Today looks like a real spring day here in the suburbs of Boston. The last day of April brings hope, because it means the cold weather is mostly behind us. In about three weeks we can safely plant those marigolds and tomato sets outside. Memorial day marks the last-frost-date for old time farmers, but nowadays we cheat a little and plant in mid-may.
Cleaning day. But instead of evacuating to the library today, I think I will do some garden chores. I have hostas that need to be divided and replanted, shrubs that need pruning, and a lawn full of incipient dandylions that need to be exterminated.
I look at my lawn and garden as a metaphor for the job scene. Things are warming up. A Promise of fecundity lays in the air like a friendly fog. Or is it smoke from a careless fire? I try not to watch the war news, because every piece of bad news translates into a drop in the stock market indices, and this does nothing to promote job growth.
Some recent activity on the job hunting scene:
- Call from a headhunter who did not speak comprehensible English. From the quality of the connection I surmised that she was calling from India. I did not understand most of what she said. Methinks the outsourcing thing is getting out of hand. I told her a lie: that I was no longer looking for work - just to get her off the phone.
- No follow-up from Phone interview from two weeks ago, despite the PM's promise to let me know. Good. That was a daily commute 30 miles to Shrewsbury. Who needs that?
- Assorted Spam from people who have picked up my email from job boards. I must declare that I have not received a single promising inquiry as a result of posting my vitae on any job board. Most of the spam wants to sell me job hunting advice and counseling, insurance sales, or work at home scams.
- Response to job boards. I see one or two promising jobs every day, and dutifully send my resume and a killer cover letter. Sooner or later, one of these seeds will sprout.
That reminds me, I have work to do: as Voltaire says "Il faut cultiver notre jardin."
4/30/2004
4/28/2004
Good Will Hunting
Ok Ok I know. I'm getting slammed with emails because I have been lazy about the blog lately. If you've tried it you know that publishing clever and timely essays on a regular basis is not that easy. I am not looking for sympathy here just a little understanding. If I wanted to write to a deadline I'd get a job on a fucking newspaper. And get paid. Last time I checked this link is free to you, so just cut me a little slack, ok?
The job hunting has not been going well, according to my creditors. They think that I should be paying my bills on a monthly basis! Hey, I thought this was a free country!
No. Seriously folks, despite the recent spate of positive news articles about the economic expansion, my phone has been remarkably not ringing. I guess the corporate world has decided to stop hiring experienced systems analysts - merely because of their exhorbitant salary demands and refusal to work overtime. What? Hiring managers want young, bright, energetic, eager beavers who will work for scut wages?
Or maybe the word has gotton out about me! Crap.
The job hunting has not been going well, according to my creditors. They think that I should be paying my bills on a monthly basis! Hey, I thought this was a free country!
No. Seriously folks, despite the recent spate of positive news articles about the economic expansion, my phone has been remarkably not ringing. I guess the corporate world has decided to stop hiring experienced systems analysts - merely because of their exhorbitant salary demands and refusal to work overtime. What? Hiring managers want young, bright, energetic, eager beavers who will work for scut wages?
Or maybe the word has gotton out about me! Crap.
4/20/2004
Shoot Greenspan
NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street tumbled Tuesday as Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, confirming investors' fears about interest rates, hinted in congressional testimony that a rate increase is indeed expected.
Can we put this peckerhead in jail for screwing with the markets? This is worse than anything Martha Stewart has done.
Can we put this peckerhead in jail for screwing with the markets? This is worse than anything Martha Stewart has done.
4/16/2004
Don't Shoot
I have to admit I was feeling bored yesterday. I think it is the cumulative effect of three days of rain. No lunch plans, and unable to get out of the house to take a walk, or work in the yard, I began to experience what housewives call "cabin fever."
After you've read the newspaper and all the magazines and even memorized your mutual fund prospecti, there seems little to do other than to watch TV and drink gin. Please note that I have stuck with my vow not to do either until after 5pm. So the days can drag. My wife has little pity on me "You might try to get a job." she suggests cruelly.
No one has much sympathy for an unemployed man unless he wears the look of a worried jobseeker. Spouses and friends drop not so subtle accusations that perhaps the above-referenced unemployed man (UM) is not trying very hard. Wouldn't a serious job hunter go to bed before midnight, rise with the sun, take a brisk walk, shower, shave, get dressed and get on the phone - to ruthlessly network innocent acquaintances? After all, how can a diligent UM expect to get interviews and job offers sitting on the sofa scratching his butt and reading novels? He claims to have spent hours on the internet scouring job boards for Business Systems Analyst openings. He is weary from scouring the boards, and is taking a well-deserved break.
"I send my resume to every job in my ballpark," he retorts. "Don't shoot the messenger."
He has learned that phrase - don't shoot the messenger - tends to defuse criticism, halts accusations and creates a dramatic rhetorical pause, during which he can slip way practically un-noticed while his confused interlocutor wonders "What the heck did he mean by that?"
This is my gift to readers of this blog. Try it next time someone is berating you for something, even if you deserve it.
Hey, is that the sun? Excuse me I got stuff to do.
After you've read the newspaper and all the magazines and even memorized your mutual fund prospecti, there seems little to do other than to watch TV and drink gin. Please note that I have stuck with my vow not to do either until after 5pm. So the days can drag. My wife has little pity on me "You might try to get a job." she suggests cruelly.
No one has much sympathy for an unemployed man unless he wears the look of a worried jobseeker. Spouses and friends drop not so subtle accusations that perhaps the above-referenced unemployed man (UM) is not trying very hard. Wouldn't a serious job hunter go to bed before midnight, rise with the sun, take a brisk walk, shower, shave, get dressed and get on the phone - to ruthlessly network innocent acquaintances? After all, how can a diligent UM expect to get interviews and job offers sitting on the sofa scratching his butt and reading novels? He claims to have spent hours on the internet scouring job boards for Business Systems Analyst openings. He is weary from scouring the boards, and is taking a well-deserved break.
"I send my resume to every job in my ballpark," he retorts. "Don't shoot the messenger."
He has learned that phrase - don't shoot the messenger - tends to defuse criticism, halts accusations and creates a dramatic rhetorical pause, during which he can slip way practically un-noticed while his confused interlocutor wonders "What the heck did he mean by that?"
This is my gift to readers of this blog. Try it next time someone is berating you for something, even if you deserve it.
Hey, is that the sun? Excuse me I got stuff to do.
4/14/2004
Move over TS
The poet T.S.Eliot nailed it with his observation that "April is the cruelest month." I'm not certain whether he was referring to the tax deadline, the shitty weather, rising fuel prices, psoriasis flare-ups, or lack of employment, but I can identify with the feeling. April starts with the promise of wonderous new beginnings. It sucks you in, seduces you with dreams of verdant spring and just when you think you can get an early jump on the garden, April leaves you cold and wet with little to do but watch the 9/11 hearings. Hey, I am not interested in finger pointing about 9/11. I am much more concerned with the intel that made us attack Iraq. I want to know about the UN corruption that put $3 Billion dollars into Saddam's bank accounts during the Oil-For-Food program.
I learned yesterday that my old company has laid off another large group of people. Suddenly, and cruelly, the axe fell without warning.
Where are all those new jobs?
I learned yesterday that my old company has laid off another large group of people. Suddenly, and cruelly, the axe fell without warning.
Where are all those new jobs?
4/05/2004
Opportunist
Monday morning - the usual drill. Read the newspaper: Hmmn it says 308,000 new jobs were added to the US economy in March. Great! Where are they? Check the phone maybe the ringer is broken. Nope, it's working ok. Hmmn - wonder where those jobs are....Hope it isn't just a convenient statistic floated by the current administration to divert attention from the 9/11 commission inquiries.
Then, I check the Obituaries to see if anyone I know has died. (one needs to be creative in discovering new job openings). Despite the optimism of pundits about the improving job scene, the big problem is the trillions of other unemployed folks out there. The objective is to get a jump on the competition.
There was another Systems Analyst ad on careerbuilder.com for an investment company that has been "in the news" lately. Thinking that some jobseekers might be reluctant to join an organization whose PR people are probably on the verge of self immolation, I decided to apply.
Crap. This company uses the PeopleSoft e-recruitment module. In typical PSoft fashion, this module takes about 1/2hour to enter all the dumb pieces of information that are required. Most web sites allow you to do this in 2-3 minutes.
There are 8 steps, most of which are agonizing and klunkily designed. You can upload your MS word resume, but then you have to spend 20 minutes correcting all the parsing errors. There is no option for a self promoting cover letter. It is totally designed to screen people out. I guess the process of elimination yields the best candidate. After I completed the process, there is a small part of me who will be insulted if I am selected for follow-up (could I really be as boring as the job description?)
On the other hand, the 8 step process will certainly weed-out any competitors who do not have a half an hour to waste correcting informations that they submitted on their resume, or who cannot figure out how to pick their college major and degree from the silliest lookup list I have ever encountered. Paradoxically, you cannnot apply for a job unless you can figure out how the HR group classified it. (Hint: if you think Sr. Systems Analyst is an Information Technology job, hah! you lose!) The job title listed on Careerbuilder is not listed on the company's job search list. This should make a few more of the faint-hearted give up. I found a similar title, however and got my resume into the system, where the incredibly sophisticated software will slice and dice.
Hey, that's what we love about PeopleSoft, it creates jobs - in this case, for somebody in Human Resources to update lookup tables. Hmmn. Come to think of it, maybe those people would be more effective looking at resumes, and cover letters.
It's quiet around here. What happened to Spring?
Then, I check the Obituaries to see if anyone I know has died. (one needs to be creative in discovering new job openings). Despite the optimism of pundits about the improving job scene, the big problem is the trillions of other unemployed folks out there. The objective is to get a jump on the competition.
There was another Systems Analyst ad on careerbuilder.com for an investment company that has been "in the news" lately. Thinking that some jobseekers might be reluctant to join an organization whose PR people are probably on the verge of self immolation, I decided to apply.
Crap. This company uses the PeopleSoft e-recruitment module. In typical PSoft fashion, this module takes about 1/2hour to enter all the dumb pieces of information that are required. Most web sites allow you to do this in 2-3 minutes.
There are 8 steps, most of which are agonizing and klunkily designed. You can upload your MS word resume, but then you have to spend 20 minutes correcting all the parsing errors. There is no option for a self promoting cover letter. It is totally designed to screen people out. I guess the process of elimination yields the best candidate. After I completed the process, there is a small part of me who will be insulted if I am selected for follow-up (could I really be as boring as the job description?)
On the other hand, the 8 step process will certainly weed-out any competitors who do not have a half an hour to waste correcting informations that they submitted on their resume, or who cannot figure out how to pick their college major and degree from the silliest lookup list I have ever encountered. Paradoxically, you cannnot apply for a job unless you can figure out how the HR group classified it. (Hint: if you think Sr. Systems Analyst is an Information Technology job, hah! you lose!) The job title listed on Careerbuilder is not listed on the company's job search list. This should make a few more of the faint-hearted give up. I found a similar title, however and got my resume into the system, where the incredibly sophisticated software will slice and dice.
Hey, that's what we love about PeopleSoft, it creates jobs - in this case, for somebody in Human Resources to update lookup tables. Hmmn. Come to think of it, maybe those people would be more effective looking at resumes, and cover letters.
It's quiet around here. What happened to Spring?
4/02/2004
Raining on my parade
It's cleaning day at home, so I am at the library again researching the world of business.
The latest Computerworld (March 29) has an article about a $510M lawsuit that Cleveland State University is slapping on PeopleSoft. Wow. This sounds very familiar. The charge stems from 1997, when the University began their project to implement Student Admin, Financial Aid, etc. They charge that PeopleSoft's offerings were nothing but "vaporware" and that subsequent versions were "woefully deficient." They are also suing the implementation partner for other crimes and misdemeanors.
Hmmn. I recall being associated with a similar project at the Diploma Factory where I worked at that time. If they decide to sue PSoft, I hope I get a piece of the award. I deserve it because the deficiencies in the software used-up a shitload of my time, and caused me many sleepless afternoons. (Now that I think of it, I never got credit for all the great things I did there at the Diploma Factory. Another environment that failed to recognize my genius. Yet, the guy who insisted that we replace cheap, effective Outlook with expensive, memory hogging, woefully deficient Lotus Notes is still there, making more money than ever! Where's the justice?)
It just shows that the real problem with work life in America is that nobody gets fired for making bad decisions. Executives in government, universities, companies seem to be bulletproof. In Japan when the decision maker screws up, they expiate their shame by plunging a sharp knife into their own chest. You gotta respect that. Yet, most of the working stiffs at ground level work in the shadow of fear - of layoffs, demotions, pay cuts - and are told to be glad they have a job.
Speaking of genius, I got a thing in my email box the other day, that reported research on presidential IQ's. According to the list, Bill Clinton has an IQ over 180 and George W. Bush's IQ is slightly above room temperature (91). I know my liberal friends want to believe the verity of the story but in fact it is an April Fool's Day joke. It first appeared in 2001.
Another article in the above-mentioned Computerworld said the 8 out of 10 CEOs are ready to start spending big bucks on IT again. The author predicts a big demand in Business Intelligence skills in 2004. Great, where do I send my resume? Not so fast, Sparky, says today's Globe. The piece in the Business section declares that 40 % of the people working today are dissatisfied and want to move. Cripes, just what I need: more competition.
This never-ending rain is getting me down.
The latest Computerworld (March 29) has an article about a $510M lawsuit that Cleveland State University is slapping on PeopleSoft. Wow. This sounds very familiar. The charge stems from 1997, when the University began their project to implement Student Admin, Financial Aid, etc. They charge that PeopleSoft's offerings were nothing but "vaporware" and that subsequent versions were "woefully deficient." They are also suing the implementation partner for other crimes and misdemeanors.
Hmmn. I recall being associated with a similar project at the Diploma Factory where I worked at that time. If they decide to sue PSoft, I hope I get a piece of the award. I deserve it because the deficiencies in the software used-up a shitload of my time, and caused me many sleepless afternoons. (Now that I think of it, I never got credit for all the great things I did there at the Diploma Factory. Another environment that failed to recognize my genius. Yet, the guy who insisted that we replace cheap, effective Outlook with expensive, memory hogging, woefully deficient Lotus Notes is still there, making more money than ever! Where's the justice?)
It just shows that the real problem with work life in America is that nobody gets fired for making bad decisions. Executives in government, universities, companies seem to be bulletproof. In Japan when the decision maker screws up, they expiate their shame by plunging a sharp knife into their own chest. You gotta respect that. Yet, most of the working stiffs at ground level work in the shadow of fear - of layoffs, demotions, pay cuts - and are told to be glad they have a job.
Speaking of genius, I got a thing in my email box the other day, that reported research on presidential IQ's. According to the list, Bill Clinton has an IQ over 180 and George W. Bush's IQ is slightly above room temperature (91). I know my liberal friends want to believe the verity of the story but in fact it is an April Fool's Day joke. It first appeared in 2001.
Another article in the above-mentioned Computerworld said the 8 out of 10 CEOs are ready to start spending big bucks on IT again. The author predicts a big demand in Business Intelligence skills in 2004. Great, where do I send my resume? Not so fast, Sparky, says today's Globe. The piece in the Business section declares that 40 % of the people working today are dissatisfied and want to move. Cripes, just what I need: more competition.
This never-ending rain is getting me down.
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