Digital Wilderness

At the beginning of the month, I mentioned four topics I wanted to blog about. I’ve covered three of them and here’s the fourth, right in time for the end of the month.

One of my goals for the summer, during my time off from classes, was to do some volunteer work. I knew I wanted to work with children but wasn’t sure where to go to find what opportunities were out there. It didn’t take long for an opportunity to land in my lap.

Several months ago, my bible study group provided dinner for STARS, an organization that provides grief support for kids. I had a discussion with one of the directors and he mentioned something I had noticed over the course of the evening – they desperately needed guys as facilitators! God opened the door, so I walked through it.

STARS is a grief-support program for school age children who have experienced the death of someone loved. As a joint effort of Linnemann Funeral Homes and St. Elizabeth Hospice Program, it functions as an independent entity utilizing resources provided by both agencies. Our goal is to help kids and their caregivers acknowledge how death has impacted their lives and then give them tools to work through this grief. This is accomplished through age-appropriate groups, including one specifically for the adult caregivers. We desire to incorporate as many tools of learning as possible in order for us to be effective in supporting the families in their losses.

So far this summer, I’ve mostly done training in preparation for this coming fall, but I did have the chance to help out with the day camp earlier in the month. That was a lot of fun and made me realize just how much I’ve missed working with kids. They wore me out! It broke my heart to hear some of their stories, though, who they’ve lost and how they died. These kids are troopers!

Guys, we could use you at STARS! There’s also a new website with Northern Kentucky volunteer opportunities: nkyhelps.com.

I gave a quiz to my Bible study group this past week. The purpose of that quiz was to challenge things that are often heard in the church and are considered Biblically based, but are in fact not in the Bible. I also wanted to use this to expand our knowledge on facts about and in the Bible. I thought I’d share that quiz on my blog. We had some good discussions on these items and I’m hoping for a bit here as well. Answers and Biblical references will be posted in the comments tomorrow. Good luck and enjoy!

• True     False     01) God helps those who help themselves.
• True     False     02) Cleanliness is next to Godliness.
• True     False     03) Money is the root of all evil.
• True     False     04) Jonah was swallowed by a whale.
• True     False     05) Eve ate an apple.
• True     False     06) Eve told the first lie.
• True     False     07) God “hated” Esau.
• True     False     08) Noah took two of every animal on the ark.
• True     False     09) A rainbow appeared as a sign of a covenant between God and all living creatures.
• True     False     10) The archangel Michael fought with the devil over Moses body.
• True     False     11) The sun stood still for a full day for at Joshua’s request.
• True     False     12) Psalms is the middle book of the Bible.
• True     False     13) Jesus was born on December 25.
True     False     14) Mary and Joseph traveled by donkey to Bethlehem.
• True     False     15) Three kings visited Christ at his birth and presented him gifts.
• True     False     16) Jesus was laid in a manger.
• True     False     17) Three wise men came from afar on camels to visit Jesus at his birth.
• True     False     18) The Wise Men found Jesus in a house.
• True     False     19) Herod wanted to find Jesus to worship him.
• True     False     20) The contents of the Ark of the Covenant are the stone tablets on which the 10 Commandments were written and Moses’ staff.

1. There are _____ books in the Bible, _____ in the Old Testament and _____ in the New Testament.
2. ___________ is the longest book of the Bible. ___________ is the shortest.
3. ___________ lived to be 969 years old.
4. ___________ did not die; he “walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.”
5. ___________ was stoned to death for preaching that Jesus was the Savior and is often considered the first Christian martyr.
6. ___________ was released from the ark and brought an olive leaf back to Noah.
7. ___________ is more important than beauty in a good woman.
8. ___________ was the first disciple called by Jesus.
9. ___________ was the first tribe to set foot in the Promised Land.
10. ___________ was chosen by lot to be the twelfth disciple in place of Judas Iscariot.

Today was the last day of another chapter in my life, the chapter as an employee at PPD.

A little over two weeks ago, after much prayer, thought and discussion, I accepted a position at Medpace and turned in my resignation at PPD. I can’t believe how quickly those two weeks went by. I didn’t have any time to relax, as I worked hard right up until the last minute trying to leave things in the best shape I could for those taking over my workload. I even ended up with a sore, scratchy throat last week as a result of all the talking I was doing, mainly due to training, both as my job and for my replacements. It wasn’t until yesterday that it really dawned on me the end was so near. Leaving today was bittersweet. It’s hard leaving friends that I’ve spent 8+ hours a day working with over the past three years. I’ll be seeing many of them in the near future, though, and plan to keep in touch as we part company.

I have the rest of this week off, which I fully plan to take advantage of by doing absolutely nothing except stay up late and sleep in. This coming Monday I start my new job.

The page turns on a new chapter. Only God knows what’s in store for this one, but I can’t help but feel doors opening and that much excitement and adventure await.

I’m not a cook, not by any stretch of the imagination. Mostly this is because I’m impatient and when I’m hungry, I want to eat, not cook. I’m all about quick, easy and convenient. You could call it lazy, too… It’s also hard for me to want to cook a meal for just myself.

Seeing this as a weak area, I’m trying to improve on it. One of my goals last year was to learn to cook a “signature” dish, something I could make for parties. Took a little time and work, but I got a couple recipes down.

Now that summer’s in full swing and I have a break from classes, I have a little more free time, so I thought I’d work on a couple more recipes. Specifically, I wanted to learn how to make better burgers. I’m tired of the prepared, frozen kind.

So I searched Google for burger recipes and ended up at allrecipes.com. Didn’t take me long to stumble on this gem: Bacon Wrapped Burger.

Must have been bacon that grabbed my attention.

I tried this out for the first time last week, with a couple changes. Not too shabby! I learned a couple lessons along the way, and though the burgers taste good, next time will be even better. That’s what cooking is all about, though – constantly learning and tweaking the recipe to get it just right.

Do you have a favorite or “special” burger recipe?

If you haven’t already, you gotta watch this:
Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

Hilarious! Neil Patrick Harris (a.k.a Doogie Howser and Barney from HIMYM) stars as the villian, Dr. Horrible, who’s trying to earn his way into the Evil League of Evil while at the same time get up the courage to talk to the girl of his dreams from the laundromat, only to be thwarted by Captain Hammer (Nathon Fillion from Firefly and Serenity) on both fronts.

It’s produced and directed by Joss Whedon (of Firefly, Serenity and Buffy fame). Need I say more!

Acts I and II are up so far, with Act III coming on Saturday. The laundromat song is stuck in my head.
“Laundry day, see you there, underthings tumbling. Wanna say, ‘Love your hair’. Here I go, mumbling.”

Last night, I found doing myself something I never thought I’d do – speed date.

While on vacation in North Carolina, on the way back from the beach, I received a text message from a female co-worker friend basically telling me to clear my calendar for July 16th because we were going speed dating. I laughed and texted her back saying something along the lines of “yeah right, whatever.” I then shared the humorous idea with my car-mates, who chuckled along with me. But then Dan said why not, so I thought really, why not? What did I have to lose? So I signed up for it.

The speed dating session (a.k.a pre-dating) was through cupid.com and was held at The Melting Pot, a fondue restaurant I haven’t been to since high school prom (that’s quite a story I’ll have to share sometime). I really wasn’t sure what to expect. The only exposure I’ve had to speed dating is what I saw in the movie Hitch. Apparently that’s the only thing most other people know about it too… (I wore out that reference by the end of the night – I desperately needed new material.)

We arrived at the restaurant, got our numbered name tags and headed to the private dining room that would be our dating zone for the night. Each table was numbered, so the guy and the girl with the same numbers were matched up first. For 6 minutes, we basically interviewed each other, then the hostess rang her bell (what, no gong?) and the guys rotated to the next waiting girl. This continued until each guy had a chance to talk to each girl.

I went into this with low expectations, wondering what kind of girl would go speeding and would they really be my “type.” I constantly fought to keep myself from thinking that, though, reminding myself that after all, *I* was doing it.

There were 14 people in attendance, 8 guys and 6 girls. It was supposed to be a ratio of one-to-one (one girl was a no-show), but if it turned out to be unbalanced, I thought for sure the ratio would be the other way around, thinking this would be something girls would be more apt to do than guys. I was already down one opportunity due to my co-worker taking up a girl spot, but now two more spots were empty, so I only had the chance to interact with 5 girls. Then I found out two of the girls were “fill-ins,” friends of the hostess that were asked to come to balance out the ratio. They were still single gals, but probably didn’t have the same goals or expectations of the event as the rest of us.

Beforehand, I thought of some questions that I wanted to ask, more thought-provoking, meaningful and insightful questions, not the clichéd “What do you do for a living?” or “What do you like to do in your free time?” However, once I got into it, it was hard to keep myself from going down that worn-out and boring road. It was difficult not to open the conversation by asking those comfortable, direct questions, and six minutes is not very long and went by fairly quickly (more quickly in some cases, less quickly in other.)

After the speed dating was done, the next step was to log on to the website and mark each as “Let’s talk” or “No thanks.” Only if both mark “Let’s talk” will contact information be exchanged. If one person marks “Let’s talk” but the other doesn’t, the “No thanks” person will be notified, giving the opportunity for a second chance.

There were a couple of girls that seemed interesting, but no strong connections were made. We’ll see how these turn out… While it seemed more fruitful and interesting to meet in person rather than online (much easier to lie and put up fake photos), there is still so much missing from such a short interaction. First impressions are critical in an event such as this.

I don’t think I’ll do this again, but it was an interesting experience. It did feel great to put myself out there, take the risk and get out of my comfort zone, though.

Scott Adams always has another way at looking at things…

I mentioned it in a previous post and shouted about it on Facebook.

I have a new job!

I got the news last Thursday, literally as I was walking out the door to hit the road for my vacation in North Carolina. I resigned my position as a Data Management Associate at PPD and accepted a position as a Clinical Database Programmer at Medpace. I start at Medpace, a contract research organization, on July 28th. Medpace is located in Norwood, making it a slightly longer drive and across the river so I’ll be fighting the traffic, which I’ve been very lucky to have avoided so far. It is very close to Xavier, though, to that will make it easy when school starts back up in the fall.

Established in 1992, Medpace has partnered with leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies to bring promising new drugs to market. Medpace combines efficient clinical trial management with comprehensive regulatory consulting to provide Sponsors with exceptional support during the drug development process.

The integrated services at Medpace include: clinical development plan preparation, project management, regulatory document preparation, safety surveillance, clinical monitoring, data management, statistical analysis, medical writing, quality assurance auditing, and regulatory submissions.

(Warning – long-winded post ahead!)

Why a new job? I can summarize it by saying I felt PPD was not providing me with the career opportunities I desired and that I did not believe in the company’s managers, products, direction and priorities. I’ve whined and complained about the company and shared my misgivings and concerns previously, but I bit the bullet and muddled through it, trying to focus on the future. I reached my breaking point recently, though, so I’m moving on to better opportunities.

I started at PPD Global Central Labs (GCL) over three years ago in the Client Support Services department. Nine months later, seeking to return to a job where I used my degree and computer skills, I transferred to Data Management and have been there since. I started as a Data Management Associate in Data Transfers and two and a half years later, that’s still my job title and job description. During that time, not only was I responsible for data transfers, but 14 months ago I was offered and accepted the additional role of RDA programmer. (The RDA – Remote Data Access – is the company’s website that allows clients to view patient information and results.) At the time, I was one of three RDA programmers, but within a few months, that number was reduced to two and as of the start of 2008, I was the only one left. It’s been well over a year that I’ve had these dual roles, and though I consistently get strong performance reviews and positive feedback from internal and external clients, I still do not have a job title, description or pay that reflects it.

Towards the end of last year, development began on a new website (PPD Clicks), not necessarily to replace the RDA, which was on PPD GGL’s “old” system, but to more or less extend the functionality to GCL’s new system. My fellow RDA colleagues and I were not initially included in the requirement meetings and other discussions involving the development of this new website, but after making enough noise about the importance of involving the people that deal with the current website and have almost daily interaction with the users, I got myself included in the process. Eventually, this led to me being assigned the task of supporting Clicks and training users on the product, which was released early June. For those of you counting, this now made three separate and distinct roles I held within the company. Yet I still had not been promoted and my job title and job description were woefully out of touch with what I was actually doing.

Typically, the “career ladder,” as flimsy as it was, involved two years of service as a Data Management Associate before becoming a Data Management Specialist. The role of Specialist involved more responsibility, and when my two years came and went with no promotion, the reason I was given at the time was that I was not going to have this additional responsibility due to my other roles. However, I was promised in February that my name would be submitted for a promotion in April.

April came and went and I heard nothing. Another month passed and then the calendar page flipped to June. Having endured 5 months of potential lost income and experience under a new job title, I again inquired about my position. This time I was ignored and heard no response to my query.

While that was one huge sore point for me, one that made my blood boil each time I thought about it, I endured, figuring I would eventually be rewarded for my service. However, the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back soon came.

The data transfer group was down three employees since the start of the year and we were extremely busy and frustrated. We voiced our concerns to the manager at our group meetings, but nothing could be done due to a hiring freeze. (There was also a freeze on overtime, and as much as I tried to make sense of how a smaller than normal staff could do the same amount of work without incurring overtime, the fuzzy math was just not working for me. I guess I have to be a manager to make sense of it.) It turned out that the hiring freeze was really not so much of a freeze after all. The finance department hired two new employees and the company created and filled two new director positions. One of these director positions was in the Data Management department. We already had two managers/directors for a reduced-size department, so we all scratched our head and wondered, aloud and to our manager, why another director was needed when we needed more “down in the trenches” employees. Additionally, this director would not have any direct reports; we would all still report to our current manager. The creation and hire of a new director role did not send a good message to the department and left a very bad taste in our mouth.

The final piece of the puzzle came when our manager announced the “hiring freeze” would be lifted for our department and approval had been granted to hire one (just one) new employee. And the position profile that had been posted was for a Data Management Specialist. Yes, that is the very position that I should now hold and which supposedly required two years of experience as an Associate.

It was at this point that I knew it was time to move on from PPD, that I was not and would not gain the business and management knowledge and experience, or the compensation, I was seeking to reach my goal of being a successful entrepreneur. (There were several other factors besides the three I mentioned that led to this decision as well, but I won’t/can’t go into those details. And in hindsight, I did gain a lot of experience and learn important lessons, only it was in what not to do.)

It was a bittersweet pill to swallow. I hate throwing in the towel and having to start over. I very much want to stay at one company for years and invest myself in the company and it’s people, products and services. I had started doing this at PPD and very much liked the feeling. I’ve worked very hard to get where I was, with the multiple and varied roles and responsibilities. My name was out there and I was being noticed by the people that mattered. I did like what I was doing and did appreciate the opportunities I had been given. I liked my co-workers, my hours, the location. There was even talk of making me a Product Manager for PPD Clicks ***. 

But I needed to put this aside and think about the future. The patterns where there, that this wasn’t a one time oversight and I would continue to bump my head on the ceiling and against the walls placed by upper management.

It only made sense, given I enjoyed the type of work I was doing, to search for another company in the pharmaceutical industry. It didn’t take long for my search to lead to Medpace. I was cautious viewing it this way, but it seemed God laid the opportunity in front of me, opening a door for me to walk through. First, there was much talk (again) at PPD about Medpace, the former employees that were now working there and what they had going for them (Medpace is planning an IPO). Second, when I ran the Flying Pig 10k, there was a employment brochure in the swag bag. Seemed out of place to me, so I took notice. Thirdly, one of my co-workers sent me a CareerBuilder profile for a job at Medpace, a job that was very similar to the data transfer portion of my job at PPD. These were several of the coincidences that I ultimately prayed about and got the sense they weren’t coincidences after all. As Einstein is quoted as saying – “Coincidence is God’s way of remaining anonymous.”

So I applied, interviewed and got offered a position at Medpace. While I was more than ready to leave PPD, it still was not an easy decision. I tried very hard not to let emotions or compensation get in the way. Not only will I be making 14% more starting off at Medpace than I did after three years at PPD, Medpace also pays four times more towards tuition reimbursement. (Added bonus – they have a business casual work environment and jeans are allowed! Woohoo! And they have a 24 hour fitness room with a free personal trainer.) Hard to not like that, but there is so much more than the financial aspects of the decision. Given my experiences at PPD, I knew the types of questions to ask during my interview and what cracks in the foundation I needed to look for. No company (well, almost none) is perfect, and Medpace is no exception, but the cracks and issues I did find do not appear significant or that they will hinder my career, at least from my perspective at this time.

My vacation also came at the perfect time, giving me time away from the frustrations of the office, the chance to clear my head and look at the situation from a more relaxed perspective. I talked it over with some friends and my parents to make sure I was seeing things clearly and considering all aspects of the decision.

On top of me leaving for Medpace, so are two of my fellow co-workers, with a third potentially leaving in the near future. This is in addition to the dozen or so former PPD employees that are already working there. (See my Sinking Ship posts.) This actually made me hesitant, wondering if Medpace really wanted us or was just trying to hurt the competition. I talked it over with my co-workers and we ultimately concluded (correctly or not it remains to be seen) that Medpace recognized the talented and hard-working team that was laid on their doorstep and didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to bring us on board, even if they didn’t necessarily need all of us at present. (On a side note here, you would think PPD would have learned by now to include a non-competition, non-solicitation clause in the contracts, something Medpace wasted no time in mentioned or having me sign, which was a bit scary.)

So, while it will be a different environment at a new company, it won’t be a total shock – I already know about the industry, the job and quite a few of the people. In fact, the thing I’m most concerned with is being bored. Given all the hats I was wearing at PPD, it’s going to be more of a shock to me having just one role.

I am determined that this will be the last time I “start over” at a company. I will work my way up the career ladder at Medpace, hopefully faster than I did at PPD since I have more experience and lessons under my belt, and get a management role within a few years. I want to get my internet café and bookstore off the ground and running in the mid-distant future.

I still have two weeks left at PPD and I am trying my best to leave them in the best shape possible and not burn any bridges. Management is actually making this tough. I’ve been disappointed in how they are handling the loss of three talented employees, each of which are doing his best to help during this transition. Seeing this just re-affirms I made the best decision.

Here’s to moving on, better career opportunities and taking additional steps towards achieving a life goal!

Looking for something positive to do with your tax rebate? Thinking of donating to a charity? Here are some opportunities:

Scott is participating in a two-day, 150-mile cycling event hosted by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Donate to Scott and the National MS Society here.

Jen is running a half marathon with Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Team In Training. Donate to Jen and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society here.

Bethany is participating in The American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life. Donate to Bethany and ACS here.

Please consider giving and thanks in advance for your support!

Last Thursday, Megan, Sabrina, Nick and I piled into a car (a.k.a. “vehicular mullet,” courtesy of Nick – girls in the front, party in the back) and hit the road for Raleigh, North Carolina to visit the Staifers over the extended holiday weekend. We had started planning this trip a couple months ago and I had been anxiously looking forward to it for a while, so I was very glad to finally get on the road to see my buddy Lori.

It was an uneventful, if long, drive down. We packed lunch and plenty of snacks to save time and money. Bad part about that was the temptation to eat the whole way down. The roads weren’t very crowded at all and the weather was nice. It rained as we left northern Kentucky, but Buzz outraced it and we didn’t see another drop the rest of the drive south.

We arrived in Raleigh in time for dinner. Dan fixed us a good lasagna dinner, so we filled our stomachs and relaxed the rest of the evening. Kristi flew in from Cali for the weekend, too, so we picked her up from the airport later in the evening

Friday we hit the beach, something I had been yearning to do for a couple years. Dan took us to Hammocks State Park, which was about three hours from Raleigh. It was a bit different than your average beach, since it was a state park. There was no car traffic, no rows of beach houses, no novelty stores – just the beach and ocean. We actually had to take a ferry out to Bear Island, the main beach in the park. We expected it to be crowded, having heard the rangers talk about crowds of people lining up early to buy tickets for the first ferry; however, it was anything but crowded. We enjoyed the day soaking up the sun, relaxing on the beach and playing in the ocean. Most of us soaked up more sun than we should have and came away with painful sunburns…

Saturday, we slept in a little then went to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Science. The museum was free, which was great, and was actually pretty nice. The Dead Sea Scrolls were in town, but cost extra, so we opted not to visit that part of the museum. We had fun with the butterflies at least. Afterwards, we had dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, then spent the evening enjoying each other’s company and playing games.

Throughout the weekend, when we weren’t out and about, we enjoyed playing Rock Band, Shout About TV and Family Feud. We also made sure we got in several games of Euchre, which the Carolinians and Californian don’t get to play much.

We packed up and headed back north on Sunday, but not before going to church (Dan works at C4) and having lunch at The Gourmet Factory.

The trip was awesome,very much needed and entirely too short. Thanks, Lori and Dan, for hosting us. It was really great to see you all again!!!

Pictures of the trip – from me, Lori and Kristi – are in the gallery.