No Comment by Tony Green

I was poking around of blogger.com after a long day of work and I checked how many blogs had comments associated with them.

One blog I read which happened to be written by “chemist” caught my eye. The blogger mentioned he had been to California for the first time for work remarked about its beauty and how ideal a place it would be to live. This did not surprise to me as I have lived in the Bay Area for eight years and could not think of living anywhere else.

The point, which caught my attention, was the number of remarks on his blogs as he traveled from place to place reporting the sights of the places he visited. Some comments simply stated, “right on”.

I wondered if this person worked as an accomplished blogger with a loyal following. State in another way, were all of the bloggers who commented looking around the Internet like me and stumbled across this blog entry? One way or another folks had taken time to respond on his entries and only just touching the blogs I had written.

As you might expect comments are not the reason I write my personal blog, I mean every dumb ass can write about anything and post material on the Internet so I figured why not. On many occasions, other people’s blogs are more informative and pertinent than the published material in the mass media. However, I thought to myself, how do I get more people to comment as I write?

In my view, blogging comes down to writing content, which strike a strong enough chord with people to respond.

My initial thought postulated the folks who read all my blogs failed to comment must have done do for the following reasons. Conceivably, they did not take time to comment. Perhaps they had nothing to say. Another possibility was they did not know how to express what they thought. Here is a funny one, my content was interesting and my readers are out to lunch. Seriously, the most likely reason was the thoughts I penned on paper simply did not warrant commenting, as what I wrote had no meaning to anyone.

Whew! Now my secret is out in the open. With that thought just to be safe, I should get to work on creating valuable content. This will in all likelihood serve me better creating quality than to wonder about what I created in the past.

Photo courtesy of Elymedia.com

Why do I subject myself to this? By Tony Green

One day you go to you work and you have a bad day. The job was miserable therefore many days were lousy which is why you were trying to move on to something better.
Even though circumstances were adding up to this the pink slip is still a surprise. You figured you do your job as they were paying you and once you landed something else you would leave with your head held high.

I live in Silicon Valley and if you had not guessed I work in high-tech and just found out I received a lay-off notice once the economy becomes challenging.
The last time I thought, “This is an aberration”. At this point, I asked why do stay here and deal with this? I possess qualities which are valuable to any company.

Let’s look at the question like this. I am in high-tech industries where once things go south for a company for whatever the reason employee are shown “the gate” as reducing headcount is the quickest way to cut costs.

Every employee who gets laid off is not doing a bad job. The fact still stays the same; you need to get another job in order to keep bills paid while explaining to your future prospective employer’s on why your co-workers were chosen to stay.
As for the future I wanted to choose a new job I enjoyed. My mother has suggested that I get a government job in spite of its long and inefficient application process.
Truth be told, there is nothing wrong with working for the government. Civil service positions are safe jobs you will maintain your employment unless a criminal offense is committed and get a pension you are finished. Most importantly you will not get laid off.

Upon thought is being safe what I covet? Or would I like an opportunity to succeed in the place where many have taken risks and if they did not become millionaires did very well for themselves?

I yearn for a chance to achieve something among the world’s most talented individuals in the most innovative environment.

I will get back, hopefully sooner than later but I want whatever position I land to continue my progression where I can get the chance to become another success story.
That is partially the reason I came to Silicon Valley and is why I resolve to stay until I prove I do not contain the talent needed to succeed. Time will tell as to how my quest works out. That is why I subject myself to THIS.

Vietnamese New Year by Tony Green

Tony Celebrating the New
 Year Vietnamese style

Traditionally the Chinese mark the coming of the new year by having massive celebrations and parties. In fact, many countries in the Pacific region celebrate the occasion with the Chinese. One of these countries is Vietnam.

The New Year is known as Tết is celebrated on the same day as Chinese New Year. It takes place from the first day of the first month of the lunar calendar (around late January or early February) until at least the third day. Tết shares many of the identical customs of its Chinese counterpart, having been derived from it.

Two years ago I was employed by a Vietnamese company and management allowed everyone to dress up to celebrate the occasion. The company rented us Vietnamese style costumes to wear for the party. At the time the outfit I wore was red in color and is referred to as “Ao Dai”. Later I learned clothing featuring the color red is worn throughout the Chinese New Year because the Vietnamese believe red will scare away evil spirits and bad fortune.

In addition, people typically wear new clothes from head to toe to symbolize a new beginning in the New Year. Wearing up-to-the-minute clothes also symbolizes having more than enough things to use and wear.

Tết is coming, the year of the Tiger is beginning on February 11 and as I approach the Chinese New Year it seems clear after the events of the previous year I could use something to ward away the bad vibe the past year as brought. The time is about a beginning and moving past he old. The red garb might be a good idea to change the karma. In this case the company is footing the bill. How expensive can the garb be? At this time I between positions therefore I perhaps should make mature decisions on how I spend my money. Money, however, is not everything and does not purchase good fortune. In that case should I splurge on this one? I always thought I looked good in red.

Those "A" school electronics by Tony Green

A few weeks ago I had an interview for technical trainer position at a manufacturer of medical equipment used to non-intrusively treat tumors inside the body.

The normal interview consists of a question and answer session with the hiring manager, human resources and other selected staff. For a this sort of interview the interviewees are also interested see how well you can create and organized lesson plan and present information in a lecture atmosphere.

Many companies use training equipment to train the attendees of the classes which are held. There are some occasions the trainers are responsible for maintenance the systems. In this case, the interviewee would want to want to check technical competency of any one they hire. This is in the event the equipment may malfunction and engineer or technician may not be readily available.

I am aware this sounds like a lot requirements for one trainer job. In any case, the interviewer asked me three questions as part of my technical assessment. The function of the following three pieces of electronic equipment: NAND gate, voltage divider and PNP Transistor.

I answered all questions, correctly of the top of head at 8:00 A.M. in the morning of the Monday after the Christmas holidays. Not bad, especially since I had not thought about electronics for at least fifteen years.

I thought to myself later that I did not major in electronics while in college. I learned about the electronics during my time in the Navy 15 years ago at Nuclear Field “A” Electronics School in Orlando, Florida. (Before it closed and the school moved to South Carolina)

My presentation went well so I believed I had a good shot to receive an offer. But no one interviews in a vacuum as one of the gentlemen I they had interviewed had over 10 years in technical training at a week known company for its strong training department and I had none. Therefore, I was not offered the position.

I was disappointed at first but later I felt good about my performance. My friend told me later I ranked second out of the four interviewers and two of the other interviewers were currently technical trainers! I guess I received some pretty quality training while attending in “A” school. I wish I could remember who my instructors were…

My first year in Sales by Tony Green

My employment in the sales profession now totals one year in duration. As an engineer entering sales at almost 40 years of age plenty of ups and downs would be experienced.

My motivation for joining the sales force was to use my technical background to help solve customer’s problems while at the same time earning at good living.

The requirement to perform while learning on the job presented me with many challenges. In my view, part of the reason was the existence in Silicon Valley of plenty of folks who are technical trained with previous sales experience. From my first year sales is something where you would prefer someone with experience even though you need to start somewhere. The result was I landed many interviews but received no offers.

One of the things I learned from those who are in sales is persistence is required. So I continued to push in search of the sales job when there were many other non sales jobs whose qualifications I met. Finally, I got a break and landed a sales position.

After doing the job for a year it became clear a company might be better served to hire someone with previous experience. Companies should seek to hire someone who wants to go the extra mile for customers who are the essence of what sales is about. How would I grade my performance as a professional in sales? I am still waiting to close my first large sale. The journey has had ups and downs; however, through everything I always try to focus on the customer.

Hopefully, the customer is where my focus will stay, on the person writes the check at the end of the day.