Blogger blogging near Seattle
I adore, have always adored Winnie the Pooh and the work of AA Milne. But I can’t imagine anything more stressful than the surprises that come with being disorganized. Hence why I make significant effort to keep organized. I have my lists, notes, and calendars to keep me on task, to make sure nothing important slips.
That ethos helped me be rather successful as an executive/administrative assistant. And also explains why I have always liked that work. I’m lucky that way, I suppose.
I’m continuing my technology learnings. Today I finished another step towards my Google IT Support Professional Certificate: The Bits and Bytes of Computer Networking. I appreciated both the review, as well as the deeper dive. Perhaps I’m weird, but I think this is rather fun.
The next course is Operating Systems and You. I love exploring command line stuff! It’s amazing how much power and control you have with such tools.
I also am slowly driving forward with my Google Project Management Professional Certificate. My original plan had me completing both by the end of the year. Well, that’s not happening. Basically, I didn’t fully grasp how much work they would take. I’m fine with this, though. However, I see value in refining my focus. I can complete more and with deeper learning if I choose one to focus on.
And that hits on my current thoughts. Which of these two should I focus on for my career path going forward. I spent the pandemic studying Computer Information Systems at Edmonds College, earning an associates degree. I enjoy my studies into the technical realms.
As I look over my career, though, I see projects. I’ve managed many of them, from events to office moves to…well, suffice it to say there’s been a variety. And I really enjoy that work. I’m still pursuing the Google Project Management certificate. Both of these are key elements in my career vision. I love technology, and I love working on projects. I see different business functions and how technology and, for that matter, project tools, add value. I think my space in all this integrates both realms.
Anyway, thanks for humoring my musings. I’m thinking pretty deeply right now on such things as I’m building out my goals and plans for 2024.
In my efforts to keep moving forward in my career, I’m currently working on the Google Project Management Professional certificate. Today, I obtained a new certification as part of that: Project Initiation: Starting a Successful Project. I guess we could call this a sub-certificate. I guess…
Anyway, project management has always been a key part of who I am. And I see that it will be a key part of my future. From my time in the Navy to the present day, a lot of what I do is keep projects moving. Whether its typing minutes or notes, updating tracking documents (Project or Asana), or following up with stakeholders, projects have been a key part of my career to date. And I’ve been told, multiple times over the years, that this is something people value about me. In the end, I love completing things. I love getting projects across the proverbial finish-line. And I love helping people be successful.
So, I seek to keep moving forward. Everyday presents opportunities for forward motion, and I intend to take advantage of them.
Fandango, a fellow WordPress blogger I follow, regularly posts “Spam Comments of the Week” (his most recent as of this post is here). I was reminded of that by this job “offer”:
My first thought was “do people STILL do this”? Does any company want the liability considering how people have been shot going to the wrong house? I mean, look at this list (3 of 495,000,000 results from Google).
So, no…NO I’m not going door-knocking…even here in Seattle. Even forgoing the tales of violence, I’m an introvert. The thought of knocking on stranger’s doors is pretty close to my vision of the deepest pits of hell.
Stepping back a bit, I also wonder about the efficacy of this as a marketing strategy. What sort of conversion rate do you see with this work? I doubt it’s out of the single digits. Perhaps it’s not actually “sales” but political doorbelling (tis the season, after all). But that should be clearly disclosed.
Anyway, I’m lucky that all I need to do in this situation is spend a few minutes puzzling, then move along. I’m OPEN to new opportunities, but do not NEED a new job at the moment. And, with that, it’s time for me to move along.
As many of you know, I’m in the process of looking for an FTE role. Part of that is being registered on many job boards. One result of that: troubling amount spam/scam messages. This morning this one popped into my inbox (names, etc, redacted to protect the guilty…or probably just those being spoofed):
Now, I don’t discount the (very unlikely) possibility this is legitimate. However, this is laden with red-flags. First, the generic gmail account. And “click on this link” to apply”? One of the key rules of modern basic security: don’t click on links in random emails. Additionally, there are nearly zero details, other than the role title and the pay. Heck, I don’t know what city this is supposed to be located in. Which leads me to another email from this morning. Not spammy per se, but just problematic:
So, I’m pretty sure this one is legitimate, but woefully bad. First and foremost, I live just north of Seattle, about 2,700 miles from Alpharetta, GA. Secondly, is this role in Alpharetta, or Providence, RI? They’re 1,000 miles apart. My address is in all of my job posts. I’m sure the algorithms allow you to filter your recruitment searches. Please, please utilize the tools at your disposal. It’s not just my time you’re wasting.
There’s a lot of scammy behavior out there right now in the “recruiting” space. I’ve received so many “opportunities” to sell financial or pre-paid legal services. It’s frustrating and annoying. But it is the way of things, I guess.
I’ve spent most of the past year working part-time and doing some freelancing. It’s been fun! But I’m also seeking a permanent FTE role. This has been fascinating.
I have my resume out on LinkedIn, as well as a few other job boards. I was pretty selective, as I’m not even close to desperate. I’m looking for perfect, with a small delta. Results? I’ve had a few interviews with great teams and great companies. Few. Mostly, though, I’ve received spam, scams, and just misdirected communications. I’ve lost track of how many opportunities to sell insurance or pre-paid legal services. A few crypto scams. And then there are all the opportunities in New Jersey, California, Florida, and, today, Dallas. And these aren’t hybrid roles. They’re onsite (required). I’m in Seattle. Perhaps the recruiters need better search functionality. I don’t know.
It is somewhat frustrating, but, you know, first world problems.
Well, Happy New Year everyone! Today, I completed another project in my 50 Projects In 50Days series. This one, Drag N Drop, grabs a random photo from Unsplash, then move it between different boxes. And I created effects styles for the different elements (drag over, etc) . A pretty neat feature/ability.
So, more this is another exploration into JavaScript, which is where most of the functionality of the project comes from. Though I’m not sure I want to be a coder, career-wise, I do want to get better. And I’m not sure how much more JavaScript I want to study. Perhaps I’ll dive into Python soon. It nothing else, it’s more data for my Github page.
On another note, my current contract has been extended to the end of January. Additionally, the plan is to make the role permanent after the next Congregational Meeting. However, it’s only part-time, so I am looking for a full-time gig somewhere. I’m open to a range of roles, from exec support/admin work to project management to web development. My main goal is to have a continuing education budget. Let me know if you hear of anything.
I just finished, and uploaded, the “Theme Clock” project, part of my 50 Projects in 50 Days course. With this project, first we created an analog clock with ticking hands! That was pretty awesome. Also, we are able to switch from Light to Dark mode. A pretty popular feature right now. Everyone seems to love dark mode.
I had a few challenges with this one. First, getting the hands centered took me a few minutes. This was an issue with CSS. It also was challenging to get the date information to load correctly. That was due to some mis-typing in the JavaScript code.
I’m enjoying these projects. However, I’m still working on understanding code enough to be creative. Currently, I still need a LOT of coaching to get these complete. I realize that I need to grant myself some grace. Yes, my degree had a “lot” of coding, but it was pretty high level. My main focus was on design. For programming, over the past two years of my degree, we spent a quarter each on:
Edmonds college had another web developer program with a more solid focus on coding. In that one, you covered a year a Java programming, but wouldn’t get to take any design courses. I’m sure there were other differences, but that was the main one. I was very deliberate in my choice: I wanted the design classes. It’s a long-standing interest and a passion of mine.
So, I’m left to wonder. How badly do I want to master coding? It’s really cool, and quite fun, but it seems like I have a lot of work to do in order to be able to think in code. And I’m not entirely sure how much more I want to learn. Currently, I’m working as a communications coordinator, where I’m spending time creating things like thumbnails, editing videos, creating posters, editing email newsletters, and updating websites (there are examples of my work in my portfolio). I have done that kind of work for years, and I find it fun and satisfying. I see web technologies to be a massively central part of communications type work going forward.
When I started on this journey of web development, I mainly pictured myself “building websites”. I mostly pictured static sites, blogs, things like the real estate sites I built. The past two years have opened my eyes to a lot of possibilities, though. Sifting through them all is challenging. But, really, it’s great to have a huge array of options.
Today we created an animated navigation bar with (mostly) CSS. I easily see a use case for this one, which makes it that much more fun.
You click on the “x” or the double line (depending on the view you’re in) to change the animation.
Besides growing my developer skills, I’m considering what work I should/could do in the near term. It’s going to be a bit before I feel ready to do coding interviews, much feel ready to jump into a production environment. But that’s not the only thing I can do with all that I’ve learned over the past few years.
My studies have covered a pretty broad swath of technology. Besides the keys to web development (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), we also looked at JQuery and PHP. Stretching beyond the rudiments, we went pretty deep into databases (theory as well as design), system analysis and design, and project management (amongst other things). Also, I added some courses in Cisco Networking (the internet is a network, right?), desktop support (one more class then I will have a certificate in desktop support), and system architecture. Combining this with my pre-ATA career, I think this sets me up to be a great system analyst. I understand the technical side of things, and what business leaders want/need. I will do an excellent job bridging the gap between “business” and IT. Thus, I’m leaning that way in my job search.
What do you think? Any guidance you have to offer me as I transition? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Project Management work has been part of every role I’ve done. Early on, while in the Navy, I tracked planned maintenance evolutions on my ships, coordinated with the different departments onboard as well as shore-based teams, and ensured supplies were on-hand in order to complete that work in a timely manner. Things expanded from here. Whether managing event logistics at AARP, Starbucks, or Microsoft, tracking budgets with the same orgs, negotiating time with key executives, project management has been a core skill of mine.
My studies over the past year have shown that I have solid skills and that I really enjoy PM work. So, I’ve started working on Google’s Project Management certification through Coursera. I want to up my game, and this seems like the best way to move forward.