First Day Of The New Job

I just had the first day of the new job. The company behaves like an E-commerce on the web, selling their products. It behaves like a "multi-level-marketing" group off line, getting people to sell their stuff for them, and if that person gets someone else to sell their stuff, etc, etc. Pshhhhhh........nobody like the "P-word" that's used to store tombs for Egyptian kings. :)

The first day of the job wasn't bad, shook hands with about 50 people and remembering about 5 of them, sat in different meetings to "get acquainted with the business". For some reason, I had fairly slow connection at the new job. I did a "connection speed test" and it was less than 200k/sec, even cell phones are faster than that nowadays. I'm just hoping it's not like that permanently. Anyway, I've sat in cubicles and wide open office spaces before, but this is the first job which I have my own office. It's not a big one, enough for a desk and a couple of chairs, somewhat close to the size of "break-out rooms" in WPNI, but hey, it's my first office all to myself. :)

I'm currently staying in temp housing provided by the company, I probably will find a furnished apartment in the next 3 weeks, and move all my stuff from DC over Christmas vacation. If anyone in DC area wants to get together over the break, ppzhao at aol.com. :)

Thanksgiving Post

Living with parents for my week off between jobs. Nice to be off for a few days, but I'm getting bored, especially before 5PM when all my friends are working. And I can't hang with my friends late into the night anymore because they all have to get up and work the next day.

I'm just enjoying my few days off, looking forward to my new job on Monday. Still doing the apartment search. My friend Andrew suggested that I should get something different, like a penthouse apartment. Are there any in Greensboro? If not, what're my other options other than the "average apartment"? What makes a "luxury apartment" different from "just an apartment"?

WPNI Happy Hour

With Friday being my last day at WPNI, I've decided to go out for drinks with some coworkers after work. I'm thankful for all the friends I've made at WPNI. I got to Clarendon Grill around 5:30 and people started joining afterwards.

List of people who I had the pleasure of having some last drinks with:
Scott O
Chris B
Pat S
Fang
ZZ
Julie
Rochelle
Jeff B
Kim H

Special thanks to everyone:

• Scott for taking the extra effort to hang out even though he's no longer with WPNI
• Pat for giving me advice on where to position a TV so I can see it from both the couch and my bed if I get a studio
• Fang for getting me the most horrible shot (Tequila) for the night
• ZZ for respecting what kind of shot I'd be able to tolerate without killing myself (Vodka). :)
• Julie and Rochelle for being able to take the time and join me for a drink and say goodbye outside the office
• Jeff and Chris for being able to come and hang out and have food afterwards, even though they have young children at home
• Kim for simply being Kim. :)

If I missed anyone, I totally apologize for it, I had about 8 or 9 drinks throughout the night and was not extremely sober.

Farewell to WPNI

Tomorrow will be my last day working for Washington Post Newsweek Interactive. I'm slightly sad about leaving WPNI, but we all have to do what's best for our careers.

Accomplishments are great, but my deepest memories are the ones built on teamwork and friendship, and below are some events that made it to my "best WPNI memory" list

• Liddy's grammar lesson at her last classifieds meeting
• WPNI ping pong tournament
• Mike's candy bowl
• Halloween events
• Atil and Kim's off-site bon-voyage festivities involving alcohol
• Trips to NYC to meet Budget Travel, Google, or Newsweek
• Bagel Mondays / PB&J Fridays
• Quick lunches at the Chinese place across the street

To all at WPNI: Please shoot me a LinkedIn invite, and also list some of your best memories at WPNI.

Greensboro North Carolina: Here I come

After two years of living in the DC area, I'm finally moving back to the Carolinas. I just accepted a job in Greensboro NC last Friday. They're a company that's been around for 16 years, but fairly new on their web presence. They've just started doing SEO with an agency and haven't done anything with paid search at all. It'll be my job to bring SEO in house and ditch the agency, and start their paid search program (after building some business cases for it, of course).

I just gave them my two week's notice yesterday, and my last day will be November 16, and I'll be starting my new job on the 26th. It's going to give me the week of Thanksgiving to prepare for stuff (10 days counting weekends). I'll miss my current job and all the friends I've made. For the company, the next two weeks will mostly be me transitioning what I'm currently doing and how it should be done to my boss, who hopefully will be able to repeat it to my replacement after I'm gone. For myself, my next two weeks are going to be full of good-byes with all the friends and acquaintances I've made, and lots of solidifying the network of connections I've made at WashingtonPost.com.

There definitely are some advantages of living in the south, other than the cost of living. People are super nice down there, words like "please" and "thank you" are frequently used to strangers. The major disadvantage would be less educated professionals. Greensboro is mostly blue-collared workers, and sometimes it creates weird situations for me. I remember once someone in a Charlotte arcade picked a fight with me because I was beating him in a video game over and over, I guess those are just minor things I need to get used to, that and getting used to not be able to go to a bar and come out without smelling like smoke.

Since I've moved to DC area, I've worked on a lot of areas for self-development and I hope I don't lose them. I hope I'm not content with doing the same things over and over, instead of going out and trying new things. I hope to not lose my interest in culture, such as museums and foreign food. I hope to not slack off on my education on different subjects that interest me, and continue to research, going to seminars, etc.

It'll be fun to be back in Greensboro. It's been too long, Paul's coming back to North Carolina!