March 2004 Archives

Last Friday, while doing laps in the job market's icy waters waiting for the glacial-like financial services company to tell me what's going on with the contract I applied for, I received an e-mail from my friend who works there about a job lead with a different division. He forwarded my resume to the hiring manager and sure enough, on Monday I got a call, scheduled an interview, and went in late this morning.

Getting ready for my interview, I checked my e-mail and found an e-mail from the hiring manager for the first contract in my in-box:

"We've had an indefinite delay in our hiring. As you can imagine, budgets are tight these days. If you have another opportunity on the horizon my advice to you is to pursue it. I don't know when I'll be able to reopen my search for someone."

He offered to recommend me for any other positions that I cared to apply to within the company, which I thought was incredibly kind of him. I'll send him an e-mail on Wednesday thanking him for the update and his recommendation offer.

Now, about today's interview...

Though it feels like a year, it's only been 10 days since my second interview with the financial services company. I hadn't heard anything from them so, as job-seekers are prone to do, I began assuming the worse-case scenario: the hiring manager has had my wireless number blocked and reported me to their IT team as an adult-content spammer. This morning, however, the dark skies of delusion parted and reality shone a bright light in the form of a curt, but informative e-mail from the hiring manager:

"We'll be delayed into next week making our decision on a candidate for our Editor position. Some last minute budgeting issues."

This contract is with the institutional investment side of the company which means that despite the appearance of having autonomy to rapidly make hiring decisions, it's still part of a large group within enormous organization. So what their staff sees as full steam ahead appears to me, the job-seeker whose unemployment benefits are dwindling, as moving at little more than glacial speed.

Here's a series of photos I took back in February on a brief weekend trip to Pittsburgh, PA to visit my friends, John and Sandy, and their 2-year old daughter, Marie. I hung out with Sandy and Marie while John was at work on Saturday. We decided to get outside and play in the snow.

Sandy shows Marie how to make a snow angel in the backyard.

Marie gives it a try but doesn't seem so sure about this.

Yesterday I went to a birthday party for my Goddaughter, Gwyneth. It was a lot of fun: the kids made some origami animals, there was a Barbie-ice cream cake, and presents. Here's a few photos of the festivities:

The birthday girl!	The birthday cake.

On Friday I heard rumors that John Kerry is considering U.S. Senator Bob Graham (D-FL) as a potential running mate. I don't know a lot about the man other than to say that based on a video I saw on the Internet of him giving a speech I think he makes Kerry look peppy and energetic. This is not what Kerry needs to energize his ticket--(Remember what Joe Lieberman did for Al Gore's run!). The idea that Kerry would consider Graham signals how seriously he takes the strategic importance of the Floridia electorate in the election. Of course it also reminds me of the ballot chad fiasco in the 2000 presidential "selection" and the holiday card I made that year:

Frankly I don't think Kerry should throw away his chance at picking the best qualified running mate as a means of countering a corrupt Floridian election system. Instead he should be counting that there will be fair(er) elections using readable ballots or better yet, functioning voting machines, and all registered voters will have less restricted access to polling places. I have heard a few stories on NPR and on CNN about Florida's progress since the 2000 election toward using modern voting equipment and would have to say that it still sounds a bit uncertain that they won't screw it up again. While I think it's premature to suggest UN observers be called in, I think it's something the American electorate needs to keep their collective eyes on.

So, if I discount Graham as a potential running mate, who else is there?

My friend Brian sent me this in honor of St. Patrick's Day this week:

Earlier today I attempted to send an e-mail to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI), Gale Norton. I wanted to ask her to protect Utah's redrock canyons from energy development and off-road vehicles. The e-mail bounced back almost instantly with this error message:

"Mail for gale_norton@ios.doi.gov rejected for policy reasons."

Though I've grown accustomed to my Yahoo e-mails bouncing back as a consequence of using other people's PCs to log on to send them, this did not seem like the typical "GFY: we think you're sending spam" error message. For a moment I thought that perhaps the Secretary had created a rule in her e-mail program that automatically refuses messages from people who disagree with current department policies. Then I thought, "Nah, that's too obvious." I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and began looking for a more logical reason. Once I started digging I was quite surprised by what I found.

I had my second interview at the financial services company in Marlborough, MA tonight and I think it went pretty well. I met with the hiring manager again and we covered almost the exact material we discussed previously. I also met with an editor who works at that office and she seemed pretty nice. She's been a contractor at this company since 1999 and has worked in this group since last April.

I didn't have as good a feeling about it as after my first interview but that's probably due to the realization that if I get this job that once again, I'll have a job.

*Groan*

Even so, I still want it. I should hear from them by the end of next week.

Today I received an e-mail from the hiring manager at the financial services company I had met with last week. He invited me in for a second-round interview to meet his boss and a member of his team. The interview is on Tuesday, March 16th.

This sounds promising, wish me luck.

I had an interview for a six-month contract on Friday, March 5th, with a large financial services company. Their headquarters are in Boston, but this position is at a facility in Marlborough, about 35 miles west of Boston. I think the interview went well. The three phase project sounds pretty interesting: first, leading a team to decide the what and where of using identical data field labels across a range of product web sites which all serve slightly different groups of customers. Next, mine the sites for terminology, compile a glossary, and then help the content teams update their sites; and finally, set and implement standards for language in instructional and procedural text on all of the sites.

Okay, I'll admit it, this probably only sounds "interesting" to me.

I have several friends with children who have special educational needs. One family in particular has spent the last two years fighting with their son's school system over the development and implementation of his educational plan. The school needs this plan in place so that this six-year old boy can receive the level of educational services that he not only needs, but is entitled to under the law. His family has spent thousands of dollars for an advocate and a team of specialists to work with the school system's special education administrators but to little avail. These administrators have confounded the family with a cycle of unprofessional behavior, negligence, and simple stonewalling as a means of masking what appears to be gross incompetence. Despite the family's efforts to delicately navigate the intricate channels of the school system, educational law, and the myriad of specialists, and even entering mediation, late in 2003 they had reached what seemed to be a breaking point. Without agreement on an educational plan, the parties were deadlocked and this bright-eyed, young boy's education seemed destined to be the subject of a protracted legal battles. Then, in January of this year, in a somewhat miraculous event, they had a breakthrough and finally began making progress on his plan. While this glimmer of hope hasn't led to complete resolution, the mediation seems to be helping the process and progress is being made.

My reason for describing this situation is that about a week ago I heard from the child's mother about her concern over a pending piece of legislation in the U.S. Senate: S.1248, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Several of the provisions in this bill's current form have her absolutely livid, the two most relevant to her case are one, setting a statute of limitations on legal action that a family can take against a school system when they are dissatisfied with the services being offered; and two, preventing families who successfully sue a school system from recouping legal fees.

A lawyer died. At the same moment, the Pope also died. They arrived at the gates of heaven at the same moment. They spend the day in orientation, and as they're getting their heavenly vestments, the Pope gets a plain white toga and wings, like everyone else, and the lawyer gets much finer apparel, made of gold thread, and Gucci shoes.

Then, they get to see where they're going to live. The Pope gets what everyone else gets, a replica of a Holiday Inn room, and the lawyer gets an 18 room mansion with servants and a swimming pool.