Time Warp

What I hope is the very last installment of

A View from my Office

A little background information to set the scene... Part of my job has been to work with and staff our board of directors. It's not always fun but some of been some really amazing women so its been worthwhile. And while I understand that I know them better than they know me, there are 2 memories that are my favorite that sum up so much of what the work is like.

1) A past board member insisted on calling me Jennifer all day at an event, while I was wearing a name tag that clearly did not say Jennifer

2) I received an envelope that I had created and sent out which was pre-addressed to me with one of the letters in my last name crossed out and changed. Because ya know, after 30 years I'm still having trouble with all those M's and N's.

Which brings us to the final tale....

Today marks the day that I will send out my very last Board mailing. A Board mailing, for those not in this particular position, is what my organization sends each month before a Board meeting and contains all the hand outs, agenda, etc. A standard part of each mailing is the memo. This is where the Executive Director creates a letter that talks about what the meeting will be about and provides any short, necessary updates.

In today's memo there was a paragraph at the very end announcing my imminent departure. Excited to see what not just my boss, but THE boss, of our tiny little world would have to say about me and my dedication since that fateful summer in 2006 when I joined up with the gang, I eagerly read through it.

There it is...thanks for my outstanding service...aw, that's nice...for the past...wait, what...THREE YEARS.

Yup. After four years with this organization I have been kindly thanked for my three years of service. That boys and girls, is the sound of the bell indicating this game is officially over.

Would you like fries or a clean database with that?

As I mentioned in my last post, big changes are a coming to my little corner of the world, and the crucial folks in my real life have been told, so I can finally break the blog silence (but not the Facebook silence, I'm not ready for that yet!).

After 4 years in my current job, a job that made me some amazing friends, taught me that I love working with databases, and gave my liver a serious workout as of late, after 4 years with this I have finally decided to quit.

But before you break out the party horns and let those gasps of excitement pass your lips I must tell you I also don't have another job lined up. Well, I didn't when I actually put in place the plan to be done with the current gig, I might have a part time one now.

Here's how it all unraveled....

About 2 months ago I sat down behind closed doors to have my 4 year, annual review with my supervisor. Somehow, and I honestly don't know how it all started, instead of going through the rote motions of checking off accomplishments and things to learn and work on, we spent close to 2 hours talking about the fact that I wasn't happy anymore and what we could do about it. It was by far the most liberating, amazing review I've ever had. By the end I had received some really good constructive criticism that I hope will make me a better employee in the future and a plan had been sketched to work me out of the organization.

They would start working on re-writing my job description (as it had drastically changed since I started) and I would step up my job hunt (now no longer needing to hide in the shadows and fake appointments in case of interviews). We figured it would take about 2 months to post, interview, hire and replace me and I hoped I could find something along that same time frame as well. However, just in case this economy totally had it in for me, we worked out a slight extension plan as well.

Let me step back for a minute and tell you about my not so secret love of databases that this job has opened up for me. Turns out I love organizing, maintaining, and producing clean, reliable data and reports. And I have come to master the current fundraising database my organization utilizes in a way that sometimes even scares me. This is something I could see myself doing full time (and that is what I've been applying for), this is something I could see myself really enjoying. Raisers Edge watch out, I will find someone who uses you and come to master you! (Okay, geek aside now, sorry about that).

And while I love my current database, I also loathe it because it is totally out of shape. It needs a major ass-kicking clean up, and I am just the one to do it. See, that's the extension plan we've worked out. If I don't have a job by the time my replacement is here and ready to be set loose on their own, I will transfer over to a full time database clean up project. We expect that to last about 8 weeks so I will have employment (if this plan all goes accordingly) till about mid December. If I do get another job, the plan is to transition the database cleanup to a part time gig (nights/weekends) instead because no matter what, it needs to be done, and not to sound totally egotistical but no one here but me really can do it quickly and efficiently.

So that's my life. Since this has all been announced a possible part time job has come up starting in mid September that I am totally, ridiculously geeked about. It's not a database gig, but it's with a company that I adore and think that I could learn an amazing amount from. But since it's not even remotely settled yet I am keeping that one to myself for now. But if it does come through it will mean that once I've wrapped up all the work here I will still need to supplement my income with a second part time job - know anyone hiring? Need a database cleaned? How about a dog walked? I'm open to most ideas (except watching your kids, sorry, but no one really wants that to happen do they?).

To make this a little less scary when it comes to life and finances, I'm also moving in with someone so my rent will be cut in half which always helps. That in itself is a completely crazy, out of left field, mind twister, but it will have to be saved for another post.

And the top 5 are...

According to Crain's online information the top five largest employers in Chicago are
1) U.S. Government - 78,000 local employees
2) Chicago Public Schools - 43,910 local employees
3) City of Chicago - 35,570 local employees
4) Wal-Mart - 23,453 local employees
5) Cook County - 22,142 local employees.

So Wal-Mart, who the city tried to keep out so desperately, employs more people than the county? Awesome.

Another great fact:
Nationally the U.S. Government employs 1,800,000 people. Wal-Mart? Their national number is 2,100,000. Makes you wonder who is really running this country some days.

Have no idea how this works

Imagine this, you send out a resume and get a reply within 20 minutes thanking you for your submission. And this is an actually reply from an actual person (or so you believe as far as you can tell) as opposed to some automated system reply. This gives you confidence that there is a real live person reading your carefully crafted attempt at the sale of yourself.

7 days go by and in your daily path of checking the usual suspect job sites you go back to the site where you found said job and it is gone. It was there 4 days ago (according to the Google Cache that is) but today it is not there. And you have had no further contact from since the initial "Thanks" email.

The job had been posted for over 2 months before you got around to submitting yourself. And now within the span of a week of you throwing your hat in the ring it has been filled. Or at least that is what you presume.

Do you....
A) Move on and work on writing a better cover letter and resume for the next opportunity?

OR

B) Contact original person with some kind of "Just wanted to check in, I see the job is gone from your website, am I out of the running?" kind of email?

Waiting

15 days ago I used one of those online application systems that allows you to apply for multiple jobs within an organization and I applied for 4 jobs. 5 days ago I received my first "Thanks but no thanks" email from them about one of the jobs. Specifically it said "Unfortunately after a review of your credentials and background, we have decided to pursue other applicants who more closely align with our position requirements." It was a rough read but a necessary evil (and to be fair I really wasn't very qualified for the gig they turned me down for, I just really wanted it because it had the word Library in the job title.

So now I am stuck waiting for responses from the rest of the applications. By rejecting me for one I know that their system is working and farming out my stats to hopefully the correct departments. I can only hope that the reason I haven't gotten a slew of additional denials is that maybe I am pseudo qualified for some of the other positions and am in the "to be considered further" pile.

In case you've never done this. Waiting sucks.

What Craig taught me today

Randomly paging through Craigslist part time jobs today and I came across two that caught my eye. The first one (located here)was just really well written, entertaining to read, and spaced out nicely so the physical layout was easy to scan through.

The next one I'm going to cut and paste right in since I don't think it will last long. The tile was Bouncer/Security Needed and in case the link works, here ya go, but in case it doesn't....(all horrible grammar, spelling, and punctuation totally not mine). Man spam really is everywhere isn't it?

Bouncer/Security Needed
I need a security/bouncer for my wife.Her arrival date should be 17th OF May.I will prefer you to have your car available for this,I am offering you $650 as your weekly wages, So i will like to make one week payment deposit to you before her arrival so that i will be rest assured that i had secured your services now you are to make yourself available for 3 times in a week to her schedule for 2 hours each day.she will be going for her medical care and for other purpose which she might need you for as i stated on the AD so you are to secure her around for those period i stated to you...Also i want you to know that my client who is in the State will be sending you a cashiers check (which will be an over payment of $3500)so you will have to take the check to your bank and have it cashed once it gets to you and then after the check get cleared your bank you will notify me and then i want you to know that the remaining funds after deducting your wages will be used by my wife for her travel expenses,accommodations and any other expenses.

Get back to me with the following details of yours if you are okay with my terms,

Your Full Name
Address
City
State/Zip Code
Phone Number

The pay check can be send out to you immediately,Kindly let me know if you are good with this offer so that the paycheck can be forwarded to you as soon as possible and i will appreciate a quick response from you.

Thanks and please get back to me asap
Kindest regards

Moore Melborne


Also (and this is JJ again) what the heck happened to my blogger homepage? Something went wonky in the back end and now my WYSIWYG editor that I write in is weird looking (and to be honest kind of archaic looking as well). Hmmmm...to explore another day I suppose.