Laura’s Imperfect Blog

Well, I haven’t posted much over the past 2 weeks, but I have been doing things.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

Rom 8:28

Prayer and study

Not perfect here, but I did read Esther. I  read Job earlier this year. I did not read Psalms or Proverbs, although I hope to do Proverbs soon. Next week is Ecclesiastes so I’ll start working on reading through it. I can use the time over the summer to catch up and read Isaiah and Jeremiah for our monthly Tree to Tree studies.

I am also working with a friend on the Bible study preparation for the Women’s Beach Retreat in Nov.

Outplacement Agency

I haven’t checked in over there in the past few weeks.

Job Search

I put on my new suit and met with a local contract company. At the least I figured I should see what is going on here with local jobs. I have one so I’m not desperate, but it is nice to see what the market looks like, how my skills transfer, what salaries are like, and just have some more connections. The time with the two recruiters was really nice, good practice talking about myself and my career history. I like the way the company works and it would be a good way to get into consulting under their management and direction.

Work

I am working on 3 projects now as a contractor. In the final testing stages of one, which is great to get me back into creating test cases, thinking about all the different ways to try to do something wrong or right, and get the results documented and then retested when the developers put a fix in.

The other is still near the beginning, creating use cases and documenting the scope and requirements so we can all agree on what we’re doing. This is a bit more complicated because it is a local project based on a global project so we can’t customize a lot and there are still gaps being worked on at the global level. This reminds me how frustrating a project can be, and how much is dependent on a few people to either get the right information or make the right decisions.

The third is just documenting the solution after it’s all done so the steady state support team can take it over. Much of the work is done and I am just providing coordination so the developers can write up the last few pieces.

I needed a new way to handle long distance phone calls, and just calls in general without tying up the home phone line. I didn’t want the expense of another phone line into the house. DH mentioned he had seen a thing called MagicJack which is a small VoIP that you plug into your computer and then plug the phone line into it. We picked it up for $20 a year for unlimited long distance. It works really well for outgoing calls. I have stored some most used numbers in the contacts list and the reception is great. People haven’t noticed any issues with hearing me and I can always hear them. My only issue is that often (but not always) when people call me it forwards to the home phone instead of ringing the phone I have hooked up to the MagicJack. I have verified that I don’t have forwarding turned on so I’m still investigating.

Physical

This has been great! I have worked out 4+ times last week and this week. I bought a road bike last week and have spent some good time on it using the trainer. I’m building up my stamina, toughening up some of my muscles and sore spots, and getting accustomed to clicking my shoes in and out of my pedals.

I am also working out with some strength and core exercises. Of course, I am also doing my Egoscue exercises and seeing more progress there.

Other

I had to spend some time looking at health insurance. I have access to really cheap COBRA (thanks to the money our gov’t is spending) for the next 6 months, but only if I didn’t have access to a group plan through a job or my spouse. This turned interesting and ended just like it did 9 years ago when I self-insured instead of going through the contract company.

The health insurance for self + 1 through my employer cost about $630 a month. I was only paying a portion of that, of course. This was a high deductible plan with an HSA, so the cheapest plan offered.The contract company I’m working for now provides a group plan but I pay 100%. Health insurance for self+1 was somehere between $600 and 830 a month.

I checked out BlueCross BlueShield NC, Aetna, United, and a few others and ended back at BCBSNC where our plan for self+1 will cost $450 a month. Makes me wonder if I should have stopped getting insurance through my employer years ago. I liked the COBRA cost of $18.50 much better!

Dental is not as easy a fix. I can get it with BCBSNC but it is more expensive. The group plan through the contract company is actually pretty good, but I may not be able to get just dental coverage. Oh well, not as big an expense or concern as health insurance.

And the life insurance contract is in place, with an even better rate than was quoted.

This week we were reading Ezra and Nehemiah. Here is Nehemiah 9:5 (just the middle part)

Stand up and bless the Lord your God from everlasting to everlasting.

Prayer and study

Time in Ezra and Nehemiah preparing for Tree to Tree on Wednesday. Judah had sinned, but God preserved a remnant and they repented and turned back to him. I also spent time reading the book The Immigration Crisis and thinking through the way the preacher was portrayed in Higher Hope.

Outplacement Agency

I actually didn’t do a thing with them this week. I got my business cards and printed out a copy of my resume for a friend to review one more time. But I didn’t take any classes or review any of the information I have received so far.

Job Search

I have rejuvenated my twitter presence and changed my user name from imperfectln to lauranavarro. I am following some career assist types and some job posting types. I have retweeted a few things. I have picked up a list of useful web sites with information.

I need to set an appointment with a local placement agency to see what might work out there. I did get my new laptop and IDs for the contractor position that I start next week. I have everything set up and in place so I can start right in on Tuesday.

Work

I’m really done here. My replacement has all the information she needs, I have just about convinced everyone to stop listing me as reviewer or coming to me for help.

I have an exit interview Monday and then I’ll mail back my old laptop and other documents. I have a VoIP router from AT&T and they said not to return it. I just need to call and cancel the number on Monday.

I need to get used to having the home line for my main phone line.

Physical

Wednesday night I accepted that I’m not going to get up early this week to work out. I did my Powerstrike routine Wednesday night and then did some yoga Thursday night. Saturday morning (today) we went out on the bicycles for about 30 minutes. Then I cleaned the entire house so I’m beat.

Speaking of cleaning the house – I rearranged the living room and we boxed up and labeled two boxes with 70 pounds of books to mail to Christian Resources International. That’s just books from us and one other family. I’m sure we can gather more to get mailed off soon.

Diet wasn’t perfect this week – Ladies’ Night out Tuesday, chicken quesadilla with sour cream and cheese on Wednesday, pizza on Friday. But in general I’m still doing a good job of keeping the sat fat and cholesterol down.

Other

I had my physical for the life insurance policy. I also had an initial call with a financial agency that will help me walk through where I am and where I need to be. This is a benefit of the outplacement agency, so maybe it fits up there.

Since I have a job to start on Tuesday it is easy to get content again. But I believe this happened for a greater reason and I am still searching for any guidance for the direction we whould go in. I am open to wherever He wants me to go. I’m not sitting still doing nothing while waiting because there are opportunities. I just keep praying that I walk in His will, and not try to take over and create my own solution. We have certainly had more discussions about changes we need to make and how to prepare ourselves for whatever may come next.

Scripture for this week found while reading Chronicles for Tree to Tree on Wednesday.

For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever

2 Chron 5:13 and 7:3

Prayer and study:

Read 1 and 2 Chronicles and journaled some about what I was reading. Prayed for my friends who have concerns and needs. This is good since it takes my focus off of me, but I hurt for my friends with these struggles.

Outplacement agency:

This week I:

• Did the Net Search for Job Search elearning and webinar.
• Did the Networking elearning and webinar. The point being to have informational meetings/discussions with people instead of just desperately asking everyone for a job. This reminds me of how DH got his last job – visiting the company just to talk about audio/visual options for our church and suddenly the guy he’s talking to redirects the conversation and brings in the owner and they ended by asking DH to provide a proposal for a position they were trying to fill.
• Met with my career coach, she had a lot of great suggestions for next steps.
• Ordered business cards – can order card stock to print my own, can have Staples print them (200 for $29.95) or can get 250 from Vistaprint.com for as cheap as $5.45 (if I can wait 21 days). I went with Vista Print this time.
• Reviewed the formatted resume from the outplacement agency and compared it to the one I adjusted based on the Resume Development webinar. I like mine better. Formatted it for txt version for those places where I need to copy/paste it in. I am sending the pdf to most people in email.
• Continued to edit the resume to remove duties and add accomplishments and results.

Job Search:

I bought a suit in case I have to interview. None of my old suits fit, so I’ll be giving them to Goodwill soon. I found an article on WSJ about the power look coming back. I love this line. “But people’s sense of job entitlement has evaporated as unemployment figures rise.”

I loaded my resume onto the World Vision site. The agent found several jobs that fit my resume, but most want more experience than I have. All are in WA state or Washington, DC. We both need a much stronger sign if it’s time for us to move. We’d be convinced if someone walked up to us and offered to buy our house with the furnishings in it. (No, we haven’t listed the house for sale.)

Did a web course on using Social Media for your job search. This was offered by VisualCV and was a great webinar. It is available here for anyone interested. Here is mine, in progress.

I updated my twitter page to have a custom background. DH helped a lot with that. Now I know how to do it again if I want to.

I created an account at JibberJobber.com where I can track my contacts, connections, companies, job postings, etc. It has a place to put multiple 30-second commercials. Doing it again helped me make more progress on identifying my strengths and accomplishments from my career so far.

Work:

Daily meetings with my replacement to review the areas and gather the data she needed, or review the spreadsheet where I had gathered it. Redirecting most traffic to her and reminding people I am leaving. I did the monthly data gathering and then provided it for my replacement so she can create the final presentation.

Physical:

Other than a horrendous food day on Sunday, I have done well with what I eat. Exercise hasn’t happened as I would like. I was still tired for a few days after the Sunrise service and weekend spent with all 3 nephews. I did walk up/down the stairs several times as I did more cleaning in Connor’s room and handled 3 loads of laundry.

Other:

I applied for life insurance since I’ll stop having that through my employer. Trying to think of anything else like this that I should get started on.

I found another linkable item on Career Adventure. This post is about telecommuting and how to tell if you are the right type to do it. This one rings so true. I have worked from my home for a large technology firm for about four years. It works very well for me, as I am self-directed and fairly disciplined in my work routine. Most of the time, I have enough deadlines and conference calls that even if I wanted to slack I can’t. I have done my share of laundry and getting the dishes cleaned, but the hours tend to be a little longer and there is more flexibility if necessary. I don’t have to drive home and set up the laptop to be ready for any after-hours work, it’s already set up and ready to go.

The department I worked with was always remote, so even if I drove to the local site I wouldn’t be with any of the people I actually interact with. That means I had to learn how to lead and manage remotely as a way of life. There are times it has been convenient to have those one-on-one calls with my employees without worrying about the cleaning crew wanting to vacuum or someone else poking their head in the door.

I have watched almost the complete cycle with my company. When I first began there was a resistance to working from home even at night or one day a week. Then real estate concerns got involved, and there was a push to move more employees to work from home. I think it was successful for the most part. Granted, some people don’t work well in the distracting environment of their home, and some tasks are just too collaborative to do with a remote team. But most of us were happy to lose the commute and traffic, and we have thrived working in our home.

We have learned to build and maintain relationships through phone calls, small talk at the beginning of conference calls, instant messaging, and emails. We certainly know who the workers are, the reliable ones we can go to for information or help. We all agree that it is sometimes lonely and maybe we miss something by not being face to face with someone from our company, even if they aren’t in our area. I don’t think that has affected productivity or morale, though. The benefits still outweigh the concerns.

Yet, I see strong signs that the company is shifting to get people back on centralized worksites, with cubicle farms and war-rooms, even relocations but without the financial assistance to move. It will be interesting to see how this works after so many of us have experienced the flexibility of working from home.

Verse found this week:

1 Chronicles 16:10-11

Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually!

Prayer and study:

Great Holy Week, with Maundy Thursday and great messages on Sunday. I spent some time in Luke in preparation for my Sunday School lesson.

Outplacement Service:

I started the week with a depressing search on Careerbuilder.com. Then a Self-Marketing webinar with the agency. I am having trouble focusing on a job that I want to pursue. I have always adjusted to whatever job was available, not planned out a career.

I spent time Tues, Wed, and Thursday getting the forms filled out and witnessed and scanned for the contractor position. The good news was we also got our Estate docs witnessed and notarized at the same time.

I also called about the follow-up to the Financial webinar since I had not heard back yet.

I took an elearning and a webinar course on Campaign Correspondence – cover letters, thank you letters, approach letters. Starting to pull all of that together. I set up a time next week to meet with my Career Coach. And I scheduled the networking and net search webinars so I will get those steps done.

Work:

I started some training with my replacement. I created some reports and preparation for next week’s reports. I attended a lot of meetings and tried to clarify anything my replacement needed.

Physical:

Yoga once, Powerstrike once, Egoscue twice. Definitely need more work here. I did a great job with my food intake, except for Sunday with sausage biscuits and a cheeseburger. Overall I am becoming much more purposeful about what I eat.

All 3 nephews and my brother-in-law were here Fri-Sun so there was a lot of up and down and walking and washing dishes and all the stuff that goes into keeping up with them. By Sunday night I was exhausted.