tjaard.nl

Has been a while since I last posted something, hasn’t it…? I finally found a tad of time in which I thought it would be a good idea to fix the permalinks of my blog. My hosting provider upgraded their servers and initially they forgot to transfer hidden files, among which, shockingly, my .htaccess files. They were really helpful in recovering it, but I was a bit too busy with all kinds of things to do the final bit, namely putting it in place correctly and with the right permissions :) .

But enough chatter about my laziness… Since two months and a half, I’ve been working at my new job! Since 1 June I’m working as a technical consultant for ORTEC in Groningen. I am active in two different teams here: one maintains specialised gas field simulation software for the NAM and the other offers planning solutions to a variety of customers. I must say that I am quite happy with this, as the things that I am working on are very diverse. I’m tracking down bugs in pieces of Fortran (that may be over 30 years old) on one day and may be working on ASP reports the other. At the moment, most of the things that I do are aimed at getting me to know the software better.

While I may spend quite a lot of my time programming, I will also be involved in architecture design and consultancy. Developing myself in these things is exactly the wish that I expressed when I applied for the job and these are the things that I am going to get. And so far I got immense freedom to come up with ideas and to learn about customer relations, contracts, cutting good deals… In many respects I feel that I want to be able to develop vision and to think a few steps ahead to get customers exactly what they need and I feel that this is appreciated by my co-workers.

Ah well… a couple of days ago I realised that I am really glad that I did not choose a career in academia and got this job instead. I couldn’t see myself working solely on another thesis for four years and rather wanted to develop myself so that I can be of direct use to others and as a bonus I got a really nice atmosphere and great colleagues

I may share things that I learn every once in a while here – that is, as far that doesn’t cross company interests ;) . But this is all work-related stuff for now, folks… cheers!