A Walk In The Woods

Every once in a while I have to go out and walk through the woods. I find it provides me with a certain amount of re-centering of my thoughts, and my attitudes toward life, the universe, and everything. Given everything that’s gone on in the last few months, I had a strong urge to do that this week, and fortunately yesterday was open...the only day this week with nothing else on the calendar. Except hearing Lyra at Christ Church, but I felt I could give that up for my mental health.

I've visited various places depending on how much time I have available and how much I feel like driving, but one of my favorite places to go is Shenandoah National Park. So yesterday I drove up there and got onto the ridge by around 11:00, and the fog was just burning off. I wasn't looking for particularly strenuous hikes or anything, just some places where I could get out among trees and breathe that wonderful air. So I did the first three hikes I came across, Turk Mountain, RipRap, and Blackrock Summit. Probably less than 7 or 8 miles all together, but just exactly what I needed. I am so refreshed today.

Here are a few pics of my wanderings yesterday.

The view from Turk Mountain:



The view from Blackrock Summit:




A couple of deer by the road:




A Mama bear and three cubs! This was so cool!



I walked up to about 100 yards from them to take this picture. A good rule of thumb with bears, or any wildlife, is that if you're close enough for them to notice you, you're too close. I was just about that close. As I was taking the picture, I saw Mama glance up in my direction. I beat feet out of there after that.


If you're interested, Bill Bryson's A Walk In The Woods is a wonderfully funny book about hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Fret factor: Very low

Music factor: Gomez (good call, Nat!), KT Tunstall, Fountains of Wayne, Alison Krauss

My New Job

A quick post now...more later.

This morning I accepted the position of Director of Professional
Development for the Virginia Society of the American Institute of
Architects. I'll be working in one of the coolest buildings in
Richmond, Branch House, at 2501 Monument Avenue.

I start October 8.

VSAIA: http://www.virginiaarchitecture.org/vsaia_index.jsp

Branch House: http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/virginia/richmond/branch/branch.html

Pop!

All of a sudden things took off on the nonprofit front. As many of my two readers may know, I have been taking classes nonprofit management at VCU. I had to skip this semester due to my impending job-free status. I’m not unemployed, I’m unencumbered by work. Anyway, in addition to training/education jobs I have been sending resumes out for nonprofit jobs, and just last week three of them popped. So, I have an interview with a professional society tomorrow (Monday), one with a conservation association Monday the 1st, a phone interview with a University on the 4th, and I’ve been contacted by a homeless-oriented charity who wants to talk to me, interview date TBD.

The positions (in the same order) are Director of Professional Development, Executive Director, Manager of Instructional Design, and Executive Director.

This seems to come in waves. Early last week I had nothing going and I was really getting cranky. Now I have several possibilities, and I’m not as cranky, though I’m a bit anxious. Psyched, I mean. That’s it, I’m psyched.

Fret factor: Dude, you’re harshing my mellow.

Beer factor: Octoberfest!

Music factor: KT Tunstall, Alison Krauss, The Police.

P.S. I’m considering moving this blog to WordPress. For a while, there will be a duplicate blog at the URL below, though I doubt I will keep up the duplication for long…I’ll either make the switch or not.

http://moresignal.wordpress.com

Don't call us...

In the previous post I wrote:

Conventional wisdom says that you don’t get jobs through the newspapers. You’re supposed to contact the companies directly and talk to a person, and do your networking. However, more and more it seems to me that companies are discouraging the direct personal contact route, and asking for seekers to apply through the web site, only for openings that are listed on the web site.

Several of the companies I have called to attempt a followup have responded with something like this: “We get a lot of resumes. We’ll go through them all and we’ll call you if you are one of the people we want to talk with.”

So, how do you get around this and talk with a human?

Tools and Strategies

Here are a few of the things I have done to keep my job search moving along.

Personal Contacts and Networking
As soon as I knew that my job was ending, I emailed almost everyone I knew. I told them I was looking and asked them to keep an eye out for me. I didn’t send everyone a resume, but I did send a resume to anyone who asked. A number of people responded with suggestions and ideas for me. About six weeks later I sent an update to those folks plus a few more, and once again it generated some new activity. I will probably send one more next week.

Beyond those contacts with people I already know and associate with is the other part of networking, which is finding new people to meet and share information with. I’ve done a bit of this, but not nearly as much as I should. Last week I went to a lunch for a local chapter of a professional society. It was a good thing to do. I didn’t make any contacts for potential jobs, but I did meet a couple of other job-seekers, who I may share some information with.

Web sites
Over the past year or so I’ve created a web page with direct links to local companies’ web sites. Where possible I’ve linked directly to the career sections of those sites. Every week or so, I go through and check all of the web sites for new openings.

Lately I’ve had occasion to share these links with a number of folks, so I’ve begun transferring them to del.icio.us so that anyone can access them If you’re interested, this is where they live:

http://del.icio.us/wconners/jobs

Newspapers
I’ve always looked at the help wanted ads anyway. Some people read obituaries, I read the help wanted. So, this is really just a matter of continuing something I’ve always done. Every Sunday, after church, I sit and go through the ads. I have found a number of possibilities there.

Conventional wisdon says that you don’t get jobs through the newspapers. You’re supposed to contact the companies directly and talk to a person, and do your networking. However, more and more it seems to me that companies are discouraging the direct personal contact route, and asking for seekers to apply through the web site, only for openings that are listed on the web site. What do you think?

Alumni Network
I haven’t tapped this yet. The UVA Alumni Association does some support work in this area, and I’ve visited the web site, but I haven’t contacted them yet. I’m thinking they may be able to connect me with some folks in this area for networking purposes.

Recruiters
I also haven’t done anything here, and I really think I’ve dropped the ball in that regard. For one thing, when I look through the yellow pages or through listings on the Interweb, it’s kind of intimidating…I don’t know anything about any of them, so I have no idea which one to contact. I know a lot of them specialize in certain fields, but I haven’t seen any that list my field. Also, I’ve done well enough on my own, getting a number of applications in and more than a couple interviews, so I’ve kept busy enough that I haven’t felt the need.

So, that’s the list. What have I missed?

Plan The Work, Work The Plan

I’d really like to do more with this blog. Originally, I started it just to have something to play around with, and to have some fun writing and working on my narrative voice. I only gave the address to a couple of people. I rarely posted.

Then, my job search began, and I thought it would be a good venue for expressing some of my feelings, working out some things, and keeping friends and family updated. It has worked well for me in that regard. It’s surprisingly therapeutic to just spew out some of the things that are on your mind.

However, I suspect it’s not very interesting to anyone but me. Not even me much of the time.

Since my time is kind of at a premium these days, I don’t have the time to do a few things that I would like with the blog. It’s not really anything more than a day-to-day online diary, and the best blogs are a whole lot more than that.

I’d like to:

Make the design a little more attractive. I’m considering moving to WordPress, which has cooler designs and more flexibility.
Regularly update a blogroll, interesting sites, and media I’m watching/reading/listening to.
Post on something else…anything. Get a little more topical. A little deeper. Spend a little more time on preparation and composition than I do now.

Hopefully, when I get a new job I will have time to do some of this. Right now, I don’t.

This weekend, I have a lot of music to prep for the church picnic Sunday. I have a 45-minute presentation to create for an interview on Tuesday. My son has a cross-country meet tomorrow that I will probably have to skip.

No word recently from the guy I met with last week at Company SJ. It went well, and my impression was that there would be more conversation. He’s a really busy guy, so I’ll be patient and see what comes up. I’m pretty hopeful about this one.

I got a surprise callback from Local University, which is the Tuesday interview. I was very unhappy with the phone interview, but I guess I did something right. Either that or the candidate pool is woeful. I need to get cranking on my Powerpoints for this one.

More on these as they develop.

Fret factor: It’s been lower

Beer factor: Stone Pale Ale...now in 12-ounce bottles!

Boo!

Being in my situation is kind of a roller coaster ride of emotion. I am by turns elated, optimistic, depressed, frightened...you get the picture. Mostly, I try really hard to cultivate a positive attitude about the whole thing, and to project that to the people around me. There’s definitely been an emotional and mental process to this, which I will write about another time.

An interesting challenge I’ve been faced with is a simple one, and a bit surprising: going to my office.

Gradually, I’ve become a ghost. I shouldn’t be surprised, really, and I’m sure that many people in similar situations face this. In fact, I experienced it myself when I left Arthur Andersen in 1994. It goes like this:

I don’t get any more memos, emails, or other communications. I’m not invited to meetings, either formal or the in-the-hall variety. Not only am I not invited, but I don’t know about them until after they happen. Consequently, I’ve become completely out of the loop in an amazingly short time.

My co-workers stop in to ask me how things are going with my search, which is very nice, but they don’t hang around and talk to me about work items, because …well, what’s the point? They are being very nice to me, and that’s wonderful.

They’re all concerned about whether they will get grant funding for the next five years, whereas I’ve gone beyond that.

My boss and I haven’t had a conversation beyond “Hi” in weeks, though we have exchanged some emails.

So because of all this, it feels really weird for me to be at work.

I should mention that since I have a ton of vacation time to use or lose by the end of September, I’ve only been in the office two or three days a week. I’ve no doubt that my absence has contributed to my ghostly status.

Am I upset about this? Not at all. I can see it’s a logical consequence of my status. At the same time, it just feels weird. I mean, I’ve been working there for 13 years, and suddenly I’m a nonentity.

I have four weeks left.

Fret factor: Mild

Labor Day factor: Sitting on the screen porch drinking a cup of tea

Tea factor: Irish Breakfast