When I worked for VeriSign as a Technical Support Representative, our business cards read “Technical Support Engineer” At best, that was stretching it. But I got a good chuckle with Al-Jay about a job posting he linked me tonight. I just HAD to inquire about it:

Hello -

I caught your post on craigslist and had a couple of questions.

1) What kind of engineer position only pays $10 – $11 per hour?
2) Would this be akin to calling an In-N-Out employee a Burger Engineer?
3) And is this all that PHP, graphic design, SEO, and e-commerce experience will get an employee these days?

Thank you in advance for your prompt reply. I look forward to your response.

Regards,

Anton Delfino

–
“If you are good at something, never do it for free…or for $10 – $11 per hour” – FDR

I wonder if I’ll get a reply back. Hehe.

Bob Slydell: You see, what we’re actually trying to do here is, we’re trying to get a feel for how people spend their day at work… so, if you would, would you walk us through a typical day, for you?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah.
Bob Slydell: Great.
Peter Gibbons: Well, I generally come in at least fifteen minutes late, ah, I use the side door – that way Lumbergh can’t see me, heh heh – and, uh, after that I just sorta space out for about an hour.
Bob Porter: Da-uh? Space out?
Peter Gibbons: Yeah, I just stare at my desk; but it looks like I’m working. I do that for probably another hour after lunch, too. I’d say in a given week I probably only do about fifteen minutes of real, actual, work.

from Mike Judge’s Office Space

This really isn’t too far off from my job. And sadly (or not), it’s going to stay this way for a while. I received this in my email today:

Antonio -

Thank you for completing the online interview for the Customer Support Agent job with Media Temple in Culver City, CA.

Your information has been carefully reviewed, and it has been determined that there are others who better fit this job.  Should the requirements for this job change or we identify other jobs that are a potential fit, we will follow up with you.

Thanks again for your time and interest,

The Media Temple Recruiting Team

This was in response to an application for a Customer/Technical Support position with an ISP. You would think that with a few years of cust/tech support with Verisign (whose business clients are ISPs) I would have a good shot. Of course, they may have remembered that I had applied for them earlier in the year and bombed the phone interview. I mentioned this in my “online” interview and even tried some humor. At the end, I referred to my previous interview and ended it with something to the effect of, “here’s to second chances and coming through in the clutch.” Maybe that was a bit too casual?

Anyway, it’s tough when you are absolutely certain you can do a job, but are not even invited to compete in the next round. They say that there are “other candidates who better fit this job” and I kind of agree with them. But what can you do? It’s a buyer’s market for employers right now.

It’s interesting though what’s going on at my current company. I am getting the sense that now that the process for this department is much more clearly-defined, the higher-ups rely less on the feedback from the guys who grease the wheels – us.  Before I was brought on,  I was able to negotiate an hourly rate that was a bit higher than what they were offering due to my experience. And in the beginning, I thought I the money I was earning was low, but fair overall. There was a good balance of grunt work and process analysis and implementation.

I suppose this is how projects get started. Everyone kind of chips in with the menial tasks and everyone provides feedback on how to improve it. But now that things have settled down, many of us who have been contributors aren’t being asked for help anymore. We no longer are given the forum to vocalize the smaller problems and inefficiencies that occur during day-to-day tasks. [for the record, I was VERY vocal about maintaining some sort of feedback loop, but the lack of a positive response has completely killed any motivation to take initiative.]

For every other company I’ve worked, this sort of initiative is commended and even rewarded with either A) more responsibilities and/or B) monetary compensation. And the fact that I’ve been overlooked for a permanent position here at this company raises questions about what the people upstairs are actually doing.

I’ve been vocal about it amongst the folks in the room. Frustration and confusion have been expressed, but it’s sad when you reach a point where it’s not even worth it to say something anymore. Why make suggestions to deaf ears? And why would I want to help my bosses do their jobs better – especially when there won’t be any rewards?

I realize this is a HORRIBLE outlook to have about work. But then again, employers should nurture the professional growth of their employees. They call our team the Content Factory. We are the starting point for the assembly line that creates content published across the sites this company owns. What kind of professional nurturing do you think assembly line workers ever received?

But really, I don’t care. They hired me at a certain rate because the felt I could help develop the process. I did. And now I don’t really have to do as much thinking as I used to but I’m still paid the same. If the company doesn’t want to challenge me anymore, that’s fine by me.

It’s funny, a few weeks ago, the CEO sent an email to the entire company promoting his blog post. The email had a quote, “Do not trust people…they are capable of greatness.”

I am Jack’s wasted life.

On a lighter note, we in the room came up with this awesome chart. It’s sort of like an ESPN Power Rankings thingy

The left column is the ranking – the lower your number, the more likely you are to leave (be it for a new job or out of sheer hatred towards this one) The column immediately to the right of the names is the open column, which assigns an arbitrary number based on your ranking for the week. The column to the right is what our current ranking is for today. You will notice that my week opened at 72 and today, I dropped down 5 points to 67. This is because I got that rejection email from Media Temple that you saw above.

The fun part about this game is that not only do we adjust our own rankings, we can also make changes to other people’s rankings. For example, if one of my coworker goes postal and dropkicks his keyboard into the Pacific, we would move him up in the rankings because we are certain he’d up and leave any minute (an example of what we call a “negative” rise) You will notice that Dom is ranked #1 and has 100 points – his last day is Friday.

PROLOGUE: This will likely read more like a journal entry rather than a blog post because it’s really just me linking thoughts together. I’m trying to edit while writing, but I think it’s just better if I go all stream of consciousness for this post.

I debated whether or not to even post this. But maybe it’s healthy. Or maybe it’s just supremely self-involved. It’s likely a little bit of both.

I’ve been watching a lot Giants baseball this season, so I hope you will excuse the metaphor. Something’s wrong here. I’ve noticed I’m a little extra cynical these days. Random little things that normally don’t bother me now have started to irritate me.

Take this morning…I opened up my Google Reader and checked my normal film news feed. I saw a post that compiled a bunch of reviews for the new Avatar trailer. Yes, bloggers are actually reviewing a movie trailer – devoting time and energy writing an article to share their thoughts about a 30-second (I don’t really know how long it is) trailer. For some reason, I actually thought “wtf?” But really, who cares if this is what someone wants to blog about. I shouldn’t! But for some reason, I wasted a few seconds of my day thinking about it.

Yesterday, I was writing an email and the Today show was on in the background. (Tess usually keeps this on during her morning routine) Hoda Kotb and Kathie Lee Gifford were talking about shortsgate – Michelle Obama exiting Air Force One wearing shorts. My head perked up behind the monitor and I blurted aloud, “are you serious? This is really a big deal?!” I was annoyed that airwaves were being wasted by a discussion like this.

Last week, the TV ended up on E! while I was surfing on my computer. The main story on the “news” show revolved around the whole Jon and Kate debacle. Apparently a correspondent for the E! network was linked romantically to Jon so the network decided to interview said correspondent to get her thoughts about what was going on (apparently now that Jon had moved on to some other chick) I asked myself, “this is news?”

Now, am I a snob? Yes. But is snobbery the reason I was so agitated by such minor things? I mean, what has made me so much less tolerant of the superficiality that exists in this world?

Clearly, something’s wrong. And I guess I should’ve seen it coming. I posted recently about becoming that bitter, jaded guy on set. I don’t think it’s coincidental that my behavior that day and my exponentially increasing cynicism are occurring within such a small time frame.

I’m in a funk. I didn’t want to admit it, but I am. It’s a combination of factors- most of which are completely out of my control. While straits are far from dire, I wouldn’t say the ball has exactly bounced my way since I got to LA either. And at the risk of sounding all “woe is me,” I’ve found myself a bit more introspective.

In the grand scheme of things, things aren’t THAT bad. I’m not happy with my job situation, but I’m sure I’m not alone. (For the record, I’m lucky enough to have some semblance of a steady paycheck, so if you don’t feel I’m in a position to complain, then you can stop reading now – hehe) My job situation is mostly because of bad timing. I moved to LA when the film industry was slow and jobs were hard to come by. Time went on, funds dwindled and I’m no longer freelancing. Whether this is temporary or permanent still remains to be seen, but so it goes.

I am currently working part-time for an internet company. It becomes more and more uninspiring as the day goes on. It didn’t start out too bad at the outset and even looked promising  when a Content Manager position opened up. I thought I was a great candidate and nailed pretty much every interview. That was over a month ago. As of today, I’ve heard nothing about that position. It makes me think that I wasn’t even seriously considered to begin with. It is what it is.

[NOTE: This company has always bragged about promoting from within, blah, blah, blah. What kind of message are you sending when you can't even provide the candidates updates about interview/hiring process? Also, my boss is an actor so maybe he thinks the way to reject a candidate is by ignoring them - just like how if you don't receive a call-back, you can assume you're not wanted for the part.]

Management’s handling of this whole ordeal doesn’t particularly motivate me to contribute any more than what’s required. I mean, if they haven’t noticed the contributions I’ve made BEFORE I applied for the position, why should I be convinced they’ll do so in the future?

I know. It’s toxic but I can’t help it. Normally, the solution is simple – find another job. In this state and in this economy, it’s not so simple. I send out maybe 3-5 resumes a week but I’m pretty selective. The last thing I’d want is to go from one shitty company to the next. But of course money talks! (you could probably replace benefits for money if you wanted)

So a not-so-favorable job situation yields a not-so-favorable financial situation. I’m afloat, but barely. I haven’t lived hand-to-mouth like this since 2004. The joys of payday only last for a few hours when you realize all of it needs to go somewhere. Then the cycle starts over – pay bills and then try and stretch the dollars as much as you can.

I must sound like a whiny bitch right now and I apologize. I have never been the type to sulk or mope about stuff like this.  Even when things didn’t go my way before, I’ve always been someone who could roll with the punches. Everything will work out…one way or another.

Deep down, I truly believe it will. But I’m a bit ashamed of how negative and cynical I’ve been these past few months. At first I thought it was New York’s effect on me. Then I thought it was because I’m getting older. I even thought it was LA! Now there are things about LA that I dislike (like traffic and Laker and Dodger fans that aren’t my friends) but I don’t think that I feel that strongly about them to convert me into a prick. But some of these things do make me feel homesick.

Homesick for the Bay? Homesick for NY? Pick one. Maybe I’m not as settled in as I thought I was?

Baseball players are a superstitious bunch. When mired deep in a slump, they try to do little things that might change their luck. Last year, Jason Giambi grew a mustache to try and get him out of his slump.

Maybe I need to do something like that too.

And in case you’re wondering…when I say “little things,” I don’t really mean spiraling down the vicious cycle of alcoholic rage.

Been on a roll, the last few weeks – pretty good flicks out right now.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
I was going as Tess’ sidekick for this one. I’ve never read the books and have only seen 2 Harry Potter films in their entirety, (the first one being the previous installment, The Order of the Phoenix) I’m was into it. I went in expecting to be confused about the events that led up to this film – and I was. I tried not to be that guy – the one who would lean over and ask questions like “who’s that guy?” and “wait, so what’s the horcrux?” For the most part, I was able to follow along and enjoy the ride. I’m curious if the HP films perform better during the summer or during the winter months? It definitely felt like a summer movie. Looking forward to the next one.

Oh, and am I the only one turned on by Helena Bonham Carter?

The Hurt Locker
After clearing up some confusion regarding a short, but MAJOR scene in the beginning of the 3rd act, I’ve now come to terms with a lingering issue I had with the film. This issue wasn’t big enough to sway my thoughts about the film – I enjoyed every nerve-racking minute of it. It was some of the most intense action scenes I’ve seen this year. The minimalist sound design helped create the intensity. Remember that scene in The Bourne Ultimatum where Jason Bourne fights that one dude in the bathroom in Morocco? It was all hand-to-hand combat in a small space and zero music. All you could hear were the grunts and fighting sounds. Well, it’s like that but with the risk of exploding.

Great acting all around and a breakout performance by Jeremy Renner who did well playing Brad Pitt’s cousin in Assassination of Jesse James. He was also one of the main characters in the short-lived cop show on ABC called The Unusuals, but there weren’t enough episodes to say if he was good or bad.

But all in all a great flick. Check it out if you haven’t already.

District 9
This was this summer’s pleasant surprise. I really had no idea what to make of this film. It’s been marketed and advertised like crazy way before the trailer came out for it. I remember seeing a whole bunch of those “humans only” billboards and signs all over LA. It gave me the impression it was going to be a kids movie, or at least something that wasn’t very deep. Boy was I wrong.

This is a captivating film with very heavy themes that told cleverly and just avoids being heavy-handed. To me, that’s a winning combo. Without comparing the two, the last time I reacted so strongly to a film’s overarching theme was when I watched Cuaron’s Children of Men. (I also had a somewhat similar reaction to Blindness by Meirelles, but that was on DVD) I wonder how it will hold up after a second viewing, but I was completely invested when I watched this film.

If I have to nitpick, I can. There are two small issues I have. The first is protagonist’s portrayal early in the film and the second is the final frame. Again, these issues don’t sway me away from loving the movie. That’s all I’ll say for now and we can discuss after you all watch it.

Because Tess has a real job and has insurance, she was able to get yet ANOTHER pair of frames for her repertoire. This brings her collection to about 2.8 million pairs. There were two pairs in contention, but I really pushed for these Barton Perreiras since she didn’t yet have a pair of heavy black frames.

Yes, I’m jealous she got new glasses…again.