Peter and Kira Jay

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Vent About the Job Market

Well, I'm still looking for a new job. I have a title company and I have done some legal work on the side, but I would rather get a job somewhere and do the title work on the on the side, since it takes so little time.

The frustrating thing about finding a new job is that I have two graduate degrees and I've seen so many people who are bad at their jobs and have little education making a lot of money. As an MBA student I did some consulting for a manufacturing company. I reviewed and organized all of the HR files and created spreadsheets and charts to manage all of the HR, because the HR director was "so overwhelmed" and "behind" on everything. The HR director told me it was so much work that it would take about 2 weeks. It took me 2 days, and I got to see what everyone's salaries at the company were. The HR director was making $70k and would take two weeks to do what it took me two days to do, because the HR director was unorganized and wasted a lot of time. The managers of the manufacturing plant were making $100k+ and were going back to school to get their associates in business at a junior college and were telling me how hard their algebra classes were. They were making six figures, and I can't find a job. The HR Director sure made it look like she was working very hard, that she was really busy all the time, and that her job was very complicated. I soon realized it was only complicated for her.

I've worked at other jobs as well where I oversaw some aspects of HR, since I have a law background, and saw the salaries some employees were making. Some, who were paid more than I was would often come and ask me how to do their jobs, after they had been working at the job for 5+ years! That makes me believe that a good education is better than 5 to 10 years experience at a job, which is what a lot of jobs are asking for. It's better to find someone with a good education. There were also people with high salaries who were doing very simple jobs. They could have pulled anyone out of a college business class to do it, and paid about $30k, but the company was paying the employees $60 to $80k.

I've also worked for some high paid managers who get in the way instead of lead the way at their companies. They micromanage and slow down everything and then blame everyone else for it. They work super long hours and their offices are a mess. It takes them hours just to find information some time, and they duplicate a lot of work. They over-complicate everything and it gives the impression that their jobs are very complicated, but really they are just completely unorganized, waste a lot of time, are very poor time managers, and are poor managers of their employees. But they always give the employees the impression that "the boss works so hard, he really cares about this business." Some employees actually fall for those kind of politics.

Since becoming an attorney, I've talked some attorneys who didn't know what they were doing as well. I talked to one prosecutor about a DUI case I was working on. He told me that in the court he works in, he always does pleas in abeyance for DUIs. I had to point out to him that the Utah state code specifically prohibits a plea in abeyance for a DUI. If he has really been doing pleas in abeyance for DUIs, he has been violating the statute, along with the judge in the court he works in, if the judge has been allowing it. But, I'm just a new attorney with only a year experience as in-house counsel, so no one will hire me.

When I was a law student, I worked as a research assistant for a professor. The professor asked me to find a case. When I found it after just a few minutes of searching, she came and asked me to show her how I did it. I pulled it up again on the computer using a search database, while she was standing there watching. She would have spent several hours doing legal research, looking through books to find the case, or would have at least taken a lot longer searching online. I also edited a bill for the legislature and I did a find and replace change, which had to be structured a certain way to make it work. The other older employees were surprised I was able to fix it so fast and said they would have gone through and made each change individually even though it was 500 pages long. It would have taken them hours.

I also had a position where I had to create financial statements for a company. It took me about half an hour and I didn't think much of it, using my spreadsheets that I had already put together to make financial statements. Later that day a person who had been in international banking for 30 years called my boss on the phone and said she couldn't believe I put them together so quickly. It would have taken her 8 hours she said. She also said I should get paid for 8 hours for it instead of half an hour. If she and I were applying for a financial job, she would have a much better chance at getting it than I would.

I guess I just have to work on giving the appearance of working hard and "appearing" to have a complicated job, instead of making it look easy and just getting my job done. If you make it look easy, people don't think you're doing much and don't think you should get paid so much. You may even work yourself out of a job.

Thursday, January 5, 2012

Baby Mason

Here are some photos of Baby Mason

Baby Mason in his baby blessing outfit and hat

Baby Mason in his baby blessing outfit laying on a little red couch

Monday, November 14, 2011

Laid Off and Looking for New Job

Well, I (Peter) got laid off from my job, completely, as of the last day of September, so I have time to make blog posts now. I worked for the past year and a half as General Counsel at a company doing In-Flight Entertainment. After being laid off, I still have worked for the company as an independent contractor on an hourly basis. The company provided portable media players to airlines, which the airlines in turn provided to their passengers. I did all of the legal work for the company and created financial business models to analyze the company's finances, review sales opportunities, and new business development opportunities. I negotiated, drafted, and reviewed commercial contracts. I also set up the company's Simple IRA retirement plan and administered it. I managed all of the litigation for the company, including patent infringement defense and collections. I also managed intellectual property development, filing trademarks and working with outside counsel to file patents.

Now I'm looking for a new job. I've applied for many positions and have had four interviews. None of them have panned out yet though, even though I have done everything on the job descriptions for some of them. I have 1.5 years experience as in-house counsel, but if someone else has more than 1.5, they are the ones that get the job. I heard there were DOZENS of attorneys applying for the last job that I interviewed at, but at least I was able to get into an interview our of the dozens.

I've been looking for jobs at Indeed.com, Monster.com, BYU Intercollegiate Job Bank, UVU Faculty Jobs, BYU Faculty Jobs, LDS Employment Services, LDS Jobs, Utah.Jobs.Gov, Utah Government and Federal Government jobs. I've also applied for jobs I've heard about from others.

The timing has been nice actually, since we just had a baby last month, and I was able to spend a lot more time helping out Kira, Adlee, and the new baby, Mason. I'm actually not worried at all that something will work out, when it is supposed to. It always does if you just do what's right and pay your tithing. It would be nice if something worked out pretty soon though.

I started a title company called West Lake Title Insurance Agency, with two other attorneys. We have closed on a few houses in the last month, but we need to close on some more. We do the title insurance, document preparation, escrow, and closing on residential and commercial property transactions.

I've also done some legal work on the side since getting laid off, including criminal defense, and landlord tenant cases. It's pretty fun doing litigation work for clients. But finding clients is the problem. I don't know the best way to market a law firm.

I've applied for MBA jobs as well, but haven't even had an interview for any of them, even though I have about three and a half years experience in international trade, in marketing and strategy, regulatory, finance and taxes, and contract law.

I could probably find a job quicker if I applied outside of Utah, but we don't really want to move somewhere else, plus I own a title company here and I've passed the bar in Utah. I would have to pass the bar in another state to practice law there.

If anyone knows of any law or MBA jobs in Utah let me know. Thanks!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

July

Adlee's 2nd haircut

Trying to get a picture with my girl but she never looks at the camera

Sparklers!

Sparklers with cousins

Eagle Mountain opened a splash pad in July.

This is what Adlee did every time we tried to take her to the splash pad.

4th of July

Whenever Adlee got a sparkler she thought Paige should have one too!

My passed out princess

We started potty training in July.

Green Jello with carrots at Noah's baby blessing in Vernal

Adlee LOVES dogs! This is my friend Lindsey's dog.

FHE Temple Night

I found a few more pictures from June. We took Adlee to the Mt. Timpanogos Temple for FHE at the end of June. We ate pizza and rootbeer on the lawn and then took a walk around the temple. We also talked to her about the temple. It was a fun night.