July 13, 2013
My last post was on Wednesday morning and I was discussing that this may be my last unemployed morning and how I was correct. I got a call about 11 AM and they asked if I was able to work this afternoon. I said yes and went to work at 1 PM on Wednesday afternoon.
Well I was thinking that Wednesday afternoon was going to be a pretty easy time. Meet everyone, see where my desk is going to be, find the bathroom. All the important stuff. I walked into the office and one of the guys that I interviewed with and the Program Manager met me at the door. Literally they were waiting at the door. They immediately pulled me into a conference room and started brining me up to speed on an RFP that is due on Monday.
Next thing I know it is 5:30. Wow! That went fast.
Thursday and Friday were both the same way. The three of us plus or minus a couple of others sat in a conference room and wrote the response to the RFP with Gantt charts. They brought in lunch to keep the momentum going. Think about it....I have not really worked a full day in probably 18 months and went from that to two and half slammed ones. The conference room that we were in had a 72 inch Samsung TV that had an HDMI connector coming out of the table. The Program Manager just plugged up her laptop and we were working. It didn't heat up the room or have to prop up a projector because the stands were broken after 12 years.
They gave me a nice Dell laptop with 8 Gb of RAM (not the 2 that IP is used to). Loaded me up with Office, Project, Visio, VPN access, a VoIP system on the computer. They gave me admin rights and said have fun. Wow! This is a change. They have a nice break room with a Keurig machine, snacks everywhere, and a loaded fridge. Now for the best part.
Amy sends me a text about 1 PM and said that I received a FedEx from my new company. Puzzled I wondered why they would send me a FedEx to my house. So I asked my two co-workers and they too were puzzled and they said to have Amy open it. I called Amy and told her to open it and she said, "Oh my, it is a brand new Iphone 5 with a case and car charger." What?!? Sure enough, it is a brand new iPhone 5 from Verizon activated with a 512 number and the accessories.
So let me get this straight. On Tuesday morning, I was unemployed with two marginal interviews. By Friday at 6 PM, I had worked two and half days and have a new laptop and iPhone 5.
Like I said earlier, I guess just keep you foot to the floor. Stay positive with a schedule and something will break. I was pretty down during May and June. I really did apply for a lot of jobs. How did I get my job? I just got lucky at hit the right recruiter on LinkedIn. His sales guy did the rest.
During the dead times during the day, I would really try to learn either iOS or Android. Think about the marketplace for that stuff. You can do that at home by yourself.
Anyway, have a good weekend......over and out.
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Day 9
July 10, 2013
Well I may be going to work today. Yesterday as I said I had to go fill out paperwork. Now I have not had to fill out paperwork for a job since 1999 so as you can image I don't remember much of the task. Anyway I probably had to fill out 50 pages of forms, take a test on privacy, pee in a cup, and take a picture of my degree at home and sent it to them. The people at TekSystems who are placing me are super nice and they are not the same people who are the recruiters so the communication is MUCH better.
Anyway since it is a subcontractor to the VA, you have to have a background check to work there. That can take a week plus or minus so they are trying to get me a waiver so that I can start sometime today.
Here are some notes of irony.
First, many of you may remember that a couple of weeks before the "end" a recruiter had a job at the DPS for an Enterprise Architect. "Yeah, we'll get back to you at the end of the week." That was over a month ago so I put in in the vault. Yesterday on my way to fill out paperwork, the recruiter called and said great news an interview next week. Sorry, too late!
Second, my wife's good friend's sister (yes that is a mouthful) who I know works at the company that I had the perm interview for. She said I was on the top of their list. I just chuckled and said they shouldn't have asked such BS question and upset me by the situation. When it rains it pours.
Here are a couple of things that I have learned so far to not go crazy at home.
1. Set a schedule. It has really helped to get up take a shower. Write the blog. Study. Etc.
2. Link In with people. I didn't go to that happy hour but I Linked In with a recruiter that popped up because he was in the "people you may know" section.
3. The perm job was on Linked In. I look at those everyday.
Maybe this will be my last unemployed morning......... over and out.
Well I may be going to work today. Yesterday as I said I had to go fill out paperwork. Now I have not had to fill out paperwork for a job since 1999 so as you can image I don't remember much of the task. Anyway I probably had to fill out 50 pages of forms, take a test on privacy, pee in a cup, and take a picture of my degree at home and sent it to them. The people at TekSystems who are placing me are super nice and they are not the same people who are the recruiters so the communication is MUCH better.
Anyway since it is a subcontractor to the VA, you have to have a background check to work there. That can take a week plus or minus so they are trying to get me a waiver so that I can start sometime today.
Here are some notes of irony.
First, many of you may remember that a couple of weeks before the "end" a recruiter had a job at the DPS for an Enterprise Architect. "Yeah, we'll get back to you at the end of the week." That was over a month ago so I put in in the vault. Yesterday on my way to fill out paperwork, the recruiter called and said great news an interview next week. Sorry, too late!
Second, my wife's good friend's sister (yes that is a mouthful) who I know works at the company that I had the perm interview for. She said I was on the top of their list. I just chuckled and said they shouldn't have asked such BS question and upset me by the situation. When it rains it pours.
Here are a couple of things that I have learned so far to not go crazy at home.
1. Set a schedule. It has really helped to get up take a shower. Write the blog. Study. Etc.
2. Link In with people. I didn't go to that happy hour but I Linked In with a recruiter that popped up because he was in the "people you may know" section.
3. The perm job was on Linked In. I look at those everyday.
Maybe this will be my last unemployed morning......... over and out.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
Day 8
July 9, 2013
Well a week ago today I faced my first morning at home with no where to go and nothing (outside the house) to do. How quickly things can change.
I had two interviews yesterday, one for a really good perm position and the other for a short-term contract. I will start with the perm position.
The perm position was a phone interview with six people on the other end of the phone. When I heard it was going to be a phone interview with a panel, I was thinking this is not going to be good. I was right. Now the position that I was applying for was "Enterprise Architect". This organization does not have an EA group and this would be the first one. When you look at the job description and think of Enterprise Architect what usually comes to mind? Big picture, strategy, portfolio.
Anyway, the interview was led not by the hiring manager (CIO) but by a group of technical managers. The first question that I got was, "How would I plan for data on a web application to be persistant on both a client and server side?" I was thinking what kind of BS question is this. Maybe if you used a real application then you wouldn't have to worry about this. Basically the interview was a deep dive technical grilling. I was thinking if you get someone to answer all of these questions spot on then they probably won't be a very good EA because they are way too nerd alert. Anyway I did my best and after I sweated for hour got off the phone.
Then I had to go put on a suit and drive over to 35 and Ben White. I thinking that I'm sweating my a** off and going to get grilled again for a short term contract job. Oh I was wrong.....
I get over to this company and everyone met me in the lobby and was super nice. We went into a conference room and had a great conversation about cloud and virtualization for about an hour and a half. They basically need someone to help them respond to RFP's from the VA for their datacenter in Austin. They are so slammed they needed help. The interview went well and I drove home.
About 15 minutes after I got home, the contract company called me and asked if I could start on Wednesday. I said, "like the day after tomorrow?" They said yes and that I needed to fill out my paperwork today. They want to hire me a perm employee but they don't have the position authorized yet so work contract to perm.
Therefore, my unemployment blogging days may becoming to a quick close. At 3:30 PM I had nothing going into a interview for a short-term contract. By 5:30 I had a job. So today I am going to continue my iOS lessons like I have and then probably fill out paperwork this afternoon and start tomorrow.
Sometimes good things are where they are unexpected.
Over and out........
Well a week ago today I faced my first morning at home with no where to go and nothing (outside the house) to do. How quickly things can change.
I had two interviews yesterday, one for a really good perm position and the other for a short-term contract. I will start with the perm position.
The perm position was a phone interview with six people on the other end of the phone. When I heard it was going to be a phone interview with a panel, I was thinking this is not going to be good. I was right. Now the position that I was applying for was "Enterprise Architect". This organization does not have an EA group and this would be the first one. When you look at the job description and think of Enterprise Architect what usually comes to mind? Big picture, strategy, portfolio.
Anyway, the interview was led not by the hiring manager (CIO) but by a group of technical managers. The first question that I got was, "How would I plan for data on a web application to be persistant on both a client and server side?" I was thinking what kind of BS question is this. Maybe if you used a real application then you wouldn't have to worry about this. Basically the interview was a deep dive technical grilling. I was thinking if you get someone to answer all of these questions spot on then they probably won't be a very good EA because they are way too nerd alert. Anyway I did my best and after I sweated for hour got off the phone.
Then I had to go put on a suit and drive over to 35 and Ben White. I thinking that I'm sweating my a** off and going to get grilled again for a short term contract job. Oh I was wrong.....
I get over to this company and everyone met me in the lobby and was super nice. We went into a conference room and had a great conversation about cloud and virtualization for about an hour and a half. They basically need someone to help them respond to RFP's from the VA for their datacenter in Austin. They are so slammed they needed help. The interview went well and I drove home.
About 15 minutes after I got home, the contract company called me and asked if I could start on Wednesday. I said, "like the day after tomorrow?" They said yes and that I needed to fill out my paperwork today. They want to hire me a perm employee but they don't have the position authorized yet so work contract to perm.
Therefore, my unemployment blogging days may becoming to a quick close. At 3:30 PM I had nothing going into a interview for a short-term contract. By 5:30 I had a job. So today I am going to continue my iOS lessons like I have and then probably fill out paperwork this afternoon and start tomorrow.
Sometimes good things are where they are unexpected.
Over and out........
Monday, July 8, 2013
Day 6/7
July 8, 2013
Happy Monday to all those out there and I hope you all had a good 4-day weekend. As I start my second week on the unemployment line, I actually feel pretty good this morning. I have two interviews today, one for a very nice perm position and the other for a contract job. I am not going to get my hopes up so I'm going to continue the search and the iOS lessons.
I will admit that getting up without a schedule or an alarm has been nice. My oldest daughter, Sarah, is going on a mission trip for the week today. She asked if we would wake her up at 7 so she could finish her book. WHAT! Wake up early to read?!? Interfere with my sleep? The nerve of some people.
Of course now with a dog and two cats, sleeping late has become out of the question.
On to the perplexing technical questions of the day. I have two Macs in my office at home. One is a mid-2009 Macbook Pro with Mountain Lion and 8 GB of RAM. The other is old school Mac Mini with a Core Duo Processor not a Core 2 Duo but a Core Duo and only 2 GB of RAM running Snow Leopard. The reason it runs Snow Leopard is because Lion and Mountain Lion are only 64-bit and will not run on my Mac Mini. However, for web surfing, email, etc, the Mac Mini runs faster. In fact I'm typing this blog on the Mac Mini.
I'm assuming the reason is because there is a faster hard drive in the Mac Mini and because Mountain Lion is more bloated than Snow Leopard but if anyone has a better idea, let me know. Maybe if I get a job here pretty soon then I will spurge and get a new Mac.....HA!
Have a good Monday and leave me some comments so I can have contact with people on the outside.
Over and out.
Happy Monday to all those out there and I hope you all had a good 4-day weekend. As I start my second week on the unemployment line, I actually feel pretty good this morning. I have two interviews today, one for a very nice perm position and the other for a contract job. I am not going to get my hopes up so I'm going to continue the search and the iOS lessons.
I will admit that getting up without a schedule or an alarm has been nice. My oldest daughter, Sarah, is going on a mission trip for the week today. She asked if we would wake her up at 7 so she could finish her book. WHAT! Wake up early to read?!? Interfere with my sleep? The nerve of some people.
Of course now with a dog and two cats, sleeping late has become out of the question.
On to the perplexing technical questions of the day. I have two Macs in my office at home. One is a mid-2009 Macbook Pro with Mountain Lion and 8 GB of RAM. The other is old school Mac Mini with a Core Duo Processor not a Core 2 Duo but a Core Duo and only 2 GB of RAM running Snow Leopard. The reason it runs Snow Leopard is because Lion and Mountain Lion are only 64-bit and will not run on my Mac Mini. However, for web surfing, email, etc, the Mac Mini runs faster. In fact I'm typing this blog on the Mac Mini.
I'm assuming the reason is because there is a faster hard drive in the Mac Mini and because Mountain Lion is more bloated than Snow Leopard but if anyone has a better idea, let me know. Maybe if I get a job here pretty soon then I will spurge and get a new Mac.....HA!
Have a good Monday and leave me some comments so I can have contact with people on the outside.
Over and out.
Saturday, July 6, 2013
Day 5
July 6, 2013
The first real weekend. After a fairly uneventful week, I now approach the weekend as a member of the unemployed. During the week there are only so many jobs that you can apply for. As many of you have figured out, the Internet is pretty much a black hole of resumes. Dell probably has 50 jobs or so that I am qualified for and I can't seem to get even a "we're not interested in you," the same goes for IBM and Microsoft.
The good news is I am through 7 lessons on programming for iOS. I am a person that has to learn every detail before I can move on so I read and re-read the chapters plus I have been using iTunesU to find a class from Stanford on iOS programming. The first time that I watched the Stanford classes last last year and I was totally confused, but now as I am reading multiple books the lectures are starting to make sense. I am struggling with the Apple instances of object oriented programming. They use different terms and try to make it easier with dot notation. My buddy Todd says that once the light clicks it is pretty easy. I think my bulb is burned out.
On to non technical or job related matters. I'm not a huge fan of Dwight Howard (he's a NBA player and the largest free agent) and I'm not 100% happy that he is going to the Rockets. I just don't think they are going to be as good with him. Maybe I'm wrong.
Football training camps start two weeks from today so start getting your fantasy team in order.
(As you can see over the last two paragraphs, I really have nothing else to say but would like to keep this at a certain length so that you continue to read my ramblings.)
Stay cool it should be hot..... over and out.
The first real weekend. After a fairly uneventful week, I now approach the weekend as a member of the unemployed. During the week there are only so many jobs that you can apply for. As many of you have figured out, the Internet is pretty much a black hole of resumes. Dell probably has 50 jobs or so that I am qualified for and I can't seem to get even a "we're not interested in you," the same goes for IBM and Microsoft.
The good news is I am through 7 lessons on programming for iOS. I am a person that has to learn every detail before I can move on so I read and re-read the chapters plus I have been using iTunesU to find a class from Stanford on iOS programming. The first time that I watched the Stanford classes last last year and I was totally confused, but now as I am reading multiple books the lectures are starting to make sense. I am struggling with the Apple instances of object oriented programming. They use different terms and try to make it easier with dot notation. My buddy Todd says that once the light clicks it is pretty easy. I think my bulb is burned out.
On to non technical or job related matters. I'm not a huge fan of Dwight Howard (he's a NBA player and the largest free agent) and I'm not 100% happy that he is going to the Rockets. I just don't think they are going to be as good with him. Maybe I'm wrong.
Football training camps start two weeks from today so start getting your fantasy team in order.
(As you can see over the last two paragraphs, I really have nothing else to say but would like to keep this at a certain length so that you continue to read my ramblings.)
Stay cool it should be hot..... over and out.
Friday, July 5, 2013
Day 4
July 5, 2013
As I close out my first week as a member of the unemployed, it has actually been stress free. Yesterday obviously was the Fourth of July and after an afternoon swim / bbq we loaded the bikes up and went to Austin High. From there we unloaded the bikes and rode to be with 100,000 of our closest friends for the Austin fireworks show. The heat was not too bad and the show was amazing. After the show we mounted back up and rode to the high school. From there it was a 12 minute drive back home. No traffic, no fuss.
A new trend that I have been seeing here in the past week in the job search is the amount of financial / insurance companies that want me to be a rep. How have I ever been qualified to be a salesperson of financial products? I just counted and I received four of them this week.
I think today is going to be a weird day. Who is working and who is not? Should I approach today like a regular work day or since most people took either a vacation day or are off should I just go light?
I think I'm going to do a couple of iOS lessons this morning and see where it goes from here.
I may start doing app reviews and sports commentary in the lower section each day. I'm enjoying writing the blog but the last couple of days, I really haven't had enough to discuss. Maybe you could post a random topic and we could have some discussion.
Who knows?
From the bunker.....over and out.
As I close out my first week as a member of the unemployed, it has actually been stress free. Yesterday obviously was the Fourth of July and after an afternoon swim / bbq we loaded the bikes up and went to Austin High. From there we unloaded the bikes and rode to be with 100,000 of our closest friends for the Austin fireworks show. The heat was not too bad and the show was amazing. After the show we mounted back up and rode to the high school. From there it was a 12 minute drive back home. No traffic, no fuss.
A new trend that I have been seeing here in the past week in the job search is the amount of financial / insurance companies that want me to be a rep. How have I ever been qualified to be a salesperson of financial products? I just counted and I received four of them this week.
I think today is going to be a weird day. Who is working and who is not? Should I approach today like a regular work day or since most people took either a vacation day or are off should I just go light?
I think I'm going to do a couple of iOS lessons this morning and see where it goes from here.
I may start doing app reviews and sports commentary in the lower section each day. I'm enjoying writing the blog but the last couple of days, I really haven't had enough to discuss. Maybe you could post a random topic and we could have some discussion.
Who knows?
From the bunker.....over and out.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Day 3
July 4, 2013
Happy 4th of July everyone! Today is probably a well deserved day off. I decided that I am not going to do any studying / looking for jobs today.
Yesterday was actually kind of boring. I spend all morning learning about the theory of Objective-C while the girls went to see Despicable Me 2. In the theory lessons, you do not actually write a piece of code or even use the computer. You just read and re-read about syntax and structure....boring. I used iTunes U in the afternoon to watch a Stanford professor say the same things.
The one exciting part was going to HEB to pick up a few items. I love the 4th at HEB for the beer prices. It just shows how much markup there is in beer.
On the positive side, I think I am going to have two interviews on Monday. One is a perm position and the other is a 4-month contract. Either way it kind of picks me up a little.
Tonight we are going to the fireworks in downtown Austin. Amy and I have a plan that we do that involves bicycles. However, this is the first year in which the girls are going to participate. They usually are at camp on July 4th but they had to go to a different session this year and so they are with us. If you are down there look for us in the crowd. Ha!
Happy 4th.....over and out.
Happy 4th of July everyone! Today is probably a well deserved day off. I decided that I am not going to do any studying / looking for jobs today.
Yesterday was actually kind of boring. I spend all morning learning about the theory of Objective-C while the girls went to see Despicable Me 2. In the theory lessons, you do not actually write a piece of code or even use the computer. You just read and re-read about syntax and structure....boring. I used iTunes U in the afternoon to watch a Stanford professor say the same things.
The one exciting part was going to HEB to pick up a few items. I love the 4th at HEB for the beer prices. It just shows how much markup there is in beer.
On the positive side, I think I am going to have two interviews on Monday. One is a perm position and the other is a 4-month contract. Either way it kind of picks me up a little.
Tonight we are going to the fireworks in downtown Austin. Amy and I have a plan that we do that involves bicycles. However, this is the first year in which the girls are going to participate. They usually are at camp on July 4th but they had to go to a different session this year and so they are with us. If you are down there look for us in the crowd. Ha!
Happy 4th.....over and out.
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