My 2015 Has Been Nothing Short of Amazing!

                Although there are still 15 days left in 2015, I feel that this is the appropriate time to discuss my year. I have purchased my carlarjenkins website domain, started a blog, became a LinkedIn Pulse contributor, renewed my PMP certification, traveled to Dallas, Cleveland, Atlanta and New York City and reserved my LLC business name. It has also been tumultuous as I am in between consulting opportunities; however, the good far outweighs the bad. Taking control of my personal career brand and dedicating myself towards writing have increased my confidence. I can handle anything that comes my way in 2016.

My Worst Travel Weekend Ever!

I had the travel experience from hell this past weekend. I was supposed to board American Airlines at National airport to Norfolk to attend the TCE Summit. I was excited in the Uber en route to DC airport when I got this cancellation email. Immediately I called the customer service and that lady was a grade A witch. She told me that she cancelled my entire reservation because I did not want to fly out of Baltimore, layover in Charlotte then fly to Norfolk. That would had taken 5 hours. I hung up on her returning home to book a Sunday American Airline plane ticket then Amtrak business ticket to Newport News. I arrived at Union Station at 5:30pm but the train was late boarding everyone at 6:15pm instead of 5:50pm meaning that I didn’t get into Newport News until 10:50pm. The only thing keeping me calm was talking with my girlfriend. My train ride was the first stop because I had to board a transfer bus from Newport News to Norfolk. Finally, I had to call Uber to my hotel arriving after midnight. What angered me the most was that I was unable to eat dinner with my father. My saving grace was that he was still up when I arrived there (and offered me a piece of chicken because I refused to pay exorbitant food rates on Amtrak).

Newport News Amtrak Station

                I spent all Saturday morning recuperating and overcoming my travel headache which I attributed to downing caffeine. My father said that he would be on the road at 6am so I drug myself out of bed, put on my business slacks and took a photo with my Dad because that was what I initially wanted on Friday night. I posted it on Facebook and Instagram ASAP. My Dad stayed an extra day to see me and that photo represented redemption. American Airlines could not hold me down! After he left, I crashed missing half of the TCE Summit.

Dad and I at the Norfolk Springhill Suites

I made it to the other session.  Then we had lunch. Afterward I was stuck at the Me/Self table which I did not understand because I took time out for myself. What I hated was this woman who complained to us about her being invisible to her husband but when I called her on it she played victim. I did not need that. Furthermore, I noticed that some reason there was always 1 crazy at my conference table. I should attract better. I took my photo, did a Periscope and returned back to my room to await my Ohio State game.

Sunday morning I was ready to fly out to DC. My flight was 10:05am and I left at 8:30am to ensure that I was there on time. Nope! American delayed my first an hour. On top of that, my original return flight ticket was honored. I tweeted the airline immediately because that meant that I bought a duplicate ticket. Things got worse because I ended up waiting 3 hours and 45 minutes for my flight to leave. That was the worst flight experience I ever had. Although I applied for my refund Sunday night, I spent Monday and Tuesday recovering from the hellish travel weekend courtesy of American. I am sticking with United and Delta after this!

Norfolk Airport outside

Quick 1st Half of 2014 Assessment

                I must admit that I hadn’t expected to be where I am at today, June 21, 2014. On January 1, 2014, I expected to have my PMI-ACP certification but then PMI announced that it was having a PMI-PBA pilot program. Immediately I jump at the opportunity.  I must also admit that in the past 6 months I have become a Small Business Book Award judge, attended the White House spring garden event snapping photos, and have an article published.  With today being 9 days until the halfway mark, I do see myself accomplishing these key objectives:

·         PMI approving my PMI-PBA certification application

·         Completely outlining PMBOK chapters 5, 8 and 13 to prepare for the PMI-PBA

·         Finished reading BABOK chapters 2 and 3

·         Scored 80% on the RMC Project’s PMP scope, quality and stakeholder management knowledge area practice exams.

·         Completed Ed2Go Introduction to SQL and Advanced Excel 2010 online courses

·         Enrolled in the USDA Graduate School SQL course for in-person assistance

·         Expand my personal and professional network

·         Have fun the entire time

Although this looks like a lengthy list, I am already in the process of completing many of these tasks so I will meet all of these obligations before June 30, 2014. Furthermore, here are my prospective 2^nd half of 2014 goals below:

·         Transfer the PMI-PBA knowledge and start studying for the Certified Business Analyst Professional (CBAP) exam by October at the latest. I think that I will finish it before then.

·         Get promoted

·         Seek more challenges

·         Travel more

·         Improve my SQL and Oracle programming skills

·         Pass the PMI-ACP certification test

Agenda: Lead!

            I have been accepted into my new agency’s leadership development program.  I am very happy about this achievement since I’ve been here less than 90 days (I will officially be there 90 days on July 23^rd.  I will be in Fresno, California at a conference.).  Even though I’m in the second installment, due to my not being here a long time, I am nevertheless happy to make the cut.  This makes me two leadership programs for two agencies!

            Acceptance has motivated me to restart studying for project management.  Today I’ve written down all of the PMP Practice Makes Perfect practice test c wrong answers.  I’ve scored 76.1% which is more than enough to pass the certification exam; but, I will score no lower than 80% on practice test D. Breaking 80% gives me the 10%+ cushion allowing me to walk into Prometric and pass the PMP exam the first time.

Earning my PMP certification has been a nearly one-year journey.  Though the frequent business trips have delayed my taking the exam, I am adamant about taking it in August.  My scores show that I am nearly there.  However, I am not relying solely PMP Practice Makes Perfect.  I will take the Farnsdale PMP practice paper exam while in Fresno.  Since it is a 4-hour flight from Phoenix to Fresno, I am packing it in my bag because this is a productive use of my time.  I am thinking about carrying the Oliver Lehmann paper test.  I am not going to the Fresno facility on Monday allowing me one day to work on project management. I will take full advantage of this. Obtaining this certification makes me the deadly MBA/PMP combination that I crave!  This combo increases my competitive advantage over other people.  This is what I call a productive summer!

Adventures in Little Rock

            Now don’t get me wrong, I love Little Rock even with the 90+ degree heat and humidity.  I hate my work experience.   

Oh my goodness!  It was horrible!  I flew into Little Rock during the afternoon to avoid going to the work site; yet, I got conned into arriving there over dinner.  On top of that, I had to sit across from the center director’s husband who 1) went on tangents; 2) interrupted me and 3) had to equate everything to Brooklyn.  What an asshole!  Making matters worse was on Thursday after working 11 hours straight, I was forced to stand up and fix my own plate at a restaurant.  Freaking witch!  That’s not the worse part.  She leans next to me asking ‘Do I hear yummies?’ Don’t get slapped broad!  Though I thought everything bad was behind me, I arrived at Atlanta airport where Delta cancelled dozens of Eastern seaboard flights.  My 5:10pm plane to DC turned into a 8pm flight.  The man at the counter said that I missed my flight which was a lie because the 4:10pm flight was delayed until 6:30pm! Combining my 1:25pm Little Rock departure and 9:45pm DC arrival, I spent 8 hours in transit when I shouldn’t have! Not a good look!  Next time I visit Little Rock, I’m doing it for pleasure. I’ve missed Central High and President Clinton’s library.

El Paso Chronicles

            I started my journey to El Paso by awaking at 5am EDT in Washington, DC. I left my apartment at 6:20am boarding the blue line for national airport.  I boarded United at 7:59am for Houston International.  This is the first of two flights. I arrived at 10:16am CDT laying over for an hour.  I walked to Terminal B but no one told me that B84 was in the basement! I nearly missed my flight fighting with a mobile wireless company over service that wasn’t working only in Terminal B.  Seeing the downward arrow, I unplugged my laptop running downstairs to the commuter plane awaiting me.  The plane flew at 11:28am CDT arriving in El Paso at 12:25 MDT, 2 hours behind Eastern. Peaking out the window, I saw a truck shoveling dust on the road, a sight I never seen in my entire life.  It hit me that this was the desert! There were more surprises to come.  Once I touched down, I saw an army of border patrolmen.  I concluded it was Texas and the state was near the border. Then I saw the mountains and Mexico from across the highway.  I realized that the city was literally on the US-Mexico border.  The whole 7-hour adventure made me thankful that I grew up in Cleveland, a top 40 airport because I could get a direct flight anywhere!

Overall I had a pretty good 3 days here in El Paso.  The atmosphere photos came from right outside my hotel.  I snapped photos of Mexico. You can see the marked prosperity difference between the two countries. When the team returned from Cattleman’s steakhouse at night, the differences were illuminated.  The Mexican side was the dark; whereas, the American was alit in electricity.  Only the green stoplights at the border crossing lit up the Mexican sky.  Speaking of Cattleman’s steakhouse, it housed a zoo replete with a baby buffalo calf. Here are the other photos:

On the Eve of My First Business Trip

            I am happy about preparing for this El Paso trip.  It’s my first professional one.  I’ve only be here for 6 weeks and out of the blue, the director asks me to join him, the Deputy Director and another employee.  The request is so fast that even with the GSA travel training and credit screening, I have to pay for my own room because it comes less than 10 days needed to process my stuff.  I will be reimbursed as soon as I touch down in DC. The only bad thing is that it’ll be 99 degrees everyday in El Paso versus 75 degrees in DC. 

This is my chance to prove my mettle by showcasing my statistical prowess.  While reviewing my total quality applications lessons, all of the advanced statistics knowledge starts returning.  I mean every tidbit: t-distribution, F-distribution, z-score, null hypothesis.  Everything which is the reason why I call all of the local bookstores seeing if they carry Statistics Essentials for Dummies.  None of them do forcing me to use Google Play.  I will still order the physical copy that I can hold, highlight and write notes in via Amazon that’ll await me upon my return. It lets me flesh out everything that I’ve read during the trip.