Nielsen

After 14 years, 7 months and 14 days (what a number) – I finally signed another document with Nielsen ending my official ties with the company. After the 31st of December 2007, I would now become an ex-Nielsen employee.

I took a job in Nielsen as an Analyst Programmer in 1993 leaving behind a Project Manager position in Joint Services which required me to travel a lot. I choose Nielsen for half-the-salary I was offered in Joint Services, primarily because Nielsen is more stable and it allowed me to spend a lot of time with my family.

I started as a Cobol-DB2 programmer on a product called Compumark which we have re-written to become the Sales*Link in OS/2-Sybase. Then we’ve re-written it again to the Windows NT-Sybase where it stays until now. The product was so successful, at one stage that there were 3 programmers and 3 client service and 1 operator attending to it. Two years ago, the product was declared obsolete – but today, it continues to draw revenue without much of a support.

When Retail Factory came into the picture – I volunteered to train as the Oracle DBA. Pauline Gumby supported my bid and Bernie Freeman with the blessing of Lawrence Michael sent me on an Oracle Certification Course. The Oracle 8i Professional Certification required 5 written exams which I completed in 6 months. Then I received an invitation to attend a masters class with Jonathan Lewis. To become a student of Jonathan is like a musician being tutored by Bethoven himself.

In the past five years, I’ve been looking after a 5 terabytes database and a number of smaller databases. The challenges my work impose is both enjoyable and rewarding. While Nielsen through the years changed structure and management, first as being a Dun and Bradstreet Company, to a publicly listed company, to VNU and now sold to consortium – my work in Nielsen has not been affected. Perhaps because my work is partly support – doing database administration, and software development as a natural by-product of my previous experience.

As part of a global Nielsen initiative to streamline its operation, the IT services has been out-sourced. Therefor my position in Nielsen has been made redundant. Early on this month I received notice from Bernie giving me the choice to stay until the end of December 2007 or end of June 2008. Today I accepted the offer to end my services at the end of the current month.

Shortly after signing this paper, I also accepted an offer from the Tata Consulting Services – the out-sourcing company who won the worldwide contract to provide Nielsen with corporate services. On the 2nd of January 2008 – I will have a new role as Associate Consultant and my first assignment – naturally, is the Nielsen Company.

The Tata Group is one of the largest company in the world, equal to the ranks of Microsoft and Oracle. I was indirectly associated to them when I was employed by Unisys Philippines. The software development support of Unisys, Philippines was created 1985 and patterned after Tata Unisys, India. I was one of the 9 trainees from a pool of 18 that was hired by Unisys which launch my I.T. career. I worked for a consulting firm for the next 10 years prior to joining Nielsen – so I have now done a full circle finding myself back in the consulting business.

Categorised in: Family, Journal Entry