It has been a technophiliac week for this NP. I type this blog from my living room on a brand new Netbook I picked up today. I'm hoping that having something new, faster, and even more portable will increase the regularity of my blogs. That being said, it was not the only improvement, advancement, or discovery of the week.
I have added Google Analytics to my repertoire of things I possess pseudo-knowledge of. That's right. I now officially know the readership of this blog: approximately one viewer every 10 days.
I remain undeterred. If anything, at least I know now that it is highly unlikely any of my coworkers are reading. (The viewer was in Alaska... or crafty like a fox.)
On the subject of people around the office, and given the perceived unlikeliness of any cats escaping, I will happily announce that I have made it through the first phase of pursuing the level 4 position where I work. No, no, not the "Resume updating for the first time since my first job after grad school" phase (though that merits a blog in and of itself), nor the "Cover letter circulation amongst your brainiest friends" phase either, this was much bigger.
The job description indicated that a minimum of 5 years work experience with at least 2 in supervisory/management capacities were required. [Note: Depending on how you frame that, I could have neither.] Well, and here is a testament to what working with the Student Assembly will get you, I made it through! They stated in an email that I met the minimum requirements! At least now, if I do not get the position, it will be someone that has actually met me making the decision and not someone rejecting a paper likeness. I would not be applying for the position if I didn't think I could do the job. But, somehow the fear of rejection is worse for me when it is based exclusively on selectively documented qualification.
On some level I just feel awkward and uncomfortable putting achievements down on paper. Is anyone else in our group like that? And beyond being awkward, it is downright hard to decide: what goes where, what to keep in from college, what to leave out from social'ish endeavors, who's format to use, complete or incomplete sentences, punctuation, bullets, and on, and on, ad nauseum. I worried that my voice was not the one on the page by the time it was tweaked hither, tither, up, down, and sideways.
Well, I hope it was not not my voice that got me this far.
Cheers and wish me luck! I will try to flesh out a little more of my thought process on the decision to pursue the supervisor position over one of the other endeavors when I have a little more time. The tiny little keyboard is getting to me tonight ;o)
Ben
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
A Blog, a #2 pencil, and Musings from a barstool
Or, my options runneth over...
As if, at last blogging, my choice were not convoluted and difficult enough, the plot has thickened. My supervisor has resigned effective mid-February. This creates two additional potential options: 1) vault, inconceivably, from level 2 PT to level 4 inpatient PT manager, or, more realistically, advocate for one of the level 3 PTs to get the level 4 spot for semi-self-interested reasons. Both options keep me "in the system", which I am presently, enthusiastically opposed to. But arguably, I'd be insane not to pursue the 4 position. At 28, from an outsider's perspective, to not show the initiative in applying/interviewing would be a bigger hit to my "in system" career than flat out leaving for a better opportunity.
Speaking of which... there are more.
But first, in a world of real problems, in which global attention is rightly centered on the decimation in Haiti, this blog must read as the trifles of a spoiled brat. When forced to step back and contextualize my "difficulties", life is gloriously good, idyllic in fact. My pitfall, I suspect shared by others feeling the need to Move It, is micro-focal worries. One day I will learn to make decisions in the macro-mindset... maybe when I grow up, that is.
But yes, on to more. A peer suggested business opportunities on the horizon in a technology related PT field. "Dynamic" and "Innovative" were also thrown about just to press all of my nerdy, over exuberant buttons. Add to that a friend of a friend heading up some part of the Health initiative at Google and my imagination is a whirl.
So what does this all mean to my largely inchoate plan? No going down to 32 hours! That's probably not a move they would look for in an aspiring manger... or could it be a brilliant piece of strategy. Promote me or lose me.!?... In another system perhaps that would/could be understood by the powers that be. Here I fear it would be missed. Unsurprisingly, I'll leave the hours drop on the table, surely no one would expect me to narrow my options, right?
An aside, I discovered today that I made less money in '09 than in '08. 'Huh?', you say? 'Huh?', I echo. Within a small company, in a slow economy, that's plausible. "In system", I feel duped. To reiterate, spoiled brat = me.
So where, in all of this, does decision theory come about? How do you compare disparate options on an ordinal scale? Therein lies a problem. New Professionals don't compare options, we compare hypothetical, parallel futures. If that's not treacherous, I'm not sure what is. Why are we better at weaving baskets than divvying up eggs? (Weaving, which I am clearly better at than coming up with analogies.)
While that seems a reasonable stopping point for a blog, I'll attempt to implement the Hemingway'ian method of 'stop while you are writing'. That seems counterintuitive in the age of blogs. We stop at a sound bite; we stop with a theme. Reward, not provocation, is the endpoint. Is that an evolution of prose or a byproduct of our shrinking attention spans? If I answer that question, do I perpetuate the cycle? In all fairness, I should concede that, also Hemingway'esque, I couldn't stop quite yet because I was not finished with my drink and didn't want to leave my spot at the bar.
Cheers,
Ben
As if, at last blogging, my choice were not convoluted and difficult enough, the plot has thickened. My supervisor has resigned effective mid-February. This creates two additional potential options: 1) vault, inconceivably, from level 2 PT to level 4 inpatient PT manager, or, more realistically, advocate for one of the level 3 PTs to get the level 4 spot for semi-self-interested reasons. Both options keep me "in the system", which I am presently, enthusiastically opposed to. But arguably, I'd be insane not to pursue the 4 position. At 28, from an outsider's perspective, to not show the initiative in applying/interviewing would be a bigger hit to my "in system" career than flat out leaving for a better opportunity.
Speaking of which... there are more.
But first, in a world of real problems, in which global attention is rightly centered on the decimation in Haiti, this blog must read as the trifles of a spoiled brat. When forced to step back and contextualize my "difficulties", life is gloriously good, idyllic in fact. My pitfall, I suspect shared by others feeling the need to Move It, is micro-focal worries. One day I will learn to make decisions in the macro-mindset... maybe when I grow up, that is.
But yes, on to more. A peer suggested business opportunities on the horizon in a technology related PT field. "Dynamic" and "Innovative" were also thrown about just to press all of my nerdy, over exuberant buttons. Add to that a friend of a friend heading up some part of the Health initiative at Google and my imagination is a whirl.
So what does this all mean to my largely inchoate plan? No going down to 32 hours! That's probably not a move they would look for in an aspiring manger... or could it be a brilliant piece of strategy. Promote me or lose me.!?... In another system perhaps that would/could be understood by the powers that be. Here I fear it would be missed. Unsurprisingly, I'll leave the hours drop on the table, surely no one would expect me to narrow my options, right?
An aside, I discovered today that I made less money in '09 than in '08. 'Huh?', you say? 'Huh?', I echo. Within a small company, in a slow economy, that's plausible. "In system", I feel duped. To reiterate, spoiled brat = me.
So where, in all of this, does decision theory come about? How do you compare disparate options on an ordinal scale? Therein lies a problem. New Professionals don't compare options, we compare hypothetical, parallel futures. If that's not treacherous, I'm not sure what is. Why are we better at weaving baskets than divvying up eggs? (Weaving, which I am clearly better at than coming up with analogies.)
While that seems a reasonable stopping point for a blog, I'll attempt to implement the Hemingway'ian method of 'stop while you are writing'. That seems counterintuitive in the age of blogs. We stop at a sound bite; we stop with a theme. Reward, not provocation, is the endpoint. Is that an evolution of prose or a byproduct of our shrinking attention spans? If I answer that question, do I perpetuate the cycle? In all fairness, I should concede that, also Hemingway'esque, I couldn't stop quite yet because I was not finished with my drink and didn't want to leave my spot at the bar.
Cheers,
Ben
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