Near the end. (Layoff) Part II

Recently, I interviewed for the permanent position that I have been working at for the last 9 months in a temporary capacity. Thought this would be a good time to do an overview of the journey that I have been through to this time.  This was written before I found out that I was selected for the position.  This is part 2 of a three part post. 

Write your resume for three audiences. First audience is the computer. Match the words in the Job requisition to the words in your resume. The more matches the higher your score only the top ones make it past the computer screening. Second audience is an HR person. Generally, this person is not qualified to judge the technical merits of your submission, but understands the business, has a pretty good bullshit monitor for people trying to game the system, (like putting the entire job requisition in invisible type to get by the computer screen). The HR representative does not read your whole resume. They read less than 7 seconds. A good test…

Near the end (Layoff). Part I

  Yesterday, I interviewed for the permanent position that I have been working at for the last 9 months in a temporary capacity. Thought this would be a good time to do an overview of the journey that I have been through to this time.

I may be near the end of this part of the journey; a journey that started almost 2 years ago, when after 23 years of very dedicated service, I received the 60-day Warn notice from Boeing. I had no pre-warning that I understood. It was a shock to my system to say the least.

In ways, I was a by-product of the Great Recession, the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930’s, this one brought on my greed in banking and finance communities just like that one.

Sharing what I’ve learned

Two teachers have informed me that their contracts will not be picked up for next year, basically getting their warn notices.  For one, I put what I learned into a letter.    As state governments deal with their short falls I fear there will be many more layoffs.  And then if the federal cuts  come quickly another wave of layoffs will follow.

I thought I would share this here and it might give some ideas on helping others.

So sorry and so excited to hear your news. Our times of growth happen in interesting times, in times when the rug is pulled out from under us. Times when each step you take, unsure of the footing, you have to gingerly test to see if it will hold.

D290 - Simply Hired—Useful again

Image via CrunchBase

On Feb 1st,  Simply Hired attempted to stream line it’s user interface and increase the prominence of sponsored jobs in search returns.  The result was the loss of the ability to sort job requisitions by date, which for myself and for many other job seekers made the site completely useless.

Many users pushed backed and many threatened to leave, (I’m sure many did leave).   Blog traffic here has increased since writing the entry title Simply Hired has become Simply Useless.  Much of the traffic was from Simply Hired employees. 

Well the listened.  After a couple days they announced that they would be making the change to reinstate date sorting.  And a couple days ago they made it happen.

So Simply Hired is back to being my number one job search engine.

And I would even say that it has improved a little.  There is better marking of search terms in the text of the returned requisitions.

Some people have complained about the sponsored requisitions that are returned.  These are job requisitions that have paid to have their jobs shown first.  When I was seeing these, they weren’t really useful, but I can understand them putting them first and getting advertising money from them.

I don’t see them because I an add-on called  AD Blocker Plus on my Firefox browser which cuts out advertisements, so this section isn’t shown.  I highly recommend this program.

Thanks to Simply Hired for listening to their users.

Related articles

• D283 - Simply Hire becomes Simply Useless (other-dribblings.blogspot.com)
• SimplyHired.com Gives JSYK Readers Top Job-Finding Tips (jsyk.com)
• Top 9 Job Sites to Bookmark for Your Career Search (mashable.com)

D283 - Simply Hire becomes Simply Useless

Image via CrunchBase

My favorite job search engine has been Simply Hired for quite a while.  I have especially like the interface with LinkedIn and Facebook. 

I have 21 searches that I perform everyday.  I have these set up so in one click 1/2 of these searches are executed and come up in their own tab.  After I have gone through these and closed all the tabs, I execute and analyze the second half of the search results.

The searches are all set up to run the last seven days and sort in Date order so that the newest are at the beginning.  The one that are new that I have not seen are usually marked so I don’t have to go through all seven days worth.

Normally this would bring up about 500 jobs to look at, which I can quickly reduce down to between 10 to 30 jobs to read through and see if I want to apply.

Simply Hired changed their program on February first, and now there is no way to sort the output in date order.  This makes the results useless.  These 21 searches took between 15 and 30 minutes to go through each day.  Now instead of plowing through 500 possible jobs, I have to plow through all seven days, because they are in no particular order.   The first half took about 50 minutes to get through.

Unless this is changed, I will be changing to use Indeed, and can no longer recommend Simply Hired to be used for job searches. 

I’ve contacted the help forum on Simply Hired, but they claim this is a result of them improving their user interface , I’m afraid they are so removed from their users that this will take forever to resolve.  Unfortunately, I can’t wait for them, so I’m in the process of converting my searches to Indeed and hope to up and running in the next day or so.

Related articles

• Top 9 Job Sites to Bookmark for Your Career Search (mashable.com)

D282-Transition-Remaining Active in My Network

In an earlier post I started covering how I remain active in my network, and this second post will conclude this topic.  

My favorite networking tool in LinkedIn has to do with groups and adding to the dialogs taking place.  Best to listen to the conversation for a while and learn what is going on.  After feeling comfortable, bringing resources to the group, or adding to a discussion that is going on is a great way to network.  Over time you build up a relationship with the other members.  I find that I’m currently a member of too many groups, and it has spread me out a little more than I like.

It is hard to find a group that both relates both professionally and has a good dialog taking place in the group.  Some groups are all recruiters, some have no discussions, and some have discussions are of a tenor that I would rather not be involved in, but it is possible to find groups having a good dialog involving a good sized group of people.  Networking in this way if fun and there are some great people to learn from—some of the discussion are quite good.

I try to check in to LinkedIn several times per week.  And try to quickly scan the  the LinkedIn Status emails when they arrive.  I try to participate a couple time a week in groups and read the emails of discussions that I’m following or started.  I also pay attention to all comments on anything that I post, in order to learn from and better understand what people feel has value.

Day 276–Transition—Uptick

Maybe it is just wishful thinking, but it seems that starting last Thursday there was a noticeable uptick in job activity in the areas  I search.  The number of job requisitions I go through each day has increased and the number of jobs that see that turn out to be of interest for applying has seemed to go up.

At the same time, my personal job hunting activity has gone up.  This week I have four interviews and I have 4 possibilities for positions in the works.  Three are shorter term contracts that could lead to longer term employment and one is a full time position.  This is the most activity that I have seen since I was laid off.

Each of these four has come about in a different way.  One was from an interview from December.  I wasn’t chosen, but my resume was passed on to someone else.  One came from a recruiter seeing my LinkedIn profile and then contacting me directly.  One is from some personal networking I had done with friend.  And the last is from a  job requisition that I put in near the end of the year.

The timing for hiring at Boeing usually comes after budgets are finalized and released.  This seems to happen towards the mid or end of February.  The Pace of Boeing jobs has remain constant since moving lower for the holidays around the end of November.  I’m wondering if other big companies have this same sort of beginning of the year delays.  If they do, then the next few weeks could see even more improvement in the jobs market.

This has combined to improve my outlook on the situation.  It was hard for me to remain upbeat at the end of 2010.  But the sun is out today, and the outlook seems bright.  Bright, not just for finding a job, but for finding a a position where I can bring all of my talents to bear in helping organizations, teams, and individuals become more productive and to expand their boundaries or concepts of themselves.  This is what I love to do and I do this as a organizational change management consultant and by helping in with continuous process improvement.   With this uptick, I’m seeing more of these positions, and with that an uptick in my personal emotional situation is taking place.

I hope the sun keeps shining!

Day 268-Networking VI Remaining Active in my Network

Image via Wikipedia

The human brain is a good analogy of  the relationship you have with your network.  We now know that at any part of your life you can form new brain synapses—new connections between information and emotions.  Somewhat like a muscle, if you do not use your brain, the unused synapses with wither and die—a pruning to reduce useless complexity.  If you abuse your body, or fail to keep it in shape it will have negative consequences on your brain.
You can at anytime, grow your network and add to it.  No surprise here.   We have always had networks of relationships in our lives.  And we have always had  tools to help us manage these relationships—tools like calendars, day timers, and the infamous little black address—tools that help us to remember things like the addresses, the names and ages of kids, and the anniversary of Jim down in accounting.  Studies should that those with a more active social network are happier and healthier.
I remember the expanding power when I could add all the birthdays I wanted into my Outlook calendar and I didn’t to fuss with them at the beginning of the year by transferring them to a new calendar.  This allowed me to track many more birthdays than I ever had before. Those times when I could say, “don’t you have a birthday coming up?” or “didn’t your son just turn 9?” made the little bit of effort to record dates well worth it.

Day 236- Transition - Networking Part IV

Image via Wikipedia

 

After thinking about it for a while I think I have come up with a way to proceed with the networking series.  By looking at the actions that I consider networking I could then look at how I am doing these actions and what tools that I am using to accomplish these.  These allowed me to put together a structure to follow over the next few post.

To begin let’s review the definition for networking proposed in the last post:

 

The activities involved with accomplishing things through people and relating to others.  This includes building your social network, using tools like Internet social networking tools, building communities, and maintaining your network.

For the job hunting that I’m doing the purpose of networking is two fold.  First, the doing things through people is using my network to connect with those who have positions or information about positions.  To get good ideas from people about what I should be doing.

Day 228–Transition–Breaking the Code?

Image via Wikipedia

It has been busy last few weeks.  I have wanted to continue on with my networking series of posts, but have not had the time to get back to it.  There are several reasons for this.  It is the beginning of the Holiday season so going through Thanksgiving took some time away from my normal activities.  I also pushed to get the remodel to the point that the sheet rocker can come in.  All the cabling and electrical work in the walls is complete.

But the larger reason is two fold.  The first is that I think companies are more interested in hiring people, maybe it is a end of the year push or a beginning of the year push, but it has seemed to change in the last couple of months.  Companies who are hunkering down to weather bad times, tend not to hire people like me that help with improving their efficiency and productivity.  They need people that can keep the factory up and running and not much else.  Now people are looking at capturing efficiencies so that they don’t overhire people and so that they can work on the backlog of improvements and changes that have piled up over the last couple years.

The second area that I think has changed is the way that I am applying for jobs.  I think I may have finally cracked the code on getting my resume to be seen by people.

Day 195–Transition–Networking Part II

In the last posting, I wrote about what has changed that has caused networking to be so important in today’s job market.  In this posting I wanted to cover the things that I am doing for networking.  Then in future postings go a little more in depth about some of the tools I am using and what it can do and also the things that I have told that I should do, but haven’t yet.

This blog has been used for two purposes.  The first is just for myself, as a way to deeper understand and learn from what I am going through. The second area is for external purposes.  These include helping people in a similar situation by sharing what I’m finding and how I‘m approaching things, so that others can improve upon and then hopefully share back what they have learned.  This has happened several times.  The latest being the additional links on elevator speeches that were provided for sharing with others. 

On occasion, I publish links to the blog through my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts.  For social networking those are the big three that I use.  I try to keep a fairly constant presence on these.  Linking back my latest Twitter posts to my blog.

One of the ways that I provide value on the internet is by sharing thought provoking articles.   Over the last couple of months I have grown to find Google reader invaluable in keeping up on articles and blog posts.

 
Writing has also been a way of networking. The first was by creating a two part blog posting for a international systems thinking organization that I have been associated with for many years.  I also write short reviews of other’s blog posting on this site.  This keeps my name out in front people and the published articles are now a part of resume. 

Day 192 – Transition – Networking Part I

Image by Robert S. Donovan via Flickr

Everywhere I turn for knowledge in this job search the term networking comes up and how important it is in today’s job search.  I think it always has been important but even more so today.
I’m thinking of doing a few blog entries on networking because this is such a big and seemingly amorphous topic that I hope that I can bring a little shape to the subject.
First, what has happened in the last few years that makes networking so important?
It has always been the case that knowing people helped in getting a job.  The son of the owner, a friend of a manager, or just friend putting in the word that you are a normal person and not some whacko off the street has always made a difference; maybe not if you are that whacko off the street, but otherwise it has.
But what they are talking about now is a change has taken place where knowing someone makes a crucial difference 30 % to 40% of the time.  The internet has made deep changes in how people look for a job and how companies screen and this has caused a overwhelming job for hiring managers. 

Day 170 – Transition- ProLango Resources

Image via Wikipedia

After two of the three ProLango classes, I was sent out a list of resources that I thought I would share.  I haven’t made it through reading all of these so I have no idea how good they are.  I do know that I have enjoyed and felt enrich by all of the articles of Paul’s that I have read.

Class 1: Career Optimization Seminar:

• How a Black Mark Can Derail a Job Search - The Wall Street Journal
• How to stay off the recruiter "blacklist" - NWjobs (The Seattle Times)
• The rules for job hunting have changed - The News Tribune
• Why is it so hard to find a job today - ProLango Consulting
• They’re just not that into you - ProLango Consulting

Class 2: Resume Search Optimization

• New cyber-rules for resume writing - NWjobs (The Seattle Times)
• Resume Writing Basics - ProLango Consulting

Class 3 :

• Can’t find any resources for this one.

Here is a link to Paul’s other online articles:

• online column with NWjobs (The Seattle Times)

And this is an interview that Paul did for the Seattle Link Up group that organizes networking sessions each month.  The topic of the interview is how to get the most out of these networking events:

• http://bit.ly/tsnetwork

I hope you find these useful.

I haven’t had a quote for a while here’s today’s:

In times of change, learners inherit the Earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

-- Eric Hoffer

Related articles

• Day 168 - Transition - Third ProLango class (other-dribblings.blogspot.com)
• Day 153 - Good Courses to Take (other-dribblings.blogspot.com)

• Day 157- Transition - Feelings just below the surface (other-dribblings.blogspot.com)

Day 168 – Transition – Third ProLango class

Today I went to the third ProLango class.  It was actually the first in the series but I had missed it the first time around.  Paul Anderson, writer for the Seattle Times NW jobs is the presenter.  The purpose of the three sessions is to impart enough wisdom that you want to go on and take the advance classes for about $400.
Today’s class was titled: Career Search Optimization.  Paul has interviewed about 35 companies and has access to many recruiters in the area.  This data is used to rebuke the standard claims about how to search for a job.  Paul claims that there has been major changes in just the last three years.  In this down turn there has been a lot on consolidation of HR positions and with this a need to automate practices that HR people were handling before, like processing resumes. 
This has caused changes like using Facebook and LinkedIn as ways to get additional information about candidates.  Studies have shown that LinkedIn has better resume information than resumes turned into companies.  Looking for work is frustrating.  People are sometimes tempted to turn in a resume that has been enhanced in order to appear more hire able.  This can be grounds to become blacklisted (see below).  Also Facebook interactions are evaluated; the lesson is be careful what you put on social networks.
Also Paul claims that advertized positions now gather 900 applications per position.  New ways are needed to combat the sheer volume of the entries.  In addition, hiring managers at many companies are no longer able to work directly with recruiters.  Some places (Paul used Microsoft as an example) have limited recruiting agencies to 4 unique resumes per position.  But even with this over a thousand resumes could show up from its over 400 approved recruiter companies. 
Reduction of HR and severing the recruiter link has put a huge burden on the hiring manager.  Paul’s claim is that this burden is taken up by the hiring manager turning to their network and asking the network to supply suggested candidates.  This is where the power of networking comes in today’s job market.   A large proportion of jobs never get advertised and a large percentage of the overall jobs are obtained not through the internet application so popular today, but rather through networking contacts in person and through social media like Facebook and LinkedIn. 
Paul recommends building a personalize strategy about the companies that you want to target.  And then build a detailed plan about how to network your way into the company.  He also advises not to apply for jobs at these target companies.  Instead, work on making connections.  On helping out others as you find connections into companies.
Paul talked about blacklisting of job applicants for the following reasons:

1. Mass Mailing Resumes
2. Applying for any job list (or all jobs listed)
3. Lying on Resume (found by comparing older version and your linked in versions)
4. Social Media Mistakes (behavior unbecoming a respectable employee)
5. Recruiter Stories (usually from ill treatment of recruiters)

I highly recommend going to the three free classes offered by Prolango.  I think it helps to expand your thinking and to re-evaluate your approach.  Paul claims that coming in November and December will involved some large layoffs.  My suspicious side sees this as fear tactics to attend the paid classes.  I think the classes would be good, but I have to weigh that against the $400 cost.  So far the it hasn’t tipped the scale enough to sign up for the classes.   Part of the reason is that I have seen things that I can do without the classes; changes that I can make on my own and then see what the results of these changes are.
At least one person has been having problems leaving comments on this blog.  I love to get comments, they help assure me that I am not the only one getting some benefit from this blog. I prefer to get comments on the blog, because it leaves a record and I have also have hopes of this blog being less of a soliloquy and more of an interactive dialog.   If you are having problems leaving messages, please feel free to email me at chrisabbey@comcast.net and I will respond as soon as I can.

Related articles

• Day 153 - Good Courses to Take (other-dribblings.blogspot.com)
• Should You Search Social Media Sites for Job Candidate Information? (mashable.com)
• How Job Seekers May Use Social Media in the Future (mashable.com)
• The five "R's" of job search (thehumanracehorses.com)
• Paul Anderson’s Article Archive at NW Jobs

Day 114 – Transition – Hanging In

It is amazing how busy my days are now that I am not working.   The list of things I need to do is endless, and I find myself  lapsing into catch up mode quite often when I focus in one area for too long.

I am in wait mode for hearing back from a job a UW.   I interviewed and felt the interview went well and it seems like a great job.  Hope to hear back soon and at the same time UW is notorious for taking a long time to make decisions.

In the mean time I have found several other jobs to apply for.  And hoping to get some more interviews from these applications.

The last two weeks of the WorkSource Networking group have been great.  Last week they had Ray Roberts a former Seahawk now motivational speaker and this week was Rita Ashley and Executive Career coach and author.  Ray has a down home style and personality which was inviting and great to listen to.  His message was about the importance of relationships in life and how mentors had influenced his life. 

Rita’s main message was about the importance of networking in looking for a job.  She believes the idea of putting in an application without already having a in with the company ludicrous.   She understands that it is a requirement for unemployment, but she believes it is not the way people get hired.  Her book is self published I believe, which is becoming more and more common.  I would like to write a book at some point, now if I can just narrow down a subject.  Here is a link to her website JobSearch4Execs

After hearing that I didn’t get one of the jobs I interviewed for, Ray’s message was perfectly timed to lift my spirits.  Rita’s message was filled with takeaways that I can use.  I am re-invigorated to write an  elevator speech and to adjust my LinkedIn presence—tightening up my message in both cases.   Here is a YouTube video about elevator speeches for an investment pitch; it needs a little translation for job hunting but the basic idea if the same.

 

I have been experimenting with a couple of programs.  The first is Google reader—I have been using this in the hopes of being able to digest information faster both to give myself news, but also as a way to find article that are worth sharing in a social networking context.  And another program that I loaded yesterday, but that I think has promise is call Gist.  Gist allows you to follow people and companies in one center location.  In one location, you see news articles, tweets, Facebook entries and more.  This allows you to engage more directly with your network.

So now I’m back in the saddle and very busy.  The remodel has kicked into a higher gear as I have moved the TV and computer upstairs, basically eliminating the basements as part of the house.  This has crunched our living into a smaller area—already feeling the closeness in both the negative and positive aspects.   I’m in the middle of gutting the walls and ceiling down to the studs.  Hoping to complete the gutting by the end of the week.

Soccer assistant coaching has also started for my daughter’s team.  First practice was yesterday, the car registered 90 degrees, which is melting weather for Seattle.  Supporting practices takes a bit more time away from other tasks, but it is worth it to be outside and helping the girls learn teamwork and the skills of soccer.   And I think we are going to have a fun team this year. 

Can’t believe it has been 114 days.  Time passes so quickly.

Today’s Quote:

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.

--Stephen R. Covey

 

Day 96 – Transition – Software Update

Right before leaving Boeing, I did a two part blog post call moving on (part 1 and Part 2) where I covered some of the computing issues I had been dealing with as I left Boeing.  Having a Boeing laptop for many years had negated the need for a personal computer and associated software.

In this blog, I would like to review the changes and see what ones have lasted, additions since then, and which ones haven’t worked out.

Gmail is still my official mail for work related correspondence.

Boeing used Outlook and the only feature that I miss was the use of signatures.  Over the years I had built up a library of quotes that I could use as my signatures.  I haven’t found anything to replace.  I have an older version of outlook on my machine for only two purposes.  The first is the quotes and the second is just in case that I need to retrieve old information from my archive files.

One program that I have not used much is Thunderbird email.  This is a free email solution.  I stopped using it because it doesn’t do so well at bringing in my Comcast email.  This may just be a configuration problem I’m having.  With it only bring in my Gmail account, it is a just as easy to work directly in Gmail instead of layering only software on top of it.  Recently, I have been taking another look at this software wondering if I have missed some functionality.

Google calendar is what I’m using for calendar functions, it works great.  I have some trouble in that I have so little use of a calendar now, that I find I miss things because of the lack of structure centered around the calendar.  This is a recurring theme with me, having a regular structure is required in order to keep on top of things.    I have Mozilla Sunbird, the calendaring program, loaded on my computer and it is in the same category as Thunderbird.  It is good software, but I’m having a hard time understanding why I would use this over Google calendar.

Google now has off line versions for all of their products.  I haven’t been disconnected or working offline, but if I was, my information would still be available offline for both mail and calendar.  Both of these Google products work seamlessly with my android phone.

Remember the Milk has been great for tracking my tasks.  It has the ability to set up recurring task.    This has been great for setting up the cleaning tasks around the house and being able to adjust the recurrence as I have tried to bring down the amount of time being spent on cleaning.  Again this is only as effective as my own self discipline and ability to keep myself on track.  Google calendar has a task capability that is built into their products, but it is not near as capable or friendly as RTM.

For browsing I have both IE and FireFox; I prefer FireFox but some sites just need IE, most notably Microsoft and Expedia do better in IE.   There is a lot of small apps that I’m using within Firefox and this customization has made it the center of my computing.  One that I will mention because it stops a lot of clutter is AdBlock.  This strips much of the advertising off web pages allowing more focus on the information.

For Job searching, I am primarily using Simply Hired.  I love how it interfaces well with LinkedIn.  It also has an interface with FaceBook which I think needs some work.  I now have my searches loaded into FireFox so that I can go into a job search folder and open all tabs and it goes off and opens 15 tabs which take about minute to complete.  The first tab is Boeing, then I have a set of company searches, and then a set open ended searches on different specific search terms.  I have the company searches set up that they only bring in information from the companies website (here I am assuming the all the jobs a company puts out will be on their site which I think is a good assumption).  Also these searches bring up all the jobs that the company puts out.  This allows me to understand what jobs the is putting out.  Sometimes their language is for a job is different than a search term would pick up.  The down side is I have to go through all the jobs posted; for Microsoft, Expedia, UW, and Starbucks this can be quite a few, but I can go through these pretty quickly especially after I get familiar with a company’s specific language.

For networking I’m using LinkedIn in a number of ways.  Keeping track with my contacts activities, researching links to jobs that I want to apply for, and through the use of groups and commenting in group activity.  I am also using Facebook as a way to stay connected with people.  I have been using Twitter to gather interesting information, to post articles, and to get news.  I have been trying to learn how to use twitter for more job possibilities but haven’t developed a good understanding of how to use this as tool for jobs. 

Instead of using adobe postscript reader I have switched to a product called Nitro that allows better taking of notes and highlighting.  It also seems faster.

A product that I just started using but like is a note taking program and interfaces well with phones, Firefox, the internet and a stay alone program.  This is called Evernote and is great for gather information from many different sources and bringing them together in one common database.  I’m looking at storing all of my job requisition information in here. 

Another product that I have just start using is called Zemanta.  It helps with blog writing and automatically brings up resources as you type.  This can also be used in constructing email.  This is nice because it makes the  writing process even more of the learning process, makes the blog entries more graphical and provides more take away information.

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Day 94 Transition – Staying Engaged

When working, I get 100% engaged into what I am doing.  All of my brain is engaged in my work activity.  So much so that I need to make sure that make time for the other important parts of my life like family, friends, exercise, and relaxation.

Now without work, I find that the opposite is true.  I need to do things that engage my mind in order to stay alert.  This is why at the start of this journey, I choose to do more than just focus on getting a job.  While keeping getting a job as the number one priority, I choose to also focus on getting healthy, becoming a good house Dad, and remodeling our house.

Keeping exercise as an important activity has made this journey a lot easier.  I was slacking a bit on exercise even before my recent foot injury and I’m feeling the fact that I haven’t done much in the way of exercise for the last few days due since the injury.  I hope that I can use this injury to refocus my efforts, and to get back pushing my limits physically as I come off this minor set back.

In addition to the physical engagement, I’m finding the need to push on the mental engagement.  I have been reading a bit more than usual and my reading habits have seemed to change somewhat.   In the past, it was not unusual to find myself reading two or three books at one time.  Now I have noticed that I am more focused and stick to reading one book through to the end.   This is nothing conscious, just something that seems to have happened. 

I am also finding a need to more regularly do puzzles.  My phone has a sudoku app on it that I have found my self playing when I get a chance.  I have done these for several years, but find that I am doing two sometimes three in a day now.

I have also started doing other more learning type reading.  Using Remember the Milk task tracking, I have been setting up a daily task to do a small bit of reading that I may not want to focus on and read straight through.  I have finished the Dhammapada, an ancient Buddhist Text, this way.  Now I am reading an Ebook call the Basics of Grammar as a refresher.

Yesterday, I ran across a great list of websites for learning on a LinkedIn discussion group and have been thinking about how I can incorporate some of this into my daily schedule.  The list was supplied by Jose Velasquez and I have included below after today’s quote.  This is a huge list.  I visited a couple yesterday and noticed a few that I have been too before.   

Also, here is a slide show I found on the same subject that I thought was very good and packed with resources:

Classroom 2.0: The Best Places to Learn Online

View more presentations from Chrystal Porter.

If you haven’t had enough yet; after Jose’s list there is some additional resources for your enjoyment.

Today’s Quote:

Success is peace of mind which is the result of knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable.

--John Wooden, Head Basketball Coach UCLA

 

Here is the list as supplied by Jose :

Useful sites to Inspire you

These websites have thousands of video lectures from the world's top scholars.

http://Academicearth.org
http://www.learnerstv.com/
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/av/index.htm
http://worldlibrary.net/Collections.htm
http://freevideolectures.com/
http://videolectures.net/
http://lecturefox.com
http://www.ted.com/
http://OCW.ND.edu

Courses include detailed lecture notes, a calendar of reading assigned for each class and a description of major assignments.
http://OCW.Tufts.edu
Offers student-made documentaries about social issues as well as a list of weekly readings.
http://iTunes.Stanford.edu
Professors Martin Evans and Marsh McCall lecture on great works by Virgil to Voltaire.
http://iTunes.Berkeley.edu
Berkeley's lectures online
http://WebCast.Berkeley.edu
alternate site of Berkeley's lectures.
http://scholarspot.com/
http://www.varsitynotes.com/

If anyone is interested in Entrepreneurship and learning more about what it takes to own or run a business, I highly recommend the Standford eCorner ( http://ecorner.stanford.edu/authorMaterialInfo.html?mid=1554 ) or the Harvard business school ( http://www.hbs.edu/entrepreneurs/ ) podcasts.   Both are great resources that provide outstanding insight into running your own business
http://oedb.org/library/features/236-open-courseware-collections
http://www.careervoyages.gov/education-videos.cfm
http://www.sba.gov/tools/audiovideo/deliveringsuccess/index.html
http://www.sba.gov/training/index.html
http://www.sba.gov/tools/audiovideo/Podcasts/index.html
http://www.openculture.com/2007/07/freeonlinecourses.html
http://www.videomd.com/featured_videos.aspx
http://www.freesciencelectures.com/
http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
http://education.usgs.gov/common/video_animation.htm
http://www.nachi.org/advancedcourses.htm
http://education-portal.com/video_library/index.html
http://www.serve.org/nche/ibt/aw_video.php
http://www.practisinc.com/interactive/patient-education-videos.php
http://scholarspot.com/
http://www.varsitynotes.com/
http://www.learnerstv.com/
http://www.stumbleupon.com
A link of Educational videos an more..
http://www.ovguide.com/education.html

Laughter is strong medicine for mind and body
“Your sense of humor is one of the most powerful tools you have to make certain that your daily mood and emotional state support good health.”
~ Paul E. McGhee, Ph.D.

Laughter is a powerful antidote to stress, pain, and conflict. Nothing works faster or more dependably to bring your mind and body back into balance than a good laugh. Humor lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert.

With so much power to heal and renew, the ability to laugh easily and frequently is a tremendous resource for surmounting problems, enhancing your relationships, and supporting both physical and emotional health.

I have gathered various videos for your delight and enjoyment we all need it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p32OC97aNqc 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN3iNxr2bhk 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW3gJFrZ4hY 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_wpunvbyKA&NR=1

For those wanting to make a little money on the side useful links for unemployment please forward to everyone
Subscribe
http://www.fusioncash.net/?ref=joeveloz 
http://moneymaking777.blogspot.com/ 
http://www.getvouchersforfree.com?join=273 
http://www.cashle.com/?ref=joeveloz 
http://www.textbroker.com/ 
https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome 
http://www.demandstudios.com/ 
http://shaklee--distributor.blogspot.com/

Http://www.ocwconsortium.org/use/use-dynamic.html
An OpenCourseWare is a free and open digital publication of high quality educational materials, organized as courses. The OpenCourseWare Consortium is a collaboration of more than 200 higher education institutions and associated organizations from around the world creating a broad and deep body of open educational content using a shared model.
http://www.oercommons.org/
In a brave new world of learning, OER content is made free to use or share, and in some cases, to change and share again, made possible through licensing, so that both teachers and learners can share what they know.
http://www.schoox.com/
In schooX you can find free online courses in a wide range of subjects. Over 500 online courses, which are soon to reach 2000, are already free available under a Creative Commons license.
http://selfmadescholar.com/b/self-education-resource-list/
The internet is an invaluable resource to self-educated learners. Below is a list of some of the most helpful sites out there including opencourseware materials, free libraries, learning communities, educational tools, and more.
http://www.missiontolearn.com/2009/12/learn-foreign-language-online/
Reading from a textbook isn’t the only way to learn a foreign language. The web offers a number of free tools that can be used to enhance the learning experience inside and outside the classroom. Here are 15 language learning tools to try today:
http://www.rfid4u.com/services/freeelearning.asp
RFID Basics Course
This course helps learners to understand the fundamentals of RFID technology and provides an overview of RFID hardware including different types of tags, tag frequencies, readers, antennas, and so on.
http://www.4shared.com/dir/25834616/400fbf67/sharing.html

5 months ago

Tools
http://us.smetoolkit.org/us/en
Your welcome
Templates
http://www.mplans.com/sample_marketing_plans.php
http://www.bplans.com/sample_business_plans.cfm
http://www.score.org/template_gallery.html
http://isb.wa.gov/pmframework/templates.aspx

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Day 89 – transition – Back in the groove

Well the excitement of preparing for the interview has faded.  I hope the job comes through, but in the mean time, I ‘m back into the groove of searching.  I had actually been collecting Job requisitions all week, if the job title looked interesting I saved it, though I didn’t have time to read through it to understand if it a was the least bit relevant. 

I can generally find about 20 titles per day that I want to read through.  Some of these will be discarded within a first few sentences, others are read all the way through.  Often I will skip to the qualifications sections and see how close I am to the requirements; if I’m way off I will throw it out without reading any further. 

Simply Hired has a star rating system from 1 to 5 stars and not interested button.  I set the number of stars after I have saved the requisitions to my jobs, and have read through the requisition.  Then when I do other searches I can see that it has already been read and rated it.  This also helps me understand how far I got in a previous search.  I don’t use the Not Interested button because I can’t see it outside of the my jobs section of the web site.

Yesterday and today I read through all the requisitions that I had collected, and found two that were very interesting and that I will apply for and another 3 or 4 that I will review again before deciding whether to apply. 

****************************************************************

The news lately has been pretty good about the economy getting better.  The first two weeks of July were terrible for job listings.  This seems to be slowly changing.  Even Boeing is listing a few more jobs than they were.    I hope this means that it is finally moving into full recovery mode.

***************************************************************

Due to the interview, my attention move completely away from the remodel.  So very little progress has been made on the master bath.   I had thought we had the tile picked out, turned out we have a little more deciding to do, which is a good thing, the new tiles we are considering are very nice.

Not sure if we will get anything done this weekend, as it is looking like summer time fun will trump the remodel.  Next week I will be able to make some progress.   And then it will be time to prep for the next interview.  There won’t be as much available to review.

Today’s Quote:

Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing. This is the ultimate.

-Chang Tzu

Day 88 - Transition - internal discipline

I didn’t realize how tightly wound I was.

Yesterday, I had an interview for the job that I would love to have.  There was a lot of material to cover and I invested quite a few hours in preparation.  I was ready; I was calm; I felt a rapport with my interviewers; and I was able to answer the questions well.

I am fully qualified for this position and have no big holes in my skill base that would disqualify from consideration.  And all of my experience will be applied with this job and my skills and talents will bring benefits to this organization.

Using my networking contacts to talk with a friend in this position before and with another employee within the same organization had provided both information and comfort.  Information about the position and comfort in knowing that I was a good fit for the position.

Everything aligned itself for this interview, physically and spiritually, to the point of experiencing synchronistic occurrences leading up to the interview.
 
I really felt good going into the interview.

I was relaxed through the whole interview and felt good afterward.

I felt that I had done a good job of revealing my personality and skills.  There were areas where I felt I could have done  better job, but not areas that created doubt in my mind that I had done well.
And this good feeling lasted through the night.

What surprised me was how deeply I slept through the night.  I must have been unwinding stress that I didn’t realize was present.  Maybe my sleep for the last couple of days had been impacted without realization on my part.  I was tired last night and fell asleep fast and I slept a little longer, but the big change was in the dept.  Somehow, it seemed that I sleeping at a much deeper level.

******************************************************************

I have done almost all that I could up to this time.  I did the best I could and I have no regrets.  Today, I need to compose thank you notes and get them in the mail.  And then it is back to the waiting game.

The timing is the completion of first round interviews by the end of next week and then moving into second round interviews the first two weeks of August.  So I shouldn’t have to wait long to hear.

*******************************************************************
I feel kind of a odd emotional play going on.  Trying to balance my desire to have this job with protecting myself from a broken heart.  It is like I have to temper my hopes in case it doesn’t come through.  I don’t think that is the game that I want to play.  I really want this job.  And I will be very disappointed if I don’t get it.

This job represents many things to me.  It is in the Health care industry, so it means working with people that have dedicated their lives to helping others.  It also means a way that I can give back to society for blessings that I have received.  I had always felt a twinge of discomfort in the fact that Boeing makes weapons of destruction, never enough to leave the company on that point alone, but this discomfort had been present since I first decided to work for Boeing more that 22 years ago.

Boeing has afforded me tremendous opportunities of growth and learning, which I am very thankful for.  Now, I feel it is time to start using these skills and talents for a purpose greater than stockholder equity.

When we pick a career, whether we do it consciously or unconsciously, we are dedicating out lives to the endeavor of that career.  We spend so much time in the position, and align our lives to supporting the success of the position, that we are in fact dedicating our lives to it.

My job, what I have dedicated my live to, it making people better at whatever they have dedicated them selves to.  I do this by helping them improve several areas.  First the actual steps of the job itself through emphasizing what is of most importance and brings the most value.  Secondly, I help them work out the personal interfaces with others, or the team dynamics of the position.  And thirdly, I help them with their thinking about the position.  This includes how important what they are doing is, and how it fits into the bigger picture.

I can do this in any industry.  I can do this at any level of a organization.  This touches or approaches dealing with our spiritual sides of why we do things.  And this takes internal discipline to be able to externally help others.

As I have matured, this internal discipline has become more and more important in the work that I do.  I think this has played a part in my layoff and my need to find a position that will allow me to pay back to society.

One sensei that I have been fortunate to have in my live, has to meditate 3 hours a day to be able to be a facilitative leader of groups.  I’m not anywhere near this level, but this is an example of internal discipline needed to help others.

Sorry for this long winded explanation of why my heart is really set on this job.  But my intention is fully aligned to have this position.  My heart is set in a single direction.

Today’s Quote:

Care more than others think wise.
Risk more than others think safe.
Dream more than others think practical.
Expect more than others think possible.
--Howard Schultz, CEO Starbucks Coffee, Pour Your Heart Into It

Day 87 – Transition – We it rains it pours

The last couple of days have been focused on studying for the interview tomorrow.  I am pretty much ready.  Having reviewed what was on their website;  the website of their outside consultant that is working with them, my own personal notes on Lean and rereading so seminal articles on Lean, I believe that I am pretty much ready.  This was a lot of material and helpful to go over.

My friend, who had this same position several years ago, needed to push our phone conversation off until tomorrow.  That will take place in the morning.

I’m hoping for another cool day.  Wearing a monkey suit  and tie when it is 85 outside sounds pretty uncomfortable.  This is all picked out, though I still need to iron everything.  Tomorrow will be spent in final preparations like ironing  and reviewing interviewing books on loan from the library. 

This has been a lot of preparation, but it will seem like  just a pittance compared to getting a job and starting to put in 40+ hours a week again.

Getting a job will create a whole other set of complications that we would have to handle now that my wife is back at work.  But that would be more fun to handle than the changes we have been dealing with to date.

After all the back and forth trying to get my TAA cobra insurance lined up, this is where the federal government would subsidize my health care benefits by 80%, we have decided to drop the insurance and use  my wife’s insurance coverage.  This will save us over $400 per month, a tidy sum.  The insurance isn’t quite as good, but it will do.  It was a godsend that my wife could get her position so quickly.  And the benefits are very good compared to most places today.

When it rains it pours.  I received another request for an interview.  This one won’t happen until the beginning of August.  It is for another position that would be exciting to go into.   I’m all up for getting a few more of these lined up.  Maybe we could hold one of those reverse auctions for my services….  Chris…, wake up…, wake up…, you started dreaming there for a second.

Also, seems like I’m hearing more good news about the economy.  In Washington state it was reported that job listings are up 21% from last fall.   And with all the cash that big corporations are holding it seems like hiring could bust loose at anytime.    My cynical side says it will probably just amount to higher executive bonuses rather than jobs, but let’s remain hopeful.

Today’s Quote took me a bit of reflection to become comfortable with:

"The basic difference between an ordinary person and a warrior is that a warrior takes everything as a challenge while an ordinary person takes everything as a blessing or a curse."

-- Carlos Castaneda