Meeting Miguel Joey Aviles

After postponing for a week, we met at Misha’s in Old Town Alexandria. I arrived a bit before he did, grabbed a parking spot right in front. It was busy, no individual table open but there were two seats at a larger table. When Miguel arrived, another table had opened up. At the counter was a massive carrot cake and we ordered a piece to split along with two coffees.

It was a productive, friendly and candid meeting. Some of the take-aways:

1) Miguel invited me to a conference that week “How to Advance your Career in the Federal Government.”

2) Federal jobs have OPM qualifications which recruiters use to determine who passes and who doesn’t.

3) I need to get out of the house: attend three networking events a week.

Miguel wrote me after the meeting:

“Scott,

I am glad we had time to sit down and chat. I have had tons of meetings like the one we had last week, and no one has taken the time to offer me such a nice gesture – Thank you so much for the book.”
At a Toastmasters meeting a few weeks prior, I mentioned Steve Job’s biography and Miguel said he wanted to read it. An Amazon order and a little thought goes a long way, ala “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch—a book which had a profound impact on me.

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