{"id":962,"date":"2020-05-09T12:00:41","date_gmt":"2020-05-09T17:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/?p=962"},"modified":"2020-05-09T16:37:29","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T21:37:29","slug":"feeding-your-wolf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/feeding-your-wolf\/","title":{"rendered":"Feeding your Wolf"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>There is an old story from an unknown Native American tribe. A wise grandfather tells his grandson that there are two wolves battling inside him. One good and one bad. The grandson asks, <\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">\"Grandfather, which wolf wins?\". <\/pre>\n\n\n\n<p>The careful reply is,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<pre class=\"wp-block-verse\">\"The wolf I feed.\"<\/pre>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which wolf are you feeding?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This note is written in the time of the Corona virus (2020). You are probably at home. You may even be newly graduated engineering PhD or BS but without a job. Right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wrong, you already have a full-time job: <strong>You<\/strong>. Your full time job should start to later than 8:00am and end no later than 6:00pm every workday. Give yourself Sunday to rest; you will need it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Your job search is a priority. Somebody is hiring; you just don&#8217;t known them. They don&#8217;t know you. You have a unique opportunity to impress. Make a list of engineering skills that you can learn, improve, or teach. Start with these:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Learn how to use CATIA. Get a student license for $100. This is an essential communications skill. <\/li><li>Start a website detailing your skills and capabilities<\/li><li>Teach a short course and post on Youtube. Break into 15 minute segments and use a screen capturing program to show the process.<\/li><li>Learn how to use rendering software. This skill allows you to make compelling proposal and project graphics.<\/li><li>Volunteer to be a journal reviewer<\/li><li>Learn how to simulate electrical systems with LTspice<\/li><li>Learn how to simulate structural or fluid systems. Example ANSYS.<\/li><li>Learn how to use Simulink in Matlab<\/li><li>Join an association outside of your area of expertise. Do a deep-dive into the association&#8217;s library of materials. Take notes.<\/li><li>Get your Part 107 unmanned pilots license. Get your Technician or General class amateur radio license. Find other certifications that you can complete.<\/li><li>Update your python programming skills. Make a GUI multi-threaded frontend for a task that you use often. Post on website.<\/li><li>Practice writing. <\/li><li>Take an AI\/ML course: OCW or youtube or a book.<\/li><li>Read through all of the SBIR projects offered by NASA, DoD, DOE, etc. How do your skills match? Find and document a project that you could feasibly complete. Search through old SBIR funded announcements and see which company won similar projects. Send your project capabilities to this company. Voila; instant job opening.<\/li><li>Get a post-doc position.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Make a deadline. Complete on-time. Show deliverables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why does this work?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Pareto&#8217;s 80\/20 rule: <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pareto_principle\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pareto_principle<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>80% of your colleagues won&#8217;t search for ways to improve.<\/li><li>Of those remaining, 80% won&#8217;t finish &amp; document even one task.<\/li><li>The 4% (i.e. 20% \u2219 20%) are exactly what your future boss is searching for in a new employee. You demonstrate competency and are low-risk.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>I believe that you should update your resume with a &#8220;Quarantine&#8221; work history showing what you accomplished. The key point for your future boss is demonstrating a strong work ethic at-home with no supervision. This requires documentation and links to delivered product\/projects. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, go feed your wolf. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5MgBikgcWnY\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What about Sundays? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>While not engineering related, are some Sunday activities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>Ponder the meaning of life. What is important to you? What is not?<\/li><li>Interact with people. Call someone and just talk.<\/li><li>Listen to a live Catholic Mass in Latin (TLM). <\/li><li>Shed preconceptions and biases. Open your heart and mind. <\/li><li>Read a book about someone persevering in a difficult time. <\/li><li>Use <a href=\"https:\/\/mises.org\/\">mises.org <\/a>to learn economics. Economics will be messed up for years, you need to get a different point of view to protect yourself. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is an old story from an unknown Native American tribe. A wise grandfather tells his grandson that there are two wolves battling inside him. One good and one bad. The grandson asks, &#8220;Grandfather, which wolf wins?&#8221;. The careful reply is, &#8220;The wolf I feed.&#8221; Which wolf are you feeding? This note is written in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":979,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962\/revisions\/979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/charles-oneill.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}