After seven and a half months after my last day at Chevron, I am still looking for a job. When I was let go, I never pictured being out of work this long. On the bright side, I have had many interviews and am much more comfortable interviewing than I have ever been. It's funny how job search activity seems to be very cyclical, at least for me. It seems like I'll have a week or two where I have multiple interviews and then a few weeks without anything. Fortunately, this week is one of the busy ones.
I had an interview today with LA Business Personnel, a job search firm based in L.A. My interview today was more of an assessment, though. I took tests for MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and a typing test as well as a brief interview so they could better understand my job experience. It went well, but will help them look for job possibilities for me. I still have to go through the normal interview process with whatever company they find for me.
Tomorrow's interview is more interesting. I'll be having lunch at CPK while interviewing with Hawaiian Airlines. If anything develops from the HA interview, things could get very interesting, but I'll leave it at that for now. It was originally going to be a phone interview since the guy I'm interviewing with is based out of Hawaii. He happens to be travelling back to Hawaii from Chicago and will be in town tomorrow; thus the face to face interview.
My last interview with The Gas Co. was on March 31. They have not yet filled the position and have not yet made a decision. I have no idea what the holdup is, but at least it's still a possibility. My (and Traci's) hope is that they are trying to get the ok to open up a second position, which they mentioned to me in my last interview, and try to hire me for that one. Ii have no idea if that is what is going on, so we'll see.
Otherwise, life is going fairly well. The girls are getting ready to finish up school in a few weeks. We're especially excited about Skyler finishing up preschool for a couple of reasons. First, that means she will be in kindergarten in the Fall. Secondly, because we will no longer have the monthly preschool payment!! We've been getting some financial aid the past few months, but we are still paying the majority of it and we will lose that payment after our last payment next week.
Softball season is over (see my last posting), but I was asked if I was interested in the being on the League's Board. It sounds like a good idea, especially since I've seen some inefficiencies that shouldn't be that hard to improve. We'll have to see if they like me enough to put add me to the Board. Although I'm not doing it for the resume, it won't look bad on there either.
Memorial Day weekend is coming up and the girls are very excited to be going camping with us and Traci's parents. The girls love camping and the fact that the campground we are going to has a huge pool. They haven't gone swimming in a long time and they live for that.
The Dodgers have been very disappointing this season. I feel like it's already a lost cause. Hopefully once the ownership situation and the issues surrounding that get worked out, things will turn around.
Just got off the phone with the guy I'm interviewing with tomorrow. He needed to change the time of our meeting tomorrow so now we're having breakfast at South Coast Plaza instead of lunch at CPK. I like morning interviews because then it's over early and I don't have to worry about it as much during the day. I'll have to deal with some rush hour traffic, but it should be worth it.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
2011 Softball Reflections
The softball season has come and gone and I now have my first season as a coach under my belt. Overall, it was a very good experience. I knew it would be fun and there may be moments where I wouldn't enjoy it, and it turned out that way. The good very much outweighs the bad, however, and I am thankful for that.
It was very fun getting to know all of the girls and their different personalities and watching them improve as the season went on. Sure it was frustrating at times when things didn't go the way I hoped, but that's part of the game and being a coach.
I loved encouraging the girls, especially when they did really well. There were a number of funny instances, as can be expected at this level. Whenever the girls found ladybugs in the grass either before a game or at practice, things would come to a halt instantly. Sometimes the dirt formations were more interesting than the game itself. Girls would be singing while in the field, including Courtney.
I was fortunate to have a good team mom and great coaches that helped out a lot. That made the experience more enjoyable since that meant it wasn't all up to me.
Things didn't always go our way. The controversy of the rules and how the opposing coach changed them while already playing the game, in our second playoff game, when we lost. A number of our parents, including me, have been vocal to the league about that since it sounds like the same coach did the same thing last year, and won the tournament both years. Very sad, especially at this level. As a result there are at least two families from my team that will be leaving the league next year. Fortunately, I got a good response from the league President, who at the end of his e-mail asked me if I had considered being on the Board. It's something I'm now looking into, so we'll see what happens with that.
I'm hoping I am able to coach again next year, when Courtney moves up into the next division. It will definitely be more challenging, but I loved the strategic planning associated with the post-season tournament this year. At the next level, I'll get to do that every game! But first, I need to get a job and make sure that my schedule will allow me to coach.
For the time being, though, I will continue my search for a new job, which has lasted for over 7 months now. Being able to coach the girls' softball team was definitely something to take advantage of while I had the time. Next up, coaching soccer in the Fall at church.
It was very fun getting to know all of the girls and their different personalities and watching them improve as the season went on. Sure it was frustrating at times when things didn't go the way I hoped, but that's part of the game and being a coach.
I loved encouraging the girls, especially when they did really well. There were a number of funny instances, as can be expected at this level. Whenever the girls found ladybugs in the grass either before a game or at practice, things would come to a halt instantly. Sometimes the dirt formations were more interesting than the game itself. Girls would be singing while in the field, including Courtney.
I was fortunate to have a good team mom and great coaches that helped out a lot. That made the experience more enjoyable since that meant it wasn't all up to me.
Things didn't always go our way. The controversy of the rules and how the opposing coach changed them while already playing the game, in our second playoff game, when we lost. A number of our parents, including me, have been vocal to the league about that since it sounds like the same coach did the same thing last year, and won the tournament both years. Very sad, especially at this level. As a result there are at least two families from my team that will be leaving the league next year. Fortunately, I got a good response from the league President, who at the end of his e-mail asked me if I had considered being on the Board. It's something I'm now looking into, so we'll see what happens with that.
I'm hoping I am able to coach again next year, when Courtney moves up into the next division. It will definitely be more challenging, but I loved the strategic planning associated with the post-season tournament this year. At the next level, I'll get to do that every game! But first, I need to get a job and make sure that my schedule will allow me to coach.
For the time being, though, I will continue my search for a new job, which has lasted for over 7 months now. Being able to coach the girls' softball team was definitely something to take advantage of while I had the time. Next up, coaching soccer in the Fall at church.
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