I've been relatively productive this week. Monday I had an interview with a recruiter in downtown LA. While I was there I had lunch with Casey and Calvin from Hautelook. Visited their office then got lost trying to figure out which building I parked my car in. Not fun walking around downtown in a suit for an hour. And if that weren't enough, I paid a total of $30 just to park.
Tuesday I was able to go to the gym. Went on Indeed for 2 hours. Saw the same jobs still open. Maybe I wasn't that productive.
Wednesday I played golf with Jared and Paul at Balboa. Some Bulgarian guy joined our group for the last few holes. He's visiting for 3 months. That's how much vacation he was able to accrue. It's unbelievable. I'm sure I could accrue that much vacation time, but I can't fathom taking that much time off of work all at once. If I could, that would tell me that my company really doesn't need me. Perhaps that's the mentality of a operations manager rather than a business manager. Need to change that.
Wednesday was also my wedding anniversary. Anne and I had dinner at Osteria Mozza in Hollywood. She loved the flowers I gave her. Funny story. Anne posted a picture of the flowers I had sent to her office. Her friend Tina commented "OH NO, What did he do now?". I replied, "I got married". This is a perfect example how communication has changed today. My reply to Tina made it sound like I was in trouble only because I was married. However, I was indirectly telling Tina it was my wedding anniversary. Long story short, everything was "lost in translation" and everyone got a good laugh out of it. You can see the entire conversation on Anne's posting of her flowers. Back in the day, this would have been a conversation during a dinner party. Instead, most communication is done electronically without any tone or inflection to denote sarcasm. =(
So I've filled out my EDD paperwork. Next up is to see if I qualify for any kind of loan modification or refinance.
I think I'll finally make that appointment with golftec to analyze my swing.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Unemployment Day 1
Played Golf with Jared, Les, and Paul at Encino. Went on Indeed for 2 hours.
So Day 1. Psychologically speaking, there's a lot going on. First, I'm wondering how long I can last being unemployed. I was told it takes 1 month for every $10k you make to find a job. I've known I was going to be unemployed since January. So to this day, I've been looking for a job for 4 months. Let's just say I can't survive a whole year being unemployed. With the severance and PTO, that only covers 2 months of my normal salary. Together with unemployment checks, I could probably stretch that out to 3 months. The longest I've ever been unemployed was 3 months. Mentally, I don't think I could survive past 3 months.
Job hunting is really exhausting. You basically have to evaluate your entire professional career and assess your value. Of course its all arbitrary as one employers opinion can vastly differ from another. And compared to your own opinion of yourself, who knows what you are really worth or qualified to do. It's really all about "peacocking" to hiring managers. I'm beginning to believe its not necessarily what you know, its who you know and how you sell yourself. For example, when I joined Helio, I was brought in to Manage the Internal Audit group for our kiosks throughout the country. I had no internal audit experience and yet I was offered a 15% increase from my salary at Kaiser. 15%!!! Are you kidding me?? What kind of fools are they hiring here and where the hell is the money coming from?? Luckily I knew someone who was working there and he vouched for me. I also interviewed with quite a few people so I think they all agreed I wasn't an idiot. My shortcoming is getting in the door. But once I'm in, I usually prove myself.
In retrospect, I believe that Helio clouded my mind about what type of salary I could command. Then when Virgin Mobile acquired us, I think I was the cheapest of all the overpaid people that didn't leave. I guess my luck ran out when Sprint acquired Virgin. They required a relocation, which I wasn't down with.
So what am I qualified to do? What do I do? What do I want to do? And who's gonna pay me to do it? I started off in technology. I didn't really become a developer. I learned how to write SQL, basic SQL in my opinion. I wasn't writing stored procedures. I learned how to use Data Junction and Informatica which is basically SQL. Then I went to Kaiser and leveraged my vendor management experience even though I had no experience in Travel & Expense, no less Finance in general. I think I flourished at Kaiser because of the corporate atmosphere and all the resources available to their employees. But it was BORING. That's why I joined Helio. It was exciting.
When I search for jobs I use keywords "Reporting", "Data", "Analysis", "Systems" (I've even used "foosball"). I've used numerous reporting tools like Cognos, Microstrategy and Crystal Reports. I enjoy analyzing data. And I've used all types of systems from SQL Server, Concur, Oracle, and JDE. Does that make me an expert??? In the immortal words of many, "No way Jose".
I guess my Lola was right. "Jack of all trades, Master of Nothing". Those were her words of wisdom when I told her I was changing my major for the ump-teenth time. But in my defense, I was trying to learn as much as possible. I didn't want to be silo'd into my profession. I know how I am. I get bored easily. And how am I supposed to know what I want to do for the rest of my life at the age of 19? (That's a whole different blog)
In conclusion (to this section), I'm looking for a position that can leverage all my experience and at the same time challenge me to think strategically. I wish "common sense" was a skill I could put down on my resume.
Back to being unemployed. Here are the rules I must follow during my unemployment:
1. Do not sleep in. I figure I should be awake by at least 9am.
2. Workout AT LEAST once a day. Once in the morning, and time permitting go for a run in the mid afternoon.
3. Spend at least 3 hours a day looking for a job. Apply to at least 2 jobs a day.
4. Read a chapter from any book. Preferrably something that will teach you something like Excel or Project Management.
Do these 4 things everyday and I will not feel unproductive. Lets see how long I last.
So Day 1. Psychologically speaking, there's a lot going on. First, I'm wondering how long I can last being unemployed. I was told it takes 1 month for every $10k you make to find a job. I've known I was going to be unemployed since January. So to this day, I've been looking for a job for 4 months. Let's just say I can't survive a whole year being unemployed. With the severance and PTO, that only covers 2 months of my normal salary. Together with unemployment checks, I could probably stretch that out to 3 months. The longest I've ever been unemployed was 3 months. Mentally, I don't think I could survive past 3 months.
Job hunting is really exhausting. You basically have to evaluate your entire professional career and assess your value. Of course its all arbitrary as one employers opinion can vastly differ from another. And compared to your own opinion of yourself, who knows what you are really worth or qualified to do. It's really all about "peacocking" to hiring managers. I'm beginning to believe its not necessarily what you know, its who you know and how you sell yourself. For example, when I joined Helio, I was brought in to Manage the Internal Audit group for our kiosks throughout the country. I had no internal audit experience and yet I was offered a 15% increase from my salary at Kaiser. 15%!!! Are you kidding me?? What kind of fools are they hiring here and where the hell is the money coming from?? Luckily I knew someone who was working there and he vouched for me. I also interviewed with quite a few people so I think they all agreed I wasn't an idiot. My shortcoming is getting in the door. But once I'm in, I usually prove myself.
In retrospect, I believe that Helio clouded my mind about what type of salary I could command. Then when Virgin Mobile acquired us, I think I was the cheapest of all the overpaid people that didn't leave. I guess my luck ran out when Sprint acquired Virgin. They required a relocation, which I wasn't down with.
So what am I qualified to do? What do I do? What do I want to do? And who's gonna pay me to do it? I started off in technology. I didn't really become a developer. I learned how to write SQL, basic SQL in my opinion. I wasn't writing stored procedures. I learned how to use Data Junction and Informatica which is basically SQL. Then I went to Kaiser and leveraged my vendor management experience even though I had no experience in Travel & Expense, no less Finance in general. I think I flourished at Kaiser because of the corporate atmosphere and all the resources available to their employees. But it was BORING. That's why I joined Helio. It was exciting.
When I search for jobs I use keywords "Reporting", "Data", "Analysis", "Systems" (I've even used "foosball"). I've used numerous reporting tools like Cognos, Microstrategy and Crystal Reports. I enjoy analyzing data. And I've used all types of systems from SQL Server, Concur, Oracle, and JDE. Does that make me an expert??? In the immortal words of many, "No way Jose".
I guess my Lola was right. "Jack of all trades, Master of Nothing". Those were her words of wisdom when I told her I was changing my major for the ump-teenth time. But in my defense, I was trying to learn as much as possible. I didn't want to be silo'd into my profession. I know how I am. I get bored easily. And how am I supposed to know what I want to do for the rest of my life at the age of 19? (That's a whole different blog)
In conclusion (to this section), I'm looking for a position that can leverage all my experience and at the same time challenge me to think strategically. I wish "common sense" was a skill I could put down on my resume.
Back to being unemployed. Here are the rules I must follow during my unemployment:
1. Do not sleep in. I figure I should be awake by at least 9am.
2. Workout AT LEAST once a day. Once in the morning, and time permitting go for a run in the mid afternoon.
3. Spend at least 3 hours a day looking for a job. Apply to at least 2 jobs a day.
4. Read a chapter from any book. Preferrably something that will teach you something like Excel or Project Management.
Do these 4 things everyday and I will not feel unproductive. Lets see how long I last.
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