Posted: Wed 11 April, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Getting Organised, Own Business, Work-related |
As avid readers will recall, this time last week I was in the midst of doing three interviews in one day. At the time the results were
- Delusional. No bloody chance of me working for them. Ever.
- Interesting – very interesting
- Interesting, but I was lacking in certain dollops of experience to do with managing the hardware on huge websites
So one was absolutely out of the running, one would’ve needed me to go in at a lower level, and while it was interesting it wasn’t something that would’ve held me, and the last (well, the middle) one was of definite interest.
Which was a good thing, really, as I got confirmation today that they’ve asked me to do the work.
Even better, it’s part-time, only a couple of days a week, so I should be able to fit it in round my normal full-time work. Of course, that depends a little bit on the workload, and what they want me to do in the necessary time. I’ll be finding that out in the next few days.
But still, mission successful – and in many ways it’s a far better outcome than I was expecting, with regard to the hours, arrangements, and general stuff like that.
Posted: Tue 10 April, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Domestic, Work-related |
Ah, back to work for a rest.
Lovely. *grin*
Posted: Sun 8 April, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Introspective, Own Business, Photography, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing |
One of the classic childhood questions is “What do you want to be when you grow up?“. It’s something I still ask myself with depressing regularity.
As it is, I’m fortunate enough to be in a role I actually enjoy – by which I mean the website writing, database guff etc., rather than ‘the role/company I’m in is the one I’m going to stay with forever’ – and which I do in my spare time as well as in a full-time job. Yes, I would prefer to be chainging it slightly, and be working more for myself instead of in the more corporate environs, but that’s something I’ll work on now that other parts of life are rather more settled.
But there are other things hovering on the periphery, too.
In many ways I would love to be a writer – I think that’s probably the same for most bloggers, to be honest – although d4d™ would never get a book deal. I’m at least vaguely realistic on that – d4d™ is too scattered, it doesn’t really have a defined theme. I’m not knocking those bloggers who have managed to get book deals (well, except for Belle Du Jour, but I never read that one in the first place, and never really understood the hype around it, if I’m honest) and I think people like Scary, Reynolds, Girl, and Waiter Rant absolutely deserve to get those deals. But they all have a theme, and I know d4d™ doesn’t. Then again, it was never intended to. And in many ways it actually emulates my head far too accurately.
All the same, yes, being a writer is something of a dream. It’s something I’m going to work on and attempt to get back into- years ago I wrote two novel-length things, both of which I still have copies of (and, to some degree, cringe now when I re-read them) but they worked. They were more catharsis, and dealing with shit that was in my head and life at the time, and since they’ve been completed, a lot of those issues have been dealt with, so over recent years there just hasn’t been that need to write in the same way. Well, I say that – but then I look at d4d™, and wonder if actually what I need is to take a break from that, and channel the writing energy that goes into d4d™ into something else for a while. But that’s a while off yet – there’s other things in the mental flightplan first.
The other real thing that keeps coming back to me, though, is photography. I’d love to be a photographer, to be able to make a living from that. Again, I need to work on it a lot, and to develop some themes that I can build on. Again, the ideas are there, and in this case the projects I’m thinking of would be longer-term ideas, projects with a theme that would also (I think) be commercially viable.
There’s a couple of others that’d be nice to do to, but that rely on skills I simply don’t have – I’d love to be an artist, or something of that ilk, but absolutely lack the ability to draw anything – but when all’s said and done, it comes down to three or four things, or any combination of them, really. And really in no particular order.
- Properly Self-employed
- Photographer
- Writer
- Web Developer
Posted: Fri 6 April, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Introspective, Thoughts, Work-related |
Recently, Gordon has been doing a lot of writing about his personality type, and about personality classifications. Having taken a number of these, I thought I’d write a couple of pieces over the Easter weekend about them from my own perspective.
Belbin would class me as a “Shaper”, which is apparently someone who is “Challenging, dynamic, and thrives on pressure. Has the drive and courage to overcome obstacles.” – with the downside that I can be “Prone to provocation, and liable to offend others.”. Pretty much spot on, then. My favourite part of the report, though, is this :
Should thrive in a pressure environment where tough decisions have to be made. Needs to be given a clear remit of responsibility. Lyle can be expected to work at his own pace. So set up the job within a specified time frame and do not press for continuing and periodic feedback on progress. Judge Lyle by the final results. The answer is likely to be clear-cut in terms of success or failure.
Now that is absolutely spot-on. I don’t handle being managed – as can be seen all over D4D™, but left to my own devices, projects and plans normally come to fruition. If they don’t, they screw up in a truly epic fashion – there’s no grey area in my working profile, it has to be said.
What’s interesting (to me, anyway) though is the bit that Belbin misses out. Maybe it’s just because I’m primarily a Shaper, and not the (rather more expected) Resource Investigator. In fact, Belbin doesn’t rate me that highly as an RI at all. But there’s one part of that personality spec that is me to a tee – “Can lose interest once initial enthusiasm has passed.” That is a personality facet of mine that’s been commented on many times – I get interested and enthused about an idea and/or a project, work on it, then something new comes along, and bang, the old project dies off as my interest flits on to the new one.
Over the last five years, I’ve actually worked quite hard to take that personality trait into consideration, to take a project through to its conclusion, and to work through the bored bit, to get things finished – and in some cases to not even start new ideas just yet, because other things need completing first.
To a degree, it’s actually been quite successful so far – the new ideas still float around my brain until they’re ready, but I don’t just moth around, flittering between projects while not finishing any of them. (There’s going to be a lot more about this in Part Two)
I think that so long as I’m aware of that trait, and try to handle it, things will be OK. It’s only when I lose that awareness that things have the potential to go tits up at warp speed…
Posted: Thu 5 April, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Introspective, Own Business, Photography, Thoughts, Travel |
So, back on November 5th I turned 35, and started what I semi-laughingly refer to as a five-year plan. I’m only working on it year-to-year, and doing it mainly through non-new-year ‘resolutions’ – although they might as well be a to-do list, really. In my head I hold what is pretty much the full development curve of what to do and when, but really I’m working on it on that year-at-a-time basis. It makes for something vaguely resembling a sane approach to the entire thing.
The final goal? Making enough money that I can make my own choices, and do my own things, rather than being tied to a job for the next thirty years. (Twenty-five, by the end of the project). There’s some other stuff in there as well, but that’s the bottom line. One of the things about me is that I have loads of ideas that could, should, or might make money, but for various reasons over the years I’ve failed to follow them through and see how they did in reality instead of theory. Since last November 5th, I’ve been working on making them into reality, and seeing how I do. With most of them, the initial costs are pretty low (and intentionally so) so that if any of the ideas do take off, it won’t take a lot to knock them into profitability.
We’re now six months in, so I thought I’d jot out a little progress statement, just to see where things are going…
- Photography
Get a Macro Lens- Get a Wide-Angle Lens
Finish the Portfolio website – completed, and with extra uploads when necessary- Sell/Publish some stuff – working on it
- Join a local club
Get a decent flash – Done, a Speedlite 580EX- New : Start aiming to get work and projects – Started, and ongoing
- Writing
- Finish at least one piece of writing – working on it
- When a piece is finished submit it to the right people
- Just see how things go
- Write more on d4d™? Maybe.
- Work / Websites
- Build and work on the other ideas I’ve got in my head – working on it, and getting some of them sorted
- Work (as always) on smaller sites, and do as many as possible – so far, three new sites launched, as well as the photography portfolio
Sort out permanent job for the first part of ’07 while we’re house-buying etc. – All done, and no need to get that nasty ‘proper’ job after all- Redesign d4d™? It’s about time…
Merge lots of hosting accounts into one reseller account, and onto one server – done- New : Start getting better at invoicing for work done – in progress, and all being done a lot more efficiently
- New : Develop some ideas in partnership with others, and see how they do
- Education
Sign up with Open University – initially for a refresher course, and work from there- Look at an official course/qualification in Photography?
- Other
Restart the Archery once we’ve moved – booked, but not attended yetComplete the move to Norfolk – all done- New :
Buy a car – git it insured, all that.
So actually, the first six months has been very productive. All the foundations have been laid now, the website hosting agreements rationalised and merged where it’s necessary or beneficial to do so. In fact, just doing that and merging most of them into one reseller account has saved me £150 over the year, which is pretty impressive. In addition to that, the invoices I sent out at the end of last year amounted to a few hundred quid, which was also surprising – they were all for small amounts, so I hadn’t really thought about the way it all added up. Actually, though, D4D™ is going to be moving off that reseller server, though – it needs a space of its own, and it’s just taking up too much of the space and bandwidth available on the reseller server, so it’s going to go back to being a seperate entity. And that actually makes some sense, keeping D4D™ seperate from business sites etc.
In addition, I’ve been able to average at getting one solid site out per month, as well as a couple of smaller basic designs and/or amendments to existing stuff. There’s a whole lot of new stuff and new connections coming through at the moment, and that’s all going to start coming together over the next six month period, I think. That’s the plan, anyway. There’s some initial steps that need to be taken in order to make sure that everything has the potential and stability to get through (sorry, I’m sounding enigmatic, and while that’s not really the intention, at the moment it’s certainly the necessity.)
Photographically, now that the portfolio site is completed, and being regularly updated, I can start getting in touch with publishers, agencies and the like. I’m also considering doing image-library stuff, but it’s about making sure the photos get the best use made of them. I’ve also got a few projects in mind that have a lot of potential commercially as well – although the main thing about them is that they’re things that interest me – otherwise, if I’m honest, there’d be no chance of me going through with them. And of course there’s going to be lots of pictures of Hound over the summer…
Oh, and let’s not forget, within that six months we’ve also moved to Norfolk, bought a house, gone through all the bureaucratic nightmares of that little endeavour, and come through it intact. Over the next 10%, we’ll be moving in, and sorting the new place out too.
It’s been a good start. There’s still a long way to go – 4½years, to be exact, but the initial steps have been promising. Long-term I’ve no idea whether my goals and plans are realistic or not – but this way well, there’s no way I’ll be able to say “I wish I’d tried xxx” – because I’m trying it all. As time progresses, I’ll get ruthless, and if the ideas aren’t working out, they’ll be culled. Darwinian business – the good ones survive, the bad ones fall by the wayside.
Posted: Tue 3 April, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Work-related |
Interview #1: Total dead loss. The agency involved had said they were looking at a certain salary, which was lower than perfect, but OK. In fact, they were offering something £5K lower. And the office was horrid. So, a no.
Interview #2: Really good. Lots of potential, and some really cool ideas. Definite potential.
Interview #3: Ok. Not bad, not great. Probably nothing worth changing from where I’m at now.
Not the best of days, in fairness – I normally have a far better success rate when it comes to interviews and the like, but well, #2 still has a lot of potential.
However, the suit was fantastic, and looked marvellous. So that’s something…
Posted: Tue 3 April, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Introspective, Thoughts, Work-related |
Yesterday, following what I’d said about three interviews, Gordon asked
From a ‘hiring’ point of view, don’t you ever worry that you change jobs so much??? Even as a contractor you do seem to chop and change..
Anyway, it did make me think a bit – although not lots – about the way I work and/or the way I change.
As it turns out, I’ve actually settled down quite a bit over the last few years, and now tend to change jobs on average once a year. In the past it’s been a lot more than that – I think the record was six places in one year, but that was in ’94/’95. But since working in IT, my worklife is a lot more stable – if only by comparison to my own standards, as opposed to anyone else’s.
I changed jobs once in ’06 (to the current place), twice in ’05 (I started a new job on 2nd January, and that was a grim mistake that only lasted three months, so I changed in April to the one that lasted ’til August ’06), no changes at all in ’04, once in ’03, and once in ’02.
So it’s not actually as bad as it seems on first impressions.
At the same time, yes, I do talk a lot about changing jobs. And if I’m honest, a job generall has a 6-9 month lifespan with me before I start to get bored- usually by the people, rather than by the job, to be fair. But I don’t just get bored and quit- I always make sure I’ve waited ’til there’s something decent to go to before I leave a place. It’s very rare that I’ll get to the point of just telling people to sod off, without having a back-up plan in place and ready to go. Thinking about it, the last time that happened was in ’01, with a contract that was just horrible – the one where I was commuting daily between Manchester or Bath, and London. Absolute insanity, and still the only contract I’ve actually walked out on. Not a bad track record for the best part of a decade.
As it is, my current workplace still want me, and I’m not (yet) at the point of generally being chuffed off. It has its ups and downs – what workplace doesn’t? – but for the most part it’s still OK. The only real downside is that they’re toss-awful at paperwork, which means I have to chase up contracts, invoices, purchase orders, and everything else every damn month, which is incredibly annoying. But that’s just how they are.
Will I change anything, should any of the ones I’m seeing today come up? It depends. If the offer is interesting, and decently paid, I’ll think about it. If it doesn’t grab me, I won’t bother. There’s a lot of other stuff going on in the background at the moment, and while it’s quite an ego-boost to see so many companies interested in what I can do, it still doesn’t mean I have to work for any of them.
So when all’s said and done, really I’m just sounding things out at the moment. If nothing else, it lets me build up some contacts, which may or may not come in useful later on in the year.
We’ll see.
Does the changing worry me? No, not really. I’ve always been a bit transient, and the entire idea of sticking in one job for years just brings me out in the shudders. My tolerance levels just aren’t that good – the constant witter of colleagues drives me insane after a while, and the true delimiter is always when I can predict every single bit of conversation that’ll be had during a day. When that happens, it’s definitely time to move on. I actually like moving on, going to a new place, finding out new stuff, doing new jobs in different systems, dealing with new people, the whole bit. I like the challenge, the newness, the learning. Once I’m done, I@m bored, and I want to move on.
For me, and for the things I do, moving on fairly regularly isn’t really seen as a bad thing. It keeps my knowledge up to date (although at the moment I’m seriously lacking on the ASP.NET side – mind you, looking at ASP.NET sites, I usually think that’s probably a good thing) and keeps me current in the eyes of agencies. To date, I’ve had exactly two contracts that haven’t extended past their initial period. One (already mentioned) because it was horrendous, and one because I’d done all the work well within the projected timescale, so there was nothing to continue with. Other than that, every single contract has been extended by the client – and not because I hadn’t done the work, either. So in the eyes of the various agents/agencies I deal with, I’m actually pretty golden (he said, modestly) and so changing jobs doesn’t do me any harm at all.