Germany Trip, An Epic Journey

The start of this month I got a nice surprise: I'd be traveling to Germany during the World Cup finals. I was super excited and I must say, this trip was action packed from take-off to touch down. I've broken this into 4 parts: The trip to Canada... err... Germany (epic, trust me). The work we did. Weekend fun. And the trip home.


The [Epic] Trip to Germany
At 1:30pm pst I left Portland on an 11 hour Delta flight to Amsterdam. From there I would pick up a Holland soccer shirt and catch a short flight to Stuttgart Germany. Oh, if only it was that easy.

While somewhere over the Atlantic ocean my ears popped. I looked around and notice I wasn't the only one having ear issues. Shortly I felt the plane decelerate and start to turn. Then the pilot came over the PA system. "The cabin air pressure valve broke. You might have noticed." As a result we needed to go down in altitude so we all don't pass out from a lack of oxygen. Unfortunately, being that low burns way too much fuel and since we were not quite half way over the Atlantic we needed to turn around.

The Mess Hall

The closest spot for us to land was a little place called Labrador Canada. It has a 4 hour time difference from the West Coast. We landed at 2am (10pm pst) on a military base. Naturally, it took about an hour for them to figure out what to do with us. At 3am (11pm pst) they let us get off the plane and bused us over to the mess hall. I had already made friends with a couple from Romania and they started taking out all sorts of cool instruments. The husband played a little on a handmade wooden clarinet which sounded amazing.

They told us we would be back in the air by 7am, but we quickly discovered the the time had slipped to noon. As a result of the slip in time, they decided to let us officially check into Canada. They brought us into a large warehouse with a couple podiums set up. I didn't get a stamp though which I thought was kind of weird (maybe you only get them when you leave?).

Now fully in Canada by 8am (4am pst) , they let us sleep in some barracks until noon. These were single rooms with shared bathrooms. It was really nice getting to sleep for a few hours on a real bed with blankets instead of on the mess hall's floor. When I went back to the bus at noon (8am pst), I found out that the time had been pushed back to leaving at 3pm. Instead, we went to eat lunch in the mess hall with the other military folks. The food was pretty good. By this time my sleep/awake schedule had already been thrown off.

At 3pm (11am pst) we actually headed over to the little airport to get on the plane that had just arrived to pick us up. Unfortunately, this airport was not really equipped to handle 300+ people all at once. As a result, the check-in took a little longer than normal. Now, I don't know what the big deal was, because I had literally been nowhere except where they bused me, but they were super thorough at security. They padded me down and searched my backpack, and when I say searched my backpack I mean that they took everyone out of it, laid it on the table, and then put it all back into the bag. They did that to me and the 3 people behind me. I couldn't believe it.

Well, as a result of this process it took a while to get everyone on the plane. It seemed like we ready for take off around 6pm (2pm pst... over 24 hours into this trip). Then there seemed to be a long silence when the captain came over the PA system. "Folks, I can't believe I'm telling you this. Words cannot describe how I feel right now. You see, we started at 4:30 this morning out of Atlanta. We knew it was going to be close timing wise to come up and get you. Unfortunately, due to how long it took to get everyone loaded on the plane, we are no long eligible to fly according to FAA guidelines." You could image the murmur that started on the plane. He continued, "The good news is that in about an hour the other pilots will be eligible to fly. The bad news is that they are not trained to fly this airplane." Yeah, we now have a plane that works with no pilots and pilots without a plane that works. He continues, "However, I have heard that they fixed the problem on the original aircraft. So here's what we're going to do: We're going to switch you from this plane back to the original plane and get you back on your way."

By 7pm (3pm pst) we're all getting back on the original plane. The cool part was that while walking to the other plane, the mechanics were hanging out there. We got to talk briefly with them as we passed by. We didn't talk about anything meaningful, but I thought it was cool they were out there. It put a "face to the repair" which was calming. It also told me that the mechanics had enough confidence in their fix that they were willing to stand there and chat with the passengers. One of the mechanics was flown in on a private jet earlier in the day to help with the repair. I bet that cost Delta a little bit of money. Of course, that was probably nothing compared to flying a huge plane and crew to Canada and never actually use it.

At 8pm (4pm pst) we were finally in the air. The rest of the flight was totally fine except for one small issue. The original plane didn't have any food because we ate it all the first time we were in it. The new plane also didn't have any food because they had hurried up trying to make it in time. So, we made the trip over the Atlantic without anything but leftover peanuts and chips.

I had an opportunity to chat with one of the flight attendants while I was waiting for the bathroom and got a little more of the back story. He said the big problem (ie. why it took so long) was that we couldn't land at a big airport. They wanted to go to JFK, but simply didn't have the fuel to make it. Had we gone to JFK, they could have gotten us on another plane with another crew within a couple hours. Instead, they literally had to fly everything in and it just takes too long. Furthermore, from the airline's perspective, since we're already late, it's better to make us more late and keep everyone else on schedule, than make a whole bunch of planes a little late to get us closer to being on time. This makes sense. I'd rather a small subset really angry at me than a bunch of people annoyed with me.

Once we got off the plane at 6:30am (9:30pm pst) in Amsterdam, we had a couple nice surprises. First, they gave us a 10 Euro voucher for food. They also gave us a 5 minute phone call voucher. Finally, they gave us a letter apologizing and saying details would follow explaining that Delta would be giving each of us a free international round trip ticket. Now Jessi and I are starting to figure out where we want to go.

I must say, even though I was delayed a whole day, I was pretty impressed with the way Delta handled the situation. Sure, I wish they could have done better, but it was clear that they tried. The entire time they were nice and as transparent as possible (though I still don't know what happened to that 7am plane...). I actually think I would fly Delta again and still think they're a good company. Of course, that could just be the free ticket talking.


HP Project
Once I actually got to work, it went really well. HP is working on expanding it reporting capabilities for the LaserJet division. I can't go into huge detail, but we're getting better and better at tracking our printers. This team was assembled to create the road map for the project. I got to go because up until now, I was the foremost expert on doing this type of reporting. So I got to sit there, answer questions, bring up potential issues, and help solve problems before they happened.

Overall, I would say it was a great meeting. We accomplished a lot which would not have been possible sitting on the phone for two days. Now the really difficult part has started - actually doing the project. I'm still just a resource, which is really nice. I can see why people try to get into the consulting world.


Weekend Fun
I was able to stay the weekend which was great. A colleague was able to stay through Saturday and I was on my own on Sunday. On Saturday we headed out to check out a couple castles. To get there meant I got to drive on the Autobahn. I was told that it's very similar to driving on freeways in the Bay Area, and that's so true. Most people go around 120kph which is about 75mph. It was like driving on any other highway except I did get passed by a couple Ferrari's - one of which I'm pretty sure was doing double my speed. I can see how the Autobahn would be a lot of fun to drive on with a high performance vehicle, otherwise, it's just like driving normally.

Neuschwanstein Castle

Anyways, we saw the Neuschwanstein castle on Saturday. This castle is famous because it's the castle that Disneyland's castle is based off of. It's really cool looking at it because you can definitely see that they're related. What's also amazing is the surrounding area. This castle was a vacation spot and it definitely felt like it. Check out the picture and the video to see what I mean.

Destroyed Heidelberg Tower

On Sunday I went to the Heidelberg Castle which was actually used to defend the city. It wasn't in nearly as good of shape, but was still amazing to see. I would have like to spend more time just exploring the city because it had an old-time feel.

The First Car

I also went to the Mercedes-Benz Museum on Sunday. That was really fascinating to learn about the history of the car. Both Daimler and Benz started out separately. They independently created an engine which each of them brought to the World Fair in Paris (the event the Eiffel Tower was built for). After that they started competing against each other. It wasn't until after WWI that they merged because they were both in such bad shape financially that the only way they could survive was to combine. Since then, Mercedes-Benz has been a huge player in the car industry.

Finally, I got to watch Germany play Uruguay for 3rd place and Holland play Spain for the World Cup title. Both games were a lot of fun and the Germany celebration was unbelievable. Though, I'm pretty sure they go crazy after any win against anyone any time because soccer is their life. The weird part about it was half time. I noticed that they didn't do a round-up of other sports. Instead, they just talked about regular news. I guess I never thought about it: that a country that only has one main sport wouldn't talk about other sports. You want the sports update? Just wait a couple minutes and watch it.

The Trip Home
After all that, I was ready to go home. The trip had been a blast. Thankfully, the rest of the trip was mostly uneventful. The only hiccup was in Atlanta. There was a lightening storm going on and when that happens everyone has to get off the tarmac. So when we got there, we had to circle for a bit before we could land. Then, when it was time to leave we had to wait again. It was fun once we started boarding though. They really wanted to get us out of there before the lightening started up again and so they really moved us along. You could feel the intensity to move fast and get going. Because of timing issues they didn't wait for other people to come either. So about a quarter of the flight was empty. So I got to stretch out a little bit which was nice.

Overall, it was a great trip and I'm super excited to go back again and visit with Jessi someday.

Analyzing Steps

HP has been sponsoring a shape-up program for the last 12 weeks. We report our steps and minutes exercised onto a online form. There's lots of cool features, but one missing was a way to analyze your activity. So, I exported my data into Excel (and by "export" I mean typed it in myself) and did a little bit of my own analysis. I thought the findings were cool and wanted to share. All the data is in totals (steps & minutes), but you can still do a relative compare since it's all over the same time frame.

First up are my steps by the day of the week.

Since I have a desk job, I wasn't too surprised that my week-day steps were lower. On Tuesdays I mow the lawn which accounts for the slight bump. My goal was to take a minimum of 5,000 steps a day, but aim for 10,000 steps a day. I hit my 5,000 goal every day but Monday and Wednesday. Saturday was the only day I hit my 10,000 goal.

When I exercise, I take my pedometer off. Most of the time (if not all), these are an official sport I'm playing. Throughout this time I played soccer, volleyball, jiu jitsu and softball.

This data was exactly as I expected. I do jiu jitsu and Wednesday, then split between Monday and Thursday. Soccer and softball happens on the weekend. Since I mow the lawn on Tuesday, I don't feel bad that I'm not doing anything. Friday is really my only free night, and Jessi and I often take that night to go on a walk and talk about our week. Over all, I'm satisfied with my exercise level.

I thought it would be interesting to look at it across the month. July isn't done yet, but enough time has passed that I think it's OK to look at.

Looking at both, I don't know what happened in July. I think it has to do with summer. I've been going on trips, which tends to increase my steps and lower my exercise because I'm out of town.

I haven't fully decided yet, but it would be fun to continue to track my data and see how it changes during the year. I need to find an easy way to do it, or it won't happen.

Finally, here's the raw step data over time.

Do you see the huge spike? That's over 26,000 steps! Jessi and I did that while on a camping trip to Little Crater Lake. Otherwise, you can see I really have two types of days. Either I take 5,000 or less steps, or I take around 10,000 steps. What I really need to focus on is moving those lower numbers up just a little bit more. Perhaps I can put some sort of plan together to add 1,000 steps during the week-day.

Here's what my exercise over time looks like. The data is more sparse, but that's because I don't play a sport every day.

90 minutes is jiu jitsu. 60 was soccer and volleyball. 75 is softball. Some of the higher numbers are days when I had multiple activities. Again, I'm pretty happy about this.

So that's it. Pretty cool findings. I need to work on taking more steps during the week-day, especially Monday and Wednesday. I like my level of exercise and need to just keep it going.

Little Crater Lake

View Larger Map

I said this month would be crazy and so far it has been. First up is a camping trip Jessi and I took. We went up to Little Crater Lake which is in Mt. Hood National Forest. This was our first trip not on the coast, and it was a lot of fun. This particular camp ground is pretty sparse with only an out-house. Below is a video I took which shows the camp spot itself. You'll notice how private it is.

On one of the days we decided to go hiking around the near-by Timothy lake (Southwest on the map). When we looked at the sign, it looked like a 7.3 mile hike. That's far, but not unmanageable in a day. Thankfully, we decided to pack a lunch and take our time around the lake. As it turned out, the map was slightly miss-leading. I mean, if you stop and study the map, you'll see that it's actually 13 miles around the lake with another half mile to and from our campsite. I'm sure you could imagine our surprise when we got across the lake and realized we had already gone 7 miles.

By the time we got done, we had set a new single-day steps record. I wear a pedometer to make sure I get at least 5,000 steps a day and I aim for 10,000 steps a day. On this particular day, we went 26,000 steps. The previous record was 25,000 steps which we did in Paris. By the end of the day my feet hurt a lot because I was wearing regular shoes.

The next day we spent lounging around and campsite. I finished a good book and took lots of naps. There's something fun about camping and being super lazy.

So, what's so special about Little Crater Lake? What I found interesting is how small it was. The diameter was less than 50 yards across which you can kind of see in this picture. The amazing part is how deep it is. If you look carefully, you can see that it drops off super fast, and is indeed deeper than wide. The reason for this was explained on a nearby post. I guess there's a body of water underground which is under pressure. With slight tectonic shifts of the crust, it created a crack which the water rushed up. Over time, that crack grew large and larger until it created the pool we see today. Over time, until pressures equalize, the lake will continue to grow.

So that's our trip. Finally, here's a video of Jessi talking about the trip and showing off the fire we made.

June Update

Wow - another month! It has definitely been action packed for us and July will be even busier! Thanks so much for reading and allowing us to share with you.


What We've Been Up To
This month we've had two big things happen. First, the World Cup started and I've been really getting into it. Thanks to ESPN3.com I've been able to stream almost all the games on my computer. At first Jessi thought I was nuts for being so enthusiastic about the tournament. However, over time it's begun to rub off on her. Now she gets up early (7am is early for her!) and watches the games with me. It's fun to have someone I can cheer with. She finally got enough soccer fever that we went out and bought a soccer ball so we could kick it around. If I'm lucky, I might even get her to join my indoor soccer team! I also found out I'm going to be in Germany during the final match. I'm looking forward to being in a place where soccer is the main sport.

We also went to Denver. Univera held it's annual convention there this year and we won free tickets. It was fun to see all of our business partners again. We talk on the phone a lot, but it's nice to see, and hug, people every once in a while. Jessi's family also lives in Colorado, so we were table to spend some time with them. That was a lot of fun! Since we were in Colorado, Jessi was able to spend Father's Day with her dad which was really special.


Interesting Articles
I'm in the data business for HP. I primarily work with numbers and use data to help HP's managers make better decisions. So, this article about data and it's impact on journalism caught my eye. Basically, governments and organizations are slowly opening up their data to the world. With all this abundance of data, a new need arises: the need to curate and make sense of it all. Often times data hounds will try to get into marketing or finance, however it appears journalism could be an interesting frontier for data junkies.


Now that I eat and living healthier, I've grown attached to the idea of also having plants in our house for the benefit of producing clean air. It seems like a practical solution for someone, like myself, who spends way too much time inside working. The question becomes though, which plants do more than just look pretty? In 2009 there was TED talk about three specific plants. Here's the presentation:

Jessi is in love with the idea of buying any kind of plant. So this summer we're going to start getting them. This month I learned about 12 more plants that, according to NASA, also help clean the air. It's very fascinating and I recommend checking out the list.


Notable Tech
This month I got to use Eventbright for the first time. It's an online service that allows you to post an event, create tickets, and have people purchase them. It's super slick because Eventbright handles all the backend information like who's attending, how many tickets you've sold, how much you've made, and so much more. The interface for posting your event is also very simple. Perhaps one of the small, but useful features is the ability to create a custom, easily memorize-able, url for your event. Finally, Eventbright makes their money by charging a small percent off of each ticket sold. So, if your event is free, so is the service. The next time you're putting together and event, I recommend checking it out. It's definitely more professional than Evite.


A Video I Liked
Like last month, I'd like to share an inspirational video I watched. It's Nick Vujicic talking about his life. (link)






Bible Story
Finally, I'd like to leave you with this Bible story. I read it this month and really like the creativity and wisdom Solomon uses to solve the conflict.

1 Kings 3:16-28

A Wise Ruling

Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. One of them said, "My lord, this woman and I live in the same house. I had a baby while she was there with me.
The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us.

"During the night this woman's son died because she lay on him. So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast.

The next morning, I got up to nurse my son-and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn't the son I had borne."

The other woman said, "No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours."
But the first one insisted, "No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine." And so they argued before the king.

The king said, "This one says, 'My son is alive and your son is dead,' while that one says, 'No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.' "
Then the king said, "Bring me a sword." So they brought a sword for the king.

He then gave an order: "Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other."

The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion for her son and said to the king, "Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don't kill him!"
But the other said, "Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!"

Then the king gave his ruling: "Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother."

When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.

"He Should Of Had It"

I am really enjoying this year's World Cup. When possible I make every effort to watch the game. There's just something so exciting about guys kicking a ball around. Though, one of the things that makes it extra fun are the commentators.

First, I love their accent. There just something about a British guy calling the game that makes it more enjoyable. Also, when Jessi first started watching with me she had trouble understanding what they were saying. It reminded me fondly of my learning curve.

Then there's learning the new words like "pitch" and "nil". It's just so... proper.

My most favorite part though are the commentator's attitude towards the game. They are constantly saying things like, "Oh, he should of had that one." Or, "Oh, that's a mistake. He shouldn't have done that". These commentators make it sound like there should be a goal every five minutes. Like every missed attempt was the player some how messing up on something which should be done easily.

Seriously?!

These guys are running as fast as they can and trying to make a round bouncy ball go where they want it - with others trying to stop them no less! Think about it. That's hard! There's a reason most games are 1-0. If you just think about the goal-to-shot ratio, the commentators should be more surprised when a goal is actually scored.

Remember it's all in that British accent too, which makes it even funnier.

Of course, when a goal is scored, you can hear the commentators saying, "The goalie should of had that one." What?!  It's like they get paid to complain about how non-perfect the players are. It's just unbelievable, in an entertaining sort of way. I'm pretty sure if they didn't have a British accent it would be annoying.

It's especially great when they attack the refs. When the ref calls offsides, and they look at the instant replay - with the transparent line to make it obvious - they'll say stuff like, "He's clearly even. That's a bad call. The ref should have done better." Come on. That ref was running as fast as he could to keep up with the play and we had to slow the replay way down to see the call. It's really not that "clear".

"He should of had that." Ha. How classic. Now whenever I watch and I hear a line similar to it, I like to mimic them with my horrible British accent. In some weird way though, it does make the game more entertaining when the commentators expect every attempt to be perfect. They're so unyielding too. You'd think they'd catch on, but nope. The very next play their expectations are set for perfection once again.

On a related note, I'm going to be in Germany during the World Cup final. It should fun to watch it in a country where soccer is the dominate sport.

ESPN ScoreCenter

If you're into sports, this app is for you. ESPN's ScoreCenter does exactly what you'd think it does: it gives score updates from a variety of sports. I have four sports I follow: (NFL & NCAA), baseball, and hockey. Though ESPN does a good job of including many, many more sports (here's a full list).

What's super cool about this app is that it lets you passively follow your favorite teams. Once you pick a sport to follow, you can pick your specific teams to follow. Those teams will be highlighted within the app for you. You can also set various push alerts for each team.

The alerts are the amazing part of this app for me. There are alerts for the start of the game, and various score updates. For the most part I just get alerts on the final score (see the Alert Details screen shot). The benefit of this is that it lets me keep tabs on my teams without having to continue to check in to ESPN all the time.

For all of the teams I follow, I have the final alert set. It tells me the score along with a couple highlights from the game. Sometimes, like during the NFL post season, I add alerts for each scoring play. That is really exciting!

As the myTeams screen shot shows, you can tap on each game and get all the details. I typically only care about the score, but it is nice to have all this data easily accessible.

This app would be amazing if it did what MLB's iPad did: which is show live games right on the device. I realize this is league dependent, but this would be huge! Image live streamed World Cup Soccer games.

As I said, this app is excellent. It's great being able to follow my teams and root for them throughout the day. I recommend checking it out.

The Fine Art Of The Big Talk

After reading The Fine Art Of Small Talk, I decided to try Debra Fine's follow-up book The Fine Art Of The Big Talk. Big talk is significant, meaningful talk. Sometimes it's a difficult conversation, often it's an in-depth exploration of some subject. Big talk also open opportunities to ask for something, to sell something, to motivate someone, or to teach someone. Big talk is important.

The idea behind this book is to help "increase your language awareness." This, in turn, helps you hone your conversation skills to become more influential, better at managing conflict, and making more satisfying connections.

Like her first book, this one is full of practical advice. Here's one of my favorites: When leading a meeting set an agenda. For each item, clearly state what the objective of the topic is and, if possible, what the decision being made is. This will help to focus meetings and run more smoothly. I've already starting doing this in my meetings and I've noticed a difference. I also think this frame of thinking is appropriate for creating written reports. What's the object of each slide or paragraph? What decision is it helping drive? I've found being explicit really helps. In my meeting invites I write out: "Topic: blah. Objective: blah. Decision: blah?"

There are all sorts of goodies like that throughout the book. I'm now in the process of reviewing each chapter. When I'm done, I hope to have a cheat sheet that I can refer to when I know a big talk is coming up.

The best way to read this book is AFTER you've read the Small Talk book. I found it helpful because it got the ball rolling on conversations. If you only had time for one book, I would actually recommend the Small Talk book. However, if you're looking to improve your overall conversation skills, then I recommend checking this out after the Small Talk book. Both books are short enough that, even though there isn't an audiobook version, they're easy to get through.

Thoughts On Finding A Job

I often get asked about how to find a job. As such, I've done research, learned from personal experience and others. From that, here's the advice I give to someone looking for a job.

What I'm about to describe is not easy. Actually, it takes a ton of work. However, you're looking for a job you're going to have for at least 5 years (maybe even 40). Therefore, take the time now and make a push to really find a job you want. Believe me, you don't want to fall into a job or accept the first offer because it's easy. Then you might spend the next 5 to 40 years only looking forward to the weekend.

The other benefit of following this process is that it reduces your competition. When you apply to a job online, you are competing against, literally, thousands of other people. Your chances of finding a job this way are very small. Can you imagine what the hiring manager must feel like? You do not want to be in this group. Instead, by following this process you stand a chance of finding a job that nobody or only a couple of other people are competing for.

Create A Master Resume

I have one master resume that is a couple of pages long. It has all my work experience, all my projects, and all my leadership roles since the beginning of high school. Then, when I apply to a job, I trim my master resume down to a single page. This helps make sure it's as targeted as possible and doesn't require me to remember past activities.

Create A Master Cover Letter

When I started writing cover letters I started pooling them together into a master file. Now, the next time I need to write something, I can pick and pull to also make sure it's as targeted as possible. 

Write Out Your Dream Job
Literally, create a job description. Describe your responsibilities and what your daily activities would be. This will give you a focus and a dream. Furthermore, when someone asks you what you want to do, you now have an answer. Not sure what you want to do? I like to ask this question: If you were independently wealthy (ie. You had all the money you wanted, but didn't need to work for it), what would you do during the day? That answer will start pointing you in possible directions for your life. Still don't know what you want to do? The next few steps will also help.

Information Interviews (Talk To People)
Start talking to people. Anyone and everyone. Start with people you know and when you finish your conversation, ask if there's someone else they think you should talk to. Furthermore, make sure to ask if you can contact them again. Once again, come up with a master list of questions. Then, pick and choose the ones you want to ask for each person. I had about 60 questions to choose from. Here are a couple of general examples:

• How did you begin working for [this company]?
• What is your educational background?
• What do you like best about working here?
• What is the trend for future growth for [this company]?
• What software do you use to do your job?

If you can research the company ahead of time, it'll help you come up with better questions. At a minimum, here's what you should research on a company before you talk to someone:

• When were they founded?
• What is their principal line of business?
• Where do they have locations?
• Who are their competitors?
• What competitor or economic technology challenges do they face?
• What's been written about them in any media outlet over the last few years?

--
2019 Update
Here's my current go-to list of questions. These are unbelievably powerful.

• Thank them for talking with you. Share something funny and/or vulnerable to get them to open up.
• What do you do?
• What do you love about your job? When are you in the flow during your job?
• What is something that surprised you about this job?
• What are some big projects you're working on right now?
• Who do you work with?
• What's a big challenge you're dealing with right now? How are you dealing with that challenge?
• Can you walk me through a typical day?
• What advice would you give someone who wanted to do a similar job?
• If you were starting all over, is there anything you would absolutely do the same, or different?
• If you were to switch to a different job, where would you go and what would you do?
• What do you do for fun when you're not working?
• Do you have any books/articles you recommend I read?
• Do you have somebody else you recommend I talk to that [add a qualification so they narrow down their focus]?

Follow up each question with "tell me more". Keep them in story mode.
--

If you're unemployed and not doing anything else, you should aim to talk to at least one person a day. That can happen over the phone or in-person over food (you should always offer to pay). This is huge! I guarantee you that if you do enough informational interviews, more than one will turn into an actual interview. Even if it doesn't, make sure to follow up and thank them for meeting with you. If you find an article of interest, pass it along.

Learn About Communicating
I understand that it isn't always easy to talk to people. Therefore, spend the time to learn those skills. Notice, I put this step after you start talking to people. That's because you should start talking to people as soon as possible. The first book you should read is The Fine Art Of Small Talk by Debra Fine. It will teach you how to strike up conversations and gain the confidence to talk to people. I have a full review here. It's a fast read and well worth it. The other book I recommend reading, if you have time, is Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi. It will teach you how to reach out to others and thinking about networking. I also have a full review here.

Mock Interviews
Practice. Practice. Practice. When you're information interview turns into an actual interview, you want to be ready. There are tons of sites dedicated to providing you with sample questions. I had another huge list of descriptive ("Tell me about yourself."), behavioral ("Tell me about a time when...") and analytical ("How many dimples are on a golf ball?") questions. I wrote out answers to each of them and practiced saying the answer out loud. I also asked other people to interview me and got their feedback. It was a huge confidence builder when I was in a real interview and I recognized the question before the interviewer was done asking it.

Job Shadow
Another variation of informational interviews is a job shadow. I did this a couple of times and it was amazing. It's an opportunity to meet a bunch of people and really learn about a company. Maybe you can only shadow for an hour, but maybe you'll get the whole day. Ask to set up meetings with other people before you visit. When you're there, use your new "small talk" skills to meet people and ask if you can contact them later. Then actually follow up to do an official informational interview. If it's appropriate, ask to job shadow them. You can quickly see how this could spiral into meeting a bunch of people. Imagine how a manager's going to feel about you if you've shown up to their offices 5 times in the last 6 months to learn more about their company.

Ask About A Job
OK. You've talked to people and found a job you want to apply for. Here's my suggestion: Do not apply to it right away. Instead, come up with 5 or more questions about the position. Then, contact the hiring manager and let him/her know you're interested in applying, but you have a few questions about it. Meet with them and ask your questions.

Good questions are ones that focus on the job and show that you know what you're talking about. It's hard to give generalized questions, so here's a situation. You're asking about a forecasting job:

• What databases will I have access to and what tools are used?
• How often are the forecast cycles and what planning processes will it feed?
• Will I be expected to align with other planning processes, or will I be provided unconstrained forecasts?
• What would you like to know more about, but wish you had the data to answer it?

You see how the questions are very specific and business-focused? The last one even asks about the current issues they're having. If you really feel like you know the subject, trying offering advice and brainstorming with them. Once they've answered your questions, let them know you're interested in the job and would like to apply for it. Then ask them the best way to do it. I have been on the phone when this conversation turned into an actual job interview.

--
2019 Update
I took a class on freelancing and found the lessons learned there apply perfectly to this conversation. Imagine you're a consultant talking to a potential client. You would dive deep to understand what they're looking for and use that to later (via the cover letter and resume) to show how you can help them. Here are questions to ask:

Informational

• How would you describe this position in your own words?
• Can you describe your ideal candidate? Why are those qualities important to you?
• What are the big projects you are working on right now? What seems to be taking up the most mental energy for you in the last couple of days or weeks? How are you dealing with that challenge?

Aspirational

• Which areas are your top priorities? What are your secondary priorities?
• If you achieved [top priorities] what would that mean to you? Why is that important?
• Where would you like this team/position to be 3, 6, 12 months from today?
• On a scale of 1-10, how satisfied were you with the last person in the role? How could that have been changed that to a 10?

Diagnose

• What are your biggest sticking points right now? How have you been dealing with them?
• If you didn't find anybody for this position, what would happen?
• Who else is involved in this decision? Would it make sense for me to talk to this person?

Explore Solutions

• For the big challenge, try bouncing ideas off of them.
• I'm interested. What are the next steps?

I've asked these (not all at once, you have to go with the flow of the conversation), and it makes writing the cover letter so much easier.
--

Internships
If you don't know what you want to do with your life, get an internship. Get as many as you need to get in order to find out what you want to do. In addition to informational interviews and job shadowing, you'll really get a good idea of what you'd like to do. Obviously, the earlier you start this process the better. I wish I had started this freshman year in college instead of getting serious about it in my final year of grad school.

Volunteer
This is one of my favorite pieces of advice. If you're looking for a job, you should volunteer somewhere. I recommend trying to get as close to your desired job as possible, but do anything. Here are some benefits of doing volunteer work:

• You get out of the house and give back to the community. That will help give you a positive outlook.
• You're gaining work experience that can be added to your master resume and talked about during your interview.
• You will meet people who also believe in giving back. Furthermore, volunteer coordinators tend to know a LOT of people. If you really contribute to the organization, this could open up many doors. 

I would volunteer 2-3 days a week. Long enough to really get involved, but leave time for your job search. If you're in school, you might only be able to give a couple of hours a week - do it. My wife volunteered at an elementary school near our college a couple of hours during the week and it helped her land a teaching job.

Join A Local Professional Organization
Along the lines of volunteering is joining a local professional group. Don't just join though, get involved. Show up and help. This will help you meet people are who doing jobs similar to what you want. This could prove to be super helpful. I personally favor the volunteer route, but this could be excellent.

Find A Partner
Like working out or losing weight, it seems to go better when you have an accountability partner. Find someone who will ask you how many people you've talked to. Someone who will help you practice answering interview questions. Someone who will stand there while you dial the phone or write an email asking to meet for lunch with a new contact. By creating a plan with this person, you will increase your chances of success. If you're going for your dream job, isn't it worth the extra effort?

Personal/Professional Website
In this web-enabled world, I think having a personal website is a bonus. I mean, Facebook and LinkedIn are great, but I think there's value in having your own branded space. I know before I meet with someone I do a search on their name. Why not impress them with something you've made? Lifehacker did a roundup of their reader's top five best personal landing pages. I think flavors.me looks sweet and is easy to set up. I also made business cards with my contact information and a link to my website. I designed them in Word, had Kinkos print them, and I cut them myself. They look great and cost less than $10 for a few dozen (and I had them done in 1 day). If you're curious, here's what my site looks like: JamesFurlo.com (2019 update: it now goes to this site)

I'd like to loop back to LinkedIn one more time. If you're going to do anything on it, the best use of your time is to write recommendations for people you know. Do not ask for anything in return. Simply give to others - especially those who give you an informational interview. By giving freely you'll find that people are more willing to help you in the future.

Professional Blog (Added Aug 2011)
Some people think that the blog is the new resume, and I'm inclined to agree. What's cool about a blog is that it lets employers know that this position/industry is meaningful to you. You get to showcase projects you work on and talk about news in the industry. This is especially great if you don't have a ton of work experience. Here's what you do to get started: Go to blogger.com or wordpress.com and set up a site. Spend the $10 to get a custom URL. Then start posting 2-3 articles a week. One of my favorite techniques to get started is this: find another article, write a quick intro to it, post a snippet, then make a final comment with a link to the full article. Done. MacDailyNews.com and LifeHacker.com are experts at this type of writing. Then, as you work on projects or have thoughts about the industry/position, post those too. Once you have 20 posts, you can start sharing your blog with others.

Final Thoughts
That was a lot. I told you it wasn't easy, but it is worth it. Whatever you do, DO NOT apply blindly online. If you don't have someone to call to check on the progress of your application, don't apply. Therefore, get on the phone and start talking to people. Get to know them and let them experience how great of a person you are. That is the true value of doing informational interviews. Everything else revolves around doing those interviews.

Finally, my intention is to update this as I, and others, learn more. So please provide your feedback so I can make this better and more relevant.

May Update

I'm trying out yet another series. This one is a monthly recap. I'm planning on sharing things we've done and then share a few interesting items I've found on the web in the past month.


What we've been up to
The first half of the month was spent hanging out with friends. We watched Iron Man 2 and ate out a ton. We probably ate out too much. I haven't created our monthly financial summary yet, so I don't actually know. Though, I think it was worth it because we got to be with friends. This time also marked the finish to a very long planning process at work. In previous years it only lasted two weeks, but this year it was closer to two months. It was a long process, but we had the best review with senior management that I've ever heard of.

Jessi has been putting on monthly Women's Health Nights. I hear they're going great. They're all learning how to live healthier amidst busy lives. Jessi really likes giving fun little tips and tricks to make women's lives easier.

The second half of this month was characterized by a lot of travel for me. I went to Boise for a few meetings. It was good getting to see my team. I especially liked our team-building activity: go kart racing. Then I got to go on the Meat Retreat with our church's youth group. I talk about that exploit here.


Information of interest
I saw this article and shared it with Jessi. It shows you how to make bags out of old shirts. Jessi went ahead and made a couple and they turned out great. She has photos somewhere. I'll try and get her to upload them to Facebook.
Quick Grocery Bag From an Old Shirt

I'm kind of attracted to graphs and I really like Back To The Future. So, when I can combine the two together, I really have something special. So this article isn't really an article as much as it is displaying visually a great line from a great movie.
Famous Science Fiction Quotes in Graph Form


Videos I liked
This first one is inspirational. It's a Nike ad which makes you think. (link)



The second one should blow your mind. It's Back To The Future I & II running together (I told you I liked it). A couple splits were made to make it work, but it's pretty fun to watch. (link)



That's it for this month. I hope you enjoyed it.

Meat Retreat

This last weekend I had the opportunity to participate in something truly unique: Meat Retreat. This is an event put on by our church where a bunch of high school boys go on a camping trip and eat pretty much nothing but meat all weekend. It was a ton of fun, and also tested my insides. We camped at Tumalo State Park in Bend, OR. Here's what we did:

Highlights

• I started off the trip enjoying a root beer float from A&W.
• Friday night was horrible. By 2am I was so cold I couldn't go back to sleep. My toes were frozen and all I could do was toss and turn while I waited the night out. When I got up, I found I wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep (almost everyone froze).
• Brauts for breakfast.
• Frisbee golf at Sister's High School in the morning (another group went mountain bike riding. It sounded like they had fun too).
• Turkey cold cuts for lunch.
• An epic softball game in the afternoon. Imagine getting up to bat and seeing 18 people sprinkled across the field. Surprisingly, the final score was 18-12 despite the plethora of people. I also managed to slip and fall while trying to stop at second and tore up my left knee.
• Played the weirdest game of Texas Hold em Poker ever. One person's strategy was to keep his chip stacks even. It made for massive bets before any cards were laid out.
• A Bacon Explosion for dinner (more later).
• Went to Safeway to buy ice cream (I got Ben & Jerry's S'mores). Sat in the eating area and watched Chopped. It must have looked weird to see 40 guys glued to a small TV watching a cooking show.
• I put Little Hotties in my socks to keep my feet warm the second and it did the trick.
• On Sunday, more Brauts for breakfast.
• Went on a hike up Smith Rock (more later).
• Had our final meal at Panda Express (their Lemon Chicken is great).

Bacon Explosion
Right before the Meat Retreat, I was shown a site that detailed how to make a Bacon Explosion. It really is over the top, but given that this was a Meat Retreat, I made it. I'll let the pictures and video tell the story of this one.

Smith Rock

On Sunday we went for a hike up Smith Rock. As the picture on the left shows, it has some pretty steep edges. You can't see it, but there are rock climbers all over the place. There's also a trail off to the left that we hiked up. It took about a half hour to get to the top. The day was absolutely beautiful. Below are some more pictures and a short video showing the view from on top. It would be fun to hike up to the top again and have a picnic lunch.

TripIt

I guess I should add to my 2010 goal list: I'd like to make 52 posts this year (or average one a week). The closest I got was back in 2008 when I had 50 posts, and I probably would have made it if I didn't slack off that November with only one post (about pirates no less). Still, I'd like to maintain some semblance of quality instead of only going for quantity. Now, in order to write once a week, I need a topic. Unfortunately, I'm not great at that part. I mean, I could talk about what we're up to, but most of the time it's really boring to read about (I worked this week... on lots and lots on graphs that I'm not allowed to share). So, my standard fall back has been talking about things I'm reading and I've got a nice book review series going. Today, I'm expanding that. For some of you, it will be very helpful. For others, it'll just make you jealous. Sorry.

Today I'd like to talk about an iPhone app I've found really useful called TripIt (iTunes link). My boss shared this app with me and it's pretty sweet. It helps you easily manage your travel information. It can handle flight, car and hotel information all together in an easy to use interface.

To see how it works, let's pretend you're traveling to Boise, ID (which, as luck would have it, I'm doing right now). Here's what you do:

First, sign up for TripIt at TripIt.com. I choose to use Google, but you can also sign up with Facebook, or create a whole new profile just for this service. Then, go to the upper right hand corner and select your user name -> "Settings" -> "About You". In the very first section is a spot called email. Since my travel is through HP, I added my HP email (you'll see why in a second), but your normal email should already be there. Now your one-time setup is done.

Then book your travel just like normal. Make sure you have whatever you book it with send you an email. Then, add your trip to TripIt. When adding your trip to TripIt, you can either manually enter the information or email the itinerary that was sent to you earlier to plans@tripit.com. TripIt will take that email and parse out the details of your trip. Then, you can login and edit the details and fix any mistakes that might have been made. I have found it to be extremely accurate. The only editing I've done is remove information I don't care about it. Here's what your trip looks like:

OK, now the really cool part. Download TripIt and login. The app will automatically sync with your account and list all your up coming trips. Clicking on a specific trip will display the details of that trip. You can see your flight information, your confirmation code and more. You can also see your rental car and hotel information - with links to the map app to easily get from one place to another. You can also sign up for the pro account and get additional up-to-date information (like if your flight is delayed) and even check in right on your phone.


I've used the app a few times and find it really helpful. I no longer have to carry paper around or keep old emails in my inbox when I travel. I highly recommend trying it out.

Duplex Update

With May in full swing, I thought I'd take a break and give an update on our duplex. I think the last time we talked explicitly about it was back in November when we shared a video us of installing a Water Back Flow Prevention Valve. We're 6 months later and much has happened.

Kitchen Remodel
If you subscribe to my YouTube channel, you've probably noticed I've discovered Qik. The video quality isn't great (because I only have the iPhone 3G, I hear the 3GS is much better), but it's so easy to capture and upload video with a device already in my pocket, I can't help but use it frequently. Here's a video we made of the final product. It's my brother giving a quick tour of what we did.





As described in the video, here's what we did for the kitchen remodel:

• Created a dinning area by replacing carpet with bambo lamenent flooring.
• Added a dish washer
• Added a garbage disposal
• Added a Microwave shelf
• Doubled the counter-top space
• Added more storage for larger pots and pans

It was a wirlwind project that took 3 [long] days. My dad brother and sister drove up Thursday, we worked Friday, Saturday & Sunday, and they drove back home on Monday. Jessi did paint and replaced all the cabinet hardware the following day just to finish it up.

New Tenants
We had already moved over to the other side (remember the garage?), and so once that project was done it was time to put it on the market. We ended up finding an excellent family who were able to move in right away. I think it's been a good match. With the weather turning nice, it's been fun to watch their two sons playing in the font and back yard.

New Toys
Speaking of nice weather, Jessi and I have gotten two new toys. The first is a lawn mower and the second is a weed hacker to get the places the lawn mower misses. The following Qik video shows off the lawn mower.




You can't see it in the video, but by the time we bought the mower our grass was out of control. In some places the grass was as high as my knees! As you can imagine, it took a while to cut the grass our first time round. In this next video of our weed hacker, I point out some grass which is super long. Now imagine having that for your entire back yard.




Future Plans
This summer we have 2 major projects and a couple minor projects planned.

• We need to regrade the font and back yards. Currently it's either flat or towards the building. If we can figure out a way to get a small tractor in the back, I think that'll be the easiest instead of us trying to do it with shovels and rakes.
• We need to paint the outside. This will be good to seal all the cracks and change the colors.
• Once we regrade the yards, Jessi wants to plant flowers and even start a garden.

So, that's the update on our duplex. It's been a lot of fun and we're learning a lot.

The Go-Giver

Both Jessi and I read The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann. It's a short book and a very fast read. You could easily finish it within a week, and day if you have a 2-3 hours available. Our real estate agent share this book with us and we are so thankful he did. It's been a blessing in our life.

The subtitle describes the book well: "A little story about a powerful business idea". So, as I'm sure you guessed, the book is written as a short story. It starts off with a man who is a "go-getter" - very driven, works hard, but just can't seem to get ahead. More importantly, something seems to be lacking in his life. He asks another man in the office how he is so successful without looking like he's working hard. He gets directed to another, this time famously successful, man and his journey begins. It's the classic story where he gets spoon fed information and you get to grow along with him. It reminds me of The One Minute Millionaire which was co-authored by Mark Victor Hansen (the Chicken Soup guy). So if you liked those, you'll love this story.

By the end of the book, you learn about 5 laws. These are guidelines to help you conduct yourself in the workplace. I won't go into the five laws (you have to read the book to see them), but they all revolve around giving more of yourself to others. And not because you expect them to pay you back, but because it's the right thing to do.

Jessi, who is a natural gift giver, loved this book. I think she might have read it twice just to make sure she got it. The book laid the framework for us to talk about our business - to make sure we are giving instead of taking. It was a great conversation and resulted in a change of how we conduct business. I know it made Jessi's last Women's Night a success.

Like I said, it's a fast read and worth your time if you're looking for a way to reach another level of success in your life. Almost oddly, you won't find a reference to God and talk about how he blesses those who give. But I would say the message is implied throughout the book.

The Power Of Cult Branding

I came across this book back during my internship at Alliance Credit Union. My manager had it on her desk and was in the middle of reading it. She said it was good and so it found it's way onto my reading list. Eventually, I got the book as a present and it stayed on my shelf for a couple years. I'm sure this sounds all too familiar. And, just like all those other books, now that I've read it, I can't believe it took me this long to get to it. You'd think I'd learn...

The Power Of Cult Branding was written by Matthew Ragas and Bolivar Bueno. They set out to find out why some brands had a cult-like following while other brands struggled to be recognized. Similar to Built To Last and Good to Great by Jim Collins, they pick 9 companies to study. As you read each of these names, you'll probably have a similar experience I did: you'll recognize all of them, and for at least a couple, feel good towards the brand. The companies are:

Oprah Winfrey, The Volkswagen Beetle, Star Trek, World Wrestling Entertainment, Jimmy Buffett, Vans Inc., Apple Inc., Linux, and Harley-Davidson

The book starts off with Maslow's hierarchy of needs. They found that each company focuses on the high-level needs of the pyramid while at the same time fulfilling lower-level needs. How do they do it? The book identifies 7 properties each company shares. The following (which can be found in the last chapter of the book) are those properties, and questions you can ask yourself to help your brand become more cult-like (in a good way, of course).


7 Cult Brand Properties

1. Consumers want to be part of a group that's different
• How is your company's product or service already different from the competition?
• What are some ways you can make your product or service stand out even more from the rest of the marketplace?
• List your craziest ideas for product differentiation.
2. Cult brand inventors show daring and determination
• What is the biggest branding-related risk your company has taken in history? In the past year?
• What's a marketing idea that your company has decided was too risky to pursue? Does it challenge conventional wisdom?
• Write down your brand's marketing failures. Be honest. Learn from them.
3. Cult brands sell lifestyles
• Is your brand fun? Does it make your customers happy and make them feel good about themselves? List everything fun about your brand.
• What are the passions and dreams of your customers? How can your brand help fulfill these wants?
• What is the lifestyle your customers are really seeking?
4. Listen to the choir and create cult brand evangelists!
• Does your company really listen to the feedback and suggestions of it most loyal followers? What are they saying? List them.
• Customers want to be appreciated. How do you reward your best customers?
• What are new ways you can show your customers that you "listen"?
5. Cult brands always create customer communities
• How do you communicate and stay in touch with your customers? Newsletter? Mailing list? Fan festival?
• What are new ways you can create a "sense of community" around your brand?
• Cult brands always give back. What are some organizations and causes that your customers would love to see your brand support?
6. Cult brands are inclusive
• Is your own brand already open and inclusive - or have you focused only on targeting ideal customers segments? Why?
• Cult brands help fulfill deep human needs that customers of all backgrounds share. What human needs can/does your brand fulfill?
• How can you take the human needs you just identified and make them even more intertwined and visible within your brand?
7. Cult brands promote personal freedom and draw power from their enemies
• Does your company's brand provide your customers with feelings of freedom and liberation from "the system"? How? List them.
• Is your brand experience consistent? Do you take advantage of your brand's nostalgia? How can you improve in both of these areas?
• Who is your brand's enemy? What is your brand fighting against for?

If you find these qualities interesting, and if you find your brand lacking these, I recommend reading this book. It gives great examples from each company on how they execute each one. The questions asked are geared more towards companies who already have a brand, but that doesn't mean you can't set your brand up this way from the beginning. I found it was a pretty quick read, and easy to follow. The last chapter's summary was really helpful too. Enjoy.

What Do You Care What Other Peope Think?

Here is a book I've had sitting in my library for a couple of years: What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard Feynman and Ralph Leighton. I read Feynman's first book, Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, and loved it. He is so smart, yet had a great sense of humor which leads to some pretty entertaining stories. My friend, Brian, who gave both books to me thought I would enjoy them, and I definitely did. We've had our share of crazy adventures, and so we both identified with some of the craziness (imagine two boys in middle school walking around, in the city's underground storm drain pipes, just looking for interesting items. Or attemping to roller blade, for the first time, on a hilly road while sharing one pair of protective gear. Or trying to hide a massive hole in a garden with plywood. Or later using the same plywood to build a fort which we spent a grand total of ONE night in because it was too large to keep.) We're definitely not on the same level as Feynman, but we probably had as much fun.

Anyways, the first book focused on Feynman's more crazy stories. He shares lots of his pranks and adventures as a kid, as well as some of his goofy stories while at Los Alamos. The second book is broken into two parts: Stories and letters from when he was older and his experience with the challenger shuttle. For example, one of his interesting stories happened while traveling in Geneva, Switzerland. He was looking for a hotel to stay at for a Physical Society meeting he was attending. Unfortunately all the hotels in the area were booked. So, Feynman decided to stay at a place called Hotel City. It's the type of place that only as a door way on the street and a cloth divider for you personal room. They don't even take reservations! He said he had a blast staying there. They were blown away that a professor would be with them. And every time he got a message, they would race to his room to let him know. As far as he was concerned it was great. Even though the bedspread had a few holes, the place was clean and the people were friendly.

The second half of the book focuses on the Challenger explosion. After the Challenger exploded, Feynman was asked to be part of a commission to find out why the accident happened and make recommendations on how to fix it. Feynman was the one who broke the story about the O-rings not expanding properly because of the cold weather (the picture is of his experiment at a press conference). He also found many other organizational issues that could potentially lead to all sorts of problems. Throughout the whole story, he talks about how he wandered around just talking to people about what they did. The amazing part to me is how he retained information and was able to put the pieces together.

If you're looking for an entertaining biography, this series is a fun read. You'll want to start out with the first book, and it's well worth your time.