steverands.com » monkeysupermarket http://www.steverands.com Contain your excitement Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:08:15 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 New year, new job http://www.steverands.com/2009/03/04/new-year-new-job/ http://www.steverands.com/2009/03/04/new-year-new-job/#comments Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:05:47 +0000 Steve http://www.steverands.com/?p=36 The last time I posted about my job, I was working for Moneysupermarket.com. I suffered through that for about a year, then escaped to work for a company called Legal Marketing Services. Another year passed, then I was made redundant (curse you, Credit Crunch!). Fortunately however, I managed to find a new job at the start of this year: my current employer is a company called SeaTechnik.

I haven’t really enjoyed my job for years, ever since I met my wife-to-be in fact. Whether that’s coincidence or not I don’t know; priorities change when someone special enters your life, that’s for sure. Nevertheless there’s no reason why you can’t be content at work also. Several years ago, I had the good fortune to wind-up in a job where I had a fantastic working relationship with my colleagues, and where I had the opportunity to help design and code a new front- and back-end system more-or-less from scratch. Ever since I left that job, and stopped working with those people, work has never been the same for me. Although I’ve done interesting stuff since, and worked with some nice people, I’ve never experienced the same team spirit, nor cared as much about the end product.

Hopefully, this is all now starting to change. It’s early days at SeaTechnik, but already the signs are very encouraging. I’m using cutting-edge .Net stuff like Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Communication Foundation, and being given a lot of leeway to design and code the final product as I see fit. I haven’t felt as energised about what I’ve been doing since back when I was working on the Amber project with Rob and John. My colleagues and superiors seem to trust that I know what I’m doing, and that’s something I’ve not experienced for quite some time now. Long may it continue.

]]> http://www.steverands.com/2009/03/04/new-year-new-job/feed/ 0 Oh yeah, the blog… http://www.steverands.com/2007/02/19/oh-yeah-the-blog/ http://www.steverands.com/2007/02/19/oh-yeah-the-blog/#comments Mon, 19 Feb 2007 22:26:44 +0000 Steve http://www.steverands.com/2007/02/19/oh-yeah-the-blog/ I knew I forgot something.

So yeah, I’m back. Just when you thought it was safe, etc, etc. A lot’s happened since my last post in — when was it? (shuffles papers) — October. Boy have I been slacking. Anyway, here’s the juice:

Home. We did manage to move back in just before Christmas — three days before, to be precise. It was a huge effort from all involved to get enough of the kitchen and bathroom ready in time, but we made it. The place was a bit of a mess for a few weeks afterwards, but things are coming together nicely now. The kitchen and new staircase, in particular, have turned out really well. It’s finally starting to feel like a real home.

Work. Is okay. In turns engaging and frustrating. I’ve not worked for a company with this many employees since I was at Cheshire County Council back in the early ’90s, and the bureaucracy is somewhat annoying after having become used to more direct code ownership.

Expecting. The really big news: Paula is pregnant, and we’re expecting our first child in May! We’ve been trying since we got married, so although it was not entirely unexpected it’s still took a bit of getting used to. There are big changes ahead, and a few uncomfortable decisions that will need to be made, but I’m really looking forward to becoming a dad :O)

Well, consider yourselves updated. Sorry for the long delay between posts, normal service should hopefully be resumed from this point onwards.

]]> http://www.steverands.com/2007/02/19/oh-yeah-the-blog/feed/ 0 I’ll get my coat… http://www.steverands.com/2006/07/20/i-shall-get-my-coat/ http://www.steverands.com/2006/07/20/i-shall-get-my-coat/#comments Thu, 20 Jul 2006 23:56:49 +0000 Steve http://www.steverands.com/2006/07/20/ill-get-my-coat/ I quit my job earlier this week. I’ve been with my present employer for just over three years, so it was probably time for a change: I was starting to get too personally attached to the projects I was working on, and this was causing some friction with other team members, which is rarely a good thing. That’s not my only reason for leaving, but my blog isn’t the place to air that dirty linen.

My new employer will be Moneysupermarket.com. You may have heard of them, or even used their product-comparison web sites. I’ll be coding in C#, which is the language I’ve been using for the majority of the past couple of years, so that’s good. It also looks like I’ll have the opportunity to learn about some areas of the .Net framework that I haven’t yet used, such as remoting and web services, which should be fun! I’m really looking forward to starting there next month.

Plus they have free parking for everyone! w00t! :)

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