Publications and A New Employer

[tcpip]

As broadly hinted in recent journal entries, I'm leaving my current place of employment. There has been a couple of major decisions on the future of the company by the governing board, and alas, I think that they are I don't think it is the wisest to say the least, but it is their decision. It's been particularly hard for me personally, as I have been an passionate advocate of this organisation and its purpose for many years. In my last couple of weeks I'm compiling my knowledge into various publications (proper-like, with ISBNs and all). I finished the first yesterday, with the snappy title Supercomputing with Linux (ISBN 978-0-9943373-0-6), and a further two are in the pipeline for next week, both half complete. The plan is to distribute these wih a CC license, so that the prime purpose of the organisation - providing researchers the capabilities to use high performance computing facilities - is carried out.

Shortly after that I'll be taking up a new job at the University of Melbourne with their Research Platforms group as an HPC Support and Training Officer, which means it is very similar to the job I've been doing for the last eight years or so at VPAC, but - I must acknowledge - with a fairly good pay increase. It generated a bit of hand-wringing over the past few weeks as I was also offered a position at a Sydney university as their eResearch Technical Team Leader which had an equivalent pay level but with more responsibilities, and apparently RMIT was also interested in taking me up (all too late, really). I gave a recruiter for Amazon a considered opinion on the matter.

I must say I've been quite lucky in life with my respective major employers: the Murdoch University Student Guild, the Victorian Parliamentary Labor Party, the East Timorese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing, and now the University of Melbourne. All of them institutions I could have some degree of belief in and loyalty towards. Certainly my socialist preferences find it difficult to enjoy an environment where surplus value is extracted, but even more so where the strategic orientation of the organisation is towards monopolistic advantage. My interests are towards infrastructure and knowledge over consumables and commodities, towards public goods rather than private profits, towards the lasting rather than the ephemeral - and I have been so fortunate to have been granted the opportunities to put those orientations in practise.

Comments

[helvetica]

Wow that's big news about the new job! It's good you were able to find a new position, it seems like a great opportunity! I'm glad you didn't go with Amazon, I've heard some pretty nasty things about them as well.

I'm excited to hear about how the new job starts off :)

[tcpip]

It is big news, especially after eight years in my current role. The alternative was perhaps a better (albeit different) position but required me to move interstate on short notice.

From what I've been told I don't think I would have liked Amazon. High level destructive internal competition is not really my thing.

[uke.livejournal.com]

Congrats and best of luck with the change!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I'm honoured... uke has posted to livejournal!

And it is well about time that we caught up again. How does Saturday Dec 12 sound? I have a book that needs returning!

[uke.livejournal.com]

We'd love to see you guys again soon, hopefully at our place for a meal of some sort! Dec 12 is unfortunately booked—we have visitors coming from the US who arrive the day prior, and are staying for 3 weeks (I think?). Any chance of something before then?

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

How about the afternoon/evening of Saturday the 5th of December?

[uke.livejournal.com]

That works! Earlier is better for us because of baby—just let us know when is good for you and I'll make it happen.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

OK, let's go for a ballpark figure of around 2pm. That should give caseopaya enough time to get back from Pilates etc.

[uke.livejournal.com]

Sounds great, looking forward to it!

[tabouli.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... can I deduce from this that you might be a great person to talk to about developing online training programs? And if so, we should talk!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

That deduction is indeed quite accurate. Would it be correct also to deduce that this would be for the names from many places?

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I hope the new position works out well.

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

There is always that risk, isn't there? There's quite a few people whom I've worked with before, so I think the dynamic will be good, we have a good sense of each other's space and capabilities. So cautious optimism reigns.

[coconuthead.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on your new position!

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Thank you kindly coconuthead! Hopefully all will go well!

[carlowe.livejournal.com]

Congratulations :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Thanks carlowe, I am but sorry we didn't manage to get VPAC on your CV

[laura-seabrook.livejournal.com]

a big step. :)

[tcpip.livejournal.com]

Hopefully not off the precipice :)

But more seriously, UoM is a larger organisation that is hopefully more able to stay level in the high winds of financial uncertainty, something which the lean and agile VPAC was not the best at.