My Last Three Positions

After leaving the job and company that I truly loved - because it was acquired by another company (no comment). I took the much needed time off (thanks to a nice severance package and transition bonus) - and spent quality time with my three little girls. During that time off - I didn't need to have the cell phone attached to me, or be online 24/7, it took some time but I was able to deprogram myself and focus on what's important in life - since life is so short.

I missed work and enjoyed working with technology – and one day I will have three in college at the same time – so staying at home and building SharePoint applications for fun wasn’t an option – so I needed to find a job close to home that would allow me to design and develop SharePoint applications-Yes - I’m a nerd.


Since my kids are number 1 in my life - spending as much time with them as possible and being able to pay the bills and college one day is very important. So I turned down many jobs because they were too far or required too much travel or not working with a technology platform that I felt good about - I was picky.

I wanted to find something close to home, allowed employees to telecommute, working mother friendly - a place I could bring my kids to on bring your child to work day. Like the placed I loved – where the CEO knew employees by name - who spoke with the employees children hosting an interactive session on "Bring Your Child To Work Day", even letting the kids explore his office and cherished collectibles (brave man). I was trying to find something that no longer existed.


Job #1


I found a job close to home, working with the technology that I loved (SharePoint), and a manager who shared the same beliefs as me regarding application development. I was an internal employee, had a decent salary, great benefits, the company allowed employees to telecommute - I didn’t know anything about this company nor did I know anyone who ever worked there - if I had , I probably would have never accepted the job. Plus the manager who interviewed me was moved to a different group a week before I started and I had to work for someone and a team of people who never interviewed me - and of course, they hated SharePoint.


The team was responsible for building and maintaining 5 custom .net applications, there was no documentation, no architect on the team, high turnover, college interns, etc. The applications were a mess and most of the functionality was available via SharePoint out of the box – plus SharePoint was being used by just about every other group except this one. This team didn’t care about the company – just job security.


I decided to resign after two months.

Job #2

Next job - I wasn't thrilled with the first project but it was a short term project(4 months). The pay was much more than what I wanted –but required out of state travel (2 weeks at the start – then 3 days a month until the end of the project). Then I was going to be part of the SharePoint team. I trusted them since one of the partners was a close friend of mine. I wasn’t going to be working for my friend but felt safe since I had worked for him for almost 10 years. Well the project was under estimated (by someone without the appropriate background). Plus – I was told that it was a custom.net application and I would be the PM and also responsible for the UI enhancements. I was the PM – but because this application was an old school VB application developed using windows forms – there was no UI work for me to do. The application was written over 10 years w/o any documentation and more than 300,000 lines of code. Oh and it was just compiled against the latest .NET assembly - HELLO- that doesn't make it a .NET application.


So they probably got the project because they were the only company who agreed to the timeline and they were probably the cheapest – w/o a doubt they had to be the cheapest. The next phase of the project was going to be a complete rebuild – so I get the strategy – lose money in phase 1, make it up in phase 2. I’m sure that the other companies who bid on it included a phase of evaluating the codebase, technical design, and documentation– that was more than two weeks and included more than one developer (and a dev with old school vb experience – the one developer had 20 years of experience but not old school vb experience – and I used VB 6 so briefly and it is not even on my resume). After a couple of days on the project, I let management know that we needed another resource and that the project was underestimated. They ignored me and expected me to code in order to meet the deadlines – which were set up as 3 week intervals. Needless to say we didn’t meet the first deadline – the developer couldn’t complete one task on the list. I was laid off after 1 1/2 months – and my replacement was eventually laid off as well. Then the client decided to take on the development internally. Well - they could not get the work done either - not a shocker!!

Job #3

I was hired as a BA but was given development assignments - and was expected to commute 2-3 hours each way even though I was told something else. I worked from home a lot - but the client wanted me work on-site 4 days a week - I just couldn't do that commute. So I was laid off...


Here I am looking again.. I know my last three career failures were not my fault and I am trying to stay positive.......but will it happen again? Is it because the economy is still weak? I'm going to keep searching for my dream job - I know it's out there.

Does Agile Metholodogy mean technical design on the fly or none at all???

Of course it doesn't!!!  The only way to ensure that an application is scalable and code is reusable is to include technical design as part of the Software Development Life Cylce. 

Frequent code releases and end user feedback are key to a successful deployment - an iterative approach is the only way to go in my opinion - but this does not mean throw the technical design phase out the door. 

This results in applications that are not scalable, code that is not reusable and much more poorly written code to maintain.  Forget about ever meeting your SLAs.

Also - when the business is too busy to meet with the team to discuss the requirements - they don't deserve a solution - they should just write the queries directly against the database. 

I cannot work for an organization lacking technical leadership; the leader needs to have a backbone, needs to stand up for the team and also needs to understand application development enough to review the code and provide guidance to the team (before 7 years of poorly written applications are deployed to the organization).

Of course the customers are the reason that there is a team - delivering and meeting the requirements are on the top of the list - but the business needs to contribute to this process in order for the project to be successful.

THIS IS AN OLD POST THAT I NEVER PUBLISHED - I am not referring to my current job and project.

New Jersey - a love/hate relationship

I have no intention of moving out of New Jersey - my family is here and I have never lived anywhere else. 
However much improvement is needed, and with Chris Christie in charge, things should finally improve.

Unions suck, especially the NJEA

Here is a quote from my husband posted in Facebook - so well written that I am stealing it.

"Our wonderful local governments have allowed the rediculous 6 figure salaries for multiple administrators which are cushy positions provided by pols to their politically connected buddies. A bill has been proposed capping their salaries. In our district at least they agreed to a salary freeze. The great governor is merely asking teachers to ... See Moreagree to a salary FREEZE and to contribute 1.5% towards their health care. This is not much to ask when 1 in 10 New Jerseyan is unemployed and our property taxes are the highest in the nation. Let's not mention the rest of those employed in the real world who will never enjoy tenure (a job for life no matter how bad of a teacher you are), who already pay much more than 1.5% towards their health care, and who did not receieve a raise last year, will not receive a raise this year and may not receive one next year. Its simply greed and the thugs running the NJEA that are the sole cause of the high cost of education in this State."

I would rather see all of the assistant supers get canned rather than making the teachers take a pay freeze, but given the financial situation of the state - we don't have much of a choice.

I lost my job and didn't get a pay raise in two years - plus I worked much more than 50 hours a week - that's the real world - something that state workes will hopefully soon understand thanks to Chris Christie.

Later :)

My 8 year old wants her own twitter account

Should I allow my daughter to have her own twitter account? Is 8 too young? She mainly wants to follow her favorite Disney stars - she has been using mine for the past two months and only posted twice. I also don't want my 5 followers to think that I am stalking 16 year olds.

in reference to: Twitter / Home (view on Google Sidewiki)

Happy New Year!!!

Hi All,

So I am excited that I actually have a reader of my blog. We call him the Crazy Dane or Vike. He has an unhealthy obsession with Bruce Springsteen and likes to set fires. He also was concerned that my wonderful husband of 10 years was not mentioned in any of my previous blog posts.

My husband Matt is the greatest guy in the world. He is very handsome and smart. I am so lucky to be married to him. Although he pisses me off from time to time - I love him very much!

BTW - we got a WII for Christmas and it's a lot of fun but my 7 year old has major anger issues. If she doesn't win - she screams, curses and hits her sisters. Any one have advice on how to deal with a sore loser?

One more thing to write about...

Thanks Matt for taking the kids to the mall so I could spend some time coding - I'm a little behind at work - and really needed the time. So thanks wonderful husband - what would I do without you??

See ya

Web 2.0

Hi Everybody,

It's been awhile since I blogged last - sorry about that. Needless to say - I am swamped. Very busy at work, home, life in general. One thing that I have been forcing myself to participate in is Web 2.o technologies. Since I am a member of the Enterprise Collaboration Services Team which promotes and supports Web 2.0 technologies in the workplace - I would be a hypocrite if I didn't use such technologies in my free time.

Since forcing myself to use Web 2.0 - I can honestly say that I am now hooked on it. By using Facebook, I have connected with people that I haven't spoken with in 20+ years. I have also reconnected with my best friend growing up (Lorraine) - I love her like a sister and I am glad that she found me.

Now as far as using these technologies in the workplace?? I have forced myself to use IM with colleagues - now I like it better than email. I am starting to use Wikis for documenting Sharepoint administration instructions. I will force myself to participate in the company blog and see how that works out.

On another note - the more I learn about Sharepoint, the more I discover what an architectural mess it is. Without a doubt, it is job security for all of the Sharepoint architects out there. I still feel that Documentum should be in the back end of every Sharepoint instance. If not DCTM - than at least get the documents out of SQL server and move them to a file server.

OK - I'm done ranting about Sharepoint. I am going to work on getting certified - and hope that MS redesigns Sharepoint to support CMIS. We'll see...

Talk to ya soon.
Lori Messina - Przywozny

Happy Birthday to Me :)

Good morning all :)

Well it's my 39th birthday - one more year to go to the big 40.

I really don't celebrate my birthday anymore at this age - but it's nice to see the kids get excited about it. My 4 year old asked me where I was having my party and suggested "Party Gym" (a local party place in Manalapan, NJ).

I'm just happy that I have three healthy little girls - I'd rather celebrate that than turning 39.

I am still trying to find/invest in something that will make me money on the side so I can work less and spend more time with the kids. I consider keeping house as part of my work - my real job as a portal architect is a lot of fun and I enjoy it very much. I want to make money on the side so I can get help with my house - the job I really don't like. Honestly, keeping house is much harder than designing Enterprise systems for large corporations. I need help... I need a maid but can't afford one....

So anyway - that is my goal for this year. I need to make money on the side (but not work for it) - so I can get help with my house. Than I will get to spend more time with my kids over the weekend instead of cleaning and being miserable.

Well - gotta go get my 7 year old up for school.

See ya :)