Ten year Plan - How it is going!

With Hindsight!

Word Count 833 

A friends wedding nearly six years ago  prompted me to start considering where I was heading.  It may have been the beginning of the "mid-life" crisis or a realisation that we were heading for major changes in my career path at the time.  At the time I did not realise quite how much of the crowd I was!

An interesting career that had experienced a lot change up to that point http://www.linkedin.com/in/philipspalding66, was about to become more interesting.  I sat down in the pre-wedding gathering in Weymouth (it had only just been announced as an Olympic venue) and contemplated the 10 year plan.  I made a statement that I would not be teaching full time in the classroom by the age of 50 (Eddie Izzard's new 40!).  I had an early night on the final night went back to the B & B.  Early next morning I boarded the ferry from Weymouth to Jersey.

In Jersey I stayed at my usual hotel in St Helier, the Mountview, and contemplated my statement.  I had a few pints in the more traditional pubs in the West End of St Helier.  A very good one with sporting prints from "antique" times was the venue to watch the Test Match and listen to the sage at the bar who also turned out to be the chairman of the Jersey Cricket Federation.  Picked the right pub!  But then you only have to look at the outside of the pub sometimes and know it is not going to be just q quick half to test the beer and atmosphere.

A few days of visiting my distant cousins in the north of the island (http://www.durrell.org/).  The orangutans seemed well, the funky gibbons were being funky.  They share an enclosure to simulate the Sumatran and Borneo rain forest habitat.  By the end of the break as I flew back into Stansted I had a bit of a plan.  Not quite a cunning plan but one that had light at the end of the tunnel which did not seem to be generated by a Eurostar! 

Another year on from this the following August and certain career paths appeared to be getting narrower (now we see the result good or bad?  http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/suffolk_cabinet_member_under_fire_after_suffolk_slumps_in_league_tables_1_1472060 ).  I was sitting in the bar in Pefki, Rhodes with a good friend shooting the wind as we  prepared for the Wedding.  A Rhodian escape started to be planned.  The mad engineer friend of mine combined with the agri-IT-scientist-teacher came up with a cunning plan.   A sustainable living/ well being plan, but in essence still a plan.

Two days alter back at work and the plan was shelved for another year until I went to Crete.  Fabulous island, cradle of European civilisation (forget mainland Greece)!  Schools Organisational Review (SOR) was just stating to come in and Haverhill along with Lowestoft was in the firing line.  A little bit of relaxation in Hersonissos led to realisation that work-life balance was really not balanced favourably on the cliff edge.  A couple of good nights spent in the company of a very attractive and relaxed Irish girl from Dublin and we started planning again!

The plan was expressed graphically in the Logo above. Sometimes you do not always need to write things down since the written word can always be misinterpreted by "experts".  Visit to a local print shop, and day later had the plan on a disc, five polo shirt (I went there and got the Polo Shirt, T-shirts were not good enough quality).  Scratch Rhodes, Crete would appear to be part of the plan! 

So back to work and another year of battling career change I finally hit the buffers.  An article in the Harvard business review started me thinking.  A position I had occupied through major career traumas such Ofsted, special measures, six (not really sure if some were actually allowed to be) head teachers and school federation was that of a Middle Manager.  The Harvard Review produced some insights (http://2pointfiveageofman.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/death-of-middle-manager.html).      I had started to blog by this time.  The following March, I made a clean break and walked away from the pressure of achieving continual goals against the trickle down management culture of similar to First World War Generals.  Whistle goes and then over top! (Blackadder Goes Fourth clip here  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IglUmgYGxLM).  

Two years on from the break with the treadmill and the BlackAdder goes Fourth clip seems apt in the context of the East Anglia Daily Times article  http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/suffolk_cabinet_member_under_fire_after_suffolk_slumps_in_league_tables_1_1472060.  

Still have weathered all this, the ten year plan is half way through!.  I have achieved the stated aim of not needing to be in the classroom full time or managing change (for change sake?).   Last time I jumped out of a plane I definitely had a parachute, this time I have to construct it on the way down!  Necessity does become the midwife of creativity and invention!  Here is to more blogging and on ward and upward up with up hill skiing!

Καλημέρα σας και είναι εδώ για τα επόμενα πέντε χρόνια! Ή θα έπρεπε να είναι ένα νέο σχέδιο δέκα χρόνια!

Wednesday and 2pointfive_man looks for his Meccano set

Tilting at Windmills, old technology,
can have it's uses as
a model for new technology

Started Wednesday 29th December 2010.  Time: 600 am.

Woke up at about 5.15 am to the sound of Geese flying over the house.  The cat had also decided she wanted a bit of quality time.  She had crawled onto my chest where she proceeded to do a bit of industrial purring that convinced me I was actually awake.  Not one to turn over and ignore the world I sought out the BBC news.  I had last updated myself of the cricket about 130 am by wirelessly accessing BTBroadband on my  Blackberry.  So knew already England had retained the Ashes. Does sport give a feel good factor? I think it does.

By 550 am  I had the pre-breakfast diet of news and information.  I had listened to the BBC News channel, the Telegraph, Shanghai Daily and Hindustan Times had all been delivered to my Kindle.  A great facility within Kindle editions is the View Section List tab.  I have long been a headline and first paragraph reader.  I can usually consign a newspaper to the recycle bin in a number of minutes that are inversely proportional to the that days' news' relevance to my present egocentric world.

In amongst the stories that grabbed my attention this morning there was reason for optimism.  Ignoring all  the doom laden stories of how the weather has affected small businesses, the ski slopes are open.  The 300 direct jobs are benefiting.  More importantly as was pointed out, so do greater rural economy of petrol stations, hotels and restaurants.  As one person interviewed intimated, who  needs to get on a plane to ski in the alps, even if you could travel.  The distributive effect of wealth transfer to the highlands from the lowlands seems to be alive and well and healthy.  We just need to hope that there is not too much of a good thing and the snow gates on the A9 are closed because of wait for it .....  the wrong type of snow.  Infrastructure?  A comment from the Scottish transport minister could be imminent. 

The trade in rare earth elements has hit the headlines.  China has decided to reduce it's exports of raw materials used  amongst others in manufacturing of  IT chips.  American businesses are starting to grumble as they can see restrictions affecting their supply chain.  Rare earth elements are quite abundant but they are distributed thinly in the Earth's crust.  They have to be mined and due to the nature of their distribution a lot of rock needs to harvested to yield useable quantities.  

South Korea's business intelligence must be working more efficiently than some of American's corporations since the Telegraph (Article Challenge to China over rare minerals by Ian McKinnon) has reports that a deal has been struck with Burma to develop it's mineral reserves.  South Korea's familiarity with totalitarian regimes probably makes them more willing to become bedfellows with the Burmese.  However, I can see a potential for a new viral or tweet campaign around "conflict minerals".   Daewoo might be hit by brand avoidance for conscience sake.   Personally, if I was really switched on  I'd be looking into property round Ytterby, in Sweden where rare Earth elements were first discovered. That also assumes that there are any rare earth elements left in the ground around Ytterby.

Recycling and recovery from waste could therefore be a viable alternative.  A crop production solution for mineral recovery would be my pet preference.  We already use varieties of plants that are tolerant of toxic soils to rehabilitate old British Coal board sites.  Let the plants mine the slag heaps of Latvia that are apparently rich in rare earth oxides.   The added advantage would be the locking up of carbon.  Using the plants to produce micro-charcoal which could then be injected back into soils could yield the minerals and create a carbon sink.  Joining up the technology, how much would it cost? What would be the time frame? Would it be a good use of the artificial trading carbon trading market to make the process viable?

Back to the Blog headline.  Meccano has just replaced EastEnders (the former booze cruise destination) as the success story of Calais.  Production is being moved back from China (a reverse of globalisation, see previous blog).  Competitiveness was sited in the BBC interview.  I can recall stories two summers ago reporting the difficulties companies in the special economic zones were having recruiting workers.  Apparently the wages were not high enough to make workers economically dependent on factory work and were instead choosing to return back to their villages and a marginally less well-paid  sustainable rural life.  The report and the move by Meccano are about two years apart.  Is this the start of a flood of manufacturing jobs back to the EU.  I say EU as Meccano although an iconic British Toy Brand is actually French. 

Finally, the average British worker will now have to work two extra days apparently before they have payed off their tax liability.  

I have blogged out for now.  I will go and do something productive.  I have subscribed to the Teleworking Association as it provides a fit with other economic activities I am investigating to supplement any earnings within the dwindling Supply Teaching market.  Further looking into the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs and updating Linked-in profile should be the tasks for the day.  The time between Christmas and New Year always has the potential to be "dead days" in the UK as everybody is on holiday.

It is extremely foggy outside so a good day for the bodywork repair shops!

        

2pointfive_age_of_man discovers Web2.0.

Loch Ness Monster spotted on holiday in Crete

Update from Suffolk:  Tea is being taken in Adelaide.  I have just heard Kevin Pietersen our adopted Cricketer becomes only the 16th England player reach a double century, (in Australia?).  Well done!


Are we going to win this one? Time soon for a declaration as we still have an innings in hand.  How confident are the England side they bowl Australia out? The BBC must be a little jittery as they are playing recordings of an English collapse.  Shane Warne is no more.  iPlayer might need a red button.  At least the feed can't be heard outside the UK and not in the dressing room.  Oh!Oh! It is now raining, Aussie tourist board extras have been doing a rain dance.  Forecast is to get some sleep as it might be set in for the day.

2pointfive_age_of_man and Web 2.0

As a 2pontfive_age_man looking at career change I have ventured into the realms of  Web 2.0.  At present  there are a number of different tools out their.   Personal Portfolio tools, social networking, apps for apps and for the really adventurous the personal website.

The proliferation of recruitment agencies on the Web is a part of our service economy.  Training providers that handle the DWPs (Department Work and Pensions) customers are legion.  The preferred providers seem to be chasing a supposedly limited pool of people.  The going rate for services must be high to support these groups especially when you see the quality of the marketing materials that are produced by these providers.  (Reminder to myself, when I have some money buy shares in a print supply company).

Cricket Update:  The PA in Adelaide in playing Singing in the Rain.  Is this the rarest record in Australia?  The commendatory is now turning to the "Australia is not geared up for rain."  England not geared up for Snow?   The rain is starting to stop. the lights are on.  do the Aussie really ant the covers to come off? The covers are now coming off - we have cricket again, barring the apparently menacing stewards supposedly there to stop a pitch invasion, maybe to stop the England batsmen.

So Web 2.0 applications that I have tried. Sies accessed 4/12/2010.

Linkedin :  Potential to be a very good site for professionals. a little commercial but I suppose it is a commercial environment that I am transforming my career.  The site does take a little bit of effort to understand its potential.  It is not a job site in that you search solely for positions.  The post CV and forget about it nature of most job sites  I have seen is not what the experience is about.  Firstly to view a lot of information you also have to be a member of the group.  The CV Upload function although convenient does need to be carefully checked as it machine read.  The Basic account allows you to how often and which organisations have viewed your profile but not the exact individual.   There are other issues that spring to mind about paid introductions to employers and the "in the club" nature but it is a fact that "who you know" has been going on for thousands of years.

Twitjobsearch  -  This is an app site.  I say an app site as it piggybacks on the information on twitter.  The site came to my attention through the BBC Click programme one dark November night.  It is apparently a new site  What it does is sniff out those tweets that relate to jobs on twitter and as such seems to be a twitter offshoot.  You log in  with your twitter account details and then set up your search profiles.  The alert system then makes you aware of interesting jobs.  I am at the moment tweaking the twits and awaiting the results. Could be very good, but will that tweet saying you hate your boss suddenly produce an opening position email !! Answers on a tweet.

Next Steps   This is a government funded site that used to be  http://careersadvice.direct.gov.uk/ but is now part of a new adult careers service.  This is apparently a self-referral service but also a Jobcentre Plus referral.  Has some really good features in the fact that you can build an e-portfolio.  Having been a teacher this was one of the good things a previous employer tried to introduce with Blue Sky.   Next steps allows you to record training, build a CV and also contact advisers.  How accessible this is to people already in employment seeking career change I am not sure but it is FREE.

New life network  This was passed onto me as a place to find job skills profiling.  It is from it's title primarily aimed at redundancy sufferers.  Equally could be of use to burnt out teachers wanting to see if their much vaunted transferable skills are actually transferable. Haven't fully mined the site yet the payload looks worthwhile.


 Job site and agencies.  Well what can I say about these.  It might be a sweeping statement but you don't have to be registered with anybody to be a recruitment agency.  Recent experience as teacher who stepped away from full-time post a lot of general agencies appear to see market as "open". If you register with a CV storing site as an employer you have access to and contact details.  I have been offered work next day from people who have not had a face to meeting with me or checked QTS  details or CRB. Safeguarding unheard of ? Probably!  Job site user beware.