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

[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.

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.)

[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.

[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 :)

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

We are www.exony.com, just outside Newbury.

I am rather amused to note that our careers page lists all the actual programming details as 'optional' but is dead keen on being clever and up for a challenge ;)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Can I cite you as a referee ?

Yes, if you like. It's one of the few circumstances where I get use out of my doctorate after all. ;-)

He'd like to know of any job vacancies too.

I'm sure something will come up. There can't be many grapefruit able to claim two years' experience !

[marjory.livejournal.com]

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

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

Ravenglass?
Sigh. Been there. So terribly terribly romantic.

[thegreenman.livejournal.com]

The near nasal horror wears off as you get older btw...

[ao-lai.livejournal.com]

That's probably a good bet. That and the 'Senior' variant are probably most connected to general development, for that is what I am at the moment.

I'm not sure exactly what the 'GUI' and 'Usability' ones entail beyond the obvious. :) As for 'Programmer Test Engineer', well, I think that might be more 'Test' than 'Programmer', as I think that very vacancy was created after the rest of my team and I kept hassling our manager to get someone who could do testing in the team before sending the stuff to the Test Department. (Long story. Ish.) So, um, I'm not sure I'd recommend that one. :)

Or, of course, there's the Virus Lab. I've never been in there, and I don't know what they do exactly, but they always seemed to radiate this aura of mystery and cleverness, much like the Kernel team at Tao. It's possible that the whole kernelly-assemblery-thing might be applicable there, but it's also possible that I'm talking rubbish about that. Really, I have no idea what they do in there!

Ahem, anyway... ^_^; C++ would be a good thing to stress, I think. On the upside, it may help to talk about mobile phones and embedded systems, but on the other hand, there actually are some mobile projects going on and planned, so the bluff might be called... :)

Is there anything more helpful that I can say? Or more specific, anyway? :)

[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...

[keris.livejournal.com]

We just lumped it in with general venta weirdness :)

Sorry about the job though :(

[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.

[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 :-(

[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 :)

[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.

[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.

[venta.livejournal.com]

The Virus Lab... no, that sounds too scary a place to work in (from the name, not your description. Although I'm perfectly sure I've never radiated mystery or cleverness ;)

I don't think I could apply for a 'Senior' post - I've got no experience of the 'lead' aspects they're talking about and I doubt my C++ is good enough (yet). When I get my proverbial in gear, I think I'll definitely try Sophos... should I apply direct, or do you get a nice juicy bonus if I go through you ?

[ar-gemlad.livejournal.com]

Must be something about Whitby. That's where we were when the company that shall not be mentioned decided to part company with T.

By the way, T says he will look into whether his company are recruiting - prod me later if I don't mention it for a while...

[venta.livejournal.com]

I certainly hope so - in my case it seems to be wearing on. Never had hayfever when I was little :(