Sunny in San Diego

I spoke about rip offs and cons in an earlier blog post. This is in conclusion to the one piece about some Project Risk Manager with over twenty years of experience who seems to be a unprofessional blowhard.

This individual applied to a entry level/intern position. His resume spanned over twenty years. Seems most of his experience was as a project/risk manager. I didn’t know why he applied, but I responded back to him along with 50 other candidates. Yes, I received close to 100 resumes for a entry level/intern type position that paid more in stock and experience than in salary. That’s how bad the job market is out there. And most of these candidates had masters degrees and real world experience.

Anyway, I sent out a few questions to the candidates to get a feel for what they knew and if we should move forward. This guy responded with two emails. One was proclaiming my questions were a joke. The other email was more fascinating coming from a guy with over twenty years management experience. Yes, this guy had the nerve to email me back a graphic of a middle finger. Some kind of 20+ year manager I guess. Call me what you want and tell me that you think of too many questions for an entry level position, but this guy responded to my ad, he sent me his resume, then he had the nerve to email me back a middle finger. I should spread the word to recruiters and other managers that this guy is a piece of work and shouldn’t be working. A manager with that kind of professionalism is kind of a joke. Who would want to hire somebody like that? Not me.

Recently, I’ve been working on a few projects and most of it involves coming up with some ideas, plans, designs, etc and then implementing some theories, diagrams and content. Or maybe research something a little more. At the same time I look around for some help regarding web development, software engineering, artistic design, etc. What I’ve learned is that most people are either idiots or con artists. That’s not exactly true. The majority of software engineers seem to be an intelligent bunch. Except for one guy who probably wasn’t even a software engineer. This guy was a trip. Read my other blog posting(Project Risk to hire this Manager) about this individual.

Back to the original point. I can see why a lot of people assume Information Technology professionals or more importantly, web developers, are nothing special or a pain in the behind. I shouldn’t throw most people under the bus. Like I said, most of the software engineers seem respectful and know what they are talking about. Then again it’s because most of them went to college and learned about computer science. They actually come up with original thoughts and analysis or maybe they have what’s called critical thinking knowledge. But it’s almost a lost cause when it comes to web developers/designers and graphic artists. I know the technology and I hear people trying to sell me a bag of goods regarding what they can do for me, how they can market my website, and how much a site like mine would cost. Of course they claim to give me some huge discount. And it’s funny how half these ‘people’ send replies that refer to themselves as ‘we’ and so on. Hell I even had one person inform me that they haven’t used Flash in years, but they could relearn it again if I needed them to. Yeah I’d pay them to learn something. If I were to do that, I might as well just learn it myself and save the damn money.

Another project was designing a logo and banner. The damn logo and banner were already drawn, designed, etc. All we needed done was for somebody who knows photoshop or illustrator very well to digitize it and maybe show a few different color and font options. A few people claimed this could be a thousand dollar project. Thousand bucks for what? They didn’t’ come up with the idea. They didn’t even freaking draw the thing. They really didn’t do a damn thing. Yes, their time would be worth money. But their time isn’t worth what some of these people think. To top it off, some of these people email a sample with watermarks that had nothing to do with the original concept or drawing. Do people even read?

Even after hiring somebody to do some artwork, it takes over a month to come up with a simple damn update. Like I said everything was already done for them. They only needed to touch up the drawing and digitize it a little better. But half the time they don’t bother reading what the requirements are and what you need done. Or they come back with (i can do this for this much, but anything more will cost a little more). It’s one thing if they came up with the concept, drawing, design, etc, but a month for a logo that was already done? How stupid.

Oh and there are plenty of ‘artists’ who seem to ignore your requirements and then design something on their own time you don’t like or want and then claim, ‘hey I spent such and such time on this so I deserve such and such money.’ That’s like going to a job interview, it doesn’t go well, they go home and decide to make something up, and then email that company and ask them for a paycheck. People are really stupid.

Hell, on another project I threw out an idea of what I wanted and needed, so I could get a feel for what some artists could design for me or if I needed to change my idea altogether. You know what, half the people who got back to me asked me to come up with a sketch so they could get a better idea. If I’m drawing the damn thing(i’m not an artist) why the hell am I paying them? All I wanted was for somebody to come up with a concept and design after I gave them the original idea and concept.

I understand people should charge for their services, but it really seems there are a lot of unprofessional people out of work who are really out of work for a valid reason. You ask them for something and they don’t bother reading what you asked for or they ignore it altogether or they think their 5 minute unoriginal half assed job is worth thousands of bucks. Go figure they need small jobs. They shouldn’t be doing what they are doing.

I’ve come to the conclusion that people might as well not hire web developers or designers or even artists/graphic designers. Not for what they are charging. Or maybe that’s why people offshore and outsource work. Just look at some of the examples of these people and it’s obvious they seem to throw together a template that takes about 10 minutes(hell you can buy a template and edit it yourself for under 100 bucks and you don’t even have to know much about programming or even html). Don’t go around claiming some simple 5 page website you threw up using some other persons template, that took you under 5 minutes to do, is worth $5K. It’s not. Or maybe most of the web designers/developers and graphic artists need to inflate their egos because the reality is their work isn’t worth much in the real world anymore.

Nobody should be paying somebody $30/HR for somebody who knows html and wordpress. Yes, if you need a shopping cart, a content management system, some flash, and a ton of original real programming work done to some complicated e-commerce site or backend system, it might be worth it. There is actually programming or real design involved. But somebody selling some $30/HR unoriginal template cheap ass work is a scam. Plain and simple.

Whether it’s a website or a graphic doesn’t really matter. Playing on people’s technological ignorance is what a lot of people seem to do. Everybody needs to make a buck, but when your work is worth $1 and you charge $10K….then it’s just a scam. A con. A rip off. And in all honesty people like that should be thrown off a cliff never to be seen again. End of story.

So I recently lost my job, which in a way was a good thing. It became a very poor company and environment to work in and for. Very few people seemed to be happy and the management seemed to lack leadership and in all honestly, it became a place where everybody was looking over their shoulders and nobody trusted one another. And it was obvious a few people seemed to have their hands in a cookie jar. Who knows how that will all play out one day. I’m sure the IRS will have a field day with that. But then again it’s a private firm so those things rarely get looked into until they want to go public or get bought out.

So onward and upward as they say. My girlfriends mom wants us to move to Florida and she makes some valid points. The baby(find out the gender in a few weeks…excited to know if it’s a boy or girl) will need a babysitter and what better option than a grandmother. Plus it’s the first grandchild in her family so……..And I’d be closer to my family as well… And the Miami area isn’t half bad. But I like Southern California. I guess we’ll have to see. If the Jets win this weekend and make it to the Super Bowl(first time since Joe Namath back in 1969), then I’d be on my way to Miami next Monday. I’d plan on coming back to San Diego though.

The other thing that has come to fruition is the fact that half the places I’ve interviewed at or spoken to recently just bore me. It’s not like they are bad companies or have bad people, but what they do might not be interesting to me or the job description is a laundry list of bullshit and then the actual job just seems to be boring. At one of my interviews recently the VP actually told me he’d think I’d be bored out of my mind at his company. I was just being honest in what I want to work on and what I think is exciting. And doing mundane computer administrative tasks obviously isn’t something I’m going to be jumping for joy about. Plus I’m not big working at a tech company where 24/7 all they talk about is technology. I worked at a place like that once and it was the worst experience I ever had in my life. Working around super smart people who lack social skills isn’t really a fun environment to be in. At least not for me.

Most of my career I’ve taken contracts and jobs just for the experience, the money, or because ‘hey i needed a job.’ It’s gotten me this far but i’m also so tired and bored which leads to a miserable time after awhile. Yes I do side projects like writing and making videos and so on, but that’s not really something that puts food on the table. And I’d rather have money to make something I actually want to make rather than be forced to make or accept something that I hate. And media/entertainment is an industry where 1 percent make big bucks and 99 percent make less than 20K per year and have to have other jobs to support them. Which leads back to that being a hobby and interest and still needing to work to support myself. And having a miserable boring time at a job means the creative portion of my life suffers as well as many other things.

I need to find something I’m passionate about but at the same time I’m not sure any company can actually give that to me anymore.
The more I’ve been thinking the more it seems that if I can’t find a job that really makes me excited for a company that really sounds interesting with people who are bright and fun, I might just have to create one on my own. I’ve actually started a company last year but never really initiated anything or had a clue what I really wanted to do with it or why. Over the past few weeks more ideas have come to mind and I’ve been working on a business plan and some designs and theories, but who knows. Maybe a job that I fall in love with will come about soon, or maybe my company will actually make money or get funded.

A startup isn’t exactly easy and doesn’t always make money. But then again making somebody else rich while being bored out of your mind helping them do that isn’t exactly a good thing to me either. It’s one thing if I worked for some cancer research center or a research firm looking to cure diseases or a biotech company who searches genomes. At least I’d be involved in helping to save the world in a way. Plus that data would be incredibly interesting. It’s another thing altogether if I work on a system that grabs data and pushes out accounting reports and sales reports all day every day. How exciting.

There are some things already in motion. But I don’t like the company name. Need to change it.(Not sure how that works for a C corporation, but I’ll find out.)
I do have tons of ideas… It does involve Building software and consulting but at a whole different level. Plus doing some mobile things would be cool. And again…I’ve always been one who liked leading and starting things and I’ve never been good at listening to somebody who obviously is a pencil pusher who has no clue what they are talking about yet their decisions are the ones pushed forward and then when those decisions fail, which happens more often than not, the peons get the blame. Who knows.

I’ve already put some ads up looking for people for my company. If I get a prototype of what I want at the smallest level, then maybe investors will be impressed enough that I can actually implement my ideas. And then through some connections get into certain industries and organizations. And from there build the software better and consult/train people on it. Like I said, who knows.

how bout those New York Jets.

beat the bengals in Cincinnati last week, beat the Chargers today in San Diego…now onto Indy and the Colts.

let’s go. J – E – T – S

So boss says asks me if i can make it to a last minute meeting down in small conference room. No problem so we go down to the conference room but the door is closed. Not an issue as the boss opens the door and we walk inside. To my surprise a VP and HR manager are waiting inside. This seems odd and not a good sign.

The boss sits down and says “seems you are unhappy here and the past two quarters your performance review shows that, so we are going to end our relationship with you.”. And then he gets up and leaves…..

fill out some paperwork and be escorted out and have them ship me the rest of my stuff. No balls.

I watched to a little excerpt from David Hitz about leadership and solving problems. It seems like great advice. What he said was simple :

1 – Who owns the problem?
2 – Do you trust this person to solve this problem?
3 – If the first two don’t work, find somebody you trust to find and solve the problem.

Seems like great advice to me that a lot of managers fail to realize or follow. Over the years I’ve worked with a lot of smart people and a lot of average people. And it more times than not it seems there were a lot of managers who didn’t know how to delegate, didn’t know how to trust, had ego issues, had micro-management issues, or they simply not very good managers or people in general. Some people seem to think they are more important than they really are or maybe it’s a facade they have to push out to the public. Who knows. Sometimes leadership is about trusting your team. If you can’t trust them it means you need to find new people or you need to find a new job and/or career. Look at sports. Some coaches know how to find the right assistants and players. Others are soo smart and dedicated yet they are horrible head coaches. Find people you trust and let them do their jobs. Otherwise the leader is the one who should be out of a job.