A friend

I want to talk about a friend of mine who I owe a lot to. He's had such a big impact on my life that I feel like I have to tell his story, at least a little bit.

Ray was a crusty, swearing, irreverent Vietnam veteran. He smoked a pack a day and drank coffee like it was water. If it was 4 PM at work, he would brew an entire fresh pot and announce it to the whole room, like he was doing everyone a favor. His sense of humor was certainly dated, and I think if he wasn't the boss of his own company, he wouldn't be employable, because the things he said in the office would get him fired from any normal corporate environment. Still, he was a likable curmudgeon.

Ray ran a company selling software to the federal government. He bought the software from a previous company he worked at and turned it into his own business. The company never grew much nor became very profitable; I think it was mostly out of stubbornness and a lack of interest in changing that Ray continued to run this organization. He wasn't a great businessman, but he loved doing what he did, and he did it for much longer than he should have.

Because we were friends and he knew I was 23 and unemployed, he hired me to be a technical writer. I had zero experience writing professionally, but I needed a job, and he had money to pay me. My other coworker was a guy I went to high school with that I was also friends with - he was hired on as a programmer, also with no experience. Neither of us knew what we were doing, but we also didn't get paid very much, so it was a fair trade off.

Since the company was only 4 or 5 people at its largest, I got to do a lot of things besides technical writing. I went to trade shows, networked and sold software, wrote marketing material, handled customer questions, handled release management, did QA testing, and generally just did whatever was needed. Doing all of these different things was fun and exciting, and showed me I could learn how to do lots of things quickly. It was incredibly satisfying, and it's one reason I like working at small companies.

I was hired because the company had landed a big new contract with a government agency. We became their vendors and support people, which meant I had to have a security clearance to go into the building. Ray sponsored me for a clearance, and after filling out an incredible amount of paperwork and waiting 11 months, I got it. This was supremely valuable for my career, because having a clearance immediately gave me access to higher paying jobs, even with minimal experience.

Eventually Ray ran out of money to pay me, but I was able to get another job fairly quickly. I now had some professional experience writing and a security clearance, so I landed another technical writing gig within two months. That job ended, but I got another, and I stayed there for a few years. From that job, I became a software engineer, then an instructor, and eventually an engineering manager.

My life would not be where it is today if it wasn't for Ray. He gave me a job, but that job gave me enough experience to grow into to the next one, and then the one after that. He helped start my professional career, even though I don't work in that industry anymore.

Ray didn't give me a lucrative job - I was given the job I could do at the time. What he did give me was guidance, coffee, friendship, and lots of intangible help that I can't even begin to enumerate. He saw that I needed help, and he helped. I can't imagine anything more valuable than that.