Song of the day:
This song was #1 on June 1, 1998…25 years ago today…
25 years ago…
The year was 1998
It was a Monday
The Boy is Mine by Brandy & Monica was #1
Godzilla was the top movie at the box office
Bill Clinton was the President of the United States
Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place was popular on TV
Text messaging was starting to becoming a thing
Most people still had landlines
CDs were how most people got their music
Michael Jordan was still dominating the basketball courts
The internet existed but looked nothing like it does today
There was no social media
There was no iPhone
There was no iPod
And oh yeah, I started working at San José State University.
I honestly have a hard time believing I’ve been in California for a little over 25 years and am still working for the same employer. Technically not all 25 years have been at SJSU; I did spend 2 1/2 of those years at the Cal State East Bay campus, but it’s all been in the California State University system so it counts.
I started my career in the CSU as a Compensation Analyst. A little less than two years after I started I moved from HR to Finance and began working on the PeopleSoft implementation. I can’t remember my exact title, but it was something like Coordinator, Training and Support. Two and a half years later I was moved into a management position as the Manager of Training and Support/HR Project Manager. I kept that title until November 2008 when I moved to East Bay as the Director of Administrative Applications. I returned to SJSU in April 2011 as the Director of the CMS Project Office, which is the position I previously reported to when I left. I only stayed in that position for a year then moved on an interim basis back to HR as the Senior Director of Operations. Since then my title and scope of responsibility has changed numerous times leading me to my current role as Senior Director of Technology and Training.
I’ve had some amazing people work for me over the years and am grateful to have had some wonderful colleagues as well. I’ve had some great managers - and some not-so-great ones, too. I’ve dealt with personnel issues, as most managers have, have been frustrated by bureaucracy, but have also been able to accomplish some amazing things. I’ve worked in 11 different offices, 8 different buildings. I’ve have worked for 10 different presidents (13 separate presidencies). And I’ve visited 13 of the other CSU campuses (there are 23 in total). I’ve implemented every iteration of PeopleSoft HR on campus, as well as parts of the PeopleSoft Finance and Student systems and the PageUp recruiting system. I’ve trained a lot of people and have hopefully helped just as many, if not more, do their jobs more effectively. I’ve led a lot of people through Insights Discovery workshops and would honestly love to do that all day long. It’s one of the things I love most about my job. Of course what I truly love the most are the people, especially my amazing staff. I mean, who wouldn’t want to work with us?
I don’t know where the next few years are going to take me, but I don’t have plans to change my path anytime soon. There are certainly days when I think about retirement, but I don’t think I’m quite ready for all of that just yet.
So until then, Happy Anniversary to me! I plan to celebrate by working at home, taking myself out to a nice lunch, then catching the new Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse movie later tonight.
In other news…
Did anyone watch the Ted Lasso season (series) finale? SO GOOD! I’m going to miss that show. Side note: Ed Sheeran wrote a song for the finale and it’s fantastic!
Speaking of Ed, have you seen The Sum of It All documentary on Disney+? If you’re a fan of Ed, this is a must. Fair warning, tissues are required.
I saw The Little Mermaid movie last night and it was great!
Let’s Go Nuggets and Let’s Go Panthers!!
Manifest’s final episodes are coming to Netflix on Friday - another great show.
The Mother arrives in 13 days!
Video of the day:
I didn’t know I needed this, but I most definitely did.
Here’s the original, just for fun…or in case you’ve been under a rock and don’t know it by heart…
Happy Anniversary! I think I started there in the summer of 1998 so just before you... Enjoy your day!
Great last 35 years and the future I bright whatever you will do. No rush!
I doubt you will stay with it like I have at age 80 but who knows?
Keep going until something better comes around.