yeah, well, i guess i can now share this with all of you. Two weeks ago, a bank flew me out to Cincinnati for a day long job interview (five interviews with five people). Just got the rejection letter after getting home from my U/Saint Thomas errand. It was the same type of software development I did while at USPS and at my final position at Unisys. They chose the other candidate. It would have … [Read more...]
Recruiters and their emails…
May 11, 2016 By
Last week, I received THE shortest job recruiting email I've ever received in my recent experience: "Is this you? • Unisys Clearpath MCP • Database Programming experience • WFL experience • Algol programming experience" ...ending with his name, his title: "IT Recruiter, Division Director, AVP Permanent Placement Services", his recruiting company name ("Robert Half Technology"), and his … [Read more...]
Job Hunting – Jostens
August 31, 2015 By
Last week on Tuesday, I posted something about two friends, true friendship, procrastination and "taking action". The action I took last week, produced no (immediate) results. Just learned a few hours ago that I was mistakenly given a wrong email addr. and the 3rd party is still looking forward to receiving from me. So, having just now resent my email, I am thinking I may still be "in the … [Read more...]
Friendship and support
August 25, 2015 By
Amazing what wonderful friendships can do. Friend #1 (TK) provided me with awesome info to help in a certain regard. Action needed to be taken to use the provided info, but my arch enemy PROCRASTINATION reared its UGLY (and FAT) head. Two weeks go by...tick tock, tick tock. Friend #2 (JK) provides written/verbal support as well as encouragement, thereby causing me to take action … [Read more...]
Unisys Plant 8 (Defense Building) torn down
August 1, 2015 By
Twice now in the past couple of weeks, I've been in the Eagan area, driving either on Pilot Knob or Yankee Doodle, and been caught unawares by a huge empty space/field, where the Unisys Defense ("Paramax/Lockheed Martin") building stood for 30 or more years. Even though I worked in the Unisys MACS building "right next to it" for close to twenty years, I never had the opportunity to see the inside … [Read more...]
UHG interview (via U/Saint Thomas)
October 23, 2014 By
Had a 45 minute Interview at U/ST, with a VP/Technology at UnitedHealthGroup (Optum div.) this morning. Very very smart gentleman - felt at ease with him and the majority of the time was able to directly answer his questions without any hemming/hawing. Only one question stumped me... I didn't ask how many openings there were, but it seemed that this was for more than just one position, since the … [Read more...]
U/Saint Thomas – selected to interview with UHG!
October 14, 2014 By
Learned tonight after getting home from class that I am lucky enough to be one of ~10 interview candidates at UHG (United healthcare group) next week Thursday, due to my being in the U/Saint Thomas Graduate Program in Software (GPS). UHG apparently went to the U/ST MBA program first, but no one (or not enough MBA students) applied, they then went to GPS. Apparently my cover letter/resume piqued … [Read more...]
Quitting USPS
October 11, 2014 By
Realistically speaking, I've really only worked at 3 places of employment since I started my career in I.T. at age 21, in 1980: Burroughs/Unisys (29 years). Wells Fargo (18 months) as a contractor, my first position after being laid off from Unisys during the "Great Recession" in 2009. and, now, at for the past 3 years. [I really don't count Century Link in Orlando (after Wells Fargo) since I … [Read more...]
Part 2: Year long software development project finally goes “Live”
April 6, 2014 By
[It's really too bad I didn't really do any of the design nor programming on this project - I would have tried, at least, to make it a bit less complex than it currently is]. Anyway, after working on a particular software development project at <current employer> since January, 2013, it finally went live this past week, of all things, on April 1st. If you visit your local post office, and … [Read more...]
Part 1: Year long software development project finally goes “Live” (NOT!)
January 19, 2014 By
In at work, at OMG, 4am, watching over the shoulder (logically, not physically) as my production support person installs my software release that I've been working on for past 12 months. Longest software development effort ever (for me). Not used to 's red tape of software development process. My effort was completed in early sept, and it's taken 4 months for it to move from customer acceptance … [Read more...]
True Story: Embarrassing moment at work!
August 20, 2013 By
So, I get into work, at my normal time this morning, carrying my briefcase on my shoulder, I get to my cube, and try unloading the briefcase off my shoulder, and it seems to be caught on something – but I can’t see what its caught on. I’m struggling to get it off since it’s a bit heavy with the amount of crap I carry in it, and it’s in an awkward position, and I’m trying to see what it’s caught … [Read more...]
Life at USPS
March 1, 2013 By
A colleague created an enhancement, and it was put in UAT (User Acceptance Testing) Environment yesterday, and he then left for vacation for a week - oh, and it's scheduled to go into production this Sunday. He asked me to "test" it since the end users didn't really know "how" to test it according to him. Anyway, I tested it this morning, and the enhancement causes an email notification to be … [Read more...]
Part 6: My career at Unisys and the constant fear & threat of layoffs.
October 8, 2009 By
Gee whiz, where does the time go when you're laid off and have an extra 8-10 hours a day?? Well, it's been a bit more than 2 months since my last "blog" entry regarding Unisys/unemployment/etc. Not much to update, getting a tiny bit discouraged now since my severance "pay" was up a week ago (due to my leaving for UHG in '95 for those few short months before being 'outsourced' directly back to … [Read more...]
Part 5: My career at Unisys and the constant fear & threat of layoffs.
July 27, 2009 By
Well, it's been 2 months since my last "note" (blog entry). Thought I would update everyone. Here is what I wrote as a status update on June 19th: 'Too wiped out to type anything today, still wrapping things up from yesterday's news. Will add long winded boring blog entry later. The outsourcing deal was cancelled/denied at very last minute by someone more senior than previous middle mgmt … [Read more...]
28 yrs, 9 months. Couldn’t they wait until I got my 30 yr plaque?
June 18, 2009 By
I’ve been hinting to some of you since mid February about this day. Originally I had been told I was to be laid off end of first quarter. Turns out it was postponed to end of second quarter. Various people have been really trying behind the scenes to save my job, and, as of Wednesday afternoon, it seemed like I was going to be outsourced to a different company and then Unisys would contract with … [Read more...]
Part 4: My career at Unisys and the constant fear & threat of layoffs.
May 22, 2009 By
I wrote the following a month ago (but didn't post it as a note). [Published: April 22 at 4:21pm ] New "U" mid mgmt has changed "the plan" from laying me off (paying severance for 28 yrs of service) to outsourcing me to XYZ Solutions, letting "XYZ" do the layoff after I've finished sharing my institutional knowledge w/new offshore team, & "U" no longer needing my services. Playing the game for … [Read more...]
Part 3: My career at Unisys and the constant fear & threat of layoffs.
March 14, 2009 By
At previously noted, 4 weeks ago I had been informed unofficially that myself and the two onshore members of my team were to be laid off in the 'near' future (sometime prior to end of March). It appears this is still the case for both members of my team but as of this past Tuesday, for myself, it seems that, once again (with the help of others who value my skills as well as my intelligence … [Read more...]
“Unprofessionalism”
March 6, 2009 By
This has to be a short note (yeah, right, everyone that knows me is saying, rolling their eyes - don't you dare, Kim!) today since I have many things to do before 'the end' (at work - not with whatever else you were thinking - lol). Anyway, I received a couple of emails (today, in Jan and in Feb) from a Brazilian colleague saying they were going to cancel my request for a new windows server … [Read more...]
Part 2: My Career at Unisys and the constant fear & threat of layoffs
February 17, 2009 By
It seems my "note" is being interpreted in a way that I didn't expect. So, I'm going to take some time and explain why I wrote it. But first, I need to apolgize to Shaema, she made the first comment regarding my original note and because of my ineptude with facebook, I deleted her comment by accident while correcting some typos. It was NOT intentional. At the time, I wasn't aware that you … [Read more...]
Part 1: My Career at Unisys and the constant fear & threat of layoffs
February 15, 2009 By
Several times in my 28+ year career at Unisys, I've been told my job is going away. I remember the first time, I had been working at "City of Industry" (L.A.) for a little over 3-1/2 yrs (for my first truly great pair of managers/mentors - Mike Dowers & Mary Mikhail), and was just about to go on vacation (at Lake Arrowhead) in the fall of 1987, and I was told that we were going to be having an … [Read more...]
