We never see ourselves the way others see us

[cjsmith]

Yesterday my boss announced my imminent departure in our (small, just the OS group) team meeting. Just after that I sent the nice tidy "been great working with you, best of luck to the company" mail to the whole software team and a few random others I've worked closely with.

I was inundated with mail and with people dropping by, all saying they were sorry to see me go. I was completely useless for the rest of the day what with all the conversations. I had no idea I would get that much of a reaction! People I've worked with only very briefly -- an architect from the other side of the building, for example -- called it "a sad day" and said they'd enjoyed working with me! I was amazed. I think I've got more than 25% of the company coming to my goodbye lunch.

Jim called me outgoing. Can you believe it? Outgoing? My boss said I'm a hard worker and I never complain. I guess I save the whining for here! And lots of people praised my work, my intelligence, my responsiveness, etc. Here I've been spending months slogging through a project, thinking my God I've got to get out of this kind of work and back into something I can blaze through, and they're all saying I'm fantastic. Okay then!

I guess we never can see ourselves the way others see us. Over and over I fall into the trap of thinking I'm getting a better, more realistic image of my outward self, and then over and over I get gobsmacked when I learn that my image is way off the mark.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I guess it is! It sure was a pleasant way to spend the day.

Next, I'm going to look for a job! I really couldn't look for a job while working here. My Pretending Face is just not up to the task. So now I'll look for something more OS-like or more tools-like. Those I can do. Drivers, firmware... not so happy there.

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

What sort of languages do you prefer to write in?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

C, C++. On Windows and/or any flavor of Unix.

Sadly, what my resume screams is EMBEDDED OS! and I know that *most* embedded OS jobs are heavy on the drivers and firmware. Non-embedded OS, well, they want you to know (say) Linux internals -- which I don't. So that'll be an interesting thing for me to figure out over the next couple weeks: where exactly do I want to go with this, and how will I get there?

[eichin.livejournal.com]

it occurs to me that VMWare is recruiting (around MIT at least), and they (almost inherently) probably have challenges at that layer of the stack while still being pan-OS... (they're kind of large, and already owned by EMC, but I don't recall if that matters to you.) Just a thought. iRobot was also hiring last I knew, but I think they're MA-only at this point (but obviously also have embedded challenges...)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

VMWare is one of the places I'm looking, yes. I'd prefer a small company, but it's no deal-breaker. They've got some stuff that looks intriguing. They do a wide variety of things -- heck, they have at least two job listings that want X11 experience! They must be the last company still standing that wants that!

[sharya.livejournal.com]

I know lj was posting positions not too long ago... is that something that would interest you, or that you're qualified for?