Wow has it really been this long...

It has been an awfully long time since I posted here... so much and yet so little has gone on since I last wrote on this blog.


A lot going on with the family:

• Sold Donna's practice to the hospital, she now is employed as Medical Director, Associate Clinical Professor, and Physician Champion. (impressive right!)
• Older daughter is applying to college, we did a one week tour of schools in the Washington DC area this summer, 8 schools in 5 days. She wants to major in Political Science or Government, and that is the place to be for those fields.
• Younger daughter doing very well in school, playing on the middle school soccer team, riding her horse, and participating in many horse shows.
• Besides being a groom for my younger daughter and her horse, I have started building a saltwater reef aquarium in the spare bedroom, and have done a lot of do-it-yourself projects around the house.

And of course, I have been looking for a job. 

I made a conscious decision to put the search on the slow burner back in 2009. This allowed me to enjoy some time to be home with the kids, tackle tasks around the house, and work with my wife on making her practice an even better organization then it already was. I was not overflowing with job opportunities, and it made sense not to stress too much about getting right back to work, as my situation allowed for some leeway.

Once we sold Donna's practice, Reality (with a capital R) hit me over the head, and I knew the time had come to get back into the "real world". It had been almost 2 years at that point, and that was enough of a break for anyone. So I plunged head first back in, calling, writing, emailing, applying; all the things one does when searching for a job.

So where I am now? Lots of applications, many phone interviews, some in person interviews and a couple of job offers that really did not fit the description of the opportunity as originally presented, or really did not fit with what I wanted to do next.

So basically.. still unemployed..

More to come..

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Great new iPhone App.. Cultureous- Washington DC

One of my former employees from Discovery reached out the other day, letting me know that he is no longer at Discovery, he and his family have moved to Paris, France. His wife is part of their Foreign Ministry, and her new posting was back in the City of Lights. That's a loss for Discovery in my opinion, he was working on some interesting projects, and he is a very talented programmer with other skills such as project management.

In the email, he also introduced me to a program he wrote for the iPhone called Cultureous: Washington DC. This great application is for anyone who is traveling to DC, or who is living there and just wants to know more about the city. It is not just a list of interesting things to see in DC, of which there are many, but goes way deeper and gives you insights and multimedia content that really expand your knowledge of the particular monument, museum, attraction, etc. The application has a clean and easy to navigate interface, and uses geolocation to point out locations that are close to you that you may want to visit. Well worth the $2.99 asking price.

Great job Peter, can't wait to see what you turn out next!

Here is the link to the application in iTunes Cultureous - Washington DC

BTW due to Apple's ridiculous application approval process, they gave Cultureous a "Mature" rating, since it references links from Wikipedia and such, where you MIGHT come across adult themed material. This is absolutely one of the dumbest things I have ever heard. If that were true, the Safari web browser on the iPhone should be labeled NC-17...

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Resume review - business vs technology

I spent quality time reviewing the first draft of my resume re-write today. It is a very good first stab, a definite upgrade from my old resume. The issue is, it portrays a technology person, not a business person who is a technologist.

Yes I am a technologist, yes I know a lot about technology. That background has certainly helped me get to where I am today. But what separates my skill and experience from many other pure technologists is how I apply that technology to solve business problems. I see technology as a set of tools in my tool-bag, there to be used once I have understood what the business issue is, just like business analysis and finance skills are tools.

I tried to express this in all the examples I gave to the resume writer. They are projects that had a significant impact on the business, either lowering costs, increasing efficiencies, or support for new product development. Yes I have done a lot else to guide technology in these jobs, including evaluations, RFPs, architecture etc. I think that is a given for someone with my background. I need to differentiate myself with what I have done to help the business I was supporting with their issues, using technology.

That is what a successful CIO/CTO needs to be these days. He needs to have a seat around the "business table", participating in the discussion and getting to understand the business issues. Then he can craft solutions with his set of tools, in this case technology, to help solve those opportunities and challenges. Same as someone in marketing, sales, or finance, just with a different set of tools.

I don't see this as a "should be" but as a "must have" for CIOs, and their businesses, to be successful.

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Resume re-write

As you may be aware from previous posts, I received an offer from TheLadders.com for a free resume re-write. One of their PR folks had seen my post on their critique service, and asked if I would like a no strings attached free resume and cover letter re-write. Of course I jumped at it..

On June 1st, I was contacted by Andrew from TheLadders.com, who introduced himself and the service, and provided a worksheet for me to fill out. The purpose of the worksheet was not to reiterate what was on my resume, but to add to it. It asked for career objectives, core competencies, and for each job in the last 10 years or so, more detail on the company, the job itself, and significant accomplishments. It also asked for any job posts that would be reflective of the position that I would be looking for.

I started to fill it out, and in the meantime asked Andrew a couple of questions about the service and how we would be proceeding.. Here is what I asked and how it was answered:

1. You obviously have my current resume, do you also have a copy of the critique that was done by Tyler? Will you be using that as part of re-drafting my resume? Are there other things you see that Tyler may not have? I have your resume and Tyler's critique. It's something I will review, but since I'll have your resume and your worksheet, I'll be able to develop a more comprehensive strategic game plans, because I'll have more building blocks to work with.

2. What are some of the most important things you think I need to highlight or re-do that my resume might be lacking or need further clarification? The most important thing you can provide is the results of your actions. I don't think resumes necessarily come down to metrics. I do believe that every action has a result and that results are the most tangible and employer-focused demonstration of your qualifications you can provide

3. If I also wanted to use this resume to target government jobs, at the SES level, would I need to do anything differently or answer different or other questions? Government resumes are different than traditional business resumes. We will need to define the target for the resume we are creating (I asked this question, because I had seen a couple of SES positions, and all signs pointed to a need for a specific resume format to submit to the openings. Just wanted to see if Andrew agreed)

4. How long from when I send you back the worksheet can I expect the first draft? I will have the initial draft back to you within one week of receiving and reviewing your materials.

5. Whats the process on edits after the first draft, are there a limit on how many times we can discuss and tweak the resume? Technically, you have 30 days of writing services. Not that it takes 30 days, but, I want you to know that quality supersedes a time table. We're going to create something that fits you and I'm not going to be counting 29 days or 30 days. The policy is there because sometimes people come back 6 months or a year later looking for a free update. So, again, getting a top-performing resume supersedes a schedule

6. Are you part of TheLadders.com staff, or are you an outside consultant/resume writer? I am a subcontractor with the ladders. I own my own business (URL omitted). Though I'm not on staff, I hope it's not boastful to say that my team and I are considered one of the Ladders premier "closers". I've been asked to write documents for the friends and family of several of The Ladders co-founders and I'm often the one they call for VIP clients or clients with particularly challenging or unique careers

As you can see, Andrew is not on staff, has his own business, and subcontracts to TheLadders.com. It is interesting to note a comment on my June 1st blog post ResumeKing commented that I had "disparaged" home resume businesses. I don't believe that is true, what I said was that a home based resume business is not necessarily a negative. The concern is determining if the person you are dealing with is really good at writing resumes, or just really good at marketing and sales. Going with a larger company I think alleviates some of this, as they screen the people they hire or subcontract with, and I would expect that they get rid of the folks that are not up to par. I am positive there are some great resume writers out there who work from home and own their own businesses..

I filled out the worksheet, and submitted it back to Andrew on June 9th, and received back the first draft last night, 6 days after I submitted the worksheet, well within the week he quoted me. I am reviewing it today, and I will post tonight or tomorrow on my first thoughts on the resume.

So far all communication has been via email, but Andrew offered several ways to review the draft, including a phone call, email, or exchanging word documents with tracking. Once I review, I will see what makes the most sense.

Couple of questions for someone from TheLadders.com on the service.. if they read this and can send back answers to me via email, I would appreciate it..

1. What is your policy on hiring subcontractors? What is your screening process and criteria?

2. How do you determine whether a subcontractor or a staff writer gets the resume?

3. What is the percentage of resumes written by internal staff vs subcontractors? What about the critiques, similar percentage?

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TheLadders.com Resume service

Received an interesting email from the folks at TheLadders.com about one of my blog posts. One of their PR people doing searches looking for comments on their critique service came across this entry. Someone thought the blog was pretty good (flattery will get you everywhere) and in the email asked if they could use an excerpt of the blog, as well as add the blog URL for reference. I was happy to say yes, and as my cousin said this weekend jokingly, I am taking the blogosphere by storm! LOL

One of the incentives they threw out was was to offer a complimentary professional rewrite of my resume! "No strings attached" of course, but they know full well that it is a topic that no blogger could resist. So I gratefully accepted their offer, and was contacted today by one of their professional resume writers to get the process started.

If you have been reading the blog faithfully, and I know you all have ;-), you know that I have not made a great deal of progress on the re-write. While the critique was great, and pointed out some glaring issues on my resume, it has been hard to sit down and draft the resume based on what the critique said. Not that it wasn't clear what was wrong, it just is that every time I re-wrote something, somehow it always ended up sounding extremely similar! I guess your writing style is your writing style, and unless you write for a living, it is hard to not hear your "inner voice".

I have been doing research on other resume writing services, but had not decided on whether or not to persue TheLadders.com, or some other service. Some of the others were definitely less expensive then TheLadders.com, but they also didn't have the same "big company" feel. Most seemed like home businesses, that had other resume writers working for them on a freelance basis. Not that is necessarily a negative, but I felt like it would be more random to get a really good re-write of my resume, then what I felt like I could get using TheLadders.com, or other, larger resume writing services. But of course, the bigger they are, almost invariably the more expensive they were.

Also since my resume will be targeted at C-Level jobs (CIO, CTO, SVP type), I definitely needed to be sure that I was getting a professional who really could make my resume stand out. And while all of the websites of these services said they dealt with resumes at that level, you obviously never know.

I did try to talk to some folks in the recruiting world, people who own their own recruiting firms, or folks with some of the majors that I have dealt with in the past. None really had any good recommendations for me, and as a matter of fact one major firm suggested that anything smacking of "boilerplate" would be a definite negative!

So this offer from TheLadders.com for a complimentary re-write is the best of both worlds! I get to see how a large, more corporate service handles my resume, and see if the money I would have had to shell out would have been worth it.

Please stay tuned to the blog as the re-write progresses!

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Faith in people.. and in your work..

My wife was having a conversation with her sister last night that I overhead from my office. Her sister has been having a run of bad luck in her life, and is also job hunting at the same time. When I say a run of bad luck, I mean it. Her car caught on fire a couple of weeks ago.. really.. that bad..there are pictures and everything..

In the course of the conversation, you could hear my wife continuing to give her encouragement about looking for work, and kept telling her that she can do almost anything she puts her mind to, which is absolutely true, her sister is one smart person. But as I was listening, it occurred to me that my wife just generally has faith in people. Not only that she sees the good in people, but that she truly conveys her faith that you can do whatever they put your mind to. She has constantly said that to me, and has put her faith in me many times, but I am her husband. This is her general attitude, and she really is genuine in her feelings. One of the many reasons why I love her, and one of the reasons she is a spectacular doctor.

That got me thinking about faith in your work, and how having faith in what you are doing can allow you to overcome many obstacles, and put aside things that might be bothering you. When you feel like you are contributing, moving an organization forward, and helping the business meet their goals and objectives, that leads to faith in the organization and the work you are doing. Other issues can then be handled, becuase they are merely small obstacles to overcome for the greater good.

I don't want this to sound like a sermon, what I mean is that faith in your work and what you are doing is a significant contributing factor to how satisfied you are with you job, and allows you to set the small annoyances or issues aside, and keep pushing forward. I know it is a large motivation factor for me.

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Hershey Park

Completely off topic...

My wife and I took our 15 year old, 3 of her friends, our 10 year old daughter and a friend of hers to Hershey Park this weekend. And while it could easily have been a disaster, everything worked out great and the girls had an awesome time.

We left at 6:30 on Saturday to get an early start. Picked up all the girls, who were on time and eager to get going. I drove the first half into Pennsylvania, and Donna drove the second half. We arrived around 11am, which was amazingly short drive time, checked in at the Hershey Lodge, and were at the park by 11:30, not bad at all.

It is a lot bigger then I expected! The park has 11 roller coasters according to my oldest, and she and her friends wanted to make sure to hit them all. A couple were out of commission for maintenance, but they managed to get on every one that was working, at least once, and a couple 3 or 4 times! One of the coasters, called Fahrenheit, has a 90 degree vertical ascent (yes, straight up on your back) up 121 feet, a 97 degree NEGATIVE drop, and a top speed of 58mph! I was nervous just looking at the thing! See here for information on the coaster. Here is a picture..

Of course it poured rain while we were there. The girls actually went on a ride in the rain and got soaked as Donna and I hid under a Dippin' Dots umbrella LOL. We spent a total of over 8 hours at the park on Saturday, and finally went back to the Lodge after the world's slowest bus driver took us back (anyone need to get off at Cocoa RRrrrrrrr?). Girls tried to go swimming in the pool, but they closed it due to the thunder and lightning.. lol closed an INDOOR pool! Too funny.

Breakfast the next morning, early but not too early, 4 more hours in the park, a tour through Chocolate World, bought a ton of candy we didn't need, and finally on the road again at a little after 4pm. Took us a bit longer to get home, some traffic in jersey and Staten Island, but surprisingly the Belt parkway was clear. Everyone home by 9:30, and exhausted.

I would definitely recommend a trip there, everything went well, plenty of activities for everyone, kids, young adults, adults, and wide variety of food, even a kosher and a vegetarian restaurant! Hershey Lodge was very nice, comfortable and clean rooms, not very spacious, but how long are you really going to spend in the room anyway? Very convenient bus service from the lodge directly to the park, so no parking hassles. It was crowded Saturday, but Sunday was a breeze, with lines no more then 5-10 minutes at most, even for the popular rides.

Great weekend, girls had fun, which is what the trip was all about. Everyone is wearing their matching t-shirts to school today!

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