2009-10-11

Adventures with Django

On Thursday evening, I gave a short talk at PyAtl on Django at the AJC. It went well, and there were a good number of questions afterward on our system and architecture, as well as on how Django is perceived within the company.

Unfortunately, our ridiculously amazing Django group at the AJC is being broken up. In a move that makes a lot of sense, Cox is pulling web development into a central group that will take care of 128 radio stations, television stations, and newspapers across the country. However, they're shrinking the number of development positions by almost half. We are keeping a team at the AJC, but it too is shrinking by half, and shifting focus a bit to deal more with legacy system integration and AJC-specific projects.

We have to apply for positions within the new organizations: resumes, interviews, the whole shebang. While completely understandable, the uncertainty, unknown timeframe, conflicting schedules, and confusing process are making things difficult for everyone involved. The 50% shrinkage means that we all have to be looking for jobs outside of AJC and Cox too, just in case. The AJC has already lost the best manager I have ever worked for, and I'm sure there will be more.

These are certainly exciting times to be working in the media industry: whether exciting-good, or exciting-bad, it's sometimes hard to tell! I will be more than happy if I get to keep doing what I'm doing now, either at the AJC or in the new central group.

And if you are looking to hire Django developers: sadly, I may have a few amazing candidates for you shortly.