Looking for a Change
After five years living in Detroit, Michigan (1983 – 1988), I was tired of the gloomy weather, the rustbelt industries, the crime, and where I was at with my career. One night I sat on the carpet in the middle of my apartment living room and prayed for guidance. Within a week an opportunity came my way to take a 3-monh contract programming job with McDonnell Douglas in St. Louis, Missouri. It came by way of my first professional boss, Gary Alexander, who trained me on a very niche computer programming language (PROGRESS 4GL). There was a need for my experience on a project in St. Louis. I figured this was the change I prayed for.
I put in my notice with Parameter Driven Systems, I was QA analyst and was getting very little respect there. See a copy of my ‘bad-ass’ resignation letter, below. I loaded all my possessions into a U-Haul and drove straight through to St. Louis.
It was a sub-contracting job for Southwestern Bell with the technology division of McDonnell Douglas, located near Lambert International Airport. The project was called RIDES. They brought in programmers as far away as Iowa and Georgia. They would pay for our room (including furniture rental) and board and give us an hourly rate.
A New City
My first week in St. Louis I stayed at a rundown motel to keep my expenses down. It turned out to be a ‘no-tell motel’. You know, where you could pay for a room by the hour. Sure enough, based on the noise, I had neighbors who were there for a short time to give each other pleasure. I also had housekeeping use my hair brush one day I was at work and left their hair in it! I found out that some of the consultants were staying at The Residence Inn, a very nice place to stay for long-term contractors that was more like an apartment.
I signing an annual rental lease of an apartment in Knollwood Apartments in Hazelwood. I ended up staying there 5 years! The complex was directly under the flight path of Lambert Airport. This was back in the day it was an international airport and major hub of TWA. Quite often I would have to tell the person on the other end of the phone to hold on for a few seconds while a plane passed overhead. However, the daily low roar of a FedEx plane every evening around 11:15pm was somewhat comforting and a reminder that I should go to bed.
The New Job
The computer project took place on the McDonnell Douglas campus. We needed security badges to enter the building. One person at a time could enter a vestibule from the outside. You would look at a screen, hold up your badge, and wait for the guard to unlock the inner door. It was a government project, so there was a lot of documentation and red-tape. I was assigned to develop a controller module. It was so simple I had it done in a few days, but the budget had it taking a couple of weeks. So during my free time, I decided to created Unix shell scripts that automated the process of managing source control and building the application. It was used by every programmer on the project.
What Next?
The 3-month project was extended for a couple of months. I half-heartedly tried to get a permanent position with the McDonnell Douglas programming team, but they were not hiring. I also did not have a clue on how to market myself. As luck would have it, a project team member who lived in St. Louis was married to a statistician and worked at Citicorp Mortgage. He had an immediate need for a programmer.
Turned out to be one of the best jobs I ever had. But I’ll save that story for a future post.
‘Badass’ PDS Resignation Letter
Top Part of Innovative Solutions Employee Contract
Sample Timesheet
My First Project Expense Report
