I don’t want to go back to work on Monday. No no no no no.
The punchline is that my job isn’t unpleasant. It’s creative, I’ve got independence. But I’m having a hard time a) concentrating and b) caring.
The joke will be on me when I get swept up in the layoffs.
But if I don’t (which is what I expect) I’m set here until Septemeber 2005 unless I want to pay back the hefty cost of my relocation. Which I do not. I shudder to think what the total would be.
I shouldn’t complain, I’m lucky to have the job I do. Maybe I just miss the news division.
jaysaint 
Posted by foderme on November 27, 2004 at 8:03 am
Can ask what you do exactly? I only ask because my job is so hard describe, I recently found out my mother didn’t know what I did and it took a bit of an essay length email to describe what it is that I do.
Posted by jaysaint on November 27, 2004 at 3:56 pm
I know what you mean. My title is AOL programming manager. Which would imply that I’m a computer programmer, right? Not so much, I’m fairly adept with a computer but strictly as a civilian.
The best real-world parallel is a magazine editor, just for content that’s on the internet. I currently work on Food, Horoscopes, Weddings, Beauty & Style and a little bit of Health. Oh, and some Parenting as well. But our responsibilities shift from time to time, which is nice because it keeps things interesting. So what I do is solicit content, review it, choose what will go on the service, sometimes ask for edits or revisions, write the promo and put it on the page. Those are the basic steps. Sometimes there are more, sometimes I don’t have to do all of them.
Clear?
Your turn.
Posted by foderme on November 28, 2004 at 5:12 am
Makes sense.
Ok, I work for a company called Computershare. http://www.computershare.com is a share registry for stock exchanges around the world (90% of the Aussie market, ~15% of the USA market and similarly around the globe). They are not the stock exchange. To over simplify, they are the hard drive for stock exchanges . We store all the information, we process all the data and run all the reports. If you buy/sell shares, receive dividends or have ever paid a bond, then there’s a high chance you are on our system.
For this company, I am an Operations Analyst. This is basic server-side support. This is not user or desktop support. Think “operations”. My job is to keep all the servers “operating”. Being the first line of defense of such a large number of servers makes me a jack of all trades and master of none.
Primarily I keep continuity for all non-windows based servers. This means I have nothing to do with network logins, emails, Internet servers or any of those. I mostly monitor the production core of VMS but I also manage several other server OS’s ranging across UNIX and HP-UX systems. This is not to say I don’t work on windows servers. I work on several windows based servers, however I am not responsible for their operating (or lack thereof), just processes running on them.
This is ALL ignoring the additional work, such as some programming and database management, which I do to get ahead of the pack and impress the big guns.
I tried to break it down as best I could. I hope that makes sense.