Still Looking for a Federal Job?

Some of you may have read the recent news about the Census Bureau hiring 1,000,000 temporary workers in the next few months, and others are looking for permanent, long-term government employment. Whatever your situation, here are some “throwback tips” I put together on the topic:

For the Federal Job Seeker

Job Search Tips

 

Help me to help you by telling me more about your Federal Job Search, whether you’re deep into it, just started it, getting ready to give up, or still considering it.  Please fill out this brief survey and feel free to contact me if you need tips or advice on improving your Federal Employment Application:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/HT2BDGW

Thanks to DryerBuzz’s posterous for getting the word out!

At the Intersection of HOPE and DESPAIR

In thinking about the name “Genius Deferred“, it was quite fitting that my location be “At the Intersection of HOPE and DESPAIR“.  After months of trying to make something of myself, and trying to CREATE A JOB as opposed to FIND A JOB with someone else, my back is now against the wall.  I have no more capital to put into my business, but more importantly, I have no more money to pay my bills and rent.  Essentially, in a few short weeks, I’ll be homeless and there isn’t much I can do to avoid this situation, and it won’t be for a lack of trying.

Some people have informed me of some social welfare programs that are out there, and I’m looking into them, but I don’t have a history of positive results from those agencies.  To this day, I’m still trying to figure out how people can live on government assistance and receive welfare for DECADES and I can’t even manage to get some assistance for 6 months?! But I digress.

I’m not sure how many people really know how frustrating it is to know exactly what you need to succeed, and know exactly what tools and plans you need to succeed, but to be unable to reach that point of success, because you can’t get access to those tools.

I can’t think of what I haven’t tried.  I’ve put several thousand of my own dollars into my current venture, and it’s been financed heavily through credit cards and my own personal funds.  I’m a few weeks away from reaching the “income-generating stage”, and I’ve talked with bankers, non-traditional lenders,  SBA Microlenders, venture capital firms, and friends and family, and none have yielded any POSITIVE results.  I’m convinced at this point, that this is a good business and great opportunity, it just hasn’t gotten the chance to be presented to the RIGHT person.  If I have to live on the streets (or more specifically out of my car), the chances of it being presented to that person are even less.

I don’t post this to whine about my seemingly impending doom, but more so to document the fact that I did try, and when I FINALLY “give up” it won’t be because I didn’t put EVERYTHING I had into trying to make myself successful.

I hear people talk about “not giving up”, but to be quite honest, I get sick of it!  Nobody can tell you how to live your life or how to get through it day-to-day if they can’t offer you a REAL SOLUTION on how to improve it.  People telling me “don’t give up” really does fall on deaf ears, because regardless of what I choose to do, I’ll ultimately end up in this all alone anyway.

Anywhoo, despite the bleakness and continued roadblocks, there’s still this glimmer of HOPE that I have.  HOPE that “my breakthrough is coming”.  HOPE that one of the HUNDREDS of letters and emails I’ve sent to people, looking for assistance will actually net ONE positive result that can help turn things around for the better. HOPE that perhaps, someone who normally wouldn’t, will get caught up in “the spirit of giving” this holiday season, and grant me a chance that to prove that I can do all the things I’ve set out to do and that I’m ready for the opportunity I’ve waited DECADES for.

I guess we’ll see what happens.  Right now, I’m not too hopeful about 2010.  As much as 2008 sucked, I couldn’t have imagined that 2009 would be worse, but it was.  What kills me more than anything is, I don’t have the power to change my own situation.  I’m a solution-oriented person, so if there was ANYTHING I could do to improve or change my situation, I would have done it!  Having to rely on other people is the death-knell to an otherwise ambitious and driven aspiring entrepreneur.

Where is my “fairy Godmother” when I need her?

Why God is into Interracial Dating

If you read my previous post on Why God is a white man, then this next one shouldn’t be too far fetched in logic! LOL.

 

Here’s why I think that God is really into Interracial Dating/Marriage:

First, it has been established (by me) that God is a white man.  But as many Christians know, Jesus (God’s son) had skin of bronze and hair like sheep’s wool.  Now, think logically: HOW DOES A white MAN PULL THAT OFF? I’ll tell you how: WITH A BLACK WOMAN! LMAO.

Now, I know there are some nappy-headed Jews out there, but “skin of bronze” is pretty dark!  So, it got me to thinking: if Jesus is Black (which many people believe that he was), then the only way that could be possible, with God being white, is if his mama was Black!

Think about it: As most Christians will agree: JESUS IS AWESOME! Also, if you analyze this whole situation further, you’ll see that the products of interracial coupling have a tendency to be SUPER AWESOME AS WELL (e.g. Barack Obama, Halle Berry, Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter, etc.).

Ergo: God is white, was into Black chicks, and Jesus was Bi-racial! LOL.

What’s more funny, I’m not really sure if I’m joking with all this!

Why God is a white man

First, if landed on this post hot and bothered, ready to send me scripture along with a scathing retort to my writings: DON’T! Take this for what it is, and keep it moving.

 

If you’re still reading, then here goes:

I believe that God is a white man.  Why? I look at the world.  One thing seems to hold true: No matter who you are, if you’re skin is Black or brown, you’re facing STRIFE regardless of which continent you live on!  More importantly, everywhere you look, people who are white, are in power, and whiteness, is always seen as the preferential to any other cultures or ethnically identifiable traits.

If God made man in his own image, then it just stands to reason that the man he truly molded after himself is a white man.  They’re the most powerful on this earth, and they hold most of the wealth and resources, and keep it at bay from just about everyone else that doesn’t look like them.  In many respects, white men are “God-like” in their ability to change, shape, or end someone’s life (think Bill Gates and 80% of the Congress).

I don’t think “whiteness” is right, or even better, or something that non-whites should strive to attain, but I do think that God made non-white people to suffer on this planet for a reason.  I admit, I’m not sure of the reason, but I do believe all of this has been done by design.

That being said, I believe that there aren’t going to be a lot of white men in Heaven! LOL.  I think seeing a white man in Heaven is going to be FEW and FAR BETWEEN! I think they’ll be an overabundance of non-white people that can barely fathom an existence with dominant white males in charge. Of course, that will be because GOD will be THE dominant white male in charge, and I just get the feeling that, given his vanity and “deity complex”, he’s not gonna be too quick to have much “competition” in the ranks up there! LMAO.

Looking for a Federal Government Job? Let’s talk!

It recently occurred to me that I have a wealth of information about federal job searching that could very much be of use to those who are novices to the process.  With unemployment hitting an all-time high, and the federal government being one of the FEW places that will CONTINUE TO HIRE PEOPLE well into the next few years, this might be a great time for those who are either looking to transition from another field, or just looking for a job that actually has SOME stability.

Right now, I’m not selling anything, nor do I even have a website, but what I’d like to do is possibly create one, and I need the help of federal job seekers.  Thus, if you think you might want to explore federal employment opportunities, and would like some helpful hints and useful information about the process, please CONTACT ME and lets help each other.  I’ll ask you a few questions about how your search is going, or what you’re planning to do once you get started, and you can ask questions about the federal government hiring process, and I’ll help in whatever capacity that I can.

SAVE american Government! Write a Letter!

Six months ago, President Obama stated one of the goals of his Administration was working to cut costs and eliminate waste in the federal government.  He called for the beginning of the painstaking process of examining “every program, every entitlement, every dollar of government spending” and asking the questions: “Is this program really essential?” and “Are taxpayers getting their money’s worth?“.

To this end, he announced the appointment of Jeffrey Zients as Deputy Director for Management in the Office of Management and Budget, where he was also to serve as the first ever “Chief Performance Officer“.  In this capacity, his job would be to work to streamline processes, cut costs, and find best practices throughout our government.

Recently, the federal government gave federal employees, the opportunity to submit their suggestions for government improvement through the Securing Americans Value and Efficiency (SAVE) Award.  Known as “The SAVE Award“, this competition allowed Federal employees to submit their ideas for saving money and making government services more efficient.  Essentially, the SAVE Award is noted as part of the President’s commitment to a line-by-line review of the Federal budget.

As a former Federal employee, I found that I was not eligible to participate in the SAVE Award competition, however, as a taxpayer, registered voter, and private citizen, I felt it was my duty to inform Mr. Zients and President Obama of my suggestions for improvements that are needed for the federal government.  I feel that my opinion, as a former employee, is just as valuable, if not valuable, given that I have an understanding of the federal government’s workforce environment and I’m unrestricted by the threat of a loss of employment if I am candid in my opinion.

I think we should all take the time out of our busy day, and send a letter to Mr. Zients with our own suggestions as to the changes we’d like to see that will make the federal government better.  It’s not just our right, but our duty as taxpaying citizens to insure that our voices are heard.  Thus, I’d like to give you his contact information:

Mr. Jeffrey Zients,  Chief Performance Officer
The Office of Management and Budget
725 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20503

I encourage you to let Mr. Zients know what he can do to help improve government performance.  Even if you aren’t a federal employee, you still have valuable insights that he could use as he moves forward is making the government more efficient.

DEFERRED GENIUSES UNITE!

I figure, with damn near DOUBLE DIGIT UNEMPLOYMENT there have got to be MILLIONS of people out there feeling like me!  Not just those that are a part of the “unemployed masses” but those who are REALLY SKILLED, TALENTED, and READY TO WORK, but are under 35 and nobody really cares about them if they’re not pouring coffee at Starbucks!

Yesterday, I saw Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story“, and I must say, I thoroughly enjoyed it!  It was very inspiring.  He asked for a CALL TO ACTION to replace capitalism with DEMOCRACY! I thought that was awesome,  and despite what I heard from his critics, it’s not about him promoting “socialism“, though I must say that today I am SIMPLY AMAZED by the number of people who talk about capitalism and socialism and have NO IDEA what either of them really mean, but I digress.

I decided, that I really do want to help people.  It was part of the reason I spent YEARS looking for gainful employment with the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, and subsequently became part of the reason why I gave up on it, because quite frankly, I could NEVER change the federal government as a “career employee” struggling to make it up the ladder.  That’s just not going to happen!  Plus, the federal government, for all its different agencies still exhibits a RIDICULOUSLY SLOW AND ANTIQUATED ADAPTATION to ANYTHING NEW (even with this here new fangled “21st Century President), and that’s a problem for me. I’M TOO ENTREPRENEURIAL FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT! THEIR LOSS! LOL.

Anywhoo, I’ve turned my attention towards two things I’m very passionate about: SMALL BUSINESS and POLITICS.  One of which I’ve loved for most of my life, and the other I’ve hated until fairly recently, when I realized I  HAVE to to get involved with politics based OUT OF SHEER NECESSITY! Inspired in part by the Debtor’s Revolt that began with an angry Bank of America customer, upset about her astronomical interest rates, I’ve decided to not only join this movement, but take it one step farther.  I’m tired of the members of Congress receiving checks in access of $170,000 a year (as of January 2009, both Senators and Representatives make on average $174,000/year), and passing laws and legislation that effects REAL AMERICANS who only make A FRACTION of that, given that the median salary for our households are around $50,000!

I’m a part of that sector of america doing WORSE THAN MOST.  Over the past five years, I’ve had an average annual salary of about $11,000, as a result of frequent periods of unemployment and underemployment, despite the fact that I clearly have the skills, drive, knowledge, and abilities to be doing much better.  I thought about this, and I thought about the AGGRESSIVE job search I’ve been doing over the last couple of years, and how fruitless it’s been.  Clerical jobs and other “part-time gigs” that don’t even allow me to pay for the gas it takes to work at them!  RIDICULOUS! I realized recently, the answer to this is not re-tooling or changing my job search strategies, it’s putting the skills I KNOW I have to good use, and CREATING A JOB OR MYSELF! For some, this is a scary thought, but for me, I look forward to the challenges and rewards of entrepreneurship!

That being said, I realize that I have to be VERY proactive with my plans, given that I’ll be running out of unemployment checks soon.  The small amount that I do get, I put towards keeping a roof over my head and working to make this business work!  After seeing Michael Moore’s movie, he inspired me to add something else to my amazingly talented repertoire: POLITICS.  I’ve always had a disdain for politics, because I don’t think you can be truthful, honest, forthright, and genuine as a politician.  The “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” nature of politicians is a PROBLEM as it breeds the corruption that we see running rampant throughout our country!  What I can do to combat this AND make sure I don’t become a part of the problem is: BECOME A CHAMPION FOR THE PEOPLE! As much as I like Barack Obama, he ran on what appeared to be a “movement of the people“, but it was still mostly financed by corporations!  I feel ANY TIME you accept corporate donations, you are beholden to them, and the truth of the matter is, it’s just human nature that you DON’T go against your own interests!  Thus, I believe that members of the GENERAL PUBLIC should fund my campaign, and I will accept donations from that public when the time comes.

This isn’t just some “flight by night” notion I got after seeing a great documentary.  This was something that was stirring around in my head since I travelled to Washington, D.C., wrote many letters and made many calls, and wasn’t able to meet with ANY members of Congress in any substantive way!  I understand they’re busy (we all are), but something is VERY WRONG when ELECTED OFFICIALS can’t find 15 minutes to meet/speak with a VOTING TAXPAYER!  I THINK THE U.S. CONGRESS IS TOO FAR REMOVED FROM THE REAL ISSUES EFFECTING REGULAR AMERICANS, THUS IT’S TIME THEY BE VOTED OUT!

To that end: I WANT TO BE VOTED IN! Here’s how I plan to do it using tactics that have helped many small business grow and flourish along their way to success.  There are a few locations where I have familial ties, but the truth of the matter is “I’m a nomad“.  I don’t really have roots anywhere (based in part because I’ve been unable to find a damn job) and as such: I can RELOCATE ANYWHERE.  I’d like for people who really want to see REAL CHANGE in their community to INVITE ME to their district/state to be the catalyst and the face of a NEW MOVEMENT! I’m not trying to be the president! I’m not trying to get into this so I can worm my way into a cushy corporate job once I finish my term!  I’m TRYING TO HELP PEOPLE, and as an educated, articulate person, I believe I can do that. I don’t have a law degree, but I can read and understand even the most complex subjects AND I have the ability to relay those topics to varied audiences in a way to help EVERYBODY understand.  I sure think that’s something that’s missing in american politics!

I’ll spend the next few months working to get other DEFERRED GENIUSES like myself behind this initiative, but this can’t happen with JUST ME.  There have GOT TO BE OTHER PEOPLE FEELING THIS WAY WHO WANT TO REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE! We can, if we work together!

If 1% of americans holds MOST of the country’s wealth, then it becomes incumbent upon the 99% with the VOTING RIGHTS to make sure they exercise them and get some JUSTICE FOR ALL!

Another OLD white man?

Today former Democratic Party chairman Paul G. Kirk Jr. was sworn in as the replacement to Ted Kennedy as a U.S. Senator representing the state of Massachusetts. I don’t know much about Kirk, and truthfully don’t care, but what bothers me is that YET ANOTHER old white man has entered the United States Senate. Another thing that bothers me about this situation is that I’d heard a few days earlier that ‘the Kennedy family approves of Kirk‘ as if to say that their “blessing” somehow makes it okay, where they are the be-all, end-all of Massachusetts politics. It’s ridiculous that the Kennedy’s have the power to “ordain” someone into a publicly elected office! What ever happened to THE PUBLIC being able to represent the public? Oh wait, my bad, that never happened. It’s always been the privileged few, with ivy league law degrees who are deemed as “important enough” to shape this nation.

I think I want to run for U.S. Senate. Now I just have to find the place where I can pull it off. I can’t do it here, they’re too racist, and I’m not originally from the area which would just be another nail in the coffin. Subsequently, I can’t do it in my home state, because a) there’s too much political corruption, and I’m not apart of, nor do I want or have access to, the “machine” that elects public officials there, and b) people would be quick to label me as an “outsider” given the length of time that I’ve been away. They’d swear I don’t know what’s best for the state and its inhabitants, especially since I haven’t lived there in years, though there’s irony in the fact that it was the conditions of that state that prompted me to move elsewhere and look for work, so I do very much know what MANY in the state are feeling.

I realize that the latter issue would be something I’d run into, regardless of where I decided to run. Everyone would label me a “carpetbagger“, especially if I simply moved into an area just to run for their senate office. But my desire to run for the United States Senate comes from my desire to help shape this country as a young person growing up in it!

I suppose I naively believe that I, as a mere taxpayer and registered voter, could actually WIN an election for a statewide office, even given the entrenched vehemence I’m sure to face if I’m seeking to put current government workers and senator aides out of a job. The second big issue that I’d face is my unwillingness to join a “popular” political party (read as ONE OF THE BIG TWO: Democrat or Republican). The 2008 Presidential election really solidified my opinion on being politically INDEPENDENT. I don’t think Democrats or Republicans have the PEOPLE’S best interest at heart, but instead they’re looking out for their own interest and the interests of the corporations that back and lobby them. I’m not that young that I can’t see how politics isn’t NEARLY as “of the people” as it should be, nor how it was intended to be by our “forefathers” (though I do admit that perhaps they were beholden to corporate interests as well, but it just didn’t appear to be that way, given that corporations weren’t really existing at that point).

Essentially, I’d like to run for office as an Independent candidate of a progressive state that wants REAL change AND fiscal responsible. People who want a healthcare option that’s not going to bankrupt them AND doesn’t bankrupt the government. People who want to work, keep their money, and use it to build a future for themselves and their families, and not have their money given away foolishly to corporations and for-profit entities whose CEOs should have known better! I want to work on behalf of people (like me) who are just trying to work, save a little, and leave the world in just a little better shape for their kids than it was when they got it! People who want to succeed the generation before them, not just financially, but emotionally and environmentally! I want people to join my cause, not because of their own self-interest, but because it’s the RIGHT thing to do, and I will stand for WHAT IS RIGHT!

If Barack Obama can adopt a change mantra and “ride the wave of change” into the white house, I should be able to ride the wave of POSITIVE CHANGE onto the floor of the U.S. Senate.

VOTE FOR ME!

The first step in my campaign: Tell me the 3 things you want to see improved in our country.

Why Blockbuster Is Now Obsolete

I’ve been a Blockbuster Online Total Access member for a few years now, but prior to that, I was a regular in-store Blockbuster customer. I grew up on the Blockbuster brand, so when they introduced the online rental option I was ecstatic!

Now, I admit, when online rentals first came out, I went to Netflix first. It was cheaper. I didn’t like how long you had to wait for new rentals, and I especially didn’t like the fact that Netflix didn’t ship on Saturdays. At the time, when I switched over to Blockbuster, it was because they offered more value to me where I could not only get DVDs in the mail, but also exchange them in local Blockbuster stores. Though I had a problem with receiving new releases from Blockbuster, I worked around this issue by receiving older movies in the mail, and exchanging them for new releases in the store. Theoretically, it was a GREAT arrangement!

My problems with Blockbuster started within my first few months. Having approximately 800 items in “My Queue” at the time, I still wasn’t having items shipped to me nearly as fast as I felt they should be, given that I was returning my mailed discs to stores as promptly as I received them. Then I read about “throttling“, the process of sending DVDs slowly to the highest volume users. I had read an article about this process, and later saw news releases from Blockbuster claiming they don’t participate in this process, but I now know as a soon-to-be-former customer of their service: THAT SIMPLY IS NOT TRUE. Over the past few months, I’ve meticulously followed how often items are shipped to me, and how long it takes for returned items to clear “My Queue”, and there’s ALWAYS a multi-day lag, sometimes spanning 3-4 weekdays when absolutely nothing is happening on my account. On several occasions I took to contacting Customer Service and alerting them to the apparent issues I was having on my account, and 95% of the time, I was told to make sure I have at least 15 “Available” items listed in My Queue for shipping (which I did, having roughly 900 items on the list, where at least 80% were always Available), and usually about 50% of the time I’d be offered a free in-store rental for my inconvenience (blah).

At another time, due to website malfunctions on the side of Blockbuster, “My Queue” was unavailable for about 3-4 months, and I could not edit it, and after contacting Blockbuster’s Customer Service SEVERAL TIMES (including twice through snail-mail), I was given the option of having my account deleted (i.e. all of my movies in the queue being deleted from the account) and having a new account set up, where I’d have to reconfigure a new list. I’m sure from Blockbuster’s perspective this would have been a GREAT DEAL, as they knew it would be unlikely that I’d remember the 900+ titles I had in “My Queue”. In fact, the Customer Service Representative actually said “You have like 900+ titles on here, I don’t think the system is designed for that“. I pointed out that I’d read in their website’s Help Section, that you could have up to 999 videos in “My Queue”, and if that wasn’t a possibility, then it shouldn’t have been published on the site, and more importantly, if I’m not supposed to have 900+ items in “My Queue”: WHY ALLOW ME TO DO IT?! The situation ended up resolving itself eventually and “My Queue” returned a few weeks later, in tact.

Most recently, amid the credit crunch and rising unemployment, I have a need to tighten my belt, thus Blockbuster is the FIRST thing to go. It’s actually the only “luxury” that I have on my monthly expenses, having already turned off my cable and no longer attending movies or entertainment venues anymore. It was the last bastion of “fun” that I allowed myself on my “shoestring budget“, but their service is just CRAPPY!

Blockbuster has become obsolete because the “specialty service” they offered has now been replaced by that of Netflix and RedBox! These days Blockbuster doesn’t ship on Saturdays anymore, so they no longer have that advantage over Netflix, and as far as pricing goes, they’re pretty much neck-and-neck with Netflix, and there’s no real reason to keep a Blockbuster subscription.  Essentially, I can get older movies through Netflix, and get new releases from RedBox, so Blockbuster SERVES NO PURPOSE anymore. They made themselves obsolete by “thumbing their nose” at their faithful customers like me.  I can understand from a business perspective that you’d want to reduce expenses while increasing revenues to maximize profit, but I think they went about it all wrong.  For every person like me, who received DVDs in the mail, promptly returned them in-stores, and then returned the in-store rentals, there were people like my friends and family members who are Blockbuster Online Total Access members who RARELY USED THE SERVICE. They get DVDs in the mail and forget to return them either in-store or via mail for MONTHS at a time.  I’d be inclined to believe that “heavy users” like myself are a rarity, thus the reason the business remained profitable.

Time and time again I kept getting the feeling that Blockbuster didn’t really value me as a customer, and it showed every time they allowed my account’s shipping to lapse without letting me know there was a problem prior to me informing them of one.  In the past few months, I’ve gotten the excuse “we’re having shipping problems out of our X-warehouse that’s assigned to your region, so shipping’s taking a lot longer than it usually does“, and they knew this yet didn’t offer me a discounted subscription rate, knowing that I wasn’t able to fully take advantage of the service during the several weeks they were encountering this issue! SHODDY CUSTOMER SERVICE AND A POOR BUSINESS MODEL! THEY DESERVE TO BE PUT OUT OF BUSINESS!! I do feel bad for the people who’ll lose their jobs as a result of Blockbuster’s corporate ineptitude, but at the same time, they’ve put themselves out of business by being crappy towards the people that help effect their bottom line.

I recently read that nearly 1000 Blockbuster stores will be closing soon around the country, and I can’t help but say “GOOD RIDDANCE”! Currently, there are 5 Blockbuster locations within a 10-mile radius of my home, and when I first moved here I thought “is Blockbuster really THAT popular to have this many locations” (because when I moved here, it was actually 6 locations, 2 of which were less than 2 miles apart).

So, as my monthly subscription renewal date is rapidly approaching, I am powering down “My Queue” and preparing for the possible leap over to Netflix.  I’ve still got a few months of fiscally responsible budgeting while I wade through the current “unemployment crisis“, but once things get back up and running, I doubt I’ll ever think about Blockbuster again.  As far as I’m concerned, they’re now a NON-ENTITY!  I imagine they’ll cease to be important in more and more consumers minds as times progress forward.

Hopefully Netflix will welcome me with open arms (and fast shipping DVDs).

National Embarassment: Joe Wilson

I don’t understand why Representation Joe Wilson of South Carolina hasn’t been run out of the United States on a rail?! Where are all the patriot, rabid americans that would do anything for this country who love america so much they bleed the flag? Why isn’t it the utmost display of disrespect for this man to shout out at OUR PRESIDENT like some common hoodlum, yet not lose his job?  What would happen if you went to work tomorrow and yelled “YOU LIE” at your boss while they were speaking to a group of colleagues? Joe Wilson needs to resign!