On the Road Again

By now it should be common knowledge: I was laid off from my almost brand new job as Director of Business Development for Harte-Hanks. Only 48 days after starting, my boss called me in his office to let me know they didn’t need me any more. He cited my failure to improve the sales pipeline. In addition, he also blamed me for incorrectly responding to a vendor capabilities survey from one of their biggest clients. Both of these reasons are entirely bogus.

It’s simply ridiculous that he should expect results on the sales pipeline after only 48 days. I had only just finished writing a proposal to address it — which he hadn’t yet reviewed. Now, if after six months there was still no improvement in the overall sales landscape, then I agree I should have been held accountable. Business development was my job after all. But it does take time before you can see results.

The second excuse is equally unbelievable. On a Monday, merely 25 days after joining the company — and only five days after finally getting my own key to the office — I was asked by the VP of Operations to respond to a short survey from one of Harte-Hanks’ largest clients. I had all the necessary answers by Thursday morning; however, as I answered the questions that afternoon, the survey ballooned from 25 questions to over 200. Needless to say, we weren’t able to fully respond by the Friday deadline.

Now I can speculate about the political machinations that led to me becoming the scapegoat, but there really isn’t any point. I’m gone.

Unfortunately, the Hudson Valley area is very short of technology jobs, and the software development market here is almost nil. That means we’ll be moving: just when we’ve started getting involved in the Rhinebeck community. Someone else will have to pick up maintenance of the Rhinebeck Democrats Web site. The Wilderstein Estate will have to find another sucker, er, landscape volunteer to climb into the thorn bushes to prune them in preparation for winter. The Spot of Tea, the new British tea shop, will need to find someone else to eat all their crumpets, which don’t begin to compare to those from my friends at the Crumpet Shop in Seattle.

We haven’t yet determined where we’ll go. It all depends on where I’m able to get a job. Currently, we’re looking at southern New Hampshire, especially Nashua and Manchester. I’ll be attending the monthly Greater Nashua Software Entrepreneurs’ Group meeting next Tuesday. With luck I’ll make some contacts who can help me find a position. I also have a meeting with a local recruiter scheduled for that afternoon — a few decent contracts will go a long way to getting our feet back underneath us.

So if you, or someone you know, works for a software company that needs a new Director of Product Development, Engineering Manager, or Software Architect, please take a moment to review my generic cover letter and résumé.

Peter Howe on the Republican National Convention

In the September issue of The Digital Journalist, Peter Howe has an interesting take on the recent Republican National Convention. Howe’s article,
The Uncivil War, highlights some of the most disturbing and long reaching aspects of the political divide in America:

This column was late as usual, but the cause this time was somewhat more depressing than my neurotic inability to stick to a schedule. I was most of the way through what I had intended to write when I started watching the Republican National Convention. I was so disturbed by what I saw and heard that I deleted what I had written and decided to start again.

Howe points out that mere existence of opposition is sufficient to whip Republicans into a frenzy of sneering, mean-spirited attacks on all who would question them. Is this really how we want our country to be?

Decimated Closet

This weekend I finally worked up the courage to tackle all the wrong-sized clothes in my closet. After losing 50+ pounds, there were any number of jeans and shirts that enveloped me in tent-like folds of cloth. Specifically, there were 5 large garbage bags full of clothing that had to be taken to Goodwill.

The process was quite difficult. I’ve always been remarkably careful about keeping my cloths in good condition — everything except underwear is washed in cold and dried on medium heat. As a result, many of my favourite shirts are close to a decade old. But when I started hanging my new size medium shirts next to my double extra large shirts, I knew something had to be done.

My first pass removed any shirt in the double extra large category and any dress shirt with a neck size greater than or equal to 17 inches (I now have a 16.5 inch neck). This meant every dress shirt had to go. Also, a dozen casual shirts found their way, reluctantly, to the heap. I reserved the second pass for extra large shirts which clearly were too big. This included all of my favourite geek camo shirts (as my wife lovingly, I hope, refers to them). At the end of it all, I was left with a mere ten shirts — including the four I’d bought the day before.

I also reluctantly added two suits, a sport coat, all but one pair of dress pants, and four Autumn/Winter jackets to the heap. I reserved one Winter jacket, because otherwise I wouldn’t have anything warm to wear in the event of a cold snap. I also held back my tuxedo. I just have a problem donating a $600 tuxedo to Goodwill. I know it will never fit me again. But I’d rather be certain it will find a good home.

The funniest item was my old Bill Blass overcoat. It was so big that Anna and I were able to put it on together. Really. She put her arms down the sleeves with me and we buttoned it up. We looked ridiculous.