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#5293 – 198 days to go

busy busy busy. just finished writing 2 reports (one was 10 pages, the other was 14 pages). thankfully things should quiet down a little bit now that those two are out of the way.

the 14-page report was the second of three different assignments for my interaction design class (we only have the three assignments in that class, nothing else is graded), and we have to have a B or better on both of our two personal reports for that class (the third report is a group project). i got a 100% on my first personal report, and my group got a 100% for the first third of our group project (though that doesn’t really count, since that grade is just to let us know if we’re on the right track). it’ll be sweet if i can pull out an A in this class, though. then my GPA will go from a 3.0 to a 3.14.

the spring schedule of classes just came out a few days ago. i’ve got the three courses i want to take figured out, i just need to wait until friday to register: project management, information architecture for the web, and systems and information integration. the semester ends on may 12, so now it’s only 198 days left to go before i’m done. 🙂

i’m really looking forward to going to portland in january; picked up a travel guide and have been reading through it for ideas of things to see while i’m there. haven’t really brought it up elsewhere yet, though.

work is stressful. well, not really. more of a pain in the ass. my team of 3 people + our manager is going to be taking over processing some payments that were previously performed by other departments. there’s a few dozen of these payments we’re taking over, and they’re all being given to us simultaneously. the thing is, we don’t think these other departments have been doing their tasks correctly, so we need to pretty much start from scratch. the problem is that starting from scratch means writing new queries and figuring out the processes from the current teams (who aren’t all that keen on telling us about the current processes), and since i’m the one person on our team with the most SQL experience all of the query writing is on my shoulders, and i have this nasty feeling that if i were to make a mistake in my queries so things aren’t calculated correctly then it’s the boot for me. i mean, we’re dealing with millions and millions of dollars – i’ve paid out about $2.6MM already since starting this position about 8 months ago – and when you’re dealing with millions and millions of someone else’s money they probably don’t take too kindly to calculating things like that incorrectly. so, after a call late last week with a lady whose tasks we’ve started to take over and feeling a little shell-shocked, my boss asked me “what’s wrong? you look tired” and i told her how i didn’t feel tired, just really overwhelmed. we’re getting the information we need in bits and pieces from the previous teams, i’m basically being charged with creating the logic for these payments, and i feel like if i make one mistake then i get the boot. i feel like if i were paid more it wouldn’t be as much of a pain in the butt, but that’s unlikely to happen. but, who knows? HR had a focus group with various members of different finance teams, and asked us questions about what we liked and didn’t like about our management, and what could be done to improve communication and collaboration between teams, and what sort of changes we would like to see, and we were all pretty much in agreement that more cash would be great. i’m kind of disappointed that i didn’t pull a jerry maguire and say “show me the money” during that meeting. oh well.

tomorrow i get a 2 TB drive in the mail… hey, it was only $99 shipped, and i couldn’t pass up that deal. the plan is to try upgrading the hard drive in my imac – in order to get at the insides, i have to use suction cups (that also arrive tomorrow) and lift the glass front up (it’s held in place with magnets [how do they work?]), flip over the LCD screen, and voila! there’s the hard drive and all the other electronic bits. replace hard drive, put the screen back into place, replace the glass front. simple, right?

This entry was originally posted at http://oboe-sama.dreamwidth.org/1367655.html.

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#5292 – family circus

what do i know about clearwater, florida? only that it’s basically scientology headquarters (yuk), and that for the past week or so one of my cousins (on my mom’s side of the family) is in a treatment center there for eating disorders. :/ she’s maybe a junior in high school, and from what i’ve heard she’s down to about 80 lbs, but at least now that she’s in this center she’s been receptive to treatment. it’s the sort of place where you can’t even go to the bathroom unattended (which is understandable when you think about what people do when they’ve got an eating disorder), and even though she hasn’t been withdrawn from school yet, it sounds like she’s going to have to repeat junior year of school and stay in treatment for a few months. mom said that she saw my cousin back in august and she looked like a skeleton, and since my cousin really enjoys the company of her friends, mom was saying there’s no telling what being separated from her school friends will be like when they graduate and go on to college and she doesn’t. on the bright side, my cousin’s treatment center is only about a 2-hour drive away from where her family lives in florida, (which i guess is kind of unusual? from hearing everyone talk about how great it is that it’s “only” 2 hours away, it sounds like eating disorder treatment centers are hard to find), and apparently she’s got a friend who’s also at this same treatment center (which i don’t think says much about her choice in friends if that’s what they’re into. :/ ).

yesterday grandmother and grandaddy came over to celebrate dad’s birthday (his birthday was last week, but we brought anne back from school to visit and celebrate at the same time too), and when they heard about it, grandmother was saying how for a little while she suspected that two of my cousins on my dad’s side of the family were starting to develop an eating disorder in their teens by emulating their older sister… she said that they had gone out to a buffet for dinner and my cousins ate and ate and ate and ate, then both excused themselves to the bathrooms, and came back and ate and ate and ate and ate some more, a lot more than what kids could reasonably be expected to eat. then, some time later (months, or years, i’d expect), they went out to dinner again at a buffet but this time after they returned to the table they could only eat a little bit more, so grandmother was saying how she thinks my aunt caught on to what they were doing and told them they shouldn’t be copying their older sister that way, and since then they’ve been fine.

no idea how true that second story is, but now it’s got me thinking that “man, i’m skinny, and i’m not doing anything like that, but what does the rest of the family think about me??” 😛

i hate to sound callous since i know a lot of it is due to depression and self esteem and so on, but it’s mindboggling to me how/why/etc this would seem like an ok thing to do. but then again, with my build, i’ve never looked at myself in the mirror and thought that i needed to lose a few pounds, so perhaps i shouldn’t be passing judgement.

in other family news, my great-aunt and great-uncle stopped by the other day to pick up a walker we have for my great-uncle to use after this hip surgery he’s scheduled to have soon, and mom was filling them in on family details, and it sounds like another family on my mom’s side of the family isn’t doing so well; my uncle took a job some months ago that involved commissions, but he doesn’t have many commissions coming in, and either it’s not paying well now or he’s now truly unemployed. apparently for several months he was getting on my aunt (mom’s sister) to get a job (she was already taking care of my cousins, and since one of them is autistic that was like a full-time job in itself), and when she finally got a job my uncle’s reaction was “well it’s about time”. so, uncle either has a job that doesn’t pay or doesn’t have a job at all, and aunt has a job that pays little and is very stressful. mom was telling great-aunt and great-uncle that her sister said that she’d like a job that would pay enough to support her and her kids, but mom didn’t mention anything about my uncle. so it sounds like they’re in a rather rough patch now. :/

speaking of jobs, i haven’t applied to that position at work i mentioned in my last post yet, plan to do that either tomorrow or wednesday.

and speaking of later this week, i do believe that’s when i’ll buy my ticket to visit and explore portland. i’m thinking of making my trip from january 19th through the 24th instead of returning on the 23rd, since whatever day i return is going to be really a travel day all day. i wouldn’t be able to get any exploring / visiting done on that sunday (a day when people are likely to have off), so it’d make sense to have my all-day travel day be on monday when people are likely to be working and so on, and the airfare costs the same. so, bonus day! one more day of using vacation time, and one more day of staying in a hotel, but eh, no big deal.

also, friday = cinematic titanic!

This entry was originally posted at http://oboe-sama.dreamwidth.org/1367412.html.

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#5291 – an opportunity

i was browsing the internal job openings at work today, and i found a position that i might apply to:

Job Title: Consultant-Sales Ops

Full/Part Time: Full-Time

Regular/Temporary: Regular

Employee Posting Information

Band: D

Please Apply Before 10/14/2010.

Responsibilities

This role is responsible for developing processes, coordinating resources, and implementing large projects for government customers. Success will be accomplished through expert level knowledge of Verizon Wireless products, services, systems, customer support structure, and business processes; and through effective project management. The consultant will manage special projects, device, and service needs for Enterprise & Government Customers. This position requires local travel within the WBV Region and some National travel.

Qualifications

Duties to include the following:

  • Manage special projects associated with Government Contracts.
  • Ensure adherence to and accurate completion of all required implementation procedures.
  • Coordinate resources across all departments and regions in support of customer projects.
  • Proactively partner with GSC (Government Support Center) and ensure alignment of all internal project tasks including assignment of support teams, development of profiles, and ongoing support of contract deliverables.
  • Create a superb Customer Experience by collaborating with all cross-functional departments to ensure accounts are set up correctly prior to customer deployment (i.e. price plan build, feature conditioning, bill changes, profiles, EWI, VEC and MyBiz).
  • Develop and analyze ongoing operational improvements to increase efficiency relating to the overall project process.
  • Partner with the E&G Reporting and Analytics team to ensure reporting is accurate and timely based on contract deliverables.
  • Ensure compliance with Verizon Wireless business policies.
  • Ensure all projects meet deadlines, budget, and quality goals while ensuring utilization of quality principles and appropriate methodologies.
  • This position requires travel, up to 50%.

    Qualifications

  • Knowledge of Verizon Wireless’ Enterprise and Government contracts.
  • Excellent written and oral communication skills.
  • Proficiency in the following applications: ECPD / EWI, VISION, TSI, ACSS, SFA, SHOPP, VEC, My Business, Microsoft Office.
  • Ability to work under time constraints, to meet strict deadlines, and to multitask.
  • Prior experience with field sales organizations & project management.
  • Knowledge of project management applications: Microsoft Project, Visio, SharePoint.
  • Knowledge of Enterprise & Government (B2B) operational processes and procedures.
  • Strong analytical / problem solving skills.
  • Must be results oriented, self motivated and able to operate independently as well as with a team.
  • Bachelor level degree or equivalent work experience.
  • National Account and Government Account experience is preferred.

    ———-

    i know a lot of that is going to seem like alphabet soup to you, but 99% of that job description and position requirements apply to me, which made me sit up and take notice and start to think about applying.

    the good: it’s in the next pay band, so hello pay raise. i’m also rather interested in project management, and so this seems like it’d be a good way to get to what i’d like to do. and that bit about partnering with the reporting and analytics team? right now i AM that team (well, me and two other people and our supervisor), so i know what’s expected on that front.

    the bad: it’s a bit intimidating. what if i apply and end up getting the job? i like my team, and while i’d like to try something new and don’t want to be writing sql queries forever, i don’t really mind the work i do right now. i wish there was a sort of stepping-stone, associate project manager position instead. i wonder what sort of management structure is in place for this position? i guess these are the sorts of questions i could ask during the interview, but if i’m second-guessing myself about it i wonder if it’s appropriate for me?

    This entry was originally posted at http://oboe-sama.dreamwidth.org/1367143.html.

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    #5290 – a dud

    went to that information session with xerox today after work, and it was pretty much a bust. i got there around 5:30 (it was scheduled from 4-6) and by that time the session was all but over, though the host of the event was still there to talk to people individually. i introduced myself, and from talking with him i learned:

    – they’re really looking for enginners, not information systems folks

    – even though the invite said to bring your résumé, they weren’t taking résumés at this event (“it’s all electronic now”, he said… “just submit it online”)

    – when they do review résumés for positions, they look at 3 things: a. what school you’re from (there are 25 top schools they especially look for, and umbc is one of those 25), b. your major, and c. your gpa

    i didn’t even get any free pizza, that was all gone by the time i got there. “oh yeah,” the guy said when i talked with him about it, “this place was packed earlier, folks were out in the hallway, too. it was a feeding frenzy.”

    this evening i got another email from the umbc career center:

    Hello Glenn,

    General Electric will be at UMBC on Wednesday, October 13 to host their Corporate Visibility Day. As a student who fits their profile, they have asked the Career Center to personally invite you to attend their day on campus. Details are below; you are encouraged to RSVP via the Events-Information Session tab in UMBCworks.

    i’m on to your game now, umbc career center. flattery will get you nowhere! …besides, this event is scheduled from 2-4 PM, and i’ll be at work at that time.

    This entry was originally posted at http://oboe-sama.dreamwidth.org/1366816.html.

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    #5289 – a date

    tomorrow i have a date with xerox. actually, i was kind of bribed and hoodwinked into going. a few days ago i got an email from umbc’s career center that said, well:

    Glenn:

    Due to your academic excellence, Xerox (http://www.xeroxstudentcareers.com/) would like to invite you to attend their intern and full-time information session that is being held THIS TUESDAY at UMBC. Paid summer internships along with full-time opportunities will be shared.

    how about that! “academic excellence”! they think i’m smart! and also in that same email, the bribe:

    FREE PIZZA AND BEVERAGES- BRING YOUR RESUME

    Don’t forget to RSVP in UMBCworks- Go to the Homepage on UMBCworks, click on Events, and search via Information Sessions.

    so, since 99% of the career events are on campus during the day when i’m at work, and since i’d be able to attend this one after getting out of work for the day, i figured i might as well check it out, and free pizza is a bonus. i tried to see yesterday about rsvp’ing for the event (hey, it says to!), but when i tried to rsvp through umbc’s career center site it said that my account was disabled and to contact student services to have it reactivated. called today and they asked me if i was an alumni (no, i’m a graduate student), and they had their tech guy talk to me a little bit and he got things working again. i’m not sure if it was because i started at umbc as an undergrad and left to go to umuc, but it also sounded like he was having some trouble with the site in general. he said that you don’t always need to rsvp, but when i said that the invite i got said specifically to rsvp, he checked to make sure my account was working by rsvp’ing me for the information session. no big deal since i planned to go anyway.

    here’s the part where i was hoodwinked:

    i got another email today from umbc’s career center that was more of a mass-email about upcoming career center events, and what’s on there? yup, you guessed it. and here i was thinking that it was because i’m a special snowflake. oh well.

    This entry was originally posted at http://oboe-sama.dreamwidth.org/1366543.html.