Re: Re: Avoiding "brain drain" in the corporate realm

in reply to Re: Avoiding "brain drain" in the corporate realm
in thread Avoiding "brain drain" in the corporate realm

Yep, I fit all sorts of hats! :) But maybe because the company is small (Engineering = 100 folks?) rather than large. You have to wear a lot of hats. However I have also worked in a large firm, and while you wear less hats, there is still overhead as you say.

On the open-source front: well I'm *using* Open Source stuff now, I am completely neglient in giving back aside from filing one or two bug reports. I think contributing to CPAN is a start (provided I get some good ideas that someone has invented 90% of already), and I really need to persue one of my gaming projects all of the way through (I get tons of ideas and can't finish most of them because the new ones are more compelling) -- I'm pretty sure I can write some stuff folks will actually want to play. As I've said -- usually most of them get killed in the design and early-prototype phase.

Anyhow, I feel that giving back is really important... but it's hard to feel like looking at a computer after doing it 8+ hours during the week, especially in good biking weather! Regardless of what goes on, though, I do feel my skills are a little sharper for screwing-around on my own time, though there has got to be a better way.

How did you get to be "your own boss" in regards to (what I assume is) mostly Perl development? I think I would have excellent consulting (not to be confused with contractors that call themselves "consultants") and development skills, but to me, anyway, the hard part is finding clients and getting the business end straightened out. Admittedly, this is a long subject, and probably should be it's own meditation. Thanks for the input though. Good points.

Comment on Re: Re: Avoiding "brain drain" in the corporate realm

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Re: Re: Re: Avoiding "brain drain" in the corporate realm by AidanLee (Chaplain) on Feb 24, 2004 at 04:48 UTC
Heh, sense of scale. Your small company has 100 engineers. Our small company has less than 10 _people_. I got involved in what i'm doing now my senior year in college, and basically opted out of the post-graduation job hunt to start a business with the friends i was working with. Needless to say, it has had its ups and downs. Our first attempt crashed and burned as we came to understand the consequences of too many employees, not enough clients. Our second attempt is getting promising, but has been quite a struggle. After having barely survived a number of near death experiences (business wise) we're finally getting our business agenda straight. The great thing though is while I have to be involved in keeping the business running, the comany is small enough that it still leaves the majority of my time to pursue my primary mandate as product developer.	[reply]
Re: Avoiding "brain drain" in the corporate realm by jonadab (Parson) on Feb 25, 2004 at 03:15 UTC
Yep, I fit all sorts of hats! :) But maybe because the company is small (Engineering = 100 folks?) rather than large. 100 Engineers? If there were 100 employees, I would consider that a medium-sized outfit. Small is like where I work -- I am the computer guy. The only staff person who makes regular use of copy and paste technology, that's me. If it has to do with computers, it's my job. Stuck printer? Get Nathan. Need a database? Talk to Nathan. Web browser stuck? Ask Nathan. Want to set up a cgi server? Nathan. NAT/Firewall stuff? Nathan. Windows needs a reboot? MacOS 9 is hung? Fetch Nathan. I used to spend almost all of my time troubleshooting. I've been gradually improving that situation. Read more... (2 kB) `;$;=sub{$/};@;=map{my($a,$b)=($_,$;);$;=sub{$a.$b->()}}` `split//,".rekcah lreP rehtona tsuJ";$\=$;[-1]->();print`	[reply]

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