Now I’m back from that unfortunate vacation, it’s time to get to work on my post-RIF “What comes after 20 years at Sun” plan. The next stage has two components: information gathering and making contingency arrangements.
First, information gathering. I’m going to talk to many colleagues — ex-Sun, still at Sun, never at Sun — about the state of the computer business: who’s hiring, what’s hot, and how they see things shifting between on-shore and off-shore, US and international, full-time and contract, in-house and consulting, and so forth. At this point, I’m trying to keep an open mind about almost everything. As part of this, I’m flying out to California for a few days at the end of the month. I’ll arrive at SFO on the morning of Monday April 24th, and I’ll be heading on to Denver on the afternoon of Thursday April 27th. I’ve set up meetings with quite a few people already, but if you’d like to chat, drop me a line.
Second, contingency planning. A couple of people have already asked me about whether I’m available for consulting work, and I’d like to try one or two short-term gigs to get a feel for the gestalt of consulting.* Therefore I’ve gone ahead and incorporated Clueweaver, Inc., “just in case”. Could be necessary, unlikely to be wasted.
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* I can’t decide whether or not consulting would be right for me without actually trying it. Apart from two stints at university, I’ve had “regular jobs” ever since 1968. And I’ve been warned by a good friend, who said of his time as a consultant, “The pay was great, the work was cool, but the boss was an asshole.” Point taken.
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I hope you are enjoying all the possibilities and new ideas brought on by Life after Sun. Have you read The Innovator’s Solution by Clayton M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor. I think you would find it thought provoking. Happy exploring!
[...] As I mentioned, I’m off to the west coast for a few day’s networking, catching up, and administrivia. I’m on a 6:10am flight out of Boston (you can imagine what time I’ll be getting up in order to get showered and shaved before heading in to the airport), and I’ll be spending much of tomorrow at Sun’s Menlo Park campus and Tuesday at the Santa Clara campus. It’s purely coincidental that Sun announces its earning tomorrow (and the rumours are flying thick and fast), and then on Tuesday all of the Sun VPs gather in Santa Clara for the Spring Leadership Conference. Contrary to what one smart-aleck suggested, it is NOT the case that the best way to get an appointment with a Sun executive is to get laid off. (At least I don’t think it is!) [...]
[...] on April 8, 2006, I wrote about how I was tackling life after Sun: First, information gathering. I’m going to talk to many [...]