Bicycle Facility Planning Intern

Kevin Flaherty Kevin Flaherty

1915 44th Avenue

San Francisco, CA

November 06, 2013

knf100@gmail.com 

Mobile: (415) 994-4637

 

ATTN: Jason Patton

 Bicycle & Pedestrian Program Manager

RE: Bicycle Facility Planning Intern

City of Oakland, Public Works Agency

250 Frank Ogawa Plaza, Suite 4344, Oakland, CA, 94612

Dear Jason Patton,

I am interested in the Bicycle Facility Planning Internship.  I think this position is well suited to my skill set because of my background in geography.  I see it as a way to translate my research experience into a career since it complements my years of background in GIS and cycling.  I am intrigued with urban society and find that riding a bike or walking from place to place is a great way to explore this fascination.  I have the experience and education to qualify for this position because as a GIS analyst and cyclist I have a stake in it.  While my resume provides the finer points of why I am so well prepared for this job, I will relate to you the basic elements of my experiences.

I am comfortable pursuing quantitative research and analysis because of my academic background.  I hold a BA in Geography from Humboldt State University and have had plenty of training in GIS from SF State University.  I am also currently enrolled at CSU Long Beach as a Master's student in geography, where I am studying goal achievement amongst community groups.  I have interviewed many public employees as well as conducting an extensive community survey.

This research has provided me with gainful employment at a multitude of organizations, firms and agencies.  While working as a graduate assistant at CSULB's Geography Department and a surveyor at Nelson/Nygaard, I often had to be comfortable working in the field without supervision.  Additionally, while collecting data and assisting planners at SCANPH and SCAG, I regularly helped develop regional design and policy recommendations.  I also documented field conditions, collected observational and GIS data and designed maps as well as other spatial resources for these and other organizations including Housing Long Beach and Long Beach Cyclists.  Finally, I have put all of these skills to work in the private sector as a GIS Specialist at companies like Frontline and Recology.

My life's goal is to put theory into practice, which is why I have been a long time member of multiple housing, cycling and other civic groups.  Specifically, I think that my best experiences have all related to cycling.  For instance, I started a campus club called CSULB Cyclists.  In the process of organizing meetings and communications for this group, I also got to know regional and state planners and advocates at a broad array of organizations including the League of American Bicyclists and the LA and SF Bicycle Coalitions.  Most importantly, I have played a role as a League Certified Instructor at all of these and other organizations throughout California.

I have continually been amazed at how far a little bit of effort can go.  For instance, I found that my efforts at the campus level were a success because of the way that the organizations I worked with focused on using available resources to accomplish real results.  This approach allowed us to push local leadership to adopt some of the most notable designs and practices from across the US.  It also provided us with the unprecedented chance of making surveys and collecting other, more qualitative, data to apply nationally recognized guidelines in the development of local facilities.

If I am hired for this position you will find that I am skilled at working on assignments which require attention to detail and multitasking.  You will also find that I am well-suited to policy support, outreach and map development.  Additionally, while I know you are looking for a candidate that is comfortable with meeting deadlines in an independent manner, I know you are also looking for a candidate that is able to work wll with others and is comfortable working on multiple projects simultaneously.

In closing I must stress that my more recent experiences have provided me with ample opportunity to hone my database management, graphic design and GIS skills.  I have nearly ten years' experience using GIS software such as ESRI's ArcMap and I am skilled at software packages such as MS Word, Excel and Access as well as Adobe Illustrator and PhotoShop.  Also, while I am happiest developing maps, reports and graphics for use in planning and education, I am also an accomplished interview and survey data collector with some international experience speaking Spanish and Mandarin.

Please give me a call or email me,

Kevin Flaherty

Master's Candidate

CSULB Geography

Update on my Jobs Bib

Later I looked through my emails looking for a job search.  I also reviewed my job resources, which I felt were useful but difficult to manage.  I decided that I would expand my master bibliography and then reworked the annotated one.  Reading through these new things began to emerge.  For instance Craigslist, Monster and Career Builder are more important since they constituted the basis from which I look for anything.  For Craigslist, I built some feeds with Yahoo Pipes.  However, I don’t really like Pipes because they don’t allow me to have a list of postings that exceeds 25.  I also noted that while these were the most recognizable there were others that were similar, such as Beyond and Indeed.

There are several other types: recruiters, companies, government agencies and entities.  There are also staffing agencies.  I then considered government exams noting that an application for a GIS job with the government required an exam that isn’t offered very often.  I also have a giant number of email job lists.  Some of these are related to list serves and others are associated with job listing sites that I have neither signed up for or have even visited.

Interview at FES

I went to an interview with a company I used to work for FES.  I had been concerned about the BART strike so I got up at 4 and left a little later to sleep in the parking lot at Peet’s Walnut Creek.  I got there at eight.  I met Brian House in the conference room.  He introduced himself and we talked about my MAOP experience.  He said that my SQL experience was strong and wanted to know about my cartographic experience.  He was also interested in my communication skills.

Nearly twenty minutes into the interview I realized that I was being interviewed for a that had a position in San Ramon and not the Mission District of SF—the one for which I had applied.  I thought that it was sad that they didn’t even consider interviewing me for that position.  Midway through the interview Dave came in.  We talked for a bit but Brian had all of the questions.  When he was finished he gave the action over to Dave, who declined to ask any questions.

After that Dave walked me around the facility and eventually I saw all the old faces.  I said bye after confirming with Dave that they had made no decision.  Justin, Bihn and Brian House are the unit for which they had considered me for in San Ramon.  I left at 930 and immediately Kathryn wanted to know how it had gone.  I told her I didn't know yet but that I wasn't broken hearted.

Academy of Sciences

This is a post pertaining to the Snaphire website called for the California Academy of Sciences:

California Academy of Sciences (2012). Welcome to California Academy of Sciences [Careers]. Retrieved November 9th, 2012, from http://calacademy.snaphire.com/.

I received an email from a friend about this position on the 8th of November. The link in her email had an error message in it but I was able to find the job description in one of the links on that page. One of my problems with the site is that it doesn’t list the reference elements correctly. For instance, the bottom of the page doesn’t have a standardized author, copyright and year. I didn’t think that “Welcome to California Academy of Sciences” is a good title for a page that is the “Careers” link on the home page. The only date I could find listed for this page is one associated with the Snaphire logo. I think the whole thing is rather unprofessional.

I clicked on the link for the Georeferencing specialist that was listed halfway down the page and this sent me to a description for the job. I felt that the description was perfect for me. The job entails georeferencing imagery for museum properties. It is a full time position and it was listed on 101512 nearly a month ago. I clicked the apply link and this sent me to a page that asked for my registration information and, if I hadn’t entered this information yet, a button to do so. I had to enter my email and then I clicked Register Now and this sent me to a page called “Step One of Two” where I entered my profile information, contact information, address, source data and uploaded a resume. I also had to select my shifts, availability and type of employment. There were several fields that asked me about desired income, EOO data and a privacy statement to which I agreed. I clicked on the “Worked at the Academy Link” and said no. I also unsubscribed to alerts. I pressed save and continue.

After this there is a questionnaire. However after I opened this I discovered that they only wanted a cover letter. I found the last one I wrote and attached that. After this finished loading I clicked on finish and the site said thank you.

They sent me an email letter in confirmation.

SQL Server

Several months ago I got an email from a friend. It was forwarded from his wife. I can only imagine that she has an email feed. I had to print out the application and send it in via post. I got an email back from them saying stuff that read like I would only be considered for the unpaid internships.

Then a couple weeks later I got a phone call from the agency saying that they wanted to schedule an interview. It was odd because I told them that I had gotten a notice that they were only looking for unpaid and the reply was simply an emphatic statement that they were interviewing for the had paid jobs. The caller then asked about my enrollment status and residence. We talked about an interview on the 6th and they she hung up on me.

Since she said she would get back to me, I didn’t know her name and the mooted day for the interview was coming up soon I decided to call them and they sent me to voice mail. I left a message and then found that persons email and sent them an email. Then after two weekends later I looked for another phone number to address the problem of scheduling the interview. This time I got the person who called me and she acknowledged that we needed to make an appointment.

Two days later I received a phone call from her at ten in the morning for the interview. The other interviewer, a modeler, was new. I don’t enjoy phone interviewers because of the sound quality. Plus the second interviewer had an accent and that made things a bit more difficult.

The lead interviewer told me that they had two paid positions and one or two unpaid. They confirmed that I was a student, which is a requirement. They asked about the distance between my school and the job site. I told them that there would not be much need for me to be at the University and that I would be available to fill the hourly requirement. I told them when I wanted to graduate. I also pointed out that the location of the job was attractive because I had so many friends nearby.

The second interviewer explained the model they were developing for the region. The position involved experience in GIS and database management. They asked me to describe my experience with databases and what type of databases I had been using. They told me about the database they were using and asked what kind of query language experience I had. They also wanted to know about my programming experience. I said that I understood SQL but had not used SQL Server. I also said that I had a lot of experience with ArcMap 10. I talked about my programming experience.

They wanted to know if I had any questions. I asked what the duration of the position was and what the hours and compensation were. They told me it would likely go until June and required a minimum of PT but they were open to FT. They also said that I would qualify for internship pay.

CalOpps Reference

This is a post pertaining to the website called CalOpps:

CalOpps (2008). Welcome to CalOpps. Retrieved October 2, 2012, from https://www.calopps.org/default.cfm

Upon logging into this site you end up at the profile options page, which has 14 links on it many of which are redundant. The edit profile link on the profile options page is where you can add your previous job experiences and change their order. To upload a resume you have to paste a text string into a field. This page has several buttons. The job cart is for saving applications, the my applications link shows recent submissions and the profile information link shows a static version of what is loaded into the edit profile above.

The banner has several other links on that are also on the profile options page like an FAQ and a government employment link with a readme. There is also a member agencies link, which produces a full list of the many Bay Area and California Cities available on the site. They are mostly smaller cities smaller with less than 200,000 people. Finally, the banner has a search link.

Clicking on the search link produces a set of search terms: location, category, keyword, salary and type. Search results vary depending upon when the search is made as can be seen from searchers performed on 081812 and 100212. For instance searching for “all locations” on 081812 produced 34 announcements and 27 on 100212.

Once you have made your search you can reorganize the results by these attributes as well as the date. Doing this on 081812 returned two state wide jobs, four jobs in the East Bay that were attractive to someone like myself with experience using GIS. There were two jobs in Sacramento and the South Bay each. Meanwhile, doing this again on 100212 only returned one state wide job.

Meanwhile, choosing an area like SF/Peninsula will narrow the search. On 081812 produced three administrative jobs and four on 100212 produced 4 additional jobs. These included engineer, manager and analyst in environmental compliance and planning cities jobs (sometime several) in places like Half Moon Bay (2), San Carlos (2) Los Altos, South San Francisco and Menlo Park.

If you are a regular visitor to this site much of this will be pre-populated. My automatic search uses the term GIS and the location SF/Peninsula because I am a geographer in the Bay Area. However, just hitting search sometimes doesn’t produce anything. For instance on 100212 this same search produced only one job for the Public Works director in Foster City.

Here are some examples of jobs that I applied to on this site.

I opened an Assistant Job announcement on 081812 and pushed the apply button. This returned a page with the minimum requirement questions. I then had to update my profile, submit a typing certificate and answer a set of diversity questions. I later received an email in September of 2012 saying that I was passed over for the job because I hadn’t submitted a typing certificate.

In May of 2012 I submitted applications for two jobs in the Peninsula. I got an email and did an interview for one of these and the other was an unpaid internship that I passed up. More recently there was a job that I applied for in the East Bay. I have since received a rejection.

Normally I open up this site once every other week. However, sometimes I get emails from people. For instance, I received an email from a prominent local academic on 080912 which I posted here but the announcement was not going to be posted for another month.

This series is a showcase of the different types of job search resources I have encountered. It is a Resource Bibliography that seeks to describe the process through which one must go to find various types of employment.

Fwd:Fwd: Internship Opportunities

---------- Forwarded message ----------

Date: Fri, Nov 30, 2012 at 4:17 PM
Subject: Fwd: Internship Opportunities


Dear J,

I received a phone call yesterday from one of your coworkers at COG about the student internship for which I applied .  She told me that she wanted to schedule an interview on the sixth.  I was delighted to make the appointment with her.  However, once we started to get into the details she told me that she would get back to me about it.

I figured that I should follow up on this because I am indeed interested in this position and am fully qualified to fill the position.

K

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 9:16 AM
Subject: Internship Opportunities