Thursday, April 29, 2010

Day 6 –Transition – Creating Baseline Part I

One of the activities that I want to share in this blog is working towards becoming healthier through exercise and losing weight.

As I have thought about this my vanity creeps up and asks how much am I willing to share.  This has been a back and forth conversation with myself this last week and this conversation continues.  I will try to navigate within the boundaries of my vanity while at the same time sharing enough to make it pertinent.

This last year I turned 50, an ominous age.  I hope the next trimester of my life is as good as the first, but I’m definitely leaving this one in worse health than I began the first one.  Being overweight is having ramifications in my health.  Spending 22 years in an office environment hasn’t helped the situation.  A comfortable life breeds small behaviors that over time, and when combined with other small behaviors, contribute to a long term journey away from optimum health.

During this time of great transition in my life, taking on  additional changes will not be felt in the same way as if no other transitions were happening.  Maybe this will add an extra 5% to the difficulty and complexity of what I’m going through.  For a little additional discomfort, these changes will make large difference in the long run.

I’m not one for fade diets or quick fixes.  I’m one for changing the underlying bad habits and then allowing these changes to play out over a longer time.  So I work on creating new habits to replace habits that aren’t working.  It takes longer and can be harder to accomplish but in the long run I think it will work.

In his book “Path of Least Resistance”, Robert Fritz talks about the idea of creative tension.  Creative tension is a force that is created by dissonance created in the mind between what our current reality is and what our future desires are.  The creative tension force can then be used to propel a system to the future state with little expended energy.  Or put another way the energy to remain in the current state is higher than the energy required to move to the future state creating the path of least resistance.

Without a clear future state, our body and human systems strive to resist change, to maintain homeostasis.  This allows us to spend the least amount of energy to complete tasks, and is an important survival trait from when our ancestors roamed the Serengeti.  But today with computers, TVs, and cars our biggest problem isn’t the conservation of personal energy expenditures—homeostasis keeps us on the couch in front of the TV, parking in the spot next to the door, spending hours in front of the computer screen, and and basically not moving.

From Dictionary.reference.com:

ho·me·o·sta·sis [hoh-mee-uh-stey-sis]

–noun

1. the tendency of a system, esp. the physiological system of higher animals, to maintain internal stability, owing to the coordinated response of its parts to any situation or stimulus tending to disturb its normal condition or function.

2. Psychology. a state of psychological equilibrium obtained when tension or a drive has been reduced or eliminated.

Defining the two end points, the current state or current reality and the future state or future vision is the secret sauce the makes creative tension work.  In Lean workshops, creative tension is the dynamic that is being used to realize gains after the workshop is complete.  When I facilitate, I may know very little about how people are do their work, but I do know how to create the tension that will propel them forward to a more efficient workplace.

This is what I will attempt to do with my own health situation, create a tension that will help move me towards a desired end state.

Step one is concerned with getting really clear about the current state.  If you don’t know exactly where you are at, then you won’t know the correct direction in which to move.  People have a tendency to avoid this step.  They either assume they know it or just don’t want to jump as quick as possible to the future, but this is a big mistake.  It is extremely important to get very clear and precise about the current reality. 

Over the last few days, I been developing a baseline of my current reality.  Since I turned 50, I had a complete physical not too long ago, and have a numbers on all the major health indicators.  So I don’t have to gather this information, but I do need to bring it out and review the data and then go a step beyond just reviewing.  It isn’t enough to just know my cholesterol level, I need to understand what this number means in terms of my current health and what it means if I stay on my current life path.  This will need to be done for all of my health indicators.

In part II, I will go further into creating the current state of my existing health.  Will look at some easy and not so easy measurements to understand physical health.

Day 5 – Transition - disorganized

This week I have felt way behind and unable to catch up.  It would seem since Boeing is over with, things should be easier.  There should have less calling for my attention, but it hasn’t been so.  There are several reasons for this feeling disorganization.

Last week, I was focused on making sure that I was ready to Leave Boeing.   Needing to make sure I had the technology, files, links, people names and emails that I would need post-Boeing, I focused on this most of the week.  Searching only for jobs on Monday.  This week I’m having to go back and include searching for last weeks opportunities which is requiring more time.

With my change in employment, I had to re-input my resume and go through all the old Boeing postings on the outside.  I have also been been setting up new automated email messages to tell me when new jobs are posted.  I have been trying to set these up at the various companies that I’m looking at.  I haven’t used these successfully before this, but I think these can be helpful if I stay on top of of my email.

And I am still trying to get a household routine in place minimizes that amount of time spent, but lives up to standards.  I don’t think I have standards in this area; if left to my own at home, I’m a slob. What I do have is the emblazoned image that my wife has set for me over the years.  She has been an excellent role model; it is a high standard, but one that I will strive for.  Learning what this standard takes and then getting it into a routine that I don’t have to think about will take some time.

I have also been trying to increase my exercise which I have been pretty irregular about over the last year. This week I have been doing a lot of walking: 1hr+ Friday, .5hr Saturday, 1hr+ Sunday.  Nothing on Monday.  Exercise on Tuesday consisted of weight lifting in the morning and tennis lessons at night. Then today I did about 50 minutes of aerobic exercise in two sessions.  I’m trying to average well over 30 minutes of aerobic exercise per day and lift weights every third day.  I’m learning how to Organizing my day, so that I make this time priority in my day.  And again my goal is to get it so I don’t have to think about it. 

The reason it is important to get this into a tight routine is because when I have to take the time to think about about going and exercising or doing the vacuuming all of the sudden doubts creep into the picture like: maybe I should do that later, wouldn’t be ok to just not vacuum this time, I’ll spend extra time next time or my all time favorite, I just don’t feel like it now.  If I can avoid these decision points, then I have a chance of building it into a learned behavior before I even realize it.

In addition to the previous items adding to my feeling of disorganization is that I am also still trying to get my new computer set up.  Just when I think I have everything just right, I discover something else that I hadn’t thought about and go back into set up mode.  I am also learning Windows 7 and the open office suite.  I have been accessing help files many times a day, learning how to do something that was second nature in MS Office. 

Windows 7 is great; much better than XP or Vista.  The best feature is the search in the start menu.  Just type in what you are looking for and almost instantly a list of everything on disk meeting your search criteria appears.  This is fantastic and saves tons of time not looking for files and messages.

This feeling of disorganization wells up in my as nervousness, stress and a bit of frustration.  I feel that I am not accomplishing enough, and not getting done what needs to be done.  I have to relax a bit and give myself time to learn.  I am making progress, and I am accomplishing quite a bit.  I need to learn to celebrate the little accomplishments like: having a successful day completed the plan I had laid out; accomplishing all the job searching that I had planned for the day, or completing the application.

metal-symbol-star

Over the last few days, I have been fretting over changing the blog content to include the other things that I’m taking on now, specifically I’m looking at: the career transition, being a stay at home dad, improving my health through exercise and weight lose, remodeling my basement, and maturing an idea for a non-profit organization. 

To this point, this blog has been successful in helping me understand and make sense out of what I was going through.  And recording my learning is helping me avoid making the same mistakes over and over again.  It has also played an important role in my life by enabling the use of the situation to open avenues of self discovery.

For others, I think this blog has been helpful in understanding others shared some of the same feelings and that we didn’t be so alone in this.  We didn’t have to feel completely stigmatized by receiving the warn.  It has also played a role in recording and disseminating useful information that was being learned not just by myself, but by the network of people going through the warn notice and their network of friends and family that were paying attention and helping out.

I have been fretting about how to broaden the content which I know will be helpful to myself, while continuing to make it helpful and relevant to others.  And I have been fretting over where to draw the boundaries on what to share and what to keep private.

This is especially the case as I start to share information about my struggle to get healthier.  At the same time we are faced with an epidemic of obesity in our nation and we are not making the changes necessary to overcome this.

My next post will focus a bit more in this area and cover some of the thoughts I have about how to go about it.

Yesterday, I applied for two more jobs and I have had two interesting information interviews.  These have been interviews where a position isn’t open, but we have been in discussion about what could be done.  Both of these interview were due to friends referrals.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Day 3 – Career Change – waiting week

Yesterday, I applied for unemployment.  This first week where you don’t get any pay is the called the waiting week.  This week I have to record three company contacts or equivalent.   And then next Sunday, I can submit my request for a weekly check.

Even though we are getting severance pay at this time, we are planning to apply for unemployment and put it in the bank in case we have to go longer than the extent of my severance pay.

This year with the unemployment checks, severance pay, vacation pay, and now my wife’s paychecks we should actually make more this year then last.  But we have to worry about cobra insurance payments and we need to be thinking 6 months to a year out and thinking about how we will get by if we use all the severance pay up and still don’t have a job.  In this economy, this is a distinct possibility.  

Today didn’t seem very productive.  Spent the morning running errands around the house.  Errands that just piled up and needed to be done. 

Then in the afternoon, I started looking at jobs at Boeing.  First, I need to reenter my resume and get set up in the new system for entering jobs outside the company.   I did some searches, but I must of had the search set wrong because I only saw intern jobs.

Then went to Microsoft and spent about hour on a job that must have been re-advertised.  I applied for it before, and my application is still active, but the the requisition was listed as being advertised today.  So an hour was wasted.

Finally, found another job at the Gates foundation that I am in the process of applying for. 

Tomorrow: Two informational interviews.  One with Price Waterhouse Coopers for possible consulting positions.  And then talking to a small local Lean Consulting firm.  One of my interests with this one is the possibility of delivering training virtually over the internet.

Here is the last set of numbers I published.

inSite Group                                 56
April 23rd LinkedIn group              21
Jobs applied for:                           40
Rejections:                                   17
Interviews:                                    1

Can see the inSite group anymore, it ended up at 57 the last time I looked.  Any open requisitions that I had at Boeing will now be closed due to the layoff, I believe I ended up with 25 applications in.

So my new numbers are:

April 23rd LinkedIn group              24
Boeing Inside Jobs                        31 
Jobs applied for outside:               11
Interviews:                                    2 Rejections:                                  32

Hopefully I can get the outside jobs number above the inside number in short order.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Day 1 – Career Change – First Steps

No matter how arduous the journey they all start with but one step.  This first step can be important and especially in the case of an adaptive change like the one the I’m going through now.

In addition to the changes of due to losing a job and the associated requirement to find a new means of support, I would also like to add some other intentions into the mix.  Some actually started already and I’m well on my way, some will just be starting. 

The first one started a couple of weeks ago, my wife has started a position and has gone from a full time homemaker to a full time employee.  This makes our financial situation much better.  And it also opens up the need for me to become the homemaker, the stay at home Dad.  Learning to cook, clean and do the laundry and the self discipline to stick with it will be involved here.

Next concerns my health.  Over the last couple of years, I have let my regular exercising slide and my weight is not where I want it to be.  When I’m nervous or bored, I tend to grab whatever is handy and stuff it in my mouth.  Being at home by myself, is recipe for disaster if I’m not careful, so instead I would like to focus on getting on top of this.

Before this all started we were in the first steps of remodeling our basement began.  My wife was proceeding to install tile into our laundry room and a hallway.  As the existing floor came up, we found a slow water linked that caused a call to our insurance and the uncovering of some damage, that will mean the remodeling of some bathrooms and we will end up updating most of the basement.

And the final intention is to start of a new nonprofit called Community Bridge.  This is an idea that has been swirling in my head for about a year and a half.  I would like to begin to mature this idea.  Over the last couple of years I have been studying the idea of communities, Web 2.0 stuff and social networking; not just from a technology point of view but also from human relations point of view.   Community Bridge is born partially from this study and deals with connecting small local (neighborhood) communities in the US with small communities in third world countries to form bonds and relationships at a community level.  And then to link these small communities with other geographically adjacent small communities at both ends.  And as these connections grow to build dense webs of helping relationships.

My priorities are:

  1. My family and being a stay at home Dad
  2. Finding a job
  3. Losing weight and getting in shape
  4. Remodeling the house
  5. Building Community Bridge

It’s a lot, but by paying attention to the priorities and figuring out what the level of effort required for each one in order then  I should be able to manage my time and make progress across the board.

For 1 & 2 I have a pretty good idea of the time that it will take and I’m now refining my scheduling and the effort involved.  With both of these I’m learning a lot, so I expect major changes as I learn more.

With regular exercise, I have been successful before and am confident that I will be successful again in short order.  This is something I enjoy doing and it makes me feel better, the only hard part is keeping it a priority time wise.

Losing weight, remodeling and Community Bridge are pretty much green fields.  Their will be a lot of learning and I imagine a lot of missteps.  And at this point, I don’t have a good plan to move forward; an approach and plan will have to be built.

To this point my blog byline has been “warn notice” for the last 63 days.  This is now over with and it is time to move forward.  I’m not sure what this blog becomes but I would like to try to cover the 5 change areas with 5 bylines, sharing information for each as appropriate.  Not sure what the mix will end up and it may change over time.

After 22 years, a break in the grind is a novel idea, and I want to use this time to my greatest enjoyment and advantage.  I would like to hit the ground running and not look back.   In the last day I have worked in each of the areas, I won’t do this everyday, but thought it was good to at least do a little on day one.

15 million people are currently unemployed in the US, and now I am one of them.

Tonight is fun with friends, it’s bridge night.

Best wishes for you, your family and friends. May you all enjoy good health, deep love and the joy of helping others.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Day 63 Warn Notice 12:57

The last day of the warn notice, a day that I have been dreading for 63 days.  I woke up early, thinking about what all I needed to do.  Started by answering email at home, and deleting more personal files off my Boeing computer.  Headed into work later than I wanted. 

It was a beautiful day but i all seem a bit surreal.  Drove in listening to my IPOD—a dharma talk on Right Intention, part of the 8 fold path.  This wasn’t much different than any normal drive to work; I would often listen to podcasts during the work commute.  When I had this realization, that I was treating this just like any other low attention today.  Maybe this was the perfect Dharma talk for today, I decided to be a bit more intentional about what I was doing and pulled the plugs out of my ear and left the radio off so that I could focus on my thoughts and feelings.

My brain was moving at a million miles an hour, computing the amount of time before my exit interview, how much time I would have at my desk for cleaning, etc. etc.  I think this was a way to overcome the numbness I was still feeling that I had been feeling most of the week; or maybe, the numbness was a way to avoid the feelings I was feeling. 

I was anxious, it seemed like it took forever to get to this day.  Now it was here, it was decided, not consciously by me though I contributed every step of the way in where I am today.  I take full responsibility for were I am.  Others may have contributed but my actions are what made the difference. 

Now one chapter of my life was closing and another was opening.  This new chapter is totally up for me to author.  I have my quill ready, a blank sheet in front of me, and all kinds of ideas swirling in my head.  Now to make some coherent sense of of this swill.

I started cleaning out my desk looking for things that might be helpful in helping to fill those pages.  I didn’t get too far before I realized that by driving the Buick in to work I hadn’t brought the Honda keys.  I had forgotten that my desk, the one I have been to less and less in the last year, was locked and that the key was on the Honda Key ring.  Sh*t.   I didn’t think there was much of importance in the locked part, but I just wasn’t sure and my exit interview was at 10:30.  Well that wasn’t going to work.  Called my boss and asked if we could push that off a bit.

Back in the car, 35 minutes minutes home, 3 minutes at home, and 35 minutes back to work.  Actually, the time to think was refreshing. I was able to calm my mind pretty good.  The more I did this the more I noticed that it was a beautiful Spring day.  Flowers everywhere, fragrance of Spring in the Air, birds, people and life all around that I hadn’t noticed before.

My thinking moved from a kind of frantic craze to a more measured thought process.  Moving from needed to be done this morning and then on to what I needed to  happen as I moved from the exit stage left to enter stage right into “not Boeing”.

As I expressed in an earlier blog called big words (Day 55), these times represent an opportunity to make big changes with less effort when you lean into or add to change instead of just trying to hang on for dear life.  This idea has been occupying my mind over the past week, but the objects of my lean into were still out of focus.  So this time in the car was well needed to insure that I could start my journey as soon as possible.  (For those going through this same change, get these changes started as soon as possible.  Now is the perfect time to begin.  The sooner the better. )

I was much more relaxed when I got back to Boeing.  Took about 15 minutes to clean out my desk and then I was on to meet my boss.  Unfortunately, I hadn’t had the time to: answer my last emails; figure out about the transfer of my Boeing Blackberry number to my new phone; or to complete deleting the personal information off my blackberry.  I was getting rushed again. 

We went through most of the exit interview.  The interview went like this:

Do you have a Boeing Credit card?
Yes here it is.


Computer equipment?
Yes it is in the bags and boxes

Desk Phone?
Left it at my desk

Keys?
For my Desk, left it at my desk

And on for about five minutes.  The hardest thing was to give up my badge.  It was like giving up the key to the kingdom.  With out the badge there is no way in.  There was a wincing in my heart when I handed this over.

The next wave of feeling came as I was getting close to deleting all of my personal information off my computer and blackberry and I noticed every trace of myself was fading.  My existence was fading in this realm.  I had my 5 minutes in the staff meeting the day before, now with the removal of personal information it would only be a short while before I am no longer in the thoughts of the people that I have worked with.  Sure memories will come up every now and then, but my presence will be lost.  The place in the heart, now near the front and center will move deeper and deeper into the back rows with the passing of time.

Finally, after about an hour I shook my bosses hand, left the 33-01 building.  It didn’t feel right to just jump in my car and leave, and it didn’t feel right to stay.  Even though I was still inside the gate, without the key to the kingdom, I couldn’t get into any of the buildings.  I couldn’t go and visit anyone, and I really wasn’t welcomed to do so.  In compromise, I drove through the site and as I drove by a building, I thought about some of the times that I had in it. 

One of my talents is to help teams and individuals find that next level of thinking that takes them beyond where they currently reside.  When this happens it can be a powerful moment.  A moment the Otto Scharmer calls a “presencing moment.”   After years of practice with these moments, I can viscerally feel them resonate through out my whole body and can help mark the occasion for the team or individual.  Most of the thoughts I had were about working with teams to bring this new thinking into awareness.  What I can’t do is know what is emerging before it happens, no one can, I can only help the team get there.  So being able to witness these events emerge is quite something.  I love it.

With these memories tears welled up.  A sadness from leaving something important behind, a sadness of about not being able to help these teams or these people anymore.  

And then at 12:57, with my cheeks still moist, I drove out of the main gate at the Bellevue Plant.  Assuming that I will never return to this place that has been my home away from home for the last 10 years and longer if the metaphor is extended to be my larger Boeing home.

After allowing myself to feel the sadness of leaving, the feeling of the ending, I instantly felt better.  I felt that a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.  My ego had been worried that it would collapse once I lost the identity it had know for 22 years.  It hadn’t collapsed or if it did it really didn’t make a difference.

I start my transition with intention.  I had to get to Costco and order my eyeglasses in order to max out the flex spending plan, but I didn’t want to jump on 405 and go home the same way I had for many years in an commute lowered consciousness.  I took a back road, and again was rewarded with Spring’s beauty.

A friend sent a reminder of some writing I had done years ago about transition.  How we entering into transition with thoughts about incremental change, because incremental change in somewhat knowable.  But these change that we are entering is called an adaptive change because within the change, learning takes place, and this learning changes the course of the change.  And she reference a particular Zen passage that I would like to share:

In talking with graduates of this program, almost universally, they talk how this program changed their life. Last night I was reading and came across this passage that I thought was particularly poignant as we start this journey.

We’re here to get our present model repainted a little bit. If the car of our life is deep gray, we want to turn it into lavender or pink. But transformation means that the car may disappear altogether. Maybe instead of a car it will be a turtle. We don’t even want to hear of such possibilities. We hope that the teacher will tell us something that will fix our present model. A lot of therapies merely provide techniques for improving the model. They tinker here and there, and we may even feel a lot better. Still, that is not transformation. Transformation arises from a willingness that develops very slowly over time to be what life asks of us.

Most of us (myself included at times) are like children: we want something or somebody to give us what a small child wants from its parents. We want to be given peace, attention, comfort, understanding. If our life doesn’t give us this, we think, “A few years of Zen practice will do this for me.” No, they won’t. That’s not what practice is about. Practice is about opening ourselves so that this little “I” that wants and wants and wants and wants and wants the whole world to be its parents, really—grows up.

Charlotte Joko Beck

Pg 8 Essential Zen by Kazuaki Tanahashi and Tensho David Schneider.

In talking with many people that have been through this type of change, they look back on it as very important part of their lives, and one in which they couldn’t of figured out what was going to happen.  They didn’t understand the possibility of coming out the other end as a turtle.

This post is already a bit long and I could go on, but I won’t.  Next time I will cover the things that I’m adding to my transition.  The second part of my day was filled with pieces of accelerating these changes.  And again for those that haven’t started, please do so soon.  For those that have no knowledge of what I am talking about, please go back and read day 55.

Best wishes for you, your family and friends. May you all enjoy good health, deep love and the joy of helping others.

     

 

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Day 62 – Warn Notice – Rush Rush

Well after two days of rushing around with my head cut off trying to get everything done before my Friday exit meeting, I think I’m ready, or as ready as I’m going to get.  I have tomorrow morning to remember anything that I have forgotten.

I have been moving files that I want to keep off my Boeing computer.  Some I mailed, some I transferred.  I have old PST files that I want to keep but I may not have a good way to read them unless I go to outlook.  I imagine that this will be the type of thing that I will save the file but I actually will never use it and get along just fine.

This is part of this stepping out in the unknown; I am unsure of my self, so I want to over compensate by getting very prepared.

Part of the getting ready today was cleaning out my inbox and sending out a final goodbye to everyone.  I got my inbox down to about 7 emails.  I will probably just send these last seven to Gmail because my brain is hurting from deciding what I will or won’t need, sometimes it is just easier to throw in the kitchen sink.

Over the years I have collected quite a few Boeing contacts.  Today I set them all an email of appreciation for the work we have done together.  I’m sure some people where saying who is the guy and why does he think I give a rip that he is leaving the company, probably deserves to be fired wasting everyone’s time with spam emails.  But with a few seconds I received quite a few replies, I would say about 15 out of office replies came back really quickly.  Then about 10 minutes later more interesting replies started coming in. 

Some replies were from people that I haven’t seen in many years, and we could reminisce a little about the time we spent together.  I answering each one that I received with what I hope will come across as the heartfelt response that I intended.  I had a hard time keeping up with the incoming.   It took well over 2 hours reply, the best two hours of the last couple months.

I have decided to buy two pairs of glasses tomorrow.  The second pair will max out my flexible spending plan at near the $1600 dollars we said we would spend for the year.

I also went in a cashed in the last of my pride at Boeing points, getting gift certificates to Lowes that will go towards the remodeling of our basement.

I attended my last Boeing staff meeting today.  It was really a program status meeting, I needed to present the last of my work deliverables, which only took a few minutes.  The few minutes were spent with people trying to express their feelings about my departure a mixture of reassurance, hope, guilt, discomfort, nervousness, love, and platitudes.  Then after a few minutes of that it was back on task, back to attention, and on with the status meeting.  At the end if the meeting it was hugs all around, this part I liked ( this felt the most real and honest to me). 

Then tonight, I transferred the last files, took some email files, like a picture the we used for my mother’s funeral last fall and sent it to Gmail, just to make sure I didn’t lose it in my Outlook PST file.  Since I haven’t found a good solution for reading my PST files other than buying outlook, I want to make sure I had access to these files in the short.  My wife has a copy of outlook on her machine so maybe that will be handy enough access to get me by.

Then tonight I started deleting files off my computer and email.  I still want to be able to use email in the morning before my exit interview, so I won’t delete everything.  But the majority of files will be gone tonight.

Emotionally, I don’t think I have stopped to think enough this week to know what I was feeling.  In a way I think I’m numb, maybe I’m just holding back in order to get threw this week.  Then at least the Boeing part will be over and I can focus on moving forward 

I have been thinking about the changes that I want to implement starting the 24th and I will try to finalize this list in my  head tomorrow.

Tomorrow: Three last rushing things to do and this part of the journey is sadly over. Clean out my desk, get through my exit interview, and then go purchased those glasses (sale has to be record on or before the 23rd).  Then maybe a glass of wine to celebrate the passing of a milestone. 

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Day 61 – Warn Notice – Moving on Part II

This is part II of getting ready to move out away from Boeing.  Dealing mainly with technology issues of changing from Boeing provided technology to providing my own.

Most of my time at work was spent in MS Outlook.  I have thought about going and getting a copy of this, and may still do this.  At $109 dollars it might be a good deal.  Before I do that, I want to exhaust the use of two other Google products. 

The first, for Email, is Gmail.  Right now I’m using it just for Job search email, but I expect to use it for all of my personal email at some point.  Currently, I have a Comcast email account that the bulk of my personal email goes to.  For email, Comcast is alright, but I want to get away from being locked into a single company for my internet service.  Losing my address by changing broad brand providers keeps me from quickly changing companies.  With Gmail, my email account would remain constant no matter what provider I go with.

Google Calendar seems to be working out for my calendar program.  It will have the advantage of being shared with those I choose to share it with via the internet, (mainly family which my corporate outlook calendar wouldn’t do this well). 

My outlook contacts have been exported to both Comcast and to Gmail.  For a number of years, I have loaded Boeing contacts into my personal contacts folders and added information like birthdays, personal emails, etc as I could.  Most of these be with Boeing email addresses as the only contact, but that will be fine for a while.   Before I finish with my computer I plan on making another backup of my contacts, just to make sure I have them.  Today, I found that I person that I have known for quite a while was not in my Gmail contacts for some reason.  Now I’m worried that I may have missed others also.

The last functionality the I use a lot is Tasks is outlook.  Google Gmail and calendar tasks are not very functional.  The tasks work together with both Gmail and Google calendar work but either I’m missing something or they are just a bit overly simplistic for what I want them to do.   There is another application that I have been very happy called Remember the Milk (RTM).   This has an easy interface without being overly simplistic.  I am able to get reminders and set up all kinds of repeating functions.  The integration with Gmail and Calendar is seamless once it is set up and I could use this more though I often just go to the home page.

Google Calendar, Gmail, Documents and RTM all have offline capabilities so you don’t always have to be connected. 

Another product that I have used and really like is Google Voice.  This is like a phone answering/routing system.  You set up your own number in Voice.  Mine is set up to spell out my name.  This number is not linked to any particular phone.  I then link in the phones that I want it to call when I get a call.  Right now it is routing to my home phone and to my Boeing cell.  When I receive a call both of these phones ring until I pick up.  Then I given a list of options about whether I want to take the call or send it to voice mail.  Voice mail records the call and then sends me notification via email along with a recording of my message.  It tries to transcribe the message also, though it does a pretty bad job at this so far.   This will also allow me to make free long distant calls to anywhere in the US and has some conferencing calling capabilities that I haven’t tested yet. 

Today, I used the Boeing discount to get a new personal cell phone.  With Google voice I have linked this new number and Voice will also start ringing that number.  I have put this number on my resume and won’t have to make changes as my numbers change, (same as with the Gmail account not changing when I change broadband suppliers.  Tomorrow, I hope to get my Boeing Blackberry number transferred to my new phone.

I have chosen to go with the Samsun Android phone.  This will allow deep integration with the Google products I use.  Seems like Google and Apple are driving the technology market right now.  Since I’m a PC, Apple doesn’t have the products that I need where as Google does.

Couple last bits on technology.  I friend, after reading part I of this said I should mention Thunderbird and Firefox.  Both excellent products.  I start using Firefox as my main browser about a year ago both inside of Boeing and outside.  I recommend it, though I also use IE version 8.  There are some MS extension that really only work with IE, otherwise I wouldn’t use, though version 8 is much better.

Thunderbird is a free email product that is distributed by Mozilla, same people that manage Firefox.  I have heard good things about this but I have not as yet tried it out.  Now that Google has added offline capabilities to their products, I will continue with Gmail and Google for now, but I wouldn’t mind giving Thunderbird a try.

Today, I finished up my last piece of work for Boeing.  I just have to deliver it in a quick presentation and then do my exit interview.  I have to collect Boeing equipment from home and take it into the office, Clear out my desk, and write some farewell notes.

Then it’s on to bigger and brighter things.  A new day is rising.

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I haven’t been searching much for jobs this week because of finishing up other things.  I the LinkedIn Group has grown by 3 or 4 members this week.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Day 60 – Warn Notice – Moving on Part 1

I have thought a few times about what all I would need to do to leave Boeing after 22 years.  Boeing has taken care of many things for me over the years, now I have to fill in these blanks.

As I wrote this section the length of the post became longer than I wanted it.  In part one I will focus mainly MS Office replacement and then in Part II I will look at email replacement for Outlook.

At home, my wife and son have laptops, my daughter has a desktop that I share for personal items like downloading podcasts to my IPOD.  I was just thinking how many of the concepts in that last sentence would not of made sense just a few years ago, pretty amazing how quickly are technology progresses.  I have used my Boeing laptop for both personal and business use for many years, so I have a mixture of files on my laptop that I need to untwine.  Like I have a personal journal that I have written for many years that I would hate to lose.   

Last week, I purchased a new laptop for myself and started getting it set up to handle job searching.  I was able to move the personal files.  Didn’t care too much about files that just a few months ago seemed so important—files about Boeing work stuff and the all important projects that I have been working on.  The  important  Boeing stuff is already on file servers at work, so come Friday I will delete the copies that are my Boeing Laptop’s hard drive before I turn it in.  I’m assuming that others will wipe the disk clean, but just in case I’ll try to clean it a bit.

I have been trying to get by without purchasing Microsoft products. They are fantastic products but the initial cost and then cost of upgrades on these is just too much.  In the next release (office 2010 there business model is suppose to change, so I will look at them again in the fall of this year).  

I have used the Google products for a couple years.  Some are great and some aren’t quite there yet.  Google Documents has most of the functionality of MS Office, but it is not quite to the point where I trust it for all my needs.  I would have a hard time using it for something like creating a resume that I could hand to people.  I use it for files that I want to share with people over the internet or that I want to get to from what every computer I happen to be on.  

I have also built several websites on Google Sites.  These are great for sharing information across a wide audience.  You can house files on Google documents and share them by email address to whoever you want.  You can link to these files from any Google site that you have built.  I have been toying with the idea of building a profession profile website, I have some drafts, but as of yet haven’t gotten it to a point where I would feel comfortable releasing it.

Instead of MS Office and Google Documents, I downloaded Open Office and I’m trying to learn this as quickly as I can.  It is not hard to learn as much as it is learning the new language for what they call things and where they put things.  It can import and export MS formats, though it seems to do better with non 2007 version files.  This product is open source product free to download and use and is in part sponsored by Sun and Oracle.  Sun sells a product with some enhancements and support based on this platform.   This product seems fully functional and on par with Office 2003.  I love the new office interface in 2007, so going back to a 2003 interface is disappointing.  But other than that I have no negatives to report so far, I haven’t used the database and presentation parts though the word and spreadsheet parts are good.   So far I think it will meet my needs.

The last comment concerning this computer setup is with the windows 7 OS, this has been really good.  I’m learning a lot about what it can do, at least for home it seems like worth the upgrade.

I’m still comprehending the idea that Friday I won’t be working for Boeing any longer—glad I never got that Boeing tattoo.   Several people have checked in with me today via my various networking point (Facebook, LinkedIn, email, phone etc.)  I can’t tell people how much this means to me.

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My wealth has increased dramatically in the last couple of months due to going through this warn notice process.  I have consciously tried to maintained connected with many family and friends, reconnected with many that I haven’t connected with in a long time, and I have made a wealth of new friends of people that are in my same boat as we are help each other through this and others that are interested in the process and in helping out.  Or just new friends because I’m being more coconscious and appreciative about my network.  And in the end, this is the only wealth that really matters. 

In my next post, I will cover my replacement choice Outlook and new product by Google called Google Voice.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Day 59 Warn Notice – Beyond the Last hope

This morning I could not concentrate.  I thought about searching for a job but I couldn’t.  As the accelerated placement process was explained to me at my interview on Friday: the decision would have been made on Friday afternoon; the paperwork would have been given to HR so they could complete their end of over the weekend; then today a no post job requisition would be in the system.  Once this was all complete they would notify the successful candidate and then call all the unsuccessful candidate.

I kept recalculating the timing in my head.  When would they get all the paperwork completed.  How long would it take them to call.  When I finally heard back from my first interview the person told me that she had trouble connecting to my blackberry.  Was that happening, maybe I should reboot it just in case. 

I received well wishes from several people, which really were bright spots in my day.

This is my last hope of getting a job with Boeing.  The timing on the jobs that I have applied for through BESS has now past.  In order for them to have enough time to call, set up an interview, and then to respond, I would have needed to hear from them early last week at the latest.  A no post requisition is the only way now to remain at Boeing.

There could still be more last minute positions that come up, but he chances are pretty slim. 

My last two interviews that I have had, I came out feeling really good.  This is comforting, because I have dreaded interviews feeling that I don’t represent myself well and go into them very nervous. These last two though, I walked away feeling that I did a decent job, that I didn’t do anything that would instantly take me out of the running.

At about 12:30 I get the call.  “Sorry, best of luck in the future.”

It seems like every step along this journey has been a step of giving up another obsolete thought pattern.  I had to give up: my anger, denial, innocence, and sense of injustice at getting a warn notice; the idea of my current position in leadership development; my outdated ideas about how to look for a job (didn’t have many left after 22 years so this as somewhat new territory); and now I have to give up the last vestige of hope that I could just find a new position in Boeing and somehow avoid this lay off.  

It gets more complicated from here on out. 

I am unsure how much of my ego is tied into my professional persona and what the effects of losing the profession part will do. 

When I started with Boeing I think I received about two weeks of vacation.  I wasn’t one to let vacation build up.  Now I think I get close to 4 weeks per year.  The average job search is about a month per $10,000.  To have time off counted in months instead of weeks is rather daunting.

My boss called in the afternoon.  “Let’s keep hoping that something will turn up.  And let’s set up an exit meeting for Friday, just in case.”   

I will have to reset my job counter.  Taking out all of the Boeing jobs that I have applied for inside the company.  And I will have to start applying for jobs from outside, as a civilian of sorts.   

Friday, April 16, 2010

Day 56 Warn Notice – Last Minute Adjustments

700 IT people are planned to be laid off next Friday.  Of course I am one of those. 

In between Friday February 19, when the warn notices went out, and today a lot has transpired in peoples lives; people without warn notices have gone on with their lives.  Some have found new positions within Boeing and are in the process of changing jobs;  some have found work outside of Boeing and are in the process of leaving Boeing; some have decided that they have had enough and have decided to retire.  These unforeseen circumstances in those without warn notices are causing last minute reprieves for those of us that do have notices.

Today, I was fortunate to be called into one of these interviews.  It was set up sort of like a regular structured interview, only quite a bit less formal.  Since their is no job requisition, I could not prepare for the interview like I would have. Instead, I looked up everything I could find on the manager, the group and thought about my times in the past that I had dealings with this group.

There was one question that almost stumped me.  I think it was partially a psychological block on my part.  The question was “Think of a time when you had to make a decision quickly.”  It must have been those words “make decison quickly” that just blanked my mind out; I took a long time to think of something to talk about.  It wasn’t that I couldn’t decide; it was that my mind was blank.  After what seemed to be an eternity, my brain thawed and I was able to provide a good answer.  Not sure what the effects of the brain freeze will have on my chances of getting the position.

After the formal interview was over there was time for my questions.  I asked about the timing of the decision.  They will have made the decision this afternoon; I may already have the position.  They needed to make the decision so that they could inform HR before the end of the day.  '

Over the weekend HR will create a no post requisition and have this ready for Monday.  Then the candidate will be contacted on Monday.  At this point the candidate has to take the position or they will have to forfeit their severance package and priority return rights to Boeing and they will be laid off come Friday.  If I was not wanting to retain a position with Boeing I would not have accepted the interview in the first place.  There are plenty of people that want to stay on, refusing an interview wouldn’t cause any surprise or concern.

So Monday, I find out.  This isn’t a job the prefect job that I had in mind, but it has several advantages.  First, it allows me to feel somewhat secure  financially.  Second, it allows me to keep looking inside and outside of Boeing for a better position.  There may be a limit on how soon I can transfer out of the position to another position within Boeing.  I have asked this question of HR but have not heard back.   Third, it creates a bridge between now and a better economy.  The economy has improved quite a bit in the last few months and it looks like it will continue on this course.  If Boeing moves into one of it’s growth modes, then finding another position becomes much easier within the company.

One of the biggest downfalls with this position is that it is still in IT.  The word on the street is that IT is not done taking big cuts and I don’t want to be the last rat left on deck.  So finding a new position is a top priority for me, even if I find out that I’m still employed come next Friday.

I think I have mentioned it here before, but today I received a email from someone who had just found out, so I thought I would re-mention it.  On the day you are laid off, since your status changes from from being a Boeing employee to being a non-Boeing employee, all the internal jobs that we have applied for go away because we are deemed ineligible for the positions.  This seems like a stupid waste on Boeing’s part to me.  They should let these complete and if you are deemed a good candidate for the job you should get in to interview. 

I keep applying anyways, just because it is so easy; but I have lost faith that anything is going to happen with the 10 or so jobs I have applied for this week.  The normal process is just too slow for these to be helpful to my situation. 

Next week should be a interesting week

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Day 55 – Warn Notice- Big words

When I was in the OSR master’s program  we studied living systems, and systems thinking and related these ideas to social systems to develop perspectives on how social systems respond in different situations. 

We studied punctuated equilibrium, an evolution theory that instead of evolution happening in small continuous changes over very long times, postulates that what really happens are relatively small periods of very rapid changes followed by eons of very little change followed by very rapid changes.   Kind of a “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it theory” of evolution; when things are working well, nothing changes.

We also studied bifurcation points and strange attractors.  These relate to the mathematically study of dynamical systems.  In someway, the system’s solutions revolve around these strange attractors; a strange attractor is like a form imageof energy that you can’t see but you can see the effects of it.  Kind of like this picture of a magnates effect  on metal filings.  Somehow the strange attractor creates a field of solutions when plotted seem to line up around the attractor.

Now we throw in a little chaos theory into the mix and this gets really interesting.  Chaotic systems have no strange attractors, because a strange attractor implies that there is some sort of order.  When systems are moved into chaotic episodes, they lose their attractors.

So have I completely lost you yet.  If you hang on a little while longer I will start closing the loop and relate this back  to our situation with warn notices.

In living systems and social systems, the strange attractors are thought of as influences that are set and pretty hard to overcome.  The term culture is considered by some to be the collection of strange attractors (I’m being liberal with the word “some”, it may just be me.)  There is a period of disequilibrium (I promise the last big word) when a social system if thrown into chaos when it loses it strange attractors.  During this period the systems scrambles to build new attractors. 

We, being humans, are a combination of living and social systems.  We are living in that we eat, drink, sleep, grow old and died or in other words live.  We are social in that our definition is made up of how we relate to others, like being a Boeing worker, dad, mom, hermit, sister etc.

And now to get to the point.  Whether we find a new position before next Friday or not,  we are about to go through a chaotic episode where we will lose our strange attractors.  This can be very disconcerting if you are trying to cling on to the past; it can be a fun roller coaster ride if you are not.

This is also an opportunity to make changes that you might not want to let slip by you.  Strange attractors can also be related to our habits; habits that have become so ingrained that we may not even notice them anymore.  It is the loss of these habits we feel comfortable with that make the change so disconcerting.

For example, have you ever known a person that was a two pack per day smoker for say 20 years, overweight and out of shape,  who has a heart attack and is able to quit smoking, lose the extra pounds, start exercising and eventually comes away from the whole thing feeling better than they ever had before.  It is not that this person hadn’t tried to quit smoking a 100 times or hadn’t ever started a exercise programs before; it is this idea that the strange attractors; this hidden force would pull the person back into their old habits.  Before the heart attack, they would tug on the person until they would give up and have a smoke or they would not exercise today, even though they know they should. But with the life threaten occurrence of a heart attack, the system is thrown into chaos and all the old strange attractors or habits are thrown out, at least for a little while.

With the heart attack, if you make the changes before the old strange attractors have a chance to recreate you have a much greater chance to make a successful change.

It is also my belief that you can use this to your advantage in situation like we are in.  And you can even do a little planning and be more successful.

Any this should apply whether you are successful in finding a position or laid off because you will still be going through a chaotic change.  A change that you don’t truly know what the outcome will be until you go through it.  The secret is to load up even more change on top of the other change.

Think about what changes that you want to make in your life.  What is important that you would like to change.  Maybe it is exercising more.  Maybe you want to be a better father or mother.  Maybe you wish to lose weight or stop smoking.  Think of what it is that you truly want to change in your life.  This is not for the feint of heart; this is the things that you know will make a quality of life change in your condition.  You may have tried to do these things and failed before, don’t let that stop you if it is what you truly want.  It will be easier this time.

Once you have what you want to accomplish, think about what you can put in place to be successful on day one of your change.  What is it that you have to stop doing and what is it that you have to start doing.  Assume that you will be successful.  If you don’t know what it is like ask people that are successful at what ever it is.  If it is quitting smoking ask people who successfully quit what made it happen for them.

Do as much pre-work and preparation as you can, but don’t worry about it.  Don’t let it stress you out at all.  Come the day of the big change, then implement your changes and don’t look back.  Consciously work hard at sticking to the changes for twenty one days.  This is enough time to cement in your new habits.

Again, don’t worry about it, assume that it will work, and pay attention to how easy the changes are happening for you.  If you start having trouble start looking for something that you are trying to bring back from your past and then let go of it. 

Timing is everything here, you only have a little while before the old habits try to reassert themselves.  If you go through the change and then smoke for a week and then quit, it will be as hard as it ever was.  You have to implement the change as soon as possible.

Sorry for the length of this post, big words always take a lot of explaining. 

If you do this you will be amazed at the changes you can make.    And it doesn’t have to be just one change, the more and bigger the better, though you don’t want to make it overly complicated to accomplish.  Please let me know how it goes, I would love to hear. 

I hope you step up to the plate and swing for a home run.

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Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Day 54 Warn Notice – infinite glory

I hate this out of control feeling; this feeling that my life is totally in the hands of others; and those people don’t even know me.  I want to have something that I can grab onto and say it is mine.  I’ve created the resume and made the contacts but the next step is completely out of my hands; the moving my resume from the middle of the stack to the top of the stack and being called for an interview part of the process. 

What I’m learning is to resist the urge to grab onto something, anything in order to cover up deeper feelings lingering below the surface.  I haven’t been completely successful at this yet; I’m trying to learn to feel comfortable in the out of control; learning to feel comfortable or at least OK being in the hands of others; learning to stay with the uncomfortable feelings until I understand them.

At the beginning of this journey, I was clinging on to my surprise and my indignation at being given a warn notice and I have clung to the idea of keeping a job at Boeing.  When I use this clinging as a way to avoid examining what was really going on, progress slowed. 

When I could move this avoidance clinging out of the way and start examining the deeper fears I am feeling, I progressed.  These fears included: being 22 years out of the job market; being in the 50+ crowd; having responsibilities for college expenses for my kids;  having concerned about my worth to other employers; and a great one to get lost in is the pondering of my own self worth.  When I worked through examining these, then I could start making real progress and moving forward.  These fears still exist and I’m still working through them, but they are not as poignant as they were.

Working through these is hard when you have bills to pay, mouths to feed, resumes to write, and jobs you should be applying for but the reward is learning about a part of yourself you couldn’t find otherwise; learning about a part of yourself that has strength and is not affected by the current situation or environment.  

While our experience is nothing like his, maybe Victor Frankl’s words can help guide us; give us a path to move forward on:

In a position of utter desolation, when man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way—an honorable way—in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words, "The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory…

Man's Search for Meaning, Part One, "Experiences in a Concentration Camp", Viktor Frankl, pages 56-57 in the Pocket Books edition; ISBN: 978-0-671-02337-9

Even though I can’t make much sense out of the actions that brought me here, maybe there is a greater learning that I can capture.   Maybe I can learn to understand myself better and with this new understanding continue on from a place of heightened inner strength.

Today, I was able to find a job and put in my application, even though I’m not sure that anyone would be able to reply to them before the layoff date.  Yesterday, I learned that all of the jobs we applied to inside the company change their status to no longer under consideration once we go outside the company.  We would then have to wait for them to not be filled inside the company and then re-advertised outside the company before we can apply for them again (bummer). 

I also found a position that I would love to have at Microsoft.  And while I was working on this I got an IM from a friend, as we were talking she asked if there was anything she could do.  I said I would send her my resume and maybe she could pass it on.  I hadn’t told her about the MS job, and she said, “I have a friend at Microsoft I will send it to.”  I told about he job I was working on and then gave her the job number.

And then, if that wasn’t enough.  I got a call from a manager in Boeing that has a position.  I’m talking to him on Friday; I’m hoping that this could be something that would be effective quickly, like before next Friday.  I’m keeping my fingers cross and just in case plan to write the cover letter for the MS job tomorrow.

Tomorrow – MS cover letter and find other positions.
inSite Group                                 56
April 23rd LinkedIn group              21
Jobs applied for:                           40
Rejections:                                   17
Interviews:                                    1

Lost 2 people in the inSite group.  I hope this means that they are finding other positions.

No reason for adding this video other than seeing/learning if it would work:

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Day 53 – Warn Notice – Thankfulness

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As the last 53 days have past there has been a lot of complaining on my part in this blog.  This is a stressful transition to get through.  And I hope this hasn’t completely over shadowed the fantastic time that I have had at Boeing.

It will have been 22 years on May 5.  What I have enjoyed, by far the most, is the great people that I have met along the way.  I have learned from most of them, especially in my later years, now that I’m not so full of myself.  Some have made significant major differences in my life.  My first job was on the 747-400 program in Everett Avionics.  Just out of college I was hired as an Apollo systems manager.

From their I started doing project management and leading teams.  Somewhere in here there was a long the SPEEA strike and the associated picketing.  I started working computing support plans for derivative airplanes.  This was fast enjoyable work and where I became very interested in how intention and purpose made such a large difference in the outcome of projects and large initiatives.  At  this time my boss was a gal named Neta Wellever.  She was the best boss I ever had, and she had a gift of being a great mentor. 

With the abrupt stopping of the 747-600 program many people had to scramble to find new positions.  I landed in IS CADCAM on a special project to look into how to do lean in the office environment.  From here I moved into supporting the IS Lean Office as it started up.   This went on for a couple years but never really gained executive managements support.

Changing gears from lean I move into process management in CNO and spent 5 years helping to build the CNO ITIL architecture with Chris Kent as the Vice President at that time.  This was an especially fun time in my career.  the outcome of this continues today as the foundation of the ESMS and some other related projects that are near the implementation  state.

Peering forward beyond the completion of the infrastructure, we perceived the need for building the capacity to improve processes and this started me on another Lean journey.  With a ground swell of support,  a great community of Lean practitioners grew and then expanded to include other groups within IT.  Eventually, the CNO office expanded to include all of IT, but unfortunately it expanded without the proper sponsorship in its new roll.

This caused another change of jobs into the Leadership Development organization and what I think of as an unfortunate falling between the cracks at a time when cuts were taking place.  If it wasn’t me, then it would have been someone else and I would want to wish that on someone else.

All through this journey there has been great people that made coming to work easy and fun.  I almost always enjoyed my job and couldn’t wait for the next exciting project to work on.

Boeing has provided with a great many opportunities.  Opportunities to work on world class projects, do IT work within one of the largest organizations in the world.  In addition to the people, Boeing has some of the best support resources. I’m always amazed at finding yet another resource that I didn’t know we had access to.  I have been blessed  to travel, not so much that I tired of it; but enough to see other parts of the country.  Even went to Japan to study with the Lean Sensei.  A trip that I will always treasure.

The Boeing medical plan has paid for bringing my kids into this world and has cared for my family all these years.  Dealing with the insurance company has been a pain, but I’m sure it is that way where ever you go.

This time of having the warn notice and being forced into something that I don’t want to do has been tough to get through.  I hope that I can still find a job within Boeing in the next week though my hope is fading.  I can tell this next week is not going to be easy to get through.   If I have to leave, I will leave with regrets and also with gratefulness for being able to work for Boeing for so long.

So, if you hear me complain about this and that over the next week or longer, please remember that it is with a underpinning of gratefulness.  Wanting so much to stay in a place I love is the clinging desire that makes leaving so hard.  

 

thank_you

Monday, April 12, 2010

Day 52 - Warn Notice - Changes

Spent the weekend not doing job searching.  While I can’t say I was completely away from dealing with the change due to the warn notice, almost all the weekend was taken up with other matters.  It was nice to get away from it a bit.

Even though the layoff date is still over a week away, many changes have already happened and many more are starting right now.  My wife is heading back to work; its been a blessing that she could find something in this economy and this will help immensely as we go forward.  But it also means another level of change that we have to go through.  I will now try to take care of the dinners and grocery shopping.  I pity my family for having to eat what I come up with.

The blog tonight is being typed on a computer that I just bought tonight.  Leaving Boeing has necessitated getting a laptop for personal use.  This is causing me to also learn new software.  I’m using MS works instead of MS word.  Our other computers all have Word; I’m not sure if we will upgrade this one.  Hopefully, this won’t take too much time to configure and learn the different software.  And hopefully, I won’t have to change a lot of files that I already have in order to continue job searching. 

The next purchase would be a cell phone and this will come with it own set of changes.  A new set of configurations to set up and new set of software to learn.

Through each of these changes comes a lot of learning.  This whole warn notices process has lead to tremendous amount of learning. 

Today, I found three positions within Boeing to apply for.  And in my searches outside, I found a few positions of interest that I will follow up on tomorrow. 

Tomorrow is the last layoff briefing before the layoff date, so I’m planning to attend that for the second time.  Thinking it would be good to review this information one more time before the date actually comes; just to make sure that I haven’t missed or forgotten something of importance.

Tomorrow - Layoff briefing, complete searching from today.

inSite Group                                 58
April 23rd LinkedIn group              21
Jobs applied for:                           37
Rejections:                                   16
Interviews:                                    1

Friday, April 09, 2010

Day 49 – Warn Notice – Hitting Home

Didn’t do a whole lot today—14 days to go.  No jobs at Boeing to apply to.

About 5 weeks ago, I interviewed for a job that I thought would be a great career move.  This position would use all of my existing talents and also stretch me in new areas.   Over the weeks of not hearing much my inner voice would alternatively give up on this position as lost and later would get really excited about the possibilities.

In BESS, Boeing’s internal job site, I remained “under consideration.”  All jobs applied for start out this way.  Some get kicked out by the computer scanning your resume.  Not seeing a match, it kicks you out automatically.   This happens pretty fast.   If it goes on very long without hearing anything, then the story I have been telling myself is:

My resume is one in a stack of fifty resumes.  Fifty is the average number of resumes received for an internal college required position.  They have already called people for an interview.  They are keeping your resume as a just in case backup.  Just in case the first seven interviewed turn out to have fabricated every bullet on their resume or a natural disaster comes along and wipes them all out then if you are in the top of the pile you might get called as a just in case backup.  So don’t get your hopes up.

Since, there have been no natural disasters in the last 49 days in the NW and I have not been called for any of these positions after about two weeks has past; my story seems to be holding water.   So I keep telling myself that I need to find other positions.

My hoped for position was different.  I got a call within the first two weeks that they wanted to interview me.  I wrote about my preparation for the interview in an earlier blog.  I thought I did well in the interview and was excited about getting the position, though I had no idea what or who my competition was.

For the first two weeks, I didn’t worry.  Even in the third week, I didn’t worry too much since they had said that it would take them three weeks to get back to me.  I was hoping that this was like Amazon’s three weeks where they say three and then deliver in two and everyone is happy even if they thought it would actually only  take twelve days.  After this though, I started writing off the possibility; thinking that I must be out of the running.

So finally I couldn't wait anymore, I had to send an email to make sure that I was still in the running.  I just couldn’t take anymore waiting without any news at all.  They sent word back that they were close to naming their short list, and then they would inform all the interviewees.   Short list, this meant another round of interviews and that meant there was a good possibility that it wouldn’t be resolved until after my layoff date; but even so, my hopes went up; I was still in the running.  Then another period of not hearing anything; and as each day would pass the ratio of “excited high possibilities” to the number of “just ain’t going to happening” changed for the worse.

Last night, while I was looking up the numbers for my blog, I noticed that the “under consideration” changed to “no longer under consideration”.   Today, I received a call.  For some reason they hadn’t be able to reached my cell phone to tell me in person before it showed up in BESS.  They apologized.   I was happy they called, it puts an end to my brain filling in missing parts of the story which can end up going anywhere but will invariably stray far from reality.

For feedback, they said I did fine; I was in the top of the interviewees.  They had interviewed twelve and cut it down to two for second interviews.  I was right in there, but not in the top two.   I think it had been so long that there weren’t any particulars that they could be share; I imagine this is especially true after doing different twelve interviews.  I’ve been on interview teams before, it is intense work; I can’t imagine doing twelve.

Most of the jobs that I have applied for are "tide me over jobs".  These are positions that I can do until the economy picks up and Boeing begins its recovery.  Then I could look for a better position somewhere in the company.   I figure recovery is only about 6 months to a year away.    The second category is "good positions", jobs that I like and can do well at, but may not really stretch me and make me learn.  These are positions that I could remain in for some time and possibly build into a great position given the right projects.  Then the third type is jobs is "Apple Pie Jobs".  The ones I would really love to have—jobs that use all of my talents; that stretch me in many different ways causing me to learn rapidly.  These are positions that would mean a lot to me.    These are positions that I would take a pay cut to get into.  There haven’t been many of these.  And some of the ones that I thought were like this, I wasn’t qualified for.

This one I interviewed for was the best of the "Apple Pie Jobs".  I hung a lot of hope on this job coming through; I figured I would get the job and would not have to leave Boeing.  I was thinking this at the same time I was preparing and getting ready to leave; but in the back of my mind, this was my savior job; the silver lining the warn notice journey.

Now, I have to get more serious about leaving the company.  Not that I wasn’t before, but now it is show time.  There isn’t much time left.  Even if some other positions call for interviews, the likelihood that something could happen before my layoff date is slim to none, considering how Boeing moves.  I haven’t given up all hope of another Boeing position.   I have met several people that had positions come up a day or two before a layoff, so it is still possible.  I’m just not going to hang my hat on that hook.

Now it is time to prepare and get excited about leaving Boeing.  My mind is again turning to what all  I have to get done, in order to be functioning without all the resources that Boeing has afforded me all these years.   Cell phones, computers, employee discounts, files, books,  and taking care of my desk items are examples of things I need to make sure gets accomplished in the next  14 days.

Tomorrow: Is supposed to be a beautiful spring day.  I hope to spend a bunch of time out in the sunshine and working in the garden.

My numbers didn’t change today.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

Day 48 Warn Notice – two weeks to go

Today my boss gave me the paperwork for having two weeks to go.  Tomorrow is the actual 2 weeks, but getting it today meant I didn’t have to drive in for a meeting.   It was the same papers that I received 47 days ago.  This was just to reinforce that the paper work needs to go in or it could cost me the severance package.  Everyone should have already sent this in.

I put out another version of the job search spreadsheet.  I searched the network and found a few sheets that I added to it.  It has a little bit of data in it as an example.  Job Search spreadsheet V2

Next Tuesday is the last Layoff briefing before the layoff.  I’m going to plan on going so I can get any information that I missed the first time.  Here is the information for the meeting:
      April 13th
      SALARIED SESSION
      Bellevue, Bldg 33-05.2
      Conf Room 21D4
       9:00 – 11:30 a.m. PT

I was sent a good article about using LinkedIn.  You can see the article here:  Linked in Bible from CIO magazine.

I’m a bit bummed tonight.  The job that I was most excited about at Boeing looks to be closed and I was not called.  Well, I’ll have to find something better.

Yesterday, I added some controls to this blog that show up at the end of posts.  Please check the box that best matches your thoughts on the post.  Thanks.

inSite Group                                 58
April 23rd LinkedIn group              21
Jobs applied for:                           37
Rejections:                                   16
Interviews:                                     1

Day 47 – Warn Notice – Nada

Didn’t spend much time searching today; had other things that I needed to get done; and I was amply rewarded without finding anything to apply for.  It has been a hard week for me to remain focused on job searching.  Things are changing at the homestead because my wife is getting ready to head back to the employed ranks.  This will mean that I will have to start doing much more around the house.

I have also been spending more time thinking about what I need to accomplish before leaving Boeing.   I have personal files on my laptop to save.  Need to get a new laptop and software so that the files I’m using still will work.  I need to find a cell phone using the employee discount for the last time.  The stuff at my desk has to be cleared out.

I need to charge as many medical expenses as I can against the flexible spending account.  As long as you don’t exceed the yearly amount you signed up for the expenses will be covered.  Expenses after the layoff date are not covered; any left over money in the account is lost after the 23rd.  I’m thinking about getting eye glasses and a new CPAP machine.  The risk is that I will start buying stuff and then find a position in Boeing at the last minute.  Then we have to go the rest of the year without coverage.

Adding a new metric in my numbers, the number of members of the April 23rd Networkers Linked In group.  This seems like a good start.  I expect more people to join this than the inSite group.  Also adding a check box comments gadget, please let me know what you think at the end of the post.  I don't get to know who has replied, I just see the totals.

Received a late night reject email from a position at Boeing tonight though I cannot find where it has changed my numbers.  It is going to be hard to keep track of things once they start dropping off the end of the table of jobs I have applied for.  I guess when I leave Boeing everything will change when I become an outsider applying for jobs from outside the firewall.

Tomorrow: More searching and try to find at least a copy jobs to apply for.

inSite Group                                 57
April 23rd LinkedIn group              20
Jobs applied for:                           35
Rejections:                                   15
Job Posting withdrawn:                   1
Interviews:                                     1

Monday, April 05, 2010

Days 43-45 Warn Notice – Weekend Off

With Easter weekend being this last weekend, I took the whole weekend off and did not do any job hunting what-so-ever.  This is the first weekend off since starting this ordeal.  It was nice and refreshing.

Went through all of my company searches without finding any promising positions so then went on to SimplyHired.    SimplyHired is my favorite of the aggregator sites due to its ties with LinkedIn, but there is so much on there that I almost hate using it.  I found a position of interest at Premera Blue Shield; applied and then added Premera to my company listing so that I check it out each day.  I like the company searches because I can quickly look at all the jobs released in the last couple of days.  

I have used SimplyHired a few times this same way; as a way to find companies with the right type of positions to put into my company search line up.    After a period of a few days doing company searches, I can evaluate if it is worth it to keep them there.  Virginia Mason is a company that I’m thinking I should remove from my list.  I applied for a position early with them and added them to my list, but over the last two weeks I haven’t found anything else of interest. 

Gave a LinkedIn overview to the inSite group today, this seem like it was good session to give people, who may not have done anything with LinkedIn before, a glimpse at some of the power of networking.   We went through how to build a profile; increasing your network; and how to this can help you when looking for a job.   I also showed two other tools that I like: Google Voice and gmail.  Google voice works great as a answering and call forwarding service.  This allows me to track calls and messages and to hide any changes that will take place when I give up my work cell phone.  Any calls will ring at my house and my cell phone at the same time.  I use Gmail as my exclusive job searching email.  It is on my resume and since it is not tied to a particular service like comcast, I can change my internet provider without losing my email address.   After my job search is over, I expect to use Gmail for more of my email activity breaking this dependency on my internet provider.

A big albatross will be removed from my neck when Butler wins the NBAA championship.  This should free up a bit of time.  About 11 minutes left  in the game, and Duke is up a little, but there is a lot of time left.  Go Butler.

Tomorrow: Search and Apply.  Also fill out  and send in the paper work that has to be in by Friday or else no severance pay.

inSite Group                                 57
Jobs applied for:                           35
Rejections:                                   14
Job Posting withdrawn:                   1
Interviews:                                     1

Friday, April 02, 2010

Day 42 – Warn Notice – Long live the Queen

Good day today, though I didn’t make it out to get exercise. 

I went through my company searches and ended up applying for two at Boeing, one at Amazon, and another at Expedia.  And also found another job that I hadn’t listed but had applied for at Amazon last week.   I have added a sheet to my spreadsheet to track applications.  I’m working with this for a while and then I will republish it once I see that is it worthwhile.

As the time passes and I get closer and closer to the end of the 60 day warn notice, my personal nervousness has increased.  The feeling of anxiety goes up with each passing day, and I have been looking at the jobs already applied for hoping to hear something.  I'm thinking of that gal in the commercial from a few years back saying “Open, Open, Open”--she is so excited to get into the store.  My mantra is “send me status, send me status, anything just some sort of movement.”  Rejections are at least some kind of movement.

Well, I just have to get over it.  I looked at the data for how long it takes for a position to be filled and it is over the 60 day warn notice to get word of an offer.  So more than likely, I won’t hear much until after my layoff date.  I hope other companies are faster, but I doubt that they would be fast enough to fully triumph over my anxieties.

Received another pleasantly unexpected call from a friend today; this one wondering if I would consider relocating.  I’ve been avoiding this because our roots are so deep here.  My daughter is still in school and my son is going to college, so we didn’t want to upset things if we didn’t have to.  But this one concerns a possible year or two year assignment in England.   After talking this over with my wife and running it by my daughter, it could be done in the sense of an adventure.  The timing and the economy could work well together.   So we are open to it. It could be quite an adventure.  Long live the Queen.  I don't know if there are jobs here, but I'm open to my resume being circulated and then who knows.

I would like to knock off early today, so I’m trying to get this written and posted so I can play the rest of the night.   Have a great Easter Weekend.

Tomorrow: Search and Apply

inSite Group                                 56
Jobs applied for:                           34
Rejections:                                   12
Job Posting withdrawn:                   1
Interviews:                                     1