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

.