.: What’s Bruin :.

al Interview that is . . . with the University of Phoenix about 5 minutes from where I work at A and on the same street that Tony had his summer internship.

I’m meeting with Debbie Carpenter at 11:30 AM for about 15 minutes to find out more about the position. Here is the job posting. I think I meet the requirements. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Job Description
———————————————————————-

Job Title: Enrollment Counselor
Company: University of Phoenix
Request For Hire: 042097
Department: San Diego-Uop-Marketing
Job Code: EM058
Work Schedule: Full Time
Salary Range: Open
Hiring Range: Open
FLSA Status: Nonexempt
Position Summary: Under general supervision, this position is responsible for advising undergraduate and graduate students regarding admissions and degree completion requirements, as well as enrolling students for the University’s graduate, undergraduate and certificate programs, requiring the use of judgment and discretion on a periodic basis. This includes developing academic plans for degree or certificate completion, following standardized University guidelines and procedures.
Required Knowledge, Skills and Ability: Must possess a general knowledge of higher education market and industry. A bachelor’s degree is strongly preferred.

Must possess a general understanding of business, education, and technology, counseling and nursing programs of study.

Must be able to demonstrate skill and ability in the Enrollment Counselor learning objectives and training proficiencies, as set forth, to successfully perform the functions listed above.

Must be results oriented and have the ability to perform multiple tasks efficiently and effectively.

Customer service, sales or marketing experience entailing one on one interaction is highly preferred.

Must possess a relatively high level of interpersonal and communication skills to accurately convey University information, as described above.

Must have an excellent command of professional presentation skills and be comfortable presenting to groups both large and small.

Must possess a valid driver’s license as local travel is generally required.
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Tags: Career, work

The sound of a son’s voice calling you at work just to say hello and shoot the breeze.

Tags: Reflection

Ever notice that pathetically we turn to God only when you need Him? How sad is that?

But He always receives you back when you turn to Him.

This is clearly illustrated in one of my favorite passages, commonly known as “The Prodigal Son” from Luke 15:11-32.

The younger of two sons rebels against his family and asks his father for his inheritance while his father is still alive. This son runs away and spends all the money. He has to slink back to his home after living in poverty and is prepared to beg just to be a servant in the household so he can survive. But his father has been waiting every day for him, on the lookout. When the father sees the son, the father runs out to meet him. Before the son can start his begging spiel, the father interrupts it and throws on the best clothes and ring onto his son. Then he proceeds to give a huge welcome home celebration party. Read it for yourself below.
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Tags: Spiritual

We moved Pourpa into his new apartment today. No traffic on the way to smelLA. I uploaded some pictures again. You can check them out here.

Last night we went to Starbucks for some coffee and conversation, but they ended up closing at 11:00 PM (we arrived at 10:45). Drank the coffee in the truck and then headed back home. Stayed up ’til 3:30 AM this morning talking, packing, reading. I didn’t say what I was going to say. Not sure if it needs to be said. But I’ll write it here at some point. I know it’s understood.

Anyways, we left UCLA at around 2:00 PM after finishing setting up Pourpa’s room and kitchen stuff. It’s different this time around, second year and all. Yeah, I miss him. But this time, I didn’t cry on the way home.

Tags: Events, family, Pourpa, Reflection, UCLA

FQ1: What is the biggest fear you’ve had to face? Now that it’s over, would it scare you to confront it again?

Changing careers after doing the same thing for 11 years. It wouldn’t be as scary to do it again, but it’s kind of nerve-wracking given my responsibilities as the primary provider for my family.

FQ2: What is your greatest fear that you’ve not yet met? If you were paid loads of money, would you willingly face it?

Being robbed at gunpoint or facing an intruder in my home. I would never accept either of these situations for any amount of money.

FQ3: What is something most people are afraid of, but you don’t have a problem with? Why do you think that is?

Change and risk. I like changes to a certain extent. And I am not afraid to try new things.

FQ Movie Night: Your readers are looking for a thrill! What’s the scariest scene from a movie you’ve ever seen?

I don’t really get “scared” at movies anymore, though I do enjoy being startled/scared to the point that a movies makes me scream or shout. I immediately just crack up because it’s pretty funny that something that’s not real would scare me enough to scream.

I’ve seen so many suspenseful movies that were horror, action, or suspense thrillers. The last time that I remember being really scared at the movies was in 1987 when I saw “Aliens” for the first time (I just so happened to be vacationing in Honolulu, Hawaii.)

Tags: Participation

Smallville Season 4 Premiere was a-w-e-s-o-m-e!

Evil Clark (Kal-el) goes supersonic flight. I’ll try to post a video clip of it soon.

Flight Clip 1 - Windows Media (1.33 MB, 0:44)
Flight Clip 2 - Windows Media (2.14 MB, 1:09)

Should be a good season. I can’t wait to see how it develops.

Tags: Smallville, Television

The original trilogy is here in my possession! Widescreen, DVD. It’s off my wishlist. Costco has the best deal $43.99, and although Amazon offers it for $41.99, you would have to wait for it and pay for shipping.

Looking forward to watching previews of “Revenge of the Sith” as well as some interviews and hopefully, deleted scenes.

Tags: Movies, Star_Wars

This is such a cool show: Jack and Bobby on the WB, Sunday nights at 9:00 PM. It has drama, politics, and conflict. It explores the formative, coming-of-age years of a fictional character who is to become the 52nd President of the United States in 2041. The cool thing is that this character (Bobby McAllister) is known as the greatest president of the 21st Century.

The show is set in the present day (2004). Last night’s show featured Kerry-Edwards campaign signs, which I was not too happy about seeing. And another thing: the show has a cool montage of past presidents and their youth, but the images are skewed towards the friggin Dems: I think only Reagan appears, maybe Nixon, but the last president is Clinton kissing his feminazi wife (what a joke). Surprisingly, there is no Bush (either in picture or his name mentioned), yet the second show featured Kerry-Edwards campaign paraphenalia. But I was glad to learn that the character, Bobby, is a Republican. He must have rebelled from his mother’s liberal politics. However, because of his moderate stance, he runs for the presidential election as an Independent (splitting the votes for the Republican party??). Update: — Link to Bobby’s mother’s (Grace’s) Moonlight Address speech
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Tags: Jack_and_Bobby

Time flies. Today I helped Tony move the “big stuff” to his new apartment at UCLA. It just seemed like yesterday summer vacation had just begun. Driving up to the campus was fun. We had loaded the truck earlier this morning and appeared to have tied everything down with some rope. But the funny thing is . . . we had to stop at least three times to secure the items in the bed of the truck. Guess we need more knot training from the Boy Scouts.

I’m glad we left kind of early because the bed took a long time to put together. We had to use some lame tools because we forgot the power tools. Nice apartment though.
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Tags: Events, Reflection

Today, I had a meeting with The Asshole regarding my plan of action for a project. Surprisingly, he was nice and treated me professionally and with respect. Amazing. But honestly, I think it’s just temporary. A zebra can’t erase its stripes. And an asshole can’t plug itself up.

But I did appreciate the kindness and laughter. I actually thought some things were funny. And I laughed along too. The meeting also went smoothly. I provided my input and it was well-received.

I did feel good about my work today because of it. But I am still searching for a new job. Like I said, you can fool me once . . . And there are still assholes in the outfield. You can’t get rid of them.

Tags: Career, work

FQ1: What is your favorite posession made mostly from wood? Metal? Plastic?

Wood: I don’t really have a lot of wooden possessions, but I like this carved piece that spells out my name. My mom gave it to me in middle school or high school, and its place has always been on top of my alarm clock.

Metal: Easy. My two tennis racquets. Head Liquidmetal Instinct.

Plastic: Emperor Palpatine action figure (from the best character in the Star Wars Universe).

FQ2: What is your favorite posession colored mostly red? Blue? Green?

Red: I don’t really like the color red. I never really have, even before I went to UCLA. But my favorite red thing is a Tickle-Me-Elmo that my wife gave me as gift sometime before we were married.

Blue: Easy. My computer.

Green: I don’t like green that much either. I don’t think I own anything that’s green. The only thing that comes to mind are some socks.

FQ3: What is your favorite posession looking mostly soft? Sharp? Fragile?

Soft: It’s a tie between my pillow, which I’ve had for years and is very flat, and this little teddy bear someone gave me during some high school group leader’s retreat. The bear’s name is Schlum.

Sharp: I don’t really own anything sharp, like knives and such. But the “sharpest looking” thing I own is my house.

Fragile: My Nikon F-801 SLR that I bought in Hong Kong in 1990.

FQ Net Worth: If your nine prized posessions listed above were stolen, what do you estimate the total cost would be to replace them?

• Wooden name carving - $10 (sentimental value irreplaceable)
• Tennis Racquets - $300
• Emperor Palpatine action figure - $15
• Elmo - $15
• Computer - $1200
• Socks - $5
• Pillow - $20
• Schlum - $9
• House - $650,000 (housing prices have increased in our neighborhood by over $200,000 in the one year that we have lived here)
• Camera - $2000 (they don’t make this one anymore, so I would replace it with a digital SLR).

It all adds up to $653,574. Pretty expensive.

Tags: Participation

Well, after two years of teaching digital portfolios to high school students, I finally updated mine and gave it a new to look to incorporate experiences beyond my public education career.

Follow the link. http://portfolio.whatsbruin.net

I took my portfolio offline. Now that I’m not teaching, I have to make a different portfolio, except most of the work I’m doing now is proprietary stuff or military-ish. So any portfolio I make will be on CD-ROM.

Tags: Career

This is a cool postcard. But UCLA football will probably suck this year. They are currently 1-1, losing their season opener to Oklahoma State 20-31, while beating Illinois last Saturday 35-17.

Tags: Sports, UCLA

To: Penny Handscomb
From: Joe *****
Date: September 15, 2004
Re: Experiential Activity: Employee Value Proposition for A Corporation

In the three short months that I’ve worked at A Corporation, I am convinced that A does not have a winning, compelling Employee Value Proposition (EVP) that would draw me to stay with them in the long run. In fact, according to the four key elements of a winning EVP in The War for Talent by Michaels et. al., A falls far short of these ideals.

Having left an 11-year career in public education, I came to private sector, defense contractor giant, A, thinking that doing anything other than teaching teenagers would be good. While I don’t have the excitement of having to deal with disrespectful teens on a daily basis, I also no longer have an enjoyable, creative outlet at my place of employment. While I did not really enjoy teaching at the end of my career, I did however, find tremendous pleasure in designing web sites at my last school as a web site design instructor and school technology coordinator. It was the one fulfilling thing I still enjoyed at the end. One of the things that initially attracted me to A’s position as an Instructional Designer was to be “creative” every single day. At A, the work is extremely boring because of my department’s primary client, the US Marine Corps. While I design training materials for the Marines, it is definitely not creative. The Marines have a certain format and a certain way of doing things. The materials I write are standardized, all with the same military format.

Because A works primarily with the military, it comes as no surprise that many of the company’s top leaders are former military officers and personnel. On my first glance, it seems that it would be difficult to advance beyond a certain point at A, given my lack of military experience. It would still be possible to garnish a variety of experiences for professional growth and development through A’s online classes, as well as various seminars announced via corporate email. However, they are not as readily accessible. Employees must attend classes and seminars on their own time, not company time. The company only makes the seminars available, but the employee must pay out of his own pocket to attend. As a new employee, I did not go through any formal training or indoctrination to the company culture other than my brief new employee orientation during which I learned how to use the security system and filled out all the new hire paperwork. My conclusion is that A is committed to my professional development only as long as I want to pay for it myself and pursue it on my own time.

With having to pay for my own professional development, it would be difficult to do so with my current compensation package at A. Understandably, making a transition from the public sector to the private sector as I did, required me to take a 14% pay cut in my salary in comparison to what I made as a public educator. A’s commitment to providing competitive compensation does not seem that strong to me. After doing some initial research into a career in instructional design, I learned that A is paying me about $5000 less than the median salary for my position in San Diego. The nature of the company’s business, bidding on and acquiring government contracts, makes budget constraints somewhat inflexible. Salaries must fall within the current and upcoming budgets for projects. There is not much room for negotiation. When I compare my current abilities and skill set to the skills I am actually using daily on the job, I would say that A acquired my talents at a tremendous bargain.

While it is quite disappointing to have worked for so long in another career and now earn less wages, I was prepared to make this type of financial sacrifice in the short run to make my career transition a reality, especially for the right company with the right culture and the right management. My dreams were shattered soon after I started at A. On my third day of employment, I experienced extremely unprofessional treatment from my manager. Even then, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but having experienced being treated with rudeness, condescension, and just plain meanness for the past three months, I am convinced that my manager is a jerk and he poorly manages our department. This is the icing on the cake which currently drives me to seek other employment, even to consider working in public education again. Without wanting to seem like a whiner or complainer, I waited six weeks, enduring my manager’s behavior before I confronted him. I don’t trust him. He’s like Jekyll and Hyde, bipolar, nice one day, and a jerk the next. All of my current projects are all losses for the company because he mismanaged the bidding process and the time constraints long before I arrived at A. Now that he’s feeling the pressure of having so many late deliverables, he often takes out his frustration on me, as well as other employees. This is definitely not a company I want to continue working at. My loyalty to A is only as strong as the time it will take me to find someplace else that will give me a winning employee value proposition in task, culture, growth, relationships, and rewards.

Tags: Career, CSUSM, education_and_training, MBA, work

Of asking for my opinion and my input if it’s just going to be disregarded and condescended?

The Asshole asked me to write up my concerns regarding the results of a meeting yesterday. Basically, the impact of the meeting was to redo work that we had already done and to expand on some ideas that we had not done. My main concern in my write up was to say that to extend the depth of the work would require extra time and money.

So what’s the point of asking for my fucking opinion if it’s just going to be disregarded? The Asshole said: “We are going to do the work in a timely manner.”

I’m thinking to myself: “No shit, dumbass. Why the fuck did you ask for my input if you don’t respect my professional opinion anyways?”

“Oh yeah, you don’t know how to manage professionally. That’s why you treat your employees like shit and talk to them condescendingly. It’s because all of our department’s fucking projects are all late and operating at a loss for more than half a year. Gee, I wonder why. Could it be that you’re an incompetent manager, incapable of managing work relationships in an effective way so that your employees are motivated to work for you instead of against you? Could it be that you always pass on your leadership responsibilities to other regular employees instead of being the leader and actually doing some time management? Could it be that you have no idea what each person actually needs to do in order to get their job done? Could it be that you pay lip service to the idea of working cooperatively in teams, but in reality, everybody just does their own thing? Could it be that you never have department meetings so that everybody knows what everyone else is doing and can learn how to work together better and support each other’s deadlines?”

Basically, Asshole, you suck the big one. I’m not even done with business school and I can manage better than you. But I’m not going to do your fucking job for you, Asshole. Pay me more and jump off a cliff, then I might consider it.

Tags: Career, work