A Few Days in Chicago

I had one of those meetings where you aren't actually in a big city, but in the suburbs nearby and have no real opportunity to see the city. Once I literally had a meeting where we stayed in the hotel ATTACHED to a Tampa airport and never left. It was the business meeting version of the movie The Terminal.

This week I went to Chicago for a marketing meeting for a client. It was for about a thousand people, and you could tell that the organizers were determined to make it a good time. There was an awards dinner, a disco and an appearance by a special guest...Jamie Foxx. There was also a video greeting to the group by LeBron James. That doesn't normally happen at a lot of meetings that I go to. Not only that, but one of our clients is friends with the family that owns Superdawg, so we did get off the hotel campus for a one meal--and it was delicious.

Despite all the bells and whistles, it was a good learning event too. I also got to meet and see a lot more people on the client side, which is always a good thing. Did I mention that I love my job?

Here are some of my photos from the trip:

Not only did the hotel have my name on the screen only a few minutes after I checked in, but they also provided me with tampons for the duration of my visit. Classy!

The inside the hotel reminded me of a complicated game of Jenga.

My first visit to Superdawg--hopefully not the last!

The outside with the Hot Dog Couple

All beef Superdawg--I loved the peppers!

The packaging was classic and cute too.

Jamie Foxx had just come in from his stay at Comic Con promoting The Amazing Spiderman 2. He plays the newest villain and we got to see a clip. Looks pretty good.

THe other guy is George Leon from Columbia Pictures marketing. He was SO excited about this movie. Jamie Foxx was also very entertaining. 

I danced a little, but the disco was not entirely my scene.

Happy Anniversary, LA!

Two years ago today Chef and I made our way with the cats, a Nissan Sentra and a large Penske truck into Los Angeles where we headed to our new apartment and started to lay down roots in the city of angels. It's hard to believe that it's been two years since I left Nashville. I still miss my friends there and have yet to make as many friends here (but I have made some, which I'm proud of), but I'm happy we moved here.

Los Angeles has been an adventure and I don't think I was having enough of them before I got here. Despite anything else that has happened in my life, I'm always a little proud that I took a risk and moved across country with little knowledge of the area and only a hunch. While it was easier mentally to move to Los Angeles than Nashville because I have a partner in crime, it was way harder physically. Knowing that we're far enough away from family that I couldn't hop in car and get there in a couple of hours was a sobering experience. But thank goodness for modern technology. It's made the distance between the other ones I love seem much less expansive.

I can't believe how much I've done since I've been here. Here's a recap of some of the highlights:

• I've gotten married. :)
• Had two different jobs at two different companies. I've worked at more companies in two years in LA than my entire 9 years in Nashville. 
• Traveled the US and a small part of Canada. Non-profits don't have a ton of "business trip" kind of jobs. For-profits do. While I miss Chef while I'm away, I've liked being able to see different areas of the country. Got to see Washington DC, Philadelphia and Las Vegas a LOT more than ever before. 
• Went to the LA County Museum of Art (LACMA), the Getty Villa, the Aquarium of the Pacific, a Hollywood homes tour, the Griffith Observatory, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, Beverly Hills, Santa Monica, Venice Beach, the American Horror Story Season One house, Staple Center, Angels Stadium, and so many more cool places.
• I've become a redhead.
• I've learned what the word "commute" really means and that estimating the time it takes to go one mile only works if you're on foot. I've also learned the hard way how much of my daily life that I'm willing to spend in a car for a job. 
• I've found great sushi and shitty pizza.
• I've gained the confidence in knowing that I can live and make it.

Now on next year's list, I want to add that I finished my novel and made headway in getting an agent. :) It's been a hell of a two years and cheers to many more!

A New Career Adventure

It's bittersweet, but ultimately more sweet than bitter that I decided to leave my current job at SAGE after nearly 18 months. I will desperately miss my UK counterpart who held my hand through trying times and my team who work so hard each day.

I will not miss the commute.

In fact, my new position will cut more than 42 miles off my commute. One way. So about 84 miles a day. In LA traffic. Basically it will be like getting 2 hours and 30 minutes of time back each day. And thus allowing me to actually start living in LA. Making friends. Volunteering. Sleeping past 5 a.m. on a weekday. Staying up later than 10 p.m. That kind of thing.

What am I doing next? Great question. I am going to try a completely different atmosphere (yes. more different than LA) again. I'm going to work as an Account Supervisor in the LA office of  Porter Novelli, an international PR agency. I've never worked in an agency before but I've always wanted to try it and I've always been able to handle it thus far, so why not take the risk.

And because I'm still enamored with the ways of LA, I am SUPER excited that 1) my new job is about 3 miles from home and 2) the office is on Hollywood Blvd. Like THE Hollywood Blvd. You can walk out the front door of the building and be stepping on stars. The Oscars are held about a block away. So the side of me that is impressed with this kind of thing is excited.

So if you wonder where I've been the last month, the mystery is now over. I've been transitioning and as my mom used to tell me "Work as hard on the last day as you did on the first." It's a good mantra. I wanted to make sure my friends and colleagues are left in a good place.

Celebrating until I go into my new gig on Monday morning. Why no longer gap?

Because I'm heading to Nashville and Evansville in two weeks (also became officially official today)! Make plans to hook up with me, friends!

I Haven't Changed. . . I'm just less stressed

Tonight Chef and I drove to Laguna Beach to have dinner with my dad and Robin. My dad has a conference in Orange County that starts on Tuesday and luckily, I'm off tomorrow for President's Day. It will be my first President's Day off and I don't think there's any better way to celebrate than by Chef and I showing my Dad and Robin around our neck of the woods.

But anyway, we had dinner tonight at their hotel restaurant. Although to call it a "hotel restaurant" is kind of a misnomer. The place was SUPER hopping and had great ratings on yelp. The food was very good. But clearly the company was better.

And while we sat and chatted, I realized that I had changed a little since I left Tennessee. By changed, I don't really mean that my personality is all that much different. Because frankly, it's not. I may be a little more open to new things, but always feel like I had a cautiously adventurous spirit. I say "cautiously" because I always feel like my risks are calculated.

But I have changed in the sense that the intensity of my life is dulled. I guess another way of saying that is I'm less stressed. I think a big part of that is changing jobs. When you work some place for 9 years, you set yourself up for a few things. 1) You begin to get an unnatural attachment to things, 2) you begin to think of yourself as indispensable, and 3) you wonder if you are your job and doubt that you're strong enough to separate yourself.

So, I realized that a job doesn't have to be THAT intense. Not that I didn't love it. I've come to realize that I can be driven to do my best, but I don't have to give 90 percent of myself to my job. I think it's helped Chef and I too. I'm able to be more to him and I'm happy to do so.

So maybe the change isn't so bad. It's a relaxation thing. I hope it sticks.

Sometimes You Get the Bear. Sometimes the Bear Gets You.

I thought I was prepared for my interview this morning. Based on my lack of experience interviewing in LA, I use my experience interviewing in Tennessee as my baseline. I had a weird phone interview a few weeks back, but I choose to think of that as the exception, not the rule.

Today wasn't really weird. It was for a PR/ Marketing position at a cosmetics company. Sounds pretty cool, right? Yeah, it sounded cool to me too. The only hitch in the giddy-up was that for whatever reason, I had a different company name stuck in my head. Same first name, different second name, but no excuse. When I did google searches to research the company, I had a hard time keeping it straight. It's like when you meet someone who reminds you of someone else and you call them by the name of the person they remind you of instead of their actual name.

Knowing this, I had said the company's name 10 times on my way to the interview to try and drive the wrong name out of my head. Despite all this, what was the first thing that popped out of my mouth? The wrong name, of course. Ugh.

Also, I was trying to make some small talk so I asked if he was off yesterday for the holiday. He replied "No. This is a small company. We don't get every holiday." And then I felt like an a-hole for asking, until he followed up with "Did you have yesterday off?".

"Well, I'm not currently employed and looking for a job, so I'm not really ever off," I said.

The rest of the interview consisted of a few questions about my background. It was scheduled for 30 minutes. I remember making those 30 minute weed out interviews well. All in all, I did my best, but sometimes you get a good vibe, sometimes a bad one, sometimes no vibe. I got a neutral vibe. It wouldn't surprise me if I wasn't brought in for the second round. It wouldn't surprise me if I was.

It's a coin toss. Isn't it always?

Tomorrow is another day with another interview. Keep those well wishes coming my way until I find my new work home.

I'm A Teeter Totter

I realized this week that I've been a little more moody than normal. Or at least a little more susceptible to moodiness. I think it's a combination of all the things going on in my life. Here's are things that have gone up and down this week:

• My weight (thankfully, down a net 0.2 lbs right now)
• My anger with those who watch crappy stuff while I'm in the gym
• My happiness to watch SportsCenter while working out
• My annoyance with the cats for moving or dumping their water container
• My urge to kill Mila for scratching my face
• The scratch on my face's appearance
• My urge to kill Mila for pooping outside the litter box for no apparent reason
• My interest in Bowl games
• My nervousness for the Colts play off game tomorrow
• My anger in not being able to hear anyone who calls my cell phone (aka our only phone) while I'm in our apartment (this is getting fixed with a VOIP phone number and computer headset friends!)
• My enthusiasm about job prospects
• My enthusiasm for staying away from alcohol
• My willpower for anything
• My continued sleep patterns
• My disdain for whoever spray tanned Bob Barker for the State Farm commercial
• My loneliness
• My anger/jealousy over Chef's midday naps
• My belief that a teenager can lose 90 lbs in 90 days and it be healthy (C'mon MTV. I'm not sure "I Used To Be Fat" is a good example)
• My excitement over finding out that Glee's Brittany used to be a background dancer for Beyonce and was in the Single Ladies Grammy performance
• My love of being on the computer for 8 hours a day for working, job searching and pleasure

That's all I can think of right now, but as I am a teeter totter, I'm sure my love of the list will waiver and I'll add or delete more.

Clearly, not meant for me

I had a phone interview today unlike any I've ever had before. It was so different that I had to call a few friends to make sure that my experience was not the norm. I mean, it's been a while since I've been actively ON job interviews, but I spent the better part of last year conducting job interviews. So I'd think it wouldn't be too different than what I was asking.

Clearly, I was wrong. Or maybe my expectations were off. But normally a phone interview is a brief screening call. You ask a few questions about the resume, the background, etc. Use the call to see if the person can put a full sentence together, speak intelligently and is more than just a piece of paper.

That was what I was expecting. I had done some research on the company. Checked out their client list. Their vendors, their executives, etc. Checked out the verbiage they use on their site. All that good stuff. When I go for a face to face is when I really spend some time researching. I only did THAT much because I wanted to be able to craft any questions that I had around the position and corporate culture. Apparently, I didn't do enough.

First, she began by explaining the process. A phone interview, an in-person interview with herself and another EVP PLUS a writing test, an in-person interview with their entire sales team, and an interview with the CEO. I thought the AHA was bad, but they've got NOTHING on this place. Did I mention the position they're offering is NOT a management position?

Anyway, instead of the "getting to know you" questions, I got the following:

• After checking out client list, who would you say is missing?
• What would you do to bring a new client on? What if you didn't have a travel budget to visit them? (At this point, I mentioned reading Business Week and using critical thinking to come up with some prospects. In one of her comments later, she said "Business Week is good and all, but it reports on things that have happened in the past. We need you to read things that predict the trends." I thought that was a little condescending.)
• Who are our biggest competitors?
• What is our business model? (I had to ask for clarification as to what she wanted me to answer. The next question was: How do you think we make our money?)
• How do you feel about building relationships with brilliant minds? Do you feel you could handle carrying on conversations? (I was a little offended by that one)
• Clearly you don't have a tech background (this was for a company that deals in the tech industry), how do you think you'd learn about tech?
• What kind of hardware, software and social media do you use?

So, I'm trying to tell her about her own industry without having any background and I'm trying to guess at what their company does with only a very convoluted website to go by (tech people aren't generally naturally good writers). I'm getting no feedback, so I could be completely wrong (although I knew I wasn't that wrong--it's a basic business, not performing open heart surgery). As I'm trying to answer these questions, I feel two things: 1) I don't really want to work for this place and 2) they clearly aren't sold that I'm not a idiot.

When it was my turn to ask questions, I asked what qualities they were most looking for in someone to fulfill the position, what the most pressing issues would be when someone was on board and what the company's vision was. She seemed a little perturbed to have to answer my questions. When I asked her what the vision for the company was, she read off a mission statement. When I asked her the vision for the future (expecting something about growth, increased membership, increased prestige, etc), she said--"that is our vision for the future." Clear as mud.

So, please make me feel better and let me know that all interviews are not like this one. Especially not phone interviews. Luckily, I got another bite today and two more loose ends, so there's always hope.

In fact, there are five words that inspire and terrify me at the same time: "This is only the beginning."

I'm Starting To Feel Good About Myself

Let me rephrase that title as I've always felt good about some aspect of my life or another. And because I have a very supportive family, I don't think I've had a day in my life that I haven't felt smart. I might not always feel pretty or thin or like a good cook, but I've always felt intelligent. And that's a great trait to have. Especially when you're job hunting.

Because I have good friends and colleagues that have given me good references on linkedin and via phone, and who have helped me craft my resume, I'm actually getting some really good traction in LA. As previously blogged about, I've had an interview already. It went well. As well as those things that go. One thing I learned from doing interviews myself is that sometimes the most qualified candidate is not necessarily the best fit for the other personalities on the team. It's really a crap shoot and now that I've been lucky enough to be on the other side, I know this and don't get pissed off. Before when I'd interview for a job and didn't get it, I'd be really mad--like "how could they NOT like me?". They might very well have liked me but already had someone like me on their staff. It's not personal and I'm mature enough to know that now.

But today was a good day. I got a phone interview scheduled for one position, got a second online personality assessment for another position, got an email reading that I will be scheduled for a face to face interview for another position AND got a freelance gig that's gonna be fun in the mean time. Not too shabby for someone who doesn't know a lot of people in LA. And next week I'm heading down the LA American Heart Association office to offer my services and time to volunteer. I didn't think I'd do it, but after thinking about it, I realized it could be a great way to meet some new contacts and get an expert's (aka the Communications Director's) opinion on ad and PR agencies in the market.

So, I'm feeling good about myself and my future here. Although right at this second, the only thing making me feel sad is the incessant "Visit Music City: Music Calls Us Home" ads that are playing during the Music City Bowl right now. The photos are all from places within 3 miles of my old stomping grounds. Damn you, ESPN, for your nostalgic intros! Miss you, Nashville and Nashville Friends!!!

Back to the Work World

I got a call Monday morning from a sporting goods company that has an availability for a PR coordinator (and no, it's not Gus Doerner's LA). It was a surprising call because I had only submitted my application on Saturday night. I did, however, mention that I'd seen more basketball games than any woman except Coach Krzyzewski's wife. That might've helped.

I was ecstatic that I got the call. Don't ever get me wrong about that. I was mostly shocked. I wasn't expecting to hear from people so quickly, as I just started looking hardcore last week. Whether or not I get the job, it has already been a boost in my confidence that I got an interview already. Of course, after being out of the work world for the last couple of weeks, I have to remember how I'm supposed to act. I've done my company research. I've driven the route to the place to know how long it's gonna take me to get there. I've prepped some answers to commonly asked interview questions. I even have my favorite basketball player of all time picked out (Bill Russell, for those who care).

So now I just need to not psych myself out. Remember my experience in interviewing people. It's so weird how personality, some answers and timing play into getting a job or not. I just have to be who I am (which is awesome) and hope that the position is a right fit for me and vice versa.

Wish me luck!

Sometimes its the little things. . .

Today I spent the majority of my day in my pajamas. It's not a bad way to spend the day. However, despite being in pajamas, I was working hard pretty much the whole day. I spent a good 2-3 hours uploading all the pertinent files that I had on my work computer onto my personal laptop. One of the catches is that my personal laptop doesn't have any Windows software on it. No Word. No Power Point. No Excel. None of it.

So I was forced to try out Google Docs. It's not too bad. I was able to reformat my resume, make some changes and pretty much open any of the documents that I had transferred over. It was helpful to be able to rifle through my old files to make sure I'd remembered all of my accomplishments in nine years. Sadly, I had forgotten most and I'm stuck trying to remember what things I was so proud of during my time as the marketing director. Hmmmm. . .

Aside from that, I was also able to open my file of exported contacts. The kicker is that that contacts from my old Outlook account, the contacts in my iPhone and the contacts in my Google account are all slightly different. So I had to go through all the contacts that I wanted to sync into my phone and on Google and make sure the Outlook information matched up. There's no easy way to do this when you're not quite sure which version is the most up to date. So, another 2 and half hours later I finally had my contacts down to a mere 80. Oosh.

But now I'm ready, at least computer-wise, to move on. Now to apply for some additional jobs tomorrow. Oh the little things. . .

I Don't Mind Driving Any More

I had to head up to Rivergate this weekend to run an errand. Normally this type of trip (about 20 minutes away) would've taken a prayer and enough shaking to have my ovaries turned upside down. Now it's not so bad. In fact, with a radio, cruise control and smooth rides, I actually liked it. I am looking forward to warmer weather and rolling the windows down with music blaring as I roll.

I even got Chef to take a ride with me to Walgreen's. It's actually a good thing, because for the next couple of weeks to come, I'll be riding back and forth to Murfreesboro (aka The Boro). I'm covering the area until I get the position filled that covers the area. It's those things that I forgot about when I was longing for management experience. But in the end, I just think of how grateful I'll be when the position is filled again. And I think about how much better I understand things now. Not the strategy, but actual execution.

So, riding around in my new car has lost none of its appeal. I hope I still think so after 47 more payments.

Isn't it enough to have to worry about the flu?

Just when I thought the biggest contagious threat of the season was going to be H1N1, a new report comes out that makes me fear something else. . .loneliness.

Apparently, people's feelings of isolation and despair when shared with others can be more than just shared but made literal.

This takes me back to a job I had when I was 16 years old. I was looking for something that I could work in the summer with flexible hours because I played softball an ungodly amount. The only thing I could find was working as a telemarketer. It was horrible.

Our bosses could listen in to us making our sales pitches to get appointments with people to have them try an air filtration system. We were given a headset, a script and a phone book. My boss listened in to one of my calls and then asked me "Why do you think you're not having luck booking appointments?". What I wanted to say was "Because no one wants to hear from a 16 year old telemarketer about air filtration unless they're super attractive and in your living room." What I did say was "Because a lot of people are working and aren't home."

The overzealous guy in the cubicle to my left overheard my conversation and went nuts. "If you start thinking that people won't book appointments because they're not home, then I'll start thinking that people won't book appointments because they're not home and she (girl in cubicle to his left) will start thinking the same thing and then no one will book appointments. Stop thinking like that it. It's contagious."

Now nearly 15 years later, maybe the little weirdo was right. Either way, I only lasted one day.