One of the great things about being on distribution lists for press releases is that you occasionally get early access to ads that are going to be on television in the near future. Surprisingly, Apple is being a little more open and is allowing these ads to be embedded in web sites. Since so many of my colleagues and friends love the iPhone and its apps, I thought it would be fun to share them here (I normally do not embed videos). Enjoy!
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Apparently, a few people that read "A New Career and a Hiccup" thought it meant I had changed careers recently. Yes, I am currently between situations and am actively seeking/welcoming new challenges and opportunities. But that post, along with "How I First Got Into Government Procurement", is part of a series where I am sharing what my first career out of school was, and how it led to new and exciting opportunities.

That being said, if you know of any opportunities out there, please don't be shy. Feel free to drop me a line and let me know.

I just wanted to remind readers from the IBM Lotus Software community that this is the last day to follow the live feed of Lotusphere 2010 Tweets and Blogs. It will, of course, be up there forever (well as long as the blog exists) as an archive. But that is just not as much fun as following it live.

It is being powered by CoverItLive!, a easy to integrate and use tool that I am surprised more Lotusphere attendees, are not using for their live blogs.

Continuing on from part one of this story from yesterday, I made the eight or so hour drive back to Ohio from our nation's capital wondering what if anything would come from the prior two days of interviews.

When I got into the office on Wednesday morning, there were was a message for me from Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR). I called them back and they said they wanted to hire me into their internship/training program. Shortly after, Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) called me with the same offer.

It was at this point I learned of the importance of being creative and finding solutions in spite of seemingly impossible odds, a skill which served me well in my procurement, and information technology consulting, career.


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Sometimes when I talk to friends and colleagues, they are surprised when they find out that I started out my working life as a negotiator/buyer for the federal government. Invariably, they ask how I got into that field and what kinds of things I did in that job. The short answer is that the day to day work might definitely make your eyes glaze over. But since I have to put this information together now for a number of reasons, I thought it might be a fun story to share. So with that in mind, let's get started.

In the 1986-1987 time frame, I began an internship with what was called the Ohio Procurement Technical Assistance Program under the Ohio Department of Development. As one of two people in the office, I underwent a crash on-the-job course in learning how small businesses could do business with the federal government. This knowledge was gathered and learned while writing the Ohio Procurement Technical Assistance Handbook, which became the primary reference document distributed by this office.


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