Career – The Daily EO

The Daily EO: March 14th, 2016

I had coffee with a stranger today. Well, actually, tea. And it was agonizing, my stomach was in knots, I kept checking my phone (before hand – hoping that it might be cancelled and I could go home), and am utterly exhausted now from the effort. A 30 minute tea at Starbucks.

I am bold, brash, and brave, and shy, vulnerable and anxious. Once I am comfortable and you get to know me – I tell it like it is, I call you out on bullshit, and I am usually the one who speaks up when no one else does. But if I don’t know you, or am not comfortable in the situation, I am crippled with anxiety, I start to sweat from my right armpit in particular, and I miss opportunities.

This is a “reverse bell curve personality” – there is no middle ground me with. I do have a psychology degree, and so therefore pretty sure this is not a clinical or recognized diagnosis (especially as I made it up). It doesn’t appear to be treatable except with more stranger tea. But I am sure I am not the only one who suffers from it – though the right armpit thing seems weird to me.

I’ll have to get comfortable and ask someone about it.

March 14th, 2016 Extra-Ordinary: I didn’t die. I guess I have to do it again. Urg.

The Daily EO: February 28th, 2013

There is a point at which during every month of February, I realize that 15th of February (which happened to be a Friday this year), will fall on the exact same day in March. And every four years I am slightly disappointed that it is not true.

I have a bizarre sense of pattern recognition and when things deviate from those patterns. I don’t live my life in repetitive patterns (there is no “it’s Friday, so we have to eat Fish” in my house – for many reasons), but it gives me a schema to categorize the world and deal with it’s constant chaos.

Analogies and strange comparisons work for me. It’s the ease of pattern recognition – and the deviations – that make me a good Materials Manager. It’s data, data and more data when analyzing inventory, demand, orders, etc and being able to find the pattern within chaos. And seeing when you have a problem – the pattern goes out of whack – is the most important. I can see it before most and have a plan ready. My desk is completely cluttered and my brain pings back and forth, but there is a pattern in that for me.

February 28th, 2013 Extra-Ordinary: Find your strengths, and work with them. They may be bizarre, but somewhere out there you’ll find something that you can do better than most.

The Daily EO: October 10th, 2012

There are pivotal moments in life – and we all know to grab our camera to record it. One such moment happened this past weekend. Our friends’ son got his “big boy bed” and moved from his crib for good. The sheets were Lightening McQueen and Mator and Carson was so proud, so happy.

There were no cameras when I left for work this morning. I sat in the kitchen at 7:20 am awaiting the clock to turn over to 7:40 so I could leave. I slipped into the traffic and drove out to Coquitlam only to find that I arrived early. I checked mail. I listened to music. Then it time. I got out of the car. I pulled open the door to begin my future.

October 10th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: I was locked out.

The Daily EO: July 6th, 2012

What an ironic day. At least I think it was ironic. It could be Alanis Morrisette ironic. I am not totally sure.

I was in a toy store shopping for a gift for my nephew’s upcoming birthday when I received a call from a recruiter. It’s weird to have a conversation like that in a toy store. It was a recruiter I’d worked with before – he wanted to know if I would be “too angry” to talk to a certain company about a Materials Manager job (in Markham) and the company had asked for my résumé. Yes, that is a funny question, but here is a back story:

About 6 weeks ago, a job posting come up on Workopolis. The job requirements matched exactly to my education, experience and skills – with one exception, they prefered a candidate with pharmaceutical background. But seriously people – I’ll tell you now: Manufacturing is Manufacturing. Good practices are the same regardless of what industry you are working in. Obviously if you are making pacemakers versus inexpensive pens, your levels of quality control, government regulations and testing are adjusted. But don’t let anyone bamboozle you into thinking the underlying principles are different.

Anyways, I applied to this position. I got no response – which given how many resumes postings get when on Workopolis, I can understand. It’s pretty easy to get lost in the crowd. Later that week I received 2 calls from 2 different recruiters about the same job. I told you my background matched the description! Well, when the feedback came back from the company, I was told that I didn’t appear to have any “MRP/MPS experience”. Huh?? I’m a Materials Manager! If you are in manufacturing, you know what this is. So, I’ll give you examples of what this means to say to a Materials Manager.

To a teacher: You don’t seem to have child interaction experience.
Electrician: You don’t know how current flows.
IT Technician: You don’t how to put together a home computer.
Accountant: You don’t know how use a spreadsheet.

MRP/MPS is the basis of any materials role. If you have worked manufacturing, you would know that you cannot run your department without it. MPS = Master Production Schedule. MRP = Manufacturing Resource Planning. That sounds fancy pantsy. But really, it means having a plan, knowing what you need for the plan, and knowing what you’ve got for the plan. If you have ever planned a dinner party, you have done MPS and MRP.

Anyways, I’m not angry – I just thought it was funny. Their loss and I moved on.

But now, they are back. (And so you’re back! From outer space! I just walked in to find you here! With that sad look upon your face!) And the recruiter thought I might be too angry. Angry?? This is what all Richard Marx listening break-up victims dream of. Ha ha! Oh, I’ll interview alright, and you’re going to see I look fabulous, I’m thin and I so do know what MRP/MPS is! Ha!

Later that afternoon, I got another call from a recruiter for another position (Mississauga). One that I think they copied requirements directly from my résumé. They want to know my interview availability. What??

Why is this ironic? Several reasons:

I haven’t received a call from a recruiter/company in about 6 weeks.
Emile has been working on landing a position in Orillia with his former company after deciding that perhaps Toronto is not the place for us.
We are leaving on Wednesday (or perhaps Thursday) for a long sojourn across Canada and the USA. We have so much to do to get ready!
Our car needs an oil change and check-up before we head out. The car will be out of commission in either Monday or Tuesday.
Emile is working Monday and Tuesday for a friend. So he will not be available during the day to assist.

So needless to say, these two calls fly in the face of short and medium plans we have finally been able to put together. And I’ve had ample time over the last couple of months to do these things – yet now I have to try to perhaps to fit in 2 city interviews and all the prep for being away into a short period of time.

July 6th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Do I really have to say? 2 calls in 1 day?

PS – Yes, we are coming to a city near you, so you west coasters, we’ll be there soon!