Apparently, Dr. Pepper have been reading Deviant Brainwave and realized something is wrong. They have extended their Chinese Democracy promotion to give me a few more hours to get a drink I don’t want. Too bad I was in class all day and only found out about it at 18:54 EST.

You would think that after being 14 years in the making, the idea of a new album by Guns n’ Roses will be stale. Well, I think it is and the people at Dr. Pepper probably think so too.

For years I have wondered about these promotions that are geographically limited, but now I have an opportunity to take part in one. Yes, Dr. Pepper have promised a free drink for everyone in America on the day Chinese Democracy comes out, as long as it is in 2008, and as long as their servers can take it. Well, Chinese Democracy is coming out, but I can report that the servers are just not taking it. I tried a few minutes ago on a couple of browsers, and it’s either an error message or just the Flash intro with not much beyond.

Luckily, I like neither Dr. Pepper nor Guns n’ Roses.

***
Update: I feel a translation is needed. In the US the word Soda is a generalization for any carbonated drink:

a drink made with soda water, flavoring, such as fruit or other syrups, and often ice cream, milk, etc

soda. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Retrieved November 23, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/soda

Personally, I like the fact that Dictionary.com has Carbonated Water on the same page, which is a much more accurate definition, as far as I’m concerned.

OH Deer, originally uploaded by Deviant Brainwave.

This picture was taken yesterday afternoon in our parking lot using E’s camera phone. This was the fourth time we saw a deer outside our house, but only the first time in which we managed to take a picture.

It was another one of these occasions in which I was sorry I cannot carry my big heavy camera around with me all the time.

First Snow, originally uploaded by Deviant Brainwave.

The first snow of the season was very exciting, even though we already know that we should expect a lot more later in the winter. Still, for E. it was the first time he ever saw snow falling, so the excitement is understandable.

We actually pulled our cameras out this morning to take pictures of a deer that was hanging out in our backyard, but as happened in previous occasions, the deer recognized the danger and ran off.

A good project needs to start with a goal. The goal needs to be a clear definition of what the project aims to achieve and how it can benefit the relevant stakeholders and organizations in a way that will justify its existence and allocated funds. The next step is defining success criteria – measurements upon which the project will be judged and that will enable tracking its advancement.

From the start, our return to academia and our journey to Cincinnati were defined as a project. We had a Gantt chart listing our preparation tasks which we tried to follow, at least at the level of a checklist that lets us know where we stand. However, our definitions of goals were loose. At least for me they were. I knew that my goals involved first of all being with E. and then taking steps that will advance my career, but I didn’t know much more than that.

Now that I am here, working hard to get the best results I can while giving up any leisure time I was hoping for, I need to stop for a second and think of some success criteria. How, a year or so from now, will I judge this project? What should I aim for in order to achieve success on these criteria? Here is a list of what I have in mind so far, and it is very likely that this list is not final:

1. Horizontal career advancement – Although I enjoyed my managerial jobs very much in the past, I feel that I need a change of direction. Testing was good, but I need to do something different and seek a new challenge that will use my technical skills and knowledge for business oriented tasks. My aim is to move sideways into system analysis or project management. I am aware that doing so will require me to move back to the bottom of the food chain, but I am sure that my managerial experience will help me advance vertically once I’m there. What I need to avoid at this stage, as was suggested by an experienced and very helpful career adviser, is to take on yet another testing position. This is also a challenge since there are more testing internship positions available than business analysis or project management ones.
2. A career in Academia – For some reason the age of 35 has already been mentioned in a couple of information sessions I attended as a measure of career maturity. The first mention was of 35 to 45 as the age at which senior management position needs to be achieved and that if it has not been achieved by that time than it is likely never going to happen (though the presenter did not use these deterministic terms). The second mention was of 35 as the maximum age in which one should still be happy working as a traveling consultant before aiming to settle down. Taking into consideration that by the time I finish this degree I will already be 35 years old, I feel that I need to consider an alternative, and a Ph.D. may not be a bad one. There are several topics of research that I am interested in, and this may be an interesting career switch.
3. Travel – Yes, I believe there should be a life beyond study and work, although at the moment I don’t get to realize it much. However, if I will not have the chance to travel around the new country I moved to and enjoy it, I will consider this project as a failure. I know that this may not happen in the very near future, but this success criterion will have to be met at some point.
4. Financial gain – If the first option for my career advancement will be chosen, it will have to show some financial benefits in the long run. I have never considered payment as the most important criterion when choosing a job or making a career move, but in this case, covering my expenses would be a minimal requirement. Also, it will be a good metric of whether giving up everything I had to come here was a sensible decision, however it will still not measure the non tangible things I left behind.

Although success criteria should be though of in advance rather than while a project is on the go, I think I may come up with a few more later. If you have any suggestions of other issues that need to be considered, please leave me a note in the comments.