Thursday, January 14, 1999

First, the New Stuff:

• CZ has changed dribs and drabs of her Web area
• A new face on the Milk Carton
• Chapter 69 of the Empty City (in which Jim's first date with Rhonda is a disaster)

Kristin celebrated National Clean Off Your Desk Day this year by taking home most of the personal stuff she'd installed in her office during the last three years, including her stereo and the huge painting by Dawn, called Dylan Birds. Today, they're giving her a classic farewell luncheon, and tomorrow is her last day at TSI-TelSys.

On a related note, I went on a bunch of interviews this week: two with headhunters, two with body shops, and one with a government contractor for a position I didn't want. (I fled that scene faster than Jim in today's Empty City chapter.) So far, I like working with headhunters the most - it's like hiring someone to look for opportunities and set up interviews on my behalf, and it doesn't even cost me anything, since they make their money from my future employer. (It reminds me of those lawsuit lawyers who say "You pay no fee unless we win!") Body shops, on the other hand, want to hire me and then assign me to contracts they manage. I'm not sure I like that arrangement, but I've been going through their hiring processes anyway... my biggest priority is finding a place where I'll enjoy the day to day work as much as possible, and body shops never want to say much about the actual opportunities that are available until you're truly eligible, lest the work be assigned to someone else before you're capable of accepting it.

But although I've heard a lot of vague job descriptions at this point, most of them sound dreadfully boring. About the only thing I've heard of so far that sounds fun is AOL, which I've never been willing to consider before, because I've felt the commute would be longer than I'd be able to tolerable. But this week I made a list of six factors to consider during a job search, and ranked them in importance, as follows: The Actual Day to Day Work, Co-worker Personalities, Corporate Mood & Morale, Project Mission, the Commute, and the Money. The money is last on the list simply because I can get good programming money almost anywhere, so it's not a limiting factor. At the same time, most of the places I'd have to go to in order to make that money will be a 30 minute or longer commute anyway... so what's an extra 15 minutes at that point, against the quality of the actual day to day work? After thinking through this, I've decided to broaden my commute tolerance.

Meanwhile, wild possibilities for non-programming jobs have also popped into my head, so I wrote a second resume, this one a two-pager, with an objective intended to land me the dream job for a creative dynamo, whatever that might turn out to be. I'm doubtful that there'll be any real opportunities for me on this angle, but as long as I was giving resumes to headhunters, I wanted to give them one with a broader scope than my programming resume, just in case.

To sum up: the job search is well underway, but my future remains very unclear.

I think employers often forget that job interviews are two-way evaluations. It's not just about whether I'm good enough for the job you're trying to fill, I also have to want to work for you.

Peace & Love,

Children's cookbooks are great places for the lazy chef to find recipes.

I like the cable network TV Land, but what I want now is Public TV Land. There we could see classic shows like HodgePodgeLodge, the Electric Company, Zoom, and the first few seasons of Sesame Street.