Time in The City

On 16 November I wrote that I went to a city office and my acquaintance introduced me to the systems manager. The conversation went all right. I thought that the manager's response to my email was positive and I thought it was a good tactic.

We started off by discussing commission jobs. I noted my progress and mention how it was a bit of a monoculture in that respect. I went on to explain the path through which data traveled through the procedures I had managed.

A list that I created was: drafting, data collection, district based data dictionaries, digitization and attribution, cartographic development, operations support, route handling, quality assurance and research, document review, SQL queries, policy analysis, documentation review, user guides, scripting, recommendations, QA QC, ETL, user acceptance testing, requirement review, licensing, data acquisition, data analysis, data preparation, ETL/FME, data delivery and consulting.

The manager told me that I needed to meet people and make friends. He suggested I talk to his associate one office over. I did some review of the name he had given me and I found that while a few of my friend’s knew him he wasn’t connected to the one’s that I was most certain he should be..

My acquaintance and this manager were the only people at that office that did any of the stuff I was good at and several departments relied upon them. I told them my father used to be at one of them and that my cousin worked at another.  However, they didn't seem to care and I wasn't certain why I brought it up.

The manager asked me about my dream job and I went back to the pressure project as I always do. However, where a previous interviewee critiqued my mention of my boss, this manager suggested I find people doing just that project and get involved. I did mention my boss again too.

I asked about ‘as-builts’ and he told me that they have a lot of documents. I described the documents at the pressure project and he seemed to think that this was my thing. I told him that it was the process I liked.

This is where he asked if I liked data stuff. I said ‘sorta’ because it can be great if control worked correctly. I noted that at the big tech firm I had worked for I had a lot of say but at the next job I didn't. I noted that the job after the pressure project allowed me to make samples.  At the pressure project I noted I had access to my colleague's data and it was great as long as he was around.  I told him that I didn't like the size of that company’s design and but liked the tech firm’s instead.

The manager thought my reaction to his question was strange because I sounded noncommittal. However, I went on to say that I liked working with data as long as I had some control or say over it. I also mentioned that being a DBA would be great but expensive.  I explained the accuracy problems at the pressure project. I told them that the principle had had to scrap the project.

The conversation was winding down and they suggested I simply pass jobs to them.  They said they would relay any pertinent info. They then invited me over to the pub then.   That was nice because we all saw someone we knew.  The manager ordered us popcorn and became very animated. He essentially told me that if I like a company I should find out exactly what they do and need and really push for them.

The manager took off then and my acquaintance and I discussed his time in the city from being a bike messenger to working at the city office.

This series of experiences are conversations that I have had with knowledgeable people about my career or job interests. This Interview Series is meant to describe the basic elements of an interview and how I have gone about participating in one.