washington dc careers:lobbyist

legend has it (as popularized by Willard Hotel propaganda/marketing folks) that right around the time when the unionist were wining the civil war, Grant who was the Union army General use to smoke in the hotel lobby while visiting DC, since he was the leader of the winning side therefore a lot of people were conveniently found hanging around the lobby seeking favors from the leader, hence the term lobbyist, the job description of a lobbyist hasn't changed much since then, though it might be much more complicated now but then we are talking about the capital of the free world where free trade as preached by Adam Smith is on full swing, and as they say over here every thing is a marketable asset from the senator's robe to the senator himself, not to sound as if the senators take bribes, they do not, just that voting a certain way for causes that are dear to some corporation may well make the next campaign a well funded one. Anyways extending the earlier post 'Washington DC careers' Google 'lobbyist' and you will find the following traits desirable in a lobbyist:

1- should have the power to persuade
2- presentable personality
3- in most cases friendly demeanor (confrontational folks need not apply)
4- should have in depth knowledge of the cause they are pushing
5- should have the ability to cultivate a network of resourceful people

more walkable neighborhoods

if you live in the fairfax/loudoun county area you cannot help but notice folks riding there bikes on major routes such as route 7, route 50 and route 28 and that too at night. There is something fundamentally wrong with that picture, how can you end up with vast spreads of neighborhoods without any consideration for people with out cars? ok so you would imagine then there would be an extensive network of public transport right? wrong. I think these are counties that were probably designed with the oil and automobile industry folks leading the charge, the reason why I say that is because most of these areas are hopelessly not walkable, come on you cannot tell me walkable neighborhoods are a new idea, people have been living in bustling cities all around the world since last hundreds of years, you get down from your apartment and shop for everything you need with in a few blocks, but the problem doesn't end just there, most of these folks that you see on the road are not making any effort to be seen by the driver in the car whizzing by, specially at night pair of dark jeans and jacket are not a 'smart' thing to wear as it makes a bad situation worst, folks living in the Northern Virginia region are not even use to looking out for folks on motor bikes let alone on bicycles, this is one of the unsafe places to be on two wheels for that reason alone, sad part of the story is most of the folks on bikes are not casual bikers, they are riding there bikes to work and many of them are riding them late at night of them are our Hispanic brethren who may not be working jobs that provide health insurance which means if they get hurt they cannot afford the hospital bills.


I think we need the following to happen to make things better:
1- make a 2 foot wide dedicated bicycle lanes on all routes (ALL ROUTES)

2- educate bike commuters to wear bold flashing headgear/clothes, this education needs to come from the church, the employer, the Hispanic TV and radio stations, schools shouldn't be the only place for this kind of education because mostly people I see doing this are not teenagers but grown men, who seem to be recent immigrants

3- start a dialog between employer and employee, so that if the employee's only transport is his bike the employer can put him on a day time shift

4- driver-ed should include a comprehensive section that puts an emphasis on looking out for bikers.

5- enforce a universal health care system at the county level. There are too many rich folks paying too much tax, Universal health care shouldn't be a problem here.

An atmosphere that encourages less cars on the road is
1- good for the environment
2- good for the general health of people and
3- its a good way to tackle the traffic problem,

how many council members does it take to figure that out.

by the way those of you who would like to attend a conference related to environment here are a few happening in/around Washington DC in the near future:

www.eesi.org free day seminars
www.energyconversation.org DOD sponsored, free
www.greendrinks.org - International Group with DC monthly bar meeting
http://www.2020vision.org/ July 12 program in DC full day $100

washington dc careers

this is a good time to be in the greater DC metro area as the career choices that are available here right now are simply splendid. A few that come immediately to mind are:

1- lobbyists
2- Non-profit/Social worker
3- career diplomat
4- authors
5- doing business with the govenrment
7- homeland security
8- aviation industry (3 airports)
9- investment banking
10- management consulting
11- tour guides
12- technology workers (contractors and full time employees)
13- chefs
14- event planners

some might be surprised to see chefs on this list, well Washington DC is quickly becoming one of the top spots on the list of culinary tourists, the proof of which is that Last year in the District alone, $2.3 billion was spent on food and drink, according to Lynne Breaux, president of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington! arguably some of the most prominent chefs in the East coast (Michel Richard (Citronelle)) run a kitchen here.

big company life

the flip side of working for a big company is the risk averse nature of job for most employees, Adam Herscher an ex-Microsoft employee blogged on his reasons for leaving that life to tryout something different, I find his reasons interesting and agree with the timing as there couldn't have been a better time, the economy is doing good, job market is fine and as he puts it he is still young and dependent free, its better to start out sooner then later.

The things that he lists as reasons for him to leave the job:

1. lack of work hard-play hard culture
2. not much room for individuals to take big risks and reap big rewards

his solutions:

provide a risk/reward system in which one's work can have a direct impact on their stake in equity.

he makes a lot of sense, you should read his blog too.