What I do for a living...
When my wife is asked what I do for a living, she tells people, but she doesn't tell all.
"He works with computers," is a typical response. She might even share that I work from home.
But some time ago, she stopped telling people the whole truth - that I am a voice user interface designer and developer of speech recognition enabled interactive voice response systems.
There are two reasons for this. The first is that she has to explain what it means to be a voice user interface designer and developer of speech recognition enabled interactive voice response systems. The second is that once she explains it, a typical response is, "Oh I hate those things." A less typical response is, "But he seems so nice and those things are so...evil."
And that's fine. It's easier to just say, "He works with computers."
I tend to tell the whole truth. And when I explain it, and people say say, "Oh, I hate those things," I assure the person that there are a lot of really bad systems out there, but I only build the ones that work well. And I firmly believe that I do.
At various points in my career, I have had to do some soul searching about my profession - especially when I consider Buddhist Right Livelihood. I once told my friend and employer that I would not work on a system for a company like Lockheed Martin because they make weapons that kill people. Fortunately, I was never put to the test. But I have worked on systems for some big companies that many people consider to be evil. This includes Wal-mart (technically Walmart.com when it was independent back in the day).
It's really a question of where I choose to draw the line. One could make a strong case that supporting some of the companies I have worked for in the industry that I work in pretty much guarantees I will be reincarnated as a dung beetle or worse. On the other hand, one of the systems I designed allows people to renew their registration over the phone instead of wasting half a day at the DMV in New Mexico. So maybe I'll get some points for that and come back as a bonobo or something.
Anyway, I have designed and delivered a lot of systems over the course of my career. While I believe they were all the best solution that could have been delivered given the state of the technology at the time of deployment and the constraints put on the project by budgets and business rules, there are only a handful of systems that I am really proud of.
Tomorrow we go live with Max for TDECU. And I think it is going to be a big success. They have been advertising the new system with billboards and radio spots in Texas for the last month or so. And there's even a video on You Tube...
Talk about pressure to meet a deadline!
Honestly, I'm a little nervous because a lot of us have put a lot of effort in to this system and I have a lot riding on its success personally and professionally. But it's that good kind of nervous like I used to get before a big tennis match I knew I could win if I did my best.
We are scheduled to go live tomorrow night (yes, Friday the 13th, I know) at 11:00 p.m. Central Time. And I am scheduled to have a nice tall 10 Cane and Jones Cola at 9:30 p.m. Pacific Time after a successful launch. Let's hope everything goes according to schedule.
"He works with computers," is a typical response. She might even share that I work from home.
But some time ago, she stopped telling people the whole truth - that I am a voice user interface designer and developer of speech recognition enabled interactive voice response systems.
There are two reasons for this. The first is that she has to explain what it means to be a voice user interface designer and developer of speech recognition enabled interactive voice response systems. The second is that once she explains it, a typical response is, "Oh I hate those things." A less typical response is, "But he seems so nice and those things are so...evil."
And that's fine. It's easier to just say, "He works with computers."
I tend to tell the whole truth. And when I explain it, and people say say, "Oh, I hate those things," I assure the person that there are a lot of really bad systems out there, but I only build the ones that work well. And I firmly believe that I do.
At various points in my career, I have had to do some soul searching about my profession - especially when I consider Buddhist Right Livelihood. I once told my friend and employer that I would not work on a system for a company like Lockheed Martin because they make weapons that kill people. Fortunately, I was never put to the test. But I have worked on systems for some big companies that many people consider to be evil. This includes Wal-mart (technically Walmart.com when it was independent back in the day).
It's really a question of where I choose to draw the line. One could make a strong case that supporting some of the companies I have worked for in the industry that I work in pretty much guarantees I will be reincarnated as a dung beetle or worse. On the other hand, one of the systems I designed allows people to renew their registration over the phone instead of wasting half a day at the DMV in New Mexico. So maybe I'll get some points for that and come back as a bonobo or something.
Anyway, I have designed and delivered a lot of systems over the course of my career. While I believe they were all the best solution that could have been delivered given the state of the technology at the time of deployment and the constraints put on the project by budgets and business rules, there are only a handful of systems that I am really proud of.
Tomorrow we go live with Max for TDECU. And I think it is going to be a big success. They have been advertising the new system with billboards and radio spots in Texas for the last month or so. And there's even a video on You Tube...
Talk about pressure to meet a deadline!
Honestly, I'm a little nervous because a lot of us have put a lot of effort in to this system and I have a lot riding on its success personally and professionally. But it's that good kind of nervous like I used to get before a big tennis match I knew I could win if I did my best.
We are scheduled to go live tomorrow night (yes, Friday the 13th, I know) at 11:00 p.m. Central Time. And I am scheduled to have a nice tall 10 Cane and Jones Cola at 9:30 p.m. Pacific Time after a successful launch. Let's hope everything goes according to schedule.
posted by Eric Soderstrom at 12:31 AM
2 Comments:
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy....do I have a story for you! I was actually recruited by Raytheon. Their tagline was "We own the kill chain..." and I swear on the bible this woman called me from a headhunting firm, told me I could name my price and said that they needed a "new image" to be "redefined to a new generation". I had only the week before said to Greg, "Why don't I have a job right now? Where's the calls? The offers?" And low and behold, out of the blue, like some Kharmic Litmus test I got that call. And we were kind of poor. And I was kind of worried... but I said, no, no thank you. I can't. I couldn't face family and friends. And then I went outside and unearthed a dead tree with all the rage.
And I don't think what you do is evil and I don't think what you do is wrong... FYI. Lots of things are annoying, but they sure do come in handy when you need them.
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