Free Advice from a Bored Silverback

Off Topic
21

[quote]TheKraken wrote:

[quote]Derek542 wrote:

[quote]TheKraken wrote:

[quote]theuofh wrote:
I’m a 31 year old borderline autistic engineer who recently started a fling with a 23 year old former stripper with body image issues and a family history of schizophrenia. She’s a pain in the backside but certain segments of our relationship are very fun and satisfying. I’m wondering how long this can go on before it blows up in my face? [/quote]

Yada, yada, yada [/quote]
Seriously we need pictures.[/quote]
I cant believe I missed that…tits or GTFO![/quote]
You are slipping old man lol

22

Enjoying your week of boredom?

I’ll chime in with a question…

I have come to realize that I need to get a better job. Because of certain circumstances (some being excuses, some being more legit reasons) I have been at my current position for too long. I was originally trying to move up the ladder into a supervisory position at my current office, or a comparable one in an adjacent county, but it’s starting to take too long.

Problem is, I don’t really know what I want to do. I can’t say I’m passionate about anything that would really translate to a career (or at least one that is legitimately attainable or would pay enough to live off of comfortably).

So a little background: BA in psych, 9 years of determining eligibility for Social Services programs (with a year or so in an unofficial supervisor role mixed into the middle), few years of pool facility management, 6 months of retail management, athleticaly inclined and team oriented, don’t want to go back to school but will have to if it seems like the best option. State employee and would like to stay a state employee. Uh, I guess that’s about it.

Based on that, any suggestions?

23

[quote]TheKraken wrote:

[quote]TheCB wrote:
what do you think a person should do with their time on earth, and why?[/quote]

I’m probably going to sound a little “new age” here. I had a pretty shitty childhood. I didn’t grow up in Compton or anything like that, but my parents divorced and I was pretty much left to fend for myself while they pursued their spate paths. I experienced a lot of how rotten people can be to each other fairly young. Based on this I decided there is enough negativity in the world, so it seems like a better way to spend my time was/is to do my best to create some positivity. It doesn’t have to be through huge altruistic projects, but simply by being kind to your neighbors and generally trying to be a good human.

Also, I think it is everyone’s duty to strive to realize their potential. Do something often to improve yourself. Training is a good example, but not the only thing. People stop me in the gym to say “hi, how are you?” and the happiest thing I can say is, “just a little stronger than I was yesterday.” [/quote]

Thanks for the response.

24

do you think there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe (same as/more than an average human)?

why/why not?

25

@TheKraken
Kudos to you for sharing.
I wish you all the best for your next gig, mate.

Not trying to hijack your thread, but I feel I might be able to contribute to Science/IT/Engineering folks looking for career shifts. In my experience, this seems to happen a lot in the late-20s to mid-30s age bracket.

@EngineeringAndAnalyticalFolksLookingForCareerChanges
It’s pretty simple: apply those analytical brains of yours to

  • do a self-analysis re: your talents, learnt principles, skills - basically what us consulting folks call offerings
  • do a market analysis (what’s in demand?): think vertical and horizontal markets (this is KEY)
  • put the necessary spin on your CV (don’t lie - I’m serious: just mold your whole expertise and experience - your product, as it were - after the specific position and employer) and put yourself out there
  • getting invited to interviews is almost never a waste of time: at worst, you’ll get some crucial intel
  • be honest, smart and self-confident about it: expect let-downs

Go about the above as you’d do with a project: the less you know upfront, the more you should proceed incrementally (yeah, what goes for agile these days). Have a sound plan, but don’t overthink it.

If you don’t know what you want to shift your career to, take stock of your career: (1) think about events that have been most satisfying for you; (2) think about stuff that made you push your own envelope (for better or worse); (3) try to come up with a pattern / common denominator. Just apply requirements engineering 101 (i.e. capturing, analysing etc.).

In case this sounds too simple to be true, here are my creds

  • professionally, I’ve innovated myself a few times using the aforementioned method
  • I’ve also helped others innovate themselves successfully (it’s a hobby, I’m not getting paid)
  • Software Dev since '99, IT Consulting / Business Analysis since '06, IT Management since '11, Management Consulting since '13 - mostly in international contexts
  • also, I’ve hired and fired folks

Concerning recruitment agencies: so far, I’ve used recruitment agencies both as a job seeker and a manager
#1 my experience with recruitment consultants is a mixed bag
#2 pretty solid experience with those in the executive search gig
#3 mixed results with the rest
#4 SHITTY experience with UK-based recruiters (liars)
#5 apart from executive search, you don’t have to have a formal education or relevant work experience to call yourself a recruitment CONSULTANT (the chutzpah!)

This led me to vet recruitment

26

[quote]TheCB wrote:
do you think there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe (same as/more than an average human)?

why/why not?[/quote]

I am not sure. I certainly hope there is life somewhere out there, and the probability is there that there should be the right conditions, but I don’t have a strong feeling one way or the other.

Something I have noticed about myself lately (reads getting older) is that I hope for the fantastic more often. I want to watch live coverage of an alien visit on CNN, then flip to FOX for the Right viewpoint on it. I want to know that there is bigfoot wandering the woods and the loch ness monster is well fed.

27

[quote]FattyFat wrote:
@TheKraken
Kudos to you for sharing.
I wish you all the best for your next gig, mate.

Not trying to hijack your thread, but I feel I might be able to contribute to Science/IT/Engineering folks looking for career shifts. In my experience, this seems to happen a lot in the late-20s to mid-30s age bracket.

@EngineeringAndAnalyticalFolksLookingForCareerChanges
It’s pretty simple: apply those analytical brains of yours to

  • do a self-analysis re: your talents, learnt principles, skills - basically what us consulting folks call offerings
  • do a market analysis (what’s in demand?): think vertical and horizontal markets (this is KEY)
  • put the necessary spin on your CV (don’t lie - I’m serious: just mold your whole expertise and experience - your product, as it were - after the specific position and employer) and put yourself out there
  • getting invited to interviews is almost never a waste of time: at worst, you’ll get some crucial intel
  • be honest, smart and self-confident about it: expect let-downs

Go about the above as you’d do with a project: the less you know upfront, the more you should proceed incrementally (yeah, what goes for agile these days). Have a sound plan, but don’t overthink it.

If you don’t know what you want to shift your career to, take stock of your career: (1) think about events that have been most satisfying for you; (2) think about stuff that made you push your own envelope (for better or worse); (3) try to come up with a pattern / common denominator. Just apply requirements engineering 101 (i.e. capturing, analysing etc.).

In case this sounds too simple to be true, here are my creds

  • professionally, I’ve innovated myself a few times using the aforementioned method
  • I’ve also helped others innovate themselves successfully (it’s a hobby, I’m not getting paid)
  • Software Dev since '99, IT Consulting / Business Analysis since '06, IT Management since '11, Management Consulting since '13 - mostly in international contexts
  • also, I’ve hired and fired folks

Concerning recruitment agencies: so far, I’ve used recruitment agencies both as a job seeker and a manager
#1 my experience with recruitment consultants is a mixed bag
#2 pretty solid experience with those in the executive search gig
#3 mixed results with the rest
#4 SHITTY experience with UK-based recruiters (liars)
#5 apart from executive search, you don’t have to have a formal education or relevant work experience to call yourself a recruitment CONSULTANT (the chutzpah!)

This led me to vet recruitment
[/quote]

Good stuff! Your advice is spot on. Always self-asses and have a plan before making a move. Don’t be the guy that “ended up at” a place, be the guy that wanted to be there, that no is there.

I have never been involved in engineer recruiting, so I don’t know that market well enough to comment, but if there are recruiters dedicated to that market, which there are, then more than likely there are plenty of opportunities. In fact, there is a national recruiting firm that is focused on that market, but I know a least locally, they are a “grind-house.” They hire any young aggressive D-bag and train them in an aggressive style that usually doesn’t work with high end candidates. They tried to place me in a recruiting role with one of their clients, which I was clearly not a fit, and tried to force me into a meeting with the agency, sort of a pre-interview, which was clearly a waste of my time. When I refused to the pre-interview on the grounds that if I was a bad interviewee I had no place in recruitment at all and I wasn’t a fit to begin with, the “recruiter” had no idea what to do beyond that. He was just trying to gain control of me TO show his manager he had a compliant candidate. It’s pop psych BS.

As far as experiences with recruiters go, I have a love/hate relationship. I love to meet a candidates/clients that had a bad experience because its an opportunity to over-deliver for me, but some people have a bad experience and will never talk to a recruiter again. I should say that I am a corporate hack these days, so my duties are a little different.

28

Ever placed any of the “older generation” who have been laid off? Had some ex-colleagues (senior engineers) in their mid-fifties still looking for work.

29

[quote]TheKraken wrote:
I wouldn’t claim to have anything important or valuable to share on training, but everything else in life, I’m pretty confident at.[/quote]

I make money in my own real estate company.

p.s. that is all.

30

1024×768 126 KB

If you’re still on the clock. I got one for you. I remember you said you to do well at martini bars. Please explain the cultural context and mode of operation. Not my scene.

31

I don’t know the cultural context that an ice luege fits into, but I’ve never saw one that worked right. The goal is to chill shot through the 100lbs or so of ice, but they usually run too fast to accomplish that. I remember a homemade one at a party that did work, but then it got clogged with frozen drink residue.

I guess its part of the “kegger” binge drinking scene. I learned pretty early in my drinking career that beer and my stomach don’t get along, but I had a high tolerance for alcohol, so I did my time at keggers, but I was born for a martini bar. A good martini bar"/lounge is where the pro’s drink. You can also have a conversation there.

It’s also where women tired of clubs and the dipshited bullshit go. I used to (married now) excel at closing those deals. I could spot that one in the crowd of girls who had a little edge to her because she thought she deserved more than another “bro” that night. I sucked at bullshit, understood people enough to hold a conversation, dressed well (because i was in sales, not because I had any style) could be confident without arrogance, so i did very well for a fat kid…back in the day when fish started to walk.

Advice–skip beer, or save it for celebrating mowing the law, find a signature drink hopefully a classic, that isn’t impossible for a busy bartender to make and stick with it. Find a legit lounge and get a buzz and practice actually talking and listening to people.

32

[quote]TheKraken wrote:
I don’t know the cultural context that an ice luege fits into, but I’ve never saw one that worked right. The goal is to chill shot through the 100lbs or so of ice, but they usually run too fast to accomplish that. I remember a homemade one at a party that did work, but then it got clogged with frozen drink residue.

I guess its part of the “kegger” binge drinking scene. I learned pretty early in my drinking career that beer and my stomach don’t get along, but I had a high tolerance for alcohol, so I did my time at keggers, but I was born for a martini bar. A good martini bar"/lounge is where the pro’s drink. You can also have a conversation there.

It’s also where women tired of clubs and the dipshited bullshit go. I used to (married now) excel at closing those deals. I could spot that one in the crowd of girls who had a little edge to her because she thought she deserved more than another “bro” that night. I sucked at bullshit, understood people enough to hold a conversation, dressed well (because i was in sales, not because I had any style) could be confident without arrogance, so i did very well for a fat kid…back in the day when fish started to walk.

Advice–skip beer, or save it for celebrating mowing the law, find a signature drink hopefully a classic, that isn’t impossible for a busy bartender to make and stick with it. Find a legit lounge and get a buzz and practice actually talking and listening to people.[/quote]

Ain’t nowhere got time for dat … where the white women at?

33

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:
If you’re still on the clock. I got one for you. I remember you said you to do well at martini bars. Please explain the cultural context and mode of operation. Not my scene. [/quote]

34

Just graduated from a CSU with a BS in finance. No internships, irrelevant work experience… Opportunity to work for a bank as a loan analyst for a bank making $55k salary. Thinking this isn’t such a bad first job. My main motivation is money. Ive been told this position leads to business banking which doesn’t sound interesting to me. I don’t want to just deal with clients and find more clients. Im thinking though a year or two of experience could get me a financial analyst position in a year or two with any other company. What are your thoughts to do? Like I said, my main motivation is $, and I don’t want to do sales. In particular.

35

I posted the ice luge, as a joke/ sama esque photo.

Kraken,

Good info.

36

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:
I posted the ice luge, as a joke/ sama esque photo.

Kraken,

Good info. [/quote]

That’s Capt, I can wax poetic on just about anything. I’m glad it made some sense. Ironically, I wrote that becuase I couldn’t sleep because I was pissed at my wife.

37

[quote]longtimelurker92 wrote:
Just graduated from a CSU with a BS in finance. No internships, irrelevant work experience… Opportunity to work for a bank as a loan analyst for a bank making $55k salary. Thinking this isn’t such a bad first job. My main motivation is money. Ive been told this position leads to business banking which doesn’t sound interesting to me. I don’t want to just deal with clients and find more clients. Im thinking though a year or two of experience could get me a financial analyst position in a year or two with any other company. What are your thoughts to do? Like I said, my main motivation is $, and I don’t want to do sales. In particular.[/quote]

If money is your main motivation then why is anything else like clients and finding more a concern? You’re probably safe from clients in that role anyways, analysts make notoriously bad salesmen, and anyone in the financial world would know not to put them in front of a client with the intention of selling. You won’t make Pimp level money as an analyst, but with no experience and an aversion to sales, I’d say that offer is a good first step.

38

[quote]TheKraken wrote:

[quote]Captnoblivious wrote:
I posted the ice luge, as a joke/ sama esque photo.

Kraken,

Good info. [/quote]

That’s Capt, I can wax poetic on just about anything. I’m glad it made some sense. Ironically, I wrote that becuase I couldn’t sleep because I was pissed at my wife. [/quote]

Is it generally an after work/happy hour social scene? I’m up by 430/5am most days, staying up late is not in my plan…ha

39

See I face a dilemma. I’m fine with sales. Im a pretty good people person. The problem is. I don’t want to get into sales and five years down the road want to become a financial analyst. if thats the case, then in 5 years I’ll have 0 analytical experience. Whereas If I become a loan analyst now, I can always go into sales, or come back to an analyst role. But here I am having friends say they’re clearing 100k in sales.

40

[quote]longtimelurker92 wrote:
See I face a dilemma. I’m fine with sales. Im a pretty good people person. The problem is. I don’t want to get into sales and five years down the road want to become a financial analyst. if thats the case, then in 5 years I’ll have 0 analytical experience. Whereas If I become a loan analyst now, I can always go into sales, or come back to an analyst role. But here I am having friends say they’re clearing 100k in sales.[/quote]

…so you are afraid to interview for a job becuase it might lead to another role you believe is sales related, where you friend is making 100k? You have no experience. I’d advise you to go on the interview so you might actually have enough information to make a decision, then make a decision.

How long will you have to be an analyst to make that money? How long can you go without work?

Edit: in your original post you said the “opportunity” is for a loan analyst…which is the career you want…I dont see a dilemma.