image by b-tal

This blog is relocating to www.andrea-zak.com.

Please resubscribe there, as I hope to start posting new content again soon.

The swift relocation to DC and the craziness of settling in that followed has taken a toll on my writing. But given my longer term career goals, I need to get back into posting at least once a week, hopefully sooner rather than later.

See you there!

Since life seems to be turning around for me, I’m hoping I’ve put my days of epic failing behind me.

I ran across this video tonight that puts failure in a different perspective. The lesson: if you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived. And they’ve got the bio briefs of lots of household names to prove it.

Seems like some of our country’s greatest assets got the failing out of the way first, to pave the way to greater things. Here’s hoping!

Reminds me of how much I miss Buffy on the air

The US Green Building Council & The Clinton Climate Initiative are working together on the Climate Positive Cities Initiative.

Why are these initiatives never possible when politicians are still in office?

Sometimes these quizzes are just disappointing. . If I’m “modest” and “fairly conservative,” how can I also be a “bold” “big dramatic” person. It seems we have a personality conflict in the ice cream assigned to me.

What about you?  Is your Ice Cream Personality contradictory?

Your Ice Cream Personality:

You like to think of yourself as a fairly modest person. And it’s true that you don’t talk yourself up… but you’re also pretty happy with who you are. You are incredibly cautious. You rather miss out on something than make a mistake. No one would ever call you wild… but they would call you responsible. You are a somewhat open minded person, but deep down you’re fairly conservative. You don’t like trying new things very much. And if you do find something new you like, you stick with it. You can be a big dramatic and over the top sometimes. You are bold in every way

I’m on the road from Los Angeles to the DC Metro area this week.  Starting a new job in DC on May 12th.  Since I’m not blogging, thought I’d pull together my random thoughts from the road that I’ve been posting to Facebook and Twitter.

April 26

Hence forth, people can no longer exchange jewelry, merely unprocessed mineral chunks.  Visit Tucson’s Desert Museum to understand why.

who knew — deep dish pizza — cheese peeled off of course — in Tucson is darned good. Try Zachary’s.

April 27

There is a Dairy Queen every five miles in TX.

Made it Abilene Texas. 100K residents and I swear 100K motels. PS to RJL: when noting I should make Abilene my first sleep stop after Tucson, you forgot to consider not one, but 2 time zone changes making my day even longer. Left @ 8am, got in at 10:30pm.

When planning your trip route, take into consideration changing time zones. It makes a HUGE difference. Lesson learned.

Before writing off a larger up front cost for simplified moving, consider that costs of doing it yourself + the unexpected.  (I could have shipped everything and just flown east for not much more than the cost of shipping/driving.)
April 28

edit: SW texas is DQ after DQ, central texas is cracker barrel over and over, NE scattered. Arkansas smells like grass & is v. green

Texas sun is so hot it melted my pilates fitness circle light and the glue off the soles of my merrell mules, thus shoes fell apart

Apparently I left my hair brush in the motel this morning, back in TX. grumble grumble. I need to go to CVS in Knoxville tomorrow

Arlen Spector changed parties? the things you miss when you spend all day on the road

April 29

As seen in Arkansas Billboard A: You will see God soon. Billboard B: Starbucks next exit. . . coincidence? I think not.

Billboard for local chicken joint in Arkansas: Milkshakes are the icing on chicken

Tennessee was beautiful the whole drive across the state. Lush and green the whole way

All those full, lush, green tree tops with vines covering tree trunks — I thought of broccoli piles at a farmer’s market all day.

Saw more state troopers in Tennessee today than in AZ, TX, and AR combined

Does going to the outlets in Lebanon to buy sports bras @ the Reebok store count as a cultural excursion in Tennessee?

Saw more cows in Tennessee than Texas. Crazy, right?

Had I left a week later, I think I might have seen all the wildflowers in bloom. Tiny bunches of pink, yellow, white, and purple popping up cross-country.

Baymont Inns are affordable places to stay when on the road.  Their King size beds can fit 3 people easy, four if spooning.

Five years ago, you’d be lucky if your Hotel offered Internet Access to guest, now even the Super 8/Motel 6 posts Free Wireless on its billboards.

Written Wednesday, April 15th at MKE

My flight to DC included a Milwaukee layover. Why can’t airports dim the lights a bit before 6:30 am; it seems crack of dawn travel could be better with friendlier lighting?

What you should know before booking a flight that could take you through MKE:
The terminals are not connected. Thus if you land in Terminal A and your next flight takes off from Terminal D, you get to go through security AGAIN. Bought a bottle or two of water at your point of origin? Security confiscates them.

Fortunately, at 5 am, I was the only person passing through security to this terminal. I learned the airport was built in the 1950s and didn’t really have security in mind – oh, middle America. After telling security agent WhiteBread that I’d be drinking my liter + of water and making pleading eyes at him, he said he’d test the unopened bottle for explosives, but the open bottle he’d have to take.

So I chugged the rest of the open bottle, unpacked everything for my 2nd trip through security, took off my sneakers – which seriously should be considered hazardous given their aroma – and passed on through to the other side of the x-ray gizmos, where I cracked open the 2nd bottle of water for WhiteBread to test for explosives.

My shoes and my water bottle passed, and now I feel a bit smug. After a dozen trips getting my water bottle confiscated coming and going, I finally convinced airport securities to bend a stupid rule.

Save yourself the hassle and avoid MKE on your route.

Written Tuesday night, April 14th @ LAX.

Last week I got a job offer after 19 months of coming THIS close. A job offer that I quickly accepted, even though it means moving clear across the country to yet another city where I’d have to “start over,” because it’s a way into a hot industry that will only pick up speed with time and the Obama administration’s support.

Of course I wanted to share the news with my network immediately, so I tweeted it while getting the offer, and promptly followed up with a FaceBook status update. Then I called my grandma, my two best friends – Hi! Jane and Ryan – my mom, my aunt: how old school of me. I noted the turn of events through my LinkedIn status.

By 11pm that night I sent out an email announcing the offer to the 90+ person network that had been most closely tied to my job search, asking for their help yet again.

Given that I’d be moving to a new city, I wanted introductions to their friends in the area and neighborhood tips if they’d lived there. Happy friends and connections emailed their congratulations, and within hours information started pouring in. E-mail introductions were made and cell phone numbers were swapped. The list of neighborhoods I should be looking in for an abode dropped dramatically.

I requested that people save their copier paper boxes at the office, so I could ship my 350+ book collection back to the East in manageable 35 lbs blocks. More than a dozen boxes have been dropped off and picked up in the days that followed.

Knowing that I’d be apartment hunting in DC this week, I asked friends to try to hook me up with metro-accessible sofa(s). I quickly got an offer from a friend of friend who could help out one night. I’ve never met Michelle, but I’m told she’s similarly gifted at keeping in touch with people, which is why the introduction was made.

But I still needed a sofa for two more nights, and Metro-accessible people in my secondary circle were out of town. And then I saw the email from an acquaintance I met when I joined her ning community of women interested in women and girl advocacy. She reminded me of the DC group.

So I decided what’s the harm in asking, right? I’ve been communicating with one of the women off and on for a year, so it’s not like she was a complete stranger. I noted that I realized it was really presumptuous to even ask, so she needn’t feel obliged. Turns out she and her husband were happy to host me Thursday and Friday night, which meant I didn’t have to pay out for pricey 2-star hotels for two nights – hostels in DC were all booked up.

So I had boxes, sofas, neighborhoods and possible new friends covered. What to do about the apartment hunting? I googled income tax brackets and found people in DC, despite their lack of national legislative representation, had rates 3%+ higher than MD or VA, so DC proper living was quickly nixed. Craigslist found me a great place in Santa Monica, so I could only hope it will do the same for me in Virginia.

Over the past few days I’ve emailed and called posters about their listings along the Orange line in VA and the Red line in Maryland. Thanks to Google maps, I’ve been able to print out pictoral directions to about 6 places that I have firm plans to check out over the next few days. I whittled down possibilities based on their distance from the metro using the map tools. It’s entirely possible the first place I look at tomorrow could be the one if it lives up to the print ad and my lengthy Q and A with the property manager.

I’ve downloaded metro schedules and maps of gyms near my new office so I can pick up applications to teach pilates on the side.

Now as I wait for my LAX to MKE leg of my trip to board, I wonder how much harder it was to move to a new city 15 years ago before the Internet put information a mere right click away. . .

New job announcements would be relegated to Christmas newsletters or word-of-mouth because you probably wouldn’t phone or send a letter to your entire network one by one. People would learn on an as needed basis that you had switched jobs and moved, which meant you wouldn’t be able to immediately take advantage of their network to build yours in a new place.

Moving must have been an ordeal, as you’d have had to rely on print ads that are typically out of date almost as fast as they’re printed. And you’d either be rather reliant on bulky fold out maps to orient yourself at intervals in a city you were unfamiliar with. With Google maps I can literally look at street level photos of the addresses I’m looking up.

Back in the day, I wouldn’t have had instant access to connections in my new home city or an easy way to tap into the knowledge of more distant connections about that city.

So as I layover in the Milwaukee airport for 2 hours, I can’t help but appreciate that 2009 technology is making what could have been a painful move a more streamlined experience with fewer question marks.

How have you tapped your network to smooth life transitions?

Written Tuesday, April 14th @ LAX

So I ordered my ticket online on Saturday night to do an apartment hunting trip in DC.  (Last week, Organization X offered me an exciting position with a May 12th start date.)

I tried to check in online but was informed that service was unavailable because I had been issued a paper ticket, which I had not been.  Not to worry, I’d be at the airport early for my red eye flight.  I leave my car off at a friend’s place, because her residential block has no street cleaning rules, so it can sit there undisturbed until I get back.

After being dropped at the terminal listed on the itinerary I printed off, I am unable to check in. Apparently, my airline takes off from that terminal during the day, but at night it takes off from the opposite side of the airport, 2 terminals away.  So I book it to Terminal 2 – on foot, schlepping my duffle and laptop bag because it’s faster than waiting for the shuttle—and try to check in.

Now the computer doesn’t even recognize my confirmation code, which is starting to make me anxious.  Do I have a seat or not?  So I flag down someone wearing a badge from the airline, and he directs me to wait for the one of two late shift ticket agents.

There are two men who ahead of me trying to get on a flight to Detroit, but since they had not checked 45 in minutes in advance, the airline was refusing to seat them.  The plane was boarding and there would be no further check ins.

One whiney, unshaven twenty something in a gray hoodie and jeans insists he needs to be on the plane, but other wise waits quietly.  They other, an arrogant, balding middle aged male – you know the type: sports jacket, button down, no tie, waving a fancy cell phone that could launch nuclear weapons—is  making a spectacle.  Aggressively arguing with the ticket agent that he was in line 45 minutes in advance, and she is going to put him on THAT flight come hell or high water.  His condescension of agent “Monica” continues as he insists she’s “something special,” when she tells him, sorry, the flight is closed and no, there is nothing else she can do.

Raising his voice, for all to hear the plight of the first class ticket holder who didn’t make it to the ticket counter on time, he tries to get Delta – the airline that put him on this Northwestern operated flight — on the phone while he continues his diatribe after she informs him there is only one seat left on the plane—wait for it—in  Coach.   The whiney kid says he’ll take it if that guy isn’t jumping on it.  Baldy is disgusted; he doesn’t fly Coach. He flies FIRST class.  Nonetheless, after talking to the gate, neither guy is getting on a flight to Detroit tonight.

Monica waves me over as the entitled premier flyer guy continues his rant, and we both try to ignore him while I explain what was going on with my ticket. He physically inserts himself in front of me, demanding to know “why, [Monica] won’t help [him]?”  We do our best to ignore him as we try to find the best seat left on my flight – in Coach.   Security arrived to deal with the prick as I walked away from the counter, since he was dangerously close to crossing the line.

I’m flying to DC overnight with a layover in Milwaukee of all places.  My return flight includes a layover in Pittsburg and Las Vegas.  I see more airports than anyone else I know when I travel because a $254 round trip ticket with 3 layovers is the price I can afford at this juncture of my life.   And I’m OK with that reality.

Someday, should I be so lucky as to travel business and first class everywhere, either because I’m an independently wealthy author or so-valued by my employer or whatever, I’d like to think that I’ll remember that the ticketing agent is my best shot at getting where I need to go expediently.

Rather than accept he missed a flight and congenially ask what the next step is in getting him to his final destination as close to his originally scheduled arrival time as possible, he went into full blown verbal assault mode.   Did he really think Monica was more likely to accommodate a gesturing, abrasive customer than an accommodating one that just needed to get from A to B?

I also hope that I’ve never so self-important that I can’t be bothered to print my boarding pass at home like the peons who fly coach when that option is available to me and gives me more wiggle room at the airport.

PS. Angry, self-important guy wound up in First Class on my flight to Milwaukee, so I guess he found a way to get closer to Detroit, one flight at a time.

PPS.  Army guy in fatigues on crutches with a broken leg sat several seats behind me.   The flight crew moved him up so he had 2 neighboring first class seats to get comfortable in with his leg elevated.  Not sure if they made the move because of the fatigues/crutches combo, but it was great to see staff take the initiative to make the flight of an injured party a little more comfortable.

photo by moriza

Last week, Rachel Maddow delivered the keynote address at the Invent Your Future Conference For Women.  On Tuesday, I stumbled across a blogger who attended the event and shared her takeaways:

Rachel works very hard preparing for her show by reading volumes and volumes of material. She spends 10-11 hours a day getting ready to bring us a great show that over 1.9 million people watch. She also said that it is critically important to only do what you are BEST at and to be true to yourself!

If you watch Maddow’s show, you know she’s well read on the topics, so the first conclusion comes as no surprise.  Her deep dig into the background material allows her to have very informed discussions with guests, unlike hosts such as Joe Scarborough, making her show engaging and enjoyable to watch.

With regard to the second conclusion, doesn’t it make sense to focus on your strengths?  I used to work for a company that had an arbitrary list of accomplishments that must be achieved before a promotion was possible.  Leadership explained they wouldn’t hold you back indefinitely for not doing everything on the list, but it was made clear that crossing those items off the list made a big difference when it came to speed of promotion.   That system never quite jived with me.

When hired at a company, you sign on for a particular job description.  As you settle in and hit competency, it starts to become obvious where you excel and where you struggle.  Since a company is typically focused on a singular bottom line: money, isn’t it a waste of time to try to make every employee perfectly balanced and well-rounded?

Once it becomes clear to you and your colleagues what your company-specific assets are, why wouldn’t you be encouraged to gravitate towards full-time use of those skill sets?  And wouldn’t you be a more productive employee if you were working on projects that you enjoyed, rather than dreaded?

A 2006 study by UPenn grad student Gordon Parry cites a 2005 Towers Perrin study that found:

only 14% of employees worldwide indicate that they are highly engaged.  Roughly a quarter are genuinely disengaged, and the remaining “massive middle,” 62% are only moderately engaged in work [or willing] . . . “Willing employees get the job done as required.  Engaged employees redefine the job to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and results.

Engagement makes for better employees.

Workplaces psychologists have previously identified three types of work: jobs (taken primarily for the financial incentive), careers (focused on the perks attained through promotions and increased power), and callings (with the work being more inspirational than the payment and benefits of the role).

Positive psychologist Seligman suggests the workplace satisfaction can be maximized by trying to make strengths the focus of individual’s work responsibilities.

His “recipe” is as follows: 1) identify your signature strengths, 2) choose work that lets you use them every day, 3) re-craft your present work to use your signature strengths more, and 4) make room for employees to re-craft their work

So Parry put this recipe into play using a team of corporate human resources professionals from the same company.  Half of the participants increased their job satisfaction and increasingly identified with “careers” and “callings.”

While it seems like a truly American habit to want to be good at all we do at the work place, what with the historic American penchant for rugged individualism, it seems you and your employer might be better off if you focused on your assets and left your weaknesses on someone else’s task list.  You’ll enjoy your job more, and your employer will get your best efforts.