Overdo it

So, as a parting shot of this blog. It probably comes as no surprise that I am relatively concerned about the job market, and how I will find my place in it. After I returned to the US late last July, I have put out numerous applications. I am curious how my education and experience over the last year will enhance my competitiveness in the job market.

I am curious as to how I should go about "selling" myself on the job market without exaggerating. It seems that exaggerating would be more common these days, as the market is so crowded with applicants. At any rate, I figure I will stick to my guns and see where it gets me. What is the method for standing out while staying true to my strengths?

This is one of those next problems that I will be addressing. I am currently forming my next blog project:

Unemployment: The Blog

I am already drafting posts so check it out in the future!

A Difference of Expectations

I find the balance between work and life an interesting one. Many employers, or perhaps just the smart ones, clearly ask for more than they pay their employees to do. However, how does the mechanism work in the opposite direction? In the public as well as the private sectors, employees are asked to work extra hours (directly and indirectly) or they are asked to complete more projects and in many cases the compensation does not change. In past experiences, where I have been working on an hourly schedule, the idea of higher compensation for more work was fairly well communicated. That is to say, that working 41 hours in a week earned more compensation than working 40. Likewise in work experiences where my job has been linked to increasing revenue there is a stronger link between how the organization benefits and how the employee benefits.

I find it odd how arbitrary compensation scheme is working in the "public sphere". Although methods such as "pay for performance" are said to exist, the grounds for measuring performance are not ones that are based on monetary gain. If this were the case, teachers who brought more students into the district would get paid more. (That is in states where district/school funding is partly determined by the number of students). I also find the compensation scheme not nearly as direct in times where there isn't as much money being freely spent (times such as now).

The link between this subject an "internship" is an odd one as well. As many providers of these types of experiences search for a best (most qualified) candidate, however many aren't willing to pay more for more qualified personnel. In many cases, many aren't willing to pay at all. In these cases, what is the distinction between the work that is rendered and simply referring to it as "volunteer work". While I was working in Germany I worked with many of companies that took on interns. In truth, a lot of companies in Germany seemingly run, themselves, on interns because in the system it seems that they are a replacement for entry-level jobs. However, are both terms interchangeable?

These are just some ponderings as I move forward in my life, and I sincerely intended to write them in this train of thought style as crafting a more complete piece would be much to long (both to read and to write) in blog format.

Here We Go

So, as a part of an organization that receives a portion of its revenue through contracts with the state government, the state budget is a very important subject. It seemed all but clear that the Courts were going to be the battleground of this budget, however the budget was transmitted to the Governor's office yesterday (the end of the fiscal year). Today the news is as such: Be prepared for a longer battle.

Jan Brewer, Arizona governor, has evidently made several vetoes the the budget and this will send the legislature into a special session. This combined with the news coming out of the California budget battle, calls for the question:

How safe is it working with state and local government when economic times are so difficult?

I mean this in several senses. First, as people who work in the public sector, the chances are much greater that we would find ourselves working in or with a state or local government than with the federal government. Secondly, I mean this as people who invest in local government bonds (and this is not limited to US citizens). In both cases we have come to expect governments to be a stable facet of the US. We depend of governments to repay their debts and provide services without trouble. The hope is that this would be just as true in times in economic hardship. People around the world depend on the stability of American governments, for their security (I speak in an economic sense). Traditionally we have depended on governments as employers or objects of investment, because of stability. Has it turned out that this faith was as misplaced as our faith in General Motors? I sincerely mean this, as General Motors has been a very important part of mine and my families lives for generations. Likewise I feel government plays an equally important role in the lives of others.

Discuss if you'd like.

Shameless Promotion

As a part of my work-life balance, and more so to help me balance myself, I have started a new activity over the last three months. I have been training in Capoeira with Grupo Capoeira Brasil in Tempe. This has been a great use of my time and has helped me to feel like more of a "complete person". For most of my life I have needed to find a balance of sport and music to fit into my life. Also, I have been performing in some capacity since I was about eight years old.

Capoeira came about as an idea from a rugby teammate of mine from GVSU. I have decided to take myself out of the rugby game due to a couple of injuries and wanted to do something that required a fun balance of social life, tradition, and hard work. One of my buddies told me that I should give capoeira a go and see how I like it. He looked up the group and sent the website along to me. Since May, I have made all but one practice and enjoyed myself thoroughly.

If anyone is so interested, give it a whirl.

Keeping Up

So an interesting part of working in the public sector is how much our work is affected by the political, economic, and social environment. These days, however, it doesn't seem to simply be a hallmark of solely the public sphere. At any rate, it is typically important to live in a high-information environment. This requires some art, but mostly it requires some reading. So comes the question:

How do you keep up with current events, especially those relevant to your field?

I am a self-admitted news-aholic. I need news from papers, magazines, blogs, wikis, and word of mouth. There can be a problem if one doesn't go about searching through their news systematically though. I must always resolve the questions of what I want to know, what the public wants to know, and how things operate. I will let you all in on some of the sites and functions that I frequent to make my web surfing more productive. For finding news and blogs relevant to my subjects of interest I make sure that I am sent related news and blogs through Google News and Google Blogs. This operates better than simply researching everyday it just gives me a constant line to related content for me. Also, federal legislative items are great through the Open Congress Project. (Although sometimes I find that not enough people are updating, this can be shored up by adding what I from the House calendar). I LOVE NEWSMAP, for more than three years it has been a source telling me what people are reading in internet news. Also it has gotten better this year and improved a lot of functions. Check the newsmap blog if you want to know what they offer. A lot of local legislative news I am able to get through the PLAN email, which is a function of a city deptartment. You have to be registered in order to get email updates but they are generally informative.

Lastly, for all of you out there who have been trying to avoid the truth, use Firefox. It is pretty much my favorite browser for functionality, speed, and customizing. I have tried Opera (don't like it), will try Android one day (maybe), IE is my enemy (forever), Safari is pretty decent (and improving), but I have stuck with Firefox since it was only 1.0.

The Next Move

So, as time time winds down with this internship. I am left to contemplate how I will proceed from this point. This means that I must plot the famous "next move". I'm sure I'm not the only one in my position seriously thinking and very concerned about what to do next.

Someone told me that it would be best for me to make my next professional move in doing something I am deeply interested in doing. Something that would develop my academic knowledge in "my field". To this I must ask the question:

Is now truly the time to explore doing what it is that I am interested in, or is now the time to explore doing what is available?

That is not to say that this is truly a dichotomous choice, but to an extent we can't always do both in tight times. I believe that we should optimally do the jobs that we want to do, rather than those that we must do. This however ignores the extremely competitive job market that we are all faced with, and I think it ignores the local limitation that I face if I were to choose to finish my MPA at ASU (oh the acronyms). Going through the process of getting more experience (especially if it were to be without pay), chafes against my principles as well as my reality. In reality I am a person that needs to support himself financially and has extremely limited resources to do so.

My only solution for the recent months has been to put in application after application for professional work. If that proves unsuccessful, then that means that I must apply for other types of work. This is an interesting problem that is faced because the premise of being more education offers someone better professional opportunities is being challenged outright. I am at this point led to the conclusion:

If digging ditches offers opportunity to support myself now, where my academic and professional experience doesn't, then there is little excuse to NOT dig ditches.

This statement I mean in both a figurative and literal manner, but I welcome any discussion that this may spark

Human Resources

Following a recent post by Blake in Human Resources. I have to say that I have grown a quite cynical view of the role of Human Resources professionals.

Quite fortunately enough for me, The Onion has recently posted a great video on the topic.

In seriousness however, I do find the position a frustrating one. For me this has always been a person that I have primarily needed to contact in my earliest days of employment (or after a promotion). Other than that, I have had to track down and harass every HR manager I have ever had to talk about functional matters like why my pay increase hadn't taken effect. Vague statements about job performance and motivation seem to be married with talks with your HRM. What seems to be interesting is that several benefits these days can be personally managed online, are contracted out to other agencies, or do not include even seeing the HRM anymore. What usually amplifies my frustration is that in light of the fact that very few people ask very much from the department, is how long it takes to accomplish what is asked.

Ah well...I guess this breaks from my format, but none the less I do want to hear some point of view on the importance of human resources staff.

Powering Through The Mundane

So, in returning to my customary format. I would like to discuss one of those things people hate about work. This isn't referring to the "bad day" at the office. In my opinion what is much worse than the bad is the unrelentingly boring activities. This will lead into a future post, but it is something that I am sure that many people must deal with in the name of "interning".

What do we do with tasks that insanely boring?

This is quite the separate issue from spare time, which was addressed in a different post. In my particular internship I get loaded with a lot of data entry from time to time. This is quite often awful, but it is a necessary evil of working with data. Initially, I can keep myself busy with trying to understand the nature of the data and the phenomenon to be measured. After that, I typically pose a series of questions (or comments) regarding the collection method, survey methods, wording, and other technical matters of reasonable importance. Finally, after many of the technical issues are brought to light, and concerns are voiced that will affect analysis, comes the beast. This comes that critical point where all of the data just need to be entered. The time comes to listen to some internet radio or the iPod, and just get through the beast. It is no treat to have to do these things but usually some music will help me through it.

In most professions there are those duties that are either extremely time consuming or mind numbing. They are those things that we do that remind us that we are "at work". I have been in situations where these activities are nice because you can just put your brain on auto-pilot and still get paid for it. In other situations, uninteresting, boring tasks are simply irritating and time-consuming. Either way, i have come to expect it as part of the world that we live in. How, do you, my over-worked, underpaid chums deal with this issue?

Winding Down

So, it seems that this Summer "semester" is finding its conclusion soon. Likewise so is the internship that I have been occupying since January. As a part of my typical duties at the end of this type of short-term employment, I am planning to write a summary. This habit started when I was a research assistant at the Johnson Center, and I just consider it a useful practice for ending this type of experience with something for everyone to think about.

As a method of meaningful reflection, I spend a little bit of time at the end of my internship figuring out what I have actually learned or developed over my time. I write down a brief report based on my experience. At the end, I give my honest evaluation of several parts of the experience as well as a set of recommendations for the next person who will come after me. Among those things that I evaluate are:

Interview Process: Were the scenarios that I was given during interview relevant and useful? Were some of the skills that were emphasized even necessary for the work?

Orientation: How well was I prepared for the projects that I would find myself doing routinely?

Training: Was there any thing that I needed to be trained for and was that at all useful?

Project Management: Was I given a fair amount of work to do? How much of was it challenging and how much was simply tedious? (I don't really think devolving all tedious work to interns really serves to educate, rather it is a lazy method of getting rid of the tedious workload. In these cases I see it as a more fair move to simply create a permanent, low-paying position that would take care of tedious work.)

Freedom: How much was I able to make a project my own?

Well these are all things that I consider when evaluating my experience of my internship. What do you all do?

Live, Work, Play?

As a public transit commuter I just thought that this was a useful bit of information. It affects both my work and academic life in a very real manner. I'm curious to know how this issue will be handled for the fall. Is that $40 discussed going to be stable for all students over the fall? If so then I'm sure it could have some effect on our transport decisions as students

Dear Student U-Pass Holder,
The ASU U-Pass you have been issued for Summer Session I EXPIRES JUNE 30, 2009, and will not be valid on Valley Metro buses or light rail after that time. However, the first summer session runs through July 2.

IF YOUR CLASSES FOR THE SUMMER CONCLUDE ON JULY 2, PTS is providing you free, two-day passes in order to bridge the gap between the last day that Valley Metro is honoring 2008-09 U-Passes and the final day of classes for the first summer session. Please bring a COPY OF YOUR SUMMER SCHOOL SCHEDULE and a PHOTO I.D. to your campus permit sales office on MONDAY, JUNE 29, or TUESDAY, JUNE 30, to obtain the two-day pass.

IF YOUR SUMMER SCHOOL CLASSES ARE IN SESSION BEYOND JULY 2, you may purchase an ASU U-Pass for $40 beginning MONDAY, JUNE 29, at your campus permit sales office. An ASU U-Pass purchased for $40 is valid from July 1 through the end of the fall semester. Students who are enrolled in summer school as well as the fall and spring semesters may purchase an ASU U-Pass for $80. This U-Pass is valid July 1, 2009 - May 15, 2010.

Please call the PTS Commuter Options office at 480.965.1072 if you have any questions. For a list of Frequently Asked Questions, please visit the PTS website at http://uabf.asu.edu/parking_faqs_studentupass.

Thank you,
ASU Parking and Transit Services

In my humble opinion, the reason why a person-at-large would take public transit is because the total costs (e.g. psychic, monetary, opportunity) are less than the cost of alternative modes of transportation. I'm curious how the cost of transportation affects our other decisions. For example, I have become accustomed to making the work decision based on where I live relative to the place of business, however when I came back to the states last year I had a different mindset. The focus was on finding a place of residence after finding a place of work. It is an interesting thought that this may be a pattern for me going into the future.

Due to the rising prices of transportation, I'm sure that there has to be some effect on employment. The rising prices automatically translate to making less money. I tend to associate taking public transit with people who earn less, and so the economic impact would then be fairly immediate. This is definitely the case with me, and so I'm sure I won't be the only one adversely affected by the new Metro fare rate and gas prices.

iTune Therefore iAm

Music is one of those things that moves my life. However, it is particularly rough for me to simply state those artists that I love. Keep up with me on Last.fm, if you want to get a glimpse of the Reggie sound.




Add me if you get that feelin'.

Let's Lunch

I would have to place food as playing an important role in our cultural lives. However, I do not mean eating simply to survive. Food plays a critical part in defining our culture, as a part of cultural ritual, and is a way to amicably meet/discuss. In light of my view on the social importance of food, I pose the question of the food in the workplace.

How do we treat the business lunch?

As a matter of necessity, I have been packing my lunch for the last six months. It turns out about half of the people in the office routinely pack lunch, leaving the other half to eat out. Due to the circumstances of my position, I have a hard time justifying the cost of eating out. However, I can't help but feel that there is something that is socially missed by choosing to abstain. In fairness, I see how the business lunch is viewed as a more relaxed time, but it seems one that grants one the privilege of access to co-workers/executive staff. This makes me wonder if there are social costs to making the decision not to participate. If there are, could those costs be assessed to be equal to or greater than the $10 sandwich and the "optional" $2 gratuity? Is there a cost associated with agreeing to go to lunch and ordering only water?

All of these are questions for which I have no real address. The issue is admittedly a small one, but I do not yet know how trivial it is.

So Where's The Ladder?

It is encouraged these days for employees to be more mobile. There is clearly a concern by many in older generations that those of my generation may have difficulty being loyal to an organization or to be counted on to be with the same employer next year. Also, the view large, sprawling organizations has turned relatively negative. (this coming from the perspective of a family who has worked for GM for generations.)

So what the hell happened to the corporate ladder and what do you do when it isn't that tall?

First, I think it is deceptive thinking that past generations worked doing the same thing routinely for 30 or so years. The majority of people who have worked in GM have changed jobs within the company at about the rate of every five or so years. There were just a lot of occupations one could do without actually having to apply to an outside organization. This brings the interesting problem of trying to figure out, when should you say "bye bye" to the your organization. We also have to figure out when we should get something better, that is after we understand what is actually better. So should we be constantly in the process for looking for better employment than what we already have?

I leave it to you, my low-wage earning comrades to discuss.

Indefinitude

So sad days have truly hit America. Six Flags has filed for Chapter 11 protection. I am a life-long roller coaster lover, and I have had this love affair since I have seen my first or ridden my first coaster. If it were within the realm of responsible financial decisions, I would go to one of the parks this summer. However, I would assume that it is partially because of the abundance of people like myself that the park has come to this decision.

I can only hope that the freaking amazing renovation on the water park in the North Valley can heal my breaking heart.

Next Stop...

So, a large part of my day is spent merely in transit to and from work. It seems to me, at least, that this is an issue that is an issue that should at least get a little bit of a nod.

How I handle the commute to and from the office
(I completely understand this isn't a question)

Well, I live near Paradise Valley, but I have taken the challenge of taking public transit every day that I head to work/school since I have started. I have only made an exception to drive on 3 occasions for reasons I will soon explain. It takes me about 50 minutes from the time that I should get picked up by my bus until i get to my office. I whittle away time, by getting through my course readings, talking with the drivers, and listening to ye olde iPod. This is odd because I like being relatively close to my workplace, and I never had to commute such a distance to get to work.

Well it seems that ASU closed their contract with for the U-Pass two months earlier than the U-Pass should have expired. ASU didn't send me an email or notify me. It seems that I noticed one day in May that my U-Pass was simply "invalid" and would have to pay for the ticket out of pocket. I called Valley Metro and they told me that ASU cancelled all of the Metro Cards that were issued for the Spring semester. I called ASU and got the same story. I was then told that the card is only intended to transport students to and from school, and in between semesters the cards will be made invalid. After explaining that I am paying the University to get credit for my internship, the woman that I spoke to simply repeated herself (an interesting tactic). She then told me that I would need to come back another day to get a new card, but I also need to bring my schedule to prove that I am taking classes. I found it strange that I need to prove to the University that I am taking classes at the University and more strange that I couldn't just print out my billing statement as proof. Well long story made short, if one is taking online classes one is not eligible for this the U-Pass.

All this just on a post about my commute...Anyone else got anything for work commute?

Floating Aimlessly Away

One of those pesky things that bothers the hell out of everyone in the working world is spare time in the day. Those hours that seem to float away because of a project that involves waiting, down time, etc. This begs the question:

What to do with that spare time in the office?

I come from a work background that has always involved a high amount of activity. This has been in construction work (concrete basement walls to be exact) or working in a rehab. In these situations there has always been a fire to fight, or something of reasonable importance to do with the spare minutes of the day. However, office life leads to a brand new problem of how to deal with this time. I set up filters and specialized folders to sort my emails for me (so it is hard to browse emails that are already organized). I spend extra time learning about the organization. (Sometimes just from reading public record you can learn the damnedest things this way). Cleaning the desk can only be done so often without it being pointless. There is also YouTube, internet radio, learning new tricks with software, organizing work-related files, reading the news, and checking the markets.

In past internships I have spent the extra hours creating side projects for myself and creating guides to help those who would eventually replace me. The last one is an odd way to spend the day, but the intention is to create some sort of institutional memory for future interns. Often, it is full of information I had wished that someone had written down for me.

The KISS Method

In the professional world it seems as if we thrive on the use of Jargon. In the public sector, it seems that the jargon is more often than not acronyms. For some reason jargon became more than just SOP. It becomes as much of a hindrance from time to time as a help for simply communicating ideas.

Where do we start unwrapping the jargon?

Well, for my internship I first started by compiling my notes containing all of the acronyms into a Word document. The Acronymicon, as I have named it, contains the the long hand titles as well as the meaning of about all the acronyms that I have come across at work. Usually, it only takes about a minute to make updates whenever I come across a new one. Next off, I went through the arduous task of thinking my way around ways to discuss these acronyms with others who aren't in the immediate office. As I see it, jargon is meant to condense an idea for people accustomed to using it. In more common conversation it serves a better purpose to clarify the idea. This is something, of which, I have to constantly remind myself for several reasons. Not the least of those reasons is that it avoids some of the clutter of miscommunication.

Bottom Line:
Cunning linguistics aren't the currency in the market place of ideas.

Social Marketing

One of the buzzwords that surrounds social services is Social Marketing.

Generally, what is meant by this is dedicating resources to promote a particular behavior that has a social benefit.

So, how does Social Marketing operate?

The idea is that people, on the whole, can be persuaded engage in a particular desired behavior through a targeted media campaign. This is particularly prevalent for issues like smoking or illegal substance use. Many proponents of this approach argue that media campaigns can be used in this manner.

However, I do not particularly believe that this is how the public-at-large behaves. On the whole, I still believe that our choices are based more on perceived costs, monetary costs, and benefits. Maybe as a member of the "Just Say No" generation, I don't believe this has had a different effect on how we have behaved. Taking smoking for example, we have managed to inform the public through different media that there are many health problems associated with smoking. The result is that people have made a more informed decision either to smoke or not to smoke. The intended result, however was to make only the decision not to smoke. The marketing can either falsely inform this decision or accurately do so.

It could be that we use Pee Wee Herman, The Ninja Turtles, and mildly attractive, profoundly psychotic women simply because they sound like better ideas than resorting to a more rigorous approach.

Community Assessment

A fair part of what I have been doing at the internship over the last six months involves Community Assessment. In particular we are assessing community readiness to adopt initiatives from community-based organizations. Rather than detail the minutiae of my daily activities I am going to be discussing a couple of central questions in the next few posts

How do we define communities?

Under the construct that I use, communities are defined as a type of social network bounded by geography and held together by culture. This, however, doesn't mean at all that any geographical unit can be defined as a community. For example, we couldn't fairly assess the "Southwestern US" community. There comes a point where diversity and size break down our understanding of what a community is. If that example was a bit too much of a rhetorical exaggeration, then I will tame it down a little. If the city of phoenix were to be described as a community, could it be fair? I would argue "no" as there is an assumed level of cohesion between community members that I don't think is justified. The diversity of people in the area causes a breakdown of the construct. Also this makes it difficult to assess communities that share a culture but only a general geography. For example, since I have moved here, I have noticed a fairly high number of people from Eastern Europe (The Balkans, Romania, and Russia in particular). However, there is no well defined part of town that I have noticed them in. I have spoken with a Romanian man who estimated the population to be around 40,000, but well dispersed throughout the Valley. So what then of my question?

It seems to me at least, that understanding communities as a geographically bound, social network has broken down for this area. First, because of the way that we have decided to settle into an area. Ethnic culture clearly isn't the primary factor that we use to decide to move into the area. Also, geography plays a smaller role in diminishing our communications (e.g. commercial, symbolic, verbal). This means that even if we were to define a community within an area like Phoenix, there is perhaps too much "static" coming in from other communities to clearly understand it alone. I have developed no clear address to this issue other than these key points:
-Communities in the traditional sense may not easily exist in an area such as this
-Economics is a primary motivator in settling patterns
-We live in politically defined areas more so than geographically defined ones (e.g. city/county boundaries)

A Note About Office Politics

Just wanted to share an absolutely hilarious video from The Onion about youth interest in office politics. Like most everything involved with the Onion the thinly veiled truth beneath is itself amusing. So if anyone gets a chance, definitely check the link above.

About This Guy

So, let us get through the basics about me.

Although I am originally from Michigan (Saginaw to be exact), I have found myself living in Phoenix, AZ since August 2008. I started studying for my MPA in 2006 at the same university where I did my undergrad, Grand Valley State University. In 2007 my study was interrupted when I was accepted to the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals. That is the subject of another blog which I authored, but in short it gives young people like myself a chance to further their academic/professional interests in the international arena. After a year of living in Germany I was excited to get back to living in the states and furthering myself as a professional before finishing my Master's degree. Unfortunately, the US economic decline that I was feeling in Germany since July of 2007 got tremendously worse in the latter half of 2008. After months of being unemployed, looking for work, and receiving no success, I decided that I would simply finish my degree. Thus my arrival at ASU.

That short biography aside, I am very interested in economic development and international relations. Personally, I find the "Public Sector" to be one that is broad, sprawling, and one that many people can weigh in on, in a thoughtful and interesting manner. I hope that readers can offer an insight to the topic philosophically as well as pragmatically.

The Beginning

Hello all who share this limited interest in my blog. I am keeping this blog to document some of my ponderings in this "professional" world.
My name is Reginald Oates and I have almost been living in Phoenix for one full year (the anniversary comes in August). I am going into my final year of pursuing my Master of Public Administration at Arizona State U.

Currently I am interning at the Pima Prevention Partnership. Just so you all know my posts will follow a pretty regular format from here on out. This is the pattern that I have thought about:

-Professional Question
-Information Regarding the question's topic
-An address of this question

Just so I can keep you (the hypothetical reader) interested, I will try to handle my topics in a relatively brief manner. Forgive me in advance for any verbose posts, but I will try to keep you only as long as the topic is interesting (interpret that as you will). Before I get moving with that rhythm the next post will be a little about me.