James' Blog
Snippets from my life...since Facebook's a bit overcrowded and Twitter gives you 140 characters. This is a way that I thought I'd stay in touch with those whom I love but can't be in as constant communication as I'd like.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Keep Your Spirits Up While Looking for a Job - Management Tip of the Day - June 07, 2012 - Harvard Business Review
JUNE 07, 2012
Keep Your Spirits Up While Looking for a Job
It can be hard to stay positive in today’s tough job environment, but it’s critical. Becoming cynical or depressed will work against you, in part because most interviewers, no matter how much you fake it, will pick up on your real feelings. Actively manage your emotions so that you are truly happy, focused, and energetic:
Manage yourself. Set reasonable weekly goals for networking, researching, and applying for jobs. Reward yourself for accomplishing them.
Put your eggs in many baskets. You’re less likely to get depressed by a single rejection if you have other options in the works.
Get out of the house. Do anything that will get you out, teach you something new, connect you with new people, and perhaps become a new line on your resume.
Adapted from “Don't Let Your Job Search Depress You” by Priscilla Claman.
Keep Your Spirits Up While Looking for a Job - Management Tip of the Day - June 07, 2012 - Harvard Business Review
Sunday, May 27, 2012
The Adventure Continues...
I moved on from Epic and took a position in Bilingual Account Development. Unfortunately, my skills seemed to be unappreciated, and after three challenging months, I was informed that I was "not the best fit" for the position.
Sigh. So with two weeks severance and a brisk escort to the front door, I am now back at square one. I had my week to grieve and seethe, frankly, over the three months of unkept promises, exaggerated work hours and lack of corresponding compensation. But, that's all over with. I definitely learned a great deal of valuable lessons there, though, not the least of which was "know when to keep your mouth shut." Peter said it well, when I broke the news to him, in that my family is, well, familial, but I'd be remiss to think that I can find the same dynamic in a bottom line-driven, semi-antiquated mid-size company culture. In deed. I realized this morning, though, that it really is a waste of my health and emotional energy to expend any more grief or frustration towards this now previous employer. In the wise words of my girlfriend's father, himself very accomplished and no stranger to similar corporate moves, "you just have to turn the page, and the sooner you can do so the better."
(page turns)
So, here I am! I'm somewhat excited actually at the freshness of a new start and new opportunity. I lieu of dashing on to the job sites and firing my resume around cyberspace, I've been taking a more contemplative, introspective approach. A more "push versus pull" approach, which is to say that I'm looking at what I really want to do,as criminal as that feels, and then looking at what opportunities my lie at hand.
Coaching.
Spanish.
International.
Social justice. Entrepreneurship. Language. Creating opportunity where none exists. Lifting youth from ashes. Anything but cartels. Baseball :-). Moving again? No thanks.
It's wide open. Grad school? Professorship? Doing *something* of significance, other than just building someone's bottom line. Building the global bottom line, a net gain, a win win. No more exploitation, ripoffs, zero-sum-games. Hmm...good to think, ponder, dream a bit again. Lifting my own eyes from the ashes and imagining "what if?" Feels healing already. Slowing down, silencing the crowd noise, saying "no" to those peddling the immediate, comfortable salaries, and doing some personal homework. Brasil. Learning Portuguese, French, why not more? Exciting to think of. Language is access, as I've so poignantly experienced. It's a good day. It's a new chapter. And the pen is in my hand :-].
Oh, I think this article was actually why i originally planned on blogging, almost just because I like the per link option. Haha. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/27/world/americas/peru-confronts-wounds-of-civil-war.html?smid=pl-share
Monday, January 10, 2011
What an amazing, beautiful blur! "You make all things work together for my good"
- School Finished
- Return Home for Christmas - Family & Friends
- OneThing Conference - Kansas City
- ROAD TRIP - Heading west with Colin for the Rose Bowl!
- School finished - Those were some brutal couple weeks of dozens of pages of papers, intense cramming (yep) for 4 finals, and gasp of exhaustion as I finished my "Leadership Development" cumulative essay final at 9:30pm the 22nd. (If any UW administration is reading this, could we please change our finals schedule to not run right into Christmas? Thanks.)
- Return home for Christmas - Long story short, a combination of circumstances made taking my car home, in its damaged state, unfeasible, but my friend Jenny amazingly was heading the same way to the Cities and offered a ride with her sister.
- Family - After a great ride, I was greeted by 22 other family members! We had a raucous time the 23rd, 24th, and Christmas day, catching up on the year. Truth be told, I was a bit exhausted from the previous couple weeks and unable to fully emotionally engage with the rich times with parents, siblings + spouses, and eight (soon to be nine!) excitable nephews/nieces. I got a special treat of an extra couple days at Sarah & Mark's with their family and with third oldest, Peter and his wife Kristin, as their flight back to the East Coast was pushed back a day. Great conversations were had, for which I am so grateful. It's good to be the sixth of seven! (Great fun going with Daniel, Jonathan, Chloe, and parents to the dentist's office; there were massive fish in the coy pond!)
- Friends - Welcome back, Kevin & Sarah Orner! Literally upon dropping Peter and Kristin off at the airport, I got to meet up with Kevin & Sarah, who, for the second time in four months, were picking me up from an airport. Haha. (They were gracious enough to meet me upon arrival to Daytona Beach for their wedding in September.) We got to catch up on their four months together in indigenous Panama. What an amazing series of stories to hear--Sarah teaching English and Kevin continuing his work with locals, "teaching a man to fish", as the saying goes, with his engineering of water and sewage flow systems. So proud of you guys!
- onething Conference - Kansas City (see following post)
- ROAD TRIP - Heading west with Colin for the Rose Bowl!
* I can tell already that this is getting too long, so I'm going to write some individual posts on the above two, rather amazing tales in their own right, hopefully sooner than later!
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
What can a janitor teach you that a professor may not?
Most notably, though, for me was her perspective on work. I was really stunned and refreshed by her comment in response to my question, "Y este trabajo, como ves?" ["How do you like this job?", essentially]. Cualquier trabajo noble es honrable, or something similar was her response. "Whatever noble job is honorable," roughly, was the translation I made out, after asking her to repeat the statement. She elaborated, "Whatever isn't in robbery or crime...".
Wow.
Here I am splitting hairs over some, frankly, great opportunities before me, when, really, at the end of the day, what she shared is true. Whatever job that is noble is honorable. This is not the first time that I have learned a very valuable lesson from a Mexican friend, and it will no doubt not be the last. Isalia mentioned another student who vowed that he'd make it rich and one day "remember her [and her colleagues]," and even offer them a job one day. I would hope for the same, or much better...but whatever is honorable, most importantly.
"Let's get away" - A weekend off-campus
I had really been questioning hard the idea of taking time away from campus to connect with God along with 60 other high schoolers and about a dozen adult leaders. Am I ever glad I went! Arriving later than most at 10:30 on Friday night, I was instantly enchanted with the snow-covered landscapes and fireplace-laden, lofted lodge where everyone was gathered. Frankly, I was about ready to head back to campus to focus on school work for the weekend but partly due to road conditions and partly due to how late it was, I decided to at least stay the night.
Saturday started amazingly as well. We all awoke and shared breakfast. Rolling, snow-covered, wooded hills surrounded the retreat center and was illuminated by the sun peeking through a mostly-cloudy sky. It was the perfect setting for stillness, whereas so much of life is busy, busy, busy. In sum, the silence and solitude, with times of worship, great fun together, reading of Psalm 51, small group discussion, meals, and an epic snow football game (with bruises and "charlie horses" to attest), this was an amazing time. We drove back Sunday afternoon with the sun fully out.
I'll let the aforementioned Psalm speak for itself. Suffice to say that it was very impacting for most all of us this weekend. (For those not familiar with the context, the global leader of the time (circa 1000 B.C.) had just committed a gross scandal of adultery and, effectively, murder; picture President Clinton assassinating a would-be spouse of Monica Lewinski following his interactions with her. Below we see David's response when becoming fully aware of his guilt. Note the striking contrast to most anyone's response to exposure these days. Amazing.)
Psalm 51
To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David; when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had sinned with Bathsheba.
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Thanksgiving Prequel
Cold settled in and a turn of events led to me getting to drive with Sam back to his parents' place in Brookfield. After first greetings, we had a great time heading out for dinner, then came back to their house for a house tour. After some quality reminiscing in Sam's room, with tales past sports and arts experience from Sam and his dad, we proceeded to the basement lastly, where an epic Crossfire showdown lasting 17+ minutes! (classic! See below) ensued. Two grown men showing down in one of the finest mano y mano games ever made, for sure in our childhoods anyway...priceless. (Thanks to Sam's parents for a warm welcome on this Thanksgiving eve; great to chat about life and professional/career pursuits as well.)
Coming home, I enjoyed some great time connecting with Nate, back in Minnesota, over the phone, then briefly with Dad and my friend Alex. About to fall asleep, I thought, around midnight, the night took an unexpected turn when I got to chat over webcam with beautiful younger sister, Michelle, and friend Ify, just up until Eric and Kyle came home from a concert in Chicago...given our freedom in schedules, we got to spend some valuable time sharing a "pillow chat", of sorts, on topics ranging from Biblical consumption patterns, global/diversity exposure, economic upbringing, and other themes...ah, including planning ahead and prioritizing in the sense of, "I better get this done, so I can do this." Which leads me to my, "Goodnight!"
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Youth of the Nations
Monday, November 22, 2010
Sunday Night
Saturday, November 20, 2010
1st Harry Potter Experience Leads to Some Timely (and Needed) Reflection
I went to {the most recent one} tonight and thoroughly enjoyed it. Action, intrigue, plot twists, and some really good take away lessons (if you saw it, what were some that were inspiring to you?). If you haven't seen it, I won't elaborate on the plot in case you would like to. Frankly, it struck me in its parallels to the LoTR trilogy, although of course very different in many ways also. (I can almost hear Harry Potter purists scoffing from here. Remember, I'm an HP noob, so this is my very inexperienced, beginner, first-reaction perspective speaking here.)
I enjoyed continuing the night with a stop by my friends' place and getting to get to know an acquaintance a little better.
Great to learn about differences between Catalán, the intersection of faith and professional industries like film, media, business, education, and government... Shout out to tall ceilings in houses, permitting footballs to be thrown without concern for fixtures :-). Oh, and thanks to Brian, I've finally found some sweet shoes that fit my style and functionality desires.
Oh, I remember why I was going to blog in the first place.
I found the stillness of the movie theater to be the perfect place for some reflection, something I've been taking way too little time to do lately (amidst coursework, interviews, social events, etc.).
In fact, points in the movie (and conversations with friends, Kelsey and Adam) made for a near endless stream of thought ranging from pursuing my baseball dreams (possibly intersecting with going to graduate school) thinking how these could intersect with a career...or not, and actually pondering a rather last-minute move to study abroad this coming semester-Monterrey, Chihuahua, Sao Paulo, and Spain all came to mind as pretty attractive options!
So, needless to say, there were some exciting developments tonight...not the least of which was an offer for a project management position with a local business with whom I've been interviewing! It's one my first "real" job offers, so it's an exciting time, indeed!
I'd be interested to hear, particularly from the older crowd, moments of great decisions in your life; no holds barred-you can share the good, bad, and ugly, if applicable. This has been an interesting process of exploration for me.
G'night!
P.S. Thanks go out to Justin Schwalbe, a good friend of mine, who inspired me to write about the every day goings-on of life via his blog, (www.finishtherace.net)
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Post-exam, Pre-Case study: Sandwiched in schoolwork
As I've thought to stop and catch my breath (which I'm recognizing a greater need for, amidst the frenzy), the most time efficient manner in mind was brief bullet points, just to get the recent events of life out of my head and onto the screen. (Ooo. Just got the idea of blogging in Spanish. I like that.)
Without further adieu:
- Operations & Supply Management exam - tonight - lots of studying, mostly this morning and afternoon in preparation. Felt pretty good going in, great going out and a little not-so-great when I realized I had not answered a little-advertised "short answer" question correctly. Ah, well. Sounds like just about everyone got it wrong as well. We'll see how it "curves out".
- (that was a lot longer than a phrase...hmm)
- Great time connecting w/ friends + family over webcam...sharing dreams, a great time (I guess I just said that :-)
- Planning for Mexico trip in April...heavy debate: how many days of class to miss for this priceless opportunity
- It's SPRING! Or darn near close. 40 degrees in the middle of the night and the thermometer dial presumed upon the 50s today I believe
- It's March. Wow, the semester *is* indeed flying by...all enveloped in God's goodness.
- Good Scripture reading tonight w/ a friend. Looking at John 10, especially on the heart of Jesus the Shepherd. Pretty amazing. Highly recommended reading.
In fact, here:
John 10:7 "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep...
Joh 10:17-18 ...For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father."
(Lots of rich stuff in between: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=john%2010:7-18&version=ESV
More to come about...yep, can't even think. Time for bed.
Media snippet of the day: http://www.ibethel.tv/watch/632:3:10 (awesome words on purpose of life. What is it??? You'll have to click and see!)
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Start-Up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Trust...Because He Deserves It
I still can't find where I found the song or song clip on his site, but during my browsing of the tunes, came upon one that really stuck with me (among many, really). The one line was "[I] trust You, because you deserve my trust." Even now, I get that sense I had in the moment of hearing the song earlier today and reflecting upon it. How true is that statement! I trust Him because He deserves my trust. I thought back to the more recent time in my life when I saw His hand so unmistakably, that being in a five-month stint in Mexico. He's already proven Himself. Over and over again, He's proven Himself. I trust Him because He deserves my trust. I almost sang it wrong in my mind, when shortly afterwards I was shoveling the slush-covered cement walkway. And I thought, "No, it's 'I trust in Him because He deserves my trust' not praise'" (although both are certainly true).
Trust in Jesus, because He deserves your trust.
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
God = Miracles
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Chancellor's Challenge: Write a convocation speech? Hmm!
Topic: What did you learn about yourself or others during your freshman year?
"What is learning? Is it the Saturday after when you wished “this and that”. Is it the Monday after that first Thursday night midterm, getting your exam back with as many percentage points correct as your milk has fat? Is it when you join your third student org and still haven’t read the last four weeks Native American literature assignments…and you end up being glad you did? Parents and teachers always tell us, “You’re here to learn.” But, learn what? How do we know if we have learned? How do we learn?
For me, learning started in my first week at
Maybe it was learning when I took my first midterm…and failed. I thought I was ready. I thought I had learned. I hadn’t learned to check the whole test (there was a back page with 25 pts.!) or learned what a t-i-m-e l-i-m-i-t was. Turns out I needed those 35 points!
What is learning? Webster says, --forget Webster. We heard what Webster says in our high school graduations. Now, we’re in college. What is learning, really? For me, it’s those times I stop and in a thoughtful moment realize, “Oh. That’s why ______.” (That’s why…I call a friend if I’m coming home late, I go out with people I trust, I stay in when the first two midterms weren’t making me too happy with school and I decide to kick some butt and…learn this stuff.)
Learning is experience. Experience with equations and authors and battles and short essay questions…
…and friends.
…and boyfriends or girlfriends.
…experiences that make us stop and think about the intricacies of life. That make us stop and think, “I’m glad I’m here.”
I don’t think it’s filling a page as it is filling a mind. It’s loving the class you’re getting a C in, because it means something to you. It’s getting deeper into things. Thinking, “why?” more.
It’s thinking for yourself, when you have so much before. It’s saying, “Why didn’t I do that?” and then doing it
...the next time. :: smile ::
(continued…)