Working Downtown
Now that I have the remote update working (I think), I'll fill in what's
been happening with me for the last month. It's been very interesting...
First off, I got a job with Computer Horizons Corp. as a consultant placed in UBS O'Connor - formerly O'Connor and SwissBank. They have a lot of trading systems for the Hedge Fund and they are a big user of Java/CORBA (Visigenics). So I interviewed with CHC and they passed me on to UBSOC. They liked me and on a Friday I accepted. I wanted to start work right away, as CHC pressured me to make a quick decision - they wouldn't wait a week to find out if eFS Network would have come through. UBSOC wanted to wait two weeks before getting me in the door, and I voiced my concerns and reluctantly accepted the fate.
The CHC folks called back and I was starting the next Monday. Lucky me... the overlap between BankOne and CHC is less than a week. That was pretty darn close.
So... I've been at UBSOC from June 25, and it's a reasonably nice place to be. The people are nice enough, they seem to be doing interesting things, and in general, things are going well. I still don't like being new and I'm certainly that, but it's getting better as I get more things working and start to handle things by myself.
Working for CHC, however, is difficult. Their benefits are much less than the Bank's so we had to change doctors, and I won't get a vacation day until June 25, 2002. I get paid by the hour, which is nice for the money, but it's not nice in that I feel like an assembly line worker... Not treated with much respect, and someone's watching over me all the time. Interestingly, I don't feel this from the O'Connor folks, it's the CHC and the entire consulting business which I haven't been in since Port-to-Port. It's not a comfortable feeling. I'm just not the same kind of person that started Port-to-Port.
Working downtown is nice in that I get to eat at Panda Express which is one of my favorite places. They like me... I like them... the food is great... they pack it on for me, and remember my order... it's like Cheers... Who doesn't want to go where everybody knows your name?