Just doing some surfing the other day and came across something quite interesting - the project that I was hired (and then fired) to manage was never completed. Yeah, I'm not at all shocked, considering the company wanted so much done in so little time. Apparently, and I don't know all the details, the offline directory is now an online tool. HAHAHAHAHA!! Couldn't have happened to nicer people!! Guess the person they hired after me (the email guru) couldn't move the sun and the earth to get things done either.
Still no job after 51 weeks of unemployment (the 12 days of hell do not count!) but still smiling (surprisingly!) and still feeling optimistic. Sure, come September 12 I'll still be unemployed, but hoping that won't be for much longer. I have an interview this coming Tuesday for a marketing & promotions position (not ideal) but I'm still focused on getting that PM job.
Fingers crossed. :)
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Still here
Wondering where I disappeared to? No worries, I'm still here. And I have a lot to blog about; I just need to get motivated to do it. Suffice to say, I'm still jobless, despite having 8 separate interviews in the last 8 weeks (1 interview per week). Of those, I know I am no longer in the running for two positions, but the others are still open and no decisions have been made.
I think the way things are going, I'll be employed on September 12, a full year (365 days) since I was fired from my previous position (or as they like to refer to it, "laid off"). And no, I don't count those 12 nightmare days in May when I made a wrong decision to accept a job I should never have accepted.
Be patient with me. I'll be back soon.
I think the way things are going, I'll be employed on September 12, a full year (365 days) since I was fired from my previous position (or as they like to refer to it, "laid off"). And no, I don't count those 12 nightmare days in May when I made a wrong decision to accept a job I should never have accepted.
Be patient with me. I'll be back soon.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Status
A short note to say that I remain HIV negative. I had my latest blood test a few weeks ago and all is good.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Spoke to soon
Well, that ended quickly. The new job didn't work out as I had hoped, and my contract was cancelled last week. Can I be honest? I'm both relieved and happy.
It was never a fit, and they were expecting much more than what I was able to give them in a short amount of time. On Monday I gave a project update to senior staff, which I thought went very well, but my boss wasn't of the same mindset. I emailed her about my contract, which she hadn't prepared, and she called to tell me that she was expecting more from me (even after only 2 weeks), that I was going ahead with assumptions about the project that they had come up with (and didn't challenge those assumptions), and that they couldn't afford to keep going with me, because of the short timeline.
Personally, I never felt comfortable there. While most were nice people, not being called by my real name pissed me off, and I think they (especially Maxine) were expecting miracles. So much work should have been done prior to my starting, but it wasn't. So I took what they gave me and worked with it, and they didn't want that.
Oh wait, you didn't know I wasn't called by my real name? Get this - at the last interview (and ultimately job offer), the first question I was asked was "do you have another name?" The CEO and I have the same name, and he didn't want there to be any confusion so I had to come up with a different name. How fucking ridiculous is that!
Also, I never clicked with my boss, whom I personally think has no clue what she is doing. So it ended before it began (thank goodness!!) and I'm back to looking for another job. But I did learn a valuable lesson... first, don't go into any interview being desperate. That was my biggest mistake. And second, stand by my principles and do not allow anyone to call me by anything other than my real name.
Onward and upward.
It was never a fit, and they were expecting much more than what I was able to give them in a short amount of time. On Monday I gave a project update to senior staff, which I thought went very well, but my boss wasn't of the same mindset. I emailed her about my contract, which she hadn't prepared, and she called to tell me that she was expecting more from me (even after only 2 weeks), that I was going ahead with assumptions about the project that they had come up with (and didn't challenge those assumptions), and that they couldn't afford to keep going with me, because of the short timeline.
Personally, I never felt comfortable there. While most were nice people, not being called by my real name pissed me off, and I think they (especially Maxine) were expecting miracles. So much work should have been done prior to my starting, but it wasn't. So I took what they gave me and worked with it, and they didn't want that.
Oh wait, you didn't know I wasn't called by my real name? Get this - at the last interview (and ultimately job offer), the first question I was asked was "do you have another name?" The CEO and I have the same name, and he didn't want there to be any confusion so I had to come up with a different name. How fucking ridiculous is that!
Also, I never clicked with my boss, whom I personally think has no clue what she is doing. So it ended before it began (thank goodness!!) and I'm back to looking for another job. But I did learn a valuable lesson... first, don't go into any interview being desperate. That was my biggest mistake. And second, stand by my principles and do not allow anyone to call me by anything other than my real name.
Onward and upward.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
And away we go...
It’s fitting that I am writing this on May 12. Exactly 8 months ago, I was officially “laid off” from my previous position, though I think about it as being “kicked out”, because that’s how I was treated. After a long and very frustrating job search, with the decision to focus on project management as a clear goal, I began a whirlwind interview process with a dot.com company who were looking for a Project Manager. I was interviewed on Monday, again on Tuesday and then finally on Wednesday, where I was presented with an offer to join the company on a contract basis starting the next day, Thursday.
I accepted, and as you can imagine, I had a thousand things to do, and unable to do any of them. After the meeting, I had to make my way to school where my comprehensive project management course was due to start in less than 2 hours. I had so many things planned to do on Thursday and Friday – I needed to go food shopping and needed to continue going to the gym (I know I’ve mentioned a number of things that mean nothing, mostly because I haven’t updated this in a while. That will change, I promise).
So after class, where everyone was very excited that I not only got a new job but a project management position to boot, I made my way home and had a message from my new employer that my day was going to start a bit earlier than I had planned, because I needed to be available for an early morning meeting (related to the project I am responsible for). So I got home, made myself lunch for the next day (which wasn’t all that good), and finally got to bed, ending a day (actually ending a few days) where things were moving very quickly.
Four days later, I sit here with much more to do than I had originally thought (but I thrive in situations like these, so no worries) and happy to be working again. I am one of 8 employees – the company is small and the office itself is in a loft-type building. This means... no office walls, no cubicles. Every one has their desk out in the open. It will certainly take some getting used to (no more surfing porn... LOL!!) but the upside is that office politics can’t exist because there are no walls and you are sitting right next to the people you work with.
It’s all good.
I accepted, and as you can imagine, I had a thousand things to do, and unable to do any of them. After the meeting, I had to make my way to school where my comprehensive project management course was due to start in less than 2 hours. I had so many things planned to do on Thursday and Friday – I needed to go food shopping and needed to continue going to the gym (I know I’ve mentioned a number of things that mean nothing, mostly because I haven’t updated this in a while. That will change, I promise).
So after class, where everyone was very excited that I not only got a new job but a project management position to boot, I made my way home and had a message from my new employer that my day was going to start a bit earlier than I had planned, because I needed to be available for an early morning meeting (related to the project I am responsible for). So I got home, made myself lunch for the next day (which wasn’t all that good), and finally got to bed, ending a day (actually ending a few days) where things were moving very quickly.
Four days later, I sit here with much more to do than I had originally thought (but I thrive in situations like these, so no worries) and happy to be working again. I am one of 8 employees – the company is small and the office itself is in a loft-type building. This means... no office walls, no cubicles. Every one has their desk out in the open. It will certainly take some getting used to (no more surfing porn... LOL!!) but the upside is that office politics can’t exist because there are no walls and you are sitting right next to the people you work with.
It’s all good.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
The return
Yup, I'm back, having decided to re-start the blog. Guess with all the time on my hands that I've had recently (to be expanded in a further blog), I thought what better way to express what has been going on with me than in a blog for all the world (or at least a small number of people) to see. Some posts will be serious in nature, some light and humorous. The point of the blog? Just to share what is on my mind at any particular time. Your comments, both positive and negative (but please keep them respectful at the very least) will be appreciated. We may not agree on everything (or even anything), but we can agree to disagree, right?
Monday, April 13, 2009
Shoulda coulda woulda
Here we go again, thinking back to what should have been, could have been, would have been... if only I had made different decisions in the past, imagine where I would be today.
I never knew what I wanted to do with my life, and in all honesty, at 41, I still don't. But I do know what I'm good at - project management, client services, and my people skills are top-rate. Before going to business school, I was floundering, trying to finish off my undergraduate degree that I had started in psychology but ended in English literature. I had no clue what I was going to do next. My Aunt asked me one time what I wanted to do with my life.
I had greenbacks in my eyes, and wanted to make tons of money. I told her I was going to go to business school and then work and make a shitload of cash. Yeah right! Since graduating with an MBA in 1992, I've worked off and on, never more than 5 1/2 years straight (and that was with my last employer) and always, it seems, looking for a job in the hardest of economic times.
My Aunt made the suggestion that I go into teaching, and to this day, I think I should have done that. Strictly speaking from an employment point-of-view, teachers get tenure after working for just a few years at the same school. They can't be fired unless they do something illegal or immoral (like sleeping with a student, which happened to my 8th grade English teacher, but he was an asshole anyway and deserved it).
So when thinking about it, imagine if I had become a teacher in 1994, for example, and had started working at $35,000. That salary would have steadily increased over time that now, 15 years later, I may have been a Vice-Principal. My point is, who knows what could have been. Instead, I took a job in 1994 that paid $9600. You read that correctly - nine thousand six hundred dollars. Why? Because I wanted to work for a professional baseball club. Why? That's a great question - I have no idea.
I never knew what I wanted to do with my life, and in all honesty, at 41, I still don't. But I do know what I'm good at - project management, client services, and my people skills are top-rate. Before going to business school, I was floundering, trying to finish off my undergraduate degree that I had started in psychology but ended in English literature. I had no clue what I was going to do next. My Aunt asked me one time what I wanted to do with my life.
I had greenbacks in my eyes, and wanted to make tons of money. I told her I was going to go to business school and then work and make a shitload of cash. Yeah right! Since graduating with an MBA in 1992, I've worked off and on, never more than 5 1/2 years straight (and that was with my last employer) and always, it seems, looking for a job in the hardest of economic times.
My Aunt made the suggestion that I go into teaching, and to this day, I think I should have done that. Strictly speaking from an employment point-of-view, teachers get tenure after working for just a few years at the same school. They can't be fired unless they do something illegal or immoral (like sleeping with a student, which happened to my 8th grade English teacher, but he was an asshole anyway and deserved it).
So when thinking about it, imagine if I had become a teacher in 1994, for example, and had started working at $35,000. That salary would have steadily increased over time that now, 15 years later, I may have been a Vice-Principal. My point is, who knows what could have been. Instead, I took a job in 1994 that paid $9600. You read that correctly - nine thousand six hundred dollars. Why? Because I wanted to work for a professional baseball club. Why? That's a great question - I have no idea.
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