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Wednesday, October 24, 2007
In the meantime
On a slightly less introspective note, I have been doing things other than just hunting for “the next great thing.” I have taken this as an opportunity to try to catch up on the stacks of books that have pilled up over the last year. I thought I would highlight a few that I have finished lately that are worth mentioning. No spoilers, just recommendations.
- The Road - Cormac McCarthy - Hauntingly wonderful, I could not put it down.
- The Accidental Time Machine - Joe Haldeman - Light reading but fun.
- Thirteen - Richard K. Morgan - He had a lull in quality, but I think he is picking up again.
- Halting State - Charles Stross - Fun tech mystery
- The Nine - Jeffrey Toobin - Good read even if the author had an evident bias. (And I was tickled by the most likely unintentional ode to Tolkien in the title.)
- Blink - Malcolm Gladwell - Seriously makes you think. Successor to The Tipping Point.
Beyond reading books, there are plenty of tech issues to keep abreast of; I have started looking at the topic for my Master’s project and will hopefully be nailing that down soon. There have been camping trips (pictures here and here) and lots of other excitement.
Never a dull moment here in sleepy Williamsburg.
Book Reviews, Links | Comments (1)
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007
State of the hunt
Beyond the obvious stress and uncertainty of the search for a job is a very interesting process. Each institution does it a little differently and those differences can offer a window into the innards of the company. Some go for the marathon interview session while some do a simple chat, others do one that involves broad challenges that the candidate must solve and some concentrate on a very specific technical topic. A job hunter can learn as much or possibly more about a company from the interview than the interviewer learns about the interviewee. I don’t think there is one method that is superior to any other in an absolute sense. Each method is tailored to the organization it serves. I find this aspect of the process very interesting and have had to restrain the urge to ask an interviewer how well their system works for them on a few occasions and on a few others control the urge to criticize their methodology.
Having gone through any number of phone calls and a few interesting offers I ended up turning down, I am learning that the challenging aspects of this search are different than I expected. It is critical to me that I find an opportunity that is of a very high quality both for my own career and for the organization I end up with. There is a strong urge to accept the first thing that comes along and just run with it even if it may not be the right opportunity. In a perfect world, one would receive all the job offers you will get and then be able to compare and contrast them to pick the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, in reality, you get one offer at a time that must be judged on the merits of itself compared against the hope of getting a better match later. A harrowing decision to make as I am not a gambling man.
I think the later one is in one’s career, the more care and consideration that must be taken at this point. Now is the time to find an opportunity that will allow me to grow to the next level of my career. But finding this opportunity is turning into more of a challenge than I had expected. Finding that small company that has a wonderful technology, smart people, and is on the cusp of needing the skills to grow to the next level is not an easy task. But I am hopeful; patience is just required.
The hunt goes on.
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Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Shouldn’t I have more free time?
So. As most of you know, GuardianEdge decided to relocate my office to the West Coast and I decided not to go. This is the tactful way of saying that I am unemployed. One would think that when you are not spending 8 hours a day in an office that you would somehow find more time to relax and enjoy yourself. Sadly no. Not that I am overly unhappy, just busy and stressed and a bit worn out.
Hmm. Might have something to do with the nearly 800 miles I traveled in a 45 hour span starting at 3am on Monday morning. You think?
Not much news I feel like writing about on this topic. I know that people are curious and I know that people care how I am doing, but it gets a bit tiring talking about it all the time. And since this is my blog, I’m not going to. I’ll let everyone know when something is more solid.
Have a good…um…what day is it? I guess there are some side effects of this after all.
P.S. click on the picture above to see some things from my NYC trip.
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