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Wednesday, December 5, 2012
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Working Moms and Commuting
Prepare yourself for my ranting about wanting to work a commutable distance from my home in Manalapan, NJ.
I have three little girls (7, 8, and 10) and need to find a job that is less than an hour commute from my home. In case of an emergency or if the kids just get sick - they shouldn't have to wait in the nurses office for an hour and a half for mom to get there. Dad is only 25 minutes from home and school - but he is an attorney and not always in the office - and when he is in court - forget about it.
I was laid off from my last position because I didn't want to commute an hour and a half each way (up to 3 hours in traffic).
When my girls were babies, it was much easier - they didn't seem to need me as much as they do now. Especially my 10 year old - she seems to be needing me more and more. Before I was laid off from my last position, I stayed home with her for two days - she cried for 2 days straight. She had so many reasons for being sad and depressed but I cant go into the details especially since my husband didn't even tell his family or best friend. I'm sure that they think I am a lazy slacker for taking two days off for no reason but obviously there was a reason.
She needed to stay home - she was in no condition to go to school - my husband couldn't stay home from work and grandparents wouldn't have understood what she was going through. I lost my job a few days later - not because of taking the time off to be with my daughter but because I didn't want to commute 1.5+ hrs each way.
I was actually considering interviewing for a position which would take me an hour and 15 minutes with no traffic - so add another 30 minutes onto that with traffic. Would other moms commute that far? Are other moms commuting that far?
And I was also considering NYC - What am I insane?
My girls are number 1 - so it looks like I will be unemployed for a little bit longer. At least I was never fired from a job - and so I am collecting unemployment for now. It's better than nada.
I have three little girls (7, 8, and 10) and need to find a job that is less than an hour commute from my home. In case of an emergency or if the kids just get sick - they shouldn't have to wait in the nurses office for an hour and a half for mom to get there. Dad is only 25 minutes from home and school - but he is an attorney and not always in the office - and when he is in court - forget about it.
I was laid off from my last position because I didn't want to commute an hour and a half each way (up to 3 hours in traffic).
When my girls were babies, it was much easier - they didn't seem to need me as much as they do now. Especially my 10 year old - she seems to be needing me more and more. Before I was laid off from my last position, I stayed home with her for two days - she cried for 2 days straight. She had so many reasons for being sad and depressed but I cant go into the details especially since my husband didn't even tell his family or best friend. I'm sure that they think I am a lazy slacker for taking two days off for no reason but obviously there was a reason.
She needed to stay home - she was in no condition to go to school - my husband couldn't stay home from work and grandparents wouldn't have understood what she was going through. I lost my job a few days later - not because of taking the time off to be with my daughter but because I didn't want to commute 1.5+ hrs each way.
I was actually considering interviewing for a position which would take me an hour and 15 minutes with no traffic - so add another 30 minutes onto that with traffic. Would other moms commute that far? Are other moms commuting that far?
And I was also considering NYC - What am I insane?
My girls are number 1 - so it looks like I will be unemployed for a little bit longer. At least I was never fired from a job - and so I am collecting unemployment for now. It's better than nada.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
My Last Three Positions
After leaving the job and company that I truly loved - because it was acquired by another company (no comment). I took the much needed time off (thanks to a nice severance package and transition bonus) - and spent quality time with my three little girls. During that time off - I didn't need to have the cell phone attached to me, or be online 24/7, it took some time but I was able to deprogram myself and focus on what's important in life - since life is so short.
I missed work and enjoyed working with technology – and one day I will have three in college at the same time – so staying at home and building SharePoint applications for fun wasn’t an option – so I needed to find a job close to home that would allow me to design and develop SharePoint applications-Yes - I’m a nerd.
Since my kids are number 1 in my life - spending as much time with them as possible and being able to pay the bills and college one day is very important. So I turned down many jobs because they were too far or required too much travel or not working with a technology platform that I felt good about - I was picky.
I wanted to find something close to home, allowed employees to telecommute, working mother friendly - a place I could bring my kids to on bring your child to work day. Like the placed I loved – where the CEO knew employees by name - who spoke with the employees children hosting an interactive session on "Bring Your Child To Work Day", even letting the kids explore his office and cherished collectibles (brave man). I was trying to find something that no longer existed.
Job #1
I found a job close to home, working with the technology that I loved (SharePoint), and a manager who shared the same beliefs as me regarding application development. I was an internal employee, had a decent salary, great benefits, the company allowed employees to telecommute - I didn’t know anything about this company nor did I know anyone who ever worked there - if I had , I probably would have never accepted the job. Plus the manager who interviewed me was moved to a different group a week before I started and I had to work for someone and a team of people who never interviewed me - and of course, they hated SharePoint.
The team was responsible for building and maintaining 5 custom .net applications, there was no documentation, no architect on the team, high turnover, college interns, etc. The applications were a mess and most of the functionality was available via SharePoint out of the box – plus SharePoint was being used by just about every other group except this one. This team didn’t care about the company – just job security.
I decided to resign after two months.
Job #2
Next job - I wasn't thrilled with the first project but it was a short term project(4 months). The pay was much more than what I wanted –but required out of state travel (2 weeks at the start – then 3 days a month until the end of the project). Then I was going to be part of the SharePoint team. I trusted them since one of the partners was a close friend of mine. I wasn’t going to be working for my friend but felt safe since I had worked for him for almost 10 years. Well the project was under estimated (by someone without the appropriate background). Plus – I was told that it was a custom.net application and I would be the PM and also responsible for the UI enhancements. I was the PM – but because this application was an old school VB application developed using windows forms – there was no UI work for me to do. The application was written over 10 years w/o any documentation and more than 300,000 lines of code. Oh and it was just compiled against the latest .NET assembly - HELLO- that doesn't make it a .NET application.
So they probably got the project because they were the only company who agreed to the timeline and they were probably the cheapest – w/o a doubt they had to be the cheapest. The next phase of the project was going to be a complete rebuild – so I get the strategy – lose money in phase 1, make it up in phase 2. I’m sure that the other companies who bid on it included a phase of evaluating the codebase, technical design, and documentation– that was more than two weeks and included more than one developer (and a dev with old school vb experience – the one developer had 20 years of experience but not old school vb experience – and I used VB 6 so briefly and it is not even on my resume). After a couple of days on the project, I let management know that we needed another resource and that the project was underestimated. They ignored me and expected me to code in order to meet the deadlines – which were set up as 3 week intervals. Needless to say we didn’t meet the first deadline – the developer couldn’t complete one task on the list. I was laid off after 1 1/2 months – and my replacement was eventually laid off as well. Then the client decided to take on the development internally. Well - they could not get the work done either - not a shocker!!
Job #3
I was hired as a BA but was given development assignments - and was expected to commute 2-3 hours each way even though I was told something else. I worked from home a lot - but the client wanted me work on-site 4 days a week - I just couldn't do that commute. So I was laid off...
Here I am looking again.. I know my last three career failures were not my fault and I am trying to stay positive.......but will it happen again? Is it because the economy is still weak? I'm going to keep searching for my dream job - I know it's out there.
I missed work and enjoyed working with technology – and one day I will have three in college at the same time – so staying at home and building SharePoint applications for fun wasn’t an option – so I needed to find a job close to home that would allow me to design and develop SharePoint applications-Yes - I’m a nerd.
Since my kids are number 1 in my life - spending as much time with them as possible and being able to pay the bills and college one day is very important. So I turned down many jobs because they were too far or required too much travel or not working with a technology platform that I felt good about - I was picky.
I wanted to find something close to home, allowed employees to telecommute, working mother friendly - a place I could bring my kids to on bring your child to work day. Like the placed I loved – where the CEO knew employees by name - who spoke with the employees children hosting an interactive session on "Bring Your Child To Work Day", even letting the kids explore his office and cherished collectibles (brave man). I was trying to find something that no longer existed.
Job #1
I found a job close to home, working with the technology that I loved (SharePoint), and a manager who shared the same beliefs as me regarding application development. I was an internal employee, had a decent salary, great benefits, the company allowed employees to telecommute - I didn’t know anything about this company nor did I know anyone who ever worked there - if I had , I probably would have never accepted the job. Plus the manager who interviewed me was moved to a different group a week before I started and I had to work for someone and a team of people who never interviewed me - and of course, they hated SharePoint.
The team was responsible for building and maintaining 5 custom .net applications, there was no documentation, no architect on the team, high turnover, college interns, etc. The applications were a mess and most of the functionality was available via SharePoint out of the box – plus SharePoint was being used by just about every other group except this one. This team didn’t care about the company – just job security.
I decided to resign after two months.
Job #2
Next job - I wasn't thrilled with the first project but it was a short term project(4 months). The pay was much more than what I wanted –but required out of state travel (2 weeks at the start – then 3 days a month until the end of the project). Then I was going to be part of the SharePoint team. I trusted them since one of the partners was a close friend of mine. I wasn’t going to be working for my friend but felt safe since I had worked for him for almost 10 years. Well the project was under estimated (by someone without the appropriate background). Plus – I was told that it was a custom.net application and I would be the PM and also responsible for the UI enhancements. I was the PM – but because this application was an old school VB application developed using windows forms – there was no UI work for me to do. The application was written over 10 years w/o any documentation and more than 300,000 lines of code. Oh and it was just compiled against the latest .NET assembly - HELLO- that doesn't make it a .NET application.
So they probably got the project because they were the only company who agreed to the timeline and they were probably the cheapest – w/o a doubt they had to be the cheapest. The next phase of the project was going to be a complete rebuild – so I get the strategy – lose money in phase 1, make it up in phase 2. I’m sure that the other companies who bid on it included a phase of evaluating the codebase, technical design, and documentation– that was more than two weeks and included more than one developer (and a dev with old school vb experience – the one developer had 20 years of experience but not old school vb experience – and I used VB 6 so briefly and it is not even on my resume). After a couple of days on the project, I let management know that we needed another resource and that the project was underestimated. They ignored me and expected me to code in order to meet the deadlines – which were set up as 3 week intervals. Needless to say we didn’t meet the first deadline – the developer couldn’t complete one task on the list. I was laid off after 1 1/2 months – and my replacement was eventually laid off as well. Then the client decided to take on the development internally. Well - they could not get the work done either - not a shocker!!
Job #3
I was hired as a BA but was given development assignments - and was expected to commute 2-3 hours each way even though I was told something else. I worked from home a lot - but the client wanted me work on-site 4 days a week - I just couldn't do that commute. So I was laid off...
Here I am looking again.. I know my last three career failures were not my fault and I am trying to stay positive.......but will it happen again? Is it because the economy is still weak? I'm going to keep searching for my dream job - I know it's out there.
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