Five months working at UCLA
So if you haven’t heard through other channels, I’ve been working at UCLA since August as a web developer in the residential life department. One thing that I really appreciate about this job is the departmental support I have to do things the “right” way. I love that there is sufficient time to not cut corners and really mull over and tweak the user interface and the underlying web framework (which I am creating) until I get it just right. Although a login is required to see most of my work, you can check out the department’s public site which I coded and maintain.
The significant downside to this job is the commute.
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If I leave by 5:45 it “only” takes 30–40 minutes to drive the 29 miles to work. If I leave at 6:30 it takes an hour or more. It’s worse on the way home. If I leave by 3:30 it is not so bad, but it has taken up to two hours on particularly bad days. I’ve made a habit of checking the traffic before heading in either direction. Public transit, at its fastest takes one hour and forty minutes and is thus sadly out of the question. I wish I could simply get on two trains and be done with it, but that’s apparently many years away. I guess this is pretty common in the Los Angeles area, but it sure is trying.