By coscooper
Job hunting is almost a full time job, but the tasks are tedious and frankly boring. I mean, if you were asked by your current employer to search through a myriad of job sites, poke through every company web site you’d like to work with looking for that perfect job description hoping that they magically posted a new option, writing compelling, relevant cover letters and going through every variation of a job application, you’d tell your boss you were nuts, right? Well, that pretty much sums up my mornings, among other things.
When people ask how it’s going or what’s your status, I tell them I’m still “underemployed”, meaning, I work, but not enough to pay the bills. Besides reaching out to my network, following up on leads and the dreaded seek and apply work, I also do other things to stay busy. While it’s not a stigma anymore to be “underemployed” for a period of time, it does look good that you’re busy filling in your time with related work rather than catching up on the latest soap-opera or catching all those “new career” commercials. (Okay, I watch a little daytime TV, but not much.)
Besides the job hunt, I find myself writing a lot more than before. I bang out more blog posts, like this, and I pump out a number of articles for various online venues like Examiner, eHow and several others. Elance also has some freelance optional work, but it’s hard to land projects with all the “off-shore” contractors. Along side the article freelancing, I’ve been really catching up on those two novel projects I’ve worked on and off the past few years. In fact, I’m finished with one, High Lies, it’s now on the back burner, I’m letting it settle out of my brain. I’ll pick it up in a few weeks to review my handy work and decide if it’s worth selling to an agent or not. Jodi says that being a novelist is my retirement plan, we’ll see.
In my spare time, I also come up with every business idea I can think, Pro-Services company, news website, IT Project Management company, several software ideas for the iPad, to name a few. I hearken back to the early days of Jeff Bezos and J.K. Rowling thinking that if something pops into my mind for a good business plan or a great book, maybe that will work out. Pipe dreams to be sure, but I’m busy, underemployed really.
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By coscooper
One full month. I’m now past the first month on the new job, Sales Engineer for a software company focused on data governance solutions. I have to admit, working from home is, for those who remember what a “valley girl” is, TOTALLY AWESOME!
Flexibility is the word that bubbles up in our conversation a lot. Jodi and I both work at home and it’s great being able to balance work and life needs. Some things just have to be taken care of during the day, business hours and is more convenient. Setting your own hours and schedule really helps.
Being able to work from my home office and still provide great value to both my company and customers is something that I never thought was possible. In my previous position, there was “telecommuting” available, but it basically meant, providing remote customer service at 10pm when someone was panicking, usually my old boss. It meant upgrading servers on Saturday nights from 11pm to 5am. It never meant, I’m going to sit at my home office desk for 9 to 10 hours on such-n-such day and actually get work done. No, my old boss had to “see the whites of your eyes and see you sitting at a desk in his office space” to feel like you were doing something. He was paranoid that if people worked from their home office, they weren’t focused on their work, were goofing off, not focused on him, can’t drop what ever their doing to go to an ad-hoc, unscheduled meeting to hear him drone on about how smart he was and/or sit there waiting for him to finish his “all-important” call, all the while mulling over the work you need to get done wasting valuable time starring at your colleagues waiting, waiting on him to pontificate and show everyone how he’s the smartest man in the room. However, what he didn’t realize is that paranoia drove others crazy and actually produced the opposite. Resentment and really lack of interest in actually wanting to help the cause and ultimately him succeed. His old school mentality was, well, OLD-SCHOOL.
Now, it’s nice to be treated like an adult with respect and dignity knowing that you’re putting in a good days work for the value. Because of that respect and treatment, people who are self-motivated really want to work harder and provide on-going value to the company and ultimately to their customer.
Working from home is AWESOME!
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By coscooper
Every day, I log into one of my several computers (both Mac and Windows) and the first window or windoid that is there greeting me is the “There are new updates ready”. Plus, to add insult to injury, every application I launch displays a message that a new version is ready.
Good grief. If things start going south on one of my laptops, I’ll never be able to trouble shoot and figure out where the culprit is.
So, WTF do you do when this happens nearly every day?
- Accept the download and hail-merry it. (Which is what I do too often)
- Never accept the download and keep running with Windows95
- Plan on just allowing it to only update your system on Friday night. (That way you have the entire weekend to recover and rebuild if necessary.)
- Research each request and make an informed decision. (What we all should do, but, then 8 hours later you’d never get any real work done.)
- Change the settings in the control panel to just update at say 3am in the morning, reboot and plead ignorant bliss when on the phone with tech support.
Or a combination of all of the above. Which, is basically what I do. I decide how much pain I’m interested that day, how much time I have and how dumb I want to play when calling support.
Have fun out there…. it’s the wild-wild west of code!
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By coscooper
Well, I know Jodi, my LOVELY wife, posted an Office story on her blog, however, I have my own story.
After nearly 20 years of having a private office at my old company(s) I’ve always done what I wanted and never had to answer to anyone “breathing” down my back. Most recently, my office in Boulder was in the corner with lots of windows where I could watch the wild life prance by. I could also stare off into the distance looking over the mountains or Flat Irons looming along the horizon just south of Boulder. I’d get my binoculars out and watch climbers take the face of Flat Iron Number 1. Never saw anyone take a plunge. They must all have been experienced.
Anyway, last year I started working from home and shared the home office in our spare bedroom.
This wasn’t working….
So, I decided to kick Dylan and his drum set out of the basement and build my own space. Jodi “JUMPED” at the thought when I brought it up. Actually, she was reluctant, only because she didn’t want to spend a dime. Bean counters.
Well, I’m now in my own little corner with no one huffing, waving arms aren’t being thrashed at me when I’m on the phone, not hearing the SHUSHING or punching the back of my chair when I’ve tried to zone out with the head-phones on.
Now, my office has everything I really need. Privacy, great lighting, dart board, electric guitar, it’s own Gym & private restroom just 5 steps away, (coffee can be a bitch in the morning when you’re, uh, 40 something.)
It’s not without it’s issues though.
1 – My cell phone doesn’t work very well unless I stand cheek pressed up against the window. Could be good or bad depending on the point of view and needs
2 – The stereo speakers have an annoying buzz when I use my wireless mouse for some reason. This wasn’t an issue upstairs. Tried everything, but it’s not getting any better. Headphones are best. However, I have noticed I don’t hear the local airport radio anymore
3 – I’m too close to the treadmill and Jodi’s been “hinting” all morning. However, I keep my back to the beast.
4 – The desk I bought is “ok”, but a bit flimsy and shakes when I type. Hm..
5 – I’m 3 feet from our basement bar. Beer 30 and after work cocktails are going to be WAY too convenient. I stare at the bottles all day.
Well, regardless of those little “annoyances”, I’m content knowing I can breath, listen to music, take phone calls, chat without worrying she’s looking over my shoulder and well, I’m free to let things “loose” as I see fit. It only affects me
Another perk, it’s next to the entertainment center, with a nice 8′ couch and the leather lazy boy recliner. Next, a nice nap is order and I wont get caught!
My Cave!
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