AirTran Financial Woes

Since their days flying under the ill-fated ValuJet name, I have always been a fan of AirTran. I don't travel a great deal - usually 1 trip up to Norfolk every year for a Refresher and 1 or 2 family vacations per year. However, I am very interested in the science of traveling as cheaply as possible. As I have mentioned before, I love Priceline and Bidding for Travel. The cheaper I can pay to travel somewhere, the more often I am able to travel.

During an investor conference call this morning, AirTran CFO Arne Haak disclosed plans to shrink the Atlanta hub and move their focus away from"lower-yielding leisure customer". This is unfortunate news for cheap travelers like myself, but it does make financial sense for AirTran. I spend less money now on a flight to the Newport News/Norfolk area for a Refresher than I did in 1995. Cheap AirTran flights out of Atlanta were a good thing while they lasted.

1995

1995 was a great year!

In October, David Justice hit a home run in game 6 of the World Series to give the Atlanta Braves their only World Series championship. As it looks to be a 3rd straight year of no postseason for the Braves, the memory of that season gets more special as time goes on.

August of '95 was when I went through the 3-week PFSP program at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. As I will often tell anyone who will listen (and has not heard me say it 1,000,000 times), those 3 weeks completely changed my life.

This morning I was in the middle of a very hectic day of work when I received a phone call from someone whom I had gone through the 3-week program with. We became very good friends during the program and stayed in touch for the next few years after that. However, this was probably the first conversation we have had in 9 years. We quickly caught each other up on what we had been doing since we had last spoke and then got on the subject of how our speech has been. We were both very happy with where we were in regards to our speech. She then said something that really made my day. She told me that "that 3 weeks was probably the best thing (she) had ever done for (herself)." I thought that was such a brilliant and concise statement. I have never been able to describe the experience better than that.

5 Years

I am kicking around the idea of a HUGE life change. This life change would require an initial time investment of about 5 years to get started. Yesterday, I was thinking about how long 5 years really is. Then it occurred to me, that 5 years ago this weekend was one of the most event-filled weekends of my life.

The weekend started on Thursday night as I was driving home from work and was involved in a major 3-car accident. Friday morning our beloved dog died. Saturday, my wife's grandmother died. Sunday, our daughter was conceived. It is hard to believe all of that happened 5 years ago.

How To Get Out Of A Family Christmas Party

Last weekend, my daughter and wife went to a family Christmas party in Birmingham while I got to stay home. Why was I not there?

Two years ago, we were at the same Christmas party (my wife's aunt) and as we were leaving, someone was doing something to my daughter (ticking her, maybe?) and my wife's aunt said "don't do that to her, she will start stuttering, too". Out of respect for my wife and her parents, I did not say a work and just continued to leave. Needless to say, I have avoided this annual event since then.

It never ceases to amaze me how stupid people can be at times.

120 Rule

In my last few posts I have discussed the series of interviews I have had recently with one company. My last interview for the position was today, as I met with their external CPA. From all indications, it sounds like I am their top candidate for the position. It appears they are ready to make a move and a job offer could be coming soon.

When I consider changing jobs, I have what I call my "120 Rule". The 120 Rule means that the new job needs to pay at least 120% of the current job in order for me to consider the move. In my career I have always had the fortune/misfortune of knowing the salaries of everyone in the Accounting/Finance area. This has usually been due to my job responsibilities (payroll, budgeting, etc.). I learned early on that salaries are more a function of when someone joins a company and how they negotiate salary when they join, as opposed to other factors.

Though the series of interviews have gone well, my speech has pretty much been lousy the past week. The worst was Friday afternoon as our department celebrated the filing of our 10-K by leaving work early and having a few drinks. I usually have more trouble with fluency in loud restaurants (I have trouble with the background noise), but this was the worse it had been in a while. I spent the weekend putting more focus and attention to my targets.

Marathon Interview Follow-up

I survived my morning of fun on Saturday. The first interview out of the gate was with a high-level VP/Sales guy who wanted to try to beat me up a little because of the number of jobs (5 in 9 years) on my resume. I withstood his attacks pretty well, even getting a couple of good counter-punches in. After that, the questions became easier as he was the only one who came at me all morning with a negative agenda.

Halfway through the second interview at around 8:45, I got tired and started to struggle with my fluency. I pulled myself together and was able to stay pretty much on track the rest of the morning. The last 2 interviews were done over the phone and before I knew it, the last interview ended at 11:45 and I was finished.

The next day I woke up with a very sore chest - a sign that I had been using the full breath target extensively the morning before. The Company is supposed to make a decision this week on who to offer to position too, but at this point, I am not really concerned about that. I felt like I gave it my best effort and did everything I could do. If it is meant to happen then it will, if not, then something better will come up. I learned a long time ago, that God's plan for my life is a lot better than my plan.

Marathon Interview

Last week I mentioned an interview I had gone on where the CEO asked me about my stuttering. I was supposed to have a follow-up interview this week, but I could not get away from my current job, so I called my recruiter and told him I was passing on the opportunity.

I thought that was the end of that, but on Thursday, the company asked if I wanted to come in on Saturday for the follow-up interview. I agreed, so between 8 and 11:30 AM tomorrow, I have 7 separate 30 minute interviews scheduled with this company. 3 of the interviews are with people I would be managing - the other 4 are with managers of other areas of the company. I know some of these people can't be happy about having to come in on Saturday to interview some yahoo for the Controller position.

My speech has been pretty lousy this week, mainly from a total lack of focus and concentration on my targets. This evening I have been putting extra effort into monitoring my targets, as I will in the morning. I have been on enough interviews the past few months, that I have my answers and sales pitches down pretty well, so that should allow me to focus more on my targets than trying to come up with an answer to a question.

This should be an interesting experience.

Honest Interview Question

As I have mentioned before, I am currently in the process of exploring other employment opportunities. Friday morning I was being interviewed for the Controller position at a small healthcare support company. As we closed the interview the CEO told me that I had really made an impression on him and that he wanted me to come back next week to interview with others in the Company, but he said he wanted to ask me one more question before we closed.

He asked me if I felt my speech would have an impact on how I performed the job. I was not expecting that question but I was able to give a good answer as it opened the door for me to sale my history of overcoming my stuttering as an asset, as opposed to a liability. The discussion of my stuttering up front also opened the door, for in the case that I am offered the position, it will be easier for me to include time off and having the Company pay for my PFSP Refreshers in the salary and compensation negotiations.

During job interviews my speech is usually pretty good - no major blocks, mainly some class IV issues, but it is still obvious that I am a stutterer. I am sure the question that this interviewer asked crosses the mind of others, but for whatever reason, they don't ask. But it was a nice change to have someone actually ask me an honest interview question.

Daddy Daughter Breakfast

Even though I missed Small Group and did not get home tonight until 10 pm (after spending 12 hours in meetings at work), I had a very good day. The reason I had a good day is that this morning my daughter's Montessori class had a special daddy and child breakfast. I got to take the little one to school, have breakfast with her and have her show me some of the work she is currently involved in.

Even though we were running late this morning, on the short drive to school, I popped in my PFSP CD and worked on a little full breath practice. I wanted to be prepared for having to introduce myself to the other fathers, but as luck would have it, I spent the hour talking exclusively to my daughter and her teacher. It never hurts to be prepared, though.

New Cell Phones!

After a long week of waiting, Novelchick and I finally received our new cell phones last Thursday. In August of 1995, shortly after I got home from my initial 3 weeks of therapy in the Precision Fluency Shaping Program in Norfolk, VA, one of the first things I did was to go out and purchase my very first cell phone. My first cell phone was roughly the size and weight of a cement block and my first plan allowed for 60 minutes of talk time per month. Cell phones have gotten much smaller since then (Novelchick is convinced it is only a matter time before I lose my new Motorola) and the plans now allow for much more talk time for the same money. The only constant in that time has been how completely lost I feel if I don’t have my cell phone with me at all times.