Tag: job

A few thoughts for a Monday…

Life has changed a lot lately.

First, I changed employers; I’ve left Red Hat (for various reasons) and am now working for a company that will give me a little more direct purpose, along with an imperative for using Scala. (Did you see what I did there? Scala’s typically a functional language, not an imperative one, so.. um… a pun’s still funny if you have to explain it right?)

Second, my wife and I both use the Microsoft Surface 3, in addition to our regular working computers. This means that unless you count virtual servers, I’m using more instances of Windows than anything else. (If you factor in remote hosts, Linux is still ahead.)

It’s an interesting set of changes. The job is going to be a lot of fun – a lot of work, but it’s a good fit for me, I think. Red Hat’s still a great company; if I’d not changed jobs, I’d still have been pleased to work for them.

However, this is a good change, and Scala is something I’ve enjoyed as a very casual observer; this gives me a chance to really roll up my sleeves and approach the language with a real intent and purpose.

Functional programming’s going to take some getting used to, though. I’m reading an excellent book, “Functional Programming in Scala,” but deep into the book – I cheated and read ahead – it says “Cause side-effects but shuffle them around so their location is more tolerable.” (Not a quote, even though it’s in quotes.) I’m not sure that’s a terrible idea – at some point you do have to have an actual effect – but the way it’s offered is odd. It introduces an inconsistency in the FP paradigm, and then handwaves it away.

The Surface is a wonderful device. Since it’s running the same platform as my other Windows devices (as opposed to the Surface 2’s Windows RT) I can migrate seamlessly between computers; the form factor is different, but little else is.

The form factor, however, is quite a change. I find the lack of an Insert key to be very much the absolute worst thing about the Surface – a lot of programs use it, and they left it off of the physical keyboard. (The virtual keyboard has it but eats up a lot of your screen space. I’ll use it on occasion, but definitely I far prefer the physical keyboard, which is part of the cover.)

Apart from the Insert key, the right mouse button relies on time of contact, which is something to get used to; an alternative is to use a Bluetooth mouse (or USB mouse). I’m still adjusting to that aspect of the Surface, but it’s less of a deleterious effect than the lack of a physical Insert key.

With all of that said, the Surface’ ability to be a tablet is fantastic. It’s my new book reader, hands down; the larger screen (compared to the Nook HD+) and more solid feel (along with the much higher resolution) is excellent for reading.

However, I’m moving away from Amazon; most of my library’s in the Kindle format, and I suppose that can’t entirely change (what with prior investment) but honestly, the Nook Reader application on Windows is far better; with the Amazon application for Windows, I can’t read my own content, and with Nook I can. I’m an author; I get my own books in EPUB format, and I purchase a lot of books in EPUB. With the Kindle for PC app, I can’t read them on the Surface; I have to use the Nook HD+ or my phone.

It’s not good that I can’t use my Surface for reading my own content. It’s not the Surface’ fault – it’s Amazon’s. If and when Amazon fixes it, I’ll be willing to use their reader again (and I’d prefer it, because that’s where most of my library is), but until then, Nook for Windows wins by simple default. It’s just as readable, and the fact that I can import my own content makes it a huge win.

My Actual Skillset

Recently, someone said that I needed to put more of the things with which I’m experienced on my resumé. They’re right, but it’s not an easy task, for a few reasons.

The main reason is that it’s too long. If you can name a mainstream language, chances are I’ve done something meaningful with it. Perhaps it’s not been a major project, but I’ve probably kicked the tires of each language enough to understand what it’s about, the paradigm of the language and ecosystem.

It’s not just limited to mainstream languages, either. There’re some obscure languages that litter the landscape, like Louis II, and even some custom languages, including some to which I contributed.

More than languages, it’s libraries. Java is one language, but it has thousands upon thousands of libraries and utilities providing functionality for application developers. Those libraries range from frameworks like Java EE to Spring, all the way down to matrix and artificial intelligence libraries and over to tiny utilities that just make tasks easier.

The problem here is how to specify with what I have experience, in such a way that my experience stands out in useful fashion.

The other main problem is how and why I have that experience, and what that experience means.

When I was in my twenties, and I’d not used C++ for a few years, a friend of mine and I sat down for what would now be a pair programming session. It’d been a while for C++ and me; I remembered what do to, but when confronted with the actual blank screen, I spaced.

I don’t remember what we did next; we probably played guitar for a while.

That moment stuck with me, though. It hit me again when I was working on the Alcyone, my MIDI foot-pedal controller project, which is written with C++. When I sat down to write it, my first thought was vague panic: how well did I remember C++? Was I good enough to get it done well? (The answer was: well enough, and yes, thank you.)

I use that sensation all the time. It was the basis of my employment by TheServerSide as editor in chief, the guy who’s supposed to vet content for quality and accuracy, and the guy who’s supposed to provide an actual perspective.

And there we have another problem with my experience: depth.

A while back, someone lambasted the Miami Hurricanes’ fanbase, pointing out that it was a mile wide and an inch deep; all their fans are band-wagoners. (When the team does well, they’ve been fans forever; when the team struggles, well, the beach is over there, are the ‘Canes playing today? By comparison, we Florida State fans are actual fans.)

Well, that’s me and a lot of technology, honestly: because TheServerSide watched everything, generally from Java’s perspective but not limited to Java, I encountered it all. Every obscure library wanted to be promoted, so I’d get notices of everything.

I read hundreds of posts a day, trying to understand not just the posts themselves, but whether they were relevant for a wide enough audience that I needed to tell my readers.

Once I decided that a topic was relevant, I had to write it up in such a way that I was actually trying to explain it to my readers. That meant I couldn’t see some obscure fuzzy logic library and think “Oh, that sounds neat,” and then copy and paste some blurb from the project website.

I had to download the project, perhaps build it. I had to understand the problem domain the project was trying to address. I had to try to use it, to see if the project’s claims were accurate, and to see how I actually felt about how it was used.

Therefore, my experience wasn’t just a mile wide and an inch deep – I had to approach everything, and build my experience to the point where I could conceivably use the project to actually do something. I had to come at everything with my tiny grains of knowledge and build a fortress against the ignorance, so I could tell others something they needed to know, whether they knew they needed it or not.

It wasn’t an easy job.

However, that was perfect for me: it played into my skills as an architect, and as someone who integrated information quickly and well, and into my desire to connect people with information.

However, how do I use all of this? Well, as a architect and a consultant, I’m good at approaching problems cold, and seeing how possible architectures map to those problems; I am not limited to seeing things from Spring’s perspective, or Hibernate’s, or Mule’s, or Rails’. I’ve used them all, and I have a good idea about what I think works well, and why, and where they don’t work well.

And if I’m wrong? Well, I don’t let my ego carry me too far down a wrong path; I know I’m human, I know I rely strongly on my ability to integrate and learn. So what, if I recommend Spring for something at first, and find that something else would be better? I had to learn, and I do learn.

So the issue with my experience is two-fold: it covers too much to be useful, and the best aspect of it is the experience of using and learning, as opposed to raw mastery of a given limited set of technologies.

I’m not really sure how to leverage that in the cold light of a resumé.