filing materials from old jobs and roles ?

J

Jamie Elis

0
In the course of the last 30 years I have worked or been trained in about 12 places, been a consultant to about 10. moved about the country.. As i am gping through my backlog, I want to save a few items from each place such as a description of my role and responsibilities, the staff list, documentation of n specific credentials I developed.

A I being a pack rat?

How would you title these files?
 
Jamie Elis;89804 said:
In the course of the last 30 years I have worked or been trained in about 12 places, been a consultant to about 10. moved about the country.. As i am gping through my backlog, I want to save a few items from each place such as a description of my role and responsibilities, the staff list, documentation of n specific credentials I developed.

A I being a pack rat?

How would you title these files?
Click to expand...

No, you're not a pack rat. First because they are meaningful to you, and second because they document in a tangible way your experiences in a way that could be shared. I'd probably use a simple label like 'Job 2001-2003 Smurfware' because having them together in chronological order makes sense to me (Smurfware being the company).
 
Jamie Elis;89804 said:
I want to save a few items from each place such as a description of my role and responsibilities, the staff list, documentation of n specific credentials I developed.

A I being a pack rat?

How would you title these files?
Click to expand...

No you are not a pack rat, that is an important part of yourself to save. Personally for me I'd make my own personal work scrapbook. Either traditional (my favorite) with paper and adhesives and write my own stories about why I kept those mementoes and put the various certificates etc in it or a digital version where you scan and do that all on-line and then if you want a hard copy get one printed.

Be sure to collect in some form of journal what makes those things special to you. The stories are what make scrapbooks so much fun.
 
Digital - an A-Z within your A-Z

Please allow me to answer more questions than you asked. ;)

Just an idea but I would convert, scan, transfer as much as possible to digital and then archive it that way. It's much easier to deal with in a digital format because the physical size is irrelevant, and you can have a folder with just one 4KB file in it or a folder with more than 80GB (or much more) but from your perspective they are all equal and take up the same amount of screen space. (I assume you have (a) trustworthy backup system(s))?

Then put your stuff in your A-Z filing system. I'd create a folder for the company (Acme) in my A folder and then everything relative to that company stays in that folder. Same with your other companies. Within that folder the organization is up to you and what you feel comfortable with.

Titling each file or sub-folder is dependent on the meaning of the contents of that file or folder, what ever is enough for you.

Example
Several years ago I lived in Brazil for an extended period of time during which I accumulated roughly 1GB of papers, presentation, statistics, spreadsheets, videos, pictures, etc, not to mention the paper-based books, drawings, handouts, frames, souvenirs etc. I traveled among 7 different states and worked for several different institutions but typically in related contexts. For a long time I tried to incorporate this info into one A-Z filing system but because of the sheer mass and the unique nature of most of the material, I had difficulty finding what I wanted when I wanted it. Sometimes related material would end up in different folders because the title was different, for example.

So, in my A-Z reference filing, under my B folder, I created a folder just for those years I lived in Brazil where I created another A-Z reference filing system (because of the amount - kind of a sub system). I've been scanning what I can and putting it in there as the years go by and it currently totals about 3GB of data, all safely backed up in my Dropbox. I have access to any and all of it in just a few seconds through search. I don't access things from that era very often, but when I need/want to, it's always there.

And most importantly, my mind is at rest concerning it.

Hope that makes sense and helps a bit.
 
How to name, how to organize, what to keep

I have no idea if you are a pack rat. I have been one at times in my life. The following ideas may help, coming from someone who has gone through the process:

If you are on the fence about keeping something, and it is digital (or can be), then I say hold onto it until you decide to throw it out. Whether you do or not, you will be seeing these materials with regularity as you skim through your Reference information for other items. If some file or folder seems stale or unwanted, you can quickly delete it then.

Here are examples of document titles that will not help you find them (you may guess at how I know this) :
New document.docx
spreadsheet.xls
Letter.txt

By contrast, here are file names that will help you when you need it:

(If the chronology of the files matter, then use file names like this: )

990304 - American Airlines - Employee list.txt
^Date updated ^Category ^Short, meaningful title of file contents

(If the file contents matter, but the chronology does not matter, then use file names like this: )

USB vs eSATA article pros and cons - 110403.pdf
^Meaningful title ^Date of item

I would recommend putting these files into appropriate A-Z folders within ONE Reference folder, just like in a regular filing cabinet. I strongly avoid subfolders, as they are not easily skimmed. Instead, I recommend using more meaningful file folder titles.

Here are some example folder names:

1997 Pictures
1997 Personal history
2004 Taxes
David Allen - Getting Things Done audiobook
Job at American Airlines
Job at Marriott
Patterson project - archived

As for file formats, I recommend using plain .txt files where possible, .pdf where not possible, and .mp3 for audio. These file formats are the most universal.

I strongly recommend not archiving anything as word processing files (e.g. MS Word) or any other office format (e.g. Excel, PowerPoint, OpenOffice, etc.). You will curse the world the day you need to open a Word 2010 file and the only available computer has Office 2003 on it.

For ongoing work that is still being modified, office file formats are very useful. When you are storing their contents, convert to PDF. Trust me on this. :-)

Hope this helps,
JohnV474
 
pack rat what's wrong with that?It defends on the people how he or she handle
the thing......and when they say you are a pack rat is not literal rat...you get me?
 
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