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Back when I was a University student, (CSU Long Beach, BS in Computer Science, Class of 1985), I worked a couple of summer jobs with my old high school, first as acting A/V technician, then (the following summer, when the librarian had convinced the district to fund a permanent A/V technician) as the tech's assistant. Then, straight out of college, I worked a couple of temporary assignments with the Los Angeles Unified School District, first as a maintenance worker, then as a computer repair technician. So I've been a civil servant. It can be very rewarding, but make no mistake, civil servants are expected to *work,* and they're often expected to work miracles with chewing gum and bailing wire.
Having trouble finding work as a programmer without benefit of friends or relatives in the business, I took a part-time job at the ice rink where I was taking figure skating classes. Shortly after that, I finally landed a programmer/tech writer/typesetter job with a small company called Oxxi, a publisher of software for the Commodore Amiga (!).
I left Oxxi exactly two years after I was hired, because the job stress was affecting my health: I was never recognized for anything I accomplished, and was constantly blamed for other people's hidden flaws. On the other hand, I kept the ice rink job, even though it was barely above minimum wage, because there, it was as if I could do no wrong. Likewise, about the time I was contemplating leaving Oxxi, my best friend started a video production business, specializing in figure skating competitions, and he quickly tapped me to work with him.
Four years, two and a half months after I left Oxxi, I began working for what is now Touchtone Corporation, teaching myself MI, CL, and RPG, and quickly transforming QuestView from dying product to continually improving flagship. I still kept the ice rink job, until I quit, only a few months shy of a decade with the company, over a dispute with the worst figure skating coach who ever drew breath; that particular ice rink has since been torn down. And I still work the occasional video crew at skating competitions.
I still work for Touchtone because this job is everything Oxxi wasn't. I get to work on a stable platform, with management that is scrupulously honest and magnanimously generous, and if I get yelled at, it's for something I actually did (or neglected to do).
-- JHHL
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