So here's *my* "How I Got Started In Notes" story...
Category IBM/Lotus
I blogged about this back in 2003, but obviously a few things have happened since then. So let's do a rewind and then bring things forward...
I started my IT career back in 1979 out of high school working in a bursting room for Georgia-Pacific here in Portland Oregon, stripping carbon off reports and separating reports on the perforations. And yes, there was filing of the punch cards also (told you I'm old!) That lasted about a year until I moved into their Operations area, loading up the card decks and hanging those tapes. Around 1983'ish, I was offered the chance to move into programming with good old RPG. Like everything else I end up involved with, I grabbed the book and started teaching myself. 1985 had Georgia-Pacific downsizing their Portland operation, and that led me to First Farwest Insurance (long since departed) as a COBOL programmer. Not bad considering I had never coded a line of COBOL before in my life. A couple years there (and before they went under), and I was off to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon using those same COBOL skills to help maintain their Medicare claims processing software. BCBSO would continue to be a constant in my life from then on...
In 1995, things were getting rather ugly with the Medicare contract, and I didn't necessarily want to be part of a large system conversion coming up. I was fortunate enough to move to a position in the company where I could start working with "groupware technology", i.e. Lotus Notes. I was offered the chance to go to this "Lotusphere" thing, and it was there that my life forever changed. I really didn't understand much of what was going on (WORK THE WEB!), but the lasers, lights, and music of the opening general session had me convinced I wanted to do this for the rest of my career. It was at that point that I decided to specialize in Notes and try to become "really good" at it.
1998 saw me leave my home at BCBSO for a start-up called FirstPoint Communications. You'd know it better by the name it ended up becoming... Enron Broadband. I didn't leave because of the siren call of stocks and options. Yes, they were there... But what I really wanted to know is if I could play with the big boys in the dot.com era. We were building everything from the ground up in Notes, so it was a great time of building and learning. Yeah, the ending wasn't so great in September 2001, but I wouldn't trade the overall experience. It's there that I learned I really could contribute to the Notes community at large.
Laid off on September 1, 2001. 9/11 happened, and I was convinced I'd never get another job again. My interview at BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon (now Regence) on September 10th wasn't the best one I ever had, and now I was unemployed for the first time in my life. I was able to dip my toe in the consulting waters starting late November of that year, along with beginning my fledging writing career with ePro magazine with Libby Ingrassia. The one-off consulting jobs led to a full-time Notes development consulting position with Boom Vang (now Marquam Group) up through February of 2003.
That's pretty much where my original blog posting left off. But wait, there's more!
Joe Litton, my fellow developer at Enron and the person who got one of the Notes jobs at Regence before 9/11, decided to head off to the sunny climate of Florida, leaving an opening back at Regence. In the course of a week, I went from a full-time consultant with Boom Vang to a full-time developer back at Regence. It was great to be "home" again. On top of doing a lot of Notes development here (as I'm currently employed by them), I've also opened up my world via blogging, writing, and speaking. I've been on stage a few times at Lotusphere, got my passport de-flowered in Ireland, and generally am living an experience I never dreamed possible.
I look back to the time when I was transitioning from Medicare to the Groupware area. I was part of a Medicare user group and had some really close friends in that community. But I was not allowed to go to the last user group meeting during my time there, thereby denying me the chance to say goodbye to people I worked with over the phone every day. I was convinced I'd never experience that same type of friendship and camaraderie again in my professional career.
I was *so* wrong... What I had then is but a faint shadow of what I have now.
Thanks, everyone...
I blogged about this back in 2003, but obviously a few things have happened since then. So let's do a rewind and then bring things forward...
I started my IT career back in 1979 out of high school working in a bursting room for Georgia-Pacific here in Portland Oregon, stripping carbon off reports and separating reports on the perforations. And yes, there was filing of the punch cards also (told you I'm old!) That lasted about a year until I moved into their Operations area, loading up the card decks and hanging those tapes. Around 1983'ish, I was offered the chance to move into programming with good old RPG. Like everything else I end up involved with, I grabbed the book and started teaching myself. 1985 had Georgia-Pacific downsizing their Portland operation, and that led me to First Farwest Insurance (long since departed) as a COBOL programmer. Not bad considering I had never coded a line of COBOL before in my life. A couple years there (and before they went under), and I was off to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Oregon using those same COBOL skills to help maintain their Medicare claims processing software. BCBSO would continue to be a constant in my life from then on...
In 1995, things were getting rather ugly with the Medicare contract, and I didn't necessarily want to be part of a large system conversion coming up. I was fortunate enough to move to a position in the company where I could start working with "groupware technology", i.e. Lotus Notes. I was offered the chance to go to this "Lotusphere" thing, and it was there that my life forever changed. I really didn't understand much of what was going on (WORK THE WEB!), but the lasers, lights, and music of the opening general session had me convinced I wanted to do this for the rest of my career. It was at that point that I decided to specialize in Notes and try to become "really good" at it.
1998 saw me leave my home at BCBSO for a start-up called FirstPoint Communications. You'd know it better by the name it ended up becoming... Enron Broadband. I didn't leave because of the siren call of stocks and options. Yes, they were there... But what I really wanted to know is if I could play with the big boys in the dot.com era. We were building everything from the ground up in Notes, so it was a great time of building and learning. Yeah, the ending wasn't so great in September 2001, but I wouldn't trade the overall experience. It's there that I learned I really could contribute to the Notes community at large.
Laid off on September 1, 2001. 9/11 happened, and I was convinced I'd never get another job again. My interview at BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon (now Regence) on September 10th wasn't the best one I ever had, and now I was unemployed for the first time in my life. I was able to dip my toe in the consulting waters starting late November of that year, along with beginning my fledging writing career with ePro magazine with Libby Ingrassia. The one-off consulting jobs led to a full-time Notes development consulting position with Boom Vang (now Marquam Group) up through February of 2003.
That's pretty much where my original blog posting left off. But wait, there's more!
Joe Litton, my fellow developer at Enron and the person who got one of the Notes jobs at Regence before 9/11, decided to head off to the sunny climate of Florida, leaving an opening back at Regence. In the course of a week, I went from a full-time consultant with Boom Vang to a full-time developer back at Regence. It was great to be "home" again. On top of doing a lot of Notes development here (as I'm currently employed by them), I've also opened up my world via blogging, writing, and speaking. I've been on stage a few times at Lotusphere, got my passport de-flowered in Ireland, and generally am living an experience I never dreamed possible.
I look back to the time when I was transitioning from Medicare to the Groupware area. I was part of a Medicare user group and had some really close friends in that community. But I was not allowed to go to the last user group meeting during my time there, thereby denying me the chance to say goodbye to people I worked with over the phone every day. I was convinced I'd never experience that same type of friendship and camaraderie again in my professional career.
I was *so* wrong... What I had then is but a faint shadow of what I have now.
Thanks, everyone...
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Comments
I spent 3 summers running those machines, including a folder. 2nd and 3rd shifts for a bank service company. Since they also sent out the credit card statements, I also worked with a ZIP Sorter (a machine that reads the ZIP codes and sorts the mail. This allows the customer to be able to send mail at less than the going rate).
Early Geek Gregg: After working with the ZIP sorter for a while, I could tell you the ZIP Code of nearly every large town/city in Ohio. Or, at the very least, the first three digits.
Posted by Gregg Eldred At 19:50:16 On 07/04/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Duffbert At 20:31:35 On 07/04/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by francie At 06:21:47 On 08/04/2008 | - Website - |
During one summer, while working that job, Supertramp's Breakfast in America was very popular. I worked in an area connected to, but separate from, the computer room. We shared a door and, importantly, a sound system.
The 3rd shift operator would work hard to get done early so that he could take a little nap (like a 3-4 hour "nap"). But before he did, he would put that album on (get this) the 8-track player in the computer room. So, while he was blissfully sleeping, I was subjected to 3-4 hours of continuous Supertramp. If it wasn't that, then he would use Jethro Tull's Aqualung.
5 days, 3-4 hours every day. Of the same thing. I hated those bands.
I think last year, I started to listen to Supertramp again.
If you were leaving, and you worked on 3rd shift, you wouldn't be surprised if you went out to your car to find it full of the perforations that I took off with one of the machines (I think it was the folder).
You got the same treatment if you parked in such a way as to not allow a car next to you. That was highly effective. Especially if you drove a Camero with T-tops and didn't put the roof back on. (no, not me).
That was the year when I started drinking Coke at 8:00 AM. It was my "night" and there wasn't anything odd about that. Although, it is a habit I still do.
As a person that would go between shifts, I might work 3rd two weeks, and then go on days. This was the only time I was sent home to change. I didn't know that what passed for "appropriate" at midnight isn't the same as "appropriate" during the day. I did learn that concert t-shirts are not "appropriate."
Oh, and coming off of 2nd shift at midnight, and then meeting friends at a bar on Fridays was always interesting.
Overall, however, I loved working at that company. They would call me, at college, and make sure that I knew I had a job during all breaks. So, I must have been doing something right.
Posted by Gregg Eldred At 06:22:58 On 08/04/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Duffbert At 06:55:48 On 08/04/2008 | - Website - |
*sigh*
I don't feel that old. Must be because I keep hanging out with younger people. Like Duffbert.
Posted by Gregg Eldred At 08:12:49 On 08/04/2008 | - Website - |
"See, told you they'd love the lasers."
- Tallest (Red), Invader Zim
Posted by Alan At 18:24:46 On 23/04/2008 | - Website - |
However, I do miss my dear friends I grew up with in the Medicare world.....those were some great days!
Posted by Angie At 18:38:45 On 28/04/2008 | - Website - |
Posted by Duffbert At 04:42:14 On 29/04/2008 | - Website - |