Code monkey go to job

[bnewman]

I haven't been keeping up with this journal much since my life derailed a year and a half ago, but things are going well and my life has been steadily getting back on track in most respects. Most exciting of all, I have a real job now. That's right, I have set aside my PhD program and accepted a position as a corporate peon.

Specifically, I am a software developer for athenahealth, a technology company in the health care sector which provides cloud-based software solutions to medical practices. I'm a member of the release engineering team, which means that, rather than working on the software that is the company's product, I work on internal tools and systems used to test the software and roll out new versions of it as they become ready.

I've been working for Athena (I do love saying that, but I'm not going to get into the current state of my made-up religion in this post ;-) since the beginning of October. I neglected to mention this at the time because I wasn't sure what to say and I wasn't sure if the job was really going to stick. I've occasionally had to pinch myself to make sure it's real. But just today I had my three-months-in performance review with my manager, and it went very well. So I guess this is for real. Yaaaaaaaaaay!!!

Comments

[thnidu.livejournal.com]

icon

[hms42]

Congratulations on the successful job.

[hsifyppah.livejournal.com]

Yay cool job!

[maverick-weirdo.livejournal.com]

And the peons rejoice!

[sheistheweather]

Hooray! Yay, I'm so glad to hear it!

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

Yay!! I'm so glad it's going well! :)

[crystalpyramid]

That's awesome! And I love that the name works — I used to go to a clinic in Rochester called Artemis Health (my doctor had actually been a Classics major at Swarthmore, which had to be relevant somehow) and it made me happy (although Artemis is sort of scary when you think about it).

Also hi! And I love you! And it's nice to hear from you!

[seishonagon.livejournal.com]

Excellent news! Glad things are going well, and glad you're enjoying working for Athena. What a great name for a software company. ;-)

More on the status of your religion in another post, maybe? Always interesting food for thought.

[madfilkentist]

I hope it continues to work out well! Maybe at some point after you've got money and things are settled down, you can get back to your PhD work.

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

It's great to hear from you again; I have missed you.

I am very glad your new job is going well, and may "working for Athena" be fulfilling and renumerative!

[bercilakslady.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad for you! Yay good jobs!

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

[wayman.livejournal.com]

I am overjoyed to hear this!

I'm sorry I've been so out of touch. Perhaps we're both in better places and can start to rectify that.

Also, I now own a house (in Montague Mass) well-suited for house concerts. I'd love to have you visit and give one sometime this winter/spring if we can work that out.

[gallian.livejournal.com]

yay!

[aryky.livejournal.com]

Congratulations - I'm glad that you've found a really exciting job and that you're so happy to be continuing with it! I look forward to hearing from you more in the future with even more positive news :)

[amyprime.livejournal.com]

Hooray for code monkeying!

[debka-notion.livejournal.com]

Hey- glad to hear from you, and even gladder that work is first extant and second productive and enjoyable.

[batyatoon]

HURRAY! \o/

It's so great to see you posting here again, and yay for gainful employment!!

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

It was nice running into you at Arisia!

[rebeccapaul.livejournal.com]

I missed you around here - glad to hear things are looking up!

[hillarysherwood.livejournal.com]

Glad you're posting again. And a belated Congratulations!

[batshua]

YAY! YAY! YAY!

(Please send some job mojo this way!)

(Hey, are they hiring people for non code monkey positions? I could have boring meetings with boring manager Rob!)

[batshua]

I HAVE NOT SEEN THIS ICON OF YOURS BEFORE. IT BRINGS ME JOY.

ahem

Uh, that is all.

[sheistheweather]

:D

[(Anonymous)]

Dear Mr. Newman,

I've just read an *outstanding* analysis paper entitled Dennett's Consciousness Explained: Its Critics, and the Controversy over the "True Natue" of Consciousness. The author is only given as Benjamin Newman, Swarthmore College. Would that be you? If so, congratulations on some really nice work.

Jim Gregoric
james.gregoric@childrens.harvard.edu

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

That is mine, and thank you.