Dijonnase nase nase Dijonnase ase ase

For some reason that jingle is worming its way through my head at the moment, probably because I just finished making a corned beef and swiss sandwich, so was spreading the mayo and the dijon mustard on my bread.

I'm currently embedded up to my eyeteeth in some dirty data and loving every minute of it.  I'm working on a Proof of Concept project for a new friend of mine.  * shrug * it's made this week wonderfully interesting and I love being engaged with real data once again.  Vizzy Solutions:  "We clean your data so you don't have to!" is one of my slogans.

It's 90 degrees in Seattle.  I was not meant for this weather.  Still, I have no dread of Monday.  I pick up some friends flying in from France tomorrow.  Yes, I have another interview but what people seem to be looking for are database administrators and while I can build a database...let's just say, I like playing in the fields of database administration, but do I wish to memorize the architecture types, worry about backups, security, etc.  Erm.  No.

So, Vizzy Solutions has made its first attempt at finding a client.  I've cleaned and created some preliminary charts, maps, and graphs for an independent winery.  There's some more interesting stuff which could be done as well, but "proof of concept" - yeah, I could do this.  And I've called some friends in to see if they'd be interested in 1099ing with me.  They are.  Who knows how far this might go.  If it can go.  I have nothing to lose and beautiful data to sharpen my skills with.  And boy, does my ETL work need sharpening... LOL

But back to the harvest..

Pinged more than once

Okay, okay, it's been a while... But I wasn't ready to serve up disillusionment, disappointment, and distress.  And since I fake about as good as I cook, the hearts and roses shit just adds up to a big smell.  Things are getting better though and I've gotten pinged more than once about, "What is going on?  How are you doing?"  As usual, in the interest of expediency, I'll post a blog entry.

My Burpday week was The Wurst.  Really.  In fact, the whole month of March stank. It was so bad it was nearly cosmic.  My project was cancelled, yeah, sure, but worse than that was Davie projectile womiting like Linda Blair without the levity.  Somewhere along the line he'd acquired "vertigo" - source unknown.  After his "not associated with a stroke" / Yes you will get an MRI, honey (I said with a smile),  he was rear-ended a week later and the truck tailgate is doomed, but Davie was alright.  Sore, but otherwise okay, still a week after that he strained / sprained a calf muscle and it blew up like a kiddie balloon.  Yes.  There were a number of miseries.  Thank heavens, nothing serious, but ugh-y anyways.

Things began to get better in April.  I started updating my profiles and getting calls.  All I gotta say is that, no, I'm not a database administrator no matter that your job description calls it data scientist.  Data scientists / analysts don't give a fuck what data architecture is implemented.  That's the database administrator's job.  We just want our data streams integrated, and rapidly please.  And so here begins my sour grapes rant:

While there are many people interested in my profile...far and wide... mostly it's the big companies around here sending their hounds after me.  Still, there is a lot of sexier competition than I, who are much more complacent and don't look a hiring manager in the eye and say, "Say what?"  I'm tired of  my own bad attitude and I've decided to play chicken:  I'm working on a startup idea and if it launches and I get a paycheck before I get a viable job offer, I'm gonna stick with it.  I'll talk more about it later, but the current interview process would be hilarious if it wasn't so outrageous.  Apparently there are so many zombie candidates out there that the tech interviews need to be insulting, time consuming, and just plain awful.  "Write a sql statement which selects a sum of sales orders by month."  uhm...  what?  I talk to so many candidates who are just plain t-i-r-e-d of taking these pop quizzes which don't reflect what they're capable of, or how they'd handle not knowing something.  Then there's the "Rubik's cube" kind of question, to "see how you think."  Uhm...  those can sometimes take days to figure out. Then there's the technical ones which seem to be forced memorization of crap like "program a Fibonacci sequence".   Worse, are those interviews for things like analyst positions where they ask questions about database architecture.  W-T-F?

When I think of all the interviewing of others I've done in the past, I knew they wouldn't know my

networks, or what we did each day.  There was no freakin' way.  So it was all about trying to find someone who had something to say, had some personality, and gave a sense that they could fit with the daily chaos and figure out - by themselves - what needed to be done and how to get there.  We also interviewed for people who were different than we were, who had skills we didn't have and didn't know about.  Sure there were mistakes, but hey, that's life.  Mistakes get promoted, and that's the way the world works.  All that griping said, my name is being floated for architectural level stuff, but nothing about that goes fast.  So, who knows, I don't.  

In the absence of a job which isn't bounded by a hamster wheel or a tiny idea, I've started working on building a new business plan for a company I'm calling Vizzy Solutions.  The idea is to bring "Big Data to Small Business," and it's targeted toward the businesses which don't have the resources, or even truly the full-time need for an analyst, but could use help consolidating their data sources and combining the information for a holistic report view.

artist:  Brenda Reid

It's an idea I've had for awhile, but killed it because I couldn't find the correct target market.  Then I was approached by someone who is working within a market I might be able to create a package for.  Now I do have a target audience and I'm working to put together the package build, the business plan.  I've talked to others who have deep backgrounds and / or I've worked with and they find the space and idea interesting.  They're interested in playing in the sandbox if I can get it going.  They are  a Stanford PhD in statistics, a GIS analyst, a database administrator, and a civil engineer who just got a "data scientist" certificate through Galvanize.

They're all smarter than I am, but they don't think my idea is stupid.  In fact they've all kinda wondered how to go about getting it going, or how to do the work on their own.  For me, it took meeting with an independent marketing person who works with wineries who got all excited hearing I'm all about data, Excel workbooks, and analytics.  I'm working with the marketing / sales person to see what it will take to put together package deals so the service model is similar to the Accountant or design firm.  We're going to focus on offering the same type of value, except in data.

But yes, I'm still interviewing...

Do Not Let the Bedside Win

If there is one piece of advice I could give to those who find themselves newly unemployed, that is to keep to the same pace of work that they're used to.  You'll just need to spend your time working at tasks other than what you might be familiar with.  

The sabbatical is a dream for many people in the tech industry.  When I speak to people about how I've spent my time since my last position, what I've been doing, the training I've taken, the conventions I've attended, the programming languages I've played with, there is this pain filled sigh they release.  This is usually followed by an "Oh man, that sounds so good."

Being able to take the training that you want, when you want is a luxury.  Unemployment is viewed with suspicion.  I'm not quite sure why that is.  To me, it smacks of victim blaming:  "Her skirts were too short, she deserved It."  "He shouldn't have walked alone down the street that night."  That sort of thing.  The fact is that in our culture we expect people to remain on the hamster wheel until they drop dead at their desk, or they hit "the age."  Otherwise: "There Is Something Wrong.  Red Flag!  Red Flag!"

If you've followed the standard advice & socked money away in case of a layoff (hello!!! Uncertainty in the job market has been going on since the devastating layoffs of the '70s, and really, well, since FOREVER - Hello Industrial Revolution), you have an opportunity.  One which shouldn't be wasted. 

Job searching is painful.  Brutal on the ego, often times anxiety ridden because your efforts are met with a wave of incredulity, suspicion, and cynicism.  Still, it is an adventure, an exploration, an opportunity to add to your skills, and frankly - there's a lot of personal growth which can come of this time.

Hopefully, after your initial shock, you take your "vacation time" but then begin to set your clock to get out of bed to be "at the office" - bankers hours.  No joke.  Set yourself a specific time when you will be "at work."  Because you will be doing work.  I, myself, begin my day at my desk or heading out at 8am.  I usually wake up between 5am-6am (when I haven't done the menopausal wake up at 2am, fall back asleep at 4am), and never any later than 7am.  If you need to set an alarm to get your ass out of bed.  Set it.  I don't care if you don't have breakfast, go drink coffee, or spend your time doing yoga, just don't let the bed conquer your will.  

Set a course of action for your day is a scheduling problem we've all worked with in our professional lives.  Frankly, I work two weeks in advance.  Yes, I'm scheduled out, booked nearly solid every day, with events, training webinars, meetups.  This month is NaPoWriMo - National Poetry Writing Month - so I'm writing a poem a day.  Make sure you have planned days to hustle your submissions

into the Applicant Tracking System BLACK HOLE.  Set yourself a weekly target.  I can tell you response rates will vary widely according to season.  Call back some of the recruiters you liked and see if they have anything for you.  If you haven't had a recruiter contact you, and you have more than seven years' experience, something is seriously wrong with your LinkedIn / Indeed / Monster / TelecomCareers.Net / Dice / CyberCoders entries.  I'm your friend.  You can contact me and I'll go look at it and give you some feedback.  Take up reading technical / business related blogs.  Catch up on the industry news you haven't had time for.  Now might be the time to learn about how to launch that business / app / game idea you've had rolling around.  Although, one piece of advice I did receive is that if you have worked with only one company (like I did), or in one industry (like I did), it would be good to get some work experience with another company or another industry. 

I've also taken up getting up from my desk, adding more exercise into my life - even if that does include shopping.  LOL.  So make sure that this time off includes time for pleasurable events you otherwise haven't had time for.  Settle in at an independent coffee house on a Tuesday morning drinking a cappuccino in a wide mouthed white ceramic cup.  Pour a heap of sugar on the top of the white foam, and watch the foam turn to a light brown as you mix it in with the sweet and the espresso.  Sip your coffee slowly while you nibble at the ends of a croissant, the flake so crunchy they burst around you making a mess at the table.  

Buy a small notebook and carry a pencil with you.  Consider your options.  How little can you live on?  Contemplate downsizing, moving to Italy or Portugal, or to Key West.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, think of how your skills might be transferable into becoming a magician's assistant, or a personal assistant.  Conquering the world is over-rated anyways.  It's too much work.  There's little or no downtime when you are building an evil empire.  

For some, these small luxuries I'm writing about will still be not enough.  I can tell you from a friend's experience who's gone through quitting one job, moving between two others, and experiencing two layoffs (i.e., lotsa mobility), 2015 was weird.  W.E.I.R.D. Weird.  He didn't get any nibbles on his submissions for months.  Then everything picked up in the fall.  Me.  I went from a 1:20 response rate to a 1:2 during the months of November & December.  I'm running a 1:2 right now, even if it's negative.  

What I can tell you is that this time since I walked away from the tt is not what I call "unemployed," or even "looking."  Because I'm not.  I'm fully employed with various projects including my writing.  

---

“Don’t aim at success— the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect...

Frankl, Viktor E. (2006-06-01). Man's Search for Meaning . Beacon Press. Kindle Edition. 

---

Some weeks, I'm over-employed, exceeding 40 hours of work related to meetups, technical talks, conventions, poetry, blogging, webinars, and working on my portfolio.  Am I looking for a job?  Yes.  Yet I turn down more requests to interview than I submit.  Interviewing is exploration, it's meeting new people, hearing new things.  Being new myself.

There are many reasons to "want" a job, including financial necessity.  I can't speak to that at this point.  I can only speak to the experience of having the opportunity to step off the hamster wheel, breaking the mold, trying to find another way to earn a living.  If you have this opportunity of sheer time separated from financial necessity, it is a blessing.  Take a deep breath.  It is spring and the lilac are blooming.

best wishes,
-a

Frog Kissing

So no, not all fairy tales have happy endings and sometimes a frog is just a frog or the parties Prince Charming's Mum puts on to marry her son off breaks the Kingdom's bank and since all the money's spent, the search for Cinderella cannot take place.  It could also be that Sleeping Beauty didn't like waking up to some strange man sticking his tongue down her throat.  Turns out she wasn't eighteen anyways, but a wee bit older and more experienced than Charming realized.  Who knows.


My adventures have always started off rocky.  Once there was the time my brother, I'll call him Moe, picked me up from college to take me on a five-hour motorcycle ride home.  It was my first  "Born to be Wild" adventure.  The spectacular event was highlighted by a wipe-out making a tight curve.  We hit gravel, the bike slid out beneath us going sideways.  I remember tucking into ball as I flew over my brother's head.  I landed like a snow angel in the middle of soft green grass looking up at a blue, cloudless sky.  I'd missed the road stake by 3 feet.


After I graduated with my first degree, one in East Asian Studies, my brother Larry and I (I'm Curly, ya see) rented a U-Haul and drove from Georgia to San Francisco.  I had an acquaintance who was willing to let me stay with her while I got my feet under me.  Larry and I arrived with pennies, quarters, and nickles rolling around in one of my empty stationery boxes.  I woke up the next morning knowing I had to abandon that dream and let my grandma bail me out and ship me, my record collection, and sheet wrapped dirty clothes up to Alaska.  Where I met my future husband seven months later.

We later left Alaska to attend engineering school in Arizona.  See, neither of us had lived in the desert and so being tired of Alaskan winters thought living in the desert would be cool.  Dave went first, I kept my job in Fairbanks and planned to follow when he was settled.  The car broke down on Dave when he was at the highest peak along the AlCan highway.  It was the water pump or something, and luckily he had a spare - but it was the wrong size.  Now this was late September, so there was already snow.  He had to hitch rides to get to a motel, to pick up the ordered parts, to get back to the car.  I don't remember all the mechanical details, but I do know he ended up having to drive without the engine cooling system, so could never really just pull over or idle the car or it would overheat.  I arrived in Phoenix a week after he did, having sold all of my books and knitting supplies, but having packed all my shoes for shipping that same day.  All I had were the snow boots I'd worn on the plane.  I walked barefoot into the shoe store in Phoenix to buy a pair of summer shoes to last me until mine

My first job in Phoenix lasted five weeks.  It was at a newspaper.  The job was advertised as writing for a small neighborhood paper.  Turned out - it was cold-call sales and the owner was a screamer.  Walked away from that one.

I wish I could say that arriving in Seattle had some epic moment, but the moment itself was epic.  Dave and I drove 24 hours straight from Phoenix in our Hyundai as it lost pieces along the way.  Still, the moon roof worked and I remember lying back that night as we were driving and watching the stars in the dark sky of a traffic-less I-5 somewhere in California.

Neither Dave nor I had jobs waiting for us with either of these moves, yet we had some of the best times of our lives after the shit hit the fan.  But to cut this long story short - yes, I'm looking for a job again.  The project was cancelled.  I was laid off. I learned a lot in a short period of time, so that was cool.  I now have experience with those data sets and metrics, so that satisfied that bit of curiosity.  Now I have to try marketing data.  Definitely not worth doing a three hour commute for though and this also reinforces that I shoulda stuck to smaller companies.  Those were my two big "No"s and I gave into them.  Ahhh well... curiosity and cats 'n all.

So my luck usually gets better after...
 

2015 - The Year I Lived Dangerously

Some women collect diamonds,

others collect husbands or lovers.

I collected socks with the F-Bomb in it.

I know some very talented people are leaving in the next two weeks.  To those of you who asked and received the pink slip - yes, it is fun.  To those of you to whom it was unexpected - there's no reason why next time it can't be better.  You have the talent.  You've worked with networks and systems beyond the experience of what I've been able to find "out here" in the outside world.

Will it take more time than you planned?  Most probably, yes.  But that's because everyone I know operates at such a high level that you will be intimidating to those who are unfamiliar with how truly complex wireless telecommunications / mobility is.

Other carriers are hiring.  SQL / query skills are valuable.  Cloud networks are congesting b/c no one knows how to engineer for high-demand, high-availability.  Monster.com garnered me my best recruiter responses.  Monster's changed something between the September / November time frame and it was noticeably easier to be "found."  Recruiter "spam" is a positive indicator that your resume is getting pulled in for interest - it's proof your SEO is operational.  Read about the company on glassdoor.com before you get too excited.

Enjoy yourself.  Eat brunch on a Tuesday.  Walk the beach.  Sweat the interviews.  Take a spring break, or plan for a summer one.  Pick up a cappuccino and a croissant and people watch at your favorite bakery.  You will have days where you feel bad, so you need to have places and things in place which make you feel good.

Who knows... I might be joining you faster than projected, but my first week was amazing and terrifying and wonderful.  I love the Director's vision.  I love the group dynamic.  The team leads are sharp and smart.  Of course, I'm too brash and bold, not like a contractor at all but a veteran FTE with 25 years in one of the most treacherous industries on the planet.  Of course I've had people beginning to laugh a bit around me.  They even pulled a practical joke.  I've also been prohibited from singing ( *smiles*).  If anything might get me kicked out, that would be it.

This will probably be the end of Badbatical unless / until I go willfully unemployed again.  I'll pick up my travel blogging at soyouthinkyoulikesushi.blogspot.com if I ever decide to pack my bags again.  That won't be for awhile.  We're gonna sock money away first and think about travel second.

Thanks for encouraging me to continue to keep you up to date, to write this blather.  I loved being missed.  And you are missed by me.  May we meet again in another life.

Much, much love and admiration, and ping me on LinkedIn if you need me.

-a

I was able to get my own pencil. In less than 5 minutes.

Yes.  The office supply closet is unlocked.  The door is open.  They have pencils, paper, and sticky notes.  There is even scotch tape.

I'm drinking a company subsidized Diet Coke

My PC and laptop are up, running, and I'm logged in.

I have my Orca card for commuting.

My health insurance is great.

I know nothing about this industry, but listened in on one of the meetings.  It was so cool.  Very interesting talking about Halo 5.  Yes.  I'm embedded in the XBox Business Intelligence Data Science group.  WHOO-HOO!

Me: Preparing for my new work enviornoment

Lightning Struck

13 months ago, I walked away from a wonderful, frustrating, engaging, amazing 25 year career in wireless telecommunications where I had the opportunity to work with such fabulous people.

We changed the world, we did.  We ripped networks, implemented new technologies which were obsolete before we finished installing their first generation; we deployed over the air data at rates which beat the landlines; tested satellite communications; did big data before big data was cool... Sheez.  When we started it took 10 people to budget / build / and maintain an entire network we used to figure.  Now, there are nearly as many connections as a human brain.

But yep, I walked away.  The chaos I thrived in was tidied.  There was a process for everything and everything had a process.  I'd helped build those and the standards. I'd seen the network grow and contract, domains split  But we know I suck when it comes to following the rules - even rules I, myself, might have made. 

I spent the next 13 months learning how the world had changed since last I looked for a job. 

I just accepted an offer today.  I'm moving into a data science role as a Senior Consultant with Design Laboratory to work with Microsoft's Shared Services BI group in games.  GAMES!!!!  I still can't freakin' believe it.  Nope.  I can't.  I'm excited/scared.  I start the 21st.  Now I gotta go scrub my mouth out with soap for practice. 

Yep.  I got the industry leap I was hoping for.  Nope.  This consulting gig doesn't fall under an 18 month thing. 

My biggest weakness:  "I left my network of engineers and lab rat friends behind when I walked.  That network was a source of strength."  I can't ever thank you all enough for your help and support over the years.  I love you.  Thank you.  You made me a better person and we did amazing work together.  And thank you for your laughter and support even after I walked.

That said, I had to turn down two other companies which were still interested, but hadn't offered.  When push came to shove, I had 24 hours to make a decision, but honestly, I was really impressed with the one I accepted.  The consulting firm is small, but the job is with a big company again.  It's in Redmond.  Again.  But it's games.  It's building new systems for analytics, it's metric design.  and it's in Games.  It's the industry I wanted and with one of the only divisions I'd cross the water for.  There were only two other companies I was willing to do that for.  All the others, I turned away.

So, remember y'all.  Sing often.  Laugh much.  Compliment each other when you're not cussing each other out.

One year ago

was my last day.  I'm not feeling nostalgic at all, but I am missing my friends.  One of the beautiful things, though, about this time off is that I've been able to reconnect with some others from way-back-aways.  Sometimes it's been for a phone conversation, or an email exchange, other times it's been for drinks and dinner.  We've worked with some amazing people over the years and the names I've forgotten... well, LinkedIn sure has helped remind me.

I'm sorry I haven't kept up with the blog but I've been going gangbusters since mid-October.  The most common word out of my mouth re: jobs though is "No.  No thank you," so nothing more exciting than that one flurry which ended in September.  That said, I've written a bunch of draft blog entries which I never finished.  I swear.  It's just because I got too busy.

So, I've had a lot of good intentions, just too many conferences, conventions, meetups, informational interviews, technical networking events, and Thanksgiving.

The last week of October I spent in conventions.  The best one was a virtual reality conference held in Bellevue.  I didn't make it to any of the developer's talks because, well, I don't write software for applications or games, but I did play with all sorts of hardware.  I also won a smart phone at another. The best part are the people I've met.

Networking has not turned out to be so horrible after all.  I've been learning tons about how the outside world here really is more stodgy than I thought "we" were.   What has been fun though, is that I've met theater people, young engineers from Boeing, people doing other things with technology - like fashion - which makes it so much fun.  What is striking though, is how little innovation there is in the realm of game or app or web development.  There's a lot of waste, which, I guess, if you have simple systems, is okay.  You can throw money away...until you run out of it anyways.  This is what just blows my mind.

And so, most of the "data" and analytics interest I've found out here in the wilds is related to marketing data and / or bioinformatics and healthcare.  Minor amounts of network performance, or app performance and little of that is predictive.  Most dashboards people come out with are monitors.  There's little to no forecasting.

And the people I've reconnected with, they confirm what I've only just begun to realize in the past few months:  that the work we did was ginormous.  A couple of people I've been reconnecting with were let go at the C. acquisition.  They've actually had some very interesting experience.  Most importantly, they've acquired the skills to deal with uncertainty more than those of us who were "left behind" have.  One guy talked about how he jumped through several companies after moving from HQ engineering into sales - and found he loved it.  Another woman made her way through contracting work after the 2008 collapse and is now poised to be one of the next gen IT leaders in her organization.  Still, I've met some new people and made some new friends who are teaching me more about how this outside world works.  This learning has been interesting.

Here's what I've learned so far:

1)  Most companies work reactively and there is little understanding about proactive, or planned operational events such as load redistributions / rebalancing; planned growth (how they do this without examining the budget impacts kinda makes me nuts); reboots / restarts to clear memory leaks during off-peak hours; development of overload control processes or mechanisms;

2)  Performance management is NRT (see #1) and forecasting is maybe a week out?  or based upon a 1.5 multiplier or something crazy.  There's no analysis of congestion impacts.

3)  No one seems to have budgetary responsibility, they just throw money at their networks.  Which works, I guess, as long as you don't mind being unable to access the website, the network, or have lots of capital to dispose of.

4)  Predictive analytics (see #2) and forecasting, are just beginning to become a "thing," as are GUIs for the NRT operational effects of load, or code changes.

5)  There's little awareness of network efficiencies to be gained with compression techniques in coding.  Everything is really big and sloppy "out" here.  There are a few innovators, but they're struggling to be heard.

6)  Everyone wants to be a "data scientist" as though that was a thing before.  LOL  There are now masters degrees being offered.  I guess that's a blend of statistics and software, but without the subject matter expertise, you're just a statistician who can write programs, or a programmer who works a lot with statistics.  Me, I'm keeping with the engineer in wireless core performance who can also code and applies statistical tools and machine learning algorithms to explore relationships.  I also practice data visualization as performance art.

7)  I turn down offers to interview with Microsoft, Amazon, or T-Mobile at least once a week, if not more.  If you want big, the big guns are hiring now.

8)  Yep, I'm a few years a head of the curve unless I want to go work with a big boy.  Predictive performance analytics is just a glimmer in the eye of a very few companies.  You can tell by the the Azure or AWS experience that neither Microsoft nor Amazon have that ingrained in their culture - yet.  They might be trying to catch up with themselves, but we know how well that works out - and how long it takes to do.

Readings from the past week

An article from NextAvenue referencing an AARP study just released on job-seekers age 45-70.
One of the most important points was this:

1. Don’t delay starting to look for work after you lose your job. Those who are still unemployed were much more likely than the reemployed to have waited three months or longer before beginning their job search.

“The most popular answer for why people took time off before starting to look for work was that ‘they need a break,’” says Trawinski. But postponing the search for three months or longer worked against them.

AARP's Future of Work@50+ Initiative.
Actually, I didn't find much here, but it's a "good" hyperlink to have because it looks like they are ramping up.  I still prefer NPR's NextAvenue newsletter by far.

A good read to remind oneself that rejections are not bad.  And a couple of other points to remember:
1)  You don't want to get an offer at a place which doesn't "fit" with you, so them thinking you might not work for them is not a bad thing.  That would be like marrying someone who doesn't love you.  If you have the opportunity, nay, the extremely good fortune to be able to job search for a career instead of just another job, then you want that mutually enjoyable dynamic.

2)  If you, like me, haven't interviewed in 25 years, then your skills will be very Very VERY rusty.  These are skills, ergo, learned behavior.  You will need to acquire and develop new skills.  Don't beat yourself up if you're not good at it.  Most of us in tech are socially awkward, if not downright weird.

3)  The strikes against you will add to your length of time.  Save money in your emergency fund accordingly:

• Race
• Sex
• Physical attributes (sorry, but yes, physical attractiveness has a lot to do with employability)
• Age
• Physical abilities

How to Decode Job Descriptions

Jaizus!  This took me three months on my own.  Remember - payscale.com is your friend to help you investigate the increasingly normalization of  job titles.

A 2014 article about job salaries, but which will help you with your decoding.

An article on smart ways to Find Jobs if you're over 50

Living a dream before it curdles

I was at GeekGirlCon this past weekend and it provided me with more than a few moments of reflection.  It was at GeekGirlCon in 2013 that I began to think about a different kind of life.  It was the first convention I'd attended in years.  In a way, it was a "coming out" moment for me in the sense that for the first time in probably over 15 years I was in a room with so many people focused on a single set of topics.

A convention isn't just a random crowd of people, but people gathered together for a purpose, and unlike a fair or a festival, there's an educational, or academic, component.  So, while I've been to plenty of fairs or festivals, or large crowded gatherings, it had been too, too long since I learned something with a focused intensity along with a crowd of others.

GeekGirlCon is that "perfect size" convention for me - not too large, not too small.  There's an entertainment quality to it, but also there's some interesting alternative components to it as well, and that is what moved me.  I saw very smart people who created beautiful works of art in comics; games - board, RPG, and programmed; there were writers' panels; scientific topics; even an introduction to 3-D printing.

This year, I dressed as I usually do - in one of the t-shirts from my collection, although this picture is from my working days.  I wish I had the imagination to have thought of Darth Princess.  She is my hero.

So, it's a fun Con, with a large variety of topics to which I was exposed for the first time.  And the sheer concentration of talent and smarts reminded me of this larger world of possibilities.

What happens when a person hits that point where they've "done it all"?  I still have no answers, but I do know I'm happy not to have spent a miserable year.  This blog is doing better than I expected, I've met some interesting people, I've learned about changes in the world of technology outside of wireless telecommunications, I'm still working on the development of my interview skills, but I think I'm getting better at that and at networking.  And, frankly, those are two life skills we should all keep working at even if we do have a "good job."  I've heard about so many long-term employees who are "surprised" at their lay-off and that just boggles my mind.  Layoffs were such a constant through the 90's and early '00's, that maybe "we" forgot how tenuous that industry is, how untrustworthy a corporation is.  "Needs of the business..." blah blah blah means bottom line - you need to take care of yourself.  And there will be more to come guys.  More to come.

I could smell it in 2013 and by the 2014 GeekGirlCon I was pulled forward even further.  I'd already given my notice, but still had the opportunity to retract it if I wanted.  I gotta say, my ex-boss was willing to let me recant my retirement.  I was terrified at the time.  I'd given three months notice to

ensure there was a healthy time for the transition, but it also played hell on my nerves.  I wanted to stay where I was.  I was comfortable, wasn't ?  I made very good money.  I had an amazing reputation.  I worked with fabulous people.  My work was interesting.  WTF was I thinking?

And then I went to GeekGirlCon again, and I saw possibilities - again.  I spoke with other companies who were rapidly hiring - again.  I met women who were talking about the fallout from GamerGate and pushing them to write their own programs, share their own voices and interest.  I met a few women at the con and we have now been meeting for a full year as CodeSistersSeattle.

Possibilities are not promises.  There are no guarantees.  While at GeekGirlCon 2015 I thought of how angry I would have been this past year if I hadn't left, how even more frustrated.  How I would have trapped myself.  Bottom line:  while getting a job when you're over 50 is tough, I've been running into plenty of young women who have been looking for a year or more or are still under-employed.  It makes me feel like less of a freak and I have a chance to give back, to help someone else.  But the Con re-grounded me in the hopefulness of the possibilities and so, no, I won't be turning away from the ideals I've set for myself.  I'm trying some more outrageous things besides working on my letterpress printing design, cleaning up my four books of poetry, learning python the hard way, investigating the possibility of developing my own game, organizing a women's meetup, volunteering to be a block watch organizer, and writing two blogs.

Bennies pulled

Just got notice that the tt has pulled the med bennies.  Of course, fwiw, I've escalated.  But it's looking as though getting a lay-off package is better than retirement.

Yep.  The new reality - ask for the pack.

Obsolesence

doesn't occur over night.  It creeps up on you, like moss covering the bones that the weevils and maggots have cleaned.  In geologic time, it might seem "quick," but it's a rolling wave and unless you want to be taken under, you need to ride it.  (I'll have to get with Tom to get some stronger surfing metaphors, I only surf the web.)

It's not "getting old" which makes us obsolete, it's being silo-ed, corralled away from the newest tools and trends.  For example, access to Microsoft Excel's "Power" suite of BI tools, like PowerQuery, PowerPivot, and PowerMaps for those of us relegated to the Excel world.  Then there's the fact of the influence and availability of
open source coding solutions like R or Python.  But even training up on these tools - if we don't use them, then we "lose" them.  I can't count how many people I know went for CCNA or CCNE certifications and then never, ever after touched a Cisco box.  Now those are just letters trailing after their names and if they get into an interview someone will ask.  Yes, no matter how glancing your knowledge of a topic, if you claim it, you will be asked to answer even a trivial question.  And you won't know the answer.  Knowledge is nothing more than repetition in my book.  Use it or lose it is the mantra.

So what is the point of certification?  Honestly, my own foray into R certifications and my exposure to the Power tools is why I bring up those points.  Exposure & certs only make you look like you're wall-papering your dining room.  They don't matter.  You have to be able to demonstrate even a small amount of working knowledge.  And this type of working knowledge means you have to work in it.  Now, if your certs are years old, no one's gonna test you on it, but then the relevance will be questionable.  *shrug*  I would think of it more as an award, rather than a skillset at that point.  

However, technologies are changing so rapidly that we do need to gain access to a working knowledge of some of these tools - which means, to me, an integration into daily life.  So, I'm going with Python at the moment and am focusing on that for a scripting language as well as data analysis.  Here in Seattle, it seems to be more a Python kinda town.  I plan on using the Microsoft suite of power tools for the visualizations though.  I did pull down a trial copy of Tableau, but their trials are only 45-90 days.

Other technologies you could gain access to:  Amazon Web Services has a one year introductory account you could set up.  This would give you training and access to their Cloud Services.  They also have training sessions.  You can install Hortonworks Hadoop onto your home machine.  I have a million-and-one resources I could list here in this blog entry.  That's actually been part of my problem - too many options.

Time to focus down now though... focus.. laser like attention... LOL

The Painted Pony Goes Up and Down

The Circle Game - I've begun to notice them in my weeks.  Mondays, nothing.  No emails from recruiters, no calls, and I can't really remember the last time I had a scheduled interview on Monday.

All the activity begins on Tuesdays.  That's when the emails from the various head hunters (my friends not in the IT / telecomm industry do not experience this), the phone calls, the follow ups to begin scheduling interviews or phone screens.  Everything seems to happen Tuesday - Thursday.  Yes, I had a pop-up phone screen this morning, from which I've got an interview with a recruiter on Tuesday. (This time I did ask if the recruiter had a signed contract with the company they were representing for that specific job.  They said yes.  I'm taking the interview.)

Scheduling my interviews 

or

a philosophy in displacement

One of the things I try to do is work my interview schedules for the following week.  I give the most active companies a two day choice, usually a Tu/Th option.  When I have a 2nd company call in, I give them a Wed/Fri.  If a third comes in and I haven't heard from the first served recruiters, I send emails to the effect that my availability has changed.  I give them either morning blocks or afternoon blocks and plan to have a two hour window in between.  Bottom line, when HR / recruiters / schedulers don't get back to you, you need to plan on balancing your schedule with an eye to commute times between locations.  About all you can do is send the email update to the various balls still in the air and let them know that there are fewer and fewer time slots available.

This practice is also good because it keeps you in the habit of reaching out to potential employers for follow-ups.  Anxiety decreases as habit increases.


What I should have done before I got started with all these job submissions... spent time on the site Payscale.

Payscale is my new current favorite for understanding how job titles, job descriptions, and pay relate to rank.  For example, by looking up the following titles, it is clearly evident that one begins a career as an analyst, moves on to a developer role, and then into architecture.  Uhm... I've done a lot of applying for the analyst roles.  hmmmmmmm..... Okay, so I'm an idiot.  No wonder I didn't get a call.

$66k avg salary  BusinessIntelligence (BI) Analyst

$46,061 - $100,577           Business intelligence (BI) analysts help guide and improve the way that businesses' management staff foster collaboration within and between departments. Minimum educational requirements generally include a bachelor's degree in business administration or computer engineering. Additionally, individuals should have at least 1-2 years experience in a supervisory or administrative role within an organization.

$77,286 average salary   Business Intelligence (BI) Developer

$52,288 - $114,228           Business intelligence developers must be data experts, as they work primarily with databases and different types of software. Often abbreviated as BI developer, this job involves developing and fine tuning IT solutions. That can include anything from coding to testing to debugging to designing to implementing newly developed tools. A BI developer spends a lot of time researching and planning solutions for existing problems within the company. BI developers also are responsible for building OLAP, or online analytical processing. They also work with databases, both relational and multidimensional. BI developers are often responsible for managing others in the IT department or in the company.

104,531Kavg salary         Business Intelligence (BI) Architect

$76,005 - $150,217           Business intelligence (BI) architects are in charge of analyzing and implementing business intelligence for their organization. They are responsible for determining platforms and correct functioning for the central data warehouse. They process large amounts of information to draw conclusions based on their intelligence findings, interact with a variety of business professionals, and communicate critical project requirements within their organization. These architects also manage developers, directing their efforts to reach organizational goals in a timely manner. They utilize a personal computer with analytical tools to calculate business data and interpret results. They generally report their progress to the business intelligence director in their organization.

So now, I can say, that if I'd known better I would work on the following in the following order:

1. Get a good LinkedIn picture - one without family or friends or musical instruments.
2. Update the LinkedIn profile & your resume.  Plan on updating these frequently.  
3. Get some good cover letter templates going.
4. Set up a professional Twitter feed.  Make sure your email address is something other than your SexyLion99@hotmail.  Kay?  Use adult names.
5. Get your business cards made.  
6. Ask for references to be added to your LinkedIn profile.  
7. Add contacts to LinkedIn.
8. Begin to daydream
9. Investigate modern job titles and average salaries from Payscale.
10. Begin investigating companies.  When you're investigating a company in LinkedIn, your contacts will show up as shared connections.  You will have much, Much, MUCH better luck reaching through your connections to get your resume forwarded to their HR folks.  Believe me when I say this though, it's easier said than done.  That said, here's a good article to help develop your "ask" and to give you the confidence to ask.

11. Sign up for a series of Meetups & conventions in your area of interest.  You really need to plan on getting out there.  No, you don't have to do it all the time.  I cancel those weeks where I've been heavily interviewing.  It's been a while since I've been out there.  I stopped going after one particularly horrific rooftop networking event.  I began having flashbacks to the cocktail parties of my Southern Ivy League University frat house experience.  ugh.  I can do tech talks for a while, but even that gets tiresome for all the beer and pizza.  Done with that.  There's so much out there, it's been overwhelming.  I'm refocusing on just a few events now.
12. Start adding your profile to other sites like Indeed.  I've given a list of a few other locations as well.  

And a few articles about social media and hiring as an FYI that I tracked down after reading the Jobvite 2015 Recruiter Survey and the sources recruiters use to find candidates.

At Monster, we’ve prioritized social hiring through Twitter,
How Recruiters Creepily Troll Social Media for Job Candidates (Infographic)
Building an effective social network

Hangin' on a lazy Wednesday

Had a four hour interview yesterday, and as much as I tried to not keep today open, two interviews today - a phone screen and a f2f.  The f2f is the response to an inquiry from a company < 50 employees after their recruiter saw my resume on Angel whatever... 

Anyways, the interview is in the afternoon - thank gawd, 'cause not only did I have a bad night's sleep, but those multi-hour interviews just suck you dry.  Reminds me of my b2b conference call days.  Anyways, it was lovely actually being able to wake up late this morning, drink coffee in bed before a leisurely shower.  Chat with my hubbie, then begin prep for the phone screen.

Interestingly enough, one of the things about the phone screen - the recruiter mentioned that "long time employees" salaries are "inflated."  uhm... yeah, their highest offering was the lowest I am willing to look at, but I have nothing to lose with pursuing it.  

Anyways, here's a picture of the lovely late September afternoon at the coffee shop

.

Wildcards (or How I've Taken Up Writing Essays For No Profit and Long Shot Chances)

I've had no interviews this week, but do have one four hour interview scheduled for next week.  Having come out of a "glom" of screenings and interviews, I've been using this time to work on my job submissions and to focus on enjoying this time off...  Well, that and work on my coursera class on Practical Machine Learning. 

One of the things I started doing this week though is applying to some companies I might not shouldn't.  But here's the thing, that seven hour interview (which dropped down to only five) came about because I saw a job I had some of the qualifications for, but only a few, but the company was cool.  So, I figured, "Why the hell not?"  Shit.  I got called in so quick it made my head spin.

We all know I am not a square peg.  In fact, my cubicle doth overfloweth theth cubicle gridth. 

So, why am I applying to square peg jobs?  Be that as it may, this week I started having fun with some of my submissions.  (This is what comes of one positive response to my bad behavior.)  So, I've found some interesting places to submit and research different organizations.  I'm going all out with my cover letters.  I have my "blurbs" done, but the introductions are fully personalized and I continue to expand upon my blurts.

So, onto this list of "Out There" job boards (besides the normal:  Indeed, LinkedIn, Dice, Monster, TelecomCareers, and TheLadders)

AngelList - they have the catch phrase:  "A new way to find a job at a great startup"  You can make a profile with your resume.  Your profile won't show "completed" unless / until you have three references submitted by others to that site / through that site.  Well, I've done mine through LinkedIn, so maybe I'll ask future ones for AngelList (probably not, but whatevahhh....).  Also, your profile won't show complete without your graduation dates.  I've already written to them about that little age revealing piece of information.  That said, I have received one (make that) two inquiries from a founder from my profile posted here.  Unfortunately, it was in New York, so not only did I have to respond that it wouldn't work, I had to go figure out how to modify my profile even further so I wouldn't encourage requests outside of the Seattle area.

PowerToFly - Remote work (i.e., telecommuting), however this is focused on women.  So the only profiles I've seen in here are those with breasts attached.  That said, I have not received any inquiries from this site.  There are not that many jobs either.


Pymetrics - is only in beta.  The initial setup is 12 "games" which are supposed to create a profile of your cognitive, emotional, and social skills which would then be used to "match" you up with companies or a career.  However, they don't have any engineering work outside of Finance Reserch, Product Development, or Marketing.  The company list is small, but the filters are "interesting" in that you can filter on company size as "type" (i.e., privately held, public, non profit).  They have a total of 20 games you can use.  I got tired after the first 12, and because the list of matching "careers" was so limited, I was somewhat disappointed.  That said, I could review my "results" against those other careers which were available.

AnalyticTalent - I only have my resume loaded up here.  I continue to receive an email saying there's a match between myself and Amazon.  I haven't found a way to modify the profile so I could refine my preferences.  It does have a View counter, fwiw, and fwetm (for whatever that means).  Interestingly, the job match hyperlinks to a NY Times classified job description, so maybe they're scraping far and wide.