Alan Seeks A Boss

I found some websites yesterday talking about finding a boss that you'd love to work for instead of simply finding a job. I fell in love with the idea! Everyone out there looking for work is doing it the same way - all applying for jobs online, competing with dozens or even hundreds of others for the same position.

I've been doing the same thing for the past 4-5 months, just like all the other job seekers out there, but it hasn't worked for me this time around. So far, of course. This time around thee environment has been phenomenally bad. It's been on my mind that I need to try something different.

I then found this article talking about How many job ads are fake, and it reminded me of how many times I've wasted my time applying for jobs that aren't actually real. I shared it to friends on Facebook with these comments:

The number of times I've applied for jobs that have ended up being fake over the past year has been shocking, and seems to be an increasing trend. I've personally seen position descriptions for jobs that require specific experience only internal staff have, because they've already got an internal person in mind and are simply following the process they're obliged to follow.

And of course there's also the jobs I've applied for which have been advised to me are 'market tests', advertised simply to see if there's any interest in a possible role that they've got no budget for yet. I've appreciated those agents that have told me to not waste my time, but always been angry at those agents pushing for your interest in a fake job so they can prove to their client that there is interest, and hopefully get them to create the job. It's only after the client doesn't go through with it that the agent advises my application was for a fake job.

It's been a really frustrating time, trying to find work. It inspired me in February to try and create work instead, and I started my own web design business. But then yesterday I was inspired to find a boss I want to work with, instead of finding a job that I might not like. The result has been really exciting!

So I was inspired to do something to create the kind of change that I want. I worked on it into the night last night, going to bed around midnight, and then continued it today, until I was finally happy with it about mid afternoon.

www.alanseeksaboss.com

All I need to do now is share it out to the world and have it go viral so that hundreds of excellent bosses can see it and decide they want to apply for the role of being my boss!

Please help me with this by sharing it out to the world!

Use Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Tumblr... I don't care what you use, I just hope you can help me reach as many people as possible!

It would be awesome to be able to find a great and rewarding job by seeking a boss to apply for the role. It's creative, it's fresh, and it's exciting to think about how this might turn out!

Life comes first

One of the things that has always been important for me is to maintain my enjoyment of life, and I've always treated my life as more important than my work. I have never lived to work, I've always worked to live. It's often resulted in me feeling a bit sad as I've seen workmates work 10 or 12 hour days because their work has been more important to them than the rest of their life.

I know it's everyone choice as to what they do in their life, and how they want to do it, but I'm also aware of how much they're missing out on in their life because they're far too busy working. They miss spending quality time with their children, and they miss important events like school plays or even birthdays. Or some occasion important to their wife, or their husband. All because they feel they have to work their asses off in order to get paid so they can pay the bills.

I've never bought into the programming that I exist only to please the managers or the companies that I've worked for over the years. Thankfully most of the managers I've worked for have been of similar mind to me, and have done their 8 hours a day and then gone home. But there's been a few here and there who have done their 12 hour days and make it quite clear that they expect their subordinates to do the same.

Most people are too afraid for the security of their job that if they're asked to stay back or even if it's implied, then they'll work extra hard to make sure they keep that job.

And meanwhile, life passes them by, and all those things that they wished they could have been part of, are all gone.

It's never been me, and I doubt it'll ever be me. I think it's also why having my own business appeals to me so much, because I can set my own hours, and my own time, in accordance with what's important to me and the rest of my life. If I need to do a few 12 hour days, then I can at least schedule the work around the other events that I need or want to be part of.

Freedom.

Most people don't know what it's like. They don't know that they can take control of their situation and create freedom for themselves rather than continue being slaves, while forcing them to miss out on their life. They don't know that they could find a different job that gives them more freedom. Or they could start their own business and create the freedom for themselves.

Freedom is a luxury most people don't have, but they could have - if they really wanted it. But for one reason or another, they don't really want it. They prefer the sweet illusion of stability than the harsh reality of insecurity.

I think the harsh reality of insecurity has become a pattern throughout my life, but I'm happy that I've always had the time for all those occasions and people that are truly important to me.

As I move through my life, I'm going to continue focusing on making sure that my life is more important to me than my work. I'll always work to live, never live to work.

Which side do you lean towards? Do you live to work, or do you work to live?

Simple is good

One of the things that's been important to me is simplicity, and even though I've tried to use images in my website designs, I've always tried to find some kind of balance between simplicity and including imagery. I know that images help a website look better, but really, my own focus has mostly been on the material that I write.

And to be honest with you, it's been annoying having to find photos online that seem relevant to the content, when I don't really feel like making the content about the photos.

So I found a new blog theme tonight that I really like. It's one that's designed for accessibility on computers and mobile devices, while retaining its simplicity. I fell in love with it, and just had to use it. (And of course, being a Scanner, I love finding new and more interesting things to play with!)

Here's a few screenshots of how the display resizes according to the dimensions of the display it's being viewed on.

Normal size:



Smaller size:



Smartphone size:



 

And another thing that I like about this particular theme is that it has much better styling for the display of comments, so it's really obvious which comments are in reply to previous comments, as well as looking great! That was something that was bothering me about the previous theme, and other themes that I've been playing with - very few of them actually look at appropriate style controls for the comments, preferring to instead focus on everything else.

I'm happy now!

Oh, and you might have noticed I've added a custom avatar of myself. That was an enjoyable time this evening, trying to create something that looked like me. Did I succeed?



Close enough is good enough.  :)

The great vegetarian experiment

Each week I’m doing a new article sent directly to subscribers of The Journey Files that provides updates, insights, observations and information which just might help you with your own life journey. If you’re subscribing to it, that is.

My latest article is called The great vegetarian experiment. This is the first paragraph from it:

I was speaking with my wife last night about exploring the idea of becoming vegetarian. I know there are various health benefits associated with it, but I don't know what all of them are. I want to find out, and one of the best ways of finding out something is to explore it completely.

If you want to read it, as well as other articles that I write, I encourage you to subscribe. It’s on a ‘pay what you want’ basis, and your paid subscription will be helping to support my writing.

More information on The Journey Files and how you can subscribe is here. Thank you for your support!

I'll be deleting inactive subscribers every month

I found a new, interesting writer today (thanks for the referral, Miles!), who has a policy I quite like. On the 1st of every month he deletes from his mailing list all those subscribers who haven't opened any of his emails. I liked this so much, I'm going to do the same.

I recently had a cleanup of my mailing list, inviting everyone in the list to resubscribe to continue receiving the emailed updates I sent out about new blog posts. From the total number of subscribers, only about 25% replied to my invitation to continue subscribing.

From the 1st of May, I'm going to start deleting people who aren't opening my emails. It's a good way of keeping my mailing list active and up to date, with all the subscribers being involved in what I'm doing.

If you're not opening the emails, then there's no point being subscribed. Right? So I'll help you out by removing you from the list. If you ever want to get the emails again, you can always resubscribe at a later date.

Who's the writer? Karol Gajda. I like his style.

Enjoying the sights of Melbourne

This past week has been q

The journey is getting better

I've been out and about today, enjoying some of the sights of the Melbourne CBD. You can see the photos here - Alan's Eyes Photography. Make sure you LIKE that page to keep up to date with my photos in the future. I love taking and sharing photos of my journey. Often daily!

I took this photo at Centre Place, Melbourne

I was out meeting someone this morning who might be a new client for my web design, and who might also be able to get me some new work as a business analyst in the future. It'll be interesting to see how that develops.

After the meeting, Fanfan and I went for a walk around the CBD, seeing some of the sights, enjoying a coffee, and taking photos before going back home again.

All the services have been connected, including the internet (thank the Gods!), and the furniture was delivered yesterday morning. It was great to sleep on our actual bed last night instead of the camping beds we've been using the previous 3 nights. Ow, my poor back!

I've got two website proposals to do and send out tomorrow. And with the internet connected at home, I'll start doing some real web design work again. Woohoo!

I feel like things are getting back to some semblance of normality, even if it's in a new city now. It's starting to feel like home already.