to JobsMoving on to bigger and better things. The IS Department was slowly going to be moved down to Saint Luke's Hospital on the Plaza, but they still needed contractors to come in, learn the process and work the SMMC end of things until all the permanent personnel could be transferred. It was supposed to be a 6 month project, but turned out to take almost 1 1/2 years. I happened to be there a little over 12 months. They were also planning to migrate from a mainframe system to a client/server platform. This job was a great opportunity for me. I had no experience with mainframe or that type of processing environment before, and stated so during the interview. So when I was being asked about my experience with MVS, JES, TSO, ISPF, or VTAM...I was honest. He must have been impressed with my Rush Limbaugh power tie, because I got the job. Not only did I get lots of hands on experience with the mainframe, but the AS/400 and DEC/VAX as well. After six months, things really weren't seeming to go anywhere, but sometime around July or August, things sped up and before you know it we didn't have the mainframe anymore. Pretty soon, things were dead, but they still needed the contractors for whatever reason. One of the guys I worked already had another job, so he just kind of went away, but I covered for the days he would have been scheduled to work that I wasn't. So from August thru December, I worked 7 days a week. The overtime was pretty sweet. Just prior to big Y2K weekend coming up, I told the Supervisor that I would be coming in that weekend, and he said that December 31 was the last day for the contractors. This was news to us, because we've been asking many weeks ahead of this how much longer the project would be, ever since our job was essentially finished. A few phone calls later, it was confirmed that our last day was indeed the next day. Excuse me while I pull your dick out of my ass. That was a little sudden if you ask me. Luckily I had a little something in the bank to tide me over until the next job.
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