The least worst?

Rick formally gave notice today that he's leaving the bank; he'll start at our competitor in two weeks. His manager, whom I talked with last week, asked him if I seemed interested in the position; he said that I was meeting with him today, so it seemed that I did.

And I am interested, although it promises to be a rocky start attempting to get up to speed. However, after reviewing things the last couple days, it seems doable. But not much is written down, and once Rick is gone, the last of the technical knowledge base walks out the door. (This is the corporate payback for "lean and mean" staffing: risky transitions when your staff of 1 leaves.)

Naturally this means it's important to get some training from him before he goes. So I will try to sit with him for a bit and pick some things up. One minor detail: it's not my job. In fact, the manager had Rick prepare a list of skills needed; then I'm supposed to rate myself on each skill for her. And she probably does have time for a quickie posting of the job. It's too early to tell what will happen.

I am also not blind that this is not the greatest of options, and is probably something I would not look at except now, when I have a gun pointed at my head. It's a mainframe-based system, no Web aspect, and a daily 2:30 AM production support onus. Since I would be the only support person, Monday through Friday, every week of the year, I will go to bed not knowing if I will sleep through the night.

The other lead I'm pursuing is a Web development job, and I would learn .NET, an up-to-date technology my resume is lacking. However, it's not a funded position, the earliest I might know anything more is next week, and - the best part - it reports up to the guy that outsourced me. Job security here would be tenuous at best. Mr. Outsource's focus is architecture, and he has shown little interest in paying for Web developers when he could use those same positions for technical architects.

With Layoff Date looming June 30th, these are my choices.

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