Ryan Holiday: Why You Should Be Talking About Work

Ryan Holiday posted about why you should be talking about work. I agree with him.

One thing is for certain: at this moment, somewhere in the world, a group of people are getting together. Maybe it’s for the holidays or a date or just drinks with friends after a long day. They are chatting and talking and then, right as their conversation gets going, we can safely predict that the absolute worst person in that group will say the following: “Ugh, guys, can we please not talk about work?” 

They’ll say that because they aren’t good at what they do for a living or because they don’t know how to deal with stress or difficulty without resorting to pointless complaining. Or perhaps they just have some silly notion about what’s proper and appropriate.

Ryan then goes on about how the work he does is what he loves, and why wouldn't he want to talk about it? Why wouldn't he want to talk to other people about what they love to do?

I can remember going through something similar in the Navy. The ship would pull into a liberty port. I'd link up with some people before heading out to see what the port had to offer (and of course, drink). Invariably, somebody would say "Guys, we shouldn't talk about the Navy while we're here." Sure enough, we'd end up talking about the Navy. Then that same person later would remind of us what HE agreed the group to.

After a few years of that, I'd start responding "Look, we've been at sea for weeks. We eat, sleep, live, breath, and SHIT the Navy. What the hell else are we supposed to talk about?"

I just got home from a week in New Orleans for a work related meeting. I got to meet people I've worked with on the phone and through email for YEARS, face to face. I got to do out drinking with them. It was great, and energizing. We all do similar work, but being able to sit down with someone over a few beers and get their perspective on it was awesome to me.

I also like getting to talk to people who do other jobs. "What do you do?" I do IT plans and policy. "Oh, really, I do this..." That is cool. Let me ask you...

For me that's fun.

Don't be afraid to talk about work, especially if you're doing something you enjoy. Don't be afraid to get other people's perspectives on what they do. You might actually learn something you can take back. Or at the very least, you have a new contact.

Did Some Speaking Today. I Could Get Used To It

My director was scheduled to give a talk at a symposium today. Due to a scheduling conflict, they decided to send me and another member of my team.

It was in Baltimore. Traffic sucks. It took me 3 1/2 hours to get to Baltimore; about a 100 mile drive from Fredericksburg VA where I live. I left just before 6. With a stop at McDonald's for breakfast and coffee, I picked up another member of the panel 13 miles up the highway. Originally, I thought I'd be able to drive up in solitude and catch up on my backlog of podcasts. But I also consider networking and relationship building priorities in my life, so I agreed to give a ride to somebody else.

My rider also works in my industry, and is quite a bit above me in my food chain. I've worked with this person before and have a lot of respect for them. We also have the shared experience of service in the Navy.

Working To Death

I've asked a few times before: "When did the American Dream become debt slavery?"

Recently, I heard of an investment intern who literally worked himself to death. And that kind of even should leave most of us asking "Is it worth it?"

Return of Kings blogger "Western Cancer" (why can't people just use their own names? Anonymity is bullshit!) explores this briefly, and relates experiences from people he knew in college with dreams of power and money. He summarizes:

Whenever I pried I never got a straight answer as to why these people were willing to give up the wealth of their youth for the riches of the future. The girl never wanted to be a lawyer because she respected the law. The guy never wanted to be a doctor because he loved humanity and wanted to help all he could. They just wanted status and a salary.

That sounds about right.

Medicine and law are two fields that require an enormous commitment during your youth if you want the money and the power. I've never figured out what the benefit is to working 120 hours a week as an associate, or a medical intern forced to go days without sleep while working shifts. The only adequate explanation I've come across for this is "Well, the old guys had to go through it. We can't just let the young people coast, can we?"

Right, so does working 120 hours a week make you a better lawyer or going days without sleep make you a better doctor? If so, I'd love to hear how.  Whenever I go long periods without sleep, it usually makes me worse at what I do. Whenever I work excessive hours, it likewise makes me worse at what I do.

When I was younger, it might have been easier to sell me on the "work long hours and you too can have lots of money and power". As I approach 40, I don't get the point anymore. Work is what I do so I can do the things I want to do. It's not what I do so at some point in the future, maybe I'll be able to enjoy something.

I get that sometimes you have to make short term sacrifices for a long term payoff, but young people, if your chosen career is going to require you to make a ton of sacrifices for no other reason than "everybody else had to!", you should probably rethink it. Don't get too far in life before you find yourself asking "What's the point?"

The only way to change that kind of game is to not play it. Don't go into medicine. Don't go into law. Don't go into investment banking. As the old f*cks start dying off, then come back and say "I'll do it, but I'm going home at the end of a reasonable workday. I won't just shuffle papers for 10 years in the hopes of a payoff later. I won't go days without sleep as an intern. You figure it out if you want me in your career field."

Seriously, what is the point to that kind of money and power? I would much rather spend my time at backyard parties like one I went to last night than at some kind of high society cocktail party.

Preparation (It's Not Technology's Fault)

It drives me nuts when I go to a meeting or presentation, the presenter shows up late, can't get his laptop to work with the projector, then chuckles some nonsense about "Technology never works, heh, heh, heh..." and goes on without it. That's probably better off, because lazy people like that tend to produce crappy Power Point presentations anyway.

I have a recurring meeting on Monday morning. We reserved a conference room with a computer and smart board. The Smart Board is fun. We can draw on it. It'll even save the drawings back to the file we have up.

Since my job is IT, and I consider myself a professional, I don't show up late and unprepared and complain about how slow the network is and "sorry I can't get the presentation computer logged in; technology, heh, heh, heh..."

I show up a good 15 minutes early. That gives me plenty of time to get logged into the presentation computer, make sure the output is going to the Smart Board, call up any files or SharePoint sites needed, and if necessary run back downstairs to upload files I didn't realize I would need. My meetings start on time because I am prepared and organized, and I take responsibility for the technology.

Really, the biggest difference between a smooth meeting and an embarrassing meeting can be as simple as showing up 15 minutes early.

Is It Unrealistic To Expect a "Career Path"?

It's time to change jobs again. Several factors are involved. The simplest way to explain is is, once again, the learning curve has flattened out and I'm ready for more responsibility, but it's not available in my current position. I'm not the kind of person who can simply do the same job for 20 years with little or no change.

I've had quite a few jobs in my life. I've done time as a janitor, paperboy, fast food worker, sailor, alarm installer, field engineer, engineer, Realtor, IT manager, and Project Manager. I even worked part time in a liquor store for a while.

There was a time when I would take a job hoping to be able to stay with that employer long term. I'm not sure if it was something I picked up from my dad, who retired from the Air Force and will eventually retire from a government job. That's the way it USED to be.

But in my experience, I do a job for about 2 to 6 years and decide the best way to move up is to move out. Sometimes I get tired of the conditions (U.S. Navy). Sometimes I need more money, like when we had Joshua in 2004 and our goal became allowing Christina to stay home with him. Sometimes I'm just bored and want more responsibility, like when I graduated from the University of Phoenix and my company had nothing for me. Once the company and I both decided we weren't a good fit for each other, and I lost the game of chicken (I'd been looking for a job for months by the point, but they laid me off before I found anything).

I used to ask about the career path during the job interview. I'd mention I want to find a company that I can grow within; that as I learn and gain experience, I can move up and provide mentoring to newer employees and eventually have a say in leadership and strategy decisions.

I've reached the point where I realize the employer is just as expendable to me as I am to them. As long as an employment relationship is mutually beneficial, I'll stick it out. I'll do the absolute best job I can in exchange for a paycheck. Knowing the employer can pretty much dump me at any time is a reminder that I have a similar luxury.

I've also been told in the current economy, if you stay in the same place for too long, people start to wonder what's wrong with you. Moving around provides you with different perspectives. You serve different missions. You get to work with different people and styles. To me it's more of an adventure to move around every couple of years. I get to meet new people and do new things. I get to learn. I get bored very quickly when I'm not learning. It's an aspect of my personality I've had to understand and accept.

When I look people who have made it high up the career ladder, I don't see very many who have been in the same company for a long time. Most of them have done different jobs with different organizations and have a vast wealth of experience.

I have essentially given up on a "career path" provided by an employer. I have accepted my career path is a "make your own zone". Although every time I start a new job, I ask "Is this the one I can stay at for a while?" because a job search and the interview process is a HUMUNGOUS PAIN IN THE ASS.

Management and Leadership

I had some interesting insights over the last week. I took a Master’s level class called “IT Program Leadership”. I’ve studied leadership since my Civil Air Patrol days in high school. Most of the managers I’ve worked for apparently haven’t read the same books I have.

The class was really interesting. Being a Master’s Degree level and academic, it dealt with leadership from an objective and academic perspective. We used classic articles from Harvard Business Review, and a couple case studies from Harvard Business School (what I wouldn’t give for a chance to go through their MBA program…).

A lot of leadership material seems to contain little more than anecdotes followed by an attempt to connect them into repeatable processes. I find this often leads to a “Cargo Cult” mentality. “Well, Steve Jobs bitched people out at 3 in the morning, and look what he accomplished!” I’ve heard a lot of startups are dominated by a cargo cult attempt to replicate Steve Jobs. The material we dealt with in the class was very academic and objective.

Why Don't We Have These Simple Things?

I'm curious why a few Microsoft Exchange Features don't exist. They should be simple.

Synchronized Signature Files

This should be easy. And yet we don't seem to have it.  I have access to a couple Exchange Servers. One is at work. One is my friend's. He set me up with an account and we use Lync as a chat client. I have the PC and iOS Clients. I saw Lync show up on a list at work. That should be interesting.

So with the wonders of MS Exchange, I can synchronize my email, calendar, contacts, and tasks across a multitude of computers and handheld devices. We'll use three for this post. My desktop PC in my Office, my BlackBerry, and my work laptop. Every time I get a new device, I have to recreate my signature file on that device. BlackBerry crapped out? No problem, they'll issue me a new one, and I have to recreate my signature file on the device. Same with laptops. I just got issued a new laptop, and I had to recreate my signature file. Sure, it's just copy and paste from my sent mail. It's not that big a deal. I'm curious why the signature file can't be kept on the server.

Synchronized Reminders

This one can get annoying. Using the three device example before, here we go. I have a meeting coming up. The default for reminders is 15 minutes. So about the same time, I get a reminder on my BlackBerry and PC. If I'm away from my desk, I'll dismiss the reminder on my BB, but it's still waiting for me on my PC. And it's also waiting for me on my laptop if I left it on at home.

Of course, even the great Google doesn't have this worked out. I'll get Google Calendar reminders all over the place. When iOS reminders came out, I experimented with using Hotmail for calendar and tasks since most of my Google calendars won't sync to my iPad for some reason. Using Hotmail, I'll get a reminder on my iPhone and iPad, plus an email with makes all my devices go "ding".

It would be nice if these simple things would sync across devices.

Trello: Another Great, Free App

Yesterday I wrote about Evernote, an awesome freemium service I've used since the earliest days it was available.

A couple months ago, Fog Creek Software rolled out Trello. It's marketed (and free) as a "list of lists". I'm not sure how to integrate it with my personal productivity system, but I had an immediate use for it: keeping track of stuff at work. I managed the people who do the infrastructure portion of IT projects. We often coordinate with an Applications group on projects. Although I don't manage all the projects, I'm the Point of Contact for all the joint Engineering-Apps projects, so I have to know what's going on between the two groups. Once Trello came out, I immediately put it to use keeping track of my projects. I can't quite manage tasks with it yet, but I can at least make comments on the project cards and maybe keep track of the next few actions to move the project forward. That way, I have an immediate high-level status available of where my projects are at.

Joel Spolski posted to his website today explaining the methodology behind Trello, and how they plan to maintain it, and how they want everybody to use it.

Trello is free. The friction caused by charging for a product is the biggest impediment to massive growth. In the long run, we think it’s much easier to figure out how to extract a small amount of money out of a large number of users than to extract a large amount of money out of a small number of users. Once you have 100 million users, it’s easy to figure out which of those users are getting the most value out of the product you built. The ones who are getting the most value will be happy to pay you. The others don’t cost much to support.

They've definitely made Trello easy to use. Even in the earliest days of the service, I didn't have to create an account. I was able to log in with my Google account and get started right away. No picking usernames and passwords and waiting for validation emails. To quote The Oatmeal (and I'll slightly censor this): "I need more website accounts like I need an a$$hole on my forehead!"

I'll admit, I let Trello lag for a while. But after reading Joel's post today, I logged back in. I realized I've closed a few projects, and others have moved along. It was exciting. I'll go back to using it. 

Evernote: INC Magazine's Company of the Year

INC Magazine published an article about Evernote as their company of the year. I'd say they deserve it. I've used Evernote since version 1. I was a beta tester for Evernote 2.0, which got me a copy of Evernote 2.0 Professional after the final was released. At the time, I kept bouncing back and forth between Evernote and Microsoft OneNote. I eventually settled on Evernote for various reasons.

Evernote 2.0 Pro came with a portable version, so I could keep the .exe along with my files on a thumb drive and carry it back and forth from home to work, in the glory days when I still had admin access on my work computers and thumb drives weren't banned by policy.

Also, Evernote's Web Clipper, from Day 1, was amazing. It would clip anything. OneNote's was sort of hit and miss.

After Evernote got money and their CEO bought a Mac, Evernote 3.0 came out, with a centralized web access and mobile clients. I could keep all my notes synced between the desktop client, web, my mobile, and even a company issued BlackBerry I used to have with admin rights.

By this point, the web client works so well, I hardly ever use the desktop client. I still use Evernote on my iPhone and iPad.

You can use Evernote for a ton of things. I'd say the only limits are your own imagination. Scanners are available that allow you to scan documents straight to Evernote. I've used it for school, work, taxes, my blog, my personal journal, my brief stint in real estate, and a bunch more. When I had to produce weekly and monthly reports on a job a couple of years ago, I kept them in Evernote.

I have notes in Evernote going back to 2003. That's how long I've been on it. It's come a long way. I highly recommend it.

The article discusses Evernote's freemium business model. It was very hard for the company to get cash initially because of this model. The free version of Evernote has always been full featured. That's one of the reasons I've stuck with it so long. I've been looking for a good task or project management type software lately. Many of them offer a version that I find too limited to test drive, but I'm not willing to pay $10 a month to get what might be enough features to find out whether it's usable or not it's worth the price.

On the freemium model, Evernote's CEO says:

Libin explained his theory: The more stuff you put in Evernote, the more important the service would be to you. Who would begrudge $5 a month to a company that was storing your memories and helping you retrieve them? "Your notes, your restaurants, your friends, a year of your life, then years of your life," says Libin. "That's worth thousands." The danger wasn't that people wouldn't upgrade, he argued; it was that they wouldn't try the service in the first place or wouldn't stick with it because the free version was skimpy and failed to impress. Get them to fall in love with the service, and they would eventually pay, because they would be invested in its success. "I want to build a 100-year company, and I'm serious about that," says Libin. "I don't need to squeeze money out of you. I'll have the rest of your life to take your money. It's my long-term greedy strategy. Our slogan is, 'We'd rather you stay than pay.' Basically, I wanted a business model that rhymed."

Another statement from the article representing a part of the company's philosophy that has always kept me using it:

One thing Libin says he refuses to worry about is competition. And there are, in fact, vaguely competitive products and services. Most notable among them is Microsoft's OneNote, which has some of the same features and comes with Microsoft Office. But it doesn't provide Evernote's effortless toss-in-any-kind-of-note-on-any-device environment and hasn't achieved nearly the traction that Evernote has. Nevertheless, it's inevitable that more and better competitors will emerge. When that happens, Evernote users will be able to painlessly take their memories and leave, because Libin has insisted that the information be made easy to export, so that no one feels locked in to the service. "We used to have a saying in the Soviet Union: 'Any country that you're free to leave, you're free to live in,'" he says. "We want our users to feel free to leave."

(Emphasis mine). I have never felt a lock-in to Evernote.

Another freemium product I've stuck with over the years is Remember The Milk. It's not perfect. It does have some serious limitations, but it's so easy and reliable, no matter how hard I try to leave, I can't. I had a Pro account for a year. They keep rolling pro features down to free users.

The Onion: Ultra-Realistic Military Game

This is awesome!

This reminds me of a moment on WESPAC ‘96 when a friend showed me the game “Harpoon II”. I played for about 5 minutes and said “This is as bad as standing watch in Combat. Forget this.”

(Combat being CIC, Combat Information Center. It’s a very dark and boring place. You don’t want to be on a ship for the few moments when it actually gets exciting.)

Wasted Day Rant

Today seems like it was a total waste. I got nothing productive at all done. Nothing. Today was filled with frustration, futility, and shame.

First off, when I started my new job, I was told to go ahead and order a laptop. I was allowed to pick out what I wanted. I'm sick of being stuck with obsolete technology, so planning to be using this laptop for several years, I asked if Windows Vista was OK. I don't care what technology journalists and TWIT panelists say, I like Windows Vista. I think it's safe and secure and one hell of a graphical shell improvement over good old Windows XP.

In order to gain access to one of the networks I need, I have to get my laptop approved by the people on the network. I will say that I have a very hard time holding my mouth back when up against other IT people. I have an IT degree and have been playing around with computers as a hobby for more than a decade, although my experience led me into an engineering position. I hate running up against large IT bureaucracies, as I know that most of the rules and requirements that they have are nothing more than organizational preferences, most of which are BS policies. When I picked out my laptop, I asked if Vista was OK and I was told yes, so I went with Vista. (I wasn't told yes by these network people, whom I knew nothing about at the time.) I know that you XP Luddites are hoping that XP will last forever, but the truth is sooner or later, Microsoft will HAVE to stop supporting it and I'm planning for that. But, I was told that I can't get my laptop approved for network access unless I put XP on it. OK, I found a copy of XP, wiped the drive, did a base install, and dropped it off with the techs.

Then I had to deal with another issue. We're still trying to sell our home in a market that sucks really bad. I hadn't heard from my realtor in a while, and I left a message last night and another this morning. I broke down and called the brokerage manager. My realtor called back right away. She had sent me an email, but I don't have access to my gmail account at work now like I did on my last job. I did feel a little bit bad about having to escalate, but I had no way to know that she planned to call me later in the day. I still feel a little bit of shame, but not much. In order to get a signal, I had to go outside. I work in the approach path to Philly International, so while I was talking on my phone low flying jets passed overhead.

Then I got a call from the network people. My laptop didn't have network card drivers, so they couldn't do anything. I went to get it back. Go figure, since this laptop was designed for Windows Vista, nobody bothered to write XP drivers for any of the hardware in it. I spent an hour and a half trying to find them, but to be honest, if I wanted to work that hard to find drivers I would have installed Linux.

By then, the workday was over. I just wanted to drink myself stupid. Nobody from my group was around, so I can't even ask my supervisor what to do about my laptop until Monday. Oh, I can get my laptop on the network if I want to, but if I get caught there will be a lot of trouble for everybody. It's highly unlikely that I will be caught; I've had the laptop on that network with Vista already. I know a workaround, but I don't want to cause trouble. However, stupid Luddite policies like that one are just begging a geek with my skills and lack of patience to use a workaround. Seriously, this network JUST started supporting Window XP THIS YEAR! Windows Vista has been out for more than a year now, XP has been out for more than seven.

I need to get a job in the group that makes these policies. Anyway, this day was a waste, I got nothing done, I feel a little ashamed at calling my realtor's brokerage manager to get her attention, and this ranting blog entry is the only thing I have to show for this entire day.

Oh, well. My birthday is Monday. My dad might be willing to get me an iPod Touch, so I might call and ask if I just buy it myself can he send the money. Maybe I'll have an iPod Touch to show for today. That would be nice. That or at least a six pack of Yeungling.

Actually, there was one good thing this workday. We had a team meeting early. It was my first one, and I met some new people.

Technorati Tags: Wasted day,Luddite network policy,Windows Vista,Windows XP,Realtors

How Dangerous is Your Commute?

Recent construction on Route 42 in New Jersey has added an "express lane" to the southbound lanes. After an occurrence yesterday, I am close to figuring out how to contact the commission in charge of planning this travesty and asking them to remove the express lane before somebody gets killed (like me.)

I was driving home like normal, heading southbound on Rt. 42 and approaching the express lane. Like any highway configuration in south Jersey, the 42/I-676/I-295 interchange cannot be described but in words that are not suitable for a family blog. Idiotic might be an understatement. After crossing from Pennsylvania on the Walt Whitman Bridge, Rt. 42 is met by lanes from Rt. 130 and I-676. As the route progresses toward I-295, drivers really need to plan ahead. The exit for I-295 south is the left hand lane of Rt. 42, and traffic headed for I-295 north needs to get in the right hand lane of Rt.42. The express lane starts just before the I-295 south exit, so the two left lanes are split off from the rest of the highway by a cement divider. I assume that the purpose for the express lane is to save drivers a few seconds of driving by not having to worry about drivers who are not capable of reading road signs and planning ahead by getting in the proper exit lane ahead of time. I have already been stuck in traffic backed up to the I-95 exit to the Walt Whitman Bridge because somebody plowed into the safety rail before the cement divider for the express lane.

Yesterday, as I was approaching the express lane, I saw a Dodge Caravan style mini-van jam the brakes on right in the middle of the highway just at the express lane. As I realized that they weren't joking or slowing down for some perceived traffic impediment, I hit my brakes hard lest I plow into them. I saw a large Ford pickup truck jam it's brakes in my rearview mirror. The minivan in front of me came to a complete stop as cars began flying around the Ford behind me until the lane I was in started having to stop. I hit my horn twice "beep, beep" as a little "Uhm, can we start moving? Stopping in the middle of a highway, especially in New Jersey, is like very dangerous or something." Then the minivan's backup lights came on and the van started backing up almost right into me. Apparently the driver couldn't read the road signs for the past two or so miles and came to a complete stop with the front of his or her car past the guardrail, making it impossible to change lanes. Now the driver was backing up apparently in the hopes of backing up far enough to somehow get over a lane with oncoming traffic to make whatever exit he or she needed. As I saw the van's bumper approaching the front of my Sedona, I decided I wasn't going to take it anymore. I NEVER use my horn, but in this case I placed my fist on the horn and held it down until I saw the minivan stop and the backup lights go off.

Now that the driver had nowhere to go, you might expect forward motion, but this driver sat for several more seconds. I was about to roll down my window and scream something like "If you're too stupid to read road signs, get off at the next exit and turn around!" It was the most charitable thing I could think of to say at that moment. Finally, the minivan started moving forward, so I could and the traffic now stopped behind me could as well. As soon as we cleared the express lanes, I changed lanes and flew around that minivan. I always wonder, is it smarter to have a clueless driver in front of you where you can see them, or behind you so you can get away from them?

If anybody from whatever commision that is in charge of the Route 42 construction is reading this, please get rid of that express lane before you kill somebody!

Technorati Tags: Route 42,afternoon commute,driving hazards,stupid highway construction

Brief Update

I'm sorry I dropped off the face of the Earth again. I got a new job. I had been wanting to write about some of my experiences during my job hunt, but on the off chance that somebody from my previous job read this blog, I figured I would keep my mouth shut.

I didn't leave out of bitterness, or hard feelings. Not many, anyway. I worked with some fine people in a very laid back office. I'd never experienced the freedom to set my own schedule and manage my responsibilities as I did on that job. I had it very good there. But, I worked in a field office with one contract to support one customer and the contract was winding down. Many of the people in that office were at the end of their respective careers, and expected to retire when the contract ended in a few years. I still have at least 30 years left in the workforce by conventional wisdom, so that luxury escaped me. I was also itching for more responsibilities (and more money) and there was no room to advance in that organization. I put my resume on Careerbuilder to see what would happen. I'll probably try to write up a more detailed post later.

I still work in the same industry, but on an entirely different project. I'm also an engineer now. I'm an engineer in an engineering company, which is like being a pilot in the Air Force. It's wonderful being what your organization is purposed to do. I also changed states. I now work in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My commute is only a few miles longer than my previous commute, but I now have to contend with Route 42 rather than Interstate 295. I'm finding 42 to have plenty of challenges. Oh, yeah, there's also that pesky bridge toll every day. It's free to enter New Jersey, but there's no way out without paying for it.

As I said, I'll try to put up more details later. I just wanted to make this blog active again. I get about 10-20 hits per day. It took years to build that kind of traffic.

Technorati Tags: Careers,Job search,Engineering,Changing Jobs

Career Advancement- Move up or move out?

Have you ever reached a point in a job where you feel that you've done about all that you can and it's time to either move up or move on? Have you ever found yourself in a position for which there really is no place to move up to, so you're left with the obvious conclusion that you have to move on?

A year ago, I wrote a post on this blog regarding my annual performance review. This past week, I had my performance review for 2007. It went about the same. Everybody got a 3. Period. When I got my Bachelor's degree, I asked my manager to see if the company would do something for me. The company's official response is "We hired you to do this job. A Bachelor's degree in IT has nothing to do with this job." Honestly, I don't believe they bothered to look at the curriculum that I took. In any case, that pretty much defines my new short-term goals for me.

I've had two jobs in the last nine years. On both interviews, I asked if the company had a healthy "promote from within" policy. I asked if the company was a suitable environment to plan for a long term career. It turns out that I was asking the wrong question. I should have asked "Does THIS position have a logical and reasonable career path?" Obviously, they'll tell me that they like to promote people from within, but I tend to end up in dead end positions anyway. I'm getting tired of that. Most companies seem to think a career is one of two things: find one job and do it for 40 years, or find a new job every 3-5 years. I'm not happy with either option. I would love to find a company within which I can expect to grow and rise. I'm tired of having to start over with a zero vacation balance, and I'm tired of having to make sure my family's doctors take the new insurance.

It's not that I haven't tried to stay with this company. I have tried very hard. A friend of mine works for the government in Washington D.C. He had a contract with my current company and a couple of Systems Analyst positions opened up. He submitted my resume to the program manager and things looked really good for me. I was obviously qualified for the position but one thing got in the way: for some reason, this program manager was TOO BUSY TO HIRE SOMEBODY FOR AN OPEN POSITION. My friend, as the customer, was demanding that somebody be hired because the open position was affecting his operations, but this guy was too busy. I kept being told that they were interested in me, but I never got a call. Eventually, the position was filled by another contractor. In the meantime, my personal requirements have changed to the point where I need to stay in south Jersey, as painful as that admission might be.

I've tried to move within my current organization. In 2006, an employee of another company that works on the same task as I do left. I applied for his position. I was told that it would be a conflict of interest to hire me to another company within the task, but I could help out. My company has several people on that effort. I ran into a problem though: that effort works in another office, on another network. There was no desk available for me, my company would not buy me another computer to use in that office even if there was a desk, and I couldn't get VPN access to the network to access from my current cubicle. I had a lot of fun helping out and I got an award for my help with a cash incentive, but after that I gave up. I could only help with testing but could do little with the documentation and preparation that led up to testing because I can't get on the network and carrying files back and forth an a USB stick was highly inefficient. I eventually gave up even though I really enjoyed that work and would love to have moved over to that task.

I tried last year to move to our Systems Engineering group. I talked to the manager in September while I was finishing my final class at the University of Phoenix. I was told once again that he was very interested in me, and would check with our Department Head and my current supervisor and would get back to me by the 1st of November. It is currently February 15, and I haven't heard anything. I see him in passing. Another guy from my group has been moved over there, but I haven't even been given the courtesy of "no". I think something is seriously wrong with a company when a manager is too darn busy to hire people, but I also see this as a serious lack of integrity and professionalism. When a manager-level employee says "I will get back to you by a certain date," should you not be able to depend on a response by that date?

What is all of this leading up to? Well, let's just say I'm waiting for a phone call. I've been in this position for more than three years. I've done all I can. Obviously, there is always something to learn, but for the most part I'm ready to move up or move on. I doubt anyone from my current company reads this blog, but I'll leave things vague. Let's just say that I'm waiting for a phone call from somebody who is both interested in my experience and has enough integrity to "get back by". I have also come to the conclusion that just like my previous company, when I asked this one during my job interview if they have a healthy career program, they lied to me when they said yes. I used to joke when I was in the Navy that my Navy recruiter never lied to me. I said that he left out a lot of details, but never lied to me. In this case, I'm starting to think I've been lied to. I've tried in three ways to make a career move within my company, and hit a brick wall all three times. I work in a wonderful office with wonderful people, and I truly appreciate the freedom and flexibility I've enjoyed in this position. I am able to set my own schedule. When my son Caleb stuck his hand in the car door as it was closing and I had to meet my wife in the emergency room, I literally just got up and walked out. I came back a couple of hours later and worked late that night. I didn't tell anybody and nobody asked. That kind of flexibility is priceless, but when job satisfaction isn't very high and there is NO POSSIBILITY OF ADVANCEMENT, that kind of flexibility doesn't go very far. It definitely doesn't pay the student loans for the degree that apparently has nothing to do with the position. Looking back, I took this position based on two very short term immediate goals. I needed to:

1. Make enough money to allow my wife to stay home and raise the children

and

1. Get out of my previous organization as quickly as possible.

I also hoped to move into a position from which I could expect a long and fruitful career, but the entire subject of this post is why this position did not meet that goal. It did meet the other two though.

Someday I may write about my previous organization and the turns that were taken that led to my decision to leave. I was hired in 1999 for what was originally a fun and fascinating technical job that over the course of 5 years changed to the point of being intolerable. A coworker of mine took a job in Iraq to get out of there. I'll leave the story hanging there for now.

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