Sorry for not updating for a while. Not been much to update about.
Except an aspect of my job that came into play last week. Every month Microsoft releases their patches and every IT department has their way of dealing with it. 99% of the patches are for security holes that you don’t need to care about if you have an isolated secured environment. Sometimes your business can accept you rebooting servers during lunch, or as we did at the lawfirm early friday morning. But here we’re 100% exposed to the web and we can’t bring the IT systems down during daytime at all, some systems can’t even be down at all. So last thursday me and 3 other geeks here teamed up at 9 pm and started patching and rebooting the servers that weren’t super critical. And then at midnight we proceeded with the routines to restart our webs, that generate about 75% of our business. So there’s a few things that needs to be done to make sure that anyone wanting to book a holiday at like 1 am can still go ahead and do so. And then we went home at 3 am and I got the day off on Friday 🙂 I kinda like it and will probably do it again. As usual it’s fun until something breaks – and it’s just a question of when a server that’s in our seconday site doesn’t reboot properly and we have to go there at 2 am! 🙂
I like my job 🙂
Life proceeding as normal here. Getting into how things are done at work. Trying to do house improvements. Trying to be a good husband and father. Just the normal stuff!
But yesterday we broke the routines and went all the way down to Södertälje for a night out with my brother, his girlfriend, my sister AC with her boyfriend. Although “night out” is overstating it quite a bit because we headed back home before 10 pm, but it was still fun to get out of the house and not have another night of slacking in the sofa watching some TV show you never had any interest in before!
Oh and Sam got an outbreak of chickenpox starting last Thursday but it’s already calming down and the fun thing is, he never really noticed it as far as we can tell. He didn’t spike a fever, didn’t have uncontrollable itching or anything, it was pretty smooth sailing. Or maybe that’s because Helena “vacation” started this week and she’s been home with him and he’s gotten almost anything he wants so far. Me, I’m working another week and then have a three week vacation which is fine for me! (since I’m still on an trial-employee status here I only get half the vacation days for now but once I’m made a full employee I’ll get the rest in time for Christmas!)
I’ve worked for 4 days here now and time for to write down some first impressions.
So far it’s the professional IT team that I wanted our IT department at Vinge to be and the crew at Carema almost was. Here they share alot of my views that my work is to give service back to the organisation. It’s not to sit on a throne and use my power and deflect every issue that’s not specifically on my table, it’s to listen to what the organization wants and needs and do my best to service them. And it has the clear lines of first, second and third line that was severely hampering is at Vinge and where a bit grey at Carema. And it’s the only placed I’ve been employed at where I wasn’t given Domain Admin access to the network, here I get the access I need to do my job. Which may sometimes get in the way of doing things but it’s a good sign that they really do believe in high security and live up to it!
Those were the pros. As for the cons, the only one I have is that I’m sitting in the middle of a very open office with alot of people. That’s not a bad thing, at Vinge we were three in one room and later we got that down to two and that was pretty sweet. At Carema it was an open office aswell but we atleast had some screens that separated things. And I had a screen wall behind me so I didn’t have alot of people that could see my monitor, here there are atleast 6 people who at any given time can check what I’m doing on my monitor. That has the effect that I can’t do much private stuff here which again goes back to being the professional place I want. Ask me again in 6 months if that’s a good thing or not cause I don’t know yet.
I know I’ve said this a few times but one more time won’t hurt I guess. I have a really good feeling about this job that I’m starting on Wednesday at Thomas Cook!!
When I first read the ad for the job it really felt like an ad written for me. Every checkbox was ticked with ease. Everything they wanted I can offer. And the fact that I applied for it twice (once with a recruitment firm that never forwarded it to them and then again directly to them when I hadn’t heard anything from the recruitment firm) kinda underlines how badly I wanted that job. At the time I didn’t know how it was gonna go here at Carema so this was a job I applied for because I needed another job, this was because I wanted the job. When it was decided that I wasn’t gonna stay at Carema I applied for tons of jobs but forunately this was settled before any of those got beyond the first interview.
And when I finally got there for the first interview I was firstly really impressed with their lounge area they had which looked like someone tried to do a Japanese garden, a really nice play to sit down at for a coffee or something. And then I met my future boss and she was combined niceness and professionalism like I’d never seen. And she went through her slide about the IT department and on every slide I was thinking (and sometimes saying) “yep” “damn right” “I totally agree”. Even when she started talking about “practicing disaster scenarios” I was totally into it. And she could tell. Then I met my future teamleader and he was nice and friendly and seemed like a cool guy. So I left that place feeling I wanted it even more. So much more than I wanted to rush it as much as possible. Did the EQ test and met with a rep from HR to go through it and after she ok:d everything I was finally offered the job. And at the same time I was offered the most safe and secure job in the world, but I chose this anyway because it felt so good.
And so I went back to sign the papers and we went through all the practical things and signed the deal (which as I’ve said earlier doesn’t mean much, they can tell me I’ve outstayed my welcome as much as I can say “nah this sucked”). And I hope I can live with having an iPhone but I will really disagree with their iTunes license agreement so I hope I won’t have to accept that.
But I’m really looking forward to starting my job there. As always ask me again in a year from now if it was a good choice.
Oh shit it’s happening again!!
About one month before I started working for Carema there was alot of reporting about how Carema was making so much money on the expense of the little guy. I didn’t really care that much about it at the time but it kept growing in November and December and I can safely say I wasn’t bragging about working for Carema then.
Well now it’s exactly one week until I’ll start working at Thomas Cook here in Sweden. Which owns the Swedish travel agency called “Ving”. And ofcourse the media is starting to write bad things about them now as well! Already last week I saw a small little article but today they have another article and how people travelling on their dream vacation only to be disappointed and ripped off.
What are the odds that AGAIN exactly when I’m supposed to start a job that company is having bad things written about them in the media!? I don’t know the truth about all the stories but I just don’t wanna be embarrassed that I work for Ving the same way as with Carema! But judging from what their PR rep is saying in the media, unlike Carema that mostly didn’t say anything about nothing, it’s not gonna be bad. Because I am really excited about starting my work there. And I’m not just saying that, I actually am!!
After having talked to my boss to be, my teamleader to be and a woman from HR I’m very hopeful that my new job at Tomas Cook will kick ass. Because it’s a job that I really enjoy doing and do well. It’s webrelated but I also get to explore the business intelligence side of Sharepoint which I haven’t really done that much earlier. I get a small salary increase, I liked the offices and I like the people. So everything felt awesome when I went there to sign the papers.
That’s when “I knew there was a catch!” kicked in. They have a strict cell phone policy. Namely … iPhones only! I can totally go onboard and support a decision to only have one type of phones to make it easier for everyone’s jobs. At the lawfirm we had Blackberrys only – for security reasons. If you bought your own phone that was OK but don’t expect to get your mail on it. At Carema we had HTC only, but if you bought your own phone you got no official support for it but you could still use it. But here it’s strictly iPhone. I felt like a sell out accepting that but I really wanted the job. And it’s not like I haven’t had an iPhone before. But now I have to pay for apps again and shit like that. And having invested in Navigon for Android you can guess how happy I am about that!
The only other downside is their location. Their office is in Stockholm, but not in the centre but a bit off (Marieberg) so I’ll be 5-10 minutes late every morning since I drop off Sam at kindergarten. And I’ll need to go like 10 minutes earlier to make it home earlier than 6:30 and considering Sam goes to bed between 7-8 that’s pretty important to me!
But still, this feels like it could be one kick ass job!
Last year after I came back from my parental leave I thought I needed to take another step in my career and move away from helpdesk. Even though I actually enjoy solving peoples problems I also enjoy making things just work, mostly from behind the scenes. So after the summer break I left my safe and comfortable job at the lawfirm and got a job at Carema, huge healthcare company here in Sweden. But after a few months it got a bit unsettling here and getting vibes of outsourcing. So I started looking around and found an ad for a job at Tomas Cook, the travel agency. After some interviews and EQ tests and psych profiling (I wish I was kidding!) I was offered the job. Unfortunately I already had another interview planned since I didn’t know how it was gonna go with Tomas Cook. And that interview was for a huge contractor here in Sweden. So I went there for the interview and even though they offered all the job-security in the world, a better monthly salary (but not many benefits) I spent the night actually losing sleep over which one to go with. But I chose Tomas Cook! Partially for the benefits, partially for the job itself that is 100% up my alley (compared to the other one that was like 95%) but it was also because I liked the feeling you got at their office. It was calm and warm. All the people I met were very friendly and nice but professional and that goes double for the boss.
Who would’ve thought that I, the most professional, factual almost Vulcan when it comes to work, would chose one place over there other mostly because of how I felt for the people I met and not only because of factual things like salary and the actual work.
And who would’ve thought that I, the person who had only changed employer twice in his career (once involuntarily) would change jobs twice in less that 12 months?
But here I go. Wish me luck!
By the end of today I should have a new job signed and done. Although in sweden you have a 6 month grace period when it comes to employments and during that period the employer as well as the employee have full legal right to just say “nope, it’s not working out” and you’re off the legal hook. So as fark as “signed and done” goes there’s still no guarantee. We’ll see later today.
But Sam has really adapted quickly to life without a pacifier. It takes a bit longer for him to realize that he’s suppose to go to sleep now without it but once he does there’s no problem at all. Even at kindergarten it’s working out nicely. So all good on that front too.
Right now there’s a bit of uncertaintity to say the least about my job status. Or if I’ll have one in when April ends. When it’s sorted I’ll post a longer update about what’s going on, but right now I don’t know for sure but I’m pretty comfortable that I won’t be unemployed for long! More to come later.
Sweet – http://www.svd.se/opinion/brannpunkt/carema-foljde-de-etiska-riktlinjerna_6911371.svd
It’s basically the findings of an investigation into how Carema have handled the care of elderly and they can’t find nothing wrong that Carema isn’t fixing and they also go as far as saying that the media was in some cases totally outright lying. 🙂
A few months ago I mentioned how annoyed I was with the current reporting about the company I work for, Carema. There was a borderline witch hunt from the media to take down the “evil greedy corporation” that they wanted to portray Carema as. As I said I work here so I know better.And I was surprised at how some stories were downright lies and that they never, even after Carema presented their version, wrote about that.
Well now an independant review company have gone through the media events and the result is here:
http://www.second-opinion.se/sites/default/files/RAPPORT%20Caremadrevet%20120201.pdf
This was ofcourse initiated by Carema but still, it points out alot of bad things about the reporting during this time. Not as if there is any chance any of the big media channels will ever write anything about the report, but there it is…
I very rarely stay home sick from work. Usually some cortison-based lotion, pill or spray helps with most things that go wrong with me. Last year when I had the shingles I still went to work, had to pop some Iprens towards the end but went to work regardless. But last week I got hit by a really nasty cold and woke up very early thursday morning and not only a soar throat – a really aching throat. Some Vicks and painkillers, an hour sleep and I then gave up on the idea of going to work. Took the son to kindergarten and went back to bed. And it was goooooooood! I stayed home on friday as well because I wasn’t fully operational and maybe even contagious (have you seen Contagion yet? 🙂 ) and got a lot of gaming done and just enjoying 8 hours off from work, wife and son.. well as much as you can while sneezing and wiping your nose all the time!
But now my 2 sickdays for the year are over and done with. I hope. ‘Cause I think over the past 10 years that should be my annual average.
I’m a huge supporter of freedom of the press. And freedom of speech and all those other beautiful things that democracy brings. Even if they can be used for bad things like oh say starting wars and invading countries left and right. But all in all it does more good than bad. But one thing one has to know and think about is not trusting everything you read and instead ask “what’s their angle? what do they have to gain from this?”. Everyone knows Michael Moore’s documentaries that go into that grey area in between “telling the truth” and “not quite lying”.
Well for the past few weeks my new employer Carema have suffered the fate of having the media against them. And reading the headlines and articles in the newspapers/web in the morning while going to work and when I get to work I get “our” version of the truth and although they have the same facts, it’s just angled differently. And I don’t have access to any classified information, it’s all on the web. But most people aren’t interested in reading our side of the story since it’s much more fun / juicy / interesting to read the medias version than the other side of the story.
It’s all pretty frustrating – but still, huge supporter of freedom of the press. I just wish people would care more for finding out the truth than taking the headlines at face value.
Slowly getting how things are setup here and what’s doing what. But it feels I could work here for a year and still I’d be surprised when some server popups up because there are so many everywhere doing things it’s impossible to get them all.
The bad thing now is that the media here in Sweden is doing everything they can to paint the company I started working for as “the evil empire” because of things that went down in some elderly care centers and that wouldn’t make anyone feel good about just starting working there. Kinda reminds me of the “did the subcontractors building the deathstar know that the empire was evil and did they condone the empire by taking the job there”-discussion from “Clerks” 🙂
If you wind the clock back 10 years I was just starting my career as “consultant” and driving around Stockholm doing all kinds of computer magic. Everything from installing a few PCs to travelling the world. But everytime I was either involed in how the computer system was built up and evolved or it was so well documented that I had it all under control. It didn’t happen that often that I got to a customer and had no clue what their computer environment looked like.
And when I was eomployed by Vinge full time I had more knowledge of their IT systems than the people who worked there since they had only worked there a year and I’d been there on and off for four years. And after 5 more years I knew the IT systems inside and out even though it changed a lot over a year and I often had to find that out myself!
But now I’m at a big company with hundreds of servers and systems and I have no clue what’s what or what server does what and most importantly where to look when something is broken! I’m doing all I can to learn it but it’s going slowly. Thing is I have no reference point that I can use to know if I’m learning things fast enough or if I’m looking like a total noob! … but it’s only day two!
You may remember I mentioned a few weeks ago that I there was something big going on. Well now it’s done. I have officially quit my job. Not before securing a new one ofcourse!
After I had been on parental leave for 8 months and came to work I started getting more and more frustrated over some issues at work and after coming home day after day being pissed off and bitter about things my wife told me to take the bull by the horn and if it wasn’t gonna get better I should try to find another job. And after landing an interview with a bank I informed my boss about my intentions and he kinda felt it coming and wished me luck. I didn’t get that first job but I got another interview and they liked me and I liked them and then it took some time for the paperwork because of all vacations but now the paperwork has gone through so from november 1st I’ll be working at Carema in Sundbyberg, which is alot close to home too. And it is a promotion of sorts since I’ll no longer be on first- or even second-line helpdesk so all is good.
And as I went to bed last night I realised that this is the first time I’ve ever quit a job! 🙂
Ok I’m now the officially worst blogger since I haven’t written anything here in over 2 months now!
But after I’ve gotten back to work it’s all beeen pretty hectic in my life actually, both at home and at work. But I’m gonna have to chance that and make this a daily thing to get on here and make an update or two.
So what’s happening at work right now? Well I’m in the middle of upgrading our Adobe Connect from 7.5 to 8 which is not happening so looking at a fresh install instead, and that means having to do battle with SSLs again. And then we have SharePoint 2010 migration and on top of that we’re rolling out Windows 7 with new office and document management which is huge here.
At home my wonderful fiancé Helena is taking care of Sam and he’s just now begun kindergarten and so far it seems to be ok. Hopefully it’s not only because Helena is still there with him but we’ll see tomorrow when he has to deal with 5 hours there without her. Other than that it’s same old same old – trying to spend time with the love of my life while trying to get time to play some computer games, watching the latest episodes of House/Chuck/Big Bang Theory/SG:U and then there’s F1.
I am anything but bored 🙂
My life has turned into a series of routines as it is right now when I’m on parental leave. It’s just a matter of keeping the son happy, well fed and.. well that’s all really, everything else is a bonus! And I get about 1-2 hours of “else” every day which right now goes to “Starcraft 2”. Yeap, I finally gave up on “World of Warcraft”, it just wasn’t as rewarding continuing on lvl 85 as I’d hope. “Starcraft 2” is still challenging, I have a 50% win rate which I guess is as it was meant to be played (because the more you win, the higher rank you are and the better your opposition is so when you’re ranked perfectly I guess 50% is just the way it’s supposed to be).
ANYWAY, I’m going back to work in 4 weeks time, probably gonna spend the first week just catching up to what’s new and even what’s old since I haven’t been there for 6 months! Other than that everything is good, we’re still waiting for a place at some daycare so we can both work full time, not sure how that’s gonna work out otherwise!
Also trying to catchup with movies since we have missed alot since Sam was born. So far the best one has been “Tron 2” that we actually saw at the movies in 3D. But then again, you’d expect nothing else from a computer geek, right 🙂
Also updated alot in my photo album so check it out. You should know the password by now!
You know the old saying about the cobbler’s kid having no shoes? Well I again managed to prove that one.
At work we have one of the best redundancy/backup systems I’ve seen and we’re proud of it. But on the webserver running this website and more importantly NataliePortman.com I’ve totally ignored that part especially since my son was born. So two weeks ago we had someone hacking into the site and completely wiped the server for us. And unfortunately the last backup I had was back in march and april! So that’s why there’ll be several months missing here.
Yeah you can blame me for being really terrible at taking backups, but I really didn’t think anyone would hack the server and erase everything just for fun. I mean what’s up with that? :/
And this is the reason why there are hardly any entries for 2010.
And now I’ve finally worked my last shift at work for all year. No more work for me! Now it’s all about Sam!.. and Helena. And the house. And then me 🙂 And it’s gonna be good!
One thing I’m hoping to do is redesign this place again, it’s been a while. And I’ve had to transfer the site back to our NP.com server. The photo-section will probably be offline for a while but should be ok in a few days.
Take care!