Resume Snippet
8+ years in Purchasing, Planning and Project Management in the semiconductor, electronics, chemical/aerospace, software, and client service industries. Over a decade of exposure to Business and Marketing from my life with an entrepreneur with direct involvement in strategy and campaigns. Certified in Landing Page Optimization and am moving toward gaining more Internet Marketing experience. Hands-on professional accustomed to fast paced environment and known for exceptional ability with progressive, challenging assignments. Exceptional relationship builder with ability to create instant rapport and long lasting connections with coworkers and clients.
Yes, that is the sound byte to my resume if I had sound. That gives you my experience in my career but I am much more than the words on my resume. It is hard to really sum up a person in just job titles but such is the way of the world. And lucky us, we have the wonderful world of blogs to help us overcome these restrictions.
I grew up moving all over the world with my family. My father was a fighter pilot in the Air Force and we were lucky to have the great life of seeing the world and being exposed to other cultures. It gets in your blood and you will always crave the dazzling experiences of meeting new people and eating foods of foreign lands. Thanks, Dad. We spent a great deal of time in Germany and it is now a second home to us.
I traveled a great distance to Texas to arrive on the campus of The University of Texas at Austin. Austin, now my hometown. I have a degree in psychology which really does reflect a great deal about my personality. I am curious about human behavior and why things are the way they are. My husband calls me Wonderwoman because I always start sentences with ” I wonder why…”.
I am on a journey to my next position with an interesting and creative company. I am gathering up my experience and talent and launching myself to my next adventure. Wish me luck.
The Thing That Makes My Heart Beat Faster
If you know me at all, you know that music is one of the big loves of my life. I know many people love music but then, even more so, there are people who live and breathe through music. I know these people when I meet them and quite often if we have more than one occasion to hang out, we are drawn to each other in this understanding. Like addicts at a secret meeting, we want to share our intense desire and compare notes. Might we share common interests in this? Can I trust you and your tastes after our initial interviews to give me constant recommendations? “Oh my god, try this… it is good, right?” “I got more where that comes from.” “When you find something that thrills you, email me so I can listen.”
I know when I like something I am listening to. I have this tendency to stop breathing. It is a strange effect but I find myself holding my breath almost to hear the sound more, to get closer to the notes, to the beats, to the words. If you love music, you know what I mean.
I thought everyone was like this until I started meeting people who, when they say, “oh I like everything”, really means that nothing particular stands out to them or they just love music that they can dance to with their girlfriends at a club. (shoes off, pantyhosed feet and purses piled in the middle). “Oh my god, this is so awesome”. Ooh, I just did it. I sounded like the music snob. I am really not. Well, not as much as some people are. I actually have a great appreciation for many kinds of music. I have a majority that falls into certain genres like the ever generic term of alternative and indie, but some Spanish influenced music like the Gipsy Kings can leave me dizzy from holding my breath. Or some Big Band sounds from the 30’s and 40’s find me dancing around the kitchen, dreaming of what must have been more pure times. It reminds me of a time that has been created in my mind but not ever experienced. That is ok; it is as real as if I had been in those dance halls or in a smoky little club listening to Ella croon. Or you may even catch me pounding the steering wheel to the Spanish, rap, rock sounds of Ozomatli. I love NIN, Sinead, Band of Horses, Damien Rice, The Smiths, The Dismemberment Plan, Modest Mouse and on and on. Bottom line: if it has passion and emotion that rings true to me, bring it on. I respect it and I respect what moves you. Try me, I may love it or I may make a mental note that you and I probably will not be swapping recommendations in the future.
Music is absolute therapy. I have this funny jukebox in my mind. I was unaware of it until one day I realized what I was doing. I may be feeling something and all of a sudden I would be singing a song that expressed what I was feeling. This was an unconscious action. Sometimes I would not even know what I was feeling and then I would be singing some random song from my childhood, maybe a song my Dad would play. Maybe some Rod Stewart song or even Anne Murray would play and, upon analysis, I would realize the words described what I was feeling. I would not try to think of a song, it would just come out without any will to conjure it up. I was amazed. My mind was keeping track of lyrics and matching them up with my emotions. What the hell? I think it is the craziest thing and a special thing to me. Now I pay attention when I come out with some random Willie, Air Supply or Depeche Mode song. I start listening to the lyrics and sure enough it fits the mood. I have to watch that I am not too loud or I get the puzzled look and the inevitable question, why are you singing “Elvira” or, are you humming “Let’s Get Physical”?
So ok, you get it. I love love love music. I want to share and learn. What I would like to do is to start giving recommendations of music that I love from the past and now. No boundaries or rules on genre. I would really love to hear yours too. Truly. What makes you hold your breath?
What To Do With All Of This Goodness? ( when you are an indecisive pansy})
So, I have always done well in school, sung all my life, write well and have done this in prose, marketing pieces and music lyrics. I am a real natural at creating bonds and building relationships. I am the one you awkwardly start to talk to at a party or a business meeting and suddenly will be laughing with and swapping business cards. My friends affectionately call me “The Interrogator” because I really love to know about you and will know more about you at the end of out time together than most. Maybe it is the same thing that drew me to a psychology degree in University. I love human behavior and to know what makes people love what they love and what makes them dislike what they dislike. I like to know what has made up an individual and what drives them in their personal life and their business world. Sound scary? Don’t worry, you won’t feel a thing and you will actually enjoy our time together. This natural curiosity has served me well as it ends up creating an instant rapport. There is nothing false about it. I swear. I like being able to get to know other people, at least the ones open to sharing and learning about others. I do run across the people who give you the shut down. That is ok…either they are not worth it or they will come around eventually. I am not tooting my own horn here. I just really can read people and love finding a connection, whether it be in a short elevator conversation with a stranger or working with coworkers and customers.
I also have a great deal of working experience as a buyer, project manager and an exposure to in-depth knowledge of business and marketing. My brilliant husband has always been the ultimate entrepreneur since we met at the tender age of me at 18 and him at 21. He always had ideas and would predict new trends in business. He never saw anything as an obstacle. I had never been exposed to that. Business and Marketing are his loves, his hobbies and his job. I have always envied him loving something that was a career as well. He keeps files and files of research on new interests and old. He teaches himself all the new web applications and always has his finger on the pulse of internet marketing and connectedness through the web. How cool is that?
So what I am meaning to tell you is, that through this journey with him, as you can imagine, our conversations are heavily about business and marketing. I have been a part of many business strategy and marketing planning sessions. We are always analyzing target markets and possible campaigns for whatever he is working on. We both worked for a start up in the late 90’s where his CEO/business partner asked me to leave my job and join them. The CEO was impressed with my accumulated knowledge of business and marketing. He wanted me to come on as a catch all. I could do purchasing, hiring, representation of the company for Venture Capital presentations, client building and the liaison for the web content/site creation. So my job as wife to an entrepreneur and marketing genius has given me my own private education. I only hope to be able to express that into real experience in whatever my next step is.
So here lies the problem. When I got out of school with a psych degree, no one wanted me with just an undergrad degree. Most jobs out there wanted someone who could type fast. My hopes started to dwindle. My first job out of school was Applied Materials. They wanted me! They wanted to pay me well. They wanted to train me to be a planner/buyer. A happy time in my life. I was making money, I was young and I did not have to do homework anymore. Sign me up! Well, from one job to the next building my experience as a pro in purchasing was great until I realized that the Tech industry was a cruel mistress. She wanted you and then she wanted to lay you off. Repeatedly. It was hard to keep excelling when companies were closing or when Tech companies were only offering 1 year contracts. My husband begged me to get out of high tech due to the instability. The career I was building was not building anymore because of all of this. Hey wait no fair!
So I found a company that promised to be the mentor I had always dreamed of and push me to great international heights. I became a buyer for international clients and well known domestic aerospace clients. I took a pay cut for the experience it promised and let us not forget, the stability. Glory, Glory.
Soon things revealed themselves as not what was promised. The manager that promised me mentoring and riches left and a new management came in. I will be honest as I am told not to be. Etiquette here says to be PC talking about employers. The whole place changed and finding employees for the lowest dollar was key. Raises were almost non existent. The realization set in that not only had I taken a lower salary for this but that there was nowhere left to go.
I started seeing this as an opportunity to really analyze what I might want to do next. Purchasing was not what made me up or defined me but had left me with great experience. My talent at writing, working and building relationships could translate. What is next? Ah, indecision settled down on me like a nesting mother bird. Would other companies see my potential in a new position that was not purchasing?
I became very interested in Internet Marketing and companies that were building communities and reaching out to clients to help foster business in this way. I already knew a great deal from my internship to my husband’s many marketing/business endeavors. I had a knack for it, combined with my ability in the psychology of human behavior and relationships. I took an 8 week certification course on Landing Page Optimization. I took to it right away, learning the formulas for successful sites. I aced the certification exam. I was empowered. Would this be enough?
So my struggle now is to stay in the right mindset, ignore indecision of what to do next ,just jump, and prove that all of this experience adds up to an excellent find for any company. Market myself. Show all of this goodness and shed the indecisive pansy. I am ready to take the leap and whoever catches me will be amazed at what I can bring to the table.
Workplace Psychosis
Workplace Psychosis
So it has been no secret that I have been in a rut. Mentally strangling myself everyday to come up with what the next steps could be for me job wise and life wise. I have been given talent and at the same time have a huge helping of indecision. Many things interest me and I am quite skilled, but what does mama want to do? I guess I always thought it would be clear and when it wasn’t, I just knew that that really cool person, who has the greatest company and a bad-ass attitude, would meet me in a coffee shop and know I was for them. They would embarrass themselves by telling me how unique I was and how I must come work for them. They would wax on about the grooviest position and ask me if a gazillion dollars would woo me away from my mediocre position. Smiling coyly, I would say something sarcastic.They would shoot coffee out of their nose and we would remember that day that we met forever. And we would share it with all of our bad-ass coworkers in the future. Well, I am on my 1,232 cup of coffee and this cup is cold. They ain’t showing up, are they?
So, flash to me in my cube. I am drilling away, watching the clock, trying to meet tough metrics and a ladybug scares the shit out of me. Of all the things to make a girl shriek like she just caught her thong in the wrong spot. A ladybug flew off of me onto my keyboard. Holy spotted insect! He sat on the key of D. I tried to get him and accidentally pushed him between D and E. Yikes! I carefully maneuver him out with a pen, certain that I see legs coming off. Crap! I did not want the all familiar case of trying to save something living only to become their demise.
I cooed and whispered, “You do not belong in a place like this.” Suddenly it hit me…this beautiful creature was me. You do not belong in a place like this! I was crazed by the analogy. I had to save myself, I mean ladybug. Grabbing paper, I willed the legless ladybug to get on. Hopefully he was just coiled in a safety position. Did he, too, check his soul at the door as he entered the office, flying past the in/out board? Oh man, he IS me… I get him on the paper and he moves slightly. Yes! I quickly grab a Styrofoam 6 oz cup ( a sweet free perk of my job which we are often reminded not to take for granted. Much like the free salt and pepper packets that abound in the fancy breakroom). I toss Ladybug in. Nice and safe. I do a quick check and to my horror he is drowning in the residual water left in the cup. I pour him out on my desk and blow. He raises an arm for me to stop or maybe for me to take his hand. He crawls on my arm… We’re outta here. I race down the aisle, people popping up like prairie dogs in their wall-less offices to see my rescue attempt. I throw the cup down in a fury as I pass through the waiting room and catch the elevator. I raise my arm and he scurries down. I put my arm down and he races up. I am caught in some freakish Hitler dance as I become more committed in these final moments to save me, and ladybug. On the first floor, I rush out through the doors and out into the sunshine…he takes flight.
“Fly away from here!” I shout as the leafblowers stop and stare. “Fly away!”
Success. Phew. I walk back inside, laughing from the exhilaration. Alone, I start to ponder what the hell just happened. As I get in the elevator, I realize I had just endured a mini breakdown. I just identified with a trapped ladybug. I just raced to save his little existence from my daily life.
I knew, now, more than ever before that I needed to get off my ass and find my next step. I was so worried about Ladybug getting stuck in my environment. But what about me? Ain’t no one rushing to sweep me off my feet. Ain’t nobody waiting for me in that coffee shop. I need to put that effort into saving myself. I am caught between the keys of D and E and I need to learn how to freakin fly and not to drown in any Styrofoam cups…even if they are free, damn it. I had been in denial until that little Ladybug delivered his message, “YOU DO NOT BELONG IN A PLACE LIKE THIS”.
