An Unconventional Interview?
I went in for a 2nd interview with a prospective company this evening. Interestingly enough, of a 300+ employee, the CEO wanted to interview me!! I was a little surprised. Whatever, the case, I figured it couldn't be too bad.

Given his reputation from the company's website, he's a busy busy man, running from department to department all day. So naturally, I'd be waiting in a meeting room for almost an hour for him to show. I found this to be understandable. What was weird was what happened next...

After the normal introductory conversation, he handed me a blank page and asked me to draw him a map from the company to Stanford University. Although I gladly complied, I was totally thinking: "What on earth is he trying to do?"

So while he left the room, I drew a map (as detailed as 15 minutes can allow me) and presented it to him when he came back. I even added instructions numbered by line item, accompanying the map. After, that he asked me questions about my work ethic and what my idea of a successful marketing campaign would consist of. Then it was over. Then the hiring director came in a escorted me out of the building.

As I got back to the car, I was really wondering .o0O(this is an interview??) I don't know if this is good or bad. It really makes me wonder what if anything that he was looking for.

Thoughts, anybody??

Vote of No Self-Confidence
This is my confession. Although many would tend to disagree with this, I'm beginning to think this is true. That or I'm really losing my mind. I think I'm losing confidence in my ability to do...well...ANYTHING.

With this recent lay-off, I think I've been doubting some of my self-worth as far as being able to be gainfully employed. Some have said that I really shouldn't be feeling like this. I haven't been laid-off for all that long and that I've been getting a steady stream of interviews. However, there's more to this than what you see on the surface. I find that when I'm not working, I'm gonna eventually lose my marbles.

When it comes to the nitty-gritty technical things, I notice that at times, I clam up for fear of looking like I don't know what I'm doing. It's true. It's been a trend, lately.

I think it comes from the fact that since I'm rather designer-centric, people have been nit-picking my technical abilities. I'm beginning to believe that this is barring me from some positions that I've interviewed for. All these things such as .NET architecture, C#, and Perl, are things that I've never even needed to fiddle with. To tell you the truth, it actually frightens me to try and learn this stuff when in just a few years, it becomes almost irrelevant.

So why not just go try and learn this stuff on my own, you ask? I want to. However, even the thought of learning this stuff scares me. Let me give you some perspective. With the wedding web site, I got plenty of help from Mike with the PHP code. It seems fairly straight-forward as I have a huge PHP reference book from years back. It seems like it would be easy to pick up since I used to mess with ASP when I was with a company that I worked with. It's like I'm all of a sudden deathly afraid of learning new technology now. It's like I'm afraid of failing.

Also, I have come to the realization that I have some opportunities to do some work on the side. I'm also coming to the realization that I may be lacking some confidence in running a side business. Like I'm worried that I would fail and that I'd be stuck without having an income.

I think I've changed quite a bit these years. It seems like I'm becoming a lot more timid. Anybody have any idea what the hell is wrong with me?

Catching up...
Howdy folks, sorry I haven't been blogging for a while. Here's a chance to catch up...

I guess the reason why I haven't been blogging at all is that these days, I feel totally inundated by lots of things. For starters, I went to Korea with "the other job" for the weeks. However, before I left for Korea my day job laid me off under what I considered to be some rather dubious circumstances. Needless to say, it pissed me off. Whatever the case, I'm back out on the job market, pounding the pavement doing the interview circuit.

Korea was an awesome place. I swear Seoul was like Manhattan in the middle of of very green pastoral land. Certainly a very good experience.

Also, the wedding website is pretty much done. I had help from Mike with the PHP. Thanks, Mike. Here it is: www.geoffandpak.com

My honey is doing well down south. Pretty much working hard and studying is her full-time profession now.

That it for the updates for now...