My Resume

JOSEPH CANNIZZARO
EDGEWATER PARK, NJ 08010
joecannizzaro718@yahoo.com
http://twitter.com/dudeman718
http://www.facebook.com/dudeman718
http://dudeman718.blogspot.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/josephcannizzaro

OBJECTIVE
I am seeking a challenging position in a progressive company where I can apply my experience in retail management or office/computer work and provide excellent customer/Social Media service.

WORK EXPERIENCE
7/2004– Present Walgreens Burlington, NJ

Assistant Manager/Executive Assistant Manager/Store Team Lead
Assist the Store Manager in the operation of the store and in the direction
of the work force.
Responsible for improving unit sales, profits and image through the overall
development and protection of store assets.
Training and development of store personnel.
Maintain excellent customer service.
Maintain Store Inventory.
Responsible for opening and closing the store.
Daily store operations which include:
o Managing all money in the store.
o Overseeing departments such as Cosmetics, Photo and front cashier.
o Checking vendors in and out.
o Managing the stock room.
o Processing daily store paperwork.

8/2001– 7/2004 Mellon HR Solutions Fort Lee, NJ

Testing Specialist
Day-to-day involvement on multiple projects as tester and data management for system generated fulfillment, voice response system, and web applications.
Test case execution.
Test results documentation.
Data management for the identification and readiness of test participants.
Attend internal meetings as appropriate.
Troubleshooting.

Benefits Analyst
Draft system generated fulfillment, develop programming specifications, develop test case scenarios, execute test cases, and document test results
Create and test system generated package logic
Maintain fulfillment inventories with direction from team management
Work with internal departments on print program, data, and system requirements

7/2000– 8/2001 St. Joseph’s Hospital & Medical Center Paterson, NJ

Help Desk Operator
Level One Help Desk Operator.
Desktop Support.
Perform daily system backups.
Monitor Hospital systems.
Troubleshooting.

5/1997 – 7/2000 PricewaterhouseCoopers Fort Lee, NJ

Site Coordinator
Interface with all departments and personnel on a daily basis.
Monitor and coordinate the courier schedule.
Traffic coordination of incoming/outgoing parcels.
Maintain documentation materials for Shipping Department.
Data Entry/Troubleshooting.

3/1995 – 5/1997 Palmer Video Cliffside Park, NJ

Assistant Manager
Interact with customers on service issues, video recommendations, and bill disputes.
Recruit, interview and train staff.
Manage retail store and staff including scheduling, performance, etc.
Produce sales/earnings report.
Manage inventory/order processing.
Develop store promotions.

EDUCATION

1999-2000 The Cittone Institute Ramsey, NJ
Help Desk Analyst, GPA 4.0, Attendance 99%

1989 - 1993 Ramapo College of New Jersey Mahwah, NJ
Bachelor of Arts, GPA 3.0, Dean’s List –Spring 1993

COMPUTER EXPERIENCE
Proficient in Microsoft Office; Windows 95/98/NT/2000; Internet Explorer; Lotus Notes, Social Media, Twitter & Facebook.

References furnished upon request.

A Bad Day.

I'm going to apologize in advance for this long and rambling blog post. I know not my usual fair, but felt like I had to get this out. Thanks in advance for your indulgence...

Today was a very bad day at work. I know that everyone has them from time to time. But it always seems worse when it's happening to you.

It's part of life. When your school is done, you go out into the world and get a "real" job. And you do the best you can. You don't ask why, you try not to complain (too much), but you overall get the job done.

It has been building for sometime and today was the tipping point. I cannot go into specifics of what happened today. (I have recently found out that my employer has been monitoring my "online" life.) But it's safe to say, that I have made mistakes and they have caught up to me.

Everyone makes mistakes. It's part of being human. You learn from them and move on. You try very hard to be the best employee that you can be. But sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes your mistakes become to frequent. Eventually, they will overshadow you. Sometimes it's a bad combination of unrelated factors. What works in the past is not the same that will work in the future.

Sometimes when you get THE bad day to end all bad days there is nothing that you can do. You must sit there and take your punishment. If the punishment is bad enough, it will have far reaching effects. Effects that you couldn't even imagine. It could effect your income and therefor your comfort of living. It could effect your future. Literally taking 2 steps back from where you where. (You can see where I am going with this...)

At first I was mad. Mad at myself for letting things get this out of hand. But after that passes, I just felt numb. But you cannot go back. You can only go forward. So I did what I could to make the best of a bad situation. I'll let you know how it turns out.

But as I sit here and type my tale of woe. My "Ultimate bad day". I'm watching the news and seeing the horror of the earthquake in Haiti. My bad day looks laughable by comparison. I still have a roof over my head, food on the table and family and friends to lean on. 100,000 others in Haiti are not so lucky. It was an odd juxtaposition. It helped to put things in perspective. Made me focus on what's important.

Where do I go from here? I don't know. For now, I will have to stay put and swallow some bitter pills. But from there? The future is limitless.

I guess what I'm trying to say is from time to time you have to take your lumps. But get up and keep going. To quote my favorite Star Trek episode, Tapestry, "If you want to get ahead, you have to take chances, stand out in the crowd, get noticed." Don't be afraid to take chances. But learn from your mistakes. "You must unlearn what you have learned." To quote Star Wars.

Be careful what you put online. You never know who is watching.....

Living off the Grid

Hello! Some of you may have noticed that I haven't posted anything in a week! This is because our home pc was taken over by a computer virus! A very nasty one too! It shut down our wireless network, so I was unable to go on-line. I had my iphone, but it's really not the same.

The virus that we had was The SYSTEM SECURITY VIRUS. Here is a help page from PC Magazine. This program looks like an anti-virus program, but it is really the virus!! It takes over your computer and tells your "you have a virus, you better scan your pc now!" (with their program that does God knows what to your pc!) Until you run their program, you can't do anything. And I mean anything!! When you click on any other program, it pops up with a "warning" That program is infected too. It even goes so far to change your wallpaper with another "warning message". Elyse spent 2 days restoring the entire pc and rebuilding our wireless network.

If you get this nasty piece of software beware! Make sure your anti-virus programs are up-to-date!

A Funny Thing Happened When the Stars Died...

This past week has been over-loaded with celebrities passing away! Everyone always says that they come in three's! But this time is really five!!! Let me explain.

On Friday, June 19, 2009, Gary Papa died. He was a local news sportscaster for WPVI-TV (ABC) in Philadelphia, PA. If you lived near Philly and watched sports, you knew Gary. He lost a very public battle with prostate cancer.

Then on Tuesday, June 23, 2009 Ed McMahon passed away. He was a TV icon and was known far and wide. But he was elderly, 86, he was also in poor health. So his passing was not a complete shock.

Then on Thursday, June 25, 2009, we had two! Both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson passed away. Farrah also had a very public battle with cancer. So while very sad, it was also not a complete shock.

It was Michael's passing that was the earth stopping event that made everyone stop and watch. To call the event shocking is an understatement! I remembered him in a blog post myself.

Then on Sunday June 28, 2009, Billy Mays passed away. He was know as that wild Pitchman who sells everything you didn't know you needed! This one was shocking only because of this crazy week! By this point, I was checking and re-checking news stories to make sure these are really true! There were rumors that Jeff Goldblum and others had passed away, but they proved to be untrue.

All these deaths are sad and the fact that they are all together is weird. But it was Billy Mays that hit me. Why? I was not a super-fan of his. I knew of him. I watched his show, Pitchmen on the Discovery Channel sometimes. But I didn't know him personally. No more than any other of the five from that week. What was different? It happened on Twitter. (I know again with Twitter, but stay with me on this.)

While on my way to work, Alyssa Milano put out a tweet @Alyssa_Milano, that said send your condolences to Billy Mays' son, Billy Mays III, who was also on Twitter @youngbillymays. I did not know he had a son! So I thought I would check out what he was saying about the situation. What I saw stopped me cold. He spoke of how he could not believe this. How it all seemed all too real. How he would try to stay strong during this difficult time. But mostly just how much he missed him. To him, Billy Mays wasn't the wild pitchman on TV. He was just Dad. His tweets showed his real raw pain. He would never again be able to pick up the phone and call his Dad. Never be able to ask him for advice. Never be able to share a joke with him. Never be able to tell him he loved him. It moved me in a unexpected way that I was not prepared for and I wept for him. After I got myself together, I called my Dad and told him what had happened. I (kinda) held it together and told him I loved him.

Which brings us to today. I sat down and wrote all this stuff down here. I guess the moral of the blog post is "Life is Short." We get so caught up in the day to day "little stuff", we forget about the "big stuff"! Don't wait until it's too late. Call your Mom or Dad, or that Aunt or Uncle, or Grandma or Grandpa. Tell them what's in your heart. You never know when it will be too late.