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    New Job

    Impressions from my first day on the new job.

    I feel a bit like a hermit crab changing shells today. There is that time of transitions between jobs where you feel vulnerable and unanchored.

    Up at 6:15 for start of 1h 20m commute at 7:15, lift to Darra, train then bus from city. Thinking of Paul Kelly lyrics I was sucked into a subway like an ant into it’s hill. Walked into the industrial section, uncut grass, stained paint on buildings, sun glaring off hard surfaces, a smelly creek, shrill beep of trucks reversing, a forklift engine whining as the driver abuses it across a carpark, junk stacked against a chainlink fence topped by barbed wire.

    Into my new office (have decided not to publish the name), past the empty reception desk and straight upstairs. Say hello to the new coworkers: a few polite jokes. Tour of the facilities: grey carpet, everything’s pretty new, not too cheap but fairly generic furnishings. Workmen are “open planning” the space, there is hammering and power tools.

    Coffee machine produces an acceptable flat white (for free!) and I sit down to try out the new DELL laptop 2GHz, 130GB HD, 2Gb RAM. It seems that DELL has somehow achieved the design aesthetic of turning an exciting computer into a shapeless grey boredom box. Even the DELL Win XP install has sucked all the life out of the desktop theme, replacing it with a rainy day blue steel backdrop that makes Marvin the paranoid android seem like a cheerleader in comparison.

    Some readers might get the false impression that I’m depressed about all of this but that is just not the case. I know I’ve just described a whole bunch of depressing and uninspiring impressions, but I’m actually just reveling in it. There is an aesthetic to all of this that I’ve somehow actually missed! Coming here is like coming home in some ways, after two and a half years at UQ being pampered on campus with coffee shops and bright happy personalities, I’ve returned to my roots and while I can see it for what it is, I’m not scared of being here because I know that I have friends here, that I will make more friends here and that I’m about to do some awesome shit-hot work on some obscure piece of hardware and software that nobody will probably even hear of or ever understand.

    And I’m going to get paid well for it. Which is really good because we’re having another baby in May.

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    Posted: November 19th, 2007 under Blah.
    Comments: 2

    Comments

    Comment from simonj
    Time: 20/11/2007, 9:34 am

    yeah….baby’s rock!

    Comment from Sheena Walsh
    Time: 20/11/2007, 11:17 am

    I can share your sentiment if not your circumstances Matt – I am looking forward to going back to my home stamping ground in my new job, even though it will be the kind of environment you have just left!

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