Archive for the 'Year in Industry' Category

It’s been a while since I’ve posted, as ever. Still, this time I have some genuinely interesting things to say about my life (no guarantee there), rather than just a rant about how much I hate living here. The title of this post, self-actualisation, is a term that describes what I feel I have achieved over the past month. For those of you who are so heinously uneducated enough not to know, self-actualisation is the a state that sits atop Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (a model spoken about lots by marketing types). Upon reaching self-actualisation, a person feels that their physiological, security, affiliation and affection, self-respect, and recognition needs have been satisfied.

So, with the exception of financial security, I feel as though I have ‘arrived’ as it were. It’s taken me 6 months of being here, but I’m finally content with the way things are. I’ve realised that I am happy in my job as a developer, and I’m thoroughly enjoying my work so much that I’ve started throwing myself at as many tasks as I can possibly manage in the time I have, and I’m feeling more and more rewarded by it. The beauty of working for a small company such as BWS who have a large market footprint is that you can see the things you do well making a difference to people. The software that I write, improve and debug, the design work that I do, and dealing with support calls - all of it goes towards driving the company forwards, all giving me positive feedback. A good example of this is that the new website that me and Liz have been working hard on has more than doubled the number of incoming leads to the sales department since its launch a couple of months ago.

On top of enjoying my job, I feel that I’m really starting to fit into the company. I know the people there well, and we have a good time working together. And, what’s more, I feel respected for what I’m doing.

It’s a good feeling.

A quick note about this post: While I don’t want to make this sound like an attack on my housemate, it is difficult to make it sound like anything else, simply because I have reached the end of my tether and the chance of me being tactful is slim at best.

Just for a bit of background, I am currently working a Year In Industry placement in Cambridge, and live with a schoolfriend named Chris. Chris is, for want of a better word, a geek. When I told my parents about my plan to move in with him, my Dad told me that I was making a big mistake, and that I’d regret it. Well, as ever, my dear old Da was right.

The reason for me writing this rant is the culmination of everything that has angered me since August when I moved in with him, and peaked tonight, when on his turn to cook, he managed to ‘forget’ to start cooking until about 10 minutes ago (11:20pm).
While this indeed is an extremely bad incident, it is a fairly common one. Quite usually, thanks to his social anxiety-induced dependance on World of Warcraft, dinner won’t happen until 10 o’clock.

There are hundreds of other things that wind me up, most of which include an inability to tidy things up, especially the incredibly easy-to-tidy things, such as tidying an empty pizza wrapper from the kitchen worktop into the bin (at most a metre way in our kitchen), or taking a used plate/bowl out, rather than putting it on a chair next to you and leaving it there for 4 days. The other thing is that I have to either wear my broken headphones (which are incredibly painful after more than an hour’s wear) or put up with whatever album he’s listening to, along with his WoW guild talking about utter shite, because he uses speakers and refuses to wear headphones.

The thing that pisses me off about my situation the most, however, is that I don’t stand up to him enough. I don’t have the strength to put my foot down and say these things until it gets to breaking point, and then I don’t say things for fear of startign an argument because I’m so pissed off.

The fact of the matter is that I am far too kind to him. A good example is today, when I found out I was gonna have to stay a few hours after work to get stuff finished off, I offered to drive him home then come back to work. And I did. Now I’m asking myself why I’m eating a cheap crappy dinner at midnight that took absolutely no effort to produce. While I don’t claim to be a master chef of any kind, I put a hell of a lot of effort in trying to make the dinners I cook as tasty as possible, and try new things now and then, such as frying mince in beer when making spag bol (which is awesome btw), and experimenting with different sauces.

I am just completely and utterly fucking fed up.

And, to top it off, I’m completely and utterly out of alcohol.

SO much has happened in the past 2-3 months since I wrote a post, I don’t even know where to begin. Firstly, I’m neglecting my blog, but never mind that, I’m used to it by now.

When I last posted back in May, I was beginning my A2 exams and suffering the effects severe sleep deprivation as a result of, well, not sleeping. I have since been on holiday to Spain, then moved into my new house in Cambridge with Chris, started my new job as a software developer, got my A2 results, gone on another holiday to Spain (this time with the Amsterdam krü + 2), come back without a tan and got my first pay packet.

With regards to my A2 results, I think I did quite well. Overall I got an A in Mathematics, an A in Computing (full UMS in the A2 half also), a B in Physics, and a surprising B in Further Maths which I never thought I’d be able to achieve. Despite the latter not being an A, the nice people at Imperial College London decided that they’d let me in to their fine establishment anyway, beginning about this time next year. Until then, I shall continue to work at the almighty Business Web Software where I have been made to feel very welcome, and I’ve done quite a lot so far.

With regards to my holidays, the pics are on Facebook, although I didn’t take many as I generally couldn’t be bothered, and the shutter button on my camera (phone) is what I like to describe as ‘a bit shagged’. And, that’s not the only thing that’s broken - I seem to have re-acquired my Midas touch of sorts, whereby everything electrical or mechanical that I touch seems to break. My main reasoning for saying this is that my power supply (not a bad one either) in my PC has started whining its swan song, and refuses adamantly to start up. So, to the tune of £60 I’m replacing it with something less powerful, but seemingly better designed in terms of cable management.

As to moving into my new place, it’s been an interesting experience. While I and Chris aren’t exactly the tidiest of student households, we haven’t (yet) descended to a level of squalor worthy of the Young Ones themselves. The house itself is pretty nice - it’s a new built end terrace, on a road called William Smith Close no less (which makes me chuckle), and the furnishings within are comfortable. However, I cannot understand why people make leather sofas. They’re just hideously uncomfortable, no matter how soft and squidgy they may be - I mean, you stick to them no matter what the temperature is or what you’re wearing.

At present the living room is a big mess of cabling, as I’ve managed to position my TV, amplifier, PS2 and Chris’s laptop on a small coffee table I stole from my parents, with a speaker either side on a floor stand. It makes for good TV/movie/anime/game viewing, but I long for the day that everything has seamless wireless connectivity. Behind that is our dining table, which is yet to be used for the purpose of dining. In actual fact, it more readily deserves the name ‘crap pile’, or even ‘crap mountain’. I think ‘mountain’ is far more fitting, as we have experienced quite a few avalanches. On one end of the crap mountain is my PC, currently with the side missing waiting for a new power supply; the other end is home to my old TV, and a box full of cabling. Aside from that, the rest of the room is filled with the most general of crap.

As I write this, I’m sitting on my sticky leather sofa using my laptop, next to Chris as he plays FFXII on my PS2, through my TV, amplifier and speakers. It’s rather cool.