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Securing Contacts and Jobs

I just put a resume out on this one. Sounds fun!

Duties and Responsibilities:
– Assist in composing web pages and in creating special sections as assigned by the Site coordinator
– Work hands-on in the development of web applications (AJAX/HTML/Javascript)
– Competence creating table-free layouts
– Prototype, develop, and maintain new features and enhancements
– Operates as a leader/lead worker among other staff, shares knowledge or training with subordinates and/or colleagues to benefit the entire department
– Participate in workflow design and analyze existing production and implementation processes in order to insure the overall quality of the sites
– Maintenance and support of existing templates and content production processes
– Perform web development, template writing, testing debugging, documentation, and installation tasks for on-line processes in accordance with industry best practices and specific internal procedures and standards
– Partner with Web-ops to ensure that interactive techniques and technologies translate through to shipping products and services
[Source]

One of the challenges of working for yourself is you have to shoot at a lot of barns to hit some work. The problem is barns move pretty quick! Sometimes it is just plain difficult to find a barn. Then the barn’s owner looks at you and may not even give you permission to shoot at the barn in the first place much less give you the barn.

Playing low budget developer and sales person at the same time can lead to missed deadlines or living with very little sleep. Finishing a project, then turning on sales mode can lead to dry spells where you wonder how you’ll eat. Ideally, you should be working with a sales person!

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Email Overload!

My email box on one account had accumulated 6000 emails. I save my emails incase a client ever needs to go back to old conversations. However, much of that 6000 is spam and stuff that should have gone away after the first read. Today I archived all my mail and am starting over with a new mail policy. Deal with it immediately! That means I read it and respond immediately then file it or throw it away. I can’t have stuff missed because I flag it for followup and never get back to it. I am going to work on the same concept in the physical world.

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Child Labor is Ok!

So I pop over to Craig’s List to see if anyone in Knoxville posts jobs that pay rapidly and I find this one:

…That consists of taking the supplied directory and placing it into a supplied bag, double tying said bag shut and stacking the completed directory onto a skid.
You will be working primarily unsupervised in a storage unit/miniature warehouse near the Knoxville Zoo. This is an unheated indoor location; therefore you are advised to dress for the weather, it may be chilly in the mornings. … We pay $20.00 per completed skid.

Each skid holds about 400 books so if it takes you 15 seconds to pickup, bag, double-tie and place a bookdown you are looking at 4 books a minute so roughly an hour and a half or two for $20. Now this is my favorite part:

While you are welcome to bring your kids to help you, at least one person must be of majority age. Additionally, in such an arrangement, your kids work for you and not us, therefore you are responsible for paying them for helping you. We will pay the adult who responds to this ad.

It saddens a little to see this because with the cash flow issues I have endured as an independent contractor, I can see how a family would need to submit to such a job just to put food on the table. It is a shame that this company does not pay on the day of work but instead holds the money for a week and a half. I hope that I never have to tell the kids, "today for fun we are going to stand on our feet for 8 hours and shove telephone books into plastic bags." Life certainly has humbled me enough to understand that the poor are not given much opportunity to rise from their circumstances.