For one of the first times upon leaving a job I was thanked for what I’d done. That was pretty amazing.

Another thing struck me. One of my parting conversations with another at the job we were lamenting the dysfunctional nature of the place. It was I who accused them of not being able to see the forest for the trees. That was related to them paying $30K a month to a defense contractor when they could have shelled out 1/3 or less that and kept me on staff. But they are playing it safe – and contracting everything out.

But something else hit me – I was told they went through a ton of people they interviewed who were to put it gently, great on paper but horrible otherwise. But I was chosen for this position.

Sort of playing out the same on the new job. I guess I know Unix and Linux well enough now that it shows.

It’s funny – the company I worked for is trying to hire a devops type – which is sort of what I am. But the guy I was talking to on the job told me they can’t find anyone. They’re suffering the same thing – good on paper – not so good in real life. Me I’m good on both paper and in real life.

And after many years in the field I’m now know as a Linux guy. That’s interesting.

One of the things I liked about this last position was toward the latter half I was working with another Linux guy – both of us pretty up there skill wise. But the give and take was great. I picked up the skill of using cut -d and he got how to nice a process from me.

It wasn’t a bad job – the commute could be hellish on occasion. But all in all it was pretty good. Now onto bigger and better. Finally break the six figure barrier. That is something good.