Contract Programmer / Analyst - GEA

I was a contractor for GE Appliances. My contract ended (as contracts tend to do) in September 2002. It was a great job with some great people.

The stuff below describes the job using my whimsical and delightful web site writing style. It's in present tense because it was current when I wrote it. If you'd like a real description, check out my resume.

The Handyman

In my job, I do a lot of little things. I don't sit by an assembly line and tighten three screws on a unit as it goes by. Sometimes I wish I did.

My group writes software and develops systems to support people who write software and develop systems. It's a little like working for Black and Decker, I guess. We don't build shelves; we build tools so other people can build shelves.

I think of myself as the team handyman. This means I've got certain degree of usefulness on most subjects. There's a point at which I become not very useful, but happily, many problems can be solved before that point is reached. Sometimes that's because I know the answer, sometimes I figure out the answer. Often, I ask the right questions to get someone else to figure out (or remember) the answer.

Things I do

Uh, so I go through these thousands of lines of code...

I do some programming. Mostly this is in Java or Perl, but I have been known to write a little PHP or shell script here and there.

I do some Unix admin things. I've done a fair bit of that in my day, and I like it a lot, so I like to help out.

I do some database stuff. Not a lot, but just enough to remind me why Oracle people get paid so much. And why they're so smug.

I do a lot of hanging out on IRC.

I do a lot of complaining about Citrix. And Outlook. Specifically, Outlook-formatted attachments that can't be opened by anything else, including Outlook Express. Ugh.

Telecommuting

When I tell people that I work from home, they all comment about how great that must be. In a lot of ways, it is great. But it has a lot of downsides, too.

It's a challenge to keep up with what the team's doing. Lots of productive work occurs at lunch or around the coffee machine, and I tend to miss out of some of that.

And since I'm a consultant, my time there definitely has an end date. A fact I'm becoming increasingly aware of. Painfully aware.

I do like the dress code...