Work : Merrill Lynch
2004 was a busy and tulmutuous year for me. I started the year at ITT, moved to MediaWhiz for a month, stayed at Factiva for three months and almost got hired, and Merill Lynch marked the last stop during that year. Frankly, going in, I didn't have high expectations after my experience at Factiva and ITT; I was starting to think I wasn't cut out for working in a big business environment.
Happily, I couldn't have been more wrong :)
In short, the group of people I worked with at ML were among the nicest, hardest working, and most enjoyable people I've ever worked with. You couldn't ask for a better group of guys and gals than the ones that I worked with.
From the very first day, I was struck by the incredible diversity of the Merrill Lynch employees around me. It was unlike any other company I had worked for up to this point (except for MediaWhiz). Pakistani, Indian, Ukranian, African American, British, Chinese, and on and on. And you know what? The employees celebrated their diversity with events like a multi-national lunch buffet for charity (United Way).
I couldn't have been more impressed; I haven't seen such diversity since my days at Rutgers and I was glad to be in an environment where diversity was celebrated and embraced.
Beyond that, this was a group of people that I genuinely liked. You have to understand something about me: I've always had a tough time forming social bonds. I think this is partially because of my INTP personality and partially because of the fact that our family moved around a lot when I was young, which I think built up a natural defense in me to avert strong social bonds with other people as they would eventually be broken anyways; in a sense it was a way to protect myself from emotional pain. However, for the first time since working at iCanServices, I felt that this was group of co-workers that I genuinely liked and could see myself hanging out with in my spare time. It's rare that I could spend even 10 minutes discussing anything on a personal level with anyone, but it was almost as if I'd known these guys for years.
Kaz is the nicest manager that I've had the pleasure of working with. She was always very humble and very receptive towards ideas and input, a refreshing change from what I dealt with at Factiva. I think that many managers come from a development background and have deep, ingrained ideas of how things are done and what tools to use. Often, these ideas/ideals are so ingrained, that it's hard for them to come to terms with alternatives and new ideas, but Kaz was very open and receptive. The problem is that tools, technologies, and methodologies change; if you're not in the trecnches, you lose the tight connection with the actual lines of code which is the foundation of understanding the application as a whole. In these situations, some people will resist and continue to do it the way they've done it in the past. Others will listen and accept the fact that those in touch with the code, tools, and technologies will be able to offer the best suggestions. Kaz was definitely the latter.
Stan is, by far, one of the friendliest guys I've ever met. I think this guy could start a conversation with anyone. As a developer, I feel he has the same level of inquisitiveness and openess as I do. In addition, he has an inner fire for testing, testing, and retesting to make sure that what you wrote delivered on what it was supposed to do. I thoroughly enjoyed his anecdotes and pictures of his travels through Europe and working with a guy like him can only make you a better developer because he's demanding.
Pete is a great lead guy to work for. Like Kaz and Stan, Pete is very open to new ideas. On top of being a really nice guy, I think Pete really appreciated the extra effort I put into everything I do. He was a pleasure to work with and an all around great guy.
Rehka and Asawari are two consultants also from Butler (I was as well). For the first 2-3 weeks, I shared a cubicle with Rehka a very energetic and sweet lady. I would say the same for Asawari.
I will most remember Cindy for the Christmas card she left on my desk :) What else needs to be said? I was very touched by the gesture, even if it was only a trivial one to her.
So why did I leave? It was a very hard decision because of the aforementioned. But I felt that it was not a place where I would significantly improve myself as a developer. Some college ball players decide to leave early for the money, however, some join the pro ranks simply because they seek the greatest challenges they can find, even if it means that they'll spend considerably more time on the bench, being able to compete with the best in the world is a challenge onto itself.
Leaving ML was a tough decision to make, very tough, but one that I had to make in favor of stability and the hope of working with a broader range of Microsoft technologies at Immedient. At the time, the budget for the next fiscal year was not set in stone yet so no one knew whether we'd still be on projects come 2005 (although I'm pretty sure I was still going to have work to do at ML). Anoter part of the reason for this move was a sense of under-utilization. I spent my first two weeks writing Solitaire in JavaScript because Kaz was still trying to figure out how to utilize me. I even started writing Tetris in JavaScript after I finished Solitaire! And so, on the first (working) day of the New Year, I started my employment at Immedient.