ilovecode

Well, the Random bits podcast is up for best podcast for 2007! It is a podcast I am proud of so am happy to even have it nominated. If you haven’t listened to it yet and are part of the web development world, I recommend having a listen! Of course if you like it, feel free to vote for it .

Some of my favorite talks were:

• Matt Mullenweg
• Peter Flaschner
• Eric Meyer

The job search process has been pretty interesting so far. I am fortunate that I have experience in both PHP and .Net so that widens the job possibilities. Some of the position descriptions have got to be written by people who aren’t directly involved in the position. They can be very cryptic that you have no idea what the job is you are reading about:

• Maintain a broad and continuous assessment of the organization’s information environment
• Take on moderately complex projects
• Refine the architecture based on changes in business strategy and technological advances to suit the corporate strategies
• Articulate architectural decisions clearly to the client
• Ensures that all business models are integrated into the IT architecture
• Coordinates the information architecture with the other organization’s technical architectures and data architects

Those are the essential duties and responsibilities for a programming job. I am the type of person who tailors a resume to each job and writes a unique cover letter, well for this job, I didn’t bother applying because it tells me absolutely nothing about the position.

Sometimes I think when people are on the hiring end, they assume they don’t have to show their best side too. Well, I know personally, even when I am being interviewed, I am interviewing the company. I know I have to show up and be ready to sell myself, but the employer also has to do the same. I’ve had 5 interviews so far. A couple of the jobs paid extremely well, but the work sounded absolutely boring. I had 3 interviews with one company and had a video conference scheduled for Thursday (dec. 20) which ideally would have been the last interview but they never called. Come to find out they decided that since I didn’t have 10 years experience, they weren’t interested in me for the job. Seriously, WTF? You can easily read my resume and see that I have just over 5 years experience. I guess I think, don’t waste my time if you could have made that disqualifying decision before the first call was ever made. Maybe I’m being idealistic but I want the interviewer to be just as interested in me as I am in them. This would give insight as to how they would be as an employer.

So far I have a couple of options but I am waiting until next week to decide anything. What it’s going to come down to is this

• Will I make enough to pay the bills and maintain our current lifestyle? - Yes, I have a bottom dollar figure that I need to work with. Surprisingly the jobs I am applying range from this dollar figure to 40k plus. The biggest difference in what they pay is the size of the company, whether an active security clearance is required (appears to add 15k-20k to your net worth), and if they are a private or publicly funded company.
• Am I excited about the job? - This is very important to me. I enjoy working in general but I really want to be excited about what I do. It makes it all worth it! There is one job that has put an offer on the table but the job just doesn’t sound that great. Now I spoke to someone recently about a different job opportunity and that job sounded really cool. The 2nd job pays 30k less (and I don’t have an offer at this point) but I would lean more towards that one than the first just because I think I would enjoy the job much more.
• How’s the quality of life? - Something else that is important to me. I am at a stage in my life where I’m not trying to make as much as I can make. I am instead focused on the quality of life (quality of the job plays a role in this) the job provides me. I’ve been working from home for the last 3.5 years so it will be an adjustment to get back to an office environment. But does the position offer good benefits (time off, flex time, telecommute opportunities, etc.) For example, if my son got sick today and had to go home, I would pick him up and I would still be able to get my work done. Would a job allow me to do this or would I need to take it as a day off?
• What are the advancement opportunities? - I’m not looking for a job to pay the bills, I want something that will provide opportunity and growth!

What do you look for in a job?

Merry Christmas everyone (even if you don’t celebrate it)! Were you all good this year? I didn’t have anything on my wish list this year except for a new watch. Nothing fancy, just useful. I’ll find out in the morning if I got it . What did you wish for this year?

I did give my blog a new design. What do you think? You can change the color by using the color switcher in the top-right corner. I thought of storing people’s preferences with a cookie, but ultimately decided not to.

Hope everyone’s holiday is great!!

Well, I’m back on the job market. In my last post about entrepreneurship, I mentioned that I may have to get a “real” job versus what I’ve been doing for the last year and a half. By real job I mean, actually showing my face in a public office. Grooming would be involved. Daily grooming at that.

I haven’t sent out so many resumes since 2003! We are moving to Washington, DC and to say that the jobs are plentiful would be an understatement. The process so far has been interesting. I daily check CraigsList, The Washington Post, and many more. Because there are so many jobs out there, I can be picky and choosy and apply to only the ones that sound interesting. I’ve been in the position before where you apply for anything you qualify for just because it pays the bills and you don’t care if you enjoy it. Fortunately, I’m not in that position right now.

When we first found out we were moving a couple of weeks ago, there was a mix of excitement and regret. I was stoked to be going back to the states but what about all I have tried to accomplish over the last year and a half? I’ve created something I can be proud of definitely and it’s not something I will just stop doing. I will quit working on client’s sites but will continue to grow my own. The web is my passion and luckily I have a really understanding family who support me in that. Because we are moving to a place with a higher cost of living, I can’t continue to do it as I have been because I don’t make enough to sustain the life we want to live in DC. So, instead of seeing it as a setback or seeing it as failure, I see it as an opportunity. I will get to work on projects I never would have before. I am applying to jobs where there is a possibility to learn more skills. I think the thing I am looking forward to the most is working with new people. I have always learned the most from the people I work with. It’s great to surround yourself with people who may have different outlooks or perspectives than you; it challenges your way of thinking and shows you other options.

So, where does this leave all of my personal projects? Well, it’s really no different than how it is now. Right now my full-time job is to work on clients sites. The job will replace this. I built up my personal sites in my free time which will continue. And heck, if the salary is good enough, it may actually let me hire someone to help me out on some of the ideas I have for my sites that I don’t always have time to implement! Unfortunately there is never a shortage of ideas and an overabundance of time.

This week I found a really great blog about entrepreneurship that I enjoy reading. The authors challenged us to take their Entrepreneur Interview.

What’s your personal mission statement?

It might sound cliche but it really is to live life to the fullest and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves!

What’s the biggest mess you’ve dealt with this year?

This is an easy one, but it was also tough situation to be in. I had to fire my first client when we were so close to finishing the job. Long story short, he was doing something which was definitely unethical and violating copyright laws and involving us, unknowingly, in it. I wrote a more in depth post about when to fire a client which you can read more of the grisly details on.

What current entrepreneurial efforts consume your time?

My main effort has been spent building up my blog forum and community. A lot of people think you throw up a website and you can be successful; but that just isn’t the case. The site is really built around the community members and my immediate goal is to offer these members more value to their already free membership! I currently offer some WordPress themes that are ONLY available to our community members and I have a few other things in the works. Once traffic is higher, I plan on trying to monetize the site more! I have plenty of other sites that have been in the works for a long time that I need to work on and get off the ground as well.

Why do you do what you do? What inspires you? When do you get most excited?

This is a tough one because there are so many things, I could go on forever. A big reason I started with programming is that I loved to build things and create things and I think those are traits that every entrepreneur should have. You may not be building something tangibly, but you are still creating and building. I love to create and innovate.

The life of an entrepreneur is made up of plenty of ups and downs so it is very important to have sources of inspiration and motivation to keep you going through the lulls. Success stories are one thing that really inspires me to achieve. When I get to hear about successful entrepreneurs who achieved success (which is all relative), it excites and and inspires me as well! My family is a HUGE source of inspiration and motivation for me. I absolutely LOVE the life I have with them and my ability to do all of the little that seem so insignificant, but if I was a 9-5′er, I couldn’t do them like:

• Volunteering at my son’s school every week.
• Taking Sara time on Fridays (if I had a productive week) and treating myself to some time outdoors, just me and my camera. It’s almost a form of meditation for me.
• Going to see my husband for breakfast or lunch.
• Being able to take french classes twice a week.
• My work breaks consist of me throwing the ball for my dogs.

It’s really the simple joys and pleasures that I never want to give up, which keep me going.

I get excited at various times, but I really enjoy the planning stage as that is when you get to flush all of your ideas out which can sometimes get out of hand because what started out as building a toy boat, has turned into building a yacht to sail around the world. It’s also great in the programming stage when the pieces are put together. I tend to develop more modularly and once a lot of those piece can be put together into a complete product, that is awesome.

Boxers or Briefs? or as Naomi says, Bikini or Thong, duh?!?

Ummm… boy shorts! Now, who’s with me????

What do you do when you’re not [designing | programming | managing | writing | toiling for the wo/man]?

Exploration! I love going new places and checking out new things. There is so much beauty around us that really just gets taken advantage of; I make sure I don’t fall into that category.

What one thing made the biggest difference when getting started?

I would say me not being able to find a job right away out of college played a pretty huge role in my starting my company. I thought to myself, all of these companies want experience, so I’ll make my own. Once I started, I couldn’t stop!

What’s your exit strategy?

There is no exit strategy for me. If I fail, that’s okay, I get back up and do it again. Unfortunately I have always been the type of person to learn things the hard way, but I feel that those are sometimes the best lessons learned. I have failed at some things and I have no doubt I will fail again. When you come face to face with failure, it shows you a lot about your inner strength and determination.

What is the last thing that made you belly laugh?

I laugh all of the time, but something that made me spit out my drink was when I was reading my email and the latest spam comments were about my baby maker…it was just so absolutely ridiculous that I couldn’t help but laugh.

Have you ever been in business before?

Still in the same thing I’ve had going on, but my business is changing. I am moving away from developing sites for clients to developing sites for myself.

At what point do you consider yourself successful?

This is very relative. I don’t have certain milestones that indicate success. The questions I ask myself are:

• Am I happy?
• Is my family happy?
• Do I enjoy what I do?
• Am I able to make enough to support my family and our lifestyle?

Right now I can say yes to all of those although in a few months we will be moving again to the Washington DC area where the cost of living is much higher than here, so I need to try to step it up or I may have get a job for the man for a little bit so I can save enough money to buy me some time to build up the income level to where I need it to be. It’s a personal dilemma I am struggling with now so I will keep you updated on that.