Reflections after a Year

Lure of Big Paycheck Tugs at Graduates

After coming home from work at 10:30 PM tonight, this article resonated with me. It discusses graduates of elite colleges taking the position at a consulting firm or hedge fund as the safe option. A year ago when I accepted my offer with a consulting firm, I saw it as an opportunity to gain experience in software development. I've certainly done that, but I can't help feeling constrained, stressed, and a little directionless at times. Mostly it's because I get stuck in the details after long hours in the Dev Room.

At times, I struggled at Lawrence too, and in the end, it was the best decision I ever made. I was able to grow in any direction I pleased from putting together a radio show to solving abstract math problems. It just took time to figure it out.

I'm passionate about public transportation, fascinated by digital media, love writing, and growing an interest in usability. One day I'll figure out a way to put those together, until then I'll keep looking for places to grow where I am, and as long as those are present I'll make it through the week.

I graduated last June, it has taken a while to remember that a year is not a long time.

INTP

In training, last August, amidst the flurry of activities we had to take a personality test. 70 questions and 15 minutes, then it shows you 4 letters and an accompanying paragraph for each letter. These four letters are you Myers-Briggs personality.

"INTP," it said.

Fine, so I've seen this before, myself summed up in one phase like when I was described as "crazy awesome."1 

Although, this was little different, I had to spend the next hour in an mega-conference room hearing a personality expert elaborate on those four letters and their permutations. I'm pretty adverse to training in these settings - a energized presenter, flanked on both sides by over sized screens that are illuminated by a powerpoint presentation, rhapsodizes to the audience and their reflective glasses about some dry topic.

Naturally, my arms were crossed and my mind wandered as I slouched in my chair. Slides and colors changed, and I sighed. Then we were moving. Feet shuffled, chairs growled, and audible rumble could be heard over the presenter shouting, "'I's on the left. 'E's on the right." In his black turtleneck his arms spun about directing traffic from the glaring stage.

Then that rumble moved. It moved along with the crowded to the right side. There they were chatting away. Asked a few questions to describe the other side of the room. Then, the exercise went on and we tried other letter combinations. As it went on, those four letters began to grow on me. Eventually, I gave up my perceptions and accepted the four letters, INTP, when I realized it's my preference not who I am. 

I can act like an Extrovert every once and a while, but prefer to be Introverted. Being an introverted consultant doesn't always quite fit, but understanding that I am helps me work around it when need be at happy hours or other events. 

Training pays off sometimes.

1 No citation needed. Common knowledge.

Bike DC

Bicycling magazine recently rated Washington DC the most improved bicycle city. With the new bicycle sharing program SmartBike, a single speed self-service bike rental, and increased bike lanes, the District is taking the steps in the right direction; however, at this point, I'm an experienced road cyclists, and I don't feel confident on the DC streets. The current bike lanes end abruptly and fail to connect with one another, cars park in the lanes or don't look while taking right turns, other cyclists disobey traffic signals creating a distrust between cyclists amongst motorists, and the multi-use paths aren't wide enough to accommodate joggers and cyclists. All in all it's nice to see the city gain support for cycling and get recognized for their first of many efforts. One day I hope to experience an extensive system of paths with physical barriers between the road; for now, to celebrate the first step I will observe Bike to Work Day on Friday May 16th, and the MS Ride that weekend. Thanks for all your support on the ride.

---

I was on the phone with the client the other day. After a quick thought started, there as a small pause, and he asked "Charles, I hope you don't mind, but how old are you?"

Blindly I replied "22."

He let out a short string of laughs, and said "Wow. You'll go far." 

Startling, but it was a nice compliment.

---

Last week I gave a presentation on web usability to my project team entitled "A Presentation: Don't Make Me Think" (The title comes from Advanced Common Sense). I put it together a little last minute - changed thoughts in mid-sentence or twirled my arms a bit like a dinosaur at times - but went well in the end. I'm going to work on sharpening it, perfecting the art, and giving it as a Brown Bag lunch.

Veronica and Claire are coming this weekend and planning on going to the Newseum.  Troy has already been.

April 21 - 27 2008 was the official Turn Off Your TV week; unfortunately I missed it. I will observe it this week starting yesterday.

Career Moves

A little over a year ago, when I was sent an info packet about Deloitte there was an exert from Business Week - The Best Places to Launch a Career - that ranked Deloitte #3. 

"Great," I thought, but that was all I thought. 

I never took a deep analysis to what it meant for them to be #3, or why they would send me this article. This word, career, has been used, talked about, presented throughout the year - "It's your career; take ownership. Mass Career Customization." However, now, as I've just begun the year-end process and started to look back on this year and forward to many that will come, I'm thrown directly into this conversation. 

What does the word mean to me. I must have this strange definition of the word Career, one that doesn't fit me, one that makes me take a stuttering breath to digest my thoughts before discussing it with my colleagues: careers are what parents, friends parents, managers, or business majors have. I'm just attempting something I'm interested in, something that challenges me to think critically - is that a career?

I don't want to sound pretentious here, building a career is great, but I've decided to define career and my interpretation of the word career. My career is not my vocation, my career is the skill set I bring to the table and how I want to use those skills.

I'm not to going measure my goals in benchmarks or highlights; I'm going to take a day to day approach. My career goal is that I constantly put myself in a position to grow my skill set, and stay open to new opportunities that will put me in those positions. I want to consistently take on new challenges. My five year plan is to improve and stay interested in what I'm doing everyone of those days. 

That is one thing nice about consulting all those opportunities are with one company.  In the end, this post kind of makes me want to gag, but I'm not going to lie and say "five years from now I want to be a tech lead or functional lead." One day I'll have to look further down the path, but for now, I'm happy saying that I'm not going become stagnant or take a step back. I'm going to keep progressing and see where that goes; so far it's gone a long way in eight months - since July 30.

This week

This week started with a federal holiday turned training event for us. We received name tags with a colored dot on them. The color of the dot corresponded to the color table we should sit at for the morning session. The idea to network. The usual games, find what you have in common. I found that I had nothing in common with them. "We all own cars, right?" "Oh oh of course. We're not crazy, write it down." "Ah, actually I don't."

"We are all the oldest sibling." "No, I'm the youngest."

"We all came from the big four." "No, I just graduated."

Annoyed by my unintentional nay-saying, the conversation turned to me listing my traits trying to find some agreement. "Saw Juno? No. Read Kite Runner? No. Hm. Read the paper daily? No. Lived in another country? No... Like baby carrots?" In the end we found some, but nothing remarkable enough to compete for the most unique, which should have been won by the all participated in Rocky Horror picture show table.

At the end of the day, around 1pm after a free lunch, we were released. All in all, I spent 6 hours in Bethesda, MD and arrived home to take a midday nap. I miss naps.

This week is Jeporady Teen Tournament - garbage.

Netflix allows you to have friends, share your queue, make recommendations etc... No thanks. I don't need someone judging me about my tastes in movies. I'll keep that private and hidden in the gaudy red envelopes that arrive weekly.

Training schedule for this week:

Monday: Rest day. Yes. (0 minutes)

Tuesday: Walk 1 minute, run 8 minutes, three times (24 minutes)

Wednesday: Walk 1 minute, run 9 minutes, three times (30 minutes)

Thursday: Walk 1 minute, run 9 minutes, four times (40 minutes)

Friday: Rest day. I like rest days. (0 minutes)

Saturday: Walk 1 minute, run 11 minutes, four times (48 minutes)

Sunday: Walk 1 minute, run 14 minutes, twice (30 minutes)

Storage Closet

I had to leave work today so I could make it home before the metro closed.

Work Life Balance

Work-Life Balance - one phrase I'll never be fooled by again.

My bed

I spent a week sleeping on the floor. Now I have a bed. I love my bed. My best investment ever. Recently, I've gotten into the habit of misplacing everything: ATM card, iPod, headphones, carrots,.... It makes life difficult. I'm glad that I can't misplace my bed. Some people might be curious to see this.

I can't say that I'm proud.

Vocabulary

Training is over. That means I've learned something. Whether that something is useful will probably be a question I'll struggle with over the next two years.

Let me share the new vocabulary I've learned:

Networking (v.) - Drinking on the weekdays, typically at an open bar that only serves beer and cheep wine.

Staffed (v.) - to have ability to charge hours to the client.

Deck (n.) - a printed version of a PowerPoint slide, commonly for a proposal. Each slide should to look like it was worth $400/hour, regardless if that is the true value of the information it conveys.

PowerPoint (n.) - Everyone's favorite program, where templates don't work the way they should.

Add Value (phrase) - a catch all saying that describes what we're supposed to do.

I'll have to look into that. (phrase) - answer to a question that you didn't understand, but might be valid; however, there is a high probability that the question is gibberish.

Solving Complex Business Problems (phrase) - making PowerPoint presentations.

Mornings and Jobs

I was in a foul mood this morning. Everything was on par with normal: I woke up, didn't talk to anyone, had coffee, watched Sportscenter, avoided eye contact with the custodian, and showered. Showers normally wash away my frustration, but not today; the warm water seemed to pierce and chip away at my skin, maybe the water was extra hard today. I spent the rest of today at WLFM. On Monday I sent my resume to a Lawrence alum; today I got a follow up interview from a college recruiter for his company. Good sign - I think. I replied right away. The position is in Washington DC. I don't know how I feel about DC. It has a high crime rate, and feels segregated. Anyways, those were my impressions after I visited in 7th grade.

A job is a job, and I need something that will get me started. I continue to find articles predicting that the job market is strong for entry level positions. This is contrary to how most Lawrence seniors feel right now. For the most part companies direct us to their website where we submit our gleaming resumes into a black hole of a database. The first time I submitted a resume online, I felt like I had accomplished something. I took up the process in an excited frenzy. I spent spring break scanning hundreds of jobs, soaking in each line of the descriptions and requirements. Finally a match. I scurried to hit apply. Page after page, I filled in personal info, professional info, miscellaneous info, info on info, until I was at page 172 of 172 where I was instructed to review my application before officially submitting it. I meticulously overlooked each part of my application, triple checked my resume, and stared at the submit button for an eternity. Then, in an exhilarating instant, I clicked it - the page reloaded, only to leave me with a long winded thanks. Then silence. Nothing. No email, no gmail. Nothing. No yes, no No. For several days I waited, but the only response I received was that long winded thanks. It was after that I decided that applying online was not how anyone got a job; I was only going to get a job by banging on doors, asking alumni to give me a job, applying to any career center job, talking to family friends, and then repeat. Repeat. Repeat. The best part of being an undergrad are the options, you can be any major and do anything; however, upon graduation you have three options: Repeat, starve, or live at home. I guess I 'll continue to Repeat - banging on doors until someone lets me in.