On leaving

I just had my last day at my former employer yesterday; the last two weeks there were pretty busy. I got a lot done though:

I wrote a very long wiki page on all of the things that I do -- development and support wise -- and made sure everyone knew to look at it and come to me with any questions.
I handed over the support pager (a Blackberry) that I'd been carrying for over three years, 24/7.
I forked the code for the revered web application that started out as a prototype, and solved a few outstanding issues so we could make a point release. (This 'prototype' is now the main tool for managing document conversion.)
I finished off a few more outstanding issues for the new web application that we're using to make an ftp site look like a web application. (This is the application that has the dual web/REST interface. Happily, after grabbing CGI::Application::Dispatch from the magic CPAN pantry I got REST working fine.)
I held Transfer of Information (TOI) meetings with the two SysAdmins about the current state of the various application servers that I set up and supported, and also wrote a long wiki page doing a brain dump on that.
I also had a TOI meeting with two non-web developers about the current development effort of the revered web application that was close to being done. After spending Thursday afternoon in a long TOI meeting, we spent Friday morning doing more in-depth work on the main new feature, went to the farewell lunch, came back, worked on it a bit more, and got it running. The lead developer nodded, smiled, stood up, said "Check it in!" and strode out of the room. Now that's someone who's incredibly focused.
When I got home, I took down the VPN into work. I think that's everything.

So that's more or less what I did. Anyone else have stories to tell -- what you remembered, what you forgot? Frantic phone calls three weeks later?

Alex / talexb / Toronto

"Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds

Comment on On leaving

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Re: On leaving by Erez (Priest) on Feb 09, 2008 at 19:45 UTC
After I left my last place of employment, I sent my boss a long email with explanations where to find everything I worked on and how to make sure everything works (including every module I used). The first reply email was a dry thank-you. The second one was very worried and upset. Turns out he went and opened each module he saw in the email and when he noticed the licencing on them, he was extremely shocked that I took the liberty of open-sourcing everything, like File::Find and LWP::UserAgent. Software speaks in tongues of man. Stop saying 'script'. Stop saying 'line-noise'. We have nothing to lose but our metaphores.	[reply]
Re^2: On leaving by Herkum (Parson) on Feb 09, 2008 at 21:31 UTC
Should have pointed out that you open-sourced 'perl' too... You cost the company billions!	[reply]
Re: On leaving by zentara (Cardinal) on Feb 09, 2008 at 16:30 UTC
Oh yeah, before I leave, if you have any questions, go to perlmonks for answers. :-) I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Cogito ergo sum a bum	[reply]
Re: On leaving by Gavin (Archbishop) on Feb 09, 2008 at 18:19 UTC
What no party at the pub! Or is that still to come. PS Good luck at the new job	[reply]
Re: On leaving by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Feb 10, 2008 at 06:25 UTC
I still get calls from old gigs, sometimes months later. shrugs It's the nature of the business. My criteria for good software: Does it work? Can someone else come in, make a change, and be reasonably certain no bugs were introduced?	[reply]
Re^2: On leaving by talexb (Chancellor) on Feb 10, 2008 at 17:07 UTC
They haven't raised the possibility of me coming in to do some stuff in a few months -- and I haven't offered. But, if it doesn't interfere with the next job, I have the time, and we can come to sort of of arrangement, it might be possible. I'll also be fascinated to see how the other (non-web) developers get on with the variety of web stuff that I've left behind. Or whether they see about hiring someone to do the work that I was doing. Alex / talexb / Toronto "Groklaw is the open-source mentality applied to legal research" ~ Linus Torvalds	[reply]
Re^3: On leaving by Gavin (Archbishop) on Feb 10, 2008 at 18:56 UTC
Are you saying you were paid off? and you still left them all that help. You must be mad. Nothing like helping them to stab you in the back.	[reply]
Re: On leaving by Arunbear (Prior) on Feb 09, 2008 at 22:12 UTC
Why did you leave, if you don't mind me asking?	[reply]
Re: On leaving by girarde (Hermit) on Feb 15, 2008 at 17:37 UTC
About six months after leaving one place, I got a call about a NetWare for Macintosh install I had done more than a year before. The artist seemed quite confident that I would remember exactly what I had done in detail. This artist had not made it hard to leave that job.	[reply]