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Someone on my timeline retweeted a series of tweets that @sarahkendzior made on what she called the internship scam. I believe she was responding to an article on unpaid internships.  I’m putting all the tweets together here.

Here is how the internship scam works. It’s not about a “skills” gap. It’s about a morality gap.
1) Make higher education worthless by redefining “skill” as a specific corporate contribution. Tell young people they have no skills.
2) With “skill” irrelevant, require experience. Make internship sole path to experience. Make internships unpaid, locking out all but rich.
3) End on the job training for entry level jobs. Educated told skills are irrelevant. Uneducated told they have no way to obtain skills.
4) As wealthy progress on professional career path, middle and lower class youth take service jobs to pay off massive educational debt.
5) Make these part-time jobs not “count” on resume. Hire on prestige, not skill or education. Punish those who need to work to survive.
6) Punish young people who never found any kind of work the hardest. Make them untouchables — unhireable.
7) Tell wealthy young people they are “privileged” to be working 40 hrs/week for free. Don’t tell them what kind of “privileged” it is.
8) Make status quo commentary written by unpaid interns or people hiring unpaid interns. They will tell you it’s your fault.
9) Young people, it is not your fault. Speak out. Fight back. Bankrupt the prestige economy.

I’m not sure I agree with everything. Some of her points hit on what I was faced with in my last job search a few years ago and a little bit on this one.

A lot of companies don’t care about work you did in your classes or part-time work you did while you were in school. I think I gained some valuable knowledge in school. Over the past few weeks, I’ve spoken to several people who didn’t understand that I worked for Mississippi State University for 5.5 years after I graduated. They think that work was part of my studies, so it doesn’t count. I don’t know how to make it clearer on my resume. I wonder how many have seen my resume and not called back because they thought I only had 1.5 years of full-time experience instead of 7+ years.

I’m not applying for entry level jobs, but a few years ago, I would’’ve been happy to take one. Why do so many entry level jobs ask for a couple of years of experience? What ever happened to finding a bright person and training them on how to do their job?

It’s good that some can afford to take a paid internship, but I don’t think I could have done that. Yes, being out of work does hurt you.

Software engineering is such a broad field, it’s hard to know everything. You can have many years of experience, but if you’re missing one specific skill you can be overlooked. So what if your past experience makes it easy to pick up on new technologies.

Anyway, my job search continues. I’ve had some good interviews and some not so good ones where I didn’t really connect with the interviewer. I’ve been told that I needed more experience in one skill and I’ve been told that I’m overqualified. I’ve also been told that I’m a good fit for the company, but they don’t have anywhere to put me yet. Hopefully, something will turn up soon.

I was laid off today along with 2 other co-workers that I know of. I believe my bosses when they say it was a business decision. They didn’t have anywhere to use me. The last 2 projects I was supposed to work on ending up getting postponed by the client. Lately, I’ve been working on an internal project, which doesn’t make the company any money. Unfortunately, I’m one of the least experienced people in the office (I have over 7 years under my belt), so I guess it’s easier to get rid of me. The guys that I know were laid off are all pretty young.

It all came as a total shock. I assumed that they would find another project for me to work on. There was a mention of this happening soon less than a week ago. So it was a big surprise when I was told that I was being let go and that my network access would be turned off today.

I was about a week away from closing on a new home. Right before I got the bad news, I was on the phone speaking with my real estate agent about the signing and a few minutes before that I was getting the last piece of info the lender needed. Unless, I can find a new job by Monday (today is Thursday), I’m probably going to lose the house.

I am very disappointed. It was the best, most fun job I’ve ever had. I had so much flexibility and I related to my co-workers well. I felt like I was able to express myself without worrying about people thinking I was weird. My next job is going to be compared to this one and I’m not sure it’ll stack up well. They said they might be able to bring me back sometime down the road, but I can’t really wait on that. I’m sure everything will work out fine and I’ll bounce back. I’m grateful for the opportunity and the valuable experience.

Time for another adventure. Thanks to referrals from friends, I have a few calls lined up tomorrow. Tonight, one of the 2 others guys who were laid off is coming over and there will be much alcohol consumed.

Last weekend, my company had its annual company meeting / Christmas party in San Diego, which is where our headquarters is. It was the first one for me though. John came from Mississippi to hang out in San Diego and go to the party with me. The event was on Friday, but we spent Thursday night – Sunday morning in San Diego. We all stayed at the Hard Rock Hotel.

The early Friday activities were just for employees. We had lunch and did some team building exercises. It was great meeting people from the San Diego headquarters and the San Francisco area offices that I had never met before and getting to see the people again that I had previously met. There were a few new hires who hadn’t started yet, but still got to come join the fun.

We took a break and then saw a presentation about where the company is and where we’re going. I’m very much looking forward to the New Year.

After that we took another short break to get ready for the actual party. We had to dress up for this. It’s the first time I’ve had to put on a suit in years. They herded us all on a bus and took us to the yacht we were going to be on for the next few hours. Fancy, huh? After a few cocktails, we had dinner and an awards ceremony. The awards were mostly jokes, like getting an award for always bringing food to the office. Next up was casino night. The amount of chips you had at the end determined how many raffle tickets you got for the drawing later on. The prizes were a 13” MacBook Pro with Retina display, a 4th generation iPad (I think), and an iPad Mini. I wasn’t going to gamble because I prefer gambling on slot machines. John convinced me to play at the end and I got in a few hands before time was up. When we traded in our chips for raffle tickets, I the dealer gave me a few extra, probably because I didn’t get to play long. When they drew names for the third place price, the iPad mini, they drew one of my numbers! I was shocked! I never win prizes! After we left the boat we went back to the hotel and partied some more. I don’t drink much and I had way too much that night on the boat and at the hotel. After some more socializing, I went back to my room. There are some things about this night I don’t remember. Bits and pieces have been coming back to me over the past week, though. John ended up going out with some of my co-workers and their guests.

Saturday, John and I hung out in San Diego. We did a lot of walking, some shopping, some of the same stuff he did while I was in meetings the day before. I had my first ever brunch. Later went to Balboa Park where there was some kind of fair or something going on. We went to some of the museums and met one of his friends that lives in San Diego. I went to bed kind of early because I had an early flight, but John went out again.

Sunday, it was back to Portland.

I had a blast that weekend. It was great hanging out with John, being in San Diego again, and spending time with co-workers outside of work. I’m already looking forward to next year.

Man, I’ve been neglecting this blog again. I meant to write something after I had been in Portland for a month, but I never got around to it. Things are so busy. I never even finished unpacking. I’ve been here a little over 2 months now, so I figured I should say something.

I love Portland! Yes, it’s rained a lot, but I’ve gotten used to that. I actually like the rain. Lately, we’ve had some really great, sunny weekends though. I’m sure I’ve made many mental observations about what I like better about Oregon than Mississippi, but I didn’t write them down, so I’ll probably miss a few. I like that there’s no sales tax here. That’s saved me a good bit of money. I like that there’s a lot of places to shop. I’ve done a lot of shopping. I like that there’s a comic book store and a Best Buy nearby. I saw a Facebook post from this time last year where I was complaining about not having either one. I like the beautiful scenery. I like the nice people. I like that doctors, dentists, and vets are open on weekends. The biggest complaint so far is that I haven’t found any BBQ that’s as good as Southern BBQ. From what I’ve seen, a lot of the stereotypes about Portland do have at least a little bit of truth to them. Just watch an episode or two of Portlandia and you’ll see what I mean.

I also love my job. The work is a lot more interesting here than at my last job. I get to work with cutting edge technologies and I’m learning a lot. We move at a much faster pace and that took some getting used to. We have a small office and I’m probably the youngest and most inexperienced person there. Things are going well though.

Because of all the long hours I’m putting in at work on this project that’s ending, I haven’t met people outside of work and I haven’t done much in Portland yet. I think that will change soon. In my free time, I have gone to a Greg Rucka book singing, gone to the Spring Beer & Wine Fest, gotten a tattoo, gone to a screening of the new Morgan Spurlock movie after which he did a Q&A, and gone to a Marc Meron comedy show. Except for the tattoo, I couldn’t have done any of that in Starkville.

I’m glad that I made the decision to come here. Maybe I can get some friends to visit soon.

One benefit of working at home: It’s been about a month since I filled my gas tank and I still have a little under a quarter of a tank left.

One drawback of working at home: I’m going a little stir crazy. Other than trips to the gym and to the grocery store, I haven’t gotten out much lately. I’ve probably said this before, but this town is so boring. I’m glad to be leaving.

I think I’m going to the movies this weekend. Haywire looks really good and it’s getting good reviews. I’m interested in Red Tails as well. Watching the Golden Globes this past weekend made me realize that I slacked off on movies last year. That’s partially because a lot of movies I’m interested in don’t play in Starkville, but it’s also because it’s a lot easier and cheaper to stay home. Maybe I’ll go to Columbus and do some shopping as well.

It’s the time of year for reflection and introspection. I figured I should look back on the list of things I wanted to do in 2011.

• Move. I decided not to move to a new place in Starkville, because I was pretty certain I would be leaving Starkville. I’ll be moving to Portland in February. Not quite 2012, but close enough.
• Go to my first convention. I went to San Diego Comic-Con in July and had a blast. If I don’t go back this year, I may go to one of the Seattle-based conventions.
• Keep exercising. I kept up the good work I started last year. I’ve lost about another 40 lbs this year. Hopefully, I can maintain my good habits in the new year.
• Buy new clothes. I bought a few pairs of jeans and some underwear before Comic-Con, but other than that I didn’t do so well. Losing weight gave me an excuse not to buy more. The jeans I bought are already feeling a little too big. I’ll do better next year.
• Learn something new. I learned some new stuff for my old job and I’ve already started learning new stuff for my new job.I think that counts.
• Meet new people. I met a lot of people at Comic-Con, but I didn’t meet any local people. I can’t wait to get out and start meeting people in Portland.
• Listen to music more often. I did well at this at the beginning of the year. I even unsubscribed to a lot of podcasts. At Comic-Con, though, I met a lot of podcasters and started listening to all of their podcasts. I’ll work in that next year
• Blog more. Once again, I started out well, but slacked off. I lot of times I do have things to say, but by the time I get around to writing about it, it doesn’t seem like it’s worth it. With all the changes coming in the new year, I’m sure I’ll be blogging more.

I think I did well for the most part. Soon I’ll come up with a list for 2012.

In case you haven’t heard, I have a new job! I’ve done a bad job of spreading the word, but hey, I have been talking about it since I found out less than 2 weeks ago. My last day at Mississippi State University is Friday, December 16, which 3 days from now and 1 day before my birthday.

The name of the company that I’ll be working for is Tactel US. They’re based in San Diego, but they have offices in Portland and Sweden. I think they even have some positions in the San Francisco Bay area. I’ll be working in the Portland office. The interview process was pretty painless and they made me an offer the week after Thanksgiving. I’m thankful to them for giving me this opportunity. I don’t already know everything I’ll need to know, but I will have a chance to learn.

I’ll be starting on December 19th and working remotely from Starkville at first. Then I’ll take some time off and I suppose that’s when I’ll move. I’m looking forward to it. I’m a little nervous about starting with a new company, working with new people, and moving so far away from my family, but change is good.

I’m sure I’ll be talking about my new job a lot in the coming months.

I updated my resume on Dice recently and applied for a few positions just to see what might happen. Shortly afterwards I started getting a flood of emails and phone calls from tech staffing companies. This has happened before. Talking to them ended up being a waste of time. I think it is best to work directly with the companies that are hiring. I did say that I would at least consider every opportunity presented. I just wasn’t going to go out of my way unless I was really interested. I wish they would pay attention to my location preferences, because I’m being told about opportunities all over the place.

One staffing company presented my resume to Walmart. Walmart apparently acts very quickly. After 1 quick conversation with the staffing company, Walmart was ready to fly me out to their headquarters in Arkansas for an interview. The staffing company made it sound like there was a good chance I could receive an offer while I was there. After thinking about it, I told them I would pass on the interview. I don’t think I was to live in Northwest Arkansas. I think that’s in the Ozark region. It seems like it would be like living in Starkville, maybe worse. The types of businesses I was looking for weren’t close by and it’s one of the most conservative areas in the country. Also, the population isn’t as diverse as I would’ve liked. The cost of living in that area is about the same as Starkville and I would have been making a lot more money, but it wasn’t worth it. I should have said no sooner. Not only do I not like the location, but I am philosophically opposed to working for Walmart. I don’t even shop there anymore unless I need something quickly that I can’t get at the grocery store.

A software company in my hometown area in central Mississippi started show interest in me. Their website says that you don’t have to be Christian, but you have to abide by their Christian-based ideals to work for them. That was an immediate turnoff. I’m fine with Christians, but I’m not one and I don’t think that should be in the workplace unless it’s religious field. I found information online from either current or previous employees. Apparently, you’re encouraged to be a good Christian and support the Republican Party. If, like me, you’re not Christian and Republican, you probably won’t fit in there. I had pretty much made my decision to not pursue them any further when they invited me with just a few hours notice to an event they were having on campus. I declined, saying that I had another engagement. That engagement was going to the gym and getting home in time for the Community season premiere. I haven’t heard from them since.

I’m getting tons of phone calls and emails, but I’m ignoring most of them for various reasons. It’s nice to feel wanted, but it’s also nice that I can be picky. I’ll keep testing the waters for a while.

Man, I haven’t had much to say since Comic-Con.  I have recovered, but I keep wishing I could go back.  I’ve even had dreams about being in San Diego.  I have made a few adjustments in the past month.

• I’ve started going to bed earlier and because of that I’m getting up earlier.  Who’d have thought that going to be earlier makes it easier to get up in the morning?  Weird how that works.  When I get to work early, I feel like I have conquered the day.

• I started eating bigger but also healthy dinners so I won’t have to snack as much at night.  When I do snack, I tend to eat fruit instead of chips and candy.  I did this because I had reached a point where I wasn’t losing anymore weight even though I wanted to lose another 10 pounds.  Since I made those changes I’ve lost 7 pounds.

• I cut back on the number of TV shows that I’m watching and the number of new fall TV shows that I want to watch.  It had become a chore to keep up with all the shows I was watching.  Now I have more time to devote to my other hobbies.  I’m thinking about picking up something new, I just haven’t figured out what it will be yet.

I made a quick, stealthy trip to Austin a couple of weeks ago. A small video game company flew me out there to interview with them. My boss knew about it, but I didn’t tell many other people about. I didn’t want to get my hopes up. I’m flattered that they paid for me come out there. I don’t think I’m going to get the job, but it was great being back in Austin again, even if it was only 15 hours. Strangely enough it was 1 year ago that weekend that I made my first trip to Austin to see Conan O’Brien. I’m pretty sure that city is going to be my next home. It’s just a matter of when.

Side Note: It was my first flight in over 11 years. I went from Jackson to Chicago to Austin. The trip back was Austin to Houston to Jackson. This all took place over about 30 hours. I was so tired of flying once it was all over.