Dancing Hardware

I know, what if I just plan an open house, all about me!  Prospective employers, entrepreneurs, people with money who want to pay me to do something useful can come by, check out my skills, see some gnarly spreadsheet samples, TALK to me...

Because this life-sucking persona-branding of myself in one resume page or less is shriveling my soul.  The recruiter I met last week says I have too many words.  I lose them at "Hello".

The new world wants to be entertained, wowed, smitten, things to jump out and dance for them so they only have to burn one, maybe two calories of effort to decide whether to bring me in for an interview.

The previous world wants the nuts and bolts of what I have done so they can decide if I have enough skills to be useful sooner rather than later.

My resume is max four pages.  How to make nuts and bolts dance in two pages or less???
Hours of my life.........

Me, My Persona, and I

I still don't have a job. Which in many ways is great, as I learn the art of free time. Back from three days of fantastic skiing, eating, wine-ing with good company up around the Duffy, to temperatures in the double digits and sunshine. So I set up a chair on the balcony and grabbed the last few rays of the afternoon sun with a beer and my book. The first thing on the morning-after to-do list was follow up on a posted job I was actually excited about. While the job was still posted, they were already in the final interview stages with a promising candidate when I talked to them before the ski trip. Alas, the candidate managed to avoid destroying his shiny credibility, and I was out of luck. Again. Which instigated an aimless few hours of moroseness while I contemplated my next steps. Because, after 5 1/2 months, my current approach is not working. Clearly, nobody has caught on to me, and the fabulousness I have to offer. I am straddling two worlds: in my previous world, there exists an entire sector and infrastructure for hiring, job searching, career paths, leadership development, creating a "ridiculously awesome resume", etc. - this is actually the new world; in my current world, it's not what you know or how much you paid to get your resume makeover, but who you know - this I liken to the old world.

Rohr Ridge Across the valley from Rohr Ridge

Because I grew up in my previous world, I naturally still gravitate towards the tools that I know.

An article in this month's issue of the PEG (Alberta's Engineering and Geoscientist Association magazine) discusses tips for "getting noticed" among the 7+% of other unemployed people in Alberta [1, page 50 of the pdf]. What it seems to come down to is the necessity of "branding yourself" on the internet - having a clean presence on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn; "liking" the right things, posting articles in LinkedIn relevant to your industry and values, commenting on these via the various social media, joining "interest groups", following "thought leaders", getting as many good LinkedIn connections as you possibly can whether you actually know them or not... because search result rankings, according to the article, are driven by your connection count, among other things.

I read David Eggers' "The Circle" a couple years ago, and while it seemed hastily written (I suspect to get it published ASAP before his foresights become realities), it was a good story in its disturbing outlook on our internet-ized (and never-ending-survey-feedback) future.

I am on the end-cusp of the pre-social media generation, and still find it rather foreign to want to post my entire self on the internet. I reluctantly created a LinkedIn profile on the advice of friends when starting my job hunt in September, and I regularly get hit up by LinkedIn to market myself further by trying "a free trial of the Premium Experience!" ...so I'll get even more noticeably internet-ized...? With digital fireworks behind my photo while an "I'm" variation of Tina Turner's 'Simply the Best' tinnily blares out upon clicking my profile???

At the time I was getting into all of this, I coincidentally caught Terry O'Reilly's 'Under the Influence' episode on CBC radio (a fun little show on marketing today and some great historical anecdotes) about "the art of personal branding". I picked up some good common-sense tips which helped start my LinkedIn profile and resume dusting. But again, the key message was about relating everything you put out there on the internet back to your "personal brand".

Meanwhile, Canada's spy agency is up the St.Lawrence for having accidentally shared a pile of Canadian identity metadata with partner countries [2].
(I don't even know what all the app logos are for at the end of the article!!!)

And the FBI and Apple are heading towards the final knockout round in an extended fight over security and access-to-private-information rights on Apple devices [3].

But I digress. While the electronification of myself in the form of an internet persona is unappealing in so many ways (topics for other posts!), I have yet to find even underwhelming success with the current/old world approach - not a bite from all the people with whom I've "mingled" and to whom I have tried to offer my fantastic self since moving to Squamish.

Squamish is not a base for any one big industry or company. Instead, it is home to a few box stores, local shops, industrial and artistic entrepreneurs, Quest University, the bare scratchings of a few start-ups and tech industry initiatives, along with its municipal operations. It's a place for the individual to make of it whatever they can. So how the heck do I go about finding a market for the geeky analytical stuff I like to do?

I'm taking my Self to North Van tomorrow to meet with a recruiter. She's probably going to tell me I need to work on my Persona.

Absurd.

p.s. The irony of my writing this blog on the internet is not lost on me...

Absurdity

"They" warned me.  Not necessarily directly, but through those pointed leading questions, hoping your answer will show your ignorance so that they can expound their in-the-know experience, or friends' experience, or distant-relations' experience, in gory detail to educate you on the matter.

I half-listened while nodding and making appropriate sympathetic faces to the sad plights of these many folks, while my harsh inside voice thought dammit people, just pull up your socks and get on with it!

And then it hit me.  This past weekend, I was sad.  For some inexplicable reason, I could not get over the fact that life was "absurd and meaningless", as Alan Alda so eloquently observed.  I saw this "absurdity" in every direction I looked, felt this "absurdity" in each task I thought about undertaking.  I panicked when I realized that the rest of my life was actually just an endless stretch of sad, absurd, lonely, grey-cast days.

Another grey cloudy rainy dark day

Cerise Creek, off the Duffy Lake road

It was one thing to Talk about skiing the next day, while sitting in the rain-pelted car, driving through the grey, but to actually Think about getting everything together, and then to actually Get everything together... draining.  My harsh inside voice spoke - at least I can exercise my muscles, oxygenate my blood, and try to keep pain and carcass degradation out of the future of my life of absurdity.

The rain continued to pour down the next day, and driving north through the dawn barely changed the dark blue-grey night hues into cloud-engulfed foggy medium-grey.  Again.  For the umpteenth day in a row.

But then something happened.  As we silently skied through the forest, I stopped and looked up - and it wasn't raindrops hitting my eyes, but gently falling snowflakes.

Later, up on the spine of a high moraine, was less gentle - the winds raged and the icy snow granules repeated pricked what bit of exposed skin I had left (my nose, and a bit of cheek).  But it was invigorating.

I pulled up my ski socks, and my inside voice silently cracked a wee smile.

Trees

A Good Book

Do you ever finish a book, close it, shake your head, and say "wow, that was &#% great"...?

I just did.  Sebastian Faulks' "A Week in December" - I laughed out loud, my eyes welled up, and when it finally dawned on me part way through the book what he was getting at, I found myself saying every so often "this is &#% great".

It's not perfect, possesses a few loose ends and not enough depth to be considered a literary great.  But, if you want a good satire and perhaps some insightful a-ha moments, and are not too worried about the use of somewhat stereotypical characters for the purpose of rolling out the commentary on "reality", enjoy.