FAQ regarding George Woolley's Work Experience
LIKES and DISLIKES
What do you like in a work environment?
- a company that has a direction that is expansive and motivates me.
- supportive, positive, effective management.
- relaxed environment with challenges.
What do you like in a job?
- working on something specific, but as part of a team.
- producing tangible results that make things better for users.
- developing with good tools like Perl.
- anything involving Perl, text, and training is a plus.
- being clear on the relation of my work to the direction of the company.
what do you not like in your work?
- environments where the Dilbert comic strip seems accurate.
- poor tools.
- not getting paid on time.
What's your favorite language?
- Perl 5, for now.
- Perl 6, once it's released.
- (I also like Java.)
Why Perl?
- very easy to write code. easy to teach. reasonably fast.
- has excellent notation for string handling.
- hashes (aka associative arrays, aka named arrays).
- superb integration of features, especially in a UNIX environment.
- modules such as CGI and LWP.
- easy to write object oriented code.
- easy to create user interfaces in a UNIX environment with Perl/Tk.
- the creative Perl culture.
Where (geographically) do you wish to work?
- somewhere I can get to easily from where I live.
I live in Oakland near the Grand Lake Theatre.
- generally anywhere on the Daily City/Concord or
Richmond/Fremont BART line would work well.
- given sufficient incentive I might be willing to move.
- but better than any of the above would be working at home.
EXPERIENCE
Do you have a resume?
Can you supply a copy of your resume?
- If there is a reason to, I can e-mail an ASCII version.
- Or I could send you a print out of my web resume.
How long have you been using UNIX and Perl?
- UNIX since 1989.
Perl since 1994.
Have you worked on production systems?
Yes. E.g.
- At Citibank, I was responsible for parts
of the Automatic Teller Machine and home banking systems
used by thousands of people.
- At I/PRO, the filters I wrote or modified when released to production
processed logs, typically daily.
Are you a UNIX system administrator?
- never had that title or function.
- have of necessity done some system administration,
e.g. when teaching UNIX.
- have two LINUX systems at home which I do some system administration for,
but not a lot, since they are very stable.
- am webmaster of several websites.
- have written many Perl scripts (often run as cron jobs)
to backup critical information, to address security issues,
to monitor disk space, etc.
Have you done much writing?
- Yes, a lot.
- I've done way more than my share of documentation.
- I've done a lot of writing for self-teach manuals.
- I've written over 20 reviews of O'Reilly books.
- I've written many other things too.
- I actually like to communicate through written words.
OTHER
How did your job at I/PRO relate
to your interests?
At I/PRO,
- I used Perl in a UNIX environment
to do software development
(filters and various tools).
- I also did some (not much) training development
mostly involving developing teaching materials,
teaching classes and coaching people
in Perl and UNIX filter utilities.
- I also developed a website which aimed to make
the process of my job
(and functions others do related to my job) repeatable.
In the web site development,
I used HTML and CSS in a simple way
that took minimal time away from my primary functions.
Why do you work?
- I work because it's challenging and satisfying.
I enjoy creating order out of chaos.
I enjoy making things better for actual people
by producing results they need.
Are you available?
- Yes, for something that relates to my interests.
(FAQ as of 2004-06-13)