Category: Uncategorized

I’ve worked hard. For many years. Done great things and worked with awesome people. Worked for a long time for the same company, and I’ve coded many, many websites of which some won awards. I am proud of those achievements and my greatest rewards were happy clients. Then it appeared nothing was as it should be and from one day to the other the company closed its doors. Some former clients found me by word of mouth, some via my professional profiles. Salvage was the word, and I happily help out where I can. Web Developer for hire 🙂

So what now with this site, should I turn it into a professional one? Currently I am taking a well deserved break – brushing up some skills, finding some creative flow. And I read through all these old blog posts on here, they mention some wishes and plans that never crystallized. But I have done plenty of other things instead and have had fun along the way. Not sure what I will do with them, but the site will be changed to include the more professional side of me.

Time flies! I think that almost evey article I write can start with the title “busy busy busy” – but what would that add?

I need to find a proper balance between computer stuff for fun, computer stuff for work and other activities. My dude is a hardcore computer geek – and spends more hours on his PC than anyone else I know. He tells his friends that his geek girl spends even more hours behind the pc – they shake their heads in disbelieve (geek girls are a myth apparently) – but it is true. I don’t consider us sad cases – but the rest of the world seems to think we miss out on a lot of things – lol…

I really like the job I took up – the work mainly involves development of WordPress templates and setting up wordpress for clients. After that SEO activities start and carefully selected / written content is uploaded. I learnt a lot about the processes involved – and as our main guru says .. there is no magic involved. It is a matter of a properly built website, proper navigation, useful content, relevant linking and time. Time because the website needs to build a reputation and further fine-tuning over a period of time. But without doubt the applied techniques work – and it is one of the main reasons why business is flourishing.

As I had to learn quite a few new things, I spent less time on the graphics design / tutorial writing as I like to do. I indeed prepared a new tutorial, made all screenshots and even uploaded the article to VSD – but the screenshots need to be cropped and included still before the article can be published. I know.. it is not a lot of work.. but I somehow just don’t feel like it. Perhaps this weekend?

Then it is Autumn in Oz. Temperatures are a lot lower and as I live in the Sydney area, people pretend that they won’t be exposed to winter. They simply deny it. Result: no central heating system and houses that are build to keep out the heat. I am quite fortunate as our house is fully insulated – but I really do miss the comfort of central heating. I wake up and it is about 15 degC in the house. It is not “that” cold – but too cool to be comfortable. And add to that the fact that my home is my office and you’ll get the idea. Shivering behind the PC until the sun hits the window and I finally start to warm up. Our gas heater broke down last year and as we are about to move to another house – not sure how to survive the next weeks – airconditioner on heating and a high electicity bill? Probably.

And a quick kitty update. Both our little brats are growing like crazy. They have been quite sick – first cat flu and after that Moogie started puking and had blood in her stool. We thought she might have something really bad – back to the RSPCA for check up – and as she still ate, put on some weight they suggested to bring a stool sample. Well.. stool sample from the right cat from the litterbox is not that easy, so when we finally caught her going to the box and prevented her from burying the sample in crystals – we didn’t need to bring the sample in.. they had worms. We called the RSPCA again – as we adopted them a month before and they were supposedly de-wormed. “It can happen that the treatment was not effective if the investation was too large”. Bleh… got meds from the local vet – made them poo a lot but they seem fine now.

One should think that a week of acclimatising would be enough, but somehow I do not feel so motivated at all. And I like to blame it on jetlag, but I think a week is pretty long for that *grins*

I finally can look for paid work here and that both excites me as well as it freightens me. I have done a lot of creative things in the last 8 months, and now I have to choose what path to follow. I know it will be IT related and I also know that it will be focused on project work, as I cannot imagine myself doing the same thing day in day out for any number of years. But IT covers a broad spectrum, and my skills cover quite a few subjects within that spectrum.

One of the main sources to look for job vacancies is seek.com.au. And I set up an profile there and created an advanced search for possible jobs. There are plenty to go around, even tho there is lot said about economic crisis. My next problem is how to find a job that requires a nice blend of the skills I have and is interesting enough to do. While I write this, I realise how stuck up this sounds. I have never picked a job because it pays exceptionally or guarantees a safe income. I always looked for jobs that are interesting, offer a lot of variety, allows me to interact with users. And that is a very luxury position, I never had to accept just anything because of limited options. It also has a sense of freedom, I work because I like to work and the income it generates is needed as I am not wealthy enough to sit back permanently, but it is just part of the incentives.

So there I am, browsing for jobs 🙂 and I find a few job descriptions that seem to match my profile. I see a job description that fits me perfectly and I decide to apply. I give the recruiter a call and they seem quite keen, I am asked to send my resume and salary expectation. Now that poses a new problem, I have no idea what market-conform fees are for these jobs. The job description listed a minimum and a maximum salary value. Am I going for the maximum possible, or the minimum. How does my resume and old jobs compare to the new ones? I knew exactly what I was worth overseas, but it is not as simple as doing a conversion based on exchange rates. As I have been enjoying a sabatical for almost a year, I do not want to start with a high pressure, work till you drop dead job. I was thinking of doing short term well paid contracts. But this job opening seems to be exactly what I like. I sent my resume, and within hours I got a confirmation that they will present me to their client. Yay… I might be on my way. But my partner said I gave them a too low value for my salary expectation. We’ll see…