In a larg company, how many people do you interact with on a daily basis? Ten? Twenty? And how many clients at a time? These numbers ar probably a lot smaller than you might think. I usually only had a single client I had to make happy at a time, and most teams were small. No where near the thousands of people in the company. So I'm actually working with a larger proportion of the company. My new management team is in the same building, and I do see them daily. It is a different world.
I'm getting used to the commute. For years my longest drive was usually the one to the airport. Once at a location I was at most ten or fifteen minutes from the site. Right now it is a comfortable thirty minutes, which allows me to easily drop my daughter off at school, get to work, get tngs done, and make it home in time to pick everyone up, make dinner, and relax in the evening.
So what have I learned in the past eight months? Well, the first is I'm not a prolific blog writer. I should do more of that, and may do so in the future as time permits. Topics will change and very s bit more, though.
I have learned a few technical things. A bit of self study, a seminar on the Microsoft campus, some personal projects to dig into some different concepts. I was able to get more depth on a couple of topics, and some breadth over the Microsoft development environment. There is so much out there that it is almost impossible to know everything, but sometimes just knowing what is there is good enough, if you can get the details later when you need to use it.
House work takes time. Whether it be cleaning, cooking, washing, or whatever. My wife usually did that, but was busy with her final semester and board exams to do that. I still missed things, though. Cooking was not a problem, but the cleaning never lets up. My wife has grabbed back most of that, but I still do the cooking - I actually enjoy it, and according to my wife, I'm better at it than her.
I got to spend plenty of time with my family. Biking to school with my daughter, planning events and other family activities, even a vacation to central Florida for an extended time. Being on the road sort of isolate me a bit fm that, though FaceTime, Facebook, and other communications eased that a lot.
Finances were someone I had to watch a bit. Since we had no direct income during that time, I cashed out some stock to cover expenses. Some luxuries were dropped (except for that vacation) and cutting corners here and there helped. Cooking at home, cheaper entertainment, and just not doing some things were some easy things to do.
So where do I go from here? Well, first will be to integrate myself into my new work environment. So far that is relatively painless, probably due to my experience with going to a new client periodically. Getting used to going to a work place every day hasn't been too hard - I was up every morning at the same time anyway to get everyone to their respective schools, and tried to keep busy most of the day, though I was able to sneak in a nap here and there.
Wel, that's it for today. I'm helping a friend with a production of Macbeth, and need to get to my place for some music pieces coming up in the fourth act.
