Little Update; emphasis on little

I am a new fan of Monster.com. Less than 24 hours after posting my resume I receieved at least 2 credible leades. One resulted in an impromptu phone interview with a consulting firm having offices throughout the west, including San Diego.

It'll be followed up next week with a second.

A third call was recieved, but I believe they were a recruiter seeking me as a client. I'll learn more about that tomorrow in a call-back.

So, very interesting. It inspired me to post my resume elsewhere; like on TheLadders.

I am also a fan of a brown rug I purchased a few months ago. Spilled Spanish red wine, an ounce, doesn't show up at all. And, after-all, that is why I got it.

Monster Night!

Whew! What a night. In a sense, similar to the pevious two.

Upon awakening earlier than usual my first and immediate thoughts go to my current situation. I believe such is the case for most everyone when going through big transitions; breakups, marriages, moving, big college test or presentation, etc. For me, it's.... well, you know.

Last night I awakened at 2:15am. I tried forcing myself to think of something else, like sheep, but nothing worked for quite awhile. It also did not help that my laptop went into an automatic software update and lit up the adjacent room. A little Nyquil and I was back to sleep in an hour. The previous couple days I awakened at about 5am and just decided to begin the day.

About Monster:

I am not depending on Monster 100%; however, I just recieved the first installment of a list of job postings meeting my criteria. It's obvious I need to refine the search criteria as transportation and planning is too general a term or terms.

And more about Monster Nights... apparently a 90 year old neighbor living in the 16 floor tower next to me lost control of their vehicle last night and wrecked 5 cars. Those affected included my neighbor/landlord whom had their SUV parked on the street and towed away by authorities.

I do not know why

About every third person I speak with seems to press me a little about how the decision was made to cut staff. And in particular, me.

I do not know. Other than the agency approved cutting 28 positions, 10 of which were filled by human body's, I do not know. And I knew that during the Monday morning exit interview asking that question would not guarantee a true answer. So, why ask at all. It's out of my control and not to fret about it.

Being that this is California and the place of employment was a public agency, any pertinent response would be a risky trade for the organization... risk of legal retribution versus the personal understanding for the affected individual. Any smart public agency would stick to the basics... balancing the budget and so forth.

Where I worked commonly practiced smart decision making practices. And, although not me, there may be individuals among those other 9 let go that just might seek some type of reconciliation.

With that said, I went to tonights Padre baseball game against Dodgers. Beforehand I went into Tilted Kilt for burger and drink and good atmosphere. Everything was good, especially the good atmosphere. But when it came time to pay the tab I learned that one of the bartenders, not the awesome looking female serving me, gave my debit card out to someone else. And charged the other persons tab on my card. They reversed that charged, and comped my tab, but my card was long gone and on the way to the ballpark next door for who knows what.

20 minutes later I contacted my bank to cancel the card and I am now without off-hour access to my account for the next 3-5 business days. It's better than some yahoo with my card, but it didn't need to happen to begin with.

The Padres also lost the game, 2-7.

Overwhelming Support

The outreach and support I have recieved has been tremendous. It has really been more than anticipated.

Those close to me are famliar enough to know I'll respond with an optomistic outlook and need little re-assurances. But even so, it's all very welcome.

I am deciding to put aside any issues I may have with a hurt pride or ego, and from the advise of one of those persons advising me, I have decided to begin formulating a 2-week plan and to create an account on Monster.com. I've uploaded some information; however, it appears some re-formatting may be in order.... and general redesigning it for the site.

I think this is the public view of my resume here.

Get Ready, Set...

I am almost ready to begin looking for another job. But, there is no rush or critical situation at the moment. I anticipate that the transition could take anywhere from 2 weeks to several weeks or more. The shorter window would be if I sought and secured employment in the private sector.

If you do not know me already or know what I do, or did, I worked in the public sector. In transportation planning. I absolutely love the profession. I expect working for the public in the future, it would be an honor, but would not rule out working for a transportation consultant firm. The advantage of the public sector is having a closer relationship to the public and achievements in doing some good.

Anyway, the recruitment process for the public sector is much more exacting... extended... err... it takes time. Based on past experience, when a public entity decides to recruit for a position it can take as many as 6 months to get a body. That is somewhere between standard and being optomistic. And, it is only after about 2 or 3 full months into that process that a recruitment notice is even publicized.

Anyway, over the weekend I made sure my computer could talk to my printer and that I had envelopes and stamps. My resume is pretty much up to date and in good condition. But, I suppose it wouldn't hurt to have a professional look at it. After all, I am working with a model approach that has been standard for 10 or more years!

I should probably begin thinking about online tools and advice sites. Perhaps I'll link them. Any readers know of good sites? Other than the standard Monster.

Very Much At Ease

My bank, Union Bank of California, would not let me deposit my vacation payout. Apparently the way it is written makes them squimish. They may have been noobs?

The section identifying "pay to the order of" includes both my name and the company/department I worked for.

I suppose that could look a little odd... hypothetically recieving a check identified for a company and trying to deposit into a personal account. But, if they realized that the check was written on the company stub, why would it be written back to the company?

I think they should have honored that it was written for me. Again, maybe they were noobs.

Anyway, I've contacted the HR Director and we agreed that I'd send the check back to him, he'd cancel it, and another check would be re-issued without the company name on it.

On another note, I have recieved at least three calls from persons seeking updates and to share their thoughts. I appreciate that. I am still doing well and very much at ease over the news.

Being Canned Today?

Well, damit. It looks like I lost my very first post; made this AM before going into work. Oh well, based on the post below, it was probably too long to begin with.

The short of it; however, was that my intuition was telling me I was about to be laid-off. I knew that 28 positions were slated to be eliminated; 10 currently filled. And on Saturday, after returning from a vacation to Paris and London, I went into work to unpack and organize my new office (my dept relocated while I was on vacation). I attemtped to log-on to the network, but learned that my access was disabled and advised by IT to contact Human Resources on Monday.

The original version was pleasant or eloquent, but, the energy is lost to redo it.