"So, what’s this project you’ve got in mind for me?” Who: John Connor and Gwen Stacy When:Friday after work Where: John’s office What: Job offer Rating/Warning: Low/none Status: Complete
John had pretty much finished setting up the office he was working out of. There were two rooms, the first one was where he met with prospective clients if they didn’t want to meet at their own offices and the second was larger and packed with computer terminals and work stations. There were bits of computer everywhere and it looked, to the untrained eye, like it was chaos but to John it was pretty much what he’d dreamed of. The nice dreams not the past life saviour of mankind dreams.
He had a number of projects on the go and one in particular he thought would be of interest to Gwen Stacy so he was now waiting for her arrival to see if he could convince her to take it on and become a consultant he could call on.
Gwen hadn’t met John Connor yet, though they’d talked on Valarnet, and sent emails back and forth. Word was that he was very talented, and he assured her that whatever project he was working on wouldn’t be a conflict with her contract with Stark. So she was intrigued. It’d be fun to get out a bit and do different work.
She showed up after work and looked around. It seemed like a nice place.
John was working on one of the computers when Gwen arrived, opening the door he smiled at her, “Gwen? I’m John, it’s good to finally meet you” he said in greeting holding out his hand, “Welcome to Connor Computing”
“Hello, John.” Gwen broke into a smile and reached forward to shake his hand. “Thank you. You’ve got a really nice set-up here.” She added, nodding and looking around at the different computers. “State of the art. So, what’s this project you’ve got in mind for me?” She said, getting straight to the point.
“Thanks, figured it wouldn’t look good to have outdated systems when I’m trying to impress clients” he grinned. “Okay, come right this way and all will be revealed” he instructed leading her over to a terminal and gesturing for her to sit as he grabbed another chair.
Gwen moved over and took a seat, setting her bag down on the desk next to the computer. She clicked on right away, finding she was right at home at a computer terminal, pretty much no matter where she was. She waited for him to give her instructions, though, before doing anything besides click.
John was amused to see she automatically clicked the computer on, it was exactly what he did when faced with any computer.
“So basically the spec is in the ‘Frognell Ltd’ folder on the desktop” he said, indicating the computer in front of her, “They’re looking to increase their network to their other offices across the county but with specific access for certain teams and they don’t have the skills in their current IT department. Is that something you’d be interested in?” he asked her.
“Oh, are you kidding? That’s right up my alley.” Gwen said, clicking it open and looking at the specs. “Yeah, this is definitely something I can help you with. I mean, once it’s set up, not sure how much you’re going to want me to do after that... they’ll need someone to work maintenance.”
John smiled, “Oh that’s great” he said, “We can put options to them, they can pay a monthly fee to us to maintain it for them or they could pay a one off fee for you to maybe show one or two of their guys how to do it. I’m open to either option if you are”
Gwen nodded. “I’ll definitely be open for consulting or problem solving later down the road, once everything is in place.” She said. “It might take more than one session or two to teach them how to maintain the network, but we can absolutely try it. It’d make better business sense for them to continue paying you for maintenance, if that’s the direction you want your business to go.”
“That would be great, thanks” John nodded glad she was on board, “Honestly, I don’t think they have anybody they would trust or who would be able to learn so offering that is more a goodwill gesture on my part. I fully expect them to take up the maintenance offer” He was getting better at thinking with a business head.
Gwen nodded. “So... shall I just... get to work, then?” She asked, eager to get started. “Or, I suppose we should talk contracts and payment and all that junk first?”
“I’ve drawn up a provisional contract, all checked for legalities of course and a suggested salary but of course we can negotiate if you aren’t happy” he told her, “If you want to come through to the ‘show’ office we can sort it out?”
“Honestly, I’m more excited to get out of my office and do some real computer work. Networking. Like I was trained to do. I get a lot of ‘did you turn it off and on again?’ working IT at Stark.” She said, giving him a nod and a smile.
"I can imagine" John nodded, "People that really shouldn't be allowed to try and work a computer right?" he laughed. "I can promise I will only give you the interesting jobs that will give your brain a bit of a workout" he teased.
“Good stuff.” Gwen said, giving him a grin. “I’ll get started.” She was ready to sink her teeth in. She opened up the programs she needed, cracked her knuckles, and started in on the computer.