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I'm Just Ken
I've been at the new day job for about a week now and I'm getting close to finishing my first report.
First impressions are that this is a very chill position for very chill people. Entirely work-from-home, so the team seems to be populated with hard-core introverts. During our first team meeting, I was one of three people with their cameras on and one of four people who said anything. No one introduced themselves through video, though I did get a couple of chat hellos.
Honestly? Completely fine. I love doing that deep work, and this position gives me pretty much nothing but that. The trouble is that the deep work requires a lot of institutional knowledge and like most places there aren't a lot of resources for newbies to get up to speed. Even during training, I have to stop my manager multiple times to clarify a TLA (three-letter acronym), ask how she determined the resolution to a step, or ask for documentation and other resources that I might be able to use later to orient myself. I haven't been writing down the things I've learned during our meetings, which feels like it might bite me in the ass later -- or at the very least, hinder my ability to get up to speed quickly.
It's honestly not a bad job, and I like the company and people even if they aren't super-friendly. :) But it's hard to really invest in it since I've been still participating in interviews the whole time for other positions that I would absolutely leave this one for.
The university job is checking references at this point. I learned that when they ask for those, professional references are the best things to have on hand. Two of the three references I gave will work for that, but I should probably ask a few former managers if they'd be willing to step up in the future. I have a very good feeling about this, but I also know I'm not the only person who made it to this stage of the hiring process. They could decide to go with someone else and I wouldn't know about it for another week or two. Still, hope springs eternal.
The interview process for the SV tech job has been surprising. I developed a quick rapport with both of the people I interviewed with, and talking to them has piqued my interest in the position itself. Out of my available options, it pays the best, likely has the most opportunity for advancement, and honestly gives me the biggest launching pad for a new career. There is a lot of upside.
The downsides? Well, it's still for a SV tech company -- albeit a fairly-mature one -- so uncertainty is something I'll definitely have to make peace with. There's a sales component to the position and I'm never comfortable with those, even if I believe in the product and have no problem singing its praises. I just don't feel very persuasive in those situations. And, well, it would definitely be a job that squeezes work-life balance. I'm not completely against that in general, but...I'm just not certain that environment is where I would thrive.
I suppose I'll know a lot more after this final round of interviews, which is four(!!) 45-minute interviews with different people about separate aspects of the position. That should be scheduled for sometime this week, though we'll see how that goes.
Finally, there's *another* university job for a state school down south. The commute would be...significant, and I'm hoping that I can WFH 100% of the time if I get that one. However, they also move incredibly so (I originally applied for this job in May, I think) so who knows when I would get an offer? Certainly not before the university or tech job. I've agreed to an initial interview, but I'm not expecting a whole lot to come of that.
Between the new day job and the sudden explosion of interviews, I haven't had a whole lot of time for much else. I mean, I could be doing more than I am but I wanted to take last week to get settled at the new position. Also, there's the little matter of Final Fantasy XIV.
We've fallen into it in a big way. Right now I'm a Level 46 Bard, so I think I'm near the end-game content for the "OG" story of A Realm Reborn. After that, it's (I think) five story patches before we get to the first DLC -- and after THAT I think there are three more expansions. So there's a LOT to get through, but I'm enjoying it thoroughly.
The story itself is engaging, even if the dialogue scenes are hit-and-miss. I'm finding the gameplay challenging without being annoying; there's a lot to learn, but in action it's a giant experiment with building systems and keybinds to support it. I spent the first 40 levels or so with the standard UI -- which turns out not to be great for optimization. I've updated the bindings to be a bit more convenient, but there's a surprising amount of muscle memory to unlearn!
Both R. and K. are far ahead of me. R. can just sit and play for a lot longer than I can, and K. is really great at optimization in general. He's also a veteran of FFXIV from the before-times, though he quit before any of the expansions released. It's been interesting listening to them talk about their experiences, preferences, and opinions as I come up behind them. Their advice has helped smooth out the game a lot for me so far, and I've taken to watching YouTube videos to fill in the rest.
Bards are Ranged DPS/Support, and my understanding is that the role is quite common for multi-player dungeons. Tanks and Healers are harder to come by, so they tend to decide pacing and tactics in the group. My job is relatively easy -- just point and shoot as much as possible; get out of the way of area-of-effect attacks -- but even then, I'm sure there's optimization I just don't know about.
For the most part, at least up until level 50, you can enter dungeons with NPCs so I haven't fucked up anything for others just yet. :) I won't be able to get away with that forever, though. Still, this is the first time I've felt reasonably...capable at an MMORPG so the thought of running a dungeon with actual people doesn't sent me into an anxiety spiral. It's also quite helpful that the XIV community is so newbie-friendly.
That's all for now; there's lots to do today, so I'd better get on it.
First impressions are that this is a very chill position for very chill people. Entirely work-from-home, so the team seems to be populated with hard-core introverts. During our first team meeting, I was one of three people with their cameras on and one of four people who said anything. No one introduced themselves through video, though I did get a couple of chat hellos.
Honestly? Completely fine. I love doing that deep work, and this position gives me pretty much nothing but that. The trouble is that the deep work requires a lot of institutional knowledge and like most places there aren't a lot of resources for newbies to get up to speed. Even during training, I have to stop my manager multiple times to clarify a TLA (three-letter acronym), ask how she determined the resolution to a step, or ask for documentation and other resources that I might be able to use later to orient myself. I haven't been writing down the things I've learned during our meetings, which feels like it might bite me in the ass later -- or at the very least, hinder my ability to get up to speed quickly.
It's honestly not a bad job, and I like the company and people even if they aren't super-friendly. :) But it's hard to really invest in it since I've been still participating in interviews the whole time for other positions that I would absolutely leave this one for.
The university job is checking references at this point. I learned that when they ask for those, professional references are the best things to have on hand. Two of the three references I gave will work for that, but I should probably ask a few former managers if they'd be willing to step up in the future. I have a very good feeling about this, but I also know I'm not the only person who made it to this stage of the hiring process. They could decide to go with someone else and I wouldn't know about it for another week or two. Still, hope springs eternal.
The interview process for the SV tech job has been surprising. I developed a quick rapport with both of the people I interviewed with, and talking to them has piqued my interest in the position itself. Out of my available options, it pays the best, likely has the most opportunity for advancement, and honestly gives me the biggest launching pad for a new career. There is a lot of upside.
The downsides? Well, it's still for a SV tech company -- albeit a fairly-mature one -- so uncertainty is something I'll definitely have to make peace with. There's a sales component to the position and I'm never comfortable with those, even if I believe in the product and have no problem singing its praises. I just don't feel very persuasive in those situations. And, well, it would definitely be a job that squeezes work-life balance. I'm not completely against that in general, but...I'm just not certain that environment is where I would thrive.
I suppose I'll know a lot more after this final round of interviews, which is four(!!) 45-minute interviews with different people about separate aspects of the position. That should be scheduled for sometime this week, though we'll see how that goes.
Finally, there's *another* university job for a state school down south. The commute would be...significant, and I'm hoping that I can WFH 100% of the time if I get that one. However, they also move incredibly so (I originally applied for this job in May, I think) so who knows when I would get an offer? Certainly not before the university or tech job. I've agreed to an initial interview, but I'm not expecting a whole lot to come of that.
Between the new day job and the sudden explosion of interviews, I haven't had a whole lot of time for much else. I mean, I could be doing more than I am but I wanted to take last week to get settled at the new position. Also, there's the little matter of Final Fantasy XIV.
We've fallen into it in a big way. Right now I'm a Level 46 Bard, so I think I'm near the end-game content for the "OG" story of A Realm Reborn. After that, it's (I think) five story patches before we get to the first DLC -- and after THAT I think there are three more expansions. So there's a LOT to get through, but I'm enjoying it thoroughly.
The story itself is engaging, even if the dialogue scenes are hit-and-miss. I'm finding the gameplay challenging without being annoying; there's a lot to learn, but in action it's a giant experiment with building systems and keybinds to support it. I spent the first 40 levels or so with the standard UI -- which turns out not to be great for optimization. I've updated the bindings to be a bit more convenient, but there's a surprising amount of muscle memory to unlearn!
Both R. and K. are far ahead of me. R. can just sit and play for a lot longer than I can, and K. is really great at optimization in general. He's also a veteran of FFXIV from the before-times, though he quit before any of the expansions released. It's been interesting listening to them talk about their experiences, preferences, and opinions as I come up behind them. Their advice has helped smooth out the game a lot for me so far, and I've taken to watching YouTube videos to fill in the rest.
Bards are Ranged DPS/Support, and my understanding is that the role is quite common for multi-player dungeons. Tanks and Healers are harder to come by, so they tend to decide pacing and tactics in the group. My job is relatively easy -- just point and shoot as much as possible; get out of the way of area-of-effect attacks -- but even then, I'm sure there's optimization I just don't know about.
For the most part, at least up until level 50, you can enter dungeons with NPCs so I haven't fucked up anything for others just yet. :) I won't be able to get away with that forever, though. Still, this is the first time I've felt reasonably...capable at an MMORPG so the thought of running a dungeon with actual people doesn't sent me into an anxiety spiral. It's also quite helpful that the XIV community is so newbie-friendly.
That's all for now; there's lots to do today, so I'd better get on it.