-----
title: "Choosing the right IT job"
content-type: article
timestamp: 1144928828
tags: ""
-----
<p>The time has come. The times when I used to meander around reading stuff on the Net and writing about whatever I
	wanted are over. Incidentally, the world may end, <em>your</em> laptop could explode and I could knock at your door
	in a few minutes asking for money, imagine that!</p>
<p>Nothing of the above, alright, bad joke, but sooner or later the time to <em>start doing something</em> comes, at
	some point you ought to start making some real money. It's time to settle down, my fiance&eacute; are eager to
	get our own independence, move to our new house (which we're still doing up) etc. etc. Fair enough. I spent
	the last five months wasting my time looking for a job, a <em>proper</em> job having something to do with <acronym
		title="Information Technology"><span class="caps">IT</span></acronym> and finally something seems to be
	possible.</p>
<h3>Either nothing or everything</h3>
<p>&#8211; I may even say that: now I have to face a difficult choice between two
	job proposals that seem both fairly interesting. <br />
	<em>&#8220;Go wherever you can get more bucks, you nutter!&#8221;</em> &#8211; Well, there's more to it.<br />
	Let's examine now the two similar but yet different realities I have to choose from. Maybe you'll never
	be in my situation, but I hope this can help at least those who experienced or could experience something similar
	someday.
</p>
<h3>Working under Uncle Bill's wing</h3>

<p>
	<img src="/images/pictures/genova.jpg" alt="" /> Not Microsoft. No, not directly at any rate. I've recently
	been
	contacted by a well known multi-national company which does almost anything ranging from computers, phones,
	electrical stuff to huge self-aware robots designed to conquer new worlds&#8230; Not quite, but let's just say
	that this image contributes to give an idea of a Corporate-type reality.
</p>
<h3>Preliminaries</h3>
<p>
	I happen to be an Italian whose English skills go a bit beyond the <em>&#8220;Hello, me Italian and like to do
		friendship with you&#8221;</em>, I applied in the above (un)mentioned company as <em>Software Tester</em>
	and
	got contacted twenty days afterwards about a possible position as <em>Technical Writer</em>. It makes perfect
	sense.</p>
<p>
	Well, at any rate I was pleased and I went to the pre-selection which was something like a pre-<span
		class="caps">GCSE</span> English test with a bunch of &#8220;technical&#8221; questions (&#8220;What does
	<span class="caps">HTTP</span> mean?&#8221;&#8230;).<br />
	Thanks to our Merciful God I passed it (and thus avoided endless teasing by my British fiance&eacute;), and they
	wanted to have a proper interview with me today.<br />
	I went there and came back a few hours ago, and I think it wasn't too bad, let's say I may stand good
	chances but as normally happens in such companies in the end it was just something like <em>Thank you for
		coming,
		we'll call you by the end of April</em>. Although I mentioned that I recently had some other job offer
	obviously they couldn't give a damn: as any other big company, they need to interview all the possible
	candidates to be sure they pick the right one, and that's fair enough.
</p>
<h3>The job</h3>
<p>
	In the remote eventuality they decide to take me on board, I'd be part of a Documentation Team in charge of
	writing technical documents, manuals and silly jokes &#8211; perhaps &#8211; about some semi-classified huge
	internal semi-intelligent corporate framework. <br />
	Now, although some people may already start to feel bored even at thinking about a job like that, I think
	this role
	would fit me perfectly. I love writing. I love researching. I love crating documentations, howtos, reports
	and any
	other boring (for other people) stuff! And they want me to write in English, not in Italian, which is
	&#8211; it may
	sound weird &#8211; a true relief for me. <br />
	At the interview I had a chance to talk about my <a href="/articles/">articles</a> and they seemed
	interested in
	this activity of mine&#8230; I even mentioned my <a href="/articles/cakephp/">CakePHP article</a> and they
	say
	they're gonna check it out. Oh well, this site's stats are always one Firefox tab away from my current
	main browsing tab, so you can bet I'll be tracking that.</p>
<h3>The contract and the salary</h3>
<p>s
	<em>Classified</em>. They didn't say anything, as usual, but presumably it should be a permanent (or
	semi-permanent) contract with all the contributions, health insurance, taxes etc. paid. And free
	cookies. Yum!<br />
	Salary&#8230; well, it shouldn't be too bad, anyway.
</p>
<h3>PROs</h3>
<ul>
	<li>I'll be doing something I really enjoy: writing in English</li>
	<li>Steady job, steady contract, more security</li>
	<li>Corporare Environment</li>
	<li>I can show off with my friends who are still studying pointless stuff and tell them I'm working
		for
		<company name removed>
	</li>
</ul>
<h3>CONs</h3>
<ul>
	<li>There's a risk I'll lose my individuality</li>
	<li>The salary could be lower than expected &#8211; at least initially</li>
	<li>They'll get back to me at the end of this month, and I have to give an answer to someone else
		before that
	</li>
	<li>My friends and fiance&eacute; will probably hassle me to give them free goodies they think I'll
		get from
		the company</li>
</ul>
<h3><strong>Working in a &#8216;cool place', and fly high</h3>
<p>
	<img src="/images/pictures/lambruschini.jpg" alt="" /> Nope, sorry, the <a
		href="http://www.cakefoundation.org/">Cake
		Software Foundation</a> unfortunately is not hiring. The alternative is a small company in my
	city, Genoa, which
	recently merged with a slightly bigger company based in Milan, which <em>might</em> merge with a big
	national
	company involved in producing some successful (here in Italy and even abroad, a little bit) TV
	programs. Network
	involved are Italy's national channels, good ol' pal Berlusconi's channels, Sky Italy and (drums)
	<span class="caps">MTV</span>.<br />
	Cool, innit? What do they do? Well, interaction between mobile phones and TV through software and
	networks. Polls,
	<span class="caps">SMS</span> chat services, <span class="caps">WAP</span> application downloads,
	&#8220;take matey
	out of Big Brother's house&#8221;, <span class="caps">SMS</span>/<span class="caps">MMS</span> blind
	dates
	related to some well known TV programs, tele-voting at Sanremo Festival etc. etc.
</p>
<h3>Preliminaries</h3>
<p>
	Their first interview was the most unusual I've ever had, and I <a href="/articles/9/">already
		wrote</a>
	about it: they even asked me to solve a riddle. Then they wanted to meet me again and showed me
	how they work in two
	different areas (see next section). They are really chilled out, friendly, they seem alright,
	even the main boss who
	deals with the company's financial side, which is always a plus. <br />
	By the way, they already offered me the job, and I'll have to give an answer next Tuesday
	&#8211; that's
	the bad part.</p>
<h3>The Job</h3>
<p>
	The Lead Developer of the company apparently seemed satisfied enough with my knowledge and
	Java skills. A first
	possibility for mewould be working for them as full-time Java Developer. Coding. Wake up, go
	to work, Code for eight
	hours, go home, sleep/other things, wake up, go to work&#8230;<br />
	It would be a good experience, and other people would choose this immediately over anything
	else. Coding what?
	Parsing algorythms for the <span class="caps">SMS</span> we receive, data manipulation,
	storage, re-formatting etc.
	etc.<br />
	The other possibility which they suggested after noticing my ability to write and research
	would be 2nd Level Help
	Desk. Get dozens of technical emails every day, file reports, notify developers when
	something goes wrong, propose
	solutions, implement solutions, monitor the systems and even execute queries on the
	production server on the fly, in
	real time (eeek!). <br />
	This could sound boring/annoying/scary but since I'm a freak I think it's an interesting
	prospective.
	Perhaps not as qualifying as being a Java Developer, perhaps not.</p>
<h3>The contract and the salary</h3>
<p>
	1200-1250 (or more) &euro;/month, after tax. Which in my country is considered a
	more-than-reasonable pay,
	especially for a first job. Differnt form of contract, from consultant-with-<span class="caps">VAT</span> to
	renewable yearly projects, which is probably what I'd go for. Contributions/taxes paid,
	kind of, holidays and
	other vacancies included, kind of.</p>
<h3>PROs</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Perhaps better salary</li>
	<li>I know exactly what they offer, they told me their offer in detail</li>
	<li>Chilled out environment</li>
	<li>Perhaps I can sneak and read my desperate friends' <span class="caps">SMS</span>
		when they try to pull
		birds</li>
</ul>
<h3>CONs</h3>
<ul>
	<li>Less steady contract, less security</li>
	<li>I'll hardly ever use my English skills, perhaps</li>
	<li>They <span class="caps">NEED</span> a yes or no by next tuesday</li>
	<li>My friends will probably hassle me to spy on other people's <span class="caps">SMS</span>
		traffic and/or
		make them win TV contests</li>
</ul>
<p>Here's where I stand. I can't complain, alright, but I must choose and act carefully.
	I'll sleep on it.</p>