Packing it up

Latest from the Job Search:  Nothing solid to report, but thanks to help of many friends, I have been networking, with some decent prospects.  For those of you I have leaned on for favors, thanks very much for all the help.

I think the last straw for me at 3M fell Thursday. An internal opportunity, I was hoping would materialize did not come through for me.  It was the last thing I was holding out real hope for that I thought would keep me at Mother Mining. Unfortunately (or fortunately) it isn't going to happen, I found out.  Apparently, I was deemed too valuable in my current job to let go to this role.  

Too valuable to whom and doing what is a mystery to me.  I had been working on the plan to make my job redundant, so I could either (a) be freed up for this opportunity or (b) get a severance package and leave.

Anyway, I found this out from my ex-boss, whom I had a very open discussion about my future at 3M.  I have great respect for my ex-boss and we have had very open discussions including severance package strategies, the offer to let me see his resume for comparison, and a list of the top executive recruiting firms.  I still don't know how to take it - was he being a friend or was he giving me a clue that it was time to leave.  I think he was being a friend, but it was still strange getting this from the person you reported to up to a month ago.  Also, this discussion was an add on topic after we had just finished my yearly review, and he told me he was going to take in a higher rating for me than I had given myself.  This was Thursday morning.

On Friday, the last thing I did was to pack up my personal effects.

For the last few years, I have kept a box by my desk.  The purpose of this box is very simple - to pack up all my stuff in case I decide to quit suddenly.  I didn't want the reason for me not to leave to be some lame @ss excuse - like I didn't have anyway to get my stuff out, I have too much porn saved on my work computer, or I don't have an eMail to blast out to everyone saved in Draft (I actually have two eMails:  DEFCON 1 and DEFCON 2 I call them.  I sent out the DEFCON 2 message - don't use this eMail address anymore.  I still have not gotten to the point where I send the DEFCON 1 eMail, which is equivalent to telling myself "Turn your key, sir.  Turn your key.")

The box has been stuffed between my desk and the wall, so it is not easily visible.  A few folks have noticed it and I have told them what it is for.  I think they think I am joking, but I not.  For some reason people don't like believing the truth.  It reminds me of when I was in grad school and the job search mania that enveloped us all back then.  There were a few days when I would be very low in the clean clothing, and all I had was a suit and dress shirt.  I would wear a tie, as I think my suits looked silly without one.  This would always elicit questions from classmates:  "who are you interviewing with today?"  My answer was an honest "nobody".  Yet, they didn't believe me.  They were convinced I had an interview, and that made them more paranoid.  It was especially bad if there wasn't a company on campus.  If they had asked "why are you wearing a suit today?" I would have told them the honest answer.  I had no other clean clothes.  Alas- I digress.  No one at work believes me when I tell them the purpose of the box.

I used to keep in practice with packing things quickly.  I have heard stories of folks who had 5 minutes to clean their desk out.  I have tried to cut my down to 90 seconds.  I used to train preparing for emergency packing situations.   I was like a Marine;  travel light and pack fast.

On Friday, it became apparent I needed to return to boot camp.

With nobody watching, it took me about 12 minutes to get everything in the box, and I still didn't get everything in it.  Several brave items were left behind (Semper Fi indeed). Those who did not make it include:  

• My autographed picture of our former NASCAR driver Todd Kluever
• My Space Buddy Certificate that shows my name has been sent to Mars. I got in 20o2 on the NASA Kids site (I wanted to get in good with any Martians who might find this)
• An old Palm Pilot which has all my insurance and medical contacts
• (2) copies of the "The Six Sigma Way" given out to 3M employees when our ex-CEO came over from GE. (The fact I only have two copies is impressive.  Other people have tried to hide thier copies in my bookshelf when I wasn't paying attention.  At one point I think I had 5 copies.  I thought I was down to 1, but someone sneaked another back in, the b@stard).
• My steel toed work boots from a Caterpillar plant
  
• A collection of my favorite badges from trade-shows, including the World of Concrete show, The American Welding Society show (3 times) , the America Industrial Hygienist Convention and Expo (4 times), the International Woodworking Show, and of course The International Poultry Convention and Expo. These are all real shows I have attended.
• Several photos of my niece and nephew

This is by no means as fun a list as the fellow at General Mills who was auctioning off the contents of his cube on eBay (comedy at its finest!).  It did highlight the more ridiculous parts of my job - oh, I did forget all my personal reviews and accolades, too.  Plus any free samples I wanted to hoard in case of a pandemic.

The worst part of the operation was how heavy the box was.  I was dying.  I stopped three times on the way out to my car to catch my breath, and I have been working out a lot lately.  It was a good thing this was not an actual termination.  If it had, it would have been tough to walk out with my head held high.  It would have been impossible to do it gasping for air.  Back to boot camp for Jimbo.

Oh - as a side note - the box has not moved once I got in the door of my home.  It sits there as a monument to my girly man-ness.

The Quantum Physics of a job search

As many of you know, I am looking for a new job.  To me, this is one of the most unpleasant tasks I have ever have to do.  I think for people like me, it exposes all your doubts and uncertainties - or rather - you feel they are magnified.  For those who are good at job searching, I applaud you.  For me, I feel a bit like Dave Thomas, founders of Wendy's; when asked why he started his own fast food chain, he said it was so he couldn't get fired again.  For me, starting my own business would mean that I wouldn't have to find a job again.

Today I had a few phone interviews.  One was practice (or rather, I saw it only as practice); the other was for real.  The real one went okay, but not in the direction I wanted it to.  I think I still have a chance, but maybe not the one I want. I did do a good job of convincing him I was qualified, but unfortunately not for what I was interested in doing, which is what I found disappointing. I might still have a chance of swinging it to my favor, but it will take work (and it may not happen).    I had a lot more enthusiasm for the prospect before I made the call then I do now.   Later, as I was reflecting on my performance (something I tend to do, ad nauseum), I remembered the story of Schrodinger's cat.

For those of you who not familiar with Schrodinger's Cat, it is one of the founding conundrums' of quantum physics.  I will do my best to explain it in terms I can understand.  Schrodinger's cat lives in an opaque box.  Inside the box is a device which is triggered by the random decay of a radioactive sample that determines if the cat gets fed food or poison.  In the classical world, the cat would either be alive or dead.  In the world of quantum physics, all possibilities exist, so the cat can be both alive and dead at the same time. 

That is when it hit me.  When searching for a job, and looking at an opportunities, all possibilities exist - I could get the job, I could bomb the interview, or something else might happen (like today, where I ended up doing a good sell job for an opportunity in another group).  All these possibilities exist - or existed - until the call was made.  Once the call was made, the quantum world was replaced with classical physics.  One outcome remained.  The possibility I was hoping for did not materialize.  Schrodinger's cat was dead.

I think I prefer the quantum world when it comes to job searches - all the possibilities exist and none are ever denied.  It is far less terrifying and it shields you from disappointment.  It does not provide the validation of success that the classical world does (after all, in the quantum world, not only did I get the job I wanted, but I also didn't get a job, too).  It is the fear of losing potential opportunities - the could have beens - which make the classical world discouraging and cause us to seek refuge in the quantum world.  I think it is the reason why we don't take action;  we don't want to lose the possibilities that exist in quantonium.  Once we make that step and take action, we limit ourselves.  None of us want that.

Even though through taking action, I have caused an outcome, there are still possibilities out there.  I have a meeting with someone else in that company, in the group I was interested in, and they may be able to help me.  There are still many options that can come from this discussion, so while one option is gone, new ones have emerged.   The first cat may be dead but other boxes exist both at this company, and new ones at countless others.  

And for those of you wondering, no I have not been drinking as much as you think I have been tonight.

Where have all the bad guys gone?

So I am watching TV again in the upper reaches of the cable spectrum - the movie channels, one of my favorite stomping grounds - and another 80's movie comes on, "War Games", with Matthew Broderick and Dabney Coleman.  (What is it with this guy and 80's movie's anyway?  Last post was on "License to Drive".  Now it is "War Games". Doesn't he do anything else?  When is he going to tell me about quitting work??!).

I still like the movie and I found it entertaining, but what caught my attention was not the young Matthew Broderick, or Ally Sheedy, but Dabney Coleman's performance.  What an @ss he was.  I mean, he was a first class jerk.  He played up the role of jerk to a new level. Even when he had the chance to show empathy, he actively avoided it so he could be an even bigger bastard.  It was really quite amazing.

This wasn't the first time Dabney played the bad guy.  In fact, most of his roles are bad guys.  Every role I can think of that he played was a jerk;  in drama's like "On Golden Pond", comedies like "Nine to Five" and kids movies like "The Muppets take Manhattan" he always plays the smug, ego-centrical, @ss.  He plays this role very well.

Then it hit me - nobody in Hollywood is really good at playing bad guys anymore.  Occasionally actors may do it for a role or two, but then quickly change back to traditional, heroic leading men parts. Both Kevin Spacey and Gary Oldman had phases where they played nothing but bad guys (Oldman did a better job playing Lee Harvey Oswald than Oswald ever did).  But beyond that, very few A-list actors play the bad guy.  Tommy Lee Jones occasionally plays the bad guy, but his characters have to have deep seated motivation for him to be the jerk.  We have to know and understand his reasoning;  he does not live for evil.  Even comic bad guy characters don't exist anymore.  Who will fill the role of Harvey Korman and all his humorous, and incompetent evil characters?  

In today's PC world, you have to be very careful with who is the bad guy.  Nowadays, if you play the bad guy you have to be white and male; very few minorities are cast as the bad guy, for fear of stereotyping.  Preferably, bad guys are a Nazi, or Nazi sympathizer, or you have some other racial prejudice.  South African's were a popular target back in the late 1980's.  After stories of Nazi gold stolen from Jewish families, Swiss bankers became an unwitting target of Hollywood.  Beyond that, it is tough to find anyone who will be the jerk.  It is a shame, too.

I think it would be fun to be the bad guy.  A few years ago for Halloween, I dressed up as a bad-guy pro wrestler.  It was a blast!  I got to break away from my traditional role as a nice guy, and let my evil side out, for humor's sake mind you.  It was a release from the way we are supposed to act, and you got to do those things we all want to at some point in our lives, but as good citizens, we don't do.  

What could be better than being an actor and getting paid to do it.

Ahh, where have all the bad guys gone.

PS - For all you Celebrity Death Pool players, Dabney Coleman is alive and well.  He will turn 76 in January.  He is still acting in TV and movies.