Reinke Faces Life

TAKEN FROM AN EMAIL WITH A POTENTIAL “TURKEY”

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Dear XXXX,

Read your message and can sympathize with the frustration that you are feeling. First, you’re “marketing”, so “market”. Have you networked with XXXXXXX at MC? Have you read the book “Job Changing at 100K”? (Ignore title; it has a great concept of ‘structured networking’.) I have some job search materials on my site http://www.reinke.cc/COMCAST4/TURKEY/index.htm (Feel free to ‘steal’ anything you find helpful.) If you offer me a LinkedIn connect, I’ll accept and you’ll have access to my contacts. http://www.jasperjottings.com/ has a slew of alumni info for networking ‘targets’. I’ll take a peek at your LinkedIn, Facebook, and other ‘stuff’ to see if I can spot anything.

/Signed/

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AND AFTER A FEW MINUTES

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OK! I’m back. It appears to me that:

(1) You have, in addition to this persona, one “dead” persona on LinkedIn. Suggest that you clean that up.

(2) You have no “web presence” that I can find. No website. No blog. No domain. So, you’re not “marketing” yourself.

(3) No Facebook? (A recruiter will think “hiding something”. “Everyone”, younger that 40, has Facebook. Note: We don’t want digital dirt. But we want a “professional” Facebook, with friends and family!)

(4) LinkedIn profile makes it look like your a job hopper with lots of jobs.

[JR: Note, every promotion is listed as a separate job. It looks “job hopper ish”; not “upwardly climbing”. You have 30 seconds to communicate to the person filtering; use it wisely.]

(5) LinkedIn profile doesn’t use all the features.

Yell if I can help,

/signed/

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http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/11/23/2050239/When-Your-Company-Remote-Wipes-Your-Personal-Phone

When Your Company Remote-Wipes Your Personal Phone
from Slashdot by kdawson

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Xenographic writes “NPR has a story about someone whose personal iPhone got remotely wiped by their employer. It was actually a mistake, but it was something of a surprise because they didn’t believe they had given their employer any kind of access to do that. This may already be very familiar to Microsoft Exchange admins, but the problem was her iPhone’s integration with MS Exchange automatically gives the server admin access to do remote wipes. All you have to do is configure the phone to receive email from an MS Exchange server and the server admin can wipe your phone at will.

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Clearly, you must maintain an “air gap” between your employer’s stuff and your personal stuff.

Never forget Job #1 is finding your next job.

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http://www.jibberjobber.com/blog/2010/11/23/10-tips-for-job-seekers-from-an-employer-ceo/

10 Tips for Job Seekers from an Employer (CEO)
November 23rd, 2010

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OH MY GOSH, the ignorance in this country kills me (I declined the invite to blog about this saying I would write a scathing post, but he said that was okay, they want conversation. So, converse in the comments :) ). And it really, really hurts everyone. Here are his 10 points, I’m only going to comment on the last one:

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Perhaps, the era of “the job” is over. Like the “gold watch” era, the American Worker has now grown up, and had the triple veil of naivete, ignorance, and deception ripped away.

• naivete — Not realizing that there has to be value creation in order for the enterprise to reward the worker’s efforts with some of that value. Think UAW member who goofs off.

• ignorance — Not realizing that they were getting screwed by their employer in: salary, bonus, pension and benefits. As well as by their government in: inflation, taxes, “regulation”, bailouts, and ponzi schemes <Social Security and Unemployment Insurance>. Think working for the American Dream and having it taken away.

• deception — Not realizing that the leaders and managers of the “company” and the “Government” were lying to them. (Far beyond spin. Look you right in the eye, and lie to your face.) The annual appraisal ritual with its “political” adjustments <Not everyone can be outstanding>, “pensions and benefits” are for your good <Peanuts to fool you into thinking we care>, and finally appeals to “team spirit” (work through the tough times to get laid off when it suits the leadership).

I’d suggest that in self-defense, people have become cynical. To quote one of the “judge shows”, “Wouldn’t believe him if his tongue was notarized.”

IMHO, I think we are seeing that there is a glacial movement in the employment marketplace. Folks are realizing that they may have to work to survive, but that their interests may NOT align with the enterprise. In fact they DO NOT align.

Trust!?

Not on your life. Fool me once shame on you; fool me twice shame on me.

I see people trying to form their own businesses. Much like you did. If I can’t have a full time job, maybe I can have a dozen part-time ones. If I do have a full time job, maybe I can have a webfront to sell seashells from the seashore. If I do have job, I don’t expect to keep it.

Job hopping may be back in vogue because I don’t care if you, the employer, like it, I have to protect myself. And, if it suited your bottom line, I’d be on the unemployment line so fast my head would spin.

No. It’s not “job hopping”; it’s self-defense.

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I’m seeing more of these “mistakes”. (Mistakes imho)

• Folks put their “corporate” twitter on LinkedIn. It’s not “yours”; it’s corporate pr.

• Folks put their “personal” twitter on LinkedIn. With all the “social updates”. That definitely won’t help your “brand”.

(You know I disagree that you can “brand” yourself. A “brand” is a collective typing of related things to convey a standardization and imply value — Kellogg’s cereals, Big Bertha golf clubs, Hilton Hotels. You’re unique; you must sell your unique value equation <UVE>. You can have “attributes” which can be “standardized” (i.e., Degree; PMP; Outward Bound survivor); you can fashion your own UVE-advanicing attributes — if you can prove, demonstrate, or have external validation. But you can’t brand yourself imho. “Image creation”, maybe.)

• Folks put their “corporate” web page on LinkedIn. It’s not “yours”; it’s also corporate pr. (You are NOT your job.)

• Folks put their “personal” web page on LinkedIn. Or worse, FACEBOOK with “social updates”. Or worst, MYSPACE.

• Folks mix up their LinkedIn & Facebook effort. I tell my turkeys to use a “professional name” like Ferdinand J. Reinke and “personal name” like Fjohn Reinke to make it more difficult to “align” information. With different pictures. (My tin foil hat says that’s like a finger print. And folks use the same profile photo.)

• Folks put up the corporate email address on LinkedIn and / or Facebook. Or they use an email connected to something other than their own domain. (No joke; actually saw ‘studmuff @ free mail service dot com. Great image maker; not! Have also seen worse, but can’t cite them in mixed company.)

(I suggest that everyone have your own domain! The common wisdom, or is that common whizdumb, is to own your own name as a domain name. I own “reinke.cc”. (I like saying “sea sea me at reinke.cc”! me@reinke.cc will actually work!) I gives one quite a bit of control. And, it’s very cheap. I know three solutions at 15$/year using wordpressdotcom with gmail, 25$/year email only with 1and1, and 60$/year for domain+email+webspace also at 1and1. My point is not that you should use 1and1. I could care less which one you use. It’s that getting on to your own domain with email is cheap and easy. And, it’s not hotmail, yahoo, or gmail. It IS your own “personal permanent eternal locator”.)

I also caution that NO dikw (i.e., data, information, knowledge, wisdom) should be put online with out careful consideration. I use the “Mom test”. Would I be happy to show this item to my now deceased Mother? She expected the best from me at all time. That’s the standard I try to use.

• Folks don’t have a personal web site with all the good content that they create. Sanitized if done for work. Everything can be used if if is designed to communicate DIKW for the benefit of the reader. (I really don’t care if it is “how to clean a toilet”. Any thing can advance your image as a caring communicating human being who shares.)

Just some thoughts.

FWIW,
fjohn
the big fat old turkey hisself

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Re: Stop Welfare….. and all Government taxing that is out of contr

Posted by: “Dawn”
Wed Nov 3, 2010 9:03 am (PDT)

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i thought this was an IT roundtable discussion group. if we want to talk about job opportunities then ok. I don’t understand the political tone this has taken.

This should be apolitical, focusing on jobs, not politics.

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Dear Ms. Dawn:

Taken off the mailing list to calm the off-topic traffic down.

Unfortunately the political meddling has taken it’s toll on the economy. Many, including myself, are casualties of the bad economy. It doesn’t take long to realize that there are ‘structural reasons’ why businesses are not hiring:

* Uncertainty — with Obamacare — no one knows how much an employee is going to cost in 2011 and beyond;

* Higher taxes — with the expiration of the Bush tax cuts, the Gooferment is going to take a bigger cut of any profits. That increases the ‘hurdle rate’ as well as the implied rate of return required for any new project. That gets factored into the risk calculation. So business is “frozen”

* Higher political risk — Gooferment Motors demonstrated that the politicians and bureaucrats will seize the assets of bondholders, like it was a two bit South American dictatorship, for the benefit of the powerful labor unions, the brokerage houses, and the banks. Why would you ever loan money to anyone when it can lost in the blink of a politician’s eye.

I have a bunch more examples of the chilling effect that the Gooferment has had on the economic climate. But three’s enough.

The reason that the firestorm started is some deluded fool suggested that more unemployment benefits was a good thing that Washington should do. And, implied that the Democratic Party was the more charitable organization. A lot of folks who’s nerves are frazzled, like mine, just descended upon that. Neither Party is “charitable”; nor should they be “charitable” with stolen wealth. Fiscal austerity in the Gooferment is what is needed. Less welfare, and less warfare, and less Gooferment is the bitter pill.

That’s why the political tone. Jobs, the economy, and prosperity are now in the political arena. To think that you can now separate them is naive. It’s like looking for a deck chair on the Titanic … as it’s sinking.

imho, trying to change opinions, one person at a time,
fjohn
the big fat old turkey hisself

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https://techcrunch.com/2010/09/24/anti-poaching-agreements/

Anti Poaching Agreements: The FEDS wimp out

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Although the complaint alleges only that the companies agreed to ban cold calling, the proposed settlement more broadly prohibits the companies from entering, maintaining or enforcing any agreement that in any way prevents any person from soliciting, cold calling, recruiting, or otherwise competing for employees. The companies will also implement compliance measures tailored to these practices.

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Big companies, that are BIG contributors to BOTH political parties, get out of OBVIOUS labor and anti-trust violations with a slap on the wrist.

And, every smaller company knows that there is open season on employees and applicants.

Do what you want, the FEDS have bigger fish to fry!

Argh!

Corporations are a creation of the Gooferment. (Differentiate from people who do business with other people.) They are allowed to limit their shareholder’s liabilities. And, we should reasonably expect the Gooferment to keep its creation conforming to the rules that it sets. When the Gooferment fails to hold its minions to its OWN rules, we all suffer.

Employees and applicants are defenseless. And the “King” could care less.

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>I went to your presentations and I made a LinkedIn because of you, so thank you!

Great. Nice to know someone was listening. Now you have to begin thinking about your own domain. Like “reinke.cc”!

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May I suggest that you have your own domain? The common wisdom, or is that common whizdumb, is to own your own name as a domain name. I own “reinke.cc”. (I like saying “sea sea me at reinke.cc”! me @ reinke . cc will actually work!) I gives one quite a bit of control. And, it’s very cheap. I know three solutions at 15$/year using wordpressdotcom with gmail, 25$/year email only with 1and1, and 60$/year for domain+email+webspace also at 1and1. http://www.1and1.com/?k_id=9113251 My point is not that you should use 1and1. I could care less which one you use. It’s that getting on to your own domain with email is cheap and easy. And, it’s not hotmail, yahoo, or gmail. It IS your own “personal brand”.

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… and your own website …

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May I suggest that you need a website? As a student, you have tons of time and are producing content. Papers, pictures, whatever. You need to get them on the web to estabish “your brand”. The web is always starved for content. By adopting a consistent strategy of displaying high quality content under your own “brand name”, you will take over the first page of Google. (For example, Google “Ferdinand J. Reinke” or “ReinkeFJ” and you’ll see I have EVERY one of the first page entries.) You don’t want a dry static page, but a page that shows off all that stuff you claim to have (i.e., organizational and communications). :-) LOL

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… and your own blog .

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May I suggest you have a blog? You need to differentiate yourself from your competitors in the marketplace. Tying facebook and linkedin to your blog is easy with RSS. (It also establishes yourself as “technical”; without the nerd part.) Then you want to fill it will high quality business quality entries DAILY. You want to focus on the message you want to communicate.

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And, start to seek LinkedIn recommendations.

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May I suggest you seek “recommendations”? http://imonlinkedinnowwhat.com/2008/03/14/writing-better-recommendations/ I believe that LinkedIn is the new resume. And, it can come with references already given and sourced. What’s better for a lazy overworked hunter’s researcher. Write some, to get some?

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All with the idea of marketing “You, Inc.”.

Hope this helps to further motivate you to develop your OWN plan. Like an old road sign, I could be wrong. And, pointing to an outdated vision of success.

You may have seen my updated “formula”:

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Success for your generation is:
(1) ruthless financial discipline — no bad debt;
(2) a life long interest in learning — education — a degree — they can’t take it away from you;
(3) a NON-OFFSHORABLE white collar job in order to save big bux;
(4) a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber;
(5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open;
(6) develop a second business or avocation – under the radar – start small part-time;
(7) a large will-maintained network of people who can “help” you;
(8) buy assets that hold their value over time; and
(9) emulate the Amish and Mormons for their sense of community, simple thrifty living, and true to core values.

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http://www.jibberjobber.com/blog/2007/10/29/depression-clouds-everything/#comment-102941

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It amazes me how people in our society today have become so incensitive, selfish and backstabbing. These traits seem to thrive in corporate America. People in the work place use the HR dept as a way of excercising control. It’s sad that families have to pay a terrible price because someone was “inconvenienced” in the workplace. HR comes swooping in like the Gestapo, not caring about your say in the matter. It feels like an execution, but without offering you a cigarette before they shoot you. You have no rights because corporations are essentially dictatorships.

You hand over your ID card and then building security escorts you out of the building. You feel like a criminal. As you walk to your car, you thinK to yourself, what am I going to say to my wife? What’s going to happen to my family? As Tom says above, you can never trust your employer, or for that matter, the employees. When you spend a third of your life at a work place, it’s easy to drop your guard and see everyone as one big happy family. It’s sad, but as Tom says, you have to keep to yourself. Don’t offer anyone a piece of your personal life that they can use against you, and have a plan B. For me, plan B was not spending my inital sign on bonus. When I first got hired, my wife said we’ll need that money as our life boat someday. Low and behold! I know it’s cliche, but “it’s always darkest before the dawn”!

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Success for your generation is:

(4) a blue collar skill for hard times — never saw a poor plumber;

(5) one or more internet based businesses — your store is always open;

(6) develop a second business or avocation – under the radar – start small part-time;

Of my NINE items, a full third is aimed at freeing yourself from the “man”.

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http://www.jibberjobber.com/blog/2007/10/29/depression-clouds-everything/#comment-565292

@LaneZane I too am unemployed. At 63, I doubt I’m ever going to have another job.

That being said, “Unemployment Insurance” is a BAD public policy.

To a drowning man, it’s hard to lecture that a life preserver was an unnecessary expense on the Titanic. (Life preservers in the frigid water meant you slowly froze to death as opposed to quickly drowning.

“To me it’s just a made up word. A politician’s word, so young fellas like yourself can wear a suit and a tie, and have a job.” — Red in The Shawshank Redemption (1994)

It’s purpose to give politicians “talking points” and bureaucrats jobs. The politicians can posture and bureaucrats can shovel paper. And, as a public policy, it encourages people, at the margins, and at the lower earning levels, to NOT diligently search. It’s like welfare that saps the ambition to do better.

Unemployment Insurance is not insurance. The loss of a job is not like a tornado, flood, or fire. It’s not a random event. The crappy economy is CAUSED by the politicians and bureaucrats. And, as such, the unemployed get screwed.

We’d be better off without it. Make our own “unemployment insurance”. Don’t collect that payroll tax, Don’t have all those bureaucrats. And, make politicians accountable for their actions. For example, what employer, in their right mind, with Obamacare, higher taxes, and a slowing economy coming at them, would ADD an employee now?

And, it’s BOTH parties. They both SUCK!

Bottom line, it’s the spending. And, the unfunded entitlements. And the extra regulations. And, the cabal of politicians, Wall Street, Bankers, Federal Reserve, and all the bureaucrats that make it impossible to do business and have a thriving economy.

In short the politicians killed the “golden goose” — the economy. And, it’s up to us, “We, The People” to instruct them in the error of their ways. D or R, if they are an incumbent, then they need to go.

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P.S., Why are we giving wealthy politicians lucrative pensions? Their pensions are more than most people make. That’s nuts. Political pensions should be nuked! Another expense we don’t need.

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http://www.reinke.cc/COMCAST4/TURKEY/index_Page369.htm

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THE GOLD WATCH ERA

When I was growing up, the ethic was you went to a paternalistic company, gave them 45 years of loyal services, and were rewarded with a pension and social security. My mom did 48. An uncle 42. I have many many examples of this. I am sure you have your own. It was a great time to be an employee.

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Had an interesting discussion with relatives. Trying to convince them that many of their paradigms and memes, based on a gold watch era, were insane.

I don’t think I changed anyone’s mind.

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