Closing the Year

The last two months have been very intense for me.

The reason is...that...I finally finished my masters' program!  It was very close, extreme, agonizing, and overwhelming.

What I learned was that I really enjoyed my classes throughout my studies, but as they weren't as intense as the last class.  The intensity of the last class was so staggering that if I had that class anywhere else in the schedule, I might have thought about giving up.

I feel very triumphant.

I had planned on going on to my doctorate studies next year, but I am really inspired to do some catching up.  It is kind of funny that I feel like I don't know what to do now that I have free time after work, instead of rushing home to do homework.

I am a glutton for punishment, though.  I am going to take some classes here and there to study things that I have great interests.  I found a great deal on some online classes for webdesign and applications.  I have always wanted to really learn programming and such.  It is a side interest I have.

I have some business ideas that I want to try and I need a little more background.

I am very excited to get onto my next adventure and see what I can do with these new ideas.

I am still at my place of employment, from since July.  I am getting very acclimated here, and I don't know if that is good or bad.

It is really hard to work around the holidays, though.  No one works well when they see most offices closed for the two weeks.  It feels like this whole area is a school area, because traffic is 20-30 percent of what is usually is during the week.  I am getting way too used to it.  I also felt a bit jealous of all these offices closing for the the two weeks.  The parking lot is almost empty.  I feel like the office I work in is the only one opened between two buildings.  I don't see all the people I usually see.  I don't even smell the breakfast smells in the lobby, as the building's restaurant is closed for the holiday week or so.

Yeah, it kind of makes me jealous.

Looking back at the date of the last post, I have to mention that I went to my very first company party.  I only remember company parties at my first office job years and years ago.  Since then, I only remember having a party at the office throughout my work life.  This was the first dress up, out of office party I attended.  It was nice but I still felt new among coworkers.  It was in a golf club in a haughty taughty area I had never been to before.  It was nice in that it helped start the holiday spirit for the month, even though I had a lot of homework every weekend during the season.  It was hard and I hope that doesn't happen again.  Food was great.  Steak and seafood.  Plus early time off, which I always look forward to-getting out early, especially when it is slow.

I am looking forward to the new year and also getting out early again on NYE.  Plans?  Not this year as it seems I have a sinus infection that showed up today.  I can hardly breath and I am working because one of our people is out on vacation.  Who gets vacation during the holidays?  I am looking forward to cuddling in bed and getting some major rest.  Probably be up late for the fireworks and neighborhood noise.

Three Months Down, Looking Good, Fighting Hard, Getting Somewhere

I think that should be a title of a song one day.  It should also be the title of the second biography if they ever have one about me. 

The title of my first biography should be "I'm Not A Hopeless Case," inspired by U2's "Beautiful Day."  There is a line in the middle refrain that ends with, "Teach me, I know I'm not a hopeless case."  There's an explanation for that title, but that's for another blog post.

This time, I have 3 months down and still going.  I don't hate my job like I did last time.  I am content because I know I will be there for a while, all a while to get things going in life. 

And I can say that things are getting along, although not without a fight. 

I mentioned before that school had been delayed, not by my life but mainly by problems with the school.  Now, I can finally say that I am at my final last two classes.  Instead of just getting a Masters' degree, I am going to also get a Graduate Certificate in Human Resources.  I am happy about that, but tired of having to fight for the little things that need to get done.

This also happened with buying a newer car.  I knew it was going to be tough, I didn't think it would be two days of waiting, signing, and signing again.  But I can't complain about the car, other than I hate the color.  Unfortunately, I am not at the point in my professional life that I can say either it is my way or the highway. 

But I am happy that goals are being accomplished and that having wheels has really helped me accomplish a lot in the few weeks I have had it.  It's been a long time since I have had working wheels.  It is nice to feel the freedom to go and do things without waiting in line to use someone else's car.  Or not getting things done at all.  Plus, I love singing and I love to sing when I drive.  Yes, and practice makes perfect. 

I am finishing up school, but I was almost a week late, which is quite late since I could not access my classes until the first week's assignment was due.  I am pulling a 4.0 right now and I don't want anything to cause problems.  I would like to leave the school with a 4.0.  That is my goal. 

I had to write a long and strongly worded letter to the administration about not getting into class.  I was besides myself, not knowing what to do, because I was told that I could not continue my classes because of financing problems with my account, which were not brought up by me, but by the lack of communication with my advisor. 

After I wrote the letter, I received a response and then, the next day, I was let into the classes.  I felt like I won a big fight for once.  I have actually been feeling pretty good about some of the barriers and confrontations I have been having.  Either I win by being right, or I leave it alone and win.  It's a win-win situation. 

I have been weening myself off a paper calendar and working hard with my tablet.  It's amazing what some of those apps can do.  But there are some that I wish I knew how to create so I could have a better app to serve my needs.

I will be signing up for the local community college to take some classes I have always wanted to take.  I also have to decide where I will continue my doctorate education.  I have a lot in mind next year and if things go as well as they have so far, I might actually get things done for once. 

Really, What Should Be Taught In School?

As much as I would not consider myself a social media fiend, I have recently wound up working a lot on social media, to do some volunteer promoting for my own entertainment blogs and helping another website promote, also.

One of the things I do like about social media is the sharing of quotes.  I love quotes.  It's one of my favorite things.  I love to take those quotes and use them for my own personal life.  It's nice to be able to put a very mindful thought in such few words.

I found this quote, and it kind of bothered me.  It was a quote about some of the things that should be taught in school.  It started to list things like cooking, ironing, balancing a checkbook, various things like that.  Things that may not have value in the workforce unless you become a cook, seamstress, or designer, etc., but things that people nowadays take complete advantage of not knowing.

When I responded to my friend who had posted this, I took a look back at the whole list, checking off everything I knew how to do or I had experience with, and then responded accordingly.  I mentioned that most of those things were taught by my parents and at church.  The only thing that I was taught at school was taxes only because I took a tax class for accounting.

It's been a few weeks since I saw that quote and I was thinking about it again today.  I have or know quite a few people in my own church who teach at school.  Someone asked me what I'm studying and what I was going to do with that degree.  When people ask me about my degree and I tell them what I am studying, they automatically assume that I'm going into education because it's the degree that people in education usually study.  That was not my path.  I had thought about teaching a long time ago, but I really don't like having my hands tied to follow regulations when I may feel that I can do something better.  I am the kind of person that will follow rules and regulations for the most part.  But if I know that there something that will help me, I will go and do it.  I've learned that sometimes you have to do something and apologize or repent later, as we call it.

So going back to this quote.  I was thinking about it today and thinking that no, that stuff should not be taught in schools.  I never took home economics because I didn't need to.  My mother taught me how to cook.  Now, I know that not everyone is brought up by a mother.  But I truly believe in the idea that it takes a village to raise a child. What that means to me with this quote is that we all need to help each other.  I really don't think cooking should be taught in school.  I think it should be taught at home.  Or if you are on the streets maybe your pals know how to cook outside.  There will always be an excuse why someone doesn't have a home and believe me, I am extremely sympathetic towards that situation, as I have been homeless before.  But, I believe we have a social and moral responsibility to each other.  If parents are not around to teach, a neighbor, friend, or mentor should take that responsibility to teach the basic things of life.  And if you don't know how to do it that means you need to learn from somebody else.  We should all be sharing this kind of stuff.  There is nothing here that can be claimed as ownership by one person. 

After thinking about the though, it occurred to me that I should teach a class on the weekends on how to sew a button.  It might be something I can start in January.  Sounds like a good idea.

In school, did have home economics and I guess they still have it nowadays.  I did learn how to do some sewing in school back in the day when things like that were taught.  I had already learned elsewhere, though.  The only thing I learned at school was how to do my taxes because I took a tax class for accounting.  Someone who's not interested in accounting should learn how to or should take a class in simple taxes. 

I think we're so conditioned to try to make so much money so that we would don't have to do that kind of medial work.  I remember having a conversation with a coworker about how he was studying accounting and that he didn't know how to change the tire.  I told him that he should learn how to do that kind of stuff, and asked him what happens when the car breaks down?  He said that he would be so rich that he would pay for someone to fix it.

I think we all have dreams of being so rich that somebody else takes care of us. That would be really nice.  Most of us are not born with a silver spoon.  Most of us need to take care of ourselves or even wind up taking care of other people.  Most of us have to work hard to get somewhere.  It's call appreciating work.  I don't think all of these things that people take for granted like cooking should be taught in school unless you want to be a chef.  I don't think so sewing should be taught unless you want to go into designing.  I don't think changing a flat tire should be taught in school unless you become a mechanic.  I don't think it is the responsibility that schools take over the things that people should be teaching each other to survive.  But to learn all of this and other little things that people don't know how to do should be taught to by each other.  We should be teaching our neighbors, friends, kids across the street how to do these things.  It might keep people out of trouble. 

And I'm willing to do so.  I can pretty much do the whole list although I've never tried to change the tire yet.  But with all the information we have online nowadays, it can't be that hard.  There are videos on how to cook.  There are videos on how to take care of the car.  If you can't find someone to teach you, go online.  Teaching each other as a way that we take care of the people around us.

That I know how to do a lot of the stuff makes me feel little bit richer where I think it counts. 

Which One Should You Believe?

Now with a stable job for the time being, I can get to writing about things that I think are important and have relevance to my work and studies.  

The biggest news or one of the biggest news this week has been the eye-opening article about how employees or former employees, feel about a major, world-wide company.

I really haven't read the original article but I have read a lot of articles that have taken snippets of the original article to post their own ideas.

According to this article, which I can link later, employees tell stories about how management in Amazon takes care (or doesn't care about) their employees.  It is kind of hard to believe that because Amazon is such a big company.  But you never hear about Amazon having free lunches or playing games inside Amazon offices.  I guess that should be one of the bells about Amazon especially when you hear so much about other bit companies that do offer interesting perks (Netfix).  I never hear one thing about the perks of working at Amazon.  Yet people want to work for Amazon because it's such a big name and looks good on a resume.  Even I have applied for Amazon a few times.

My first experience with this human resource mess was an article on LinkedIn from an employee. The article went through the original article stating things and contradicting things that were stated in the original article.  The problem is that the employee is in upper management.  Of course the view is different when you are management than if you are a regular employee.

It made me think about what I think about various places that I have worked.

For example, when I worked for an inventory service, I thought it was the best company in the world.  Even though it was no startup or IT company, I thought it was the best thing I ever encountered in my life.  The reason I thought so, was that I was out of work for 2 1/2 years so being hired was a blessing.  I was there for four years and I enjoyed the majority of it.  Many say that the schedule was the hardest thing about it, but you stay there because you love the people.  I never thought that I was being treated bad, although I am sure that there have been problems and a couple of class-action suits.  But those class-action suits came against something that happened to a few people.  Still, I would never say that this company was a horrific place to work.  I know there are people who hate this company.  I know that there are people who would never work there again whereas I would go back in an instant if I knew they would pay me enough to live.  I would defend it to the end. 

On the other hand, I have worked for a couple of companies this last year where the company makes a lot of money, people talk wonderfully about the company, and I just sat there thinking this is the worst place I could've ever worked for.  I found a lot of faults with the companies, took notes, pictures and recorded a few meetings. 

What I'm saying is that for up to a point, the view of what you think about the company depends on you.  Although, some of those things that were stated in the original article about Amazon were a nightmare for me to read about, as someone in human resources.  There's another side to all of that.
I'm learning that even though human resources has to be the watchdog, and everything comes back to human resources, depending on the culture of the company, sometimes the executive management will try to override the procedures to allow employees or customers to be satisfied. It's business, which I understand.

Some of the more interesting things I've been reading are the comments about to these articles.  One of them was interesting because everyone who was against the horrible things that were reported, had particular comments about the CEO.  They stated that the CEO, who had given either an interview or wrote an article, to retort or comment about the original article, knew the culture and that it was his fault that the culture was following the path that had found its way to this particular article.  I find it interesting because I can say that the culture of the company that I worked for four years, the CEO was so far away from the company, that he would not have had a hand in how the culture formed.  I think, and we study it this way, that the top management does have a hand, and the research and studies have theorized that all culture comes from the top.  That's not always the case.  It is supposed to work that way, with procedures and processes.  I argue that if the CEO so far away from the company especially something as worldwide as Amazon, that you can put in procedures, you can put in measurements, you can put in goals, but you can't always control the culture of the company.  I know this for fact because I worked for company whose culture was different with every single office.  I would warn my new hires.  I would tell them that the culture in one city is completely different than another office and that as soon as you stepped into the office, you could tell that it was different.  There was no way that the CEO or anybody past the district manager or even the regional manager could have a say in how the culture was formed.  Sometimes the cultures formed just by having a majority of an ethnic group.  They're going to bring their own culture into the company.

So whether or not I believe that the CEO of Amazon or the executives of the company knew about the culture, they should've known about the various things were happening in the company.  But an article out there stated people are afraid of losing their jobs, which is why they don't tell.  Fear of not finding a job is a real thing.  I have experienced longer than I want to remember.  Nowadays, it has been said by many people now and I truly believe it-that the tide is turning from employers to employees.  It is becoming the employees arena and it is better for job searchers to find a job.  They have their pick of jobs.  It may not be a job with Amazon or Google or any other top companies, but you can find a relatively similar job for companies around nowadays.

The other side of this is as a customer; are you happy with Amazon?  I have to say yes I am for the most part.  But it doesn't matter to me if I get my packaging in two days or one day.  Amazon isn't my first place shopping place.  Even though there are companies out there that aren't as big as Amazon, I do a lot of shopping elsewhere.  There are better prices on things that Amazon doesn't have any more.  I also don't trust a lot of sellers on Amazon.  It's nice that Amazon has included outside sellers but it's also not one of my favorite things.

The only way that anything would happen is if half of us stop shopping Amazon.  Is that going to happen?  I highly doubt it.  Amazon is too easy to shop and too many people have the desire to get what they want asap.  Amazon delivers that way.

So what can anybody do?  I guess a class-action can happen against the company.  It does open the ideas and minds of people that are starting to make sure that their employees are treated as human beings.  Hearing that a building was so hot that they didn't fix or couldn't fix the air conditioning but had emergency vehicles just in case?  That is absolutely ridiculous.  What's wrong with getting a bunch of fans?  Unless the electricity was out.  No one had windows?  I don't know I wasn't there.  In human resources we always say: document, document, document.  If I had been in the situation I would've started taking videos.  I would've taken pictures.  I would have started recording conversations.

I have been known to take pictures of things that happened around me.  That's why I have a phone.  I have also recorded conversations I have had with people, and they knew it.  USE YOUR DEVICES!

Anyways, who should you believe?  It depends how you feel about your work situation.  If you think your company is wonderful, you might think that employees are out to get the big companies.  If you are or have been treated wrong at a job, you will probably believe the employees.

No company is perfect.  I hope that companies take a look at their employees and management to make sure that they are complying with federal and state laws with regards to treatment of their employees.  If Amazon learns something from this, that would be amazing and worth it.  

The orginal article: The NY Times
The Linked article: Linkedin
An interesting article: overwork
The CEO defends the company:  seattletimes.com

Almost....there...

I do not have much to say about school right now.  There was a mixup in school and in my funding that I am on a two month break out.  I hope to be starting by the end of August back into school to finish my masters because I only have one class.

The only thing I can say now is that I will probably look for another school to continue my education.  I love the classes and the teachers were wonderful.  I am having a problem with how the administration took care of my finances.  I recently had to send a very stringent letter back to finances about the classes that I was offered to complete my education.  I fear that they will not take my proposal and that I will wind up extending my graduation until the end of the year.  I hope that does not  happen.

I think it was funny that this problem happened when I was not working, although the problem has esculated as I started this new job.  I am kind of happy that I did not have school while I was looking for a job because it was very stressful to study and to look for work.  I am glad that one is happening after the other, although I was supposed to be done in April.  I should have known better when I was told that I was going to be done in April.  I should have laughed and said, yeah right.

Now I am looking for a school to continue beyond my Masters degree.  I was planning on going in next fall 2016.  If I cannot finish my classes until the end of the year, starting the doctorate might have to wait.  I also have to find another school.  But one thing at a time;  Masters, certification, and then a little break.

Nearby where I work, there is a community college that I heard about a long, long time ago.  A friend of mine years ago told me about the school and I never thought about it.  Currently, the address of where I work is very close the schoo, that it would be a short bus ride or car ride.  I looked at the catalog and found out that were a lot of classes that I would love to take.  I will probably take classes that I have always wanted to,  like computer programming, website design, music classes, maybe even some language classes and a couple of other things that I am interested in, maybe for a year.  They even have dance classes, which I am very excited about.  If I can find a place to live in there by the end of 2016 or so, I will be set for life.

I also found out that someone I know, was hired by a company that let me go back last Christmas.  She will  do great.  I did not tell her that I knew about the company and that I had worked for them.  I just hope they treat her better than I was treated.  But then again, I still feel that there was a backstabber in the company.  I think the person I know, will do okay because I do not think the company is looking for a manager, although she has managing experience.  I think if the person who backstabbed me could be the current manager then things will be okay.  Well, that manager will not feel worried about someone taking her position, although when I think back, she was a bit skittish and offsetting. 

Oh well,  I am okay with that because I am making more money than that position offered me.  I knew I would when they let me go.  Also, I work with great people.  I cannot say anything bad about the company I work for now. 

I have not been overly excited, though.  The reason is I am trying to keep my cool, I am a bit superstitious when it comes to good things that happen in my life.  I am grateful, but I try not to wave it in front of people.  I keep very low-key when I think that something is very successful.  When I have been overly excited, I fall flat on my face.  That is kind of sad.  I should be able to enjoy excitement in the things that I achieve.  I mean, I did not even celebrate my bachelor's degree.  I got it, was happy, and went on with life.

Now that I do have a position, I can start talking about other ideas, school, and maybe a little bit of fun here.  I can also start talking about my interest in human resources and the fun things that I've been finding online.

But I will tout around and say that I am happy to announce that I have a 4.0 grade average in my Masters' study.  I am very happy about that and I hope that I can keep that up.  

Note: this was part two of the previous blog.  It was just cut in half to write about different subjects.  As of today, the letter I wrote was accepted, although I do not know if the administration enrolled me for school.  Enrollment was due last week.  No word or response yet.  Sigh!

From Biscotti to Bagels

There is a difference between biscottis and bagels.  Biscottis are considered elegant and high-class.  Biscottis are a treat that you have with the morning coffee or hot drink, and a special food that you do not have all the time.  Well, until they called them cookies.  

I do not know of any biscotti stores unless they have some in, say Italy.  I did not check online.  You can do that.  You can find them in 7/11's which should ideally bring down the high-class ideal.  What I am saying is that the idea of a biscotti cookie is not a high-class treat anymore. 

Bagels on the other hand, are not as high-class or special, yet they have specialty stores.  They come in a variety of flavors and can be made into other types of food-sandwiches, pizza, even dessert.  Both of these items come from a cultural backgrounds that are very different.  I prefer bagels over biscotti. 

The reason I am bringing this up is that I am reminded of my previous job the first four months of this year.  I was happy to have a job, but I was not happy to have a job that would not get me to my career goal.  When I was offered the job, the owners were looking for someone who wanted to stay 5 to 10 years.  I thought about staying, around the first week, excited to be with the company.  After seeing what the company was really about in the first week, I thought that maybe I would stay for at least five years.  I remember speaking to my best friend about staying there.  The following week, I thought maybe I would stay two years, just long enough to finish my degree and get started on my next educational goal.  By the third and fourth week, I was thinking that maybe I would just stay until I finish my masters degree.  Around two months, I started having second thoughts about the job.  After the second month going into the third month, I relunctantly started looking for another job.  I had hoped that I would find a job before the company let me go, but that was not the case.

I was happy to be free of the confines of that mess, but even then, I learned a lot about myself and what I wanted in a career.  More importantly, I knew what I did not want. 

I am not really go into what happened there.  I have my side and they have their side.  All I know is that I was not happy after two months, realizing that my potential was not going to be used according to my own desires.  I did not feel that I would grow with this company.  I felt there was a lack of connection between the owners and employees, which is vital to keeping employees happy.  I should have really listen to my first intuition with the company when I was being interviewed by the owner.  He said, in his own words, that he does not think of anybody in the office after he leaves.  I laughed because I thought it was just an old man making a joke.  Little did I realize, the comment was more than true and conflicted with my personal beliefs in employee engagement, transparency, being honest and open with employees.  I soon realized that everything I believed in business conflicted with how this business ran.  The business does well moneywise.  But while I was there, two people were either fired or left, and there are only three employees.  That is two thirds of the workforce.  If you count me, it is 100% turnover.  I had heard that turnover was pretty bad before I joined. 

I struggled looking for another job, but I decided that I would not take a position that I did not feel comfortable with or just because I needed a job.  This time, I wanted a position with the company that I knew I was in for the long haul, or at least until I finish my next education goal. 

The reason I brought up the biscotti and the bagels is that my new job, started about three weeks ago, gives us bagels on Fridays.  Bagels are actually more expensive than biscotti.  A bag of bagels, which holds six in a bag, cost three dollars and up.  A box or container of 25 biscottis cost between $18 and $20.  Not even a dollars worth for each.  I remember having a conversation with the owner of the previous company.  I was asked to find something else for clients to snack on while they were waiting, because the owners thought that biscottis were too much to offer the clients.  I offered ideas like fortune cookies (I thought that was a cute idea and they were Chinese) and other things but nothing satisfied them because it was either too expensive or it was not classy enough.  I really do not consider biscottis classy.  They are breakfast food.  Just like bagels. 

I'm really happy where I work now.  I am in human resources for mortgage company.  I love the idea that I am working in a region that I want to live, which is beyond the hills of San Francisco bay area.  My goal is to move over that way.  The current school that I attend, is in that area, also.

Even after three weeks, I am still in the process of being trained.  The majority of work in the human resource department is payroll and benefits.  Because there are commissions to be paid, payroll is a little tricky.  But I like tricky because I get to learn something new.  I really like the group, too.  It is a very big company to me.  There is an opportunity to learn from a lot of different people and opportunity for me to grow in my human resources studies and career.

One of the best perk is that I get health insurance within 30 days.  That was the clincher for me.  I did not get health insurance at my last company because I was hoping to find another job before I made three months.  The day I was going to turn in my insurance papers, I was let go.  

Another cool thing that I get to do is a lot of research for human resources.  It is upping my game.  I am learning all about the different compliances, laws, and other things that probably do not interest others, unless it has to do with their pay or taxes.  I had to do some major research on a couple laws that recently changed.  I get to be in charge of looking out for when they actually come into affect.  This is critical because after my Masters degree, I am going to study for my California certification.  I kind of like the idea of having certification.

I can say I am happy here.  My best friend keeps calling me, asking me if I am still happy.  Although I do not act overly excited, I am happy here.  I look forward to sharing the skills of my job and the new life ahead of me.   I truly hope that this is the end of looking for a job for a long time. 

Happy Teachers' Day

The unofficial holiday or day of celebration today is not just Cinco de Mayo, but also National Teachers' day. 

You can take a look at this website to find all the unofficial holidays that you might find intriguing. 
http://www.holidayinsights.com/moreholidays/

Just thinking about the many teachers that have helped me along the way and are still assisting me to get where I am going.

My best friend is a retired teacher.  I do not discriminate age when it comes to friendship.  But going back to my best friend, she is very supportive in a lot of my roller coaster happenings in life. 

I can think of a handful of teachers that inspired and pushed me.

My fifth grade teacher, whose name eludes me right now.  Really, she was important, but I did not like being in her class at first.  All my friends went to another class and I was separated from everyone I knew.  But I eventually enjoyed her class.  She was very creative.  I learned to sew in her class.  I got my first writing award in her class.  I still remember the artworks we did in the class.  She would read to us in a big group, even at our ages. 

My sixth grade teacher-Mr. McPherson.  Another situation where I left in the middle of school to go to another class with people I did not know.  He was very sensitive to my needs although I was not very giving at first.  I enjoyed all the writings we did.  It was my first experience with filming, although I believe my film group fell apart and we never did do a film.  He was really the only thing in class I enjoyed.  The students were mean to me because I was so different, but not sure how.  I played all the games and sports well.  Not sure why, but the past is past.  I still went back to visit that teacher after I finished his class, until I moved out of the area.  He would play dodge ball with us and he would not let us off easy.  He had an arm that would take anyone out.  He was hilarious, cracking silly jokes, and caring about what I was doing after his class. 

My English instructor at community college-Here was a very intense confrontation.  After a few good years in elementary school, I learned to hate writing in class during middle and high school.  Hated it, hated it, hated it!  I took all my general education classes and purposely took English as the final general ed class before moving on to other non-general ed classes.  I was not looking forward to this class.

This is what I remember:
I remember one class ending and either being very sleepy from working overnight (I was working night shifts at that time and going to school in the day).  I cannot remember if I actually turned my assignment or if I was making an excuse to turn it in later.  I was not doing well in the class.  But the instructor confronted me in class after all the students left and asked me probing questions about what I was doing in class.  I cannot remember the conversation, but I remember the feelings that hit me, but then, again, it could have been lack of sleep.  I do remember him telling me something to the effect that he knew I could do better and then proceeded to show me how I could improve my work.  I took his advice and completed the class with an A, which was a surprise to me.  He really turned me around by showing me that he cared enough about me as a student, and that he was not going to let me fail his class when he knew I had more potential.  I cannot remember if his name was Christian or Mr. Christian.  I do know that my youngest sister worked very close to him in school, since her major is in English.  I do not think he remembers me, as I asked her once about him.

There are many teachers, not just school teachers, but people who train at work, teach at social events and other congregational events, who have inspired me and helped me along the way.

I salute them all today!

The End Is Almost Near...Again

Let's see, the last post was in February.  Geez!

I just finished two courses in my studies and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  Both had to do with being creative in leadership, which were areas I could really relate to in my personal life.  I still have at least 3 classes left before I finish my Masters, and that means 4 more months.  I was really hoping to be done in two months, but as work has it for me, I cannot travel to the valley to take my class at a brick and mortar.  So, I will have to wait until I finish my last 2 classes before the final capstone class.

I am kind of excited.  Also, the classes I just finished taking, as much as they were overwhelming, were amazing to me.  I loved the readings and as I hate to admit, this was the first time I completely read through almost all the books.  Usually, I skim through pages to find answers to questions, discussions, and my papers.  This time, I read through some great books.

The first was The Artist's Way, Riding the Dragon, or so.  I don't have the books with me right now.  The second was Transitions.  The third was something to do with the Right brain ruling the world.  The last one was Organizational Behavior.  As I mentioned in class, these classes kept me engaged, which is not easy to do at the near end of the studies.  I remember how I felt like my classes dragged on during my undergraduate studies and how I couldn't wait to be done.  I still cannot wait to be done with graduate studies.  But I am enjoying the classes.  I think I made the right choice this time.  Not perfect, but well done so far.

One of the things I learned or was more emphasized was taking a time out to do something that has nothing to with work or serious life.  You don't understand how hard that is to do when you struggle to make ends meet.  There is no money or time to do anything else but find a way to pay for your living expenses.  I have a ton of things I want to do.  Some activities I have been lucky to do when I had the time and money.  But finding time to go out and do something is not easy when you have to count every penny.

I am more sympathizing than I am wanting people to feel sorry for me.  I do not want people to feel sorry.  I want them to know I understand how difficult it is when you know you have the ability and skills to do more, but can't seem to find the niche.  

My favorite activity is just listening and exploring music.  From my point of view, it is still not cheap, but as a necessity for school, I had to pay for prime shipping, so I got some goodies to go with them, including prime radio.  It has been fun listening and finding new artists and types of music, and finding old music, too.

I am at the point where if I do not find a company that I want to continue and hopefully finish my career in, I will be continuing my education.  I am about 95% sure I will be studying for my doctorate.  I just have to look at finances and schedules.  Life has been very difficult and I have not been proactive with the job search. I still have my current job, but it is not my passion.  I watch the other employees doing what they get to do in their departments and I think, "I had that passion when I was doing what I loved, with people I loved to work with, not what I had to do to keep a paycheck." 

I will be talking to an adviser soon, I hope about what I can do to take the next steps.  I plan on getting my PHR certification after I finish my masters.  I think I need to take 2 classes to get a graduate certification for human resources, so I might do that, which will extend my classes past summer.  That is OK, because at least the masters' studies will be done.  I might as well go for all the gusto.  What do I have to lose?  I can be a better candidate for more opportunities.  I am even more excited to have all those letters after my name...MA, PHR.  Looks kind of cool, no?

Gung Hay Fat Choy

Written 2/17/2015

A month and counting and I am still working, still wanted.  That is a nice feeling, especially after two falls.  But there is still a 90 day period, so I am still not completely, absolutely sure that I still have this job.

I think I am being paranoid.  There is just something that is not completely convincing to me about my position.  But with a variety of stuff that happened before, it is hard to get over the past, especially when it affects the future so much. 

Today is Chinese new year.  My boss and his son are Chinese, so they gave the office employees a little bit of money in the red good luck envelopes.  I was actually expecting something like that today, but 25 dollars was more than I expected.

I remember the first time I got one was, I think I working for the last banking company I worked.  It wasn't from the boss.  Normally, I don't really have bosses that give much away.  The envelope came from someone at work.  It was first time I was exposed to the envelope gift, which I think was weird that it took so long.  I've known about Chinese new year celebrations since I was a little girl, when my parents took me to see the parade.  I think I received a dollar or two at work.

My second envelope came from working for a Chinese lady as a care-giver.  A few dollars in a envelope.  I already knew about it.  If you are married, you give them away.  If you are single, you get them.  I guess I should be getting them all the time.

I would like to be the kind of person who celebrates all those kinds of holidays; not just the major one.  I would love to celebrate Marti Grau or Carnival (I miss the parades in Brazil on TV). 

Another thing: I had lost my phone before Valentine's day.  I had planned on texting friends and family for Valentines, but no luck.  And the phone wasn't lost outside my house.  I just don't know where it went.  I spent all weekend, tearing the house apart.  I had all those 'android find me' apps and none of them could find it.  This has been the second time in less than a year that I lost a phone.  This time, I am not upset that the information on the phone is gone.  I downloaded pictures and stuff a couple weeks ago.  I lost a micro sd card and I know for most people it isn't a big deal, but when you are between checks and haven't had anything come in for 3 months, it is kind of a big deal.  Actually, I blame taking public transportation, because in all cases of losing electronics, I just got off the train. 

I just hate losing things.  It is one of my worse vices.  And I don't lose things often.  I back up and make copies so many times, it is crazy.  Luckily I did back the info up.  Maybe that is the clincher...every time I do a major backup, I've lost my phone.  Well, twice now. 

Mentioning this because my former boss, who is Asian, called me.  I don't know when, but I received a really nice phone call from him.  I truly admire him.  He was one of the best bosses I had, and as I tell everyone else, I would work for him in another capacity. 

I just feel bad because I don't know when he left that message.  I just received my phone last night and activated today. 

In a Movie?

If you got here directly, great!

If you were sent here from my personal blog, the story continues.  If you didn't get here from my blog, you really did not miss anything.  Just a prelude of thoughts and ideas before this.

So, as reported for anyone who cares about film, certain actors, or Apple, the production of the newest Steve Jobs film is being filmed all over the area, here in Northern California.

I was given info from a good friend (thanks K!) about audience extras for a shoot at De Anza in Cupertino for Steve Jobs film.  I seriously thought more than once about participating.  When the info came, I really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone...around the holidays, lack of employment, the like.

I decided to just sign up anyways to see if maybe, my personal situation would have changed by the date of shooting.  My luck did change and it became a bit hectic for me to think I could drive a good half hour or more to the shoot site. 

I have to say, I was very excited about doing this.  The emails and phone calls that came in from the company (they were mass communications) got me even more excited.

The shots that the company needed were for 1984.  So it was time to dress up, which was fun.

When I finally got the pass to go, about two days before shoot, I had to come up with something to wear.  Thinking about what things looked like back in the day, I decided to go with the good girl look-button shirt, sweater vest, pearl necklace, lots of bangled bracelets, long, straight skirt, puffy hair, and the hair bow, head band look. 

A few precautions in the packet that we were sent, no black or red clothing and no labels or words.  Hmm...I can understand the black, but what was up with the red?  I am sure it had something to do with the film or lighting or something like that.  If someone knows, please, let me know.  I know of other things that you don't want to wear like blue in front of a blue screen or green in front of green screen. 

I drove down quite early, thank goodness.

Coming into the school where the shot was taking place, there was a banner for the film.  Kind of cool.  You could get a picture of yourself and the company would post it up in a few.  I just took a picture of the banner.  Not a selfie kind of person.

The wait to get into the auditorium was non-existent, which was nice.  I mean, there was a line, but it wasn't a wait if at all.  We signed some release papers and legal papers-no posting pictures or taking pictures of the scenes while shooting. 

Let me tell ya, not taking pictures nowadays is really hard to do.  You want to remember and share everything.  And some people did.  It was a repetitive command all the time.  NO TAKING PICTURES DURING SHOOTS OR INSIDE AT ALL.  I did take some after the shoot was done, but I am not a poster of things I shouldn't post.  No problem here. 

We all got raffle tickets for some things they were going to raffle later.  I didn't need anything that was being raffled. 

I got inside around 8:30 and we started shooting around 10.  The whole auditorium, which seats 2600 or so people, had to be filled.  It was a bit squishy. 

The guy in charge of the company that got all these extras in to the theater kept us involved in the whole loop.  Mr. Cash, or Cash is the guy behind "BeInAMovie."  I liked him.  I want to work for him someday.  He had a great personality and attitude. 

We had a comedian who was the audience warmer, the person who keeps the audience entertained while waiting for whatever you are waiting for.  I mean, with phones nowadays, people can entertain themselves.  But it is nice to look away from the phone every once in a while. 

I sat by a guy who was attending the school and attending film history classes.  We got to talking about things in the school and the film. 

I don't know if I can write about what we were filming or the scenes. 

What we did shoot as an audience was clapping, cheering, walking into the auditorium, and getting into our seats.  We did all that stadium clapping, the wave (which looked super cool!), "We are the champions" stomp, and whatever else an audience does to entertain themselves. 

The company did provide us with a lunch, but I do have to say for some people, 2 pm lunch is a little late, especially for opened doors at 9 am.  Although we didn't work until 10 am, which is the right time for a lunch, they weren't kidding when they say eat something. 

I didn't mind.  I didn't even eat my lunch there.  I took mine home.  I think I was too excited to be there.

Unfortunately, the big actors were not there.  I wasn't too unhappy.  It would have been nice to see them there, but I was more interested in the whole set and shooting than anything else.  I also like big crowds so I actually felt very, very comfortable. 

There was one guy, I know him and I know I just saw him in a show or movie.  He played a really evil guy.  For the life of me, I cannot remember where I saw him.  But he is a well-known, supporting actor.  He usually plays a really bad guy, or a bad father, or the boss of the bad guys.  He's tall and probably in his 50's or 60's.  Seriously, when I find what film or show I recently saw him in, I will get his name.  Or if I find someone who also wrote down all the names down, I will get them here.  I really couldn't hear too clearly, because I was way in the back. 

There was another guy who was Michael Fassbender's stand in, and I do have to say, he was a cutie.

Although I was way in the back, the lights were shining everywhere during filming.  We were told that anyone from the back could be filmed.  Not that I want to be seen...lol...but it would be cool to say, "Hey, I was in a Michael Fassbender film."  Yeah?

A lot of people wanted to meet the stars and I felt bad that they didn't get that chance.  I have already had the chance to meet Michael twice, before he became a huge star.  Very wonderful memories.  Maybe I will share them here one day. 

Although we were told that the day would run from 9-5, we were out by 3ish or so. 

I do have to say, as I am learning this, even though the actors and entertainers and such are a big pull to these projects, I was very, very impressed with the director, Danny Boyle, and the crew.  Mr. Boyle had such a great passion for what he was doing.  I never thought I would be cheering for Jobs.  Never in a million years.  And here I was cheering for Jobs.  Not that I dislike the guy, I respect his work and all he did.  I learned a lot from hearing what Mr. Boyle had to say about what we were supposed to do during shooting.  I really took it in and came to the realization that the director and people behind the film are the heart of the project.  I started learning this by going to a few comic conventions around the area.  Whenever I would attend a panel with actors and sometimes directors, producers, and such, I always noticed that the directors were more animated, passionate, and/or knowledgeable about the project than the actors themselves.  The directors were so much more entertaining that the actors, I hate to say, but did. 

It was a fun experience and I decided I would do it again if time would allow.  Supposedly, the film production will be around through March, which I thought was a long shooting schedule for this kind of a film.  It was mentioned that there might be another need for extras in the city (San Francisco).  Here is the website if you want to know more:  http://www.projectcasting.com/casting-calls-acting-auditions/steve-jobs-starring-michael-fassbender-open-casting-call/.  I might sneak around to see some of the production. 

How Did It Go?

I have just completed two weeks with a new position.

It has been very interesting.

I applied for this position because it was with a financial planning company and boy, did I need some help in that area of life.  Well, that problem is half mine, half not finding a permanent, full time job, which was not something I feel I have always had a grasp and control over.  If so, I would not have been without a permanent job for going on for almost 7 years later this year.

ALMOST SEVEN YEARS?  I could not believe that.

Not that I was not working.  I was...after 2 1/2 years of struggling with much of the population, hence, I do not take full responsibility for lack of employment, because I did everything I knew how to do, to get a job. 

I hope I can say at least, that all that was not a complete waste of time.

For example, I am finishing up my Masters' degree. 

Who would have thunk?

I have to say, I hope that awful part of my life is finally behind me. 

It is NO FUN not having a job, a career, or a way to feel independent and responsible. 

It is a huge weight off my shoulder. 

I took even more desperate measures-by allowing myself to apply for positions that were really not where I wanted my career to go, such as administrative assistant.

Opening up my options did wonders.  I did have some reluctance because after I finished my Bachelors' degree, I applied for a lot of admin positions and I did not even get one call.  I must have applied for 20-50 positions a day, for three months straight!  It went down to about 50-100 a week when I had to get back to work at my part-time job. 

NOT ONE OPPORTUNITY!

So I was not sure how finding employment going to happen.

All I knew is that I did not want to start the new year without a job.

It took a couple of weeks and many, many interviews. 

I had a handful of great interviews but never heard back.  Sigh….

I actually had one bad interview, or at least I thought it went really bad, and I was asked to come to the office for a face to face interview.  I had forgotten to look up the company before the interview, because I thought I did not have a link.  It was not advertised through the Internet.  Bad me!  I had been going through 3 interviews or more a day, both face to face and phone interviews, my schedule was getting quite full. 

Something had to happen!  I couldn't do this for much longer.

Then, I decided to go ahead to this one that I really wasn't sure about.  I had an interview two days before, and I really wanted that job.  It was with an HR IT company.  I was so sure the interview went well.  But I went anyways to the financial planning company that I remember applying as an administrative assistant.

I went in and was given a 12 minute test of various things, like basic math, corrections, consecutive items, and stuff like that.  I was so into the test, that when the manager came in to stop me, I said, "Twelve minutes, already??!!"

I sat and waited for the owner to talk to me. 

We had a very long interview session.  With experience on both sides of the table, I overly shined-that is not bragging, that is what was told to me after I was hired.  I was feeling quite comfortable and the owner was given me clues that he wanted me to start right away.  He told me that he liked me and that he was only going through the other interviews after me because they were already scheduled.

By the time I got home from the interview, I had received a call from the owner asking me a few more questions about the job.  A few hours later, I received another call from the owner's son to call him back.  He had good news for me.

All the while between calls, I was really contemplating if I wanted to be an admin again.  I do enjoy supporting, but my heart is in HR and recruiting.  I am really enjoying my classes in school and I want my career to go that way.

But I needed an income. 

I was reminded of something my father would always say, "Sometimes we have to do things we don't like."  My sister will tell you that is not true, because you don't want to be miserable all your life.  That is true for me.

The position was not what I really, truly wanted, in an area that I knew would be difficult to get to, completely opposite to where I wanted to work and live.  I wanted to be closer to school so I could finish on time or early.  I don't see that happening, unless a miracle happens between now and May.  I was also not too fond of the hours.  Nice to sleep in, but it is kind of late for me to get home and do assignments for class. 

But I knew how to do the work.  Plus, I would be learning a customer relationship management system, CRM, which was something I needed to have in my skills set.  And I have always wanted to learn more about financial planning.

It wasn't all bad.  There were some good things and I knew that I wasn't going to wait for a job that may never come through. 

Which, as I mentioned before, never came through.

I figured that I can work here, learn everything I can while getting my studies and certification done, and have some fun. 

Yeah, fun, remember that? 

I really like the people I work with.  It is small, conservative, formal, quiet office.  I keep hearing that it gets busy.  I happened to be hired during the week of their seminars, which meant that I had to work late twice a month.  I was not really ready for that, since I just started my classes the week before, and I was trying to get ahead in assignments, as not to get behind later on. 

I did not go and celebrate the acquisition of employment because I have become very, very superstitious.

After obtaining two positions I wanted, after having them fail, I was not going to celebrate until I was with the company for a month.  At least by then, I will know if I am still with the company.

I haven't even updated most social areas.  I did put something on LinkedIn, but haven't fully completed the information.  It can wait. 

So as one of my favorite songs says, "I'll be here for a while," (311-Here for a While). 

After my first week at the job, the owner's son asked me how my first week went.  I answered something like, "there was a lot to do, and you haven't fired me yet."  He laughed, probably thinking I was making a joke. 

Looking Ahead-2015 continued

I'm feeling very hopeful and very excited about the new opportunities available this year.

Another blog post for the new year came from YourTango entitled, "10 career resolutions every smart woman needs to make in 2015."

So let's see what it says:

1. Stop talking about your coworkers to other coworkers.

I am so not fond of talking about other people with other people.  Being in HR, there are a lot of things that are considered confidential and so I feel it's a waste of time to talk about other people unless it has something to do with an evaluation.  Not that I practice abstinence from doing such things.  It has happened but I have been resolving not to do it anymore because it really is a waste of time and energy.  Unless it is something to celebrate.  For example, when someone goes on vacation, I would love to hear about it and talk about it with other people.

2.  Start being nice to everyone in your field.

I consider myself an extrovert up to a point.  Tests that I've taken have also verified that claim.  I have to be an extrovert when I make presentations or go to interviews.  So this comes to the idea being nice everyone in your field.  I know that there are people out there helping me find a job and I really appreciate it.  I try to follow the protocol with thank you notes or e-mails, smile and speak clearly.

I don't consider myself a spiteful person for the most part.  If someone under me or at my level receives recognition, bonus, or promotion, I feel that there a lot of things I may not know.  If the person was under me and I trained them,  I feel like I was a part of that and feel good knowing that someone I trained has moved up. 

I feel that people who are more experienced than me are people I can learn from.  I'm very anxious to learn in my career and I want to do the best that I can knowing that there are a lot of examples for me.

Again, I'm not perfect and not every situation has been lovey-dovey.  There have been some conflicts of interest.  I think most the time it was misunderstandings which when I go back and analyze what happened.

I do have one rule now.  A lot of people want to connect right away on LinkedIn or Facebook.  To protect myself, my rule now is that I will not connect to someone I know at work until I been there a month.

3. Get as organized as possible and clean your desk.

There are times when people constantly put files on your desk.  Hopefully your desk is as big as it needs to be to get all the paperwork on your desk.  I'm a stickler for organization although it's not always a pretty sight.  What I could control, I could keep organized.  I'm all about containers, trays, and pens in a holder.  I do like to decorate my desk but if I am temporary or sharing, I don't like to add more to the desk.  I had a really nice compliment at one of my previous positions where the person sharing my desk told me that the desk was the cleanest he had ever seen since moving to the office.

To me, it's hard to function if things are scattered all over your desk.  My mind functions better with organization than in chaos.  When things are organized and prioritized, it's easy to get work done.  Not that every day is a walk through the park.  Every day adds new adventure and new experiences.  In business though, your whole schedule could be changed in the blink of an eye.  I thrive on that because I can get things organized and done.  I feel I'm accomplished.

4. Speak up more.

I don't have a problem saying what I need to say.  But I do measure the action coming towards me.  I had a situation where a person confronted me about my work and in their opinion it wasn't what they wanted.  I just apologized.  But I also said that I'm sorry that you feel that way because I feel like I've done the best I could in one day.  I did say what I needed without causing frustration because I could already tell the person was angry, blaming, and frustrated.  I wasn't going to add to the frustration and confront someone.  That type of a person is not ready to talk sensibly and maturely.  You do have to measure is the situation and do the best you can.

But there are times when you should speak up for what you want.  It could be as little as, I need a new keyboard.  I was in a position where I did all the ordering for any type of supplies for the company and I've loved it.  Someone needed a whiteboard, I ordered it.  Some wanted milk for the cappuccino, I went and got it.  When companies take the time to listen to the little needs of their employees, the employees feel that a company is really taking care of them and they will perform their job better.  Employees will feel that this is a great place to work because even the littlest things are taken care of.  It's a great lesson I learned from my contract job.

5.  Fight for what you deserve.

That is going to be a new one for me.  I don't usually have to fight for a promotion but then I've never really worked in a situation where I was up against somebody else.  But every day I am fighting for a position.  I am doing everything that I know how to do without looking desperate.

6. Get to work early.

Surprisingly, I haven't had a problem in my last few jobs.  It was nice to know that I actually got to work before some of the bosses.  My last contract job, I was on the last person to come in because everybody else had to come in at six.  I didn't have to come until eight.  But I intend to keep up the good work that I've done in arriving early.  I used to think that sitting around, coming to work early was a waste of time because I hate waiting around doing nothing.  With the Internet now, I can do my own stuff and read until work starts or until I can start my work.  There are some places you cannot start work early.  Just as long as I'm not late.  Being late is very stressful.  I feel like when I was late to work, it made me feel like I owed the company more and then I would stay late to make up the time.  And that still didn't make me feel any better.  

7.  And leave on time as well

This will also be a new one.  I've never seen anyone who works salary or manage leave on time.  But the reason the blog states is really important and I think it's something I am going to try to do, too.  It states that if you can't leave on time, you are not managing your time well.  I understand sometimes there are extra projects that come along.  In one situation I had, we had happy hour and I didn't want to leave on time.  It's something that we all just accept nowadays; not leaving on time, burning the midnight oil.  Yet, companies don't want to pay overtime.  Unless I'm actually salary, that could be a lot of costs to a company.  

8. And actually take your lunch break.

I have a real hard time with this.  If I know that I have a lot of work or I know that it would be really busy, lunchtime seems to be a luxury.  But I think that it's probably a good reason to take that break, to re-energize yourself, and to allow yourself a detachment from your work.  Many times I find myself stuck with the problem and after knocking my head all night, I will go to sleep and realize all I needed was some sleep to answer my question.  So I think the same thing happens with lunch times, too.  I intend to keep that with my goals this year.

9. Don't settle into a job, push yourself.

I have to have a job in order to push myself in a job.  I am looking for a career with new experiences so I'm hoping that the job I choose will offer me those experiences.  I found another blog that mentioned ways that you can really push yourself and maybe I'll write about that one later.  It had some really good ideas that I never thought about and that I should put into practice this year.

10. Learn to love your job and if not look for something else.

Now that I have finally settled on a career path, the next is to find a company that offers growth and experience.  I know that as long as I don't feel stagnant which has happened to me before, not recently though, that I will feel there is potential for me and for the company.  As soon as I feel that I have nowhere else to go, I'll look for something else.

So there you have it.  My thoughts about the 10 things you have to be serious as a woman, and probably a man, too, in a career this year.  I see at least three potential changes in my life and it all has to do with better time management.