Help name a business
One of the options that I’m considering for my job search is to form my own company providing computer services to churches and church-related organizations. Some of you have received a questionnaire from me that will help me determine the demand for such services and the price that the market will carry. (If you didn’t get a questionnaire and would like to help, send me an e-mail.)
One thing that I’m having trouble with is coming up with a name. The business name I used previously for consulting was based on my name and the word “Consulting”, which is pretty boring. I’d like something that mentions what I do, perhaps has a faith link to it (though not too heavy – I wouldn’t want to turn off clients other than churches during lean times), isn’t commonly used for something else (example: FaithWorks) and has the domain name available on the Internet. (A note on that last – if you want to check DON’T use one of the domain registry sites – that just tips them off to reserve the name for themselves to sell to somebody. Use THIS instead.)
If you find one that sounds good (or if you find one that’s funny that you want to share), just leave a comment or send an e-mail.
Thanks!
A bit of a round-up
Hello, readers. I have been neglecting you lately.
Here’s a bit of a round-up on things going on with me at the moment.
Job Search – I think I’m going to stop counting days on the blog. I’ve been making good contacts in the last few weeks, and today I have my first meeting with a “hiring manager” (someone who is in the right position to potentially hire me). It’s not an interview – just a meeting. The search is going slower than I’d like, but apparently reasonably on track according to my outplacement coach. The economy and general financial crisis aren’t helping.
Church – This part of my “non-work” life is busy. My deacon work is adding a little time to my Sunday mornings, plus I’m serving as the “e-mail reminder” person who sends a note to the deacons scheduled for a particular Sunday. My youth work is keeping me busy as well – the time commitment is a bit higher than last year because of some schedule changes for the Sr. Highs, but it’s completely worth it to me. I was asked to be the webmaster for the church website, and I’m investigating how much time that actually takes – it might be too much. Project Open Door is moving along nicely to the end of our chartered work – we brainstormed issues surrounding hospitality, visitors, relations with the community, and inactive members last week. In our next meeting we’ll brainstorm solutions, and then start writing up the report to the Session to be delivered in January. I’m looking at starting spiritual direction. Aside from a minor dust-up this week, all is well in this department. I will admit to my faith taking a beating due to my job situation, though.
Home – All is well. Carolyn is a conservative spender by nature, and I am one when the situation calls for it. We’ve pulled way back on our discretionary spending and even made some more economical choices with our necessary spending. This is setting us up well for a long siege if necessary. The lack of a job hasn’t hurt my relationship with Carolyn that I can see. The cats love having me home more often. The homefront is safe and stable right now, and financially prepared for a while. Carolyn is still taking next week off from work (a Smith family vacation including my parents and siblings was planned for Orlando – we have to miss it for financial reasons), and I’m taking our anniversary on Wednesday off from job searching.
Ham Radio – I’m still participating a little. I haven’t been able to purchase equipment beyond an HT (walkie-talkie-style radio) and accessories. I saw the trouble in the economy coming even before I knew that I’d be laid off, and chose not to spend in this area. I am staying involved with some emergency management and public safety events, and I’m still attending the club meetings. I think I’m qualified now to get a key to the club’s radio shack and will pursue that soon – they have LOTS of equipment for club member use there. Unfortunately, ham radio activities tend to be scheduled at the same time as church events, and between the two church wins.
That’s about it. As always I welcome any comments, and assistance in my job search.
Job Search – day 9
Last Friday, I had an excellent meeting with my outplacement coach. He and I seem to have highly compatible personalities and communication styles. We talked about the choice between corporate IT and something more non-profit or church-based, and came to the conclusion that I should target both tracks simultaneously for this search and see what happens.
Today I’m working on my resume. It was reasonably close to what the outplacement folks like, but needs some work.
Job Search – day 6
(This is about yesterday.)
On Wednesday, I headed up to the local church camp to talk to the chaplain about my job situation. Lorelei is one of those “mother to everybody” people at camp and is trained in spiritual direction. We talked about the options related to taking a church-based or non-profit job. In the end, we circled around the ideas that: 1) I shouldn’t make too radical a change in work assignments right away – an IT job in such an organization might be a good start, 2) I’m not hearing a call to ministry at the moment, 3) I’m not sure that working at a church-based or non-profit organization would pay well enough to avoid a major change in lifestyle all at once. One note that surprised me was the idea that I am moving towards working with people more than in the past. My recent work experience bears that out – I’ve been less interested in fighting with the computer and more interested in working with and through other people. Hmmm.
In the afternoon I was able to do some networking with former camp staff colleagues from years ago because Family Camp was going on. I talked with a bunch of old friends, and one in particular is in my local area and might be able to help.
Finally, returning to a place where I get to be myself helped in the healing process after a job loss.
No solid conclusions yet, but I feel like I’m getting closer to figuring out what I want to do.
Job Search – Day 4 – Your Assignment
Today I went through the orientation seminar at the outplacement firm. I have a one-on-one meeting with my coach/counselor on Friday morning. In the mean time, I have a big discussion set up with someone who understands my non-work side – to talk about the possibility of getting my job to better match my values, interests, etc. I also have a few teleconferences from the outplacement firm, and a lot of thinking to do.
Here’s where you can help. I’d like my blog readers (either folks who know me well from outside of the blog, or long-time/high volume readers) to answer one question for me:
What profession/job do you see me working at in the future?
The answer could be vague, or it could be a description of something that doesn’t have a succinct name. Or it could be a very specific title. It might be something that is very close to what I was doing last Monday, or it could be far afield. The only restriction is that it must be a job that you can see me wanting to do, as opposed to a job that you want me to do or feel I should do.
Please answer without reading other comments first. I want to hear your answer – not the answer that you heard someone else say that sounded good. And please let me know who you are, or at least describe how you know me. I’m going to take your thoughts into account knowing how much you know my work and non-work sides. Folks who still work for my former employer – I want to hear your thoughts as well.
Please feel free to send your ideas to me via e-mail – there’s a link over on the left side of the blog that says “E-mail me”. Comments work fine too. A Facebook note or wall post will also work. Tie your idea to a well-trained pigeon if that’ll work.
Thanks in advance for your help.
Job Search – day 3
Yesterday and today have been relatively idle days.
Yesterday, I took the advice of the severance release document and talked to an attorney about my situation and the document. My church was able to refer me to three members who are attorneys and the one that I’m working with is doing the work pro bono. We are waiting for the final release agreement to be mailed to me next week before deciding what course to take.
Also yesterday, the outplacement firm called. I have an appointment with them for Monday morning for an orientation session. Today I am gathering documents to get ready – resumes, performance appraisals, etc.
I’m still trying to figure out the direction to take. Do I want to stay in IT, in a medium to large corporation? Do I want to try a small company or a non-profit? Do I want to take my project skills and find a position outside of IT? All of these questions are things that the outplacement firm will apparently be discussing with me.
I appreciate all of the notes of support that I’ve received so far. I can see in my blog statistics that I have several different visitors from my former colleagues – please feel free to send an e-mail to the address in the left column. This process is very difficult for me emotionally. My self-confidence is taking the greatest beating right now.
Please continue to keep me in your thoughts and prayers.
No Job
I was laid off from work as part of a restructuring this morning. Several IT employees lost jobs.
Bad News
I got some bad news at work. Most of it is “company classified”, but there is one piece that I feel pretty free to share. No raises this year for anybody. No layoffs yet either … for now.
This left me in the unfortunate position of having to send an e-mail to our church’s “guy who tracks pledges” reducing my budget pledge for the year (but not the capital pledge – I already paid that in full). In the fall we had been exhorted to pledge boldly (even recklessly) believing that God would provide. One of the stewardship team actually made that his Minute at the beginning of worship. He talked about how when his personal finances were stressed he chose to pledge boldly and how God provided good financial news later in the year. Let’s just say that it hasn’t happened for me yet – it’s going the other way. So I have to take back the 20% pledge increase over last year and give at last year’s rate for the rest of the year. Even so, I know that other families in the church are hurting more.
We’re not in dire financial straits yet. We are still saving at the same rate, but the “unbudgeted” savings that resulted from the times that the paycheck was bringing in more than expenses (minus the planned savings) aren’t happening. A surprise bonus from work (from last year’s project work) and the tax refund both went in and out of the checking account at such speed that other papers were sent flying in their wake. We’re not quite at the point where we need to reduce the saving rate, but we are at the point where the rest of the budget is just breaking even. I’ve already taken the step of eliminating an expensive hobby (flying) and I’m holding off on buying ham radio equipment for the new hobby. We’re right at the point where we’ve reduced discretionary expenses as much as possible, and if things get worse (pay cut, job loss, even more expensive food or gas) we’ll need to start making lifestyle cuts. There is still a lot of room to make lifestyle cuts before we reach the point that some families are in – mainly because Carolyn and I (mostly Carolyn) are VERY conservative with money. Our mortgage is fixed at a very comfortable rate and we have ZERO credit card debt (thanks, Mom and Dad for teaching fiscal responsibility).
I think we’ll survive the downturn intact and probably better than most, but only because we’re prepared.
But it still hurts. If we’re feeling the pinch, how much worse can it be for those who didn’t collect their nuts for the winter? (Or even those whose nuts were stolen by others?)
Carolyn’s badge
(Before I go any further, I want to note that Carolyn gave me permission to put this on my blog)
Yesterday, Carolyn (my wife) made a trip to the Ladies’ Room. At her office this is her own private domain – they had to build it for her specially when they moved her and a few other engineers out to an office in the factory. She’s the only woman working in that building.
While doing her business, she noticed something on her shoe (dust, lint, who knows?). She bent forward …
She wears her badge on a lanyard. The badge descended below the seat at which point she realized and sat up. The badge got caught on the seat and popped off the lanyard. It didn’t fall into the water in the toilet but rather laid there on the porcelain.
However …. it was at this point that the urge to pee overtook her.
She reports that the badge looks fine after being rinsed off. As of last night she hadn’t checked to see if the little smart chip on it still worked on her laptop.
Her co-worker is reported to have said, “I’m not going near your ID badge again!”
Malaise
I’m sorry I haven’t written lately. I’ve been busy at work, busy outside work.
I’m also having one of those weeks (heading towards months) where everything is going just a little wrong. Nothing is seriously wrong. Nothing is seriously right. Everything is just a bit off kilter.
Work – as I’ve noted previously, the company is up for sale. Just today I heard two different rumors listing different companies that want to buy us – one possible and one unlikely. The senior management committee that approves IT projects just deferred a decision on a major technology change that we want to make. If they turn that down completely, I probably need to either find a new job or resign myself to being caught in a technical cul-de-sac (like COBOL programmers were 10 years ago).
Home – Home is generally OK. I wish that Carolyn and I shared more common interests – so that we’d end up spending more time together. I don’t want to grow in the wrong direction. Finances are being pinched just like everybody else between tiny raises and huge cost increases in everything else. As I said – pretty much completely OK but with a few signs of wear.
Church – I’m serving as a “Visit Steward” for the capital campaign. I’m getting the feeling from conversations with people that folks are really unhappy with the way that the campaign is being run. Most people agree with the need for funds and support most of the projects involved in the campaign, but there’s a lot of disaffection with how it’s being run. Also, the consultant sent to us by the PC(USA) Church Financial Campaign Service is really turning people off. There has to be some way to let the people in Louisville who sent her to us know what a terrible job she’s doing. We had our campaign visit training this past week. The handout was clearly cludged up from other campaigns and included references to things that we aren’t doing in our campaign (like 2nd and 3rd visits, household information cards, etc). One of the biblical references for stewardship actually came out against giving to the church if you read the next verse. Oh, well. I did make my pledge as required (all visit stewards were told to turn in their pledges as part of the commissioning ceremony yesterday, with less than a week’s notice) and even included a check for the entire amount. As soon as I do my 3 visits with members I’ll be done with the campaign. Here’s the hard part – one of my visits is to a family where one breadwinner is jobless.
“In Deuteronomy we are told to give 10%. Jesus tells the rich man that he should give everything. So the amount that we should pledge is somewhere between 10% and everything.” – no, this wasn’t a joke.
Youth group is another area that is fine, but still not quite right. We had one youth make a life decision that will greatly negatively impact her choices in the future and it’s hitting me harder than I expected. Our attendance is rather spotty – we see a decent number of youth at each meeting but the list of attendees is different most weeks and we don’t really get to connect with them regularly. As I said – things are mostly OK. Youth Sunday is next week and we really have our act together in advance for a change. I am looking forward to going to Montreat for Week VI this summer.
Then there is the team that I co-chair. At our last meeting I got called a racist – under the theory that any white person is automatically a racist. This was said by a white person to a room full of white people – all of whom are well-intentioned in mind and as far as I can tell in practice when it comes to racial issues. I’m not looking forward to our next meeting two weeks from today.
When it comes to church I’m at a crossroads. I want to either become more involved or less involved. I don’t think continuing my current level of involvement is feasible – it’s gonna have to go up or down in the fall. I’d really like to be more involved, but in a meaningful way in a position where I can help the church change for the future rather than in a “pair of willing hands” way. I don’t mind doing the necessary, but it seems so much of church work is maintaining the old ways rather than working for the new.
Hockey – the Trenton Devils finished 6th out of 7, with the lowest number of wins in the entire history of the franchise. Enough said.
So malaise is the word of the day. Judging from the economy it might be the word of the entire country.
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