Links:
Sites About Me
Excellence
-
http://excellence.bergren.net
Pics -
http://picasaweb.google.com/rnbergren
Bibles - Family Bibles
Polk City - www.polkcity.org
Church - www.ridgelife.org
Need a PDF Form -
www.bergren.net/pdf
DMACC - wwww.dmacc.edu
http://rnbergren.stumbleupon.com/
twitter
Linked In
Having fun being a father and a web geek.
Hello, my name is
Rod Bergren
Who am Who am I? I am a
geek/programmer/webmaster/manager for the bestest company.
I write applications for Web Services and Windows. I also do on the side
contract programming as my time allows (which is not very much).
Friday, December 11, 2020
Lost my Job in January - my thoughts on how to get your next job
tldr; Do something each day to move you forward.
2020 has been rough on everyone. I am not alone in this. In January of 2020, I lost my job due to 'budget' cuts. It was BS. The leader of the department did not like me and to be honest I didn't think much of that individual either. My Good Boss had retired 7 months before and I had seen the writing on the wall for a few months so I was not surprised in the least.
It was a surreal experience to say the least. I was offered in essence 9 months of salary. But I was going to walked to the curb right now. That was interesting and not surprising. What was sucky though was I was not allowed to say good bye to any of my co-workers. That was how management worked in this department. The entire department was taken to another room and held there away from me while I got to pack up my desk and leave. What made it even more surreal was that I had an interview already scheduled for the next day. It was a job that I felt I was perfect fit.
So home I went.
Got up the next day went in for the interview, It went well. Called back for a 2nd interview and guess what. I didn't get the job. Also, found out during this time that my mother in law (who I loved) was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not kewl. Spent the next month or so just spending time in the garage building stuff and going over to see her and the family. I think having that time off was good for me. and for my family.
I didn't really start looking for a job until March. Remember when COVID hit? yep about that time. Great time to be looking for a job.
Here was my process.
1. I treated looking for a job just like a regular job.
2. I got up each morning. I dressed as if I was going to work. Then I went to my home office and I worked on finding a job.
3. I looked at the various job boards. I considered the positions that were available and I picked 1 or maybe 2 to apply for. I spent at least an hour or two writing or tweaking the resume and developing a cover letter for the position. I entered the position in an spreadsheet and tracked date applied etc...
4. It would now be noon or after. I would have some lunch. And head to either my office to work on learning new skills or to my workshop to build something. I built I cannot even tell you how many side tables, desks, cat trees, etc... during this time. The wood shortage for COVID hadn't really hit yet. So I was able to run my menards card up quite a bit.
5. I worked each day at working. I took weekends off. But I treated looking for a job as if it were a job.
End of April I was offered a consulting gig with the State. It was a very good position. I accepted it. Turned out to be a great group and I was able to offer them alot of help and it was rewarding. I worked from home so that enabled me to be flexible and I enjoyed the working from home. I actually quit looking for another job because COVID and stuff.
End of May, one thing alot of people don't know. I got a very serious MRSA infection in the back of my head. I was very sick. Due to the nature of my position. I could not afford to take time off. I also was having a huge fever etc.. This is great in the middle of pandemic when you need to go to the doctor.
First of August, Job is going well, I am settled in. State is even talking to me about becoming a fulltime permanent employee. I am seriously considering it. It isn't my dream job. But it is a good job and it pays the bills and the people I was working with are really nice. But along comes from out of nowhere a chance at what for me would be a dream position. Long story short. I applied interviewed 4 times and now am in a dream job for me.
Lessons I learn and continue to learn each day.
FROG - kind of my catch all right now. It means Fully Rely On God. Each day I put a silicon bracelet on with FROG on it. It reminds me that God is in control and I need to just rely on Him. If you want one as well. Just ask. I have some extras. Always.
Keep Learning - I took the 9 months off as a chance to both learn what the job search process was now and I also took full advantage of every learning opportunity that I was offered during this time. Whether it was a recruiter telling me what I did wrong in an interview or the guy at the hardware store telling me the best way to apply some stain.
Don't count on your employment situation. The economy changes, the work changes, leadership changes. Mine did. Yours probably will. I think my new company is great. But they are in this to make money and if things change. I fully expect them to make good business decisions. My new boss? Yes he is a good guy. So as long as the boss is good. The position is good.
My advice to you. If you are in the position I was in. First Step back and consider your position in life. Take a day perhaps a month then start. Do something each day to move your search forward. Don't trust that just because you are the perfect fit for a job that you will get it. Until you are receiving paychecks. You don't actually have a job.
If you have questions for me or want to talk feel free to reach out.
Friday, October 2, 2020
Mouse Mover (keep your screen awake)
so you want to appear to be online for work. Even though you know not one person is going to IM you. But your Boss might be watching your online status.
so you look for a little application that will move your mouse to keep your screen from sleeping because IT has forced your computer to go to sleep after X minutes of inactivity.
Well never fear. Here is a script for you.
First though you need to download and install Autohotkey. https://www.autohotkey.com/
then you need to copy and paste this script into a notepad file called stayawake.ahk or something like that.
Start------
;
; AutoHotkey Version: 1.x
; Language: English
; Platform: Win9x/NT
; Author: A.N.Other <myemail@nowhere.com>
;
; Script Function:
; Template script (you can customize this template by editing "ShellNew\Template.ahk" in your Windows folder)
;
Loop
{
Sleep,90000
if(A_TimeIdle>180000)
mousemove, 5,5, 50, R
if(A_TimeIdle>380000)
mousemove, -5,-5, 50, R
if(A_TimeIdle>450000)
send {tab}
}
end-------
*cough*
I claim no liability in this code. I claim nothing. *cough* I have never actually used this in real life *cough*
I am not responsible for you not getting your job done
*cough*
Tuesday, July 14, 2020
America makes me sad right now.
you know what amazes me in this day and age? The amount of people who don't even try to see the others view point. Their only outlet is to attack. I remember in school being taught to think and consider the argument from the other side. I remember being forced to argue a viewpoint I didn't actually agree with. Makes you walk a mile in the other persons shoes.
Funny thing is. If you actually have to take the time to consider another persons point of view you actually begin to feel empathy for them. And of course no one wants to do that right now. Attack we say Attack!
Notice I didn’t say one word about which side I am on. I will say that I try very hard to consider a persons point of view when they state it. I remember visiting a large city a few years ago. I remember an individual in that large city could only see things from his view point. He could not consider anyone outside of what he could see. That made me sad,you see, it isn't just a problem in cities; it's also in rural America. And in suburbia as well. You have to be able to argue both points in order to understand what you believe. If you cannot understand your brother or sister who is American then you cannot understand America.
Tuesday, February 25, 2020
hookdrivers - Something new I am trying
It works well and at the Fishermans Swap meet this weekend I sold out of all my products both days. I had to make more one evening in a hurry. If you want one please email me. Rod@bergren.net
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Spillway Road in winter
Took the doggos for a walk. It was very cold. They loved it of course. It was gorgeous in its own way.
Thursday, January 9, 2020
SharePoint Grant-SPProjectAdminstratorAccess Error.
"Grant-SPProjectAdministratorAccess : Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'WRES_GUID', table 'ProjectWebApp_EPM.pub.MSP_WEB_SECURITY_GROUP_MEMBERS'; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails. Table 'MSP_WEB_SECURITY_GROUP"
Yes, this big ol error.
Turns out we had moved from one primary domain to another. You know company changes hands or changes names or someone decides that they don't like the Domain name for some reason. Most of the users we had in the Domain moved just fine except for 2 Admins. Of course it always has to be the admin ID's.
There was absolutely nothing in the Googlina that was worth looking at. Yay! I was just about to call Microsoft and pay the fee to have someone tell me how to fix it.
Since it was actually a Development system that was erroring out. I decided to try making it worse before calling and begging.
Opened up the Manage Users page for the PWA instance. /PWA/Admin/ManageUsers.aspx
Search for the user. Well paged down and paged down and paged down. (search didn't work)
Edit user(Click User Name). Reattach the userid to the correct email address with the correct domain. john.doe@RightDomain.com
Then the Powershell command worked. and the Admin has access to DEV to do DEV work.
YAY!
Monday, September 16, 2019
Caught a bee in flight
Went driving in SW Iowa this weekend. Caught a bee in flight in my window of my truck. The background was pretty as well.
More
pictures are here.
From Ariea
Other stuff of interest to people possibly.
Trip to Tahiti.
Belize
is nice as well
Pics - http://picasaweb.google.com/rnbergren
Bibles - Family Bibles
Polk City - www.polkcity.org
Church - www.ridgelife.org
Need a PDF Form - www.bergren.net/pdf
http://rnbergren.stumbleupon.com/
Linked In
Having fun being a father and a web geek.
Hello, my name is
Rod Bergren
Who am Who am I? I am a geek/programmer/webmaster/manager for the bestest company. I write applications for Web Services and Windows. I also do on the side contract programming as my time allows (which is not very much).
| Friday, December 11, 2020 Lost my Job in January - my thoughts on how to get your next job tldr; Do something each day to move you forward. 2020 has been rough on everyone. I am not alone in this. In January of 2020, I lost my job due to 'budget' cuts. It was BS. The leader of the department did not like me and to be honest I didn't think much of that individual either. My Good Boss had retired 7 months before and I had seen the writing on the wall for a few months so I was not surprised in the least. It was a surreal experience to say the least. I was offered in essence 9 months of salary. But I was going to walked to the curb right now. That was interesting and not surprising. What was sucky though was I was not allowed to say good bye to any of my co-workers. That was how management worked in this department. The entire department was taken to another room and held there away from me while I got to pack up my desk and leave. What made it even more surreal was that I had an interview already scheduled for the next day. It was a job that I felt I was perfect fit. So home I went. Got up the next day went in for the interview, It went well. Called back for a 2nd interview and guess what. I didn't get the job. Also, found out during this time that my mother in law (who I loved) was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Not kewl. Spent the next month or so just spending time in the garage building stuff and going over to see her and the family. I think having that time off was good for me. and for my family. I didn't really start looking for a job until March. Remember when COVID hit? yep about that time. Great time to be looking for a job. Here was my process. 1. I treated looking for a job just like a regular job. 2. I got up each morning. I dressed as if I was going to work. Then I went to my home office and I worked on finding a job. 3. I looked at the various job boards. I considered the positions that were available and I picked 1 or maybe 2 to apply for. I spent at least an hour or two writing or tweaking the resume and developing a cover letter for the position. I entered the position in an spreadsheet and tracked date applied etc... 4. It would now be noon or after. I would have some lunch. And head to either my office to work on learning new skills or to my workshop to build something. I built I cannot even tell you how many side tables, desks, cat trees, etc... during this time. The wood shortage for COVID hadn't really hit yet. So I was able to run my menards card up quite a bit. 5. I worked each day at working. I took weekends off. But I treated looking for a job as if it were a job. End of April I was offered a consulting gig with the State. It was a very good position. I accepted it. Turned out to be a great group and I was able to offer them alot of help and it was rewarding. I worked from home so that enabled me to be flexible and I enjoyed the working from home. I actually quit looking for another job because COVID and stuff. End of May, one thing alot of people don't know. I got a very serious MRSA infection in the back of my head. I was very sick. Due to the nature of my position. I could not afford to take time off. I also was having a huge fever etc.. This is great in the middle of pandemic when you need to go to the doctor. First of August, Job is going well, I am settled in. State is even talking to me about becoming a fulltime permanent employee. I am seriously considering it. It isn't my dream job. But it is a good job and it pays the bills and the people I was working with are really nice. But along comes from out of nowhere a chance at what for me would be a dream position. Long story short. I applied interviewed 4 times and now am in a dream job for me. Lessons I learn and continue to learn each day. FROG - kind of my catch all right now. It means Fully Rely On God. Each day I put a silicon bracelet on with FROG on it. It reminds me that God is in control and I need to just rely on Him. If you want one as well. Just ask. I have some extras. Always. Keep Learning - I took the 9 months off as a chance to both learn what the job search process was now and I also took full advantage of every learning opportunity that I was offered during this time. Whether it was a recruiter telling me what I did wrong in an interview or the guy at the hardware store telling me the best way to apply some stain. Don't count on your employment situation. The economy changes, the work changes, leadership changes. Mine did. Yours probably will. I think my new company is great. But they are in this to make money and if things change. I fully expect them to make good business decisions. My new boss? Yes he is a good guy. So as long as the boss is good. The position is good. My advice to you. If you are in the position I was in. First Step back and consider your position in life. Take a day perhaps a month then start. Do something each day to move your search forward. Don't trust that just because you are the perfect fit for a job that you will get it. Until you are receiving paychecks. You don't actually have a job. If you have questions for me or want to talk feel free to reach out. |
| Friday, October 2, 2020 Mouse Mover (keep your screen awake) so you want to appear to be online for work. Even though you know not one person is going to IM you. But your Boss might be watching your online status. so you look for a little application that will move your mouse to keep your screen from sleeping because IT has forced your computer to go to sleep after X minutes of inactivity. Well never fear. Here is a script for you. First though you need to download and install Autohotkey. https://www.autohotkey.com/ then you need to copy and paste this script into a notepad file called stayawake.ahk or something like that. Start------ ; ; AutoHotkey Version: 1.x ; Language: English ; Platform: Win9x/NT ; Author: A.N.Other <myemail@nowhere.com> ; ; Script Function: ; Template script (you can customize this template by editing "ShellNew\Template.ahk" in your Windows folder) ; Loop { Sleep,90000 if(A_TimeIdle>180000) mousemove, 5,5, 50, R if(A_TimeIdle>380000) mousemove, -5,-5, 50, R if(A_TimeIdle>450000) send {tab} } end------- *cough* I claim no liability in this code. I claim nothing. *cough* I have never actually used this in real life *cough* I am not responsible for you not getting your job done *cough* |
| Tuesday, July 14, 2020 America makes me sad right now.  you know what amazes me in this day and age? The amount of people who don't even try to see the others view point. Their only outlet is to attack. I remember in school being taught to think and consider the argument from the other side. I remember being forced to argue a viewpoint I didn't actually agree with. Makes you walk a mile in the other persons shoes. Funny thing is. If you actually have to take the time to consider another persons point of view you actually begin to feel empathy for them. And of course no one wants to do that right now. Attack we say Attack! Notice I didn’t say one word about which side I am on. I will say that I try very hard to consider a persons point of view when they state it. I remember visiting a large city a few years ago. I remember an individual in that large city could only see things from his view point. He could not consider anyone outside of what he could see. That made me sad,you see, it isn't just a problem in cities; it's also in rural America. And in suburbia as well. You have to be able to argue both points in order to understand what you believe. If you cannot understand your brother or sister who is American then you cannot understand America.  |
| Tuesday, February 25, 2020 hookdrivers - Something new I am trying It works well and at the Fishermans Swap meet this weekend I sold out of all my products both days. I had to make more one evening in a hurry. If you want one please email me. Rod@bergren.net |
| Tuesday, January 21, 2020 Spillway Road in winter Took the doggos for a walk. It was very cold. They loved it of course. It was gorgeous in its own way.  |
| Thursday, January 9, 2020 SharePoint Grant-SPProjectAdminstratorAccess Error. "Grant-SPProjectAdministratorAccess : Cannot insert the value NULL into column 'WRES_GUID', table 'ProjectWebApp_EPM.pub.MSP_WEB_SECURITY_GROUP_MEMBERS'; column does not allow nulls. INSERT fails. Table 'MSP_WEB_SECURITY_GROUP" Yes, this big ol error. Turns out we had moved from one primary domain to another. You know company changes hands or changes names or someone decides that they don't like the Domain name for some reason. Most of the users we had in the Domain moved just fine except for 2 Admins. Of course it always has to be the admin ID's. There was absolutely nothing in the Googlina that was worth looking at. Yay! I was just about to call Microsoft and pay the fee to have someone tell me how to fix it. Since it was actually a Development system that was erroring out. I decided to try making it worse before calling and begging. Opened up the Manage Users page for the PWA instance. /PWA/Admin/ManageUsers.aspx Search for the user. Well paged down and paged down and paged down. (search didn't work) Edit user(Click User Name). Reattach the userid to the correct email address with the correct domain. john.doe@RightDomain.com Then the Powershell command worked. and the Admin has access to DEV to do DEV work. YAY! |
| Monday, September 16, 2019 Caught a bee in flight Went driving in SW Iowa this weekend. Caught a bee in flight in my window of my truck. The background was pretty as well.  |
More pictures are here.
|
| |
| From Ariea |
Other stuff of interest to people possibly.
Trip to Tahiti.
Belize is nice as well