I'm sitting here in my pod looking out the window at the river valley here in Edmonton. The trees are changing colour and the sight is beautiful. Along with those trees, I'm changing jobs too. I figured it was time for me to go out and try the independent consultant thing. I went out and found a contract to get me started and I've taken the leap.
Tomorrow is my last day here and, in some ways, I'm a little sad to see it go. This is the team/project that I cut my teeth on web apps, C#, CruiseControl, NUnit, NAnt, NCover and many other tools. My PMs gave me a lot of leeway when it came to trying new things. I will never forget one PM who I went to and asked if I could set aside developer time to write tests for existing code. Not only did he immediately say yes, but he also formulated a plan for selling the idea to all the project sponsors. I know it isn't the norm to have PMs who perfectly abstract away the issues affecting the project. I know it isn't often that you get PMs who are open to your technical ideas. Those are probably the two most difficult things for me to walk away from.
So with the end nearing at this job, and the world if you read the sign the bum down the street holds, I'm very excited about this new venture. If you know of anybody who's looking for a contract coder, drop me a line.
posted @ Tuesday, September 26, 2006 9:47 AM