Three noteworthy entries in addition to the usual noise and busy-ness of my typical job hunting week.

ONE: Monday started the week with me in my best suit at an afternoon interview a Dallas-based ecommerce integrator.  At first I was leery about them because of only limited information returned in my searches and virtually nothing provided by the recruiter.  However, my fears were quickly dispelled as the founder and president explained the company and how they were partnered with a very well-known advertising firm, and were using part of their name to enhance their own branding and credibility. As the conversation turned from work and my experience to personal and family things, it turned out we both had a lot in common.  I started to get a very good feeling about the prospect of joining the team. Before passing me off to his colleague, the hiring manager explained how they had almost $4 million in business in the pipeline, and that after they closed the deal(s), they would be filling the open BA and Ecommerce Strategist positions.  While I appreciate his honesty, I won’t be holding my breath.  It sound extremely like 3 interviews I had last year with similar companies a couple of years ago.

Each of them were up-and-coming little solution providers in the $30 million range that had business in the pipeline and were ready to bring me on when they closed the deals. In two of those cases, the principals told me they wanted to establish an ongoing dialogue so that even if I did get a consulting position before they could hire me, we could work things out to bring me on board later as a strategic addition to their practice in their new Dallas offices.  Seriously!  And what’s more, I remember that when those three calls came in, they were all during the same day.  They all had the same story.  And despite my diligence in following up with them, they all failed to return my emails and phone calls.  Where are they now?

Anyway, as much as I was attracted to this prospective employer, prudence says keep on keeping on in the job hunt.  You don’t have a job until the papers are signed.

[adsensetop]

TWO: “Work from home” job…  I received a call from an enthusiastic woman who I thought talked a little funny like some comedienne in a ’60s TV sitcom.  Being busy listening to talk radio or planning a home project, I was tempted to ignore her request for my resume as well as a requested paragraph of written response to the 2-sentence “description” of the position for a BA/Process Analyst.

However, this recruiter was extremely responsive and responded quickly to my emails with a reply or a phone call.   Plus, it did not sound like too bad of a prospect: 4 month contract for a well-known software manufacturer in Canada; work from home most of the time, with maybe a few trips to the Great White North as needed.  And at a decent rate to boot!

My paragraph turned out to be about a page and a half Dealing with hundreds and hundreds of recruiters every year in my professional job hunting career, I can tell you that such responsiveness is rare, and that I see it only a half dozen times at the most – that is about 1/2 of 1%.  Anyway, that was Thursday.  By that evening I had received a call from her account rep.  And the next morning I interviewed on the phone with the hiring manager of their client. Here is what my initial response was:

Hello Sandra It was great talking to you this afternoon.  This sounds like an exciting opportunity that would be a great fit for me. Being in a hurry right now to attend to some prescheduled plans, I’ll try to hit some relevant points real quick. Though your client provided a brief paragraph as the req description, it is actually loaded with key words to be addressed.

“Experienced e-commerce business process analyst with expertise in areas such as customer service, fraud, content mgmt, SKU / product creation, etc..  Some time required onsite for whiteboard sessions, but most of the work can be done remotely.”

I’ll break it up and address it in bullet point fashion…

• “Experienced e-commerce business process analyst”

I have over 12 years experience as a Sr. Business Analyst which includes extensive Business Process Analysis.  Serving as a Lead Analyst and Sr. BA, I am skilled in working as a collaborative team member, dealing effectively with every participant including the PM, Dev Leads, Technical Architects, QA Analysts, etc…  And in interfacing productively and with good rapport with all client constituents from junior associates to business owners to project sponsors to top executives as needed.

My clients include over a dozen Fortune 500 companies plus dozens of smaller well-known businesses.

• “with expertise in areas such as customer service, fraud, content mgmt, SKU / product creation, etc..”

My customer service experience includes hands-on requirements management in several call centers and with various CRM applications and integrated enterprise systems.

About content management, my experience last year in the Wal-Mart Home Office working on the SamClub.com project is a very good example.  I was the assigned Business Analyst to the ATG Merchandising module (the Merchandising module is considered the most complicated and intertwined of all the ecommerce system components).  I worked closely with various business owners including the copywriter, the images managers and creative artists, several product managers, plus the technical team members.  I arranged and led the meetings, wrote the documentation, and led the reviews.  I understand that content management has a very broad spectrum.  It can be very simple such as with a WordPress blog, or it can have a dozen or more integrated applications to perform specialized functions [as was the case with SamsClub.com].  In my view of things, Customer Services begins well before a sale is transacted, and long after the product is delivered.

My approach is to look at things strategically and to require my clients to think hard about things that the initial solutions architect or sales person did not mention or did not have enough time or information to address.One example in regards to the topics of business process mapping and fraud, as the Lead Senior Business Analyst for EMC Mortgage, I was commissioned to map the business processes surrounding the Mortgage Claims process.  This required me to first identify and name all the various process areas and business activities which were for the most part completely undocumented.

Using basic tools such as Microsoft Visio, I mapped in detail the entire lifecycle of the claims filing/management process.  Then I worked with the business to identify and document requirements for an automated solution.  Concurrently as well as subsequently, I worked closely with the developers.  The result was that in less than 6 months after I started, we conceived, created, and deployed an automated solution that helped eliminate a 180+ day backlog that represented over a billion dollars in unfiled claims.

Pertaining to Fraud, I was instructed to work closely with Internal Affairs.  As such, I discovered, documented, and reported exposure to wire fraud that could amount to millions of dollars.  And I provided my written recommendations.There are many more examples I could talk about.

In short, I am a business process engineer at heart.  In order to create good requirements documentation and to plan good training, the better the mapping and documentation of the business processes, the better the project and the end product.  By the way, my personal website is www.BusinessProcessEngineer.com.

Additionally, I worked closely with the team that performed the categorization of products and managed the taxonomy.  As part of the overall team, I can say we had many conversations on SKUs, items, products, item numbers, etc…

• Some time required onsite for whiteboard sessions, but most of the work can be done remotely.

That sounds fine to me.  I am accustomed to working in various distribution models including onsite/collocation, remote, offshore, and various combinations thereof.  And I also understand the importance of being together in certain situations such as for white boarding and mapping some processes.  My home office is fully equipped for me to work remotely.

OK Sandra, I hope I addressed most of the points.  I have to run some errands, but feel free to give me call in a little while, while I’m driving.

Regards, Stephen

–

Stephen H. Dunham, PMP

Sandra loved it, told me that her account rep loved it, and that the client was impressed with me after the interview.  All good news that I love to hear.  However, like all good job prospects, there must be a “but”.  The hiring manager who is actually the engagement manager wants to roll himself off and replace himself with me, but he now has to speak with the client and get the position approved.  The job hunting continues like dawn every day.

[adsense]

THREE: Tuesday or so I received a call from Billy, an account rep at a commercial debt collection firm.  At first my stomach knotted, but then I realized that I did not have any upaid commercial debts that I could remember.  But still, I did not relax until he explained that he found my resume in Monster, and he and the CEO, also named Billy, want to meet with me to discuss how I can help them with their website to help their business.  He said he was interested in me because I was a generalist and that is what they thought they needed.  I told him he was correct that both I was one, and that they needed someone like me.  It made me happy not to have to deal with another req that said it was a BA position but read like a systems analyst or development lead.

Friday I put my best suit on again and went and met them.  It was just the 3 of us.  As I explained my experience, they said, “You’re talking about you, but we want you to talk about us.”  This is Texas, and these are good ol’ boys who want to get down to business.

Our discussion largely addressed things I learned and had been practicing in my freelance consulting of my own websites (see http://www.internetjobs.com/personal-marketing-and-resumes/resume-gaps).  I am putting together a proposal for a short-term contract that help them out for about a month, put cash in my pocket to pay some bills, and potentially provide maintenance in exchange for a commission on collections brought in through the website.  Not a bad opportunity to have come your way.  Not bad for an Internet job.  Part of the American Dream.  Not a bad end to the week.

As always,

Happy Job Hunting!