work « ((little fat notebook))

Posts Tagged ‘work’

Work preoccupation

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: advice, behavior, habits, health, opinion, products, technology, work

27 February 2010

I’ve been really preoccupied with work lately. When I’m there, I don’t think about personal things, and when I’m home, I’m tired and just want to relax, which has meant the e-mails in my Yahoo account are piling up. I’ve managed to go through them this weekend, but there are quite a few newsletters that will probably go unread for months. I don’t follow my social networks the way I used to and I’m just barely pumping out posts here. For some reason, I’ve been really tired during the time I’m at home. Plus, the Olympics have been a nice distraction, which makes it easy for me to never think about turning on my computer. Let’s not even go into the problems I’ve been having with my charger. I’m about ready for a new computer.

It’s been a month now, so I hope that I can get into a better rhythm that fits work, sleep, meals, entertainment, exercise, relaxation, and quality time all in one nice bundle. I don’t have much energy for cooking dinner, which hasn’t been good, so I really need to start getting more sleep. The good thing is, one of the guys at the office told me about an app that lets you track your sleeping cycles! I looked into it and found the Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock, which will monitor your sleeping pattern and wake you up during a lighter sleep stage so it’s easier to get up and you feel more rested. It’s a really awesome app that you should go check out if you have trouble getting up in the morning! I’ve only used it one night, so it’s still calibrating to my sleeping pattern, but it could be quite useful in the future. For a buck, more energy and less time wasted pressing snooze is totally worth it.

More pups!

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: animals, behavior, pictures, relationships, work

22 February 2010

Right after I wrote about the doggies at the office yesterday, of course two new ones had to come in today! So of course, I can’t help but add them to the mix:

Sophie, a feisty little one!

Then came Bumblebee from upstairs, the most complacent one of all.

He kept making rounds around the office and occasionally stirring up trouble with Sophie, who wasn't happy he was there.

The pups

laelene Posted in photo blog，Tags: animals, pictures, work

21 February 2010

At work, we have daily guests of the canine variety. I managed to get shots of all but one, who hasn’t been around for awhile now. Here they are, in all their cute glory!

Duke hangs out by my area during the day, often napping or chewing on a toy.

Little Kaya, who is rather shy and scurries around a lot. She likes me enough to jump on my lap now!

Toro (Torro?) had surgery recently for a torn ACL, but he's still making his way around just fine. Here he is contemplating how he can get the treats up on the desk.

fluffy white dog resembling a mini husky of sorts

You know, I don't actually know this puppy's name. A bit paranoid and avoids contact with most people. I did manage to pet him a few times though. 🙂

Not pictured is Barkley, a gray pit bull.

iPod lost, lesson learned

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: experiences, ipod touch, los angeles, technology, work

30 January 2010

When I was working at the Venice Whole Foods this past Monday, I was heading to get my car from street parking and bring it back to the lot so I could load up my equipment after my demo when I lost my iPod touch. (More on this part-time job I’ve worked on and off for a couple of years in a future post.) The last time I remember seeing it was when I was holding it in my hand walking to the car. By the time I realized it was gone, I had driven the car to the lot, packed up in the store, and started to take my stuff out to the car. It could have been anywhere along my walk to the car, inside the car, or in the store! I retraced my steps again and again, hoping to see a little black pouch lying somewhere, but had no such luck. I checked with Customer Service and nobody had turned it in, so I went around for another try, even checking my bag of used cups to see if it dropped in there while I was cleaning up.

I held out hope for a couple of hours, though I sort of knew that if I hadn’t found it by then, with my extensive efforts, it was probably already taken by someone or otherwise lost to me forever. I spent quite some time looking up ways to track it down, but for all that effort it seemed that it wasn’t worth it. Even if I were to track it, it’s impossibly hard to get back if someone really did take it. By the next day, when I called to see if anyone turned it in, I pretty much knew the answer. I also figured that it was pretty easy to figure out how to contact me if someone had it and intended on returning it, so if I hadn’t heard from anyone, it seemed a lost cause. However, just to confirm, I also did a complete clean of the car to make sure before I committed myself to getting a new one.

Now I’ve ordered myself a brand new one, complete with engraving on the back that includes this web address, so anyone who finds it and wants to return it can do so easily. I can happily use a passcode without worrying that the person would never be able to figure out how to get it back to me. I’m also getting iHound, which will help ease my peace of mind in case I do misplace it again. Now I just need to figure out how to make sure that if someone has my iPod, they don’t start using my accounts… so far no suspicious activity and no important information was stored in there. Does signing in to an app on one device sign you out from the other? If it’s that simple, I’ll just sign in to everything when I get the new one. Whatever the case, I have now taken measures to be much safer with my information. And of course, I will try not to lose this one… it’s the first electronic device I’ve lost! 🙁

Check out when I first got it… ironically, I ended up hardly ever using it to listen to music.

My dreams of being a school bus driver

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: childhood, future, memories, storytelling, work

19 January 2010

When I was young, I wanted to be a number of unusual things. While other children were aspiring to be doctors, lawyers, artists, dancers, or some form of celebrity, I once had it in my mind that I wanted to be a school bus driver. You see, I always had a penchant for sharing candy and snacks with my friends and I figured there was no better job that allowed you to give candy to kids than that of a school bus driver. I wouldn’t have to deal with teaching and grading like teachers do, I wouldn’t have to clean up after messy kids like janitors do, and I wouldn’t have to deal with strange cafeteria food like the servers do. All I’d have to do is pick students up in the morning and drop them off at night. Meanwhile, I could have a lovely stash of treats that I’d give out for holidays and in certain special times like first and last day of school.

When I was in fourth grade, my teacher had an entire drawer of delicious candy. When we got homework assignments and tests back, we’d find nickels, dimes, and quarters stamped at the top of our page. Depending on how well we did for that assignment or test, we would find different increments of change stamped on. We would then tear off the stamped image and keep it in a bag or pencil case. Then, one glorious day, Mrs. S would open up her fabulous drawer and allow us to “buy” the candy within. Though I thought that would be fun to do, I didn’t like the other aspects of the job, like controlling unruly young kids and patiently teaching them a variety of subjects. So, I decided that I would rather be the like school bus driver, who would give us candy on Valentine’s Day or for the winter holidays. It’s all the fun without the grunt work!

Job listings

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: job hunting, observation, work

15 January 2010

As I scour the web for job listings, I’ve come across quite an assortment of posts. They range from professionally-written and well-organized to a complete jumble, riddled with errors and not very representative of what the job may be. Some barely give me enough information to know if it’s a job I’d be interested in! What a waste. So here are some thoughts I had while reading dozens of descriptions…

1. What amuses me greatly are the ones that say “only serious candidates please.” It made me wonder if that actually works, and silly as it sounds to me, I bet it does, if only a little bit. There’s something about human psychology that needs a little reminding of the seemingly obvious things at times. That’s exactly why saying “please RT” on Twitter actually does work in increasing the number of retweets. It’s obvious that people would love if you retweet their stuff on Twitter, but sometimes when it’s a particularly important thing, writing it out gets people to take action. Similarly, having that warning phrase probably does do some damage control for the posters, decreasing the number of junk applications they get.

2. I appreciate it when the company tells you who they are! It amazes me how many anonymous job listings there are. After all, if I were the hiring manager, I would want to make sure the candidate not only fits what I want in the position, but aligns with the business objectives of the company as well. Don’t you want people who fit the company culture and truly like your product or service? I can understand individual people looking for personal assistants being more vague on who they are, but at least they describe themselves – “female executive working between home and office.” Companies rarely go into their company culture, usually saying something generic like “fast-paced environment.” What if I find out, like my friend Elle did once, that you stand for exactly the opposite things that I do?!

2a. Also, some descriptions are very similar and I wonder if it’s the same one I applied for. Though it doesn’t look the same, it’s the same job title, in the same general area, with the same pay. What if I’m wasting my time applying twice? If I know what the organizations were, that could be prevented.

3. What’s up with this whole “salary commensurate with experience” deal? I would much rather they put up a range so I can get an idea of where I fall. To me, job descriptions vary greatly between organizations and though I just about qualify to be a marketing director for one, I barely qualify to be a marketing associate/assistant in another! That’s where the issue of money becomes handy (and I begin to see why money came about in the first place). The standardization of worth is pretty accurately measured across these jobs, despite the descriptions. So a quick glance at the salary or hourly wage gives me a good idea of whether I’m too far off from a position or if it is within my range. Oftentimes the job descriptions don’t even tell me and technically I qualify, but I get the impression they’re looking for someone with closer to 7 years experience, or the like. I think having a solid number up there helps weed away people whose expectations are too far off.

I’m sure I’ll find other nuances that either entertain or annoy me as I keep looking. Such is the experience of being a job hunter! I’ve gotten much better at distinguishing between real listings and the fake ones though (well maybe they’re not fake, but they’re a bit of a scam and not the standard career job I’m looking for). I’ve got some promising leads and interviews to be scheduled, so that’s good. And the hunt continues…

2010

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: future, goals, pictures, social media, work

01 January 2010

A new year, a new decade. I haven’t thought much about resolutions, but here are some things I’ve been working on:

~getting a job. This is definitely the year I get one. Let’s just hope it’s sooner rather than later. I’ve definitely got a great lead right now! I’m pretty confident that I won one of the 5 interviews that Vidli is giving out for their Social Media Expert. Here was my blog entry about it. The competition is now closed and results are coming out today or tomorrow!

~electronically organize my life with Evernote, reQall, Dropbox, Skydrive, Live Mesh, or something along those lines… I just started using Evernote after getting it in October and I want to make a habit of uploading things so I can access information from anywhere with the internet. I’ve been using reQall to help me remember things. Too bad I’d have to pay to link the two accounts. I’m still trying to figure out what to use for what between Dropbox, Skydrive, Live Mesh, and others similar to them.

~start giving out my Google Voice number exclusively. This way it doesn’t matter what my number changes to in the future, people can always find me.

~use my mary@maryqin.com e-mail as the primary contact. I’ve been reluctant to in case I stop using my website, but I’ll probably always keep it and just use it for different reasons over the years. Plus if I use that e-mail, it will be an added incentive to keep my site going.

~begin sprinkling in some video blogging. I’ve done pure text blogging, then posts with pictures, and added in photo blogging. Now it’s time for the next stage with some video, whether of me talking, something interested I filmed, or (in the way future) something I edited together.

This will also be the year that I figure out what my life will be like more or less for the next couple of years. As soon as I get that job, I want to start creating a routine. Figure out when and where I can work out. Look into a physical therapist, chiropractor, or masseuse to help with my weak back. Go visit the dentist after way too long! Think about my next step in education – maybe take some online or night classes in the years leading up to that MBA. Save up for emergencies, future investments, and other such important items. Find a routine that fits Panda in frequently (which will of course change as soon as he starts working!). And then I’ll know how I can work my social life around that. 🙂

It’s a year of big change and I’ve been more than ready for awhile now. So here’s to 2010!

The entrepreneurial bug

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: business, future, goals, observation, passion, work

14 December 2009

I’ve been speaking to a lot of entrepreneurs lately and it’s really exciting to hear all the fun, interesting, and innovative ideas they have! Most are still in early development, so I can’t share what they are, but I would like to say that there’s a certain theme running through it all – a need to make things better. Everyone’s focus is in their own area of expertise and passion, which makes for a lot of promising businesses to come! I think the great thing about startups is the drive that people have. You can’t survive without a deep level of commitment to the purpose of the company/organization, unlike in large and established corporations, where you can get away with a lack of interest in what the mission actually is.

For me, it’s motivating to see all the hard workers out there making their dreams come true. I’ve got a lot that I’d like to make a reality within the next decade and I’m going to start on at least one of them by the time I’m 30. That’s a promise to myself, and something to make myself accountable for. One piece of advice I got was to set real, concrete deadlines and that’s exactly what I’m working on. Too often I like to leave a way out by saying, “sometime around” or “in the next 5-10 years,” giving myself enough leeway to perhaps not quite make it happen. So I’m going to change my mentality and decide that I am and I will. No more of that I hope and I want business. It’s going to be how I choose to make it to be.

At times I was doubtful that I had an entrepreneurial enough spirit to be an entrepreneur, but now that I see those out there, I’ve got no doubt in my mind that I have the passion, drive, creativity, and intelligence to do so. The important thing is setting my mind to it and then going full force. That’s not a problem for me – I decided I wanted to start my own business when I was in middle school and that desire has yet to change. I’ve definitely gotten bitten by the entrepreneurial, if there is such a thing, and I’m excited to develop my plans over the years as I ready myself professionally and personally to handle the tasks I’ll need to for my aspirations to become real.

It’s been consuming my thoughts!

Expertise

laelene Posted in general blog，Tags: future, passion, social media, technology, work

03 December 2009

So many of the things I want to do require me to be an expert in my field first. But see, the problem is, I’m not an expert in any field! Unfortunately, what I’m interested in (mostly administrative stuff and management) require little education. Instead, they require a certain way of thinking and behaving that nearly any intelligent person can be trained for and/or develop over the course of years of experience. I can’t say that I’m a scientist or engineer who later wants to go the management track. At least that way my skill sets are more tangible initially and the degree I earn, a bit more meaningful. Instead, I learned two useful majors that will be good for me in the business area, but I don’t want to pursue either of them the way they’re meant to be.

What I’m good at doesn’t really need technical skills that can only be learned from tertiary education and lots of people can pick it up or be trained for it. I also have broad enough interests and experience that there’s no “one thing” that I’ve concentrated on. That means that it’s much more difficult to focus one on aspect of what I enjoy and work to make myself an expert in that field. It also means I lose out on a lot of job opportunities to people who have had 3-5 years work experience already. I guess it’s a testament to how people are willing to work entry-level jobs for longer now because there’s nowhere up for them to go. The rest of my skills aren’t deep enough to make a career out of – like my passion for technology. I am a self-taught programmer, which means I can get by with HTML and some CSS. PHP still confuses me and forget about the rest. I know enough to be tech-savvy, but not enough to work for a highly technical company like many of the start-ups these days!

The good thing is that one of my interests is social media and there’s not yet a degree centered around that, so any experience is more personal than professional. My networks in the sites that I’m active on are respectably large and enough for people to see that I have put a lot of time and effort into them. Additionally, I got a chance to explore those interests while in Singapore as I worked on a social media plan for the company there. Much of it wasn’t ready to be implemented yet, but at least I had the thought process completed and a plan ready to implement. I’m now getting some social media managing experience at my current internship, so perhaps that’s the way to go. The problem with that field is that because there is a lower barrier of entry, competition is high! So many people want to go into this area because it’s something they can do without a college degree or certification or something.

So here I am with a dilemma… which interests do I focus on and develop into a noticeable strength? Which ones do I maintain as hobbies and leisurely pastimes instead? I suppose that will be partially determined by the job I can eventually land! I got a second wave of enthusiasm after looking at some more opportunities and there are a few jobs I’ll be applying for in the coming weeks that I’m really excited about. I just hope I can get one of them! I think things will probably slow down this month as people start to mentally check out for the holidays and stop working so hard in the time leading up to the break. I’m still hopeful to line up something for early next year though. Fingers crossed!

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((little fat notebook))

Posts Tagged ‘work’

Work preoccupation

More pups!

The pups

iPod lost, lesson learned

My dreams of being a school bus driver

Job listings

The entrepreneurial bug

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laelene

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