No Degree? No Open Door!

As I continue to look for a new work home, I run into the obstacle of not having a degree quite often. There are many things I would redo if I could. Tell the 20-year-old Jesse to stay in school, even though I was working 40 plus hours a week while going to school. Tell the 30-year-old Jesse that even though you will work 14 years at BancTec and no one cared there if you had a degree or not, to go finish school because one day you will need that paper. I’m now 60, with 30 years of Customer Service, Contact Center, Customer advocate experience but with no degree, some people won’t even talk to me.

There are certain jobs where I understand why a Degree is important. No one wants an Accountant with no degree. No one wants a nurse or a doctor, an engineer or an architect with out a degree. But if you need someone to lead a contact center or to work with a team to keep client’s happy, doesn’t experience mean more than something I did 30 years ago?

The search for a new job is dark an full of terrors. I know that I’m not the perfect person for every job but can you at least talk to me via the phone before saying no?

Thus ended today’s #jobsearch2020 rant.

TBT Daniel Johnson

Welcome to 2020, one of the things I want to try and do is to release a “classic” episode of the podcast each Thursday for a Throw Back Thursday. This week, I’m going back to January 2017 and my discussion with filmmaker Daniel Johnson and his web series East Street Mary and Dave.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otOZRfL2azM

Daniel’s Twitter @danieljohnsonuk 
Jesse’s Twitter @JesseJacksonDFW
http://setlustingbruce.libsyn.com/tbt-daniel-johnson

Losing a radio friend

If you listen to the podcast you’ve probably heard me talking about the local sports radio station, I listen to often. Sports Radio 1310 The Ticket has been my choice of radio companions for over 20 years. If I’m not listening to E Street Radio, my radio is turned to The Ticket.

The guys on the station are funny, insightful, thought provoking and always entertaining. Dallas (like many cities) is a little sports crazy and The Ticket has kept me informed and entertained about the sports scene for a long time.

Chris grew up listing to The Musers, Bob and Dan, Norm and The Hardline. He and I are both big P1’s (the station’s name for listeners). Through the station, I have become good friends with my co-hosts for How Many (http://howmanypodcast.libsyn.com/podcast) Bob, Junior and Scott. The station helped me to laugh and feel better during dark times like losing my father, unemployment and cancer. They are a good companion on this part of the ride.

On Monday January 6th 2020, Mike Rhyner the cofounder of the ticket and cohost of the afternoon drive show The Hardline, announced his retirment. The Old Grey Wolf ( @theoldgreywolf ) is an radio legend in Dallas. His love of Baseball, Tom Petty, Steely Dan and other passions are well know. He and I both had children that attended Catholic Grade Schools and we would meet often at various church events. At remotes and other live events, Mike would always recognize me and offer me the warmest of greetings.

Mike is in good health. He has no beef with the station. He’s just decided that it’s time to turn the page and to go future on down the road. His opinion of the Great Game (baseball), the Cowboys, Mavericks and other sports topics will be missed. His love for music and his passion for Tom Petty (he leads Petty Theft a Tom Petty tribute band) will be missed. His voice coming through my car speakers will be missed.

Live long and prosper Mike. You are an origional and I will you nothing but happiness and success in what every road you choose to take going forward. Stay Hard Mike and keep jamming.

Job Search 2020

Happy New Year, sort of. On January 2nd, I was told by the powers that be that my services would no longer be needed at my company. They were very polite about it and I do feel as if they did not come to the decision easily. Money needed to be spent elsewhere and they decided that my role could be done by the rest of the team. Happy New Year indeed.

I’m now in my 2nd job search in the past 4 years. If you have been through it you know that there is nothing fun about it. The worry about money, health insurance is just part of it. The dark grey gloom that settles over you is something that is hard to shake. You need to keep a positive attitude but at the same time, you have to be realistic.

The up and down of interviewing can wear you down. You have an interview that seems to have gone great. You can picture yourself working there, you go back home and wait for feedback. You can wait days if not weeks to get told that “while your qualifications were impressive, we’ve decided to go in another direction.”

During the next few weeks (months) as I look for a new work home, I will need everyone’s good thoughts and help. Knowing that my fellow Bruce fans are there to help, means a great deal.

I did want to mention that if you had ever considered buying a Set Lusting Bruce shirt or donating to the podcast, now would be a great time to do so. No pressure, just a suggestion if you were considering it.

Let’s hope that I’m back at work soon so I can start saving for 2020 tour dates!