After Work Stress

Do you always feel so dead tired after work? I do. With my present job as a trainer, life at work is not a game. It really take a lot of energy and the patience of a spider to train people with different educational background, IQs and ages. I would always ask myself  "What have I done in life that I was not given a stress-free job? Am I so bad in my previous life to deserve this?". No wonder I will always feel tired after work that I wanted to sleep early even without eating dinner.

I don't like wasting my afterwork hours sleeping. I hate feeling tired. I hate stress and the possibility of getting a heart attack or growing old faster than normal.

Here are some of the tips that I do to beat stress after work: 

1. Take 5-min nap before dinner. 
2. Groom and play with my Shih Tzu pup for 30 minutes before feeding him.
3. Play zombie for 10 minutes.
4. Eat a healthy dinner.
5. Watch an episode or two of the primetime TV series.
6. Read a chapter or two of my favorite novel.
7. Check Facebook for updates.
8. Chat a little and/or blog a little.

Sometimes it works ... sometimes not. I guess I really need to find a new job now. I am actually ready for a new one. I have already done my best in my present job and leaving it is no longer a big deal for me now ... I am already satisfied with my legacy.

Out of the Box and Into the Jungle Once More

November is almost over and soon it will be December. January will then be marching by as fireworks will conclude 2012 and grace the December night skies. 

January would be an exciting year for everyone. The promise of a new year will bring about hope for those with strong countenance, and fear and discouragement for those with weak spirit.

January will then be a dream come true for the dreamers. It would be a time of exciting explorations for the adventurers. It would bring forth good fortunes to some, and bad karma to others. 

Whatever January brings, I am sure it would be good tidings for me. I am confident that I would be able to go outside of the box and explore the vast jungle (the world of work) once more  as I am going to embark on a new adventure. I am now ready to face and defeat new challenges in my soon-to-be new career.

Since I am still inside my box now (my very own box of an office) I still couldn't see the entire jungle ... I could only glimpse a promising sunshine. It's scary when I think about it, but the thought excites me as well. Staying in my box next year will only mean facing the same people, dancing the same music and feeling the same stress everyday. It would be so boring then. I couldn't see myself going through the same experience everyday until 60. Doing it for more than four years now without any hope of growth is already an exemplary act on my part. 

You see, I am about to embark to a new jungle to find a new job, a career and a new challenge. I am still unsure where, but I already got an idea how to get there. I have even taken my first steps. I know, it would just be somewhere near. It would surely be somewhere special... a jungle where I could once again excel and grow and enjoy. A place where people truly appreciates efforts and support everyone's endeavors.

Come to think of it ....  What do I need to prepare myself for another jungle hunt? 

Below are 10 tips based from forbes.com:

1. Reach out to companies you admire.
• Amanda, an admissions officer and teacher in New York City, wrote a letter to a school where she wanted to work. She included her resume and described how much she valued the school and its programs. She got an offer three weeks later.
2. Focus on quality not quantity.
• Recent college grad Kym Lino got no responses to her mass e-mail blast until she focused on a specific job she found on Craigslist and submitted exactly what the employer requested: a cover letter, resume and three writing samples. Within three weeks she landed an offer.
3. Use blog to show off your expertise.
• Lino also got an offer from a PR agency after she told them about her three blogs.
4. Tap online job sites.
• Paul Gilmore used TweetmyJobs to land a recruiter position at the Fort Lauderdale, Fla., branch of Synerfac Technical Staffing. Look beyond the usual mega-sites like Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com.
5. Use your network to make you look good.
• After submitting her resume, Amanda gave her future employer two references. The employer didn't call either of them and instead asked a mutual friend about Amanda. The lesson: Have your network do your personal PR. If a friend knows the person who's in charge of hiring you, ask him or her to reach out to the hiring manager and preemptively sing your praises.
6. Cleanup your online profile.
• Self-Googling is a smart way to determine whether your online personality jives with how you want the world to view you. Once Amanda submitted her resume, she searched her name to make sure that she had a clean online profile.
7. Use a headhunter.
• After Stephanie Cranford lost her job at a health care manufacturing company, she spent a few weeks searching job boards and tapping her network. Then she sought professional help. She submitted her resume to Ajilon Professional Staffing and landed a job offer two weeks later.
8. Pound the pavement.
• After the recession weakened the South Florida economy, Paul Gilmore lost his job as a technical recruiter. He printed out a stack of resumes and drove around depositing them at offices. "When you walk in the door you can assess the company," says Gilmore. "If they didn't have a receptionist, it's a clear sign that they didn't have enough money."
9. Be persistent.
• Stephanie Cranford says that she called or e-mailed prospective employers at least twice a week. "I tried to do it on Tuesdays and Thursdays," she says. "Mondays are often crazy and on Friday people are starting to gear up for the weekend."
10. Stay organized.
• "Keep track of everyone you talk to," says Gilmore. "Create a tickler file to remind you to follow up with people."

On Worry, Motivation and Support

"Contrariwise, 

If it was so, it might be,

And if it were so, it could be; 

But as it isn't, it ain't, 

That's logic."

- Lewis Caroll

I was fretting for a week now for an IT convention that I ought to attend but cannot. I should be there to receive the recognition for having been active in the promotion of ICT education in the grassroots. I should be there since the registration is already sponsored by the organization. But I still couldn't. The reasons? No full support from my office, and not enough budget to shoulder it on personal expense. It would be too expensive to charge it on my personal account. I couldn't spare a cent or two from my own pocket for the travel expenses and a convention that is job-related. Not this time. Not now. You see, I am still battling with how to make ends met just to pay my monthly lot amortization.  I need to invest for the future too.

So what's my point? 

Just want to emphasize two things: First on how I accepted the inevitable and end worry, and second on the importance of motivation and support in the workplace.

Worrying over what should be is normal. For one week I worried on how to procure money just to attend the event. The problem is, I already confirmed without even weighing the consequences. There are a lot of complications. I couldn't travel at the office's expense since I do not have the travel authority from the higher ups. The fact that the event will be conducted outside the region, my direct boss don't have any authority to give me the GO signal. Thus, my going would mean personal business even though it is job-related. I need to use my savings for the travel, lodging and food expenses and my allowance, That would also mean, being absent from the office for three days which would mean salary deduction. I would surely suffer from overdraft in my budget in the next paycheck. It isn't practical, I know. 

Ending the worry means cancelling my participation through email. That's not difficult. So I did it just this morning. No sweat! Why cry of the morrow when I am not sure what the morrow comes?

What's crucial is the office motivation and support issue ... things that my present job do not have ... things that are not under my control. There seemed to be no chance for improvement here. I just realized that after almost four years of career stagnation. No promotion and recognition for a job well done. Not even a pat in the shoulder. I was a fool to ever think I can go a distance. It was truly a waste of time working for an employer whose only concern is their own good and own pocket. Never again will I ever expect for better days here. So I decided to jump once again to a better pond in a greener pasture. Given a chance, it shall be soon. Hope it well really be soon.

I just think motivation and support should be extended to all employees, regular and contractual alike, to help promote job satisfaction and sparks the enthusiasm to perform at its best. Everybody needs that, who doesn't?

But I realized that most of the time, the only person that could give me the motivation and support I needed is still just me. Can't expect it from my colleagues, from my boss, from my HR nor from my family. They're also too busy waiting for somebody to motivate them. I am sure an average employee experiences all these once in a while.

Accepting the fact is difficult. But then again, there's no point fretting over the inevitable . Why worry when I can be happy?

Beating the Blues with My Shih Tzu

Four months ago today, after a thorough consideration, I decided to own a mixed-bred shih tzu pup. I named him Tomiko which is a Japanese term for "good fortune". 

Owning a shih tzu  is not that easy. I have had two mixed breed dogs before, Oliver and Domino. They were Aspin breeds and so they do not need a lot of attention as shih tzus do.

Taking care of Tomiko means waking up every day earlier than I was used to. Spending at least 30 minutes to groom his hair and play ball for a while before feeding him. What's funny is that, I tend to spend more time grooming his hair than I do mine.

Now, he is four times bigger and heavier than he was four months ago. And he was more demanding too. A spoiled brat of a dog LOL. He is now my alarm clock, barking his heart out to wake me up at 6:30. He does naughty things to catch my attention whenever he wanted to play or wanted to be groomed and cuddled.

Truly, taking care of shih tzus is a responsibility more difficult than owning a pond of gold fishes. It would mean spending a portion of your budget for their shots and vitamins and other veterinary fees, cleaning after their mess, taking time to play with them, teaching them a trick or two, and spending time for their grooming. But it's worth all the efforts.

My Tomiko is now five months old today. With his playful energy and cuddly features, he sure knows how to beat my blues away.

I couldn't wait 'til he's older and his coat longer and I could put ribbons in his fur. I know he would somewhat hate it, but what can he do? LOL

First ever photo ... taken during his first day as my pup

One week after the first day

Playing Dress Up ... and he doesn't like it :P

At play time ... he knows how to play ball.

After taking a splurge at Blue Waters

---oOo---

For more information on Shih Tzus, just watch the following YouTube video:

Designing A Résumé is No Joke

One of my former trainee requested for a free computer access because she wanted to design her résumé, and would want to print it. Wanting to help in one way or another, I volunteered to edit. But to my dismay, the editing turned out to be a total overhaul and I needed to really sit down to fix the mess. Good thing I had some time to spare.  

While explaining the changes I made with her résumé, I adjusted the indention, spacing, and even the placements of the data to make the result impressive. Prior to her encoding, I provided her with a template and an example to guide her, but the output is still a mess that I wasn't impressed at all. How much more if I am a potential employer? With her information scattered and incomplete, you would think of an open-ended second rate movie produced by an unknown film maker. 

Even though I do not have a background in HR, but common sense tells me what an impressive résumé entails. 

How many of our job-seekers do not know how to make an impressive résumé? "How To's" should have been taught in secondary schools, I think so. But sad to say, no subject ever prepared us with stuffs like this. I could not even remember it being taught in my high school and college years. My knowledge was just based on my patient research prior to my first job search. I used to read a huge Reader's Digest book "Write Better, Speak Better" because the internet in my little corner of the world during that time was still a dream.

Designing a résumé is no joke. It's not just filling up a bio-data. It's an art, a science and a glimpse of who you are, what you got and what you can do. It cannot just be designed without focusing on details. 

So, what do we need to include in a résumé? Based on my own experience and research, below are some hints.

What to include ....

• Contact Details. This includes your complete address and contact numbers. If you can't stay in the same place always, don't forget your mobile number. An email address is also needed if you're already a tech-savvy. Your contact details are really important so that the interviewer will be able to contact you for an interview.
• Competencies/Skills. This should include your abilities related to the job you're applying. Skills that can help promote efficiency and effectiveness on performing the job (e.g. language skills, and/or computer skills, etc) should also be emphasized.
• Employment Background. This should include all your employment history. List the companies you worked for, your job descriptions and dates of employment. For comprehensive result, you may include a detailed description of your responsibilities. If available, do not forget to highlight your commendable achievements and remarkable contributions to the company. Make sure to arrange them from latest to earliest. If you're a fresh graduate, your on-the-job training and part-time jobs will help.
• Educational Attainment. This should include the schools you attended, the courses/degrees you attained, merits and/or awards received. Arrange your data in chronological order (latest first).
• Accreditation and Awards. This includes any certificates of competencies and authority that will help boost your credibility. Recognition and awards, if any, will also help lift you up.
• Job Objective. May be included if you have a specific job in mind that the company offers. Just make sure to tailor-fit your résumé. Use the same keywords that appear in the job description so that you will have a better chance of an interview.
• Career Summary. This section is an optional customized section of a  résumé. It lists down key achievements, skills and experiences relevant to the position for which you are applying.

How these sections should be arranged depends on what qualification you want to emphasize. It also depends on the availability of data and the scarcity of it. For example, if you're a fresh graduate and you do not have an impressive job background, you're competencies and educational background should come first.  If the want ad requires an applicant to have years of work experience, then your employment history should be highlighted. If you're not sure what job fits your qualification, and you do not know the particular job vacancy, your competencies and skills should be emphasized.

Thus, a résumé for one company should not be copied for another. You need to re-organize it first ... redesign if necessary ...  to ensure that it can impress even the most stressed and bored HR.

Just always bear in mind, a résumé can make or break your chance of landing a better job and a brighter future.

What's Ideal is Not Real

What makes work worth doing? A great chance for improvement? Higher pay with lots of benefits? A just and fair promotion requirements? A nice workplace with hi-tech tools? A good boss? Colleagues with the spirit of team work? A good camaraderie? A good cause? A meaningful impact?

All of those! But the fact is, we can't have them all. No workplace is ever ideal ....no career is ever perfect ...  no work is ever easy. That's my theory, so far.

Let us check some insights to clarify things.

Based on the research conducted by Harvard Business Review, people's everyday work lives are greatly enriched when they make progress at work that they find meaningful. 

I agree 100%. Being an IT Trainer, helping learners to prepare for their future makes everyday, doing  even the most mundane things, worth my while.  Watching my trainees march during graduation is one such great accomplishment. Knowing that they got nice careers after they graduated makes all the difference in the world.

This means that the satisfaction of helping, contributing, experiencing, discovering and understanding the job's worth and our worth ... its overall impact ... is very essential.

But it should not end there. The satisfaction of doing something for others should also be paired with the satisfaction of having done something for ourselves. 

Based on my experience, observation and perception, the following are things that are essential ingredients to help make our work worth doing:

• Purpose. A good cause is always needed. We need to know why we need to do what we do so that we can do it the right way at the right place and time, and with the right people. As Rick Warren in his book, The Purpose Driven Life, said, "God is always more interested in why we do something than in what we do."
• Interest. We need to enjoy what we do. As Maxim Gorky once said, "When work is a pleasure, life is a joy. When work is duty, life is slavery."
• Salary & Benefits. Simple basic pay for a start with a promise of huge returns in the long run still matters. Our life won't be greatly enriched when our financial progress is hindered by low pay, no benefits and zero promotion despite exemplary performance. Would we be able to say we're happy and contented when we can't afford even the simple joy of owning even the cheapest house, the comfort of driving our own car, and the pleasure of taking a vacation once in a while?
• Trust. The trust of your peers and your boss can help us propel our way to success. Close supervision is only for dummies. For as long as the job is well defined and delegated; performance criteria and deadlines properly set, we sure don't need our boss or our peers to constantly check our work like a shadow where every move they make will surely take our breath away.
• Teamwork. Goodwill and lighthearted rapport between and among peers can make any workload lighter. Working as a team always makes a lot of difference. Working with snakes in the corporate ladder is another story.
• Environment. Nice and safe working environment is always heaven. Who would want to work everyday at a tupsy-turvy and dirty office with outdated tools? Not me!
• Acknowledgment. Even a simple pat in the back whenever we did something commendable will do. It doesn't take a genius to acknowledge and commend a performing worker. There are many ways to acknowledge good performance, from a sincere (and I mean sincere) "Thank You" or "Congratulations"   for a specific job well done to granting the highest level, agency-specific honors and establishing formal cash incentive and recognition award programs. It just need a performance-oriented and selfless (not self-centered) boss to make it happen.
• Motivation. We all need to be motivated. Who doesn't? Kill  this motivation and we won't go much further. The only question is ... who will motivate us when everyone else needs to be motivated? 
• Outcome. The end result of our labor matters so much. Output which can only mean meaningless numbers without meaningful results is not good. Our work should have some remarkable impact in the lives of others, as well as our own. But then, there's no amount of knowing the impact we caused on others' lives not unless we do extensive research asking for their precious testimonies. As Jay Asher said, “No one knows for certain how much impact they have on the lives of other people. Oftentimes, we have no clue. Yet we push it just the same.” 
• Opportunity. The opportunity to be in the right place and at the right time is always needed. And luck really has a lot to do with it. I agree with Bill Gates when he said , "I was in the right place, at the right time, and luck had a lot to do with it".   Based on my own experience, we can never grow much further when we're misplaced, displaced or out-of-place. That's what we call a pure streak of bad luck LOL.

Getting all these ingredients will surely ensure a great serving of heaven at work. The question is, where in the world can we ever find them all bundled up together? In which heaven's one-stop-shop will we ever find them?

Perhaps, in every aspect of life, be it in love or at work, what's ideal is not really real!

---oOo---

"Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing."
-- Theodore Roosevelt, September 7, 1903

16 Years and Counting

There are days, such days like today, when I couldn't help but ask myself  "Am I at the right place and time? Or am I not?"

Looking back, I've been jumping from one career to another. Counting off, I was able to work for both private and government sectors, with a total of seven jobs and six different employers to be exact. I've met several people, hundreds of them, all with different personalities, interests and attitudes. I've been through different experiences, both enjoyable and not so enjoyable. Most of all, I've been in the workforce, trying to have a career, for more than sixteen years now.

16 years ... that long ... yet I still couldn't appreciate the fruits of my labors. I do not consider myself as a failure as I also got my shares of triumphs. But I am still "just" an ordinary employee, with no permanent job, no house of my own, no car, and still striving to pay the monthly amortization of a 300 sq.m lot.

Despite the extra miles I extended to make my job commendable, and the awards I received from a global foundation, the praise of satisfied clients, and a masters degree, I still didn't have a chance for an advancement. Is it because of the system? Or is it because of me?

My dilemna is alarming.  Two years from now and I'll be 40. I think I need to re-trace my steps and re-evaluate.

I know I am not alone in this career mishap. Steps on how to be successful wouldn't be posted on the net had there be no demand searches for such. Experts, successful men and women shared their secrets freely, be it on personal websites, on blog or on social networking sites. Tips are countless. But will it work? Maybe. 

Let us see. 

According to Bill Gates during his interview with Larry King there are only three vital steps to success. First, one should be in the right place and time.

"I was in the right place, at the right time, and luck had a lot to do with it. However, there were many others in the same place as I was when computers  began to gain popularity."

Second, one should have a long-term vision.

"I had a long-term vision of how the personal computer would revolutionize every facit of life. Once again, there were many others with the same vision I had."

Third,  one should take massive, immediate action.

"I took massive, immediate action. This is where the rubber meets the road. If you're in the right place at the right time and have a vision to see where a new technology is going but don't take action ... you'll never be successful...

Without all three components in place, you're doomed." - Bill Gates

Of all the three steps, the first one made me dumbfounded. Maybe I am NOT in the right place at the right time. I guess so. Some people seemed to be climbing up the corporate ladder fast without any effort at all. They are not that qualified, not that talented, not that intelligent ... but how come? Well? Remembering what Marlon Brandon once said, "Never confuse the size of your paycheck with the size of your talent", I understand and I will ask no more.

My next steps? First, re-evaluate my vision and if possible, enhance it and make it ambitious enough but achievable and realistic. Second, find the right place at the right time ... if not, change my current place and time the right one LOL. Third, decide fast, lay down all alternatives to make all these possible, and take the first steps, promptu!

It doesn't takes a genius to be successful after all. With God's blessings, anything can happen when we make it happen.

I still have 22 years before retirement anyway. But could I wait 'til I'm 60 to be able to say I am truly successful?  Come to think of it ...

I think, I also need to really learn my lessons quickly LOL.