Interview

So I had my interview for my own job on Thursday. I was one of the first of the testers to be interviewed. I prepared for days for this 1 hour interview. I gathered lots of work related stories on projects that I'd worked on that went well, were challenging, etc.

It's a shitty situation when you are competing directly against your peers at work, but that was the situation and I think we all made the best of it. The day of the interview reminded me in a weird way of working on December 24th in that no one on the test team did any real work. We all just sat around and chatted about this whole process and about how nervous we all were.

I felt fairly confident going into the interview. I had done my homework, I had reviewed my notes, I was dressed nicely, and my health was good.

The interview itself was pretty typical. "Tell me about yourself"; "Describe a situation where you..."; etc.

In the end the interview went for about 45 minutes. I got a good feeling from it, but not an excellent feeling. The interviewers seemed fairly impressed with my work, but I had a bunch of good stories and experiences that I didn't get to mention.

I think I have a strong chance of getting a position on the new team at work. Mostly because I found out that 55% of your scoring is based on your annual performance reviews which I did perfectly on. So I am already at the 55 yard line right from the get go and since my interview went well, I think I should be fine.

Thanks for all the support. I will let you know on December 11, whether I'm in or out.

Goals

Hello,  here are my goals for the next 12 months.  Please read them, talk to me about them, and keep me focused.  I expect these to be completed by Dec 2010 (except goal #4 which may be completed soon thereafter).

1. Get top 20% at Microsoft - both in potential and performance.  After evaluations ask for (and receive) a raise.  This is required so that I have the flexibility (if desired) to easily move around inside Microsoft and possibly move to a different location.

2.  Learn german - finish all 3 rosetta stone discs and supplement them with some written grammar lessons.  This will require about 30 mins a day, 5 days a week.  Keep trying to converse daily with Julie in German.

3.  Support Julie in her goals at school.  This means financial and emotional support.

4. Take a 3 week, action packed, trip to Thailand, Taiwan, and other south Asian countries. Also, take a nice vacation to Berlin.

5.  earn 30$/month passive income from juicerinfo.net with ads

6.  New flooring installed at Kanata house for all the high traffic rooms and stairs (if tenant wants them).

7. Play soccer twice or more per week.

8. Do some upper body fitness at least once per week. 

9. listen to TED talks to and from work.

10.  Pay for all of the above and have no retail debt by Dec 2010.

11. Create & maintain relationships while doing all of the above.

Actions speak louder than words

I had an interesting experience today.

I found out on Friday that my immediate boss is leaving Microsoft in a few months.  I was very saddened by this because she was a very good boss to me and also a very good friend.

So, I bought some flowers this morning and hid them under my desk.  I went into her office (without the flowers) and told her, using all the words I could, how I felt about her and how much I appreciated her.  She was happy to hear my words.

After awhile I ran out of things to say, so I told her that I got her a thank you gift as well. I went back to my desk, got the flowers, then gave them to her.  All of the sudden she wasn't just all smiles, but rather tears of joy.  She gave me a big hug.

There's an interesting lesson here:  If you want to convey a message to someone, don't just tell them, show them.   Actions speak far louder than words.  

I'm very glad I got the message I wanted across and so was she.

Work update

So last week the new boss of our new group at work (Pat) came up to me and told me that if I had any questions I should go see him in his office. That's what he said, but the intonation in his voice suggested that he wanted me to come and see him regardless of whether I had questions or not.

Anyhow, today I decided to go see him in his office. I had a few questions to ask him, but the main point I wanted to get across was that I was excited about the new team and wanted to be part of it.

I really got the impression he just wanted people to come to him and say "I want to be on the new team". I think most people aren't doing that and, therefore, Pat doesn't really know where most people stand. He doesn't know if most people are excited about the new team or just grudgingly accepting this merge.

Now that he knows where I stand, I think he is much more excited about me.

I just felt so great about that meeting. I think I have a very strong chance of getting on the new team.

Crazy times at work

Lots of changes are happening now at work.

The mac team is being merged with the games team.  At the same time, they are cutting a little over 20% of the staff of the 2 teams.  Since there is only room for 80% of the current staff on the new teams, we will all need to interview for the jobs on the new team. All of this will be wrapped up by Dec 11.

Needless to say, morale around the office is very low and probably will continue to be low until everything is set in stone.

Luckily in Ireland, they don't just kick you to the curb when you are laid off.  For each year that you have worked for the company, you get 7 weeks worth of pay.  Which means some people who have been there for many years may actually WANT to be laid off to collect that large lump sum.  My hope is that many people will opt for this.  However, after talking to senior people, they don't seem to want to take this option mostly because the job market is so terrible right now in Ireland.

Anyhow, I am hoping for the best.  The new team might be a thrill to work for since it would give me a chance to test the latest and greatest games as well as mac office.

Only time will tell.  I will keep you posted.