The deployment had been running for twenty hours. I still wanted to make the meeting for another job.
Three days earlier, I answered a Craigslist post looking for somebody to maintain a few Linux and cPanel systems. I was the director of IT at Beatport and wanted five to ten more hours a week for extra cash. My note was not subtle.
I said I maintained about 150 CentOS nodes, could take calls at any hour, and knew the work would be straightforward. I even offered to do it for less than my normal consulting rate.
The reply came the next day. We talked. He offered me the work.
I forwarded the thread with one line: “It’s fun to be just slightly cocky. This guy offered me a job today though :)”
Then Beatport had a major code deployment and a new application to support. By early Thursday morning, the shift had reached twenty hours and was still going. I was supposed to meet the new client later that day.
I asked if we could push it to the afternoon or evening. I wanted to be a little more useful than a walking zombie. I also made it clear that I would rather show up tired than postpone the meeting entirely.
Beatport is the full-time job. I already have consulting work around it, and this new client would add another five to ten hours each week. The reason I gave in the application was extra cash.
Today the immediate problem is scheduling. I have been awake through a twenty-hour deployment, and the first meeting for the new work is supposed to happen later the same day.
I finished the message by asking him to email early so I could wake up, check the plan, and get moving. I am still trying to make the meeting, just not at the original time.