It's Friday, aka "Compiling Day"

[LeadMaster]

Typical Friday at the office.

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[vangogh]

Funny. That brings back memories of when I was working as a software tester. I wasn't compiling, but I was often installing multiple operating systems in multiple languages on multiple VMs on multiple machines. Some days I might spend a half hour setting everything up and then having nothing to do for an hour or two.

[Freelancier]

Some days I might spend a half hour setting everything up and then having nothing to do for an hour or two.

I did software testing one summer for IBM when I was in college, back in the white shirt and tie days at IBM. The software was a database server running on an operating system that had never been released (I think they were up to version 4 of it at that point and I don't think it ever saw the light of day).

Anyway, they had the developers writing and building all day and had me come in at about 3 pm to see what they were doing and then to start testing once they left until about midnight. Most nights, I was left alone to run the test suite and document what it would do and try to isolate issues for the next day's development. I'm all alone, age 20, in a computer room at IBM at night. So I bring in a Walkman and headphones. And sometimes I would dance and sing (out loud) with the music while a test was running. And, of course, one night, my manager came in to check on me... I'm not sure how long he stood there watching me, since my back was turned to him, but it was enough to be a running joke with the rest of the dev team the next day.

[vangogh]

Funny. My situation was different, though there is an IBM connection. Everyone was there at the same time. I was hired as a temp for 6 months I think and then extended a few times. 2 or 3 other people were hired shortly after me to do the same job. The developers would do their thing and once they were finished with a round of programming we tested for a few weeks. Then we had nothing to do until the developers did their thing again. Of course I was always expected to be doing something during those down times. I'd let my managers know I needed work and had nothing to do and they never did get me anything to do. It's one of the most boring jobs I've ever had, though all the people I worked with were great.

After working there about 10 months we were all told we were going to be made permanent. Then IBM bought the company and since the software we tested here was similar to something IBM already had they let just about all of us go. About 15-20 people were kept on if they were willing to move to Massachusetts I think. I was not one of them. I ended up started my own web design business and here I am.