Sorry for the long blog silence. Work at JPMC started out real slow, and I was trying hard to keep myself busy. Now I am trying to get some time off so I can rest. During September and October I was in London on business for about 7 weeks. During that time, I was working 70+ hour weeks and generally working my butt off. So I had little left in me to write blog entries.
Nowadays in Houston, I am again working long hours. I am more or less guaranteed 50 hour weeks. And often more. I don't mind hard work, so don't get me wrong, but the quality of the work is such that I get bombarded all day so the quality of my work simply isn't able to stay very high. Or at least it feels that way. There is very intense people interactions all day, but not particularly effective interactions. We talk about talk so much. In the time it would take to go blah blah yak yak about what we are going to do about a problem, we could have really solved a problem permanently. But there are always complications. There is much politicking and maneuvering to look as good as possible to the higher-ups.
But on the whole, I am making progress in various ways. I have been able to put together some relatively good documentation in spite of the crazy style we have for prioritizing. The main project I have been working on has some pretty good other people on it, but my manager in London is not very interested in long-term system robustness, so we are always patching things and fighting fires. Despite that, I am putting together tools that make my work and the work of others easier. There are always such high stakes in the financial industry. So making other people's work easier and more effective is usually a way to make one's own work more effective too.
I am starting to get much more activity from recruiters now. It looks like there is an upswing in the economy such that there are again more jobs in IT. I guess I need to update my resume to reflect my current experience. I don't have a definite timetable of anything right now. My lease here in Houston runs until May, so we'll see how things shake out.
It's kind of cooler here in Houston lately. There are a few kind of trees that are actually turning colors and the leaves are falling. A bit like a delayed autumn. My seasonal sense is all screwed up now, so I don't know what time of year it is. The days are short(ish) down here, but not quite as short as the northeast. So perhaps it is just as well that I always work past sunset. I have often been up fairly early these days too, so I get my morning light at least. Those subtle little things that make up the "quality of life".
So I'll try to post a bit more often now. I'll have to tell the more complete tale of my London trip, as there is more to tell than just about work.