Oh, to be an ass

It might be nice to be an asshole, in the metaphorical sense.

I'm working out of a client's office today, making some changes to their web application that I designed and built. Just a couple of bugs and feature requests. This is a nice office, nicely decorated. It's just about a block from the Union Station metro exit.

If I were an asshole, I could tell these folks that I'm looking for a job. Everybody seems very nice and I think I'd enjoy working here and I think that they'd want to hire me. It would give me an excuse to maintain my monthly MARC pass, which I could continue to use to easily get to social events in DC.

But I'm not an asshole. I can't go poaching Robyn's clients. :-)

Riding the wave

I've written before about how I feel that I lead kind of a charmed life. I really feel a special relationship with the universe, like we're collaborators somehow. But here's the thing: I usually get what I need to get by, not necessarily what I may be wanting. And if an obstacle is thrown into my path, I trust that I can make it work for me in the end.

For instance, at the non-profit job, I worked a great deal with FileMaker Pro, designing a corporate information system that leveraged the work of a small group of people to do great things. We managed millions of dollars of HUD funds using my systems. They were custom-designed for our business.

When I left that job, I was snatched up by a FileMaker Pro development shop in DC that used FileMaker as a backend for web sites. That's where I started learning more about HTML and other web technologies.

When I was laid off there, Robyn picked me up almost immediately, and my apprenticeship in web design continued, focusing on more mainstream technologies like PHP and MySQL. Looking back, it's like I was led through this curriculum.

So, now that I've decided to look for another job, I've got forces marshaling to help me. I called the non-profit to see if they were hiring. They're moving out of my area, so that's out, but I spoke with an old co-worker, Angelo, who said that he would ask Deidre, another co-worker who used to work there, to see if there were any interesting openings at BCCC. She's in HR there, so there might be something there.

I called back today to speak to Jeff, the head honcho there, to ask him for a letter of recommendation. Despite the fact that I left two years ago, he readily agreed, then volunteered to be a phone reference as well.

Robyn also agreed to write a letter of recommendation for me when I spoke with him yesterday.

And just now, I ran into Cory, who used to be my doctor's assistant. He's working at Johns Hopkins now, and when I mentioned that I was just starting a job search, he recommended looking to JHU for opportunities. Then he said that he would be a reference for me!

I confessed that I was a little intimidated by the thought of applying to JHU because I don't have any degrees or certifications, but he told me to ignore all of that. If they say they want a bachelor's degree or five years experience in a one-year-old technology, ignore them. Just apply. Plus, Hopkins employees can take Hopkins classes for free, and I do want to continue my education.

Given how I've trimmed down my spending, I could take just about any job at Hopkins, even if it wasn't in IT, although Cory said that there were plenty of openings in IT that I should see.

And then there's the interest that my other friends are taking in me. It's all very gratifying.

I'm sure that these sorts of opportunities happen in other people's lives, but for some reason, it just feels personal with me, like the spider bites that led to my HIV diagnosis just before I was certainly going to begin coming down with some opportunistic infections. Something happens at the right time to put me on my way.