So in the last month, my wife and I separated, I moved into a new place in Minneapolis, got a new car, and started a new job. I've gone into detail about the separation elsewhere, so I'm not going to go on about it here. My new place is a little efficiency near the U of M campus, I got a 2009 Toyota Yaris, and I'm working for a company that makes...MEDICAL SOFTWARE! Yeah, that last part was probably a huge surprise to anyone who knows me--talk about a stretch for my career! OK, so it's not actually a stretch.

 

I love the car and the new place so far, so onto the job front: This year I had an on/off contract with a local company to write software for construction projects. In October, they gutted their construction department and made it clear that there wouldn't be any work for me until the economy improved. Since my marriage was already on the skids, I wanted to get a full time job anyway, and that definitely gave me the push I needed. I hit CraigsList and immediately saw a listing for the job I'm working at now. I figured I was a lock right away, but it took a really long time to not only get things rolling, but to progress through the process. In the intervening 7 or 8 weeks, I went on a few other interviews and pestered all my friends to hook me into their networks (thanks to everyone who helped, btw!!) and I generally worried as jobless claims went through the roof week after week on the news. Once I got my foot in the door at the place I'm at now, things progressed very quickly and I was working there within two weeks of my first phone screen.

 

I'm not going to talk a lot about the job yet, except to say that I'll be writing WPF applications that are used by lab techs in hospitals. WPF is new to me, but they hired me based solely on my ability to digest cheese and juggle geese. When I'm not properly processing lactose or tending the department poultry, I will be learning a complicated service architecture from a very talented group of developers, and hopefully learning how lay out some wicked looking WPF views.