This post comes from my girlfriend. After 15 years with the same company she was given her notice. Here's how she copes with job-loss
Laid-off after 15 years
Today was a day of mixed feelings. Actually lately there have been lots of mixed feelings. It started with being laid off, than apprehension, then job interviews, then waiting for responses, then being rejected… again… and being wanted… again.
The outplacement officer told me that I was going to go thru a series of different emotions as part of the lay off process – sadness, anger, frustration, rejection and so on. I went through most of them, except anger.
The hardest part about being laid-off was to cut the connection to that company that had been part of my life for the last 15 years. Not long ago I even said to a friend that “work was the only secure thing I had”. How could I deal with the most secure thing not been there for me anymore?
The idea that I was not wanted, or that I would not be part of the plans for the company’s future, was hard to accept. Luckily I had a very candid conversation with my future ex-boss, talked about the feeling of rejection, of having the feeling the company didn’t try to find a fit for me in its new structure, and then understanding that my salary was a problem – it was not me, but how much I meant to the company, literally. Digesting all that, and lots of tears later, the sadness was then overcome by a sense of relieve.
The last day in the office was difficult, but a lot easier than the anticipation and the feeling that something that was long overdue was finally over. I started to think that, other than the rejection feeling, it bothered me that someone was making decisions for me, big decisions! How could I not have control over what happens in my life?
Now it was time to start the hunting a job process. An interview for a position that would imply moving from Montreal to Ottawa was the first one. I had a really good vibe from the place and the people I would work with. At the same time, through a contact, another job offer seemed to be in the horizon, this one in Montreal. I was also sending out resumes, and filling out online job applications. There are tons out there, and I was feeling good.
Things were going the right way; phone conversations with both prospect bosses, second interviews, and the feeling of being wanted was in full swing. I was now wondering how to make my decision, which company to choose? Move to Ottawa and change it all or stay in Montreal? I decided making a list of pros and cons from both companies could be the best way to choose.
As it turns out, I didn’t need to make the list, the company in Ottawa doesn’t want me. Part of me was relieved as I would not need to make a decision; once again a decision was made for me! However, part of me was afraid: what if the other job does not turn into a job offer either? It was a bit scary. I started another ‘Plan B’; follow-up with some of my previous contacts, make new contacts, check out job postings. Before I was able to start putting Plan B in action, an email confirmed that I will be receiving an offer from the Montreal Company.
The fear felt from the phone call from the Ottawa Company advising I was not the one chosen was gone the moment I accessed my email. I know now that I will get an offer, and I know the terms of that offer. However, I still wanted to know why wasn’t I selected for the Ottawa job? Well, as it turns out, once again, my salary was an issue… I was asking for more than the company was willing or could pay me.
It is very flattering to know that you are worth a lot, but it is very frustrating to know that your value can be your biggest enemy. On the bright side, I meet some new people who may be able to help me in my charitable efforts.
Mixed feelings marked the beginning of the day, mixed feelings mark the end of the day… happy as I am about to get a job, at the same time I’m sad that I was not the one making the decision to which company I would like to work.
If I can take a lesson from today it would be how to deal with the fact that I can’t have control over my life all the time… sometimes other people will make decisions for me, and there isn’t much I can do about it.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Monday, April 19, 2010
Technology kills the radio star - Part 3 of 3
Part 3 - Reconnecting with the collection
To re-cap, the process was
o Identify a file storage location
o Determine media storage type
o Determine filename format
o Transfer CD’s using EAC
o Download albums and tapes using PirateBay and LimeWire
Now the good part after all the effort. MediaMonkey is a great tool for organizing and listening to the music. It can be downloaded, free, from http://www.mediamonkey.com. I’ve been using the tool for a month and barely grasp all the features and functions.
MediaMonkey was recommended by a friend for two important functions: the ability to generate random playlists and the ability to download the playlist to my Blackberry. In order to use my Blackberry I needed to upgrade to MediaMonkey Gold (about $50). The advantage is that it also provides an audio leveling feature to ensure all music in the collection plays at the same volume. This prevents the transition from a really loud song to a really quiet song.
To start, go to the File Menu and select “Add\Rescan Tracks to the Library”. You need to specify the directory where the files are stored. Scanning takes a while.
Album artwork can be added with MediaMonkey to the songs and albums. Here again most album-covers are available online. I used Google image search to find the cover art for my collection. I then copied the artwork to the filename of the album. In MediaMonkey, select a song from each album. Using the right-mouse button, select Properties. In the properties tab there is an album art tab. Add the album art as a tag to the song and apply to all songs on the album. Now when a song is playing, the album cover is displayed.
MediaMonkey provides a function that converts songs from FLAC to mp3 on-the-fly as it transfers music to a Blackberry or other portable player. The music stored on the server maximizes fidelity while the music on the player maximizes convenience, allowing more songs in the same memory space. My Blackberry will store and play about 60 FLAC songs (who knew?) or 160 mp3 songs.
To setup transfers in mp3 format, go to the tools menu and select SYNC DEVICE, then Configure Device. Click on your portable player and select CONFIGURE. In the Auto-Conversion options tab, Select any format above 160kbps to format on device as MP3.
In the ideal, MediaMonkey would generate a random songlist every morning then convert (on the fly) the FLAC songs to mp3 and transfer them to a portable player, like the Blackberry. That’s the last-step in this project. As of this writing, I haven’t discovered how to generate random song lists. It’s easy to play, for example, all the songs which are number 5 on all the albums. Not random, but a different playlist. If you know how to generate random playlists, please share it. Let me know if you’ve had success and what tips work best for you.
As it turns out, technology doesn’t kill the radio-star. It immortalizes them. Thanks to new technology it is now possible to create hours of music that you can take with you everywhere you go. In my case, technology kills the radio. A computer is the DJ that creates the playlist. All I need to do is enjoy it. It’s also providing great exposure to all those b-sides and obscure songs I’d almost forgotten.
Through this project I was able to re-connect with all the music that was important. Now with a strong foundation including dedicated file-server, a music organizer and the ability to transfer portions of the collection to a portable player, I can work on expanding my music collection again. Adding new artists or filling in songs that are missing. Whether I choose to purchase a CD or simply purchase the FLAC files on-line is a decision to be considered.
Please let us know what you’ve done with your music collection and what tools and tips you recommend.
To re-cap, the process was
o Identify a file storage location
o Determine media storage type
o Determine filename format
o Transfer CD’s using EAC
o Download albums and tapes using PirateBay and LimeWire
Now the good part after all the effort. MediaMonkey is a great tool for organizing and listening to the music. It can be downloaded, free, from http://www.mediamonkey.com. I’ve been using the tool for a month and barely grasp all the features and functions.
MediaMonkey was recommended by a friend for two important functions: the ability to generate random playlists and the ability to download the playlist to my Blackberry. In order to use my Blackberry I needed to upgrade to MediaMonkey Gold (about $50). The advantage is that it also provides an audio leveling feature to ensure all music in the collection plays at the same volume. This prevents the transition from a really loud song to a really quiet song.
To start, go to the File Menu and select “Add\Rescan Tracks to the Library”. You need to specify the directory where the files are stored. Scanning takes a while.
Album artwork can be added with MediaMonkey to the songs and albums. Here again most album-covers are available online. I used Google image search to find the cover art for my collection. I then copied the artwork to the filename of the album. In MediaMonkey, select a song from each album. Using the right-mouse button, select Properties. In the properties tab there is an album art tab. Add the album art as a tag to the song and apply to all songs on the album. Now when a song is playing, the album cover is displayed.
MediaMonkey provides a function that converts songs from FLAC to mp3 on-the-fly as it transfers music to a Blackberry or other portable player. The music stored on the server maximizes fidelity while the music on the player maximizes convenience, allowing more songs in the same memory space. My Blackberry will store and play about 60 FLAC songs (who knew?) or 160 mp3 songs.
To setup transfers in mp3 format, go to the tools menu and select SYNC DEVICE, then Configure Device. Click on your portable player and select CONFIGURE. In the Auto-Conversion options tab, Select any format above 160kbps to format on device as MP3.
In the ideal, MediaMonkey would generate a random songlist every morning then convert (on the fly) the FLAC songs to mp3 and transfer them to a portable player, like the Blackberry. That’s the last-step in this project. As of this writing, I haven’t discovered how to generate random song lists. It’s easy to play, for example, all the songs which are number 5 on all the albums. Not random, but a different playlist. If you know how to generate random playlists, please share it. Let me know if you’ve had success and what tips work best for you.
As it turns out, technology doesn’t kill the radio-star. It immortalizes them. Thanks to new technology it is now possible to create hours of music that you can take with you everywhere you go. In my case, technology kills the radio. A computer is the DJ that creates the playlist. All I need to do is enjoy it. It’s also providing great exposure to all those b-sides and obscure songs I’d almost forgotten.
Through this project I was able to re-connect with all the music that was important. Now with a strong foundation including dedicated file-server, a music organizer and the ability to transfer portions of the collection to a portable player, I can work on expanding my music collection again. Adding new artists or filling in songs that are missing. Whether I choose to purchase a CD or simply purchase the FLAC files on-line is a decision to be considered.
Please let us know what you’ve done with your music collection and what tools and tips you recommend.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Technology kills the radio star - Part 2 of 3
Part 2 - Recording Music – the time consuming portion
Exact Audio Copy (EAC) is a shareware tool that transfers music CD’s to FLAC files on your computer. It can be obtained at http://www.exactaudiocopy.de. Refer also to http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=30959 for operating instructions. First time through is a bit tricky but it’s easy enough to grasp the basics. Don’t forget to set the filename properties to get the right format.
Albums and tapes aren’t as easy to store digitally since they are analog media, not digital-ready for the computer. Behringer make several products that interface a tape-deck or phonograph to the computer. I explored this briefly but found the audio-capture software awkward (they don’t interface to EAC) and the process very time consuming.
Instead I substituted my albums with albums other people have converted and posted to the internet as bit-torrents for easy download. I found http://thePirateBay.org and LimeWire to be useful tools for this process. The search engine in PirateBay allowed me to search existing FLAC collections for the albums I own. The nice thing about PirateBay is that it doesn’t require registration in order to use and download music. While it’s possible to download thousands of albums, in fairness, limit downloads to the albums you actually own.
Downloading the torrent (FLAC bit-file) through LimeWire allows access to other people’s computers to transfer music. I worry that if I can see their files, they can probably see mine too and so exercise care and caution. Every dozen albums or so I scanned my computer for viruses just to be on the safe side. After the scan I would change the filenames (usually necessary) and move the music to my file server instead of the LimeWire default directory. This prevented my computer from being an alternative source or super server which is something I don’t understand but assume it can’t be good.
As of this writing, 75% of my music has been transferred. Some obscure music, like Eric Clapton’s Backless album and John Mayall without the Blues Breakers are difficult to find. I have an album crate of the albums I couldn’t find on PirateBay. This will probably require the Behringer unit in order to manually convert them.
Got some tips on using the Behringer USB Audio Interface, please leave them in the comment section.
Next step – playing music
Exact Audio Copy (EAC) is a shareware tool that transfers music CD’s to FLAC files on your computer. It can be obtained at http://www.exactaudiocopy.de. Refer also to http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=30959 for operating instructions. First time through is a bit tricky but it’s easy enough to grasp the basics. Don’t forget to set the filename properties to get the right format.
Albums and tapes aren’t as easy to store digitally since they are analog media, not digital-ready for the computer. Behringer make several products that interface a tape-deck or phonograph to the computer. I explored this briefly but found the audio-capture software awkward (they don’t interface to EAC) and the process very time consuming.
Instead I substituted my albums with albums other people have converted and posted to the internet as bit-torrents for easy download. I found http://thePirateBay.org and LimeWire to be useful tools for this process. The search engine in PirateBay allowed me to search existing FLAC collections for the albums I own. The nice thing about PirateBay is that it doesn’t require registration in order to use and download music. While it’s possible to download thousands of albums, in fairness, limit downloads to the albums you actually own.
Downloading the torrent (FLAC bit-file) through LimeWire allows access to other people’s computers to transfer music. I worry that if I can see their files, they can probably see mine too and so exercise care and caution. Every dozen albums or so I scanned my computer for viruses just to be on the safe side. After the scan I would change the filenames (usually necessary) and move the music to my file server instead of the LimeWire default directory. This prevented my computer from being an alternative source or super server which is something I don’t understand but assume it can’t be good.
As of this writing, 75% of my music has been transferred. Some obscure music, like Eric Clapton’s Backless album and John Mayall without the Blues Breakers are difficult to find. I have an album crate of the albums I couldn’t find on PirateBay. This will probably require the Behringer unit in order to manually convert them.
Got some tips on using the Behringer USB Audio Interface, please leave them in the comment section.
Next step – playing music
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Technology kills the radio star - Part 1 of 3
Part 1 of a 3 part series describing how to create a portable digital music library from CD's, records and cassette tapes
In 1979, The Buggles proclaimed that “video killed the radio star”. It turns out video left them mortally wounded. Technology, as described in this three-part series, kills the radio star.
Music is a luxury many people enjoy. Music lifts spirits, accentuates sorrow, and makes us laugh and cry. It gives us pace when we walk, solitude when we wish. With primitive roots, music, for those who appreciate it, is as integral to life as beer.
But what do you do if you can’t access the music that has influenced your life. After a lifetime purchasing and enjoying 45’s in youth, albums starting in teens and then evolving through cassette tapes to CD’s, there is a lot of influential music that doesn’t fit into today’s portable players. The project presented here takes all this music, stores it on a dedicated fileserver and makes it possible to load portions of the collection onto a portable music player.
The solution is possible thanks to a merger of technologies. The three software elements described are Exact Audio Copy (EAC), LimeWire and MediaMonkey. Required hardware includes a computer with a CDROM reader, a large back-up memory and a portable player, like the Blackberry. The biggest decisions are storage format, how to name files as they are stored and where to put the (digital) collection.
There are a lot of music standards available, the most popular being mp3 and iTunes. Speaking with people who have been down this path, FLAC format was recommended. Free-lossless-Audio-Coding (FLAC) is a method for compressing music files. Compression is important because it reduces the total disk-space required to store a song. Lossless is also important because it maintains the audio spectrum required to maximize fidelity. By contrast, mp3 significantly reduces both file size and fidelity. It’s alright for low quality portable players but given the level of effort required to convert a music collection, it’s not a job that wants to be done twice. Do it right the first time and keep the highest quality.
Naming files is a personal decision. I first started downloading music after listening to KFOG’s top 500 songs from A to Z nearly a decade ago. I decided I wanted to be able listen to songs alphabetically. To do this, I start the filename with the song title, then the artist; for example Let it Be – The Beatles. This is a major departure from many people who start with artist, as in The Beatles – Let it Be. In this format, playing songs alphabetically gives all the songs by the same artist. Either format is fine.
Leaving Spaces in filenames isn’t recommended. Some computer operating systems won’t tolerate the space. To avoid this insert an underscore. This changes the filename to Let_It_Be_-_The_Beatles. The final consideration involves naming songs on albums. Some albums, like Dark Side of the Moon are structured and flow better in order. How many times have you listened to a song fade and remember what the next song is on the album? To allow albums to be played in order add the track number at the start of the file. The final format I choose looks like this:
06-Let_It_Be_-_The_Beatles.flac
Where Let it be is the sixth track on the CD
I organized my collection using file directories. At the top level are the artists: Animals, Barenaked_Ladies, Beach_Boys . . . Within each directory are the files for each album, for example:
o Pink Floyd ->
- Animals
- Dark_Side_of_the_moon
- Ummagumma
- Wish_you_were_here
Within each directory are the filenames for the music, which can be ordered by track number.
Finally a decision needs to be made about storing the music. My modest collection has over 3000 songs so far and occupies over 50GB. I have a Linux server with 300GB available. All files are first downloaded to a laptop and moved to their own segment on the server where it’s easy to perform backups. The other advantage of a server is that I can access the entire collection anywhere on the network.
Another option is an external hard-drive that connects to your computer through the USB port, they are relatively inexpensive and easy to configure.
Next step – Recording music
In 1979, The Buggles proclaimed that “video killed the radio star”. It turns out video left them mortally wounded. Technology, as described in this three-part series, kills the radio star.
Music is a luxury many people enjoy. Music lifts spirits, accentuates sorrow, and makes us laugh and cry. It gives us pace when we walk, solitude when we wish. With primitive roots, music, for those who appreciate it, is as integral to life as beer.
But what do you do if you can’t access the music that has influenced your life. After a lifetime purchasing and enjoying 45’s in youth, albums starting in teens and then evolving through cassette tapes to CD’s, there is a lot of influential music that doesn’t fit into today’s portable players. The project presented here takes all this music, stores it on a dedicated fileserver and makes it possible to load portions of the collection onto a portable music player.
The solution is possible thanks to a merger of technologies. The three software elements described are Exact Audio Copy (EAC), LimeWire and MediaMonkey. Required hardware includes a computer with a CDROM reader, a large back-up memory and a portable player, like the Blackberry. The biggest decisions are storage format, how to name files as they are stored and where to put the (digital) collection.
There are a lot of music standards available, the most popular being mp3 and iTunes. Speaking with people who have been down this path, FLAC format was recommended. Free-lossless-Audio-Coding (FLAC) is a method for compressing music files. Compression is important because it reduces the total disk-space required to store a song. Lossless is also important because it maintains the audio spectrum required to maximize fidelity. By contrast, mp3 significantly reduces both file size and fidelity. It’s alright for low quality portable players but given the level of effort required to convert a music collection, it’s not a job that wants to be done twice. Do it right the first time and keep the highest quality.
Naming files is a personal decision. I first started downloading music after listening to KFOG’s top 500 songs from A to Z nearly a decade ago. I decided I wanted to be able listen to songs alphabetically. To do this, I start the filename with the song title, then the artist; for example Let it Be – The Beatles. This is a major departure from many people who start with artist, as in The Beatles – Let it Be. In this format, playing songs alphabetically gives all the songs by the same artist. Either format is fine.
Leaving Spaces in filenames isn’t recommended. Some computer operating systems won’t tolerate the space. To avoid this insert an underscore. This changes the filename to Let_It_Be_-_The_Beatles. The final consideration involves naming songs on albums. Some albums, like Dark Side of the Moon are structured and flow better in order. How many times have you listened to a song fade and remember what the next song is on the album? To allow albums to be played in order add the track number at the start of the file. The final format I choose looks like this:
06-Let_It_Be_-_The_Beatles.flac
Where Let it be is the sixth track on the CD
I organized my collection using file directories. At the top level are the artists: Animals, Barenaked_Ladies, Beach_Boys . . . Within each directory are the files for each album, for example:
o Pink Floyd ->
- Animals
- Dark_Side_of_the_moon
- Ummagumma
- Wish_you_were_here
Within each directory are the filenames for the music, which can be ordered by track number.
Finally a decision needs to be made about storing the music. My modest collection has over 3000 songs so far and occupies over 50GB. I have a Linux server with 300GB available. All files are first downloaded to a laptop and moved to their own segment on the server where it’s easy to perform backups. The other advantage of a server is that I can access the entire collection anywhere on the network.
Another option is an external hard-drive that connects to your computer through the USB port, they are relatively inexpensive and easy to configure.
Next step – Recording music
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Personality and the job seeker
There was an interesting snap-shot in today’s issue of USA Today which I read over an under-cooked “All American” Skillet breakfast at the Holiday Inn North of Boston
Enough about breakfast. The newspaper was reporting a survey conducted by Accountemps. It noted a change in workers attitudes from 2004 through 2009. According to the survey, the perceptions of those elements that are most important to your next job have changed as follows:
Industry knowledge -21%
Technical ability -6%
Certification -4%
Personality +30%
I can assume the people who found employment in the last while have noticed that knowledge of the industry is significantly less important now than it was 5 years ago. Does this make sense? I think it does. Even though we’re in a recession with accompanying layoffs, there is still high demand for people with particular skills. These skills include social media guru, environmental officer, electrical power engineer, etc. Jobs which either didn’t exist or for which there was no demand five-years ago. I often speculate that the jobs that will be in high demand five-years from now haven’t even been invented yet, so the fact that industry experience has dropped considerably is not surprising.
Technical ability dropping 6% is a surprise, but then, the drop was small. I could speculate that the reason technical skills are less important is that many design and manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas.
The requirement for professional accreditation or certification having dropped is also a surprise. Here again the drop is minor. The unfortunate element of this statistic is that many of the re-training programs which are promoted and funded by the Government focus solely on certification. There is a drop-in centre for unemployed knowledge worker that focuses almost exclusively on providing on-line certification programs. The findings presented in the survey suggest those people who spend the period of unemployment focusing exclusively on re-training and re-certification should not make it their sole focus.
I am not surprised the personality elements have increased so much over the past five years. During my unemployment I was the director of the “hire tech | higher tech" (www.2ht.ca) program. This program, which was run entirely by volunteers, was unique in its approach to finding jobs for knowledge workers. One of side-effects of the program is that it forces you to examine your personality. Do you work well with people? Can you hold your side of a conversation? Can you complete a coherent thought on a complex topic? I remember one hiring manager telling me the importance of cultural fit. He said “I can teach a smart person how to program in Java but I can’t un-teach him about being a jerk”.
The increased emphasis on personality is consistent with the accompanying drop in technical skill and industry intelligence. As I mentioned earlier, many of the positions being staffed today didn’t exist a couple years ago so nobody has extensive skill or experience in this field. What would make a difference to a hiring manager looking to staff these positions? How about a positive attitude? Maybe the ability to learn, educate and evangelize. Gone are the days when a guru could spend years in the lab inventing stuff with little interaction with the outside world. Hermits may produce radical technology, but boosting that persona isn’t going to make it in today’s industry.
You can read the full study here (www.accountemps.com/PressRoom?id=2538). What do you think about these results? Is there another message to the unemployed hiding in the data? Please leave a comment, below. You can also tweet me, I’m Tim_Warland.
Enough about breakfast. The newspaper was reporting a survey conducted by Accountemps. It noted a change in workers attitudes from 2004 through 2009. According to the survey, the perceptions of those elements that are most important to your next job have changed as follows:
Industry knowledge -21%
Technical ability -6%
Certification -4%
Personality +30%
I can assume the people who found employment in the last while have noticed that knowledge of the industry is significantly less important now than it was 5 years ago. Does this make sense? I think it does. Even though we’re in a recession with accompanying layoffs, there is still high demand for people with particular skills. These skills include social media guru, environmental officer, electrical power engineer, etc. Jobs which either didn’t exist or for which there was no demand five-years ago. I often speculate that the jobs that will be in high demand five-years from now haven’t even been invented yet, so the fact that industry experience has dropped considerably is not surprising.
Technical ability dropping 6% is a surprise, but then, the drop was small. I could speculate that the reason technical skills are less important is that many design and manufacturing jobs have been shipped overseas.
The requirement for professional accreditation or certification having dropped is also a surprise. Here again the drop is minor. The unfortunate element of this statistic is that many of the re-training programs which are promoted and funded by the Government focus solely on certification. There is a drop-in centre for unemployed knowledge worker that focuses almost exclusively on providing on-line certification programs. The findings presented in the survey suggest those people who spend the period of unemployment focusing exclusively on re-training and re-certification should not make it their sole focus.
I am not surprised the personality elements have increased so much over the past five years. During my unemployment I was the director of the “hire tech | higher tech" (www.2ht.ca) program. This program, which was run entirely by volunteers, was unique in its approach to finding jobs for knowledge workers. One of side-effects of the program is that it forces you to examine your personality. Do you work well with people? Can you hold your side of a conversation? Can you complete a coherent thought on a complex topic? I remember one hiring manager telling me the importance of cultural fit. He said “I can teach a smart person how to program in Java but I can’t un-teach him about being a jerk”.
The increased emphasis on personality is consistent with the accompanying drop in technical skill and industry intelligence. As I mentioned earlier, many of the positions being staffed today didn’t exist a couple years ago so nobody has extensive skill or experience in this field. What would make a difference to a hiring manager looking to staff these positions? How about a positive attitude? Maybe the ability to learn, educate and evangelize. Gone are the days when a guru could spend years in the lab inventing stuff with little interaction with the outside world. Hermits may produce radical technology, but boosting that persona isn’t going to make it in today’s industry.
You can read the full study here (www.accountemps.com/PressRoom?id=2538). What do you think about these results? Is there another message to the unemployed hiding in the data? Please leave a comment, below. You can also tweet me, I’m Tim_Warland.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Beating unemployment
What a month has been November. After looking for work for over a year and being unemployed for eleven months, I finally connected with the job market. I accepted an offer from AppliedMicro (AMCC) and start today. It's an exciting role managing next generation products. This is exactly the type of position for which I obtained an MBA five years ago.
By the time I accepted the offer I had received another offer from a different ottawa-based company. I received both offers within an hour last Wednesday. I had also obtained sweat-equity positions in two other start-ups, submitted a funding proposal to the Government to earn $68,000 for the Ottawa Talent Initiative and was working on a second proposal. I was also booking an interview with another company for the following week.
My recent interviews went really well. I learnt to create a dialogue about what I can do, then work with the hiring manager to determine how this would fit with the organization. As a result, the jobs I talked about were customized for me.
This is what I learnt during my time off
1) Being busy is good. Sitting around waiting for the phone to ring is not. At times I got depressed but having work-like projects were key to my sanity
2) Get connected. Attend networking events, phone old co-workers for a coffee meeting. It's hard to get out and in front of people but realize that people are the key to the jobs
3) Think about what you're good at and how it adds value to a business. Jobs are evolving quickly, being unemployed involves changing to meet their needs. It's not what you call yourself or what you did before, it's what you can do now.
4) Get out of the house. I owe a huge debt to my parents for weekly lunches, my buddy for the weekly Guinness and most of all to my girlfriend for her unwavering commitment. She was there when I needed someone to hold me an tell me everything will be OK.
In hindsight, the time I spent at the Ottawa Talent Initiative was somewhat distracting. The idea was right and I used the opportunity to connect with hiring managers from different companies. It also helped me stay fresh and work-ready. I just spent too much time trying to find other people jobs and solve the employment problem and not enough time on me. The advantage was that I built a fantastic new network and got more involved in the high-tech business community.
I intend to remain connected with the high-tech community. I'm going to attend networking events and venture talent fairs (part of the lead-to-win program). I'm also going to continue to volunteer to finish a research project I started with Carleton University. We are going to determine the extent to which poor social skills limit a high-tech worker's ability to find employment.
It's nice to feel wanted and connected to the system again.
In this down economy so many people are suffering through unemployment. Send this link to them. It might provide the inspiration they need. If you have faced unemployment or know someone who has, why not share your observations here so we might all benefit.
By the time I accepted the offer I had received another offer from a different ottawa-based company. I received both offers within an hour last Wednesday. I had also obtained sweat-equity positions in two other start-ups, submitted a funding proposal to the Government to earn $68,000 for the Ottawa Talent Initiative and was working on a second proposal. I was also booking an interview with another company for the following week.
My recent interviews went really well. I learnt to create a dialogue about what I can do, then work with the hiring manager to determine how this would fit with the organization. As a result, the jobs I talked about were customized for me.
This is what I learnt during my time off
1) Being busy is good. Sitting around waiting for the phone to ring is not. At times I got depressed but having work-like projects were key to my sanity
2) Get connected. Attend networking events, phone old co-workers for a coffee meeting. It's hard to get out and in front of people but realize that people are the key to the jobs
3) Think about what you're good at and how it adds value to a business. Jobs are evolving quickly, being unemployed involves changing to meet their needs. It's not what you call yourself or what you did before, it's what you can do now.
4) Get out of the house. I owe a huge debt to my parents for weekly lunches, my buddy for the weekly Guinness and most of all to my girlfriend for her unwavering commitment. She was there when I needed someone to hold me an tell me everything will be OK.
In hindsight, the time I spent at the Ottawa Talent Initiative was somewhat distracting. The idea was right and I used the opportunity to connect with hiring managers from different companies. It also helped me stay fresh and work-ready. I just spent too much time trying to find other people jobs and solve the employment problem and not enough time on me. The advantage was that I built a fantastic new network and got more involved in the high-tech business community.
I intend to remain connected with the high-tech community. I'm going to attend networking events and venture talent fairs (part of the lead-to-win program). I'm also going to continue to volunteer to finish a research project I started with Carleton University. We are going to determine the extent to which poor social skills limit a high-tech worker's ability to find employment.
It's nice to feel wanted and connected to the system again.
In this down economy so many people are suffering through unemployment. Send this link to them. It might provide the inspiration they need. If you have faced unemployment or know someone who has, why not share your observations here so we might all benefit.
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