http://www.jobster.com/at/person/show/34242?hbxcmp=feed&hbxsrc=rss_user_answers http://www.jobster.com/at/assets/images/jobster/logos/rss_logo.gif http://www.jobster.com/at/person/show/34242?hbxcmp=feed&hbxsrc=rss_user_answers Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:40:25 GMT Most recently updated answers by Jon Osterholm http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/228162?answer_class=AnswerBase What I do at Indra? I began doing reports and other items for submittal to government (military) customers. I have been involved with setting up process flowcharts, proposals, press releases; other writing-related and business development / planning efforts. The company's interests began to change and I sought other work when the signs were clear that my contract was not going to last. Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:40:25 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/228162?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/145007?answer_class=AnswerBase I was the founder, editor, sales and business manager, and the production manager for the Gazette. If you perceive that I did nearly everything, then you'd be sharp. I essentially had my hands, not always gladly but willingly, in every facet of the operation. It was a small paper, printed twice monthly, for a city next to Nashville. It started because the city and chamber of commerce wanted a newspaper. What I, and those who were able and capable of helping me, did, was create a very good local paper, with current and feature news, a custom crossword, custom display ads, national ads, agency ads, classified ads, a community calendar, and more. I learned much about working under stress, always innovating even under the least desirable circumstances, pleasing customers, doing page design, color correction, ad sales, community relations, and business administration, that I cannot even guess how it appfected my work skills in total. It was a consuming and far-reaching effort for me, done out of love for communicating, media, and all the creative aspects: writing, design, photography, illustration, and more. It developed further my willingness to do anything any try anything to improve a business (with or) without front-end capital. Did it burn me out? Absolutely! Did I enjoy it in some sicko workaholic learn-by-doing way? You can bet your iPhone on that! I am very secure in the thought that I did everything to make The Gazette a viable news and marketing resource for a community and its businesses. I could not do it alone forever and several attempts to sell/merge the product didn't pan out despite my efforts. It closed in June 2000. One school of thought would say I failed since it closed (this is right, in its obviousness, but wrong in practical terms); another school would say that I succeeded in doing many things and being a valid representative of a community, but there was only so far I could manage it without the proper backing (this would be practical and looking at -- not the long-run impact of the business, but -- the long-term results of the periodical). I agree with the second school: sometimes good things go away, but not without leaving something relevant behind. I really cultivated a community for a larger company to move in behind me (with a product that was far less impressive, sadly). The city got what the market demanded: PR stories and 70% ads. You will always bring your experience with you, so always do the best work and challenge yourself to do more than you think you can. That's something I learned along the way at The Gazette. The rewards may not be obvious, but they will prove their worth in you, despite even a vulture-like behavior of some who are waiting for you to fail, rather than support you, or even work with you. Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:38:38 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/145007?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/51004?answer_class=AnswerBase The 3 best things: 1. It was a new newspaper in 2000, which is a rare thing in the 21st century, indeed. I was eager to be a part of it for the challenge of it. 2. I was challenged every day: my talents, my variety of tasks, maintaining clear paths of communication between all players (editors, page designers, advertising sales and management, and upper leadership). It didn't always happen very simply, as everyone, some less amicably than others, have their own agendas. 3. It was (and is today) competing with a very established competitor for ads and for readers (a regional daily), and that's always an interesting position to be in. Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:28:43 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/51004?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/228164?answer_class=AnswerBase I work for this large staffing company through an Orlando subsidiary TAD PGS (acronyms, not abbreviations). First at Piper Aircraft, then Indra. Thu, 28 Jun 2007 04:17:25 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/228164?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/150678?answer_class=AnswerBase My career, up to this point, has been a broad 360-degree revolution from my college education and desire to enter media to today. I was educated at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, in Daytona Beach (ERAU) where I joined the student newspaper and quickly became one of the dedicated regulars, eventually becoming Editor-in-Chief. I was elected twice to that role, and I was equally drawn to such roles. So, as I earned a Aviation Bus. Admin. degree there, I was hooked by media: desktop publishing, writing, editing and more. I have worked in a broad variety of positions in media for most of my career, doing a few notable things: I launched three media businesses as an integral part of creative and management efforts. After a bit of a false restart after getting laid off from the daily I helped start, I came upon a technical writing position with an airplane manufacturer. I did lots of research, clarification and other work involved in a thorough technical writing and illustration job (Piper Aircraft). Then I went on to do technical and proposals writing and editing at a simulations and road tolling company (Indra Systems). It pays better than news media, and while it doesn't offer the daily hussle and challenge of media, it's good work and I do use my mind (though more sometimes than at other times). I am doing creative stuff for the need and joy of it, always, whether it's writing, illustrating, photography, and music. I have an entrepreneurial outlook which, fundamentally, means I don't look for reasons to avoid innovating on the job. I certainly do not hide behind job descriptions. Never have, and never hope that I have to do that. Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:22:35 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/150678?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/508611?answer_class=AnswerBase Novelist and non-fiction author. Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:20:54 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/508611?answer_class=AnswerBase http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/150690?answer_class=AnswerBase My most bizarre interview experience is, without a doubt, a trip I took to downtown Miami, from Pompano Beach, Florida, on the regional train system. The ride was a first for me. I switched to the Metro to get to downtown Miami and walked, in the Florida summer heat, to the highrise office building where this interview was meant to take place, before 11 am. It was sunny and hot! The thing was, the trip was what I thought would be the most wasteful part of day (though I read a newspaper on the way there). However, the worst was yet to come. I arrived at the office, waited around 40 minutes until the president of this apparently leading-edge information company (newsletter and web site info for a specific financial/security field) made his way out to greet me. One problem: his assistant, who was out the day I showed up, the one who set the interview and confirmed it with an email to me, neglected to clue in anyone ELSE about my interview. No one, not the prez, not the woman at the reception desk, NO ONE knew I was meant to be there. In short, I spent an entire business day -- round-trip -- traveling and waiting, only to be told no one understood that I was to be interviewed, and the president did a rather shocking-bad job of trying to care that I was there. (Reset the appointment? Naah - just muddle through half-interested.) His assistant was the impromptu HR coordinator for this growing company. So much for doing that duty effectively. It was an amazing waste of a day. But, I got to ride the train! I had not ridden on a train, even a subway or monorail, in a long time. So all was not lost, but I resolved myself to double-check an appointment BEFORE leaving for it, from now on. I mean, with someone like an HR manager or the actual interviewee if I can manage that. Of course, I'd do it considerately, unlike how the prez of that Miami company handled my effort to interview with him. Mon, 12 Nov 2007 12:36:32 GMT http://www.jobster.com/at/answer/view/150690?answer_class=AnswerBase