Week 10, August 21-26

I am writing the last two installments for this blog as I wing back to San Diego. I can't wait to go home, but I did fall in love with Boston. Not sure if I would feel the same if I were there in winter. I am also not sure yet I fell in love with the kind of work I did there, but I really enjoyed the experience. I felt I could survive and even thrive in a corporate setting and am now open to the possibility of leaving San Diego, at least for a little while, if the right opportunity presented itself. I was made to feel I have something to offer and that the skills I have learned through the EDTEC program are prized.

This week I finished all my assignments. Everything was wrapped up early Friday afternoon. I was taken to lunch twice by people who wanted to say goodbye and on Friday I had two end of experience wrap-ups. One with Kevin Thompson, who has one of those glass offices, and another final talk with my "mentor/supervisor" PeggyChopp.

Kevin was interested in my "Aha moments." I gave him three. What I related in my earlier posts about the "reaching out" culture, how they were sincerely trying to use the theories and language of EDTEC and lastly about Virtual Teaming. He didn't realize their reaching out culture was so special. However, he said when I explained it in terms of reaching out passes learning, and that it also creates connections that can help youadvance up the corporate ladder, he said he had never thought of it that way, and said it was an excellent observation. He was very pleased I felt they were sincere in their application of EdTec concepts. He said that it was a recent phenomina brought in by the professionalism of Peggy Chopp and Rick Valdez. He related that he recently cancelled a group's proposed training because they had not applied the "A" of the ADDIE model. They had not done enough analysis and planning. Lastly, he said that all the previous companies he had been with did not embrace Virtual Teaming like BAC . He said he didn't like it at first, but after about 45 days he became acclimated to doing business that way. Some days he has up to eight solid hours of phone meetings. On those days it doesn't make sense for him to come to the office, so he just stays home. He did emphasize that there are many things that still cannot be replaced by physical presence.

Later that afternoon, I had my wrap-up with Peggy. We went into one of those glass offices, closed the door and had a private conversation. I reiterated what I told Kevin and told her home much I enjoyed working with her and that I learned a lot from both her words and observing her in action.

She's a career woman in every sense of the word and knows how to survive in the corporate world. She gave me a two final pieces of advice. I mentioned to her that my last class would be one where we create portfolios and that I plan to test the waters, job-wise. She really encouraged me to do this and said one thing I needed to make sure I was able to do was master the interview. "You need to have down the elevator speech about Don Dean." The "elevator speech" corporate-speak for making a pitchabout something in the length of time of a typical elevator ride, about 3-5 minutes. "I'm the master of quickly telling others what PeggyChopp is. I got that way by interviewing a lot. You never turn down an interview. By doing them you not only develop your interviewing skills, you also find out what's out there and you can find out about the company that wants to hire you." (Referring to herself in the third person gave me the impression that she has a corporate persona and a non-corporate one.)

Through the interview you can find out a company's culture, if it's growing or not, etc. She recounted one company that really seemed like they wanted to hire her at first, but they kept interviewing her time after time in this department and that. She realized this was a company that had a hard time making a decision and she decided to not work there. She found out later her instincts were correct and that company is now floundering. She also said monster.com has excellent advice about how to interview. Even though her four year stint there was not a happy one, she did say their online advice is very solid and well-researched. She also saw the Website from the inside, the side only recruiters see. They use a list of questions with potential answers from job seekers. There's an A answer, B answer, C answer, etc. She knows what the A answers are supposed to be, in other words, what they are looking for. She now responds accordingly when interviewed. She said this was her greatest "take away" from that job.

I asked, "So you like to interview for sport?" She said, "Essentially, yes," because she learned to master and even enjoy the process, she's been able to stay employed, even during the down cycles that always come.

The second piece of advice was about age discrimination. I mentioned that I was concerned about my age. She agreed it could be a problem, but to always make sure my resume didn't make me look old. She said when they looked at my current resume they didn't think I could be over 35, but were surprised when I arrived. This was actually a good thing, because I got my foot in the door and they were very impressed with what I could do. She herself is not young, but she always tries to present herself as young as possible so she can get the chance to prove herself. Once you're in, you're in. Then it's a matter of working hard and staying current with the latest trends and technology.

Then she gave me a gift and a complement I'll always treasure. I'm a history buff, which is one of the things I love about Boston. She gave me a book of Boston photos that show what it used to look like and compared to what it looks like today. It was the perfect remembrance of my visit. Then she paid me the ultimate complement in the pantheon of Peggy compliments. She said, "Don, you worked your ass off." That made me grin from ear to ear.

Epilogue

On the flight home the woman sitting next to me is from Tijuana and speaks little English. She's on the flight with her husband and two small children. He's Bangladeshi and in the visitor industry. I was able to use my broken Spanish and carry on a conversation. Struggling with my Spanish and seeing them as a family gave me a warm, I'm-coming-home feeling. I miss San Diego. Most of all, I miss my family. However, I'm excited about what the future may hold.