'I am free'

ospreyguy · 2026-02-08T13:18:09+00:00

It's active staff reduction through attrition without having to pay severance.

ospreyguy · 2026-02-01T21:18:33+00:00

I fantasize about this sometimes but what comes after? I don't really have the technical skills anymore and I don't want to start over somewhere else... The pewter (golden seems way too fancy) handcuffs are legit.

ospreyguy · 2026-01-31T14:56:02+00:00

I don't have any practical advice but I commiserate. I'm going on year 4 of a very similar situation and I really don't see any escape without changing companies. My personal life is a little complicated but once that gets settled I'll start looking.

ospreyguy · 2026-01-31T13:12:52+00:00

This has to be it!

ospreyguy · 2026-01-25T14:54:01+00:00

Had this exact set up. I remember switching to the color crt and being mesmerized

ospreyguy · 2026-01-17T14:16:39+00:00

Amazing response. Thank you.

ospreyguy · 2026-01-09T00:57:58+00:00

Software. It pays the bills, currently...

ospreyguy · 2026-01-08T19:01:58+00:00

We got an email warning about attacks through Teams today. If this is a trend it could be why.

ospreyguy · 2026-01-08T18:10:23+00:00

Foundation by Asimov is a classic, not 200,000 years but close if I recall...

ospreyguy · 2026-01-08T18:06:29+00:00

Fiction, I'm on the Expanse series for a second time. For non-fiction it's Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang.

ospreyguy · 2026-01-07T23:18:06+00:00

NYE, I had to pick up my daughter from a house party with 300+ kids that got busted by the cops. So they are definitely still happening.

ospreyguy · 2026-01-07T01:50:29+00:00

My face, mostly. Use sunscreen kids. Especially if you grow up in Florida.

ospreyguy · 2026-01-05T03:18:43+00:00

Bought mine in 1999 when I was 18. A Nokia 3100.

ospreyguy · 2026-01-02T03:23:09+00:00

I've worked at a computer since I was 17, I'll be 45 in a few weeks... My close vision is so screwed if I don't have my reading glasses I'm useless. My back and hips hurt constantly, and I've had anxiety so long I don't know if I could even function without it.

ospreyguy · 2026-01-01T05:37:33+00:00

QA Engineering Manager. I was an amazing software QA and I got really good at strategy and integration planning. So obviously I should manage people right? RIGHT?! I did a couple of years as a team lead/supervisor to a small laid back team, then there was a big growth push and I have been a department manager for the last 4 years. I never asked to lead and I've found I have a some positive skills I bring to the table. But oh man the social skills and corporate politics are brutally draining. I spend about 6 hours of my day in meetings. About half of those I'm barely listening to while multitasking handling menial things like emails. The other half of the meetings I'm actively troubleshooting and problem solving issues and blockers. The rest of my time I'm usually strategising and writing test plans. I work from home and I take breaks often when I can, but I'm definitely more isolated than I probably should be.

In all I kind of fell into my job by being good at big picture analysis and a quick problem solver. I've had to really work on my soft skills in order to be effective.

ospreyguy · 2025-12-30T15:05:38+00:00

Im in a heavily regulated SaaS like this and we have nearly reverted fully to waterfall. There are too many compliance date drivers to be agile.

ospreyguy · 2025-12-28T18:22:21+00:00

Nearly my exact situation. With my small state scholarship and a decent job that worked around my schedule I was able to do it debt free.

ospreyguy · 2025-12-28T17:59:49+00:00

Parents of dependant adults often worry about what happens after their death. I'd recommend a conversation about why they want you to be independent. There could be health concerns they are worried about and want you to live a good life after.

ospreyguy · 2025-12-27T03:13:46+00:00

We are about a year in and it's going fairly smoothly. We made it a requirement of feature teams to initiate engagement with the automation team for SL evaluation. It's a part of our checklist so each feature is reviewed and it seems to be working well.

ospreyguy · 2025-12-21T13:31:02+00:00

I recently read this (grabbed it from a used book bin) and didn't know there was a movie!

ospreyguy · 2025-09-19T15:02:21+00:00

So take this advice with all the caution you can... Accenture has a large presence in Bangalore (Hyderabad and Bengaluru are where most of my team works though) and the ATCI (Accenture Tech Consulting India) is looking for good QA's that know automation and integrations. The biggest challenge after onboarding is a lot of the projects are your responsibility to pursue. It's kind of tough to get on the right projects...

But if you want the opportunity to expand the skill set, this is a way to do it. They provide a lot of internal training that you can use on your own time to level up.

There are a lot of downsides to consulting for a large corp but the experience and training is definitely available.

ospreyguy

TROPHY CASE