It's panic time for my manager at my current company. They have been running around to get me a counter offer. It's about time I got something better.

It was one of my goals to get a new job this year. I was expecting this to happen much earlier in the year. But it's better late than never. To top it all, it's in an industry that I want to work in. I can see my opportunities growing with moving to this new position. The only negative I have with this new found job is that they don't have matching 401k contributions. But hey...right now I don't have any benefits since I work as a contractor.

There are a few things that I learnt during these couple of days.

1) All along, people have been telling me that I should expect a lesser salary if I am employed as a full-time employee compared to being a contractor. The difference in pay attributed to the benefits that come with a full-time offer. I now know that it is just nonsense. This new offer got me a 33% raise with benefits compared to the existing contracting position. They have also offered me equity in the company. How about that for dessert?

2) I think one of the main reasons women get paid less is because they are too ashamed of making a counter offer. When I first got the initial offer, I was pretty excited and I just wanted to take it. Thankfully, BB was there to stop me and indeed write an email for me making a counter offer. And it didn't even take 5 mins to get a reply accepting the counter offer. It all seemed too easy. A raise of about 10% for just asking.

3) Your managers are not here to take care of you. What I mean is they are not here to make sure you get what you deserve. It is up to the individual to market him/her self to obtain what is due. Until I told my current employer that I am leaving, I was pushed around everytime I asked for a full-time position. I was also not offered any raise when my contract was renewed. Once they knew I was leaving, they seem like they would do anything to keep me here. Well, I need to hold on before I make any judgements. Lets see what they will offer before I jump to any conclusions.

If things don't change too much, I will be joining the new job in 2 weeks time. The best thing that I learnt out of this is that, now I know I am worth much more than what I get paid right now.

“I’ve heard about a “gold ring test” that supposedly demonstrates the presence of lead in lipsticks. Is that test reliable?”

No. The so-called “test” has absolutely no scientific validity and, in reality, is nothing more than urban legend. Mary Kay does not use lead or lead-based ingredients in its lipstick or in any of its other skin care or color cosmetics. Because lead occurs naturally throughout the environment, however, there are trace amounts of it in most consumer products, including most lipsticks and other cosmetics. Any naturally occurring trace amounts of lead in Mary Kay lipsticks or other of the Company’s products are well within the daily safe levels of exposure as established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

With regard to the so-called “test” mentioned above, the dark substance that appears during the test is really oxidized metal from the ring itself – just as your silver turns black when exposed to the air for a long time. A dark substance is released when you polish your silver, which is the same thing that happens in this so-called test. The appearance of the dark substance has nothing to do with the presence of lead.

Ingredients that Mary Kay uses in its lipstick meet all requirements for cosmetic ingredients. Mary Kay performs thorough, ongoing reviews of its products and ingredients and works closely with our suppliers to ensure the safety of all ingredients. We have been a recognized leader in the area of product and ingredient safety for many years and steadfastly stand behind the quality and safety of our entire product line. Mary Kay® products are safe, and you can continue to use them with complete confidence.

“Do Mary Kay lipsticks contain lead?”

Mary Kay does not use lead or lead-based ingredients in its lipstick or in any of its other skin care or color cosmetics. Because lead occurs naturally throughout the environment, however, there are trace amounts of it in most consumer products, including most lipsticks and other cosmetics. According to the American Council on Science and Health, potential trace amounts of lead occurring naturally in cosmetics are not harmful to the consumers who use those products.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have set daily safe levels of exposure for adults, children and pregnant women. Any naturally occurring trace amounts of lead in Mary Kay® products are well within the limits established by the FDA and EPA.

Ingredients that Mary Kay uses in its lipstick meet all requirements for cosmetic ingredients. Further, Mary Kay performs thorough, ongoing reviews of its products and ingredients and works closely with its suppliers to ensure the safety of all product ingredients. Mary Kay has been a recognized leader in product and ingredient safety for many years and stands behind the quality and safety of our entire product line. Mary Kay® products are safe, and you can continue to use them with complete confidence.

Here is a copy of one of them.

I'm currently going to school full time and also still at my job ...which is what I wanted to do... but it seems like I have no time for anything and that includes blogging. I'll try and blog as much as I can but my internet lately has been in and out and not only does that mean no blogging, that also means no porn! AAAHH!! How will I get any release!?!

Anyways, school is school and it was kind of uncomfortable at first coming back after a long stint of not going. I felt old even though I'm only a couple years older than most but I didn't want that feeling to make me want to stop going. I have to -- no, need -- to stay. Its only the first week and nothing, academically, has happened yet so I'm not too stressed but I know much is coming. I have a holiday next week so I only go to class one day next week!

Here's a conversation that went on at school the other day. A couple friends and I were talking about our jobs and what we were doing now since we haven't seen each other in a while. This portion, in particular, is about when I tried to get a job at one of my friends' work.

Them: "Yeah, I still work at [department store]."

Me: "Oh yeah, remember when I tried to get a job there. I wonder why I didn't get it."

Them: "Its because you're not gay." (sidenote: The hiring manager is gay.)

HAHA. If only they knew...

But that's kinda weird that I didn't get the job because I wasn't gay. But I am gay... whatever. I'm over it. I have a job I like already and its better that I didn't get it since I wouldn't be where I am now. Everything does happen for a reason.

Sorry no porn today because my internet is shitty.
My next post will probably be the 37 Things About Me that I was tagged by fixator.

*still trying to figure out how to add in pics from flickr. gee.*

Yes. The first thought on my mind when I reach the venue that day was "WTF? I'm going to be here for 2 days?!".

Pfft.

I'm not sure if you have been watching Mad Men as religiously as I have been lately, but if not you must watch. It profiles an advertising agency in the 1960's and deals with many issues from women rising in the workplace, to marriage and family. I was very inspired by a quote by one of the characters in last Sunday's episode. She said to, "Pick a job and then become the person that does it." Wow, all this time I had spent worrying over my future and current career and I had never thought of life this simply. 

I thought a lot about this quote, and realized what it is essentially saying: Pick a goal and actively pursue it. You can spend your entire life dreaming about one day becoming a writer, president of a company, counselor or athlete, or you can take charge and make it happen. Read books, find mentors, do an internship or another position in the same work environment, or get a second degree. Basically do whatever it takes to achieve your goal. 

As Tim Gunn says on Project Runway, " Make it work!"

I have not blogged in a really long time. My last blog (which I actually deleted) was one huge rant. For the most part, I needed to just get a bunch of things off of my chest, so now I'm pretty cool about it all. However, now I have to wait for the rebuttal (particularly from Paul and Ray), which I expect to be honest with a splash of brutal sincerity. I like issues dealt with ASAP, but all in good time.

So it looks like I have a bit of changes to make on my blog. I am not 21, I'm 22 now. I'm not a student anymore. I now work for Paladin Security. I applied to the Army (thanks for keeping a secret this long, whoever I told), and the only reason why I bothered making it "public" now is because my mind is most definitely set on it and won't be turned by protest. My aptitude test is on Sep 4th, the Thursday. My job also wants me to transfer to another campus, probably after this week. I'm crossing my fingers for it, because the campus I'm at is starting to suck a little bit. As I mean, it will happen, it HAS happened, ha ha, thank you. Directive thinking. Been doing a lot of that lately. I also started working out again. Well, sort of. I worked out the day before yesterday (STILL aching), and am going to work out again today. I'm going to do this every other day until I settle into it, and then its going to be every day. My abs look tighter after ONE day of working out...I'm surprised I still have abs, actually. I won't let my metabolism go to my head this time around. ("I have a high metabolism so I don't have to exercise as much.") Doi...>_<.

Things have changed a little. Like you may have seen in a blog before, my sister from England is still here. Got the papers to go back and hopefully that works out fine for her. My older brother (not JP, Dinis), proposed to a girl that he's always had a heck of a lot of trouble with and she apparently said yes, so I wish them all the best. Oh, and now, I ACTUALLY have my L! I want to take my driving lessons (in classes on the 1st three Saturdays of September WHEN I push my way with work), so I don't have to wait as long for a full. I was looking at that Transformers Camaro contest I entered and am really crossing my fingers that I get my Bumblebee in 2009. Doubtful, and I probably will be in Alberta by then, but still crossing them.

Nothing really new has happened lately events wise and all that for me, except that I went to the Anime Revolution or whatever it was called with JP on Friday...really...out...of...place. lol. Well, at least there was a handful of cute anime girls out of the many non-hygenic and overweight and/or pale people there. (Sorry, but they really DO fit the stereotype. It's kinda sad.) Way too many Naruto people there. No Escaflowne people. Tear. That's probably one of the only animes that I REALLY like. Despite the security there sucking ass (shirts that say "security" on them? Where's your company badge? Where's...) there was one security guard dressed up as Solid Snake, from the new Metal Gear Solid. Really good costume. Still, out of the first security guards I saw, I thought they were actually people dressed up, NOT security guards. Really...that bad. I entered the Smash Brawl tournament and came in 2nd out of 4 in my round. I was kicking ass until it was down to me and the other guy, I got shaky-arm syndrome. AGH! Shoulda used my hookshot to get back up! Stupid, stupid, stupid! But other than that, I whooped good. Go Link, Go Link, Go Link ^_^. Entered the Unreal Tournament Game of the Year Edition and came in 1st 4 out of 5 times, and then we did teams; I was team leader of my team (blue), and our team whooped red in CTF 5-0. I was supposed to be in the Soul Calibur 4 tournament, too, but they were scheduled at the same time as UT...which is stupid. They wanted to play some Warcraft map that I should probably know about, but simply don't because I don't actually OWN Warcraft (except WoW), so I opted out to stay on my winning streak. John-Paul and I grabbed some burgers, and I went to Booster's later. We left after listening in on some "state of anime in Canada" lecture thing, because, basically, it sucked. I had a good time, but I have to say I was severely dissapointed by the art--one can only look at homoerotic drawings of Kingdom Hearts characters so many times (but for me, so many times is 1 time before I go "ahhh my eyes!!")

Other than all that...I probably should be making more time to do things outside of work, but really, I'm not. I'm averaging about 4-6 hours of sleep a night, which will make some people say "fuck you, asshole, I get by on less sleep than that." Well...good for you, 'cause I don't. I get up, leave for work at 1:30pm, come home at about 11:30 (assuming I DON'T take transit), then go to bed 12:20am or earlier. I set my alarm to 8:30 am and somehow I'm always falling short of the hours of sleep I need. Always something. I am managing better than usual sometimes, though. A week or two ago I went to see Dark Knight with one of my friends and then play SC4 with him and his girlfriend. Ah, ridiculous breast physics...how we love you.

Paul's BBQ is on Friday at 7:00pm though. I look forward to that. I keep thinking I have something to do on Thursday, but I can't put my finger on it.

S'all for now. Paul and Ray, you guys can catch me at the BBQ or we can talk about whatever we should talk about some other time. 

Gotta actually try to do something before work.

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Coming soon - Wii Career Path 2.0

Not much else going on. Just the usual--you know, a general discontent with the world that sometimes rises to disgust and other times ebbs to apathy.

Mom's been mostly civil to me. She says she understands. She's been saying that for weeks, but with that parental pause. You know the one: "Oh, yes, I fully agree you're a grown woman able to make your own decisions, but..." You'd think she's understand, since she was the one always reminding me I'm not just a brain, I'm a person. I mean, she married my dad, who barely finished high school because he was goofing off. He's ten times smarter than anyone else I know. He might not know what a trochee is or who Gilgamesh is, but he's my dad, you know? He has a special sort of intelligence.

Of course, nominally, he's on my mom's side. He has to be. She's obsessed with this idea that there are other reasons I didn't go off to school besides I didn't want to. I mean, sure, I was sorta planning to go up through most of the winter, but I can change my mind, right?

And now she wants me to get a job. I plan to. Give me a little time.

My stomach's really growling. I've got to go. I think I'll run and get something from Taco Bell.

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Photo taken by Pepijn Vanthoor

My adventure this morning included points of interest such as Nationwide, then the Post Office. Met Ash, who was back from Reading, and we went round town for a bit.
Then at 11:00 I cycled off to the Fox and Hounds in Bredon to pester them about giving me a job, who said they'll ring me back... Where have I heard that before? But at least they sound happy, unlike may other miserable gits I've asked. At least the journey wasn't wasted!

I really need to buy a new bike, one that doesn't squeak or creak. That saddle is extremely uncomfortable! My arse hurt so much when I got home... I can imagine that's the kind of pain Ash puts up with every Saturday night? So of course I put my feet up and started watching a film called "The Kingdom", it looks good, but I had to go to work :(

Anyway, the title of this entry happened at work. I finally got my graphics card back from Matt! Woop!
My £70-odd nVidia graphics card, and he brings it in a Tesco carrier bag!! Well, at least it works anyway, what more can you ask for?
Actually I should wipe the hardrive, real bad, there are so many bugs, and the real extent of the virus' I have just reared its ugly head at me. Pop up after pop up!!!

Work: boring as hell, I've got two more rooms to clean, and I really can't be arsed. Can I really be bothered to do my last three hours? Nah.

I feel like watching James Bond tonight. Die another day? I think that's my favourite, but it has been a while since I last saw it.

Well that's my Wednesday 27th, next rant tomorrow... Or shall I try to have some meaning in it? Inspirational and Moral, or my first developer post? We shall see!

Laters, mniz.

There are so many people today who are really unhappy with their job and they just don’t know how to change their job or career.

There are many reasons why people get stuck in their job, if you are one of the many people who ask the question “how can I change my job” here are a few things which may be familiar to you and could be holding you back from changing your job.

The most common reason I often hear is fear, there are several things that people fear when considering a change of job. For some people it is the fear of failure in the new job, some people fear making the wrong choice, others fear that the new job could be worse than the one they want to leave.

These are all normal feelings and we all deal with them in different ways, one of the unhappiest ways is to take no action and stay in the job you dislike so much.

This is sad because we all deserve happiness in our work, however it is a fact that the majority of people stay in their job because it pays the bills and they stay there because it can be scary and uncomfortable to make a change.

I hated most of the jobs that I had and only put up with them through necessity, this made me really unhappy; I was always thinking how can I change my job. This caused me to try many jobs in search of happiness.

Eventually through an accident I started working from home, this was a turning point for me as it allowed me to work the hours I wanted and gave me a lot of free time, and the happiness I had been looking for.

It is now possible for anyone to build a second income in their spare time that could replace their present income. This would allow them to leave the job they dislike, and give them more free time and happiness.

Most of these businesses are available online; the best ones have highly automated systems that take all the difficult tasks off your hands. Leaving you free to do the important part making money.

One word of caution and I cannot stress how important this is, always make sure that you find a good honest sponsor who has the backing of a team of people who will help support and train you.

Without a good sponsor and a good team in place it will be really difficult to succeed. However if you get this part right you will have a head start on the road to success.

I hope this will help some of you who are looking for a change of job, and that it leads to your success and happiness. http://www.incomepool.com       

 

 

 

You see, when you tell someone that a job has been "lost" the immediate response is to offer condolences. You know...

"How are you?"

"Actually, we're great. John lost his job and..."

"Oh my God! I'm so sorry. Do you need anything? What are you going to do?"

Why is that? Why is it our first instinct to offer condolences? Why do we always look for the negative in a situation? Then, when all condolences are out of the way and the energy has been sufficiently brought down to a registrable 'somber' we say, "But, I've found it best to always keep a positive outlook. I'm sure something will turn up."

Are you kidding me? Of course something will turn up -- it ALWAYS does.

People, we're going about this the wrong way! When someone "loses" a job, the proper first response (in my opinion) should be, "Congratulations! What a fantastic opportunity. What are you planning to do next? You could do anything. How exciting! You are so lucky. I would love the opportunity to start new or switch careers." ...you get the idea.

I think the best thing you can do for anyone going through any change is to be supportive and help them determine what they want to do next. People need to be reminded they have choices. People want to move forward, not sit in the past.

And, most of all, people don't want to have convince others that, really, no really, we're fine. Losing a job is NOT the end of the world. It's a fantastic opportunity to reevaluate your past career direction and make adjustments for your future. It's freeing to be cut lose - sometimes it's exactly what we need to take that step off the ledge we've been eyeing in the distance.

What would you do today if you had nothing to lose? Where would you go? What would you choose to do? Would you follow your passion? Do you even know what your passion is?

So, don't cry for me (Argentina...). Spill a drop for me, your homey (ok -- clearly I'm a pathetic white girl trying to sound all ghetto... but you get the idea).

Follow your bliss, dear readers. Follow your bliss. I've got packing to do.

***

Do you have a question for Deanna? Click here to jump to a contact form where you can anonymously submit your question for possible future publication on this blog.

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编辑回答说：“我的朋友，这只是你的错觉罢了！我的工作是那种只有开始，没有结束的工作。我每碰到一个陌生人时，我都会考虑他的面貌长相应不应该写进一个故事里去；每听到一次谈话，我都会考虑去粗存金用作素材；每当我看到大自然里的迷人景色，我都要将它描绘一番，以便让别人能够通过印刷出来的文字同样地体验到其中的美妙。难道你认为这样赚钱很容易吗？”

小结：别人看起来都比我们过得好，连一个叫花子似乎也比我们悠闲。但事实并非如此。

In July I started working for itemis AG which recieved a series of awards (top job, land of ideas) for beeing highly innovative and for their ambition to offer a good work atmosphere to their employees.

My favorite offer is the 4+1 work schedule model which gives you one day per week for research projects, publications or the training of your choice.

I work for Michael Jendryschik, who is the director of web development at itemis. He is an known expert and book author (introduction to XHTML, CSS and Webdesign) and writes professional articles on web front-end topics.

In the first month we relaunched our own corporate website. This is kind of the kick-off for the web development division. The website is online now, and further features and more information will drop in piece by piece.

Itemis focusses on model-driven software development (MDSD) for all kind of software projects. Our next task is to bring this approach into the development of web applications, sites and portals. When developing new applications or websites we have redo too many tasks over and over again. MDSD means to identify those pieces of work and then model and generate the code instead of coding them manually.

Read more on the advantages of model driven software development here.

Itemis also offers a lot of internal trainings especially for new team members. I will blog more on what I learned so far soon.

Got the call to come up the stairs to the archive room just before 9:30am. I ran through my presentation which prompted some good questions then it was down to the questions to check I met the requirements of the job. Some of them were fairly tough and some threw me abit but managed to answer them all to the best of my ability.

Quite a few questions on leadership and team management which I was always going to be marked down on just because of the way the team is made up of high level individuals who are all on the same level. The team has never has a senior other than a manager which is a couple of levels above the rest of the team.

The long and the short of it is that the interview went really well according to the three people on the pannel. My boss thought I was holding back a bit as he normally sees me in a different light in meetings but perhaps because it was an internal interview I didn't want to seem to at ease (not that I was). I was offered the job at lunchtime and have obviously acepted. Because of my team management experience (lack of) they are going to address that in some staff development training etc...

Happy days - this will be the fourth job I have had here as when I started back in 2003 I started as Information Officer (I had gone for a Senior Information Specialist job at the same time but wasn't ready for it - the guy that got it had already worked in IT at another Institution so that gave him a massive head start), I then got promoted to Senior Information Officer then Information Specialist and now Senior Information Specialist so UAD has recognised my hard work.

sis0808_presentation

For all of those individuals who say that a psychology major is worth nothing without a Master's or PhD, let us look at all the ways psychology has helped me continue my job in a sane manner:

Let's look at the boss.  My boss, in particular, is a constant liar.  I can't figure out exactly why she lies about everything, but I'm starting to think it has something to do with her constant need to be right, mixed with the fact that she doesn't do her job, so she doesn't actually know what's going on at our work.

But we may all work with difficult bosses at some point.  So what do we do? Look up all of their supposed psychological disorders in the DSM-IV, and take pity on them for being so crazy.  Just smile and nod when they say things that don't add up, all the while thinking how great they'd look wearing a straight-jacket.

And later, they may take our smiling and nodding to mean we're "laid back," making them appreciate us even more in their not-quite-there mind.

And if your boss isn't crazy enough to diagnose, there's always the co-workers.  They may be hypochondriacs, constantly going home sick or trying to go home sick.  They may have narcissistic behaviors, thinking they are the saving grace of the company. 

OR, if you're lucky, they have some obsessive-compulsive behaviors, and end up keeping your entire workspace organized.

Hopefully they have something really fun to diagnose to keep you really busy during any down-time.

If you have subordinates, I think this is the best and most helpful time to understand the inner-workings of people.  Because I have a boss that was not trained properly in management and people skills, I see what works and doesn't work in the management field.  And then I get to use my knowledge to be the most helpful "teacher/mentor" of my own.

Recently, I've been given charge of a high-functioning high school volunteer with a few diagnosed personality disorders.  As we walked the halls, she told me that she had been diagnosed with Asperger's disorder, bi-polar disorder, and one other disorder that I can't remember.  (Probably because I suffer from some sort of dementia)

As she was telling me this, I almost wanted to sigh with relief.  FINALLY, a person who is open with all of their personality quirks.

When working with a bunch of crazies, it's always nice when someone just admits they're crazy.

So have a ball with the DSM-IV catalog of crazy.  With a little psychological analysis, you can be working with a bunch of compulsive liars and sociopaths.  Congrats!

-The Boxcar Children

Yesterday has been a good day. Although I spent the whole day sat on my couch, I worked hard. Sending CV's is quite repetitive, as is answering always the same questions again and again. But that's how it works: survival of the most persevering.

But I am now back into the game! :) Youhou!!

I have a couple of interviews lined up in the next days. Pffiiuu it was about time...

I have to go now, more CV's to send. Take care people.