Job Hacking

Iteration

You know how there are things in your life you put up with and then one day you just say, "Well, enough of that crap", and so you go and fix them? The garage that needs cleaning. Or, going out and working out for the first time in months or years. Or, trying on a new hobby.

Today, I've made some changes to my blog, which are minor, but represent the first step in this direction. This first set of changes is some editing of my blog role, to the right. I'm adding a new section, Other?, and I've culled some blogs which I'm no longer following.

The Other? section is not easily classifiable, and so I needed a bit-bucket to put them in.

The members of Other? include:

• As the Crow Flies
• Scoutmaster
• PostSecret
• Crossfit
• Gravity Janes

These are here for two reasons. First, they are things I do. Second, they are a bit away from the beaten path. They are there to challenge, and present some alternative ways of thinking about things.

For example, As the Crow Flies has some wonderful posts about hiking. They are the kind of things that make you stop and say, "Wow, what a great idea!". And then, you realize they might be analogous to other bits and pieces in your life. For example, using Teflon tape on the small bottles of stuff we carry in our packs to prevent the innards from leaking out. Who knew?

Scoutmaster is a blog I've followed for a long time, and he says things that make sense to me as a Scouter. When I was growing up, I was in Scouting, and as an adult, I've returned to Scouting as a group leader of various kinds. Scouting is a movement which I have had ambivalent feelings about as an adult, and this blog is a light in that darkness. His focus is on that which Scouting should be on, the Scout.

PostSecret is fairly well known, and there is usually one post every Sunday that challenges me. I like that.

Crossfit & Gravity Janes are related in that Gravity Janes is my local Crossfit gym. I've been doing Crossfit workouts for the past 3 years, with a little break this year, and they work. What with the obesity epidemic in the U.S. (although I have a hard time swallowing the word 'epidemic' on this topic, as if obesity is a disease you catch, like Influenza A, H1N1), and the costs associated with chronic diseases it's high time that more people got out and started moving. To me, Crossfit is the best all-around program to achieving fitness.

The impetus for all this is that I'm finding myself drawn to write about a broader set of topics. I want to write more about stuff I'm doing at work, and the outdoors, and fitness. Which is not to say that I'm abandoning recruiting, but it's going to naturally be reduced since there are only so many hours in a day.

Not so easily classified

To many of my politically right-leaning friends, and a few family members, my political statements seem to be fairly leftish. To those of my politically left-leaning friends, and a few family members my political statements seem to be fairly rightish. And, I'm neither a registered Republican nor Democrat.

Today, a colleague of mine, Mark Madsen, wrote a post that describes accurately the things I stand for politically. The post, Market-oriented-left-libertarianism is longish and thank the heavens for that. Finally, some political statement that isn't a stupid sound-bite designed to elicit dinosaur-brain emotional reactions (fear, attack, run away).

Way to go Mark. I like!

I am soooo backlogged!

See, this is what happens ideally when you join a startup, and then they launch a product, and you are responsible for Customer Care: Customers start asking questions.

All well and good. To be expected.

And then, the marketing team does a TV ad buy, so we get a huge uptick in product use. Which is great!

And this leads to - a huge uptick in Customer Questions!

So I am SWAMPED!

It's all good, but blogging is a lesser priority, so I've got 3 - 5 posts that are in the offing. Stay tuned!

Is your kid dehydrated?

Informative post today, Phys Ed: Are Sports Drinks Actually Good for Kids? 

Although I had been aware that a younger, smaller kid needs water, I had not seen an actual study on this, and it's rather amazing. As a Boy Scout leader who takes kids out on strenuous hikes, I was not surprised, either by the finding that kids don't drink water as much as they ought to, or the finding that sports drinks are highly favored. 

Why so few posts, Dave?

Hey, I know. I've been neglecting you. 

Simple reality is that sometimes work gets in the way. It shouldn't, but it does.

The upside is that sooner or later, work is suppose to yield an end result!

On Friday, Smith & Tinker launched our first game, Nanovor (Download here). This is the culmination of a lot of hard work by some very creative people. And they are nice to work with, too!

Update: Nice article in Tech Flash about Nanovor.

Is your kid about to drive you nuts?

One of the fun parts about being a parent is when your child gets bored and starts bugging you for something to do. 

If you're in this predicament as we get into summer break, you might want to check out the beta release of Nanovor. 

Nanovor is a turn-based battle game that works much like Pokemon, except that it's largely on-line, and it's much more fun. It is being developed by Smith & Tinker, the company I joined back in January.

We put this product into a limited beta phase several weeks ago, and we are very happy with the results we've seen to date. Since this has been a success, we're opening up the beta to broader use,  and are looking for people to get into the game and help us understand where the problems are. Oh, and during the beta, it's free of charge!

Download here.

The challenges with Affiliation

One of the threads out there in blog-land and periodical-land is that HR Cannot Be Trusted.

HR Capitalist has a nice post about trusting the person, not the HR organization.

All this hubbub points out an interesting problem that we all face at some point in our career: You are affiliated with a group that's got brand challenges. So, what do you do?

New name?

New processes (New math? New Metrics?)?

Change what your org does?

Change how your org interfaces within the company?

Any, all. Just don't stand there like a bump in the road!

So, what is Hardwick up to anyway?

Earlier this year, I wrote about my career shift, and at the time I really couldn't say much about what the company I joined was up to.

Yesterday, a story was posted from a public source. Check out this post at IO9

Taking a little time out from the rut

This last Saturday, we piled into the minivan and headed out with some good friends of ours to taste some wine. Actually, we were picking up a case of wine from Betz Cellars, but one thing led to another, and we had to go visit JM Cellars, and then...

Not that I've mentioned it much in the past, but I love Washington wines. At our wedding, we served up some Porteus Rattlesnake Red. I love nothing better than to grill up a tri-tip or two as an excuse to try out some fun, new Washinton red wine.

Which brings me to a gentleman I met at the Betz release party, Sean Sullivan. Sean has a nifty little blog, the Washington Wine Report. It's a fun read, and it's not all about the really expensive stuff. He's got some great value selections he writes about, and at least according to my palette, he knows of what he writes!

Now why in the heck am I writing about wine when I'm usually writing about Job Hacking?

Because, life is a journey. Sometimes, and especially during these remarkably dynamic times we are in right now, it's good to bring family and friends together, create a little social gathering and have some fun.

And a good bottle bottle of wine can definitely add to the occasion!

HR Secrets

You know how there are the myths about a given area of work, and then there's the reality?

HR, including Recruiting, sees ALL the seamy underside of the business world. You want a good story about the weird stuff humans do at work, go take your HR Director or Generalist out for a drink. Or better, the HR Director or Generalist from your last place of work because it's unlikely that those helping you now will spill the beans regarding the good stuff.

Sometimes, these secrets can be reduced to truisms that you, as an employee, should pay attention to.

With that, I point you to More Punk Rock HR Secrets for 2009!