The Searchers

I want to begin by promising my mostly imaginary readers that this post will not be a book review from Goodreads. I have had some free time recently, so I have been able to finish a few books that I had been reading plus had plenty of time to write reviews for them. My three most recent posts were book reviews which makes four straight going back to March and five out of the last six going back to February. Instead of a book review, I am going to discuss a few topics somewhat related to career.

I was contacted recently by a friend I had not seen in a few years. He was the primary organizer of our friendly neighborhood get-togethers. I had thought that he had gotten a new job, and he and his family had moved somewhere out west. Instead, it seems that the job offer fell through, the family had not moved, and he has been busy getting his own business off the ground. He was previously a recruiter for various companies. Now, he is trying his hand as a career consultant. He is also working on a book. He asked me to stop by his office for a conversation. I readily agreed but mostly because his new venture is headquartered in the offices behind his sister-in-law's and her husband's new brewery.

The visit went well. I am glad that he is still in the area, and we discussed getting the get-togethers restarted. Those have fallen off significantly since he stopped participating. Unfortunately, I was never quite clear on his intentions for me. He obviously was looking for assistance with his new business from several different angles. Specifically what he was looking for from me was never quite clear. He mentioned technical help with the company although I assume on a volunteer basis. He was also discretely looking for investors. (However, he has been not-so-discretely searching for funding via the online site Fundly.) Of course, I am also a potential client for his career services and a customer for his book. In the end, I just enjoyed the conversation and the free beer.

In other news, my company has recently gone through a reorganization which included some layoffs. Several people that I know were affected including three in my group. Some of the affected people I know were older, so they were able to take early-retirement. I was switched to another department, but at the moment, my job is safe. In fact, a few months back, I was approached about an open position in a different group under a manager I know pretty well. I interviewed with that manager, was offered the position, and accepted. However, my transition was blocked by the manger of my new department. While you would think being needed that much would be a good thing, I do not think that is the case here. My recent annual rating was only average. I had discussions about a promotion with both my previous and potential managers, but my current manager has not been receptive to that idea. However, I did get a decent raise which helped somewhat salve my disgruntlement.

I also ran into one of my old managers at a recent chapter meeting of my particular professional organization. I have always been friendly with this guy. At our previous company, he and I played on a softball team together. His son and daughter also stepped up to play a few games for the team when we needed some extra players. I started called him "bossman" in the softball field and eventually in the office. He organized outings to hockey games. Unfortunately, I learned that he had just lost his job and was now looking for a new position.

Which brings us to the topic covered during that particular chapter meeting. The presentation just so happened to be from a career counselor. I paid rapt attention and took notes. I am sharing some of his career tips covering résumé-writing and interviewing below.

Résumé

• Your résumé should be in a readable font such as 11 point Times New Roman
• Your name and email address should be at the top of each page on your résumé
• Have a professional summary instead of an objective statement
• Research the company to know what they do and what they are looking for
• Instead of just a résumé, make the document a proposal presenting solutions 
• Include a list of skills specific to the job posting to which you are responding
• Address every key word in the description from the job posting
• Your résumé should be limited to two pages with all the fluff removed
• Do not list your membership in organizations that are not related to the job posting

Interview

• Be well-groomed with a professional-looking haircut, trimmed fingernails and shined shoes
• Again, do some research in order to be knowledge about the company
• Do not under-dress or significantly overdress for the interview
• Dress a step above how current employees at your potential position in the company dress
• Answer the "Tell me about yourself" inquiry with a professional response that addresses solutions to the job posting
• Have prepared questions for the interviewer such as "How does this position contribute to the overall success of the company?"

The speaker was a retired lieutenant colonel in the United States Army, so some of his tips such as the shined shoes reflect that experience. However, he also had experience in the private sector, and some of this tips such as not overdressing the part reflect that.

Some New Kicks

The return of the friendly neighborhood gathering ended early tonight for yours truly. I figured I could use the extra free time on a post.

This post is for any of you out there who happen to have a shoe fetish, particularly for shoes of the athletic type. I have recently been shopping for a new pair of running shoes. I bought my most recent pair of shoes back in 2009. They were the pair that I wore when El and I ran (well, traveled) the Las Vegas Half Marathon that year. I see that the Las Vegas Marathon and 1/2 Marathon will now be held at night which sounds like fun, but they were held in the morning in 2009. If you are wondering, I finished the half in two hours, 55 minutes and 37 seconds which was only good for 13,632 place out of 17,920 overall entrants.

Back to my shoes, my most recent pair are the ASICS GT-2140 in the electric blue. I really like those shoes, but they are by now well-worn and needed to be replaced. The current version of those shoes is the GT-2160. I went to a few running and general athletic stores, and I checked out several pairs of the GT-2160. I particularly liked the look of the flame-colored ones. My pair of GT-2140 are size 12 and a half, and most stores do not stock half sizes over 12. The ones that did have my exact size did not have the flame-colored version in stock.

However, what I found during my various stops was that the stores still had stock of the previous version, the GT-2150. I spoke to one sales clerk, and she told me the GT-2150 was basically the same as the GT-2160. The GT-2150 was priced considerably cheaper. I went home and started searching the Internet for the GT-2150. I found an online store that had my size available, but I decided to skip the flame color and go with the brass. The shoes arrived about a week and a half ago which was only a couple of days after placed my order. I went for a run last weekend wearing the new shoes, and they felt really good. Now I just need to remember to buy new running shoes more often. Perhaps, my next pair will be the GT-2160 in the flame.

A Little Bit of This and That

Forewarning, this post has no particular rhyme or reason.

Today, I went to the local $1.50 movie theater and saw Tron: Legacy. While it was a decent movie, it seemed like a great movie to see in 3-D, particularity IMAX 3D. Speaking of IMAX 3D, I have a guy date (is that the proper term or it is man date or bro date?) with one of my coworkers to see Hubble 3D at the local IMAX theater. He said he bought one of those two-for-one deals from Groupon or LivingSocial, but his wife balked at going to the Hubble movie with him. He has not mentioned when he wants to go, but perhaps that will be something to do next week.

Speaking of next week, this Friday marks the return of the friendly neighborhood social gathering. It was previously held every other Friday night, but recently, it has disappeared from the schedule. The last gathering was back in November for the birthday of one of the guys. That event was actually on a Saturday. The last one that I attended prior to that was at the end of July. Now, I have even volunteered to help. I have been managing the invite list, and perhaps in a few weeks, I will even host an event at my place.

Back to today, I stopped by my favorite used bookstore, The Reader's Corner, over on Hillsborough Street. As usual, I picked up a handful of books. This time, my book purchases were in three pairs plus a single. There was a whole stack of Ian Fleming's James Bond paperbacks that were printed in the mid-60s. While I am a big fan of the Bond movies, I have never read any of the books. I was able to control myself and only purchase the first two in the series, Casino Royale and Live and Let Die. Interestingly, those are not the first two that are turned into movies. The first Bond movie was Dr. No which was released in 1962 and was based on the sixth book in the series. The second movie was 1963's From Russia with Love which was the fifth book.

In addition to the two Bond novels, I picked up two books by Gore Vidal, Julian from 1964, and Myra Breckinridge from 1968. I also bought two books on science. One was The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan (of "billions and billions" fame). I bought the other science-related book purely for the title, In Search of Schrödinger's Cat by John R. Gribbin. If you do not know about Erwin Schrödinger and his infamous cat, then you should ask somebody (like a physicist) or just look it up on Wikipedia. You might also want to read up on Werner Heisenberg and his uncertainty principle. Moving right along, my final unrelated purchase was The Fourth K by Mario Puzo which is not part of Puzo's Mafia series.

I think that is enough randomness for today.

For Kush

(Yes, we're going to Hell)

1. Candace
   
2. Marymac
3. Sarah
4. Stephanie (Brownie Queen)
5. Morgan
6. Megan
7. Tracy
8. Care Bear
9. Krista
10. Jamie
11. Heather
12. Vickie
13. Miss Fedora (the other Heather)
    

Completely Unrelated

A friend of mine named Rob Segall has recently started a new blog focused on recruiting, particularly in the field of technology. Rob spent several years as a recruiter for IBM. Incidentally, IBM turns 100 years old this year. The company was incorporated in 1911 as the Computing Tabulating Recording Corporation (CTR). Back to Rob, he had a cup of coffee with Hewlett-Packard and is now with Cisco. I consider Rob to be an expert in recruiting. Granted, he is friend, and I think he is a great guy, so I might be biased. However, I think he has fabulous ideas in regards to the future of recruiting. Cisco is lucky to have him in their ranks.

A Beer Post

Things are quite backed up at work. I am going to try to get some work done today before El and I head over to NC State for a show. University Theatre's annual TheatreFest is presenting murder mysteries based novels of Agatha Christie. Today is A Murder is Announced. A friend and coworker of mine is in the cast. We have tickets to the Sunday matinee and then reservations for dinner. Before I get to work though, I thought I would sneak in a post about beer.

Yesterday, El and I was paid a visit to our favorite beer and wine shop. It has been a few weeks since we last paid a visit, and in the meantime, the store has been rearranged a bit including expanding the number of beer taps from six to ten. I heard Friday was a big night and two of the kegs were already kicked. Therefore, I wasn't able to try all ten beers on tap, or even all of the remaining eight, but I gave it a good try.

First up was Vanilla Java Porter from Atwater Block Brewery in Detroit, Michigan. Porters and stouts are similar styles, and with its strong coffee flavor, the Vanilla Java Porter reminded me of Highland Black Mocha Stout. I didn't really get a vanilla flavor from the Vanilla Java Porter. Scott, one of the co-owners of the local shop, says he tastes berries in this brew, but I didn't catch that either.

Next was North Coast Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout which not only has a very long name but is the second Russian imperial stout on my beer list, the first being Victory Storm King Stout. Russian imperial stouts tend to be big brews with lots of flavor. Old Rasputin has a very dark pour and a strong flavor of roasted malts.

My third beer was another brown brew. This one being an English brown ale. According to the company's website, Ellie's Brown Ale from Avery Brewing is named after the deceased chocolate lab. Luckily, Ellie's Brown doesn't taste like a dead dog. It does taste like a standard English brown ale similar to the standard of the style, Newcastle Brown Ale.

Moving from brown to red, the next beer was Mermaid's Red Ale from Coronado Brewing Company in California. Red beers can be all over the place. Mermaid's wasn't particularly memorable, but that might have more to say about my state by then rather than the quality of the beer.

Finally, there was a light and fruity brew. The Bruery is a located in Placentia, California. Their Orchard White is a witbier. I have covered Belgian-style wheat ales to death. According to the brewery's site, Orchard White is spiced with coriander, citrus peel and lavender. I would say the brew did have a nice flavor including what I assume is the flavor of coriander.

FYI, about eleven hours have now past since I started this post. The show was very entertaining, and no, I didn't get any work done today.