Reinke Faces Life

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/401069p-339405c.html

A good idea to know what can be found and associated to you.

I had to recover from a platform failure. McAfree got stuck on a registry entry. I could not uninstall the privacy service, couldn’t reinstall the privacy service, and couldn’t get anything to work. So I had to reinstall wxppro. Luckily I didn’t have to reformat.

In bringing everything back up to snuff, I had problems with IIS and Perspective. I just kept looking and trying stuff. Finally, I got the idea of permissions. I brought up the IIS directory and right clicked it. Then, I took the “web sharing” and added the iis directory to the “share the folder” option.

Magically everything began to work.

http://ripples.typepad.com/ripples/2006/03/if_you_are_empl.html

While very depresssing, sort of like “in the end, we’re all dead”, this blog entry highlights the changing metaphor in employment. Originally, at least from my pov, there was the “gold watch” era of my Mom. Then, there was the era of “pretending”, (you pretend to work and we’ll pretent to pay you). Then there was the entreprenurial era (“You Inc.”, intraprenurship, coopetition). Now I think we are in the era of “bleakmanship” (i.e., there is no salvation, no silver bullet, no hope, work for who will pay you, build your own skill, diversify, build networks of people who can help you). I do think, and I advise youngsters, that the model for their sucess is: get a cost-effective education for a white collar job, build a blue collar skill other than flipping burgers, develop side businesses like ebay, and be a ruthless manager of money. If I could come up with a sexy label it would be the “insecurity” era.

I have manged to “brick” my lovable luggable laptop. It’s limping along no thanks to a corrupted McAfee execuatble “protecting” me from the inet. Arggghhh! But, with every “challenge”, there come opportunity. In my anal dedication to backups, (having paid tuituion at that particular school TWICE in my long long career), I am pleased to find that everything is preserved. Not as elegently as I would like, but I do “have” everything. My prolific “kid on the soceer field” whirling dervish do it all outpouring has been staunched by the lack of my favoirte tool performing as it should. But, I am still bloging, working, paying bills, nagging, and browsing pretty much as usual. Recovery is awaiting Senor Dell sending me the recovery disks that they no longer ship with each product because as their tech says “no one ever needs them any more”. Wrong, “No one” is me, now! So as soon as the pony express delivers them, I’ll do resusitation on this big heavy pig and be back in business. The luggable being down has given me a platform to play with the latest release of UBUNTO, which I call I BUNT TWO, which is sweet. Right out of the sleeve their live cd brings up a workign platform. Sweet. The last version had trouble with a hardwire connect to the work lan requiring configuration, and wireless for home never worked. This version BOTH situatuins work on boot up. Sweet. No touch useablility.

Why do you care?

If you’re employed and your workstation fails, what personally will you lose in both personal content (very bad) and business content (worse). In one of my tuition experience, I “lost” 6 months of intellectual productivity. I was depending upon my employer’s recovery scheme as I was told to do. Bad idea. The guy who was responsible said “oops” and kept on chugging. I was left scrambling and took a hit in my bonus for certain things that I knew I had done but couldn’t demonstrate and / or recreate. The second lesson, different employer, same scenario, I lost a week’s work. At that time, I backed up every Friday before I left for the week end. No I backup at the end of every day!

If you are unemployed and your workstation fails, what will you lose? Besides the ability to do work, what data will you lose? What is your plan for doing email or cover letters or a targeted resume, when your computer is doing its best imiatation of a brick?

Remember “lessons are repeated until the student learns”!

It’s interesting that when the modern large enterprise reorgs progress grind to a halt. It’s not that problems go away. It appears that focus is lost while the deck chairs are rearranged. Hmmm.

http://labs.google.com/

http://next.yahoo.com/

http://research.microsoft.com/research/downloads/

There’s just a wealth of “stuff” to try. Free, but beta.

http://steves.blogharbor.com/blog/_archives/2006/2/19/1772216.html

Steve Richards has posted a book review of Daniel H. Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind”.

It is truly stunning. I’m going to get the book based on this map. While I immediately disagree (I’m a basically disagreeable fellow), I can immediately see the value of a possible “pair-of-dimes” shift. All we really control is our own thinking.

People don’t keep their update current. When I finish my current effort, I’ll have to do a stat. AND, a monthly keep in touch email. Hmmm.

Submitted for the consideration of ALL my favorite turkeys. The ideas below apply to all of you. You are certainly entitled to be like my wife and tell me I am full of myself or Barabara Sriesand. Although, she can say it anyway she pleases and I HAVE to like it. (“Thank you, dear! May I have another deflating?”). You on the other hand have to be nicer to me, since I am “free”. ;-)
 
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Sorry for the delay, but I have been incredibly overwhelmed in the past few days.  I try to meet a personal target of 24 hour response.  Don’t believe everything that XYZXYZXYZ tells you. Especially ANYTHING to do with when I was in high school.  I was much smarter, stronger, and nerdier then.
 
I will send you asap some of my canned stuff.  Please take a look at it and see if you like what you see.  I’m an “injineer” and I’m kinda blunt.  Some people don’t like that. Further, I have been accused of giving “turkeys” whiplash from trying to get them up to speed with my frenetic pace.  Some people don’t like that.  I tend to pontificate, talk like I’m up on the proverbial Mount, I don’t mean to, and your situation is yours.  Not everything I suggest, do you have to adopt as if it came down from the Intelligent Designer of the Universe.  I tend to act like an authority figure in my advice.  My wife constantly reminds me, when I am “out”, “if you’re so good why ain’t you in?”, and when I am “in”, “if you’re so good, why ain’t you rich?”.  So if my head becomes too large, feel free to deflate it.
 
Having said all that, I’ll tell you that I “help” people for free.  I always tell people if someone wants money from you as a seeker, then you have to very very carefully recognize you are being “sold” something.  It may be good (like execunet) but most times it’s bad (10k for a career counseling).  So I’m “free”.  But you get what you pay for.  I currently am assisting 8 seekers so bear in mind that I tend to “share” stuff with them as a group.  Some people don’t like that.  So if you have something you DON’T want shared, please make sure that is obvious.
 
So with that introduction, Lesson 1 is complete!
 
See, gotcha. I do tend to try to “teach” (I was an adjunct prof in comp sci for four years) or “pontificate” (I went to lots of years of Catholic school) or “lecture” (I have lots of fables and anecdotes). You job is to filter what is useful to you, grab that, and let all the rest sluice by.
 
Good Luck,
fjohn

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I was an IT exec and some IBM guys were pitching poop. So, I took their techie to lunch and explained from my pov what they should be trying to do. The guy went back to his salesman, and gave him “his” spin on it. Sales guy was skeptical. But, he mentioned it. My boss’s boss jumped on it. They made the sale; the techie guy was feted for his “insight”.

A decade later I was “out” looking to get “in” and who do I run into. The techie. I tell him I was looking.

Shazzam.

I was hired about two weeks later. Talk about “chicken coming home to roost”.

He told me on my first day that he was always impressed with how I related to people who couldn’t help me. I never realized I was doing anything special. I was just trying to help.

“It does come around full circle.”

I would be happy to advance your candidacy in the Loyal Order of Turkeys just as soon as I find the Membership Director. ;-) 

Start a “University of Hard Knocks” alumni society for everyone you meet who is not degreed. Exchange how to overcome the perceived problem. You get the idea? It’s about connecting and turning what is perceived as a liability into a strength. Gates didn’t get a degree. He should be your “patron saint”. I used to tell AT&T-ers and USAF-ers to keep a careful list of all the classes they attended. I knew one fellow who used it to get advanced placement at a regular college. My special twist on it was to keep a brag book with certificates, papers, or “stuff” from the course. People are always impressed with “evidence”. With the recent trend to buy a degree, you may need that proof.

Not a good omen. Must escalate the old defcon indicator to “passive”.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/reinkefj

My LinkedIn profile is now available on the internet.

http://execunet.blogspot.com/2006/02/next-big-thing-in-online-r_113958306073025971.html

I have wasted lots of time at “job sites” on the internet. The corporate ones using Brass Ring were the worst. It’s bad enough having to fill the same info over and over. It was like going to job agencies and employers each of whom want there own unique form filled out. Arghhh! It’s all on my resume.

So why can’t we have two new XML standard types: one for resumes and one for job ads. Imagine your RSS reader only flashes you when a job matches your preferences such as geographic comfort zone and at price suitable for your fianancial comfort zone. Then you can open your browser to their site and submit your XML resume. No scanning, no OCR, no laborious forms to fill out. Swish right into “their” system, what ever it is, and regardless of “who” it is.

Then, we’ll just need the final peice of the puzzle. The XML rejection letter with automagic randomly generated (1) our needs have changed; (2) you’re not qualified; (3) you’re overqualified (i.e., too threatening to our incompetent leadership); (4) you’re overqualified (i.e., you make too much money); (5) you’re overqualified (i.e., you’re too smart to work here); (6) you’re overqualified (i.e., you are not our kind); OR (7) [my personal favorite] you’re overqualified (i.e., you are TOO old).

Then, your computer could talk to their computer and visa versa. And we can all go to Aruba.

I personally have identified SEVEN different UVPs that I “offer”.

I have seven different resumes (actually 14 – 7 pairs of functional to hide my age and traditional chronological) to advance selling those UVPs.

Remember a search is about stages. You don’t go from “needing a new job” to “having a new job”. You start by “recognition”.

You have to progress to “this is what I can offer” or “this is what I want to do”. Here’s where the feedback loop begins.

You may be offering X and worst case there is no market for X. Or, the market for X doesn’t pay you what you want, want you where you want to be, or has other facets that you haven’t considered.

So, you HAVE to (imho and this is my pov and your mileage may vary) define what peanuts you want to peddle. You should ALSO define your geographic comfort zone and your financial comfort zone.

In my case, I said that my Geographic Comfort Zone was NYC/NJ because I have to be there for my mom. That was my number one constraint. And, because my my wife has the first dollar she ever earned and many of the ones after that, my money demands were secondary. So, I said my Financial Comfort Zone was: X$ for a 30 minute NJ drive, 150%ofX$ for more than 30 minutes, 200% for NYC (It’s basically a three hour round trip commute and you have no life but weekends), and would consider for the right Big Bucks oppty an intra area relo say to South Jersey, North Jersey, parts of upstate NY, CT,  or into NYC.

AND, then you have to look at every opportunity using that filter.

At times, I have been what I call an “interview slut”. I shamelessly was chasing opptys for the practice or desperation. As I got older and smarter, I just flat out didn’t want to waste my valuable time doing that.

Note well, my current job was geographically correct and the original job $ was below my target. I went on the interviews and they were impressed enough to up the ante to very close to my number. I felt good enough about the perks that I closed on it. It was about 6k off from my target.

So don’t be afraid to pursue something that appears not to fit. BUT don’t invest a lot into the obvious misfits.

Again free advice is worth what you pay for it. Your mileage may vary. 

Sure. When I solicit endorsements, I usually prompt people with my “unique value proposition” and some thoughts about what I think they might think. Has to be done gently, but it helps people. And it gets what I am trying to accomplish across.

So for example, if you are trying to sell the value proposition “managing tech info into effective and efficient projects” then I’d talk about a technical project. If on the other hand, you are trying to sell the “ensuring that projects are achievable as well as effective and efficient”, I’d talk about “doing something hard for the business with the added global complications”.

So what are you trying to sell and what should we use as the example? It’s only 400 characters so we have to get it crisp as well as right.

OK, it is time to see if LinkedIn can be used for anything other than a giant resume resource for headhunters. BTW it appear that Linkedin is going to try to monetize all the people that they have on it. A million people time $50/year is $50 mil. That will pay off a lot of VCs. Fourteen groups, with a standard email, and track the sucess. Sucess is measured by some a positive response. The first batch is 31 minus 5 excludes is 25. So far three positive.

We don’t work!

We generate value, retaining some small portion for ourselves. Anything that threatens our retention is a critical concern.

To a lesser extent when the relationship between value liberated and value retained changes, OR is PERCEIVED to change, the entire generation process is at risk. All we can count on is that retained value which is cleared in our bank. Bonuses, 401k contributions, options, perks, defered salary, and or anything else can be not given, called back, or changed.

When one is no longer sure that you can “keep extracting vlue while retaining some for yourself” in your current instantiation, one begins to prepare for the inevitable.

Argh. But it brings to mind an old mind map.

 http://home.comcast.net/~v2y2r0n27rhj6y/Continued_value_extraction_with_partial_retention.jpg

Well, thinking about the upcoming reorg, it makes me want to start a gentle sifting or networking. Execunet, (http://www.execunet.com), my favorite “job” site, has 17 Jaspers on it. Maybe I should contact them with my networking profile? I’m thinking about how to approach them. Do they get my jottings or are they on LinkedIn. It’s got to be sensitive.

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/2006/02/01/8367527/index.htm

Remember, your earning power is the single most valuable financial asset you control over your lifetime, more than your house or your investment portfolio. You can’t afford to let it be compromised by … … 

… … ANYTHING!

http://goalsuccess.typepad.com/goaltips/2006/01/diversify_your_.html

This fellow makes the exact point that I have been telling anyone who will listen. I worked with a fellow who was IT fellow who did wood working as a hobby on the side. When we were downsized, he just took on extra work in his “hobby” and never looked back. Others like me flailed around a little before landing. The model for sucess is to have a skill and an education and remember the only paycheck you are sure of is the one you just cashed. imho