Job thread

[Soln]

Could be worse.  Could be Amazon's.

[Yegolev]

If Amazon was the purchaser, I'd already be on the market.

[Merusk]

In another 10 years everyone will work for IBM, Amazon, Google or Microsoft so may as well get in early. 

[sickrubik]

And on my end, InBevSABMiller, Constellation or MolsonCoors.

Ballast Point being bought by Constellation for $1 Billion is the new one. Ulcerific time in the industry.

[Yegolev]

It's going to be Shadowrun!

[sickrubik]

Better stock up on d6s

[Teleku]

And on my end, InBevSABMiller, Constellation or MolsonCoors.

Ballast Point being bought by Constellation for $1 Billion is the new one. Ulcerific time in the industry.

Wow, I hadn't heard that.  Crazy that not only Ballast Point got bought out, but for 1 Billion fucking dollars......  I didn't think they were that big.  Went to college in San Diego from 2001 to 2006, and they were the local small craft brew.  Crazy times.

I can only imagine what the valuation on something like Sierra Nevada would be right now (not that the hippies who founded it would sell, but who knows after they die off).

[sickrubik]

Ballast has grown incredibly big. They are up around 200%+ in our territory. Additionally, adding in the success of their spirits, and now canned drinks (gin and tonic, rum and cola, etc), furgeddabout.

They recently announced their intention for an IPO, but no idea what happens now.

The figures for the Lagunitas/Heineken deal put the valuation on Lagunitas around $1B as well.

https://www.brewersassociation.org/press-releases/brewers-association-lists-top-50-breweries-of-2014/

If Sierra sold it would probably be significantly larger.

[Yegolev]

I don't have any idea how to explain to my wife, or anyone not familiar with what I do, the significance of my move from traditional enterprise IT into what I'm doing now.  Then I go into a presentation by the WU team and I realize it really could be a lot weirder.

[Viin]

I assume that means you still like it. Working with CS engineers is far and away better than doing crap for the average user.

[RhyssaFireheart]

May I just take a moment to mention that project coordinator =/= project manager. 

They aren't the same role, stop posting PM jobs using project coordinator in the title!  Same goes for PMO Administrator!  They are do different things and it's annoying as hell to see what looks like a promising job and find out they want someone to be a manager and not a coordinator.

[Viin]

Can you tell us what the difference is? I've never actually worked with someone with the "coordinator" title.

[HaemishM]

I assume coordinator's actually do more "work work" and managers tend to delegate more and thus get paid more. 

[Viin]

In the tech companies I've worked at the PM is usually the one coordinating all the work, keeping tracking of budgets, who needs to do what by when, and manages the overall project schedule. So I'm curious to see where the roles diverge.

[RhyssaFireheart]

I assume coordinator's actually do more "work work" and managers tend to delegate more and thus get paid more. 

Pretty much this.  Coordinators do the administrative work on the projects while PMs have the "big picture" view usually.  And coordinators can tend to work on multiple projects across a portfolio while PMs only have one or two, maybe three if they are small.  Similar to a Jr. PM role, where you have a Sr. PM overseeing everything and they are the point-of-contact, but the coordinator does a lot of the scheduling, PO tracking, reconciliation, stuff like that.  I like the coordinator role, honestly, and don't want to step back up to being a PM because responsibility and having to work and be responsible and such. 

[Yegolev]

I assume that means you still like it. Working with CS engineers is far and away better than doing crap for the average user.

I haven't done anything for a regular dumdum user since maybe 2009.  I do like what I am doing now.  A few of the people I work with are experienced in "normal" DCO but many of them are software developers who have stars in their eyes while programming away infrastructure woes.  So far, so good, though.  Or: I don't know who else is doing it better.

The WU group is much smaller and they end up being subjected to user feedback.  I'm buried in the murky caverns of running scientific compute in the cloud.  It's neat.

I'm also doing my own PM work during this architecture.  Which is OK I guess.

[Teleku]

Meant to post this earlier, but got distracted.  Applications for Information Management Specialist’s (or IMS, the job I do) are being accepted for another week, till April 9th.  This usually only happens about once a year, so apply immediately if you are interested.

http://careers.state.gov/specialist/vacancy-announcements/ims

Cannot stress more how awesome this job is (at least, if you like traveling and seeing the world).  Pay is good, benefits are great.  Ask me any questions you may have.

There is another technical position people here may be interested in.  IMTS's are basically specialists in Digital, Telephone, or Radio.  As an IMS, I've been given training in all of those, but the IMS's role is to stay out at embassies and run/maintain the computer networks, radio program, telephone switches, ect.  If something breaks very badly, or we are getting a major upgrade, they send us an IMTS.  IMTS's are stationed at only a few regional hubs around the world, but constantly get sent on one to two week trips out to various embassies to do the sort work I just mentioned.  So they get to travel and see the world even more, but only have a few options globally to be stationed at (Frankfurt, Bangkok, Ft. Lauderdale are the major hubs, with a few other positions scattered around).  I'm sure they'll probably open up IMTS for applications within a month or two.

It's that time of year again!  Vacancy notices for both IMS and IMTS positions are open currently.  So if you’ve ever dreamed of doing IT work in glamorous locations such as Paris, Rome, Hong Kong, Bamako (Mali), then now is your chance!

Again, basic differences are that IMS are stationed at posts for 2 to 3 years (there are at least 2 IMS positions (usually a more) at almost every embassy globally), and are in charge of running day to day operations.  Classified and Unclassified networks (State Department is all Microsoft based), as well as Telephones, radios, Satellites, and even the mail.  Most of the non computer stuff you just manage though, as we hire local staff to do a lot of this, and you supervise them.  Though everything in secure area's are handled by you (obviously), so still plenty of tech work.  I knew nothing about telephones before I joined, so its been a pretty neat skill set to learn.

IMTS is as I summarized above.  You hang out at a major hub (or one of the scattered positions they have globally.  There're 2 in Brussels for some reason I think, for instance), then get flown out to various embassies when something big breaks or the local IMS's need extra help.

You have until December 15th to apply.

http://careers.state.gov/work/opportunities/vacancy-announcements/ims

http://careers.state.gov/work/opportunities/vacancy-announcements/imts-uc

[Chimpy]

NATO and EU HQs are both in Brussels, thus why there is a heavy US Gov presence there.

[Teleku]

Well yes, I'm aware it's a tri mission (we have an ambassador to the EU, NATO, and Belgium).   

We have other cities like that though also.  So not sure why they have an IMTS slot at that one, but who knows.

[Merusk]

Just had a job opportunity fall into my lap here at my conference. Crap.

Pros
- Consulting where you're the expert and get to say your piece then walk away
- Leverages my expertise in design software, workflows and Architectural processes
- Is more than likely to pay a lot more money.
- I'd be working with 2-3 people who I know well and enjoy working with.
- Possibility to position myself as a national expert in the field if I'm successful.

Cons
- Will make my name MUD in my current firm
- Will undermine my current boss and the efforts we've made the last year to progress the firm
- Will kill the relationship between my current employer and the folks who made the offer.
- Will require 50% travel

[ezrast]

Three of those four cons sound like cons for other people.

[Merusk]

Sort of.  Architecture sometimes is a smaller industry than you'd think. It very much is in Cincinnati.

[Cheddar]

Just had a job opportunity fall into my lap here at my conference. Crap.

Pros
- Consulting where you're the expert and get to say your piece then walk away
- Leverages my expertise in design software, workflows and Architectural processes
- Is more than likely to pay a lot more money.
- I'd be working with 2-3 people who I know well and enjoy working with.
- Possibility to position myself as a national expert in the field if I'm successful.

Cons
- Will make my name MUD in my current firm
- Will undermine my current boss and the efforts we've made the last year to progress the firm
- Will kill the relationship between my current employer and the folks who made the offer.
- Will require 50% travel

Never burn bridges.  Be honest with current employer, you may be surprised.

[Selby]

Never burn bridges.  Be honest with current employer, you may be surprised.

Yup.  I did this with my former job and my boss was like "all right, see ya!" which gave me the green light to go.  If your firm is looking to downsize and fire people just because of the way it is, it actually may thrill them to hear you want to go and have a job to go to.

[Merusk]

No intent to burn bridges, I never would. My boss has told me before that if I ever felt the need to move on he'd give me a recommendation. Partially because he knows I'm beating my head against a wall at the firm and partially because he's an OK guy.

However, I know that pursuing it WOULD have consequences. These are different things. Despite the above he's got a petty bullying streak and a consultant hiring the only person capable of doing my job away (and therefore making his life harder) WOULD piss him off. Even being up front about it, I'm not sure he'd be ok with it.

Still, I figure it's worth talking with them before mentioning it to him. At the very least to see what the details are.

[Chimpy]

Say something like "At <said conference> some people mentioned the possibility of coming to work with them." Make it sound like it was potentially not just a single isolated incident with this one consultant. If he says "I'm happy for you, explore your options" then you can say when you leave that "this was the best option for my career and my family" and any fallout would then be on him.

A lot of industries are pretty incestuous like you describe Architecture. Unless what is done to burn the bridge is extreme, being someone people can work with who does their job effectively usually will overcome that in my experience.

[Paelos]

I like the metaphor of architects burning bridges. Just stopped in to say that.

[Yegolev]

I know a guy who burned a bridge in a similar manner, and he's currently making more money and working fewer hours.  So, I'd say that the various pros and cons have varying weights.  They are not all equal.

[Goumindong]

Just had a job opportunity fall into my lap here at my conference. Crap.

Pros
- Consulting where you're the expert and get to say your piece then walk away
- Leverages my expertise in design software, workflows and Architectural processes
- Is more than likely to pay a lot more money.
- I'd be working with 2-3 people who I know well and enjoy working with.
- Possibility to position myself as a national expert in the field if I'm successful.

Cons
- Will make my name MUD in my current firm
- Will undermine my current boss and the efforts we've made the last year to progress the firm
- Will kill the relationship between my current employer and the folks who made the offer.
- Will require 50% travel

Never burn bridges.  Be honest with current employer, you may be surprised.

You also might get a better offer from your first firm. At the very least talking to them about it lets them prepare a replacement and so reduces the impact of those negatives.

The people who made the offer almost certainly know who you work for and either don't think it will be a detriment or think that you're worth it. So there are basically zero downsides besides the travel, everyone else already knows whats up.

[Merusk]

I'm not going to get a better offer if they offer what I'm worth. The position would be a business process analyst. I've got 20 years in Architecture and professional certs in all the software I'd be consulting about except 3ds max. However my 17 year following of this group, gaming and rendering as a hobby gives me a wealth of knowledge there, just not the practical skills.

(I sadly know more than our visualization professionals about material mapping, render theory and lighting and model management because their boss says they're artists and don't need to know that geeky stuff.  )

So: end result I'm worth 6 figures in that capacity.  That's more than My ~33 million dollar firm of 250 employees is going to pay for an overhead guy.  They're not matching that.

Still, assuming I'd be offered that is only based on net searches of similar positions and experience. I could be totally off and they'd only offer around what I'm at now. vOv.  Won't know until I talk with them a bit.

[shiznitz]

The CONS (other than the travel) seem short term in nature while the PROS are all good long term. No comparison in my opinion. The PROS win by a landslide. Bad feelings with your old firm will likely fade rather quickly - especially if you end up helping them.

[Yegolev]

Or if they go under or otherwise marginalized.

[Merusk]

Yeah I had a good think about everything on the flight back from Vegas and realized there's few downsides for me. I'm only trying to rationalize it away because I'm not a fan of travel (plus, it's 2015.. let's do some goddamn videoconferencing.)

If they can meet my salary demand (and vacation, I'm sick of this two week cycle) I'm doing it.  I've been looking for a way out of here for a while, as previous posts have shown, I just need to stop being so cautious. Plus P&G got back to me and I'm overqualified for the position. Boo.

About the only thing I'll miss here are the people and my manager's ability to get us all the newest tech toys for 'testing.' (I'm currently posting from the Surface Pro i7 16gb book I got before the conference, and have an ipad Pro to test out that's still in the box.   )

Compared to a more sane workflow, a little bit more prestige (as opposed to being 'that non-wire-wiggling guy in the 'overhead', I mean IT, category), and greater salary it's a no brainer.

[Yegolev]

We are trying to get a handle on the IBM corporate discounts and decide about purchases now, or after we become employees.  I think IBM gets a "Tier 2" Apple discount.  WPP.

[Yegolev]

Also we still need cloud engineers.  Interpret that term however you like.  If you won't embarrass me, I'll even deliver your name to the proper director.