Ricky Martin’s Blog

Well with the way the market is going. And after almost securing a position last week only to have it fall through at the last minute. After much deliberation my wife and I have decided if nothing comes up within the next month we will be planning on returning to Canada, Unless between now and the end of next month we get an offer to go somewhere else or stay in Phoenix. We may have some news next week as I have several phone interviews with companies in Canada and USA, but they are both back east so one way or another we will probably be moving in that direction.

Well with the job hunt in full swing. starting to get more calls coming in this week after my E-mail attack last week. I have gotten calls from all over the US and Canada. I have phone interviews set up for tomorrow afternoon with a company based in NY but the position is in Ottawa, as well as waiting on follow up for some other positions in Chicago, Boston, Arlington, Miami, Toronto and Baltimore. Had one in California but the Company did not seem too serious, so I did not move forward with them. Also still waiting on news about a couple of positions here in Phoenix, had the initial interviews and now waiting for the next step. Seems that companies are taking longer than usual to go through the whole process.

Ok with everything going on from the move back to the US and the job hunt I had to put the CCNA study on hold for a little while, just couldn’t put my head down and focus on it properly, I thought I could bang through a good chunk of it on the plane ride over from the UK as that was nine and half hours to kill, but no luck, I started but just couldn’t focus, not to mention I did not sleep a wink on that flight, which made for a very long day.

But now that we have been back for a little while, and I am in somewhat of a routine as far as the job search goes, I decided to start to tackle it again as it can only improve my prospects at getting a job.
So as of Sunday night I started to go through the material again, and I have gone through 2 videos of the 2nd disk from trainsignal so far, and plan to finish it off before the end of the week so I can start the practice exams and schedule the real thing in the next week or so. After I get through this I will probably start to tackle the MCSE.

Well in the process of my job search, I came across a job opening for a company called zipcar. which offers members the service of renting a car for a few hours or a day as needed. they have several locations all around the US, and international as well. I got lucky as we are in Tempe they target university Campuses predominantly in the US, so they have several location on Campus which is close by to us, and makes a lot more sense to rent a car to run an errand than to rent a car from a traditional rental car company. So I signed up for the service and I am now waiting to receive the access card, which is the key to the whole system from what I have been able to tell from the website.

What I like most about this, is for about $8/hr you get a car with insurance coverage and gas included. especially if you only need it for a few hours it makes a lot of sense. Once I receive the card and actually use the service I will give a follow up review.

Well we headed out to Tempe Beach park to check out the Greek Festival, Entry was $2 per person, which is not too bad, they had a lot of different stands selling food and pastries and they had Greek beer, as well as a Taverna. We tried the Chicken Gyro and the Souvlaki Pita and they were not bad, washed it all down with a Greek Beer. The food was not bad but I have had a lot better back in Montreal. Guess it is the problem growing up in a mostly Greek neighborhood you get used to authentic Greek food.

Well with all the uncertainty right now with the job market, I am still looking even though I have had some excellent interviews, still waiting for the next step on several positions with several companies. As such I have also expanded the job search area, I am now looking at most of the major cities in the USA as well as some cities in Canada as well. Right now we are thinking where ever we get an offer will be where we will go, or stay if it ends up being in Phoenix.

I think after sending out about 120 e-mails today, all across the country and into Canada, We will wait and see what comes of it next week. Hopefully we get some calls as a result.