoy.

intolerable

the new job has become intolerable. its bad enough being the newbie in the office on my own and having to communicate via email, but now i am not even getting responses to email. i am however being tasks assigned to do of which i know absolutely nothing about. am finding myself getting stressed and just aimlessly trying to piece tiny bits of information here and there, but its a fruitless task and not the way to do things. its for that reason that i will resign tomorrow.

am hoping they let me walk immediately, even though i am on 4 weeks notice, but they really will be incompetent if they make me work out the notice, because firstly i don't have all my network access through yet, so i cant actually do much work as it is, and secondly, even if it did come through i probably couldn't do anything because no one is showing me how the place is run. it is and would be a waste of money and time for them.

this truly is the worst bank i have ever worked at and its taken the title from a large german bank i spent a while at. i thought that place was dysfuntional. this place is on another level so the germans should be pleased.

got home after work yesterday and i was walking up the path to my house i saw my reflection in the glass of the door and i had a scowling stressed look on my face. i must have looked like that all the way home from work, and its not good. you are supposed to hate you job after a while, not after a week or two.

i had a telephone interview yesterday for another place. i hope it comes through but i have a sneaking suspiscion they might not give it to me because i said i was really interested in staying hands on techie and they want someone to move away from that and manage. we shall see. they seemed nice enough on the conference call. it would be a touch if it came through but if it doesn't then we will just move on to the next one. i believe there is going to be something good out there that i will be happy doing.

today i have mostly been listening to linsdey buckingham - big love. i may have posted this before but it dont matter because its wicked.

whirring

work is still shit. i dont want to write whining posts but it saves me from whining at work, where i just sit like a mute at my desk as my blood boils. christ, dont leave me in this job for too long. its so painful and whilst there are some people that can be helpful, everyone else seems to be a bit obtuse. i am also getting the very clear impression that i was hired to work on their problem project that no one else wanted a part of.

have had lots of strange experiences in banks with strange procedures and accounts and setups taking a long time, but this is the first time i have been just left on my own in a building with no one in my team and just completely left unsupported in anyway.

anyways i have been applying for jobs like crazy. am desperate and am going for stuff that i might not have a few weeks ago. have spent months in shitty contracts before and its just a waste of time. i need to do something productive. have been telling everyone i am available immediately, even though officially i am on 4 weeks notice.

today i have mostly been listening to the joy formidable - whirring.