The Decision

Well, you wouldn't believe it... but... I think this site may stay live for a while! Anybody know why? Well, because Boeing made me an offer. But, there exists a dilemma... should I accept it? I think it may help me to lay out the pros and cons. Since I'm probably going to take this job... I don't know why I'm doing this. Well, at least it will give me a piece of mind.

Cons

• Kinda Boring. Being a DBA isn't exactly rocket surgery. I just spent 4.5 years (I'm kind of slow... no suprises there) getting my college degree... I wouldn't mind exercising my brain muscle a little.
  
• Boeing is HUGE. With just a touch more bureaucracy than communist China, Boeing is slow to do anything. Example: I was supposed to work on a tool to do workflow management. We had a meeting, and had a due date set. But somewhere along the lines, everyone involved decided to um... not do it. Everyone on the team was just like: "fuck it"
  
• It's close to home. I kind of want to go somewhere other than Washington. I've lived there for a large chunk of my life. Granted, Seattle is a little different than Spokane... but, it's still Washington.
  

Pros

• It's already here. I could not even have to LOOK for a job. There is one already sitting right here in my inbox.
  
• Boeing is HUGE. There is oppurtunity to do a gajillion different jobs. Once I'm part of the company, I can tranfer around, and do other things. Perhaps thing than I enjoy more than DBA.
  
• Great Benefits. There are literally more than I care to list here! Luckily, someone at Boeing did have the time to make that list.
  
• It's close to home. It is nice to be able to head back to Spokane for a weekend up at the lake. Family gatherings will be cheaper to attend. And family emergencies more easily tended to (hmmm... maybe that means more responsibility... that could be a 'con' :)).
  

Anyways. Whatever. Drop your thoughts into a comment, and press 'post' or something. I'm willing to listen to anything (especially if you wanna offer me a job).

Just a few side notes: I just saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow. If you've seen AI, or Battlefield Earth, you already know the feeling you'll get when you watch this. It's kinda like you've been sea sick for 2 hours, so you know you're gonna puke. But Montezuma's revenge is sneaking up... so you wanna take care of that. But as soon as you sit down for that... sure as sh_t (pun intended), here comes that Subway Turkey Breast sandwich (because, you've been on a diet for 2 years, but you're still a tubby little britch).

WHEW! so, now you know how I really feel about that movie. Time for bed.

Manager Handling

Well well... I bet y'all didn't think there would be another post... especially since I just said there wouldn't be. Well, I hung out with one of my Boeing friends last night, and it turns out he had written a feature article for the site... and just never given it to me. He was scared to save it on a Boeing computer (thats right... he wrote this at work... beautiful), so I only have a hard copy. So, please any excuse typographical errors.

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My intership has taught me loads of totally useful/crappy information. I've learned that it's not how busy you are at work, its how busy you look. Considering the ethics training I've taken please disregard the unethical information you're about to read. Let me give you a typical scenario...

Say your manager makes the off-hand comment that when you get back from class/meeting/lunch that they'll "load" you up with work to do. Most people would say, "all right, sounds like a challenge" or some BS line like that. That's a nice answer but only digs your monstrous work hole even deeper. The real answer should be, "I'm already working on multiple projects (name/details would help cover your story) but I might be able to squeeze a little time here or there." In the most sincere busy sounding voice you can manager. This makes it look like you care and want to help on the project, but in reality it's the Boeing way to evade work.

That's the first of the basics that I've developed, a second more important scenario is in response to a question your manager asks:

Manager: "this info is all wrong, the numbers don't add up, I need it fixed" [Adam's Note: was that really a question?]

Something like this is sure to come along in one of your projects/reports/whatever you're working on. A typical intern answer would be "I'm sorry, let me get on that right away and rework the numbers." Thats not a bad response, but you take all the blame. Never take ALL the blame. If you're going down, take someone with you. A correct answer should be as follows: "huh, you're right, those numbers are wrong (even if you can't tell), Jim-bob and I were working those together, if I remember right he did those numbers..." The last part really points the blame at poor Jim-bob. You better be higher up in the company than him, or at least be able to take him out into the parking lot and show him who's boss.

The third, and last scenario I have isn't really a scenario at all. It's what people refer to as "facetime". Facetime is really great, if you know how to use it. I've found that facetime needs to be managed on an hourly basis if not more frequently. Never just site at your workstation for hours on end. Sure you'd be doing your job and everybody who saw you would think so. But nobody see you while you're at your desk. It's like the computer emits some sort of camouflage signal that masks you, effectively turning you into a faceless blob. To alleviate this faceless time, walk around some. Have reasons to get up and move about. My personal favorite is, "I'm so sore from (generic activity)[Adam's Note: I took this kid wakeboarding with me... boy he sucked], I can't keep still." Make sure that the right people know you're sore and keep a running dialogue for days at a time until the soreness has to disappear. Then reinvent the soreness with a new activity. Another idea I've discovered is to look up (whoever your trying to get facetime with) in the calendar and start attending the same meetings. John Does sees you at their meeting and probably won't take notice. Don't be defeated by this one meeting. Attend different meetings that they do. This doesn't mean that you have to keep attending every different meeting John Does has, just show up every once in a while. A couple times a week can't hurt you! Rotate the meetings, for maximum face time without getting "disovered".

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Wow, so, I used to think this guy was somewhat smart... but I seriously fixed like 100 grammatical errors in there... and I probably let some slip by, because you're not really suppose to read what you're transposing.