If you want to see my happy side

[venta]

A few days after I handed in my masters' thesis and blinked uncertainly at the real world, I accidentally fell into a job in Reading. Within a few weeks I'd decided that the real world wasn't too bad after all; the work seemed interesting, I liked my colleagues, and the atmosphere wasn't that different from university anyway.

In fact, the only real downside was the commute - two hours of my life every day sacrificed to the A4074. Living in Reading didn't appeal, but leaving and getting another job appealed even less. I've trotted backwards and forwards every day for nearly eight years.

Since the beginning of March, the company's future has looked a bit uncertain.
There was the will-they-won't-they of investment to deal with - a situation we've been in before, and only just escaped albeit with massive damage - and the ever-present risk of not being paid. Around the time I went up to Whitby for the goth weekend, time seemed to be running out. In the end, I spent an hour and a half on the way back in a layby near Ferrybridge on a conference call finding out about our future. For a while it seemed that the day had been saved, everything would be ok, and people relaxed a little.

However, some things didn't get signed, other things didn't quite work out, deals were on then off then on again. On Friday I got The Call from a member of management to tell me that the company was closing down. (OK, technically I spent most of Friday waiting for The Call. I finally got The Call much later than expected while I was out of signal in an obscure corner of the Lake District. I came back into signal, and got a message. I then had to phone from the world's filthiest phone box, because my mobile battery was flat. By filthy I mean completely covered with cobwebs, grass cuttings and mud. It was not filthy in the style of a Soho phone box.)

The company has a product which people want to buy - there was a deal with a major player on the table, just awaiting a signature. There was another guy with money, who wanted to fund the company. It seemed like everything should have come together, but in the end we were deliberately run into the ground by some venture capitalists with motives far too impenetrable for us to understand.

Today I went into work to sign the forms to claim statutory redundancy pay. The fat lady is in the dressing room, taking off her make up.

So, anyone want a programmer ? Seven years experience writing/maintaining an embedded RTOS kernel in pseudo-assembler, six months writing mobile applications in C++, three months MOT and tax. GSOH, housetrained, all own teeth. One careful owner.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Oh Dear, Sorry, and best of luck finding a job in Oxford!

[hendybear.livejournal.com]

Ooops, that was me of course!

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

Oh dear, sorry to hear that :-(

I don't imagine you'd be looking to Cambridge, but my company is hiring test engineers and a software engineer (and various other roles as well, but I'm not sure how relevant they'd be to you). Let me know if you'd like more details sending your way (if so, what address?)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but I think Cambridge is quite far from the top of the list of places I'd choose to move to. I've been complaining for ages that Oxford is too flat, so moving to Cam ain't gonna help :)

If I don't manage to find something though I might get back to you.

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

Oh No : (
Hopefully you will fall into something else you enjoy as much.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Interesting times! Good luck* finding something wonderful and convenient. I have a blind faith in your extreme employability.

The nice thing about staying in your first job for quite a while is that whatever new job you go to will almost certainly seem rather exciting, just because it's different.

---

* And to everyone else affected.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Aw bum. Still, you have escaped the commute.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

You don't have C#, .NET or databases, but I'm fairly sure you could do the other bits of our current developer spec ;)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Who and where are you (if you'll pardon the question?) If you have an appointments page, could you point me at it ?

[ajntornj.livejournal.com]

Ah, bummer :(

Have you considered Rebellion? Speak to Edling - I'm sure they'd snap you up...

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

O_O

Wild horses couldn't drag me back there. If you do go there, I suggest making sure you get the salary you want at the very beginning. In all the years I worked there, no-one ever got a decent rise. It was years ago, but I don't imagine the K's have changed their minds much.

[casilda.livejournal.com]

If you mean "mobile" as in phones, email surje, as there are quite a few new postions at his company at the moment (London and Cambridge office)

[venta.livejournal.com]

I do, so I will :) Thanks.

[shrydar.livejournal.com]

Bugger.

Good luck hunting for your next opportunity -you've certainly got the skills to do something interesting :)

There are probably some places over here, but the commute's even longer..

[strange-complex.livejournal.com]

Gah - bummer!

Still, let's hope great and exciting things come of it.

[phlebas.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear - didn't realise things were quite that bad. Hope you find something soon!

[venta.livejournal.com]

They weren't last time you were listening to us whinge!

Nice new icon :)

[boyofbadgers.livejournal.com]

You have my sympathies. It's horrid when this happens, especially when it feels like something could have come of it were it not for VC weirdness.

I don't suppose you'd be interested in working in London?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't suppose you'd be interested in working in London?

Currently I'm interested in almost anything which might potentially allow me to do an interesting job in return for money. London's certainly an option.

I seem to remember trying to tempt you to my ex-company a year or so back, so be glad you didn't take it ;)

[keris.livejournal.com]

Bah :( :( :(
I second Casilda's suggestion!!!

[venta.livejournal.com]

Actually, I meant to apologise post-fact to you an Davefish if I was a bit peculiar on the Monday we left Whitby (or indeed the rest of the weekend). I got an sms telling me about the conference call mid-breakfast and since I thought it would be make or break, I was a bit worried!

(If I was peculiar at other times, that's probably just ambient peculiarity :)

[lathany.livejournal.com]

but in the end we were deliberately run into the ground by some venture capitalists with motives far too impenetrable for us to understand.

That's a real shame.

Sorry it's ended that way. Or, indeed, at all.

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

Come and apply to Sophos! They pay us and everything!

It's also a much shorter commute... :)

[venta.livejournal.com]

They pay us and everything!

Wow!

Certainly worth looking into (in fact I am, at their vacancies page, right now). Anything you'd recommend in particular ? I'm just looking at the generic Software Engineers page at present.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

A sad end to some great adventures.

Oh and in case any prospective employers are reading this: I've worked with venta and she rocks. Hire her. Pay her lots. That is all.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Awww, thanks. Can I cite you as a referee ? (Stripey jumper optional).

Incidentally, RFC has asked me to tell you that he left the building ten days ago with all the other employees. He'd like to know of any job vacancies too.

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

Follow the dark side....move out west and raise chickens!

[venta.livejournal.com]

I don't think I'm cut out for smallholding... even thinking about the outdoors makes me sneeze these days :(

(And an otherwise lovely day out in Ravenglass on Saturday was rather spoilt by near-continuous nasal horror. Something tells me my attempt to eschew antihistamines so my body will sort its own damn immune system out isn't working.)

[marjory.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about all of this. Keeping everything crossed...

[waistcoatmark.livejournal.com]

As long as it's real C++ and not that godawful Symbian language, then we're still looking for Java/C++ types...

[dmh.livejournal.com]

Gah. :o( Good luck in finding something else.

[diffrentcolours]

I expect you don't fancy moving up North to civilisation, but you've probably got the skillset for a good salary at Transitive.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Actually, I do very much fancy moving up North to civilisation, but there are few inconvenient things like a boyfriend in London which are putting me off at present. I'll keep Transitive in mind, though, thanks.

[secondhand-rick.livejournal.com]

Good luck to all involved, but especially you since this is your LJ.

And venture capitalists are bastards. It's official.

[uitlander]

Symbian... Waterloo.... good job, good company, horrid commute; if viable talk to jennyh.
I am told Arm have an office in Maidenhead - worth a look?
Nvidia have an office in Theale (jct 12 M4).
My place want testers, not developers atm, and its not an RTOS.
Good luck.
Been there 3 years ago, know how it feels :-(

[venta.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Incidentally, apologies for not replying to your mail about being in Unit 69. It took me a while to get it as it went to a non-valid email address so I didn't know about it until Davek happened to mention your presence. Then I thought I'd wait til the current crisis was all over to avoid having 'difficult' conversations about current employment situations.

So, erm, it'd be nice to meet up sometime.

[pope-ant.livejournal.com]

Everyone seems so down about changing jobs - but it's great.

Think of all the things you could do now - and until you decide the possibilities are endless. You will get another job and it will be good.

That's my take on it, but I'm a contractor, so you can just spit on me now :-).

[venta.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I can see the excitements and appeals in looking for a new job. I'm trying to be upbeat about it :)

[floralaetifica.livejournal.com]

an embedded RTOS kernel in pseudo-assembler

The what and the who, now?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Do you really want to know ?

If not, stop reading :)

An embedded system is one which performs quite a specific function - so, say, your mp3 player counts as an embedded system, or a railway information board computer. A PC doesn't count, because it can do loads of stuff. Actually, I'm not sure whether embedded is really an accurate description of the systems which creatures like phones now run (which is what I do). I think they're rapidly ceasing to qualify as single-purpose.

RTOS stands for "real time operating system". An operating system is the thing which handles "stuff" on a computer... it keeps the memory in order, sorts tasks out, handles input, etc. Windows is an OS. The real time part means that timing is important - when you press a key, you require the response to be within a certain amount of time.

The kernel is the crunchy bit in the middle of the OS. It does the low-level interaction with the computer's hardware. It won't, for example, draw your windows on your screen.

Still with me ?

Assembly language is a very low-level programming language which just moves bits of data around inside the 'registers' in which a computer stores them. Not data like a Word file, but data like a single number or something. Different computer chips have different assembler languages. I'm used to writing in a language which is halfway between assembler and more reader-friendly languages.