You say goodbye, I say hello

This image is of my calendar at work after lunch yesterday—Wednesday. We had a team lunch and as you can see, now my calendar is empty.

Tomorrow is my last day on this contract. I’ve had a great time, it’s been a completely enjoyable gig, the kind you always hope you’ll get when you’re self-employed but realistically know you probably won’t. It’s been especially nice after my last regular full time job, the one I quit in December 2013 (and still don’t miss or regret one iota).

Yesterday and today, people were coming up to me shocked that I’m leaving, that the contract is over. And to me that’s just the best kind of praise. I’ve done well for them and they’ll miss me. I can’t ask for more than that.

Now on to the next one (no, I don’t yet know what that will be—stay tuned).

A silly annoyance

We have microwaves at work. It's nice to be able to heat up my lunch or a cup of water without going downstairs to the cafeteria.

But what's up with people leaving time on the microwave? They'll hit the Stop button early for whatever reason and just leave random amounts of time on the microwave. Drives me crazy! Why not go ahead and hit the Stop button again? Then it's at zero and ready for the next person. It's not like we're saving anything by leaving seconds on the clock, and it's rarely in an amount that's truly useful. Nope, just random seconds, usually between 7 and 19.

WHY?

This bugs me far more than the over/under debate on toilet paper.

For the record, I don't care which way the toilet paper goes. Mine's all stored in canisters so the cats don't destroy it. 

Why doesn’t Johnny read?

Or maybe it should be Why won’t Johnny read?

First you need some necessary information. My resume, which goes back to 1997, could be outlined like this:

Most recent job: manager of training and development

Next job: highly technical consulting job for a company that needed their learning management and content management systems evaluated and possibly changed.

Next job: highly technical training development and delivery position with a consulting firm working with clients’ IT departments.

Next job: highly technical training development and delivery positions that also included project management on highly technical training development and delivery projects.

Catch the theme? Recruiters don’t. No, I’m serious. Last month I submitted my resume to a recruiting firm that was looking for a technical instructional designer/instructor. I got an email back saying the recruiter didn’t see where I had technical experience.

Yesterday I finally got a call from a company for a technical training position. The only reason I got a phone call was because I have a solid connection to the company (Kent). The utter lack of enthusiasm in the recruiter’s voice was obvious as he told me that the position really needed someone with a technical background who also had training experience. It was pretty clear he didn’t think I had that experience. When I pointed out that with the exception of my most recent job, my experience was exactly what he needed and that I had been doing that work since 1997, he got really excited. I almost asked him if he'd actually read my resume.

What’s worse, later when he called Kent to clear up something regarding relocation (which sort of irritated me that he would call my husband about a job I'm apply for but I’ll set that aside for now), he flat out told Kent he had rejected my application. Holy crap, no wonder people can’t get jobs. The recruiters aren’t even reading the applications.

I’m in the running for two positions right now. Should neither of them pan out, it’s clear to me I will need to reformat my resume into a functional rather than chronological resume, one that spells out my experience using simple, first-grade level language. That way even recruiters with poor reading skills should be able to recognize what kind of experience I have.

Breathe

I’m not quite halfway through this crazy three-week run. The work itself is going well but the trips are killing me. Last week’s bout of bleeding blisters sort of set the tone for the trip—and that was on day one.

Last Friday, I should have gotten home about 12:30 am, which is really Saturday but would have given me two nights at home. My flight from LIT ended up being four hours late so I missed the last flight from ATL to BOS. I didn’t get to my hotel in Atlanta until 12:30 am, which is of course when I should have landed in Boston. I was booked on an early flight Saturday morning, which meant I got a three hour nap. I’ve just now gotten caught up on my sleep.

If all goes well with my flights, I should get home about 11 pm Friday night. Then I catch a 9 am flight Sunday morning to San Antonio and have a four and a half hour drive to get to that program site. I won’t get home until Saturday evening due to distance and lack of flights. But I’ve got Sunday, May 8 marked as a day of utter rest on my calendar.

Oh Wally

I don't need an assistant at work. I have one.

Hawaii, Youth Challenge version

<----This picture is what most people think of when they think about Hawaii. And yes, I did see this part of Hawaii when I came down the mountain each day to my hotel.







But this video is the Hawaii I see at work. The site is located up a mountain at just over 5,000 feet elevation, and used to be a correctional facility. The Youth Challenge program is scheduled to open in January, which is why I've gone there twice and have two or three more trips planned.

In Wyoming now

No pictures yet; I got in last night and focused solely on finding something to eat followed by collapsing in bed. I flew from Boston to Atlanta to Denver, and then drove about three hours to Torrington, WY. I’m visiting one of the programs my company supports, providing consulting to them to (hopefully) fix some problems they’ve been experiencing.

The program is actually at Camp Guernsey (no Wiki page but you can read about it here), which is about a 40 minute drive away. I didn’t realize that until this morning which means I won’t have time to work out. That always bugs me, I feel better and am more relaxed when I work out.

In fact, if I don’t get moving, I’ll be late and I hate to be late even more than I hate missing a workout.