Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with organizing

How can I quickly name and tag TV episodes ripped from DVD?

sun-el — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:59:22 -0800

Is there an ripping/converting application that will automate naming and labeling of TV episodes copied from DVD? I own a lot of TV on DVD, and with my newly rebuilt Windows Home Server, I'd like to rip it to hard disk so that I can view it anywhere in the house at any time. I normally use Handbrake to rip and convert, but in this case the problem is that I don't want to spend endless hours naming, labeling, and tagging episodes individually. Is there a program or service that will automate the naming and/or tagging of the video files by episode that result from each disk being ripped? Ideally, I'd insert the disk, rip the episodes from it, and they would save with the name of the series, the season and episode number, and the episode title. My main system with the fastest drive is running Windows 7 Professional, but I'd settle for OS X, Vista, XP -- I'd even drag out my Ubuntu box and update it if need be.

Help me train the next generation of Alinskys and Obamas!

elmer benson — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 09:09:00 -0800

Help me teach high school students how to be community organizers! I got asked a few months ago to do a training for a community nonprofit's youth group on community organizing. The kids themselves put together the program for an anti-human trafficking conference, and they wanted to include a piece about community organizing and civic engagement. A friend from grad school asked me to lead the session and teach about organizing, as that's what I do for a gig.

I'll have 2, one-hour sessions with the kids, so I'll have to work pretty quickly. In the program for the conference they're attending, my sessions are called "Community Organizing 101."

Now, I am a community organizer, and I do trainings pretty regularly, but I don't often work with high school students. I'm hoping you all will be able to offer some insight on what would be the best way to teach them.

What tips, tricks, or gimmicks would you use to teach kids about community organizing? What handouts or visual examples would you use? What exercises might work?

So you know, I have a plan already, but I'm hoping to flesh it out some and get some additional ideas to make it cool. The help of the Hive Mind is appreciated!

Help me organize my move please!

littleflowers — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:25:49 -0800

I need advice on how to organize myself for moving myself and my ten-year-old son very quickly. Unfortunately, my son and I will be moving in with my mother to weather a storm caused by declining pay and a deadbeat dad.

I am moving from a two bedroom townhouse, and will have to rent a storage unit. I need to organize my packing extremely well since the majority of the items will need to be put in the storage unit. I'd like to have a yard sale before I put items in storage. I would like to be mostly moved by the weekend of August 22nd, and I am looking for suggestions on how to organize my packing and moving. What items I should take with me as comforts (My favorite baking pans and pasta machine? A favorite painting? Framed photos?), what I should make due without (scrapbooks, books, dishes), and what I should sell (Do I sell old bureaus? Lawn care items? The tv I won't be using?)

Our stay could be as long as a year.

My mother detests clutter, so I need to take a minimalist approach, and avoid having boxes or anything with an unorganized appearance.

Mom lives 2 miles away, and the storage unit I plan to rent will be two miles in the opposite direction, so not impossible to reach once I've moved in, simply a hassle to move things about.

I appreciate your advice and suggestions as well as your prayers.

Are there professional organizers?

rahnefan — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 20:02:01 -0800

Is there such a thing as a professional organizer? What about for the common man? By which I mean someone who can come to your (average) home, assess your living space and the crap stacked up in it, and the people and animals living in it, and give affordable suggestions that will make your (average) home more functional and less stressful? I am talking logistics, shelving, wiring, storage, throwing things out, even feng-freaking-shui. Even knocking down walls, whatever, my mind is open. I used to think I had a handle on it but there's too much on my mind.

The stuff now owns us. To me, it can be stifling (word chosen carefully). It can ruin a weekend; I feel pulled in umpteen directions but often don't getting much of anything done, maintenance-wise or recreational.

Preferably there's someone far more persuasive than I am when it comes to suggesting we get rid of things or place them more usably. Or make that conceptual garage sale become a reality. I give away as much as I can, when I can. There are breaks when, for a short season, things stay neater and cleaner, and therefore at least a little more productive and enjoyable; but no enduring solutions. And I think the underlying problem is greater than the amount of stuff or the lay of the house...it's not just about "stuff" and I'm open to practical and theoretical suggestions. Unfortunately the SO functions consistently in any situation, no difference, and therefore does not or cannot sympathize.

There has got to be people who do this for a living and are good at it. Aren't there?

What books resemble Meatball wiki/Wikipedia policies?

PandemicSoul — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:09:15 -0800

What books on community organizing most closely resemble Meatball Wiki and/or Wikipedia's policies and guidelines?

Help me make a happy house

cloudsandstars — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:12:07 -0800

Is it possible to be a domestic goddess AND have a full-time job? If so, how? It is my heart's desire to be a frugal yet excellent housekeeper and cook. However, I have a demanding full-time job and a 45-minute (one way) commute so I don't have a whole lot of extra time to devote to accomplishing all that goes into keeping a peaceful, clean, comfortable, organized, efficient home. I am married and thankfully my husband does help with the chores and the lawn. I just can't seem to get a system established for some reason. We don't have children yet, but do plan to in the future, so I'd like to get my routine together before then (and yes, I know a kid will throw things out of whack, but at least I'll have some practice under my belt). To put this all in a nutshell, I would like to be able to succeed in keeping things clean and organized, doing laundry/ironing, planning meals (possibly including gardening), and creating (and staying within) a budget, and other stuff with enough time left over for visiting with family, pursuing leisure activities, and getting 7-8 hours of sleep each night.

I'm interesting in hearing your suggestions on blogs/websites/forums I can visit for ideas, inspiration, and motivation to assist me in achieving (and maintaining) this goal. Also helpful would be great books or magazines on the subjects pertaining to the art of homekeeping. Or tips and tools you may have personally used.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. I have looked at FlyLady, but I don't think it's really my style - a little too "momish" for me at this point in my life.

Help me organize my scanned papers and sketches

moonroof — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:00:01 -0800

I'm looking for a program or file format to organize hundreds of scanned page image files and add comments to them. Any suggestions? I've been scanning all my old papers/sketches/notes into my computer so I can recycle the physical copies and save space in my apartment. Paging through them with the Windows image viewer is fine, but I'm wondering if there's a program that I could use to organize them all into a single file, like a PDF maybe? I'd also like to have a field at the bottom where I could add and edit text comments. If this is possible to to do with Acrobat, how do I do it? And if not, is there a program that will do something similar to what I'm describing?

Help me batch refolder and rename my digital photos...a specific way

teg4rvn — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:19:15 -0800

How can I rename and re-folder my photo collection...in a specific way? I'm looking for a program with a feature somewhat akin to the way MediaMonkey handles music. MediaMonkey lets you auto-organize by moving specific file types to a specific folder. So when you have multiple mp3 files in various folders all over your hard drive, it'll neatly organize them in your "My Music" folder (if that is what you want).

Also, I'd like to rename all my folders to the day the photos were taken (e.g., 2009_12_28) and then have the individual photos in each folder have the same prefix and then be numbers sequentially (e.g., 2009_12_28_0001).

I tried to do this with IrfanView batch processing but it only will renumber in this fashion if you only select one date (e.g., today's 50 photos alone will be renamed 0001 to 0050, but if I try to add yesterday's 50 photos to the batch, the whole batch will be numbered from 1 to 100 instead of two sets from 1 to 50)

Any ideas? freeware option? I'm demo-ing Adobe Lightroom but haven't figured out if it could be done in there.

Help me organize my music

mizrachi — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:57:49 -0800

My music is all over my computer. I'd like to consolidate and organize. I just downloaded Media Monkey and it tells me I have over a 1000 more songs than iTunes tells me I have, my usual player. Why? I have no idea. I don't know what steps to take. I'd like it kept as simple as possible. I'd also like it as automated as possible. While I have no real preference of music player, I am used to iTunes and I like the iTunes store. That said, if Media Monkey can do it all, I'll switch over. I'm just afraid that if I rename some of the folders or move things around I'll screw everything up. I also would like the folders organized and named after the artist and not, as many of folders are, a series of numbers.

BBQ in a park - sounds simple enough right?

abdulf — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 13:10:25 -0800

I'd like to host a recurring BBQ/picnic at a local park for around 10 people. I've never done this before. What do I need to know? Some specific questions:

1. There are BBQ grills/pits at my local park. Nothing fancy, just a grate over a metal box. I have seen people cooking on these but it doesn't look very hygienic. How do I cook safely?

2. What kinds of entertainment go well at a park? Kites, soccer, football - anything else I'm not thinking of?

3. What are some good side dishes that complement burgers and hot dogs?

4. Anything else I should know about organizing BBQ/picnics at a park?

Great walk-in closet ideas?

qsysopr — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 07:20:22 -0800

What's the best low-budget item you've ever bought or built for your walk-in closet ? We have large walk-in closets but don't have the funds for proper dressers. What kind of closet organizer can hold jeans, shirts and sweaters and has a drawer or bin for socks and underwear?

Right now I'm focusing on my 7 year-old son's closet. He has a four drawer IKEA dresser that's falling apart and we need a replacement solution. I'm not going to spend another $200 for a dresser that won't last. He also has the builder supplied wire shelf clothes hanger. It would be a lot more useful if it was lowered by several feet. I was thinking maybe I should rip it out and lower it so I can install some inexpensive shelving on top using shelving standards. Has one done this before?

I know basic woodworking so I'm not opposed to building something custom but I'm not good enough to build drawers. I'm open to all ideas though.

tips or tricks for organizing information using Windows XP

KokuRyu — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 17:15:03 -0800

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for organizing information using Windows XP and MS productivity software? Specifically, I'm wondering if there is a native "tags" function where you can tag specific documents so they can be easily retrieved.

When contracting, I relied on Gmail and the Google drive shell extension to easily store documents. In fact, I still use this system now for saving expense receipts for work: I email the receipts to a Gmail account and then search by keyword and date to find them.

However, I cannot use Gmail for work - it's against IT policy. I typically use Outlook 2007, Word 2007 and Excel 2007. The problem I have is that I often save multiple versions of files in multiple places.

I do have a filing system set up for email in Outlook 2007, but I often wish I could just bookmark an email, or bookmark and Excel spreadsheet.

Instead, I have to either save or file, and I much prefer Gmail's tagging system.

I am not considering moving to Gmail or whatever for my work-related productivity docs.

MS Desktop Search is enabled on my computer, but it's not quite as fast or efficient as the search function in Gmail.

So, once again, my question is:

Instead, does anyone have any tips or tricks for tagging items in Outlook 2007, or Word or Excel for easy retrieval? I'd love to hear your own unique solution using MS productivity software.

Note: my computer is locked down so I cannot easily install software.

IAF National Leadership Training?

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 20:12:14 -0800

Has anyone here participated in (or know someone who has participated in) the Industrial Area Foundation's National Leadership Training? I'm being sent to attend a 7-day IAF National Leadership Training session by a community organizing group in my region, and I haven't been able to find much info online, either official or anecdotal.

I've done research on the IAF in general, read Alinsky, Obama, etc., but I'd love to hear from recent IAF training alum about what was or wasn't useful, who else attends, what they wish they had known going in, and other advice on how to maximize the experience. Because I'm being sponsored for a large chunk of change (especially for an NPO in this economy) I'm anxious to have something to show for this experience.

Throwaway email: saulalinskylives@gmail.com

Where can I buy cheap boxes of multiple sizes?

krisak — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 19:12:55 -0800

Comic and card boxes seem to get listed cheaply, then have absurd shipping charges. I could use shoe boxes, shipping boxes, office boxes, whatever - I just want to know how to get them cheaply. I can buy a 50 lbs car part and get shipping for $20. But I try to buy 20 lbs of cardboard boxes, and shipping is $50 (I assume they're making up for cheap prices by gouging on shipping). I've also seen online stores where shipping is cheap and the boxes are expensive.

Either way, it just seems like a lot of money to spend on cardboard boxes...

What I need are a few different size boxes for storage, but lots of them. I don't really need anything bigger than 24x12x12 (the standard Office-Max/Depot $17 for 5 kit). But I also need some smaller ones. I don't need anything smaller than 6x6x6.

My goal is to organize my life by storing a lot of my bits, pieces, odds, ends, and parts in labeled boxes. I don't really care what the boxes are made of, as long as I can slap a label on them and stack them in shelves. (I have the shelves, so I'm not really interested in building a storage system with drawers and such.)

Comic and card boxes would actually be ideal, but I can't find anywhere to get them at what I think is a reasonable price. Am I doomed to spend way too much on what should be cheap, recyclable products, or is there a solution I haven't found yet?

For what it's worth, I'm in Las Vegas, and willing to drive around the valley if there's a store I haven't heard of yet. (I've checked the big name stores - all over priced.)

How do I whittle down my massive reading pile?

ocherdraco — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 07:51:33 -0800

How do you manage your reading pile? Not the one you have for pleasure, but the pile of things (reports, proposals, books, etc.) you have to read for work. Part of my job is reading proposals and manuscripts for potential books to publish.*

Currently, I don't so much have a "system" for getting this done. I just have a pile. And it grows and grows until it's monstrously large because I don't actually have time to read during the workday, and I find it difficult to make myself read mostly lame proposals at home. How do I organize myself so that the reading pile actually gets done? What do you do to get through similar piles of reading?

Here are the things I'm supposed to do:

Log a proposal or manuscript when it arrives. (I am horrible at keeping logs. I hate them. They seem like an unnecessary step—that is, until someone calls, wondering what happened with The Greatest Proposal You Will Ever Read in Your Life, and I have no idea what it is or if I've read it.)

Read it and decide whether to pass it on to my boss, or to reject it.

If I'm rejecting, write a letter and return the ms/proposal.

If I'm forwarding it to my boss, write a concise assessment.

Note in the log whether I forwarded it on or rejected it, and what eventually happens to it.

What sort of system would you set up for yourself to get through this series of steps for approximately 30 manuscripts or proposals?

*While I am a publisher, I am not your publisher. Please don't pitch me your book. Besides, as you can see from my question, I don't even actually get through my reading pile as it is.

Books/resources on running community groups

symphonik — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:03:46 -0800

I fail at Amazon. Help me find a book on running a small community group. My sister has just started up an LGBT group in her large but very conservative town. I am trying to find her a really good book on how to run a small community group, like how to run effective meetings, host community events, run outreach/advertising/fundraising programs, etc.

Many (most) of the books that come up seem to refer to either intra-corporation groups ("task forces" and such) or small Christian ministries (whose goals, you can imagine, are probably orthogonal to the goals of her group).

Can anyone recommend some great books and resources on starting and running local community groups?

Help me help my friend into politics

parmanparman — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 20:07:49 -0800

Late last year, I convinced a friend to run for public office in my hometown. He did! How can I help make sure he has a bright political future? I convinced a childhood friend to run for office in the East Bay, California city were both raised in. Then I lost my job and returned to Washington, DC, where I am currently employed.

He was of course interested in politics when I talked him into putting his name on the ballot, but I convinced him to set his sights on a good post on a small, but political incisive board that deals with rental property rights. He is already an appointed member of the garbage board in my hometown and has been a major force there for transparency in the contracting process.

Out of the blue, a longtime city councilor passed away after a long illness. Friend called and asked for advice and again I told him to keep going for the board seat. I even wrote a letter to our hometown paper endorsing him for the seat. However, unknown to me, Friend filed to run for the vacant council seat pitting himself as a young, independent facing a large, well-oiled and nepotist political machine (my hometown has been essentially run for 25 years by a husband and wife duo: one was mayor while her husband was state assemblyman, then they switched places).

Although I think he is being naive to think that he can win the council seat, I don't want him to leave behind the idea of a career in politics. Friend is a natural leader with strong interests in community building, ending homelessness, crime prevention through business investment, youth empowerment, and working with troubled young adults.

It's too late for Camp Wellstone, but after the election if he does not win I want try to get him some real exposure to the local and California state political process. I am looking for something involving networking, bill-writing, and organizing. Who should I approach? What groups should I look into? Any stories you would like to share about similar experiences?

Where am I and What do I do Here?

webhund — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 09:04:05 -0800

Looking for suggestions to help keep all my travel materials organized while traveling so that I do, in fact, see/do/smell/hear all of the great things about a particular place. I suspect that I am like many MeFites: we browse and scour the 'net looking for cool and out-of-the-way places to go, see, and experience when we travel. We get emails from friends telling us that we must do this/go here/see this/eat here; We collect all kinds of tips, hints, maps, itineraries, places to see, and other scraps of information about a particular place. That's all and great, but when I actually get there, I need a better way of keeping it all organized/collated/indexed/whatever so that the information is actually put to use.

My current approach is to print out everything I find or people send me about a particular place into a folder and try to keep it loosely organized by topics (i.e., restaurants, museums, trains, etc...). The problem with this is that when I'm in a BIG city, like London, New York, Berlin, etc... and I'm not totally familiar with the various neighborhoods within the city, the information tends to become somewhat useless to me as I never know what I have that's in my stash that also happens to be in the area where I'm at that particular moment.

I'm looking for analog (paper-based) ways of how good MeFite travelers organize their stuff. I'm all for the web and electronic means of organizing this stuff is OK, but the end result must be a take-with-me paper-based system as I really don't like hauling electronic gear around with me whilst traveling (iPhone excluded).

So, what's your travel organizing system look like?

Plucking the Progressive Prairies

abkadefgee — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 16:11:07 -0800

What are some books or other resources that can help me become a better political organizer in rural areas? I'm working in three very rural counties right now and am facing new challenges as a result. I'd like to get some info on how I can be a better organizer in these areas and how I can get folks involved who live 2 hours from my office.

I do a lot of traveling to meet up with people, but i want to make the most of my trips and find the best places for recruiting volunteers.

And although I'm asking for books and resources, I'm also glad to hear any tips you guys might have as well if you have experience in the field.

Whither online media organizing?

droplet — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:05:28 -0800

Are there any sites out there like the late, sort-of-great Guzzlefish? I adored Guzzlefish. Every time I got a new DVD, mp3 or CD, I popped the info in and along with a comprehensive list of my media collection, I'd get all these great statistics about what I had (apparently, I love anything ever on film, vinyl or electrons by Michael Palin). And then one day - ZOOP!- Guzzlefish was gone. I'd like to find something similar if it's out there, and googling has been of no help. DVD Aficionado is meh. Could the hive mind direct me to something better? Thanks.

Hosting my first-ever birthday party - and it's for a preteen!

parilous — Tue, 06 May 2008 22:57:57 -0800

I am throwing my first birthday party ever, for my pre-teen niece. Needless to say, I'm completely out of touch when it comes to kids' birthday parties (having not attended any since the 1980s) and don't know what's considered typical and usual. Please share your experiences and advice. This is probably an easy AskMe, but I'm really clueless when it comes to logistics of a kids' birthday party.

1. Cost. How much do these typical things cost? We were thinking of a budget of $150 for the party and another $20 for the cake/ice cream. Is that realistic for a girl of her age, or is it on the low side? Guest count will likely be 6-15 people.

2. Goody bags. Are they still required/expected, or are they passe? If they're still expected, what kind of stuff to put in male/female goody bags for 6th-going-on-7th graders that costs less than about $30 total?

3. Invitations. There's no rule at her school about having to invite everyone in her class, so how do we do this? Her birthday is in July and school finishes on May 22nd -- do kids use "save the dates"? Or how is it that kids relay the information about the birthday party back to the parents BEFORE we're able to give them an ACTUAL invitation?

(We can't send out specific invitations because what we do depends on how many kids can attend. We basically have to test the waters to see how many kids can likely attend and then we pick the party location, sending out the invitations when we know for sure.)

4. Unexpected guests. Is there a way to word the invitations that indicates that we're only reserving/paying for the number of people that RSVP and that any unexpected arrivals -- including parents who want to stay for the party -- will be asked to pay their own admission, or is that poor etiquette?

5. Opening gifts. Are gifts opened at the party? Do they have to be? Should they be? If they are, should the birthday kid still send out "thank yous" or is opening the gifts and thanking the gifter in public sufficient?

6. Bringing in the birthday cake. Most of the places allow you to bring in a birthday cake. One of the party ideas we have is to send the kids to a matinee movie. Has anyone ever tried doing the birthday cake thing in a mall Food Court? Is it better to get forgiveness (at the time, surrounded by a dozen pre-teens) rather than permission (where it could easily be denied)?

7. Is there anything that I'm missing that is considered standard at parties nowadays? The poor kid has been through a lot; I want to make her birthday as normal, usual, and predictable as possible.

Also, a caveat: I do data analysis for a living. I also single-handedly planned our wedding for 120 people. It is entirely possible that I'm overthinking this whole process.

In an OOP world, what's the best way to handle a lot of sequential code?

grumblebee — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:19:40 -0800

Design-pattern (programming) question. I'm working on a huge app (many thousand lines of code), and one of the most complex parts of it is the initialization logic. There's a ton of code that needs to run sequentially and only once.

Currently, I'm handling all of this with singletons, but I wonder if there's a better way.

Here's the basic framework now (in pseudocode).

MainInit.getInstance().init();

/* inside MainInit's init() method... */

DataManager.getInstance().init();
CommandManager.getInstance().init();
GraphicsManager.getInstance().init();
... etc ... //maybe 40 more calls like this

This seems pretty straightforward and easy to maintain. I don't have any real problems with it. But it's sort of off-the-top-of-my-head. I've never worked on an app that needs so much initializing before.

Since it's not really about objects -- it's just about tons of code running in sequential order -- I'm not sure of the best, tried and true method of breaking it up into manageable chunks. And I can't find much about it in my Design Pattern books.

I'm cool with non design-pattern solutions, too. I know patterns aren't for everything. I just need a really good way of organizing this sort of code.

What materials should I use for labelling the spines of my books?

Flunkie — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 12:27:32 -0800

What materials should I use for labelling the spines of my books? A while back, I took the plunge into a big project that I've wanted to do for a long time: organizing my books. My plan went like this:

First, separate books by their physical height, into four groups: (1) Bigger than will fit (standing) on any of my shelves; (2) Smaller than that, but bigger than will fit on any but my largest shelves; (3) "Normal"; (4) Mass market paperback and smaller. This allows for minimal wasted shelf space.

Second, within each of those four broad categories, look up the Library of Congress call number for each book, write it on a piece of masking tape, stick it on the spine, and store the books in that order.

If I couldn't find the LCCN for a particular book, I would classify it under the LOC system myself, to the degree that I was reasonably confident, additionally marking it so that I would know the number on the book's spine was not official.

This was a fairly tedious process, so I would only do a few books at a time, and it therefore took quite a while. But, in general, I am happy with the results, and want to keep my collection this way. I am quite willing to keep tagging my new books as I obtain them

Unfortunately, by the time I was finishing up, the labels on the first books that I dealt with were already fading, some of them to the point of illegibility.

So, I want to do this again. But I want to do it in a manner such that I'll never have to do it a third time.

I don't know whether the fading was due to the ink that I used, the tape, both individually, or both in combination.

So, what should I use?

In addition to the permanency of legibility, I would also like the label to be something that, like masking tape, stays on well, but comes off easily and cleanly if you want it to, without damaging the book or leaving significant residue.

Finally, I've read some other AskMe posts about organizing bookshelves that showed up when I searched for this, and I'm already well aware that a lot of people think this is overkill and/or a waste of time. So if you were going to chime in with that, thanks, but not interested. I know exactly what I'm getting into.

Tips and trick for organizing kids' room!

amanda — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 09:18:52 -0800

I'm helping a friend with her baby room this weekend and am looking for tips about working with a limited space and organizing it for two kids! My friend has a step daughter who is 9 and visits them every other weekend. This room has been a combo craft/sewing room for mom and bedroom for the little girl. Now she's got a baby (girl!) on the way and needs to reorganize the room so that it can be baby room and accommodate the 9 year old. It's a narrow, small room and I'm trying to brainstorm all the ways we can make it work for both kids (I think the crafting is out).

Her husband is planning to make a crib so we know the size of that but everything else is up for debate. We've thought about buying the step daughter a different bed that would have more storage but what are some other ways to deal with all her kid stuff? And, what's the best way to keep baby stuff to a minimum? Is it a good idea to use a bureau for a changing table or do you need a traditional changing table? What are you pressured to buy for baby that is really not necessary and that takes up too much space? This is my friend's first baby so she is starting from scratch on all this.

Suddenly I'm the belle of the ball

matildaben — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:07:20 -0800

I find myself in the novel situation, upon being laid off, of having a large number of potential job opportunities. I'm in the tech space, so most organizations work through recruiters, and I'm getting over a dozen calls and emails a day since posting my resume. Many of the job descriptions look like a good fit, so I know I can have my pick of location, type of organization, benefits, salary, etc. It's quite early in my job hunt, and I have the leisure of about 2 months to do it in. I'm looking for tips about how to keep organized and be in control of the situation. I'm keeping a spreadsheet with their contact information and any notes that I have about the opportunity, but I'm already feeling pretty overwhelmed. I probably just need to spend an entire day catching up with everyone on the phone and doing the get-to-know-you conversation. My soon-to-be-previous employer is fully supporting my efforts to job hunt during my last weeks here, so that's not a problem. I'm mainly concerned with keeping good contact with these recruiters, not burning any bridges, remembering which opportunity is which, gleaning the right information to weed the wheat from the chaff, and doing the appropriate follow-through. If you've been through a similar situation, how did you stay organized and keep track of everything? Any potential pitfalls to watch out for?

I'm fully aware of how good this situation is, by the way, and I'm not at all complaining. Believe me, I've been on the other side far too often to take this for granted.