Notes from 12/11 OCA Meeting, Job News!

One new member joined us last week at our Friday OCA meeting. Please welcome:
- Terry Moos, marketing copywriter, who was with Attachmate for more than 13 years. Terry has recently contracted as a marketing manager at Vertafore.

Job News!
- Alison Worthington has landed at Microsoft as Marketing Director for Bing. Alison has a ton of big brand management experience (Starbucks, Coke), and had been consulting recently before getting in the door with the "large software company located on the East Side."
- Daniel Holland inked a 60-day contract with the Spring Creek Group, working on Bing.

If you can't tell, the Bing group at MSFT is generating work in the Seattle area, both within the company and through its vendors. More evidence that 'going digital' and getting up to speed on "Search" is a viable career direction.

Healthy discussion at our last meeting about contracting, and how it can impact your status with the unemployment office. We had two different takes, depending on circumstances and who you may have talked to at Worksource.
- If you have a finite contract (say 3 months) and a definitive end date, you can pick up where you left off with unemployment when your contract ends.
- If, however, it's a situation where you may be on a 'trial basis' through a short-term contract, and the trial doesn't work out (for whatever reason), the unemployment office will then open an investigation to determine your status.

The latter is obviously a more precarious spot to be in, though it may be required by the hiring company. They're taking their time to further check you out, not necessarily wanting to commit to full-time employment, nor benefits, until they feel it's a great fit. This has been more prevalent lately, given the economy. On the flip side, you may be balancing a need to replenish finances and getting back into a work environment with "What happens if this isn't the right fit in the end?" or even "I know this isn't a fit or where I want to land full-time, but a bird in the hand...". Then what?

OCA will be on a 2-week hiatus during the holidays and will resume meetings January 8th.