It's the time of the year ...

... when you call it a day early, go to a bar and watch some postseason baseball. Who cares about deadlines ... Did that last year a few times and it was a lot of fun. And this is way better than the NFL playoffs because they play on weekends and don't give you an excuse to leave early. Not that we really need that but having a reason is better than just being lazy. Let's all hope for interesting playoffs and a World Series winner other than the Yankees (if they make it).

My Quest for a PhD ...

For the past 4 years I have been attending the PhD program in Computer Science of University of California in Santa Cruz. Now that I have completed most of the class work I am (sort of) ready to tackle that tiny problem of coming up with a dissertation topic and then actually writing it. Now, I have no illusions that my PhD work is going to change the world but doing this part-time while having a full-time job it better be something I enjoy. Well, I do enjoy sports, fast cars, my two kids, Ben and Jonas, but that ain't going to work ... Unless I can bribe the thesis committee to accept a proposal of studying an entire baseball season from a computer scientists point of view.

Anyway, so here I am and I am not quite sure on how to start this whole thing. It will definitely be in the area of information retrieval, indexing, etc., because that's where I have spent the last 4 years of my work life and it is actually very interesting. Will keep you posted here on what I am going to do ... (or not if it so secret that noone can ever find out).

Career stuff and credit histories ...

I had one of these frustrating days at work. I am at a point at my job where it seems it's not good enough anymore to do a really good job at what you do. Instead having become a more senior employee it is expected to reach out, make others better, etc. While I don't have a problem with this, on top of that stuff, my managers want me to become more visible. So, within a company like IBM, there are certain groups, panels or institutions that can help to get to the next step on the career ladder. I am told, that it is important for me to connect to these folks. One of these groups often hosts internal studies or conferences and any IBMer can submit his proposal for participation, sort of like a conference. Now, a month ago, I submitted a write-up and got the notice that while there was nothing wrong with my proposal, I wasn't invited. No reviews or criticism, just the notice that there were many proposals and that they were sorry. After a little bit of poking around, I found out that participation was sort of restricted to the people who have already made it. Now here is the dilemma, in order to get to the next phase of my career I need to part of these things, but in order ot part of these things and get exposure, you already need to have reached that next phase. Doesn't make sense, you say? I agree, it is like trying to get a credit card when you come to this country as a foreigner. Most often, they tell you you can't have one because you got no credit history and you can't really build a credit history without a credit card. Sometimes I don't get it ...