Vance lands his bike on a 3000-friendly path
August 28, 2007
HP's Jeff Vance — one of the most prolific contributors of HP 3000 software and utilities — retired from HP on May 31. It took him less than two months to land his next job, writing software for educational application vendor QSS. The firm is carefully migrating some of its HP 3000 customers to Linux and HP-UX, and Vance will be helping in the effort as a Senior Technologist.
I now work for Quintessential School Systems (QSS) in San Mateo. They develop, sell, and support quality financial apps for public school districts K-12 and have generous share of the market.
I'll get to wear several hats at QSS -- I'm wearing two now with more to come shortly! They really are a great company. The folks I've met are ethical, hard-working, kind, smart, and have a healthy work-life balance.
I have the title of "Senior Technologist" and all I know for sure is they got the "senior" part right! I am starting off learning the Ruby language and using it in a Ruby on Rails framework for new web apps. I'll be able to work directly with customers too! So far the job is great! I even have an office with a door -- wow!
Vance spent much of his most productive time for the 3000 at a home office in the Santa Cruz Mountains. An avid mountain biker, he's taking his bike to work now. "I even brought my bicycle to work today and did a short lunch ride -- there are 7.5 miles of singletrack trails in a nearby park!"
It's a kudo for QSS to land Vance as well. When he retired from 28 years' work with the 3000 for HP, he said "I am looking at other companies where I can wear several hats, and help them create solutions to delight customers. I want to remain close to the end users."
HP 3000 veterans can leverage their IT development experience for new positions. Even if MPE and COBOL is all you know well, you've probably also gained great insights into building business solutions for end-users.