Current Contract Work

Most of my work in the last ten years has been contract employment. Some of these have been short term but they have also lasted as long as 2 years. I like long term employment but the regular jobs that come my way always seem have some glaring problem. Among other things, I have had great luck in picking companies soon before they either go under or get swallowed up.
That has put huge holes in my resume.
 It is always a toss-up whether to include an interesting computer experience or to leave off yet another short term job. Some of those short term jobs have been great learning experiences but it is hard to explain that in 20 words or less on a resume.
 Even my formal education has been somewhat ill-fated. In 2003 I spent three months of the summer learning Internet Programming at a place in Vancouver named Corporate Communications Training College (CCTC). Apparently though they were fiddling with the books and a couple years later they closed their doors without notice.
 Contract work has its upside and downside. The money is good and it has given me a degree of freedom. I can take a holiday when I want and I set my own hours. But that supposed freedom has some big costs. When I take that holiday I am not paid for my days off. And when one contract ends one never knows when the next one will start.
 Most years it is almost as hard work to look for employment than it is to actually put in 8 hours in an office.
Contracts have taken me to a lot strange situations from here to Mississippi. That is my biggest strength on the job market. There are plenty of software employees who have done the same thing for a decade or two. When things are chaotic or ill-designed or ill-fated I have had lot of experience in just those sorts of situations. I ask lots of questions, I learn fast and I get along with a wide variety of people. That is one of my strengths.

Active Alert Data Corp.

My current software efforts are for my personal corporation.
The name is Active Alert Data Corp.
My ActiveAlertData.com web site includes my resume and some details.

Data is what I do

I am a software contractor. I am currently working on a 6-month contract scheduled to end in January 2007. I have Oracle SQL, IBM RPG, Delphi Oracle and other skills.

My Software Summary

Oracle PL/SQL programming -- at least years experience plus Oracle education

Have completed 3 Oracle Education SQL and PL/SQL courses with programming exams

Have programmed procedures, functions and triggers

Other SQL experience includes IBM's DB2/400, Microsoft SQL Server and Access SQL

Experienced with Toad for Oracle development tools

Borland Delphi versions 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 2006 -- 10+ years experience.

Expertise using QuickReports, ReportBuilder, Rave, InfoPower and FirstChoice components

Have developed front end applications for several Oracle SQL and SQL Server projects

An 18 month contract involved production control software for truck / auto assembly

My 2003 year-end job involved Delphi / SQL Server development and extensive travel

2005 contract was with console batch applications in a mixed environment

Currently learning and working with Borland Developer Suite 2006

Internet programming and development -- 10 years experience

HTML, Active Server Pages (ASP), VB.Net, VBScript, JavaScript, Macromedia

Designed, developed and maintain several web sites that rate high in Google searches

Microsoft SQL Server:

2003 to 2005 SQL programming and database design -- 1 year experience

IBM iSeries / System i / AS/400 mid-range computers: RPG, COBOL, SQL, DDS, Embedded Queries, DB2 and CL programming -- 3 years experience

Up to date RPG and CL skills. Worked on current V5R3 version in mid-2006.

Maintained IBM System/36: RPG II programs -- 1 year experience

Borland Paradox for Windows versions 4, 5 and 7 -- 2+ years experience

Year 2000 (Y2K) Conversion Analysis and programming -- 3 years experience

C Programming: VMS C, Pro C and Borland C Builder -- 1 year experience

dBase versions: II, III, III+, IV and dBXL -- 3 years experience

PICK Basic, Revelation and Advanced Revelation -- 2 years experience

Microsoft Office Applications and Tools

Have worked with several versions in last 10 years. Did a lot of VBA and Access development. Skilled with macros, scripts and batch programming. Have done Excel automation using OLE and Activex.