It's a small-ish business, family-owned and operated. Bunch of PCs to maintain. They have several applications. All in Access. 97. Yes, Access 97. The stuff is stored on a SQL Server 2008 db, with reasonably well documented stuff (internally, of course). The guy that wrote the applications is one of the family members that runs the business.

run and hide? or take it for a year until I can find a better gig?

7/7/2011 3:37:27 AM

get crackin' on conversion

7/7/2011 7:09:34 AM

I worked for a small business before I was laid off. There were a lot of positives to working there. If I ever needed time to run errands they were always fine with it as long as I made up the time. The negatives were the usual. If I went on vacation it was expected that is something came up I should be able to handle it. Not a lot of money for education or new software and hardware.

Overall it was fun and not as formal as the corporate environment. I don't think it would be bad for a year.

7/7/2011 8:33:11 AM

Do you currently have a job?

7/7/2011 9:12:58 AM

^..... exactly


If you have no income, wouldn't income be preferable?

For what it's worth I work for a small (less than 10 employees) company and I've love it. Definitely have to be flexible and learn new tricks now and then but it's been a blast for coming up on a year. I'm not quite making what I was hoping, but I am salaried and get paid vacations and major holidays. That right there means a ton to me - I like being able to go visit family on the 4th (for instance) and not have to worry about making ends meet without dipping into savings (I've got it all budgeted for retirement, savings, etc.)



[Edited on July 7, 2011 at 10:17 AM. Reason : grammar]

7/7/2011 10:16:33 AM

Personally, I'd rather work for a bigger company. Theres politics everywhere but when you're only say 20~30 people things get really cliquish and everything is a much more of a personal matter than just a political matter. I don't like leaving when I have my time in and being treated like I'm not doing my part by helping the other workers.

7/7/2011 10:36:50 AM

better than nothing but fuck that noise unless you can work from home often. a good few months of updating and streamlining and your only tasks ought to be trivial

7/7/2011 11:27:05 AM

Telecommuting ftmfw

7/7/2011 12:59:43 PM

I'd take it. You'll wear many hats, but the work you put in, will be recognized. Where as in a big company / team enviroment, your just another scrum peon.

7/7/2011 11:35:52 PM

Depends. Is the people who work there seem reasonably nice? Is the one who wrote the application seem dickish?

I'd probably take the job as a stepping stone if you were looking for a little break from the corporate world or to gain more job experience. Personally, I wouldn't stay there for no more than a couple years, but that's just me. Also, depends on the work load and if you are a one-man operation in a very small business setting.

I had a friend that was an IT manager at a 40 person business; got paid reasonably well, but was fairly stressful since he was on call 24/7 and no one else really knew his job. Nice for job security, but he ended up quitting after a year or so, took a pay cut and went to work for bbt.

7/11/2011 3:48:36 AM