Networking Round 2 – Boulder Green Drinks & StartUp Women

Yesterday, I went to two, yes, that’s right, two networking events. One was StartUp Women at The Cup. The other was Boulder Green Drinks held at iSupportU. Both super events, well-organized and well-attended. I felt a little flat, like an English defender against an effective German offense.  I may be feeling a bit ragged due to amount of sneezing and sniffling I’ve done since the Cottonwood trees bloomed huge tufts of cottonwood; it sort of looks like a bunch of down pillows exploded.

At any rate, Cindy Carrillo spoke at StartUp Women about the evolution of her business, which was very interesting! She willing admitted of setbacks, partnerships that didn’t work, and allowing her business to adapt to a changing market.  So often I think, well if this idea doesn’t work clearly I am not meant to do “whatever”. “Whatever” being the endeavor, when really it’s simply part of the process of doing. I wouldn’t want to take this to an absurd conclusion, where I hock everything on a dream but I think it’s important to consider failure as part and parcel.

Green Drinks Boulder is always a great time, lots of different people and naturally a little loose as these are all peeps moving into an industry that is still in its infancy. So, there is a lot of enthusiasm, a lot of flailing around, huge heaps of creativity and good beer, which may be the underpinnings behind the enthusiasm but who cares.  I spoke with a guy named Eric, who manages Boulder Community Computers and what a great idea that is. Here’s the premise, they take throw-away computers off people’s hands, repair them  and then give anyone without a computer the opportunity to earn one. Isn’t that cool!  People, who want to earn a computer, are taught how to build one using spare parts and install an open-source operating system. Once they have clocked 20 hours, it’s theirs. Super, super idea!!

I saw a couple of familiar faces, which is always nice when you go into these types of things. And they had an 80′s cover band, so really I had everything I needed to flourish but instead sniffled and sneezed around the place.  Oh well, only a few more weeks and I’ll be back to my more usual understated self.

The Necessary Revolution – My Book Review

Most of the time when someone suggests a business book, my face puckers like I have taken an unfortunate swig of sour milk. I know these books are insightful and provide all sorts of useful and juicy tidbits and I can’t really explain my irrational dislike of them but there you have it. Some people don’t like black-eyed peas, nor the smell of patchouli and I am not a fan of business books. But then, as usual, I made a fool of myself by extolling the greatness of “The Necessary Revolution” by Peter Senge a business book I just finished reading.

The book is about “sustainability” and how some businesses today are embracing this new age (new age as in era not the “aaa a aa” one); it chronicles what worked, what didn’t, the unexpected successes and alliances that formed.  Some of the key themes from the book were:

• Collaboration – companies, normally competitive, working to solve industry-specific waste issues or alliances formed between NGOs and Fortune 500 companies to address water safety issues.
• Systems-thinking – describing what happens to what we make, buy and use within the context of the larger systems of nature
• Regenerative society – discusses the meaning of a vibrant, healthy, diverse community

One of the most amazing parts of the book described the interaction between humans and chimps and the ability of chimpanzees to communicate using human language or specially-designed keyboards. And not just “sit” and “stay” type commands but rather the chimps interacted in a contextual manner. The idea was to illustrate that although humans are unique, we are much more connected to the natural environment than we could ever have imagined. When I read this last chapter, I was completely blown away. I could not believe the stories of interaction between some of the chimpanzees and their human researchers. For me, it changed how I see our (human) place in nature; we really do share this planet with other creatures, whose range of emotions, ability to communicate and needs we are slowly beginning to understand.

The book is full of examples of groups, businesses, organizations working together successfully! The book had such a positive message, one that I don’t hear very often above the din of destruction, waste, pessimism I often associate with books dealing with our changing environment.  The book also provided tips, toolkits and ideas for working on issues that readers may have within their community or organization.  Really great, tactical advice on how to tackle some of the issues and problems many of us would like to improve in our working lives.

A Grand Day Out – A Tour of Marylhurst

Front Entrance

Last week I got the chance to head on up to Oregon to check out Marylhurst University.  I wanted to head up there and get a tour of the school, where I’ll be working towards an MBA in Sustainability online.  And while I am totally on board with the idea of using technology to enable distance learning, collaboration and networking, I also wanted to make sure they weren’t selling ginsu knives and chia pets in the parking lot.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by the little town of Lake Oswego, which is located about a kick-off’s distance from Marylhurst campus.  The hotel room, where I stayed the night before my tour of the campus, was perfect and when I parted the drapes of my room, a lake of blues and grays stretched out from my deck towards hills dark green with trees. Coming from Colorado, it seemed like the world was in technicolor.

My tour wasn’t until 1pm, so I had plenty of time to wander around Lake Oswego and still be on campus a little early. I got to campus around 12:30, gave my tour guide the heads up that I was on campus but early and would hang out at the  coffee shop. The campus was pretty quiet and that may have been because of the summer session but it is also a commuter school. And although the school used to have dorms, they have been converted to classrooms. I got some coffee, wandered around campus for a bit taking in the scene.

You can't easily dismiss a place with its own cemetary

At 1pm I met up with Barbara, my guide, and she was super. She explained how the school was originally founded by Catholic nuns in the 1880s.  Some of the nuns still associated with the school actually come back to retire on campus; there are a separate set of homes somewhat away from the main campus where they stay. What was very interesting was the cemetery reserved for the nuns, who started the school. Barbara mentioned that these women came from all over the country to help set up this school. She retold the story of a young girl of 5 dropped off at the school doors during the great depression, her father could no longer feed her and her sibling and she was orphaned to the nuns.

Barbara took me around talking about the school’s relationship with Portland; sometimes the Portland symphony will come out to play at Marylhurst. She took me to the art gallery and church, which had amazing stained glass.  So far, so good. The place had history, a story, and from what Barbara said a real commitment to providing knowledge and education. You can’t so easily dismiss a place with a cemetery. She also mentioned how they have  students in some of the more rural areas of Oregon, who are taking advantage of these online programs.

So, the campus tour took about a half hour. Not very long but it was great. Then I met up with Paul, one of the directors of the program. And here’s where I thought would be the final test of credibility, where either I would walk out comfortable with investing the time and money or fly home with a case full of chia pets. Paul and I talked about the program, the level of intensity, the types of instructors, etc. He made some insightful observations. I asked where he saw the program in 5 years and he responded there won’t be an MBA in sustainability because running your business sustainably will be the only way to run a successful business. There will be no distinction between a traditional and sustainable MBA. So, how do I feel now? Definitely more comfortable and although there are no guarantees I feel like this is right step for me.

How We Work Today – Office vs. the Commute

I know I've thought this...

I realized I haven’t written much about my other love – the environment or sustainability or green business practices, whatever you would like to call it. I guess my job hunt has provided more humorous fodder for my blog lately but while I have been driving around for interviews and such, the nature of how we work has been been a recurring thought.

I read an interesting blog post from Seth Godin, who I follow pretty often, and he had a post called Goodbye to the Office. As I have worked in IT for a number of years, his reasoning to suggest we no longer ‘need’ the office, made a lot of sense to me.  He also narrowed down the one problem I see with eliminating “going into the office” – the need for people to go somewhere.  I don’t think it’s necessarily “the office”  that will be considered anachronistic; it’s our commute.

I don’t think we all need to gather together in the same place every day but there is a great deal of value in gathering

Where's my iPhone?

with other people with whom you can share ideas, tips, technology, shouting matches, etc. I know as a Web marketing person that I benefited tremendously from sorting out specific problems with peers, brainstorming ideas for improving our Web presence or wrestling together over coding or template issues.  And as Seth suggests, I didn’t necessarily need to go into Sun Microsystems to do that nor did I need to meet with my peers everyday.

This why I think the idea of an “office” will remain but our concept of commuting will change.  I wonder if we’ll return to some sort of 16th century guild arrangement, where marketing people will meet in a specific place, architects another, developers the all-night coffee shop the only condition would be that you live within a 12 miles radius or something like that. You’ll gather with like-professionals so that you collaborate, share, and problem-solve. You may work for different companies on different issues but as a professional your access to information, tools, knowledge would extend beyond your company confines to a broader more community-based resource. Yes, there will probably be all sorts of intellectual property issues to work out but I can’t help but think that having a community of experts upon who you can draw can have real benefits.

And can you imagine the money that might be saved on road maintenance that could be put to other uses? How might things like crowd-sourcing be used to expand the benefits or resources of professional communities? On a personal level, meeting new people, learning from experts, or passing on information would be tremendous. And I couldn’t help but think that different “guilds” would become recognized for their expertise. I may be taking the “guild” idea too far but less far, and less destructive (on our cars, roads, etc) than commuting to work.

The Interview – Top 5 Interviewing Questions

Nope. This is all I have to offer.

I’ve been sending out quite a few resumes and thanks to the fine folks over at Right Management I am getting some call backs. If only that was all it took to get a great new job. But, of course, it isn’t. You have to interview. I can’t quite decide which is less painful or more effective: the in-face interview or the on-phone interview.

The in-face interview gives you the advantage of seeing the look of confusion on their faces as you try and explain what you have been doing with yourself over your career.  You can also pick up on subtle verbal cues, like: deep sighs, someone getting up and leaving, the raised-eyebrow exchanges between interviewers and know you have rattled on far, far too long.

The on-phone interview gives you the chance to interview in your jim-jams while eating.

Regardless of where the interview takes place, there are certain questions used to vet potential employees and identify those that would make a good fit and those that are fit for, well, anywhere but where they have just sent their resume. I have compiled a list of my top interview questions.

Question 1 – If you are having a conflict with someone on the team how do you handle it?

Of course, we all say “What conflict? There’s no conflict. We’re all professionals here, working towards a common goal”. But we all also know, because we have worked with them, that some people must have lied through their teeth when they answered this question.  We’ve all witnessed the take-downs, the hostile manoeuvrings, the open wounds on people’s back and that was just to get a better position in the cafeteria line.

Question 2 – Where do you see your career in 5 years?

This is a doozy because we all to some degree, unless you’re an amoeba, have ambition, love challenges, have self-esteem, knowledge we want to share, expertise we would like to learn and desire to do well in our chosen professions. And so framing where all this ambition or drive will lead is hard within the context of an environment that has seen the greatest economical, global, environmental, financial upheaval in a generation. (I don’t want to get too carried away that “my time’ is the most innovative, fast-moving, changing era ever because I suspect the move from the Stone Age to the Iron Age was perceived as pretty revolutionary). I know that I’d like to work in a challenging, collaborative, innovative environment that has integrity and I don’t see that changing in 5 years.

Question 3 – How do you handle multiple priorities?

This is the big ONE! You want to work in their fast-paced, demanding environment, so they want to know how are you going to handle someone in your cube wanting something stat, when you have someone on hold needing that information right now,  and it’s 5pm  and you have to pick up your kids from school. (I don’t have kids but I’m trying to create a scene here). And I can tell you right now, the wrong answer is to say “just start rerouting your calls to your co-worker”.  I can tell you that because I tried it; I thought it was funny. I larfed all the way out the door and back into the unemployment line.  To be honest, I have worked in many fast-paced environments and I found that communicating with my co-workers and clients seemed to work most often. There was the occasional lunatic, scary person but everyone knew they were a little dramatic and had lied on Question 1.

Question 4: How familiar are you with the new technology that they just released 15 minutes after you got in here?

I guess because I work in high tech the bar is set pretty high to keep informed of the latest and greatest. There really is no other way around this one as it’s somewhat your professional responsibility to keep up to date on new trends and technologies. So, while I may be able to work within your content management system, I probably cannot sync that with your database and while I am able to analyze your Web metrics activity, I cannot build you a Web application. Nope, not even an iPhone app. I know there are people out there, who can do it all. I know. I have worked with some pretty amazing people.

Question 5: Do you mind working on a Web site for adult entertainment?

huh?

So, those are my Top 5 Interviewing Questions. I have only had four interviews, so I suspect I’ll have to add to this list. Although, hopefully I’ll find an opportunity that fits.

Studies reveals worker morale fell during the recession

This will be a short post unless I get carried away. I was browsing a few different sites this morning to check out what’s going on with that oil spill in the Gulf.  I was scanning the headlines and noticed this one More Employees QUIT Their Jobs As Economy Improves and I thought, “well, hey that’s good news. People are feeling confident enough to take a risk and find something new”. BUT then I read this little sentence “…Studies have shown that worker morale fell during the recession.”  I mean, really, they were not convinced by just one study there had to be studies! The powers that be weren’t convinced by the first study that people may get a bit down when they lose their job, their home value tanks and their family doesn’t have health insurance that they need to request a confirmation study.

The only question I have is how do I get a job like that. Maybe I can do a study on will standing in the rain make me wet or will putting my hand on an open flame burn it.  Ok, I’m finished.

Next Step on the Path of What’s Next: Marylhurst MBA

Phew! I'm Done. Wait? I haven't started yet.

Well, I have placed one more cobble in my path to what’s next and realized as I was typing that phrase how terrible it was/is: anachronistic, and a bit dull.  Nevertheless, good news! I was accepted into Marylhurst’s MBA in Sustainability program. Never heard of Marylhurst? Neither had I until I began researching schools that provided  programs centered around the sustainable business principles. Most schools have single tracks or maybe a class or two within their MBA program but Marylhurst’s appears to be one of the few with a program devoted to it. And they let you take the program online, which really makes sense as it not particularly sustainable to have people driving to a campus. However, having said that, I am trying to arrange a flight out there to meet some of the professors and get a look at the university so I’ll probably blow through all those saved carbon credits.

What I am really hoping to do is combine my experience and love of technology and all things Web with the importance of sustainable business practices. I read a pretty good article about just that called
Technology as the enabler of sustainability; the ideas the author described really resonated with me and I’m interested to learn more about the role of technology in promoting sustainability beyond comments and blog posts.

In the meantime, there are a couple of networking events this week.

Tomorrow is the Boulder Open Coffee Club at Atlas Purveyons on Pearl St. in Boulder at 8am and then there is Sustainable Ventures on Wed at 5:45 in Denver at Greenspaces Colorado, 1368 26th St., Denver, Co 80205. I don’t know if I’ll get to both but definitely one.

The job hunt continues but at least I can now eliminate those companies that don’t want resumes from the unemployed from my list. Really if I weren’t a innately optimistic person, I might be having a nervous break down right now.

The Recession Bargain: Two Jobs for One Person

Cool! You're Hired!

Well, that was quick. I just had an interview for what I thought was a Business Analyst position, with emphasis on Web skills. Actually, the job posting was for a System Analyst but the job description was for a Business Analyst. Very nice woman, who interviewed me, said that the company complained that they (the recruiters) kept interviewing business analyst, which made sense in light of the description. Nevertheless, the conversation was short and pleasant. I’m not disappointed but I think this is happening a lot lately.

I know companies are struggling and our recovery has been a series of fits and starts but a LAMP expert requires a different set of skills than say a visual designer or an SEO expert and probably should not be part of the same job opening. It seems like companies are polling each of their departments and asking them what type of help they could use, then they are taking those request, putting them into a jargon blender, mixing in a 6-month contract marinade and serving up these salvos on monster.com and indeed.com. But I completely understand, I mean if I could write the description for the perfect spouse or vacation, it probably would include some contradictory requirements (sorry hubby), like “wanted: introspective artist, who craves solitude but who can also be the life of any party”

The contract thing is interesting. It seems like a new tactic in hiring, where they can hire you for 6 months without benefits, let you go, then hire the next cat for another 6 months and on and on. This may be additional motivation for someone thinking of starting a small-business. If you are going to be working contract to contract without a guarantee of renewal then what’s the difference between that and working for yourself.

I’m really not sure what the answer is. It’s a tough time for businesses, which impacts all of us on some level. If the direction is small business then what can be done to support that transition. I read an interesting article from Robert Reich called a A new wave of entrepreneurs, or a growing class of the anxiously self-employed? and it did strike a chord.  But then I thought does it matter? I think everyone is anxious on some level and maybe, just maybe, if we can work through this and build something positive and profitable from it, perhaps we’ll be better off (you choose your ally-word- financially, personally,etc) on the other side.

Women & Networking – Boulder, Co

Hi! I'm trying to create a start-up

Like Jane Goodall discovering the secret habits of apes, I had the rare experience of being surrounded by woman running their own business, or in the beginning stages of a start-up. The event Startup Women Meetup repeats every week on Tuesday morning at 8am at The Cup on Pearl St. It was all women,  very well attended and represented some very interesting and successful businesses.  It was, in a word, great. I don’t have a small business, at least not yet but even so I got a real injection of confidence for some reason. I guess it was being around women confidently (at least on the surface) moving in a productive direction.

At different points in your life, questions on how to move forward professionally are harder to answer because often times there is more than one answer, including not doing anything. But to be around people who are evaluating their options and working towards a goal can be a very positive and influencing experience.

I was most impressed to see a very young woman in attendance, who was asking for help with a Web site she was putting together for her cousin.  I thought to myself, “self, that’s awesome! to be introducing someone that young to an idea that she can be her own boss, she can develop and promote her own ideas was a fantastic experience”. I had written a post about why there were more men than women in startups and although I don’t have any definitive answers I think introducing young women to events like this can only help bridge that gap.

This was the first meeting I have attended but from what I gathered they most often have a speaker then there is time for individuals to ask questions about a business problem they may be having or to pass on information that may be useful for the whole team.

The event is called Startup Women Meetup and it repeats every week on Tuesday morning at 8am at The Cup on Pearl St. The organizer Fiona Schlachter is great. I knew her from Sun Microsystems and have had the great good fortune of running into her again.

Also, a big thank you to The Cup on Pearl St. It’s so nice of them to let groups like this meet; they have great coffee, great service, just an awesome place to strengthen community ties in Boulder!