BrianJarrett.com

As I near the one year anniversary of my return to CPI, I’ve taken some time to reflect upon my life and my career now versus a year ago. Things had taken an apparent turn for the worst a little over a year ago when Maritz decided to cancel my contract with no explanation or consolation. Apparently that’s the way of things as a contractor working for a terrible company. Maritz was one of the best and one of the worst experiences of my working life. As a company I find it difficult to understand …read more »

So I’ve been back to CPI for a month now and things are still looking good. Two weeks into my return the ETL guy quit and I inherited the stuff he was working on. This is really a good thing, despite the extra work. I’m very psyched about the ETL tool they purchased and with my DataStage experience I think I’ll be productive much more quickly than if I didn’t have the experience. I’ll be working closely with sales data and then I’ll be working with the derived marketing data after that. I have a lot of experience with the marketing side of things and I’m looking forward to working very closely with them again. The good thing is that although I’m working with the same data as before I left I’m doing something completely different with it. Building this data warehouse is exactly what I wanted to do when …read more »

The news is out and it’s official; I’m going back to CPI. I’m sure many people who know me will be surprised by this; I’m even a little surprised. There’s a long explanation and a short explanation for my decision but, in order to save everyone’s time, I’ll go with the short one: I still feel like my decision to leave was the right one given the circumstances but I’m also happy to be coming back again.

I guess things that used to really bother me just don’t bother me so much anymore. I’ve also found that it’s very difficult to find a company that doesn’t have problems of some kind. Often times you find that you just swap one problem for another. Von Hoffmann had their problems and Maritz had …read more »

Well, here I am again, back in the job market for the third time in a year. My stint at Maritz ended “unexpectedly” let’s say, so I’m searching for a job once again. I’m in talks with several companies and recruiting firms and I’ve got a few solid leads. It’s probably not prudent to mention these specifically right now; once things pan out and offers are accepted then I’ll divulge a bit more information. I’ll just say right now that I’m hoping I’ll soon be working in a familiar and comfortable environment again. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that things pan out the way I want them to. It’s looking more and more like my premature departure from Maritz …read more »

Well, the time has come for me to move on. September 15 will be my last day at Von Hoffmann. I’ve been looking for another job for a while now, after they fired half the St. Louis office less than two months ago. Too many firings, too much instability, and too little information and direction from upper management resulted in me searching for a job elsewhere. I guess I’m just tired of watching people get fired. It’ll also be a nice pay increase on top of everything. I’ve been dying to write about the whole saga but it’s typically not a good idea to write about anything bad going on in the place where you work. That information is sometimes considered privileged or confidential and termination can result in …read more »