Work and Looking for A New Role
It’s been a month now “between contracts”.
Not gonna lie, the DevOps job market for ultra senior folks like myself is sluggish out there. I’m finding roles to apply for, and talking to agencies multiple times a week , but only getting my first interview today with Farnell (who used to be called Element14). The interview went pretty well and it sounds like fun.
No panicking yet though. It’ll improve in time. It always does.
I suspect, I’ll either end up taking a slightly lower daily rate than usual, or maybe pick up a permanent role with a 6 digit salary for maybe a year and a day if it comes to that. One thing I’m still not doing is going back to 2019 and working more than two days (in London) or three days (anywhere) in the office. There’s just no need for it and a 3 hour a day commute to and from London isn’t a productive use of anyone’s time.
Continuous Learning
I’ve set 3 goals for this period of being “between contracts”:
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First, in the mornings, I’m doing a quick course on Google Cloud Skills Boost called “Introduction to AI and Machine Learning on Google Cloud”. It covers AI foundations, AI development options, AI development workflows, and generative AI.
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In the afternoons, I’m studying to renew my Hashicorp Terraform certification. For that I’m using a Udemy course.
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In a longer term thing, I’m exploring running Debian Sid (unstable) as my primary Linux daily driver operating system. It’s powering my Lenovo laptop and the server you’re reading this site on now. Is it dangerous and a bad idea? Maybe. But it also teaches you how to be super careful with what your doing and how to fix things when they go wrong. That said, nothing’s gone wrong yet.
My Birthday
My 51st came and went quietly. I was mostly just in the mood for a Texan dinner of beans, cornbread, and BBQ brisket.
The Annual Druid Network AGM
I’ve been a trustee and IT officer of The Druid Network for 17 years now and as a registered charity in England and Wales, we’re obliged to have an AGM every year.
For the first 15 of those years, our AGM was held in The Bilberry Hill Centre, near Birmingham. But the building ended up closing down. So, the last 2 we’ve had at The Nightingale Centre, in Great Hucklow, near Buxton in the Peak District.
I left home like mid-day on a Friday, singing road trip songs at the top of my lungs with the windows down until I was horse.
The official parts of our AGMs are quick affairs lasting maybe an couple of hours. I luckily picked up no additional tasks for the year outside of working on a new members-only chat site with Discourse.
Outside of that, as always, we chat a lot, go to the pub for dinner both evenings, drink respectable amounts of mead and wine afterwards, and perhaps get our tarot cards read. This year a bunch of us found our way to the swings behind the building. It must have been an odd site to see a bunch of 40+ people swinging.
I ended up leaving on Sunday morning, first listening to Taylor Swift’s new album in its entirety on Spotify, before switching to singing sea shanties at the top of my lungs with the windows down until I was horse and arrived home.
A good AGM and a fun trip!
Allotment 2024
Not much progress this year so far. The weather is crap. It’s either raining or freezing cold. At this point, I’ve given up on seeds and will be planting out straight from garden-centre bought plants.
Planet of Lana
This game is AMAZING! Exactly the sort of thing I like to play.