Oh, Monday!

Mondays continue to be my least favourite day of the week. I hate having this bias but it seems like not-good things always happen on Mondays. Three Mondays ago, one of ‘my’ consultants was found dead in his hotel room. Two Monday’s ago, I had to fire someone and last Monday, I had to meet with the consultant who I had to fire for no reason other than the company decided they wanted to bring someone back and didn’t have room for both programmers. This week, one of my candidates managed to get us banned from sending any more cnadidates.

I’m thinking I should just take Mondays off. It might be easier. Today’s incident was due to the fact that despite my strong counseling against mentioning it, my candidate decided to blurt out the fact that he was going to be quitting programming in order to become a lawyer in two years’ time. I promise, I’m not prone to shady counseling. I don’t usually tell my candidates to lie. In this case, I didn’t tell him to lie. I just told him very, very specifically that if he wanted the new job, it would probably be best if he didn’t let them know he might be leaving in two years.

The thing is that in the IT development world, two years is a long time. In my job, I deal with a lot of contractors who feel that more than a six month stint at any job is too much of a commitment. Contractors generally enjoy moving around, trying new companies, working on new projects. It’s not for everyone but there are a lot of folks out there who like the temp jobs because they get variety.

These days, developers are very much in demand. It’s a candidate’s market. They have the freedom to pick and choose when they decide they want a new job and where they end up going. It’s hard to let companies know that. It’s the reason that my old company is desperate for a couple of developers and can’t figure out why they’re not getting any decent resumes. They simply don’t move fast enough. If a Java developer puts his/her resume out on the job boards, they will literally be flooded with calls from recruiters within ten minutes. If you want to work with them, you have to move fast. By the time they’ve interviewed and been offered a job with my company, chances are they already have three other offers on the table.

This is not an exaggeration. This is why it’s hard to explain to big companies that they can’t put a Java developer through two phone screens and two rounds of face-to-face interviews. It’s a nice idea and an definitely the ideal- if you’re bringing a new employee on board, you want to make sure they’re the perfect fit. However, in the present job market, it’s just not feasible if you really want to get someone hired. There simply isn’t time. It’s a nuisance but it’s the truth.

This is all my way of explaining why I told my candidate NOT to mention his lawyer aspirations. I didn’t want him to lie. However, I didn’t want him to mention it because the company where he interviewed still doesn’t understand the revolving nature of working with developers. Two years is a very long time to a developer. To a major company who still does things as they did in the 1980’s, two years is a drop in the bucket and not worthwhile to bring someone on board.

So, naturally, when my candidate DID mention his timeline, the company got a little upset. They were furious with me and my company for wasting their time. I didn’t see it as a waste. I saw it as an opportunity to actually add someone to their staff who was a good developer who wanted to work there. Considering they’ve been trying to fill the position for several months, I saw it as a good option for them.

They did not see it this way. They saw us screwing them over. They promptly informed us that we were not to send any more resumes as the hiring manager refused to work with us.

Obviously, I felt horrible. Even though my boss encouraged me to send the candidate in the first place and encouraged me to remind him NOT to mention his career goals as a lawayer, I still feel that it was my fault. Of course, it really is my candidates fault for not using his common sense but in the long run, there’s nothing we can do. It makes me look like a bad recruiter, it makes my account manager look shady and it doesn’t help our company much.

When I finally asked my candidate why he ended up mentioning his career plan, he said that the interviewer asked him what he liked to do in his spare time so he mentioned law school. I get that, I suppose. It's what he does in his spare time but, well, I can't help thinking if he'd have just said something like...fishing or cooking or hanging out with his wife/kids, that might have been a wee bit more sensible but that would be too much to have hoped...right?

Still, the deed is done. My lesson is learned. Once again, I cannot control what my candidates say and do. It’s just the nature of working with human beings. I don’t always like it but it’s what makes life interesting.

Of course, I also quite like it when things aren’t quite that interesting. I’d actually rather like a Monday where someone doesn’t get fired, die or get us banned from a vendor list. Maybe next week will be better?

Here’s hoping. I’m a firm believer that there’s always hope.

Happy Monday!

Stormy Starts...

Today began with a rather nasty storm. It’s been very hot here for the past couple of weeks and also very humid so a storm was not a surprise. It started thundering in the night, tapered off and then started back up just as I was getting ready for work.

It was the type of storm which makes the sky so dark, it seems like nighttime. The lightning was coming down in every direction- bright gashes that stretched from sky to ground. The rain started to pour. I was rather happy about the rain- my garden sorely needed it and watering with the hose just isn’t the same.

The only probably was that I had two rather jumpy dachshunds who are a little schizophrenic when it comes to storms. Sometimes, when we have a storm and I’m home, they run outside at the first sound of thunder and seem to take delight in capering around under the lightning filled skies. Last time we had a storm, Rory ran out into the pouring rain and gleefully came inside, soaked from head to toes just a few minutes later.

Today, however, both dogs were very skittish. Rory followed me around like, well, a lost puppy and Sookie was not far behind. Then Rory did her strange trick of jumping up with all four feet off the ground in front of my knees. This trick means that she wants me to catch her mid jump, scoop her up and cuddle her. It is a little odd, I admit but it’s rather adorable. When I did catch her, she immediately snuggled up to me, put her little head on my shoulder and just let me hold her. Of course, then I had to do the same with Sookie because otherwise, she’ll slink off and sulk.

Naturally, it made it rather hard to come to work. I’d much rather have stayed home and cuddled a couple of pups, kicked off my shoes and watched the storm rain down. Instead, I drove to work, a little alarmed at the intensity of the lightning and arrived just as it really began to rain. I keep an umbrella in my car but it did nothing against the wind and the stupid thing blew inside out as soon as I stepped out of my car. By the time I made it across the 25 yards between my car and the office building, I resembled a windblown, half-drowned rat.

This is not the best way to start the day. I prefer not to resemble a rat at all.

The storm eventually passed but it’s left a nasty, heavy, humid world behind it. The entire day had that heavy sort of feel, in general. It’s the kind of day where I never felt like I really woke up and where time moved slowly. Things are a little stressful in the office. We haven’t had a good couple of weeks. A lot of our candidates have fallen through or quit or been fired for no reason. It’s just the way it is, unfortunately and that’s the peril of working with humans- they’re unpredictable creatures. No matter how much you try to make a jump to a new job easier on them, how much you hold their hand and assure them it’ll be fine, there are always those that decide that they’re not ready to jump and they decide to stay where they are.

We do a lot of counseling against counteroffers. They’re only a good idea if it’s entirely about the money. Most of the time, it isn’t. There’s always an underlying reason for leaving. It can be lack of appreciation for the work you do, it could be because you’re not doing the job you were hired to do or it can simply be because you’re bored and you don’t like what you’re doing. Money doesn’t make that go away. Besides, if you do take a counteroffer, it tends to work against you because your company knows that you can be ‘bought’ and, also, that you’re not as loyal to them as they’d like. It works against you.

My advantage is that I know what it’s like to work in a job where they don’t react well to your leaving and they sort of made me a counteroffer even though it wasn’t a good one. Part of me wanted that. There is comfort in familiarity and the everyday routine of your life. Some people embrace change but many of us like consistency and change is scary. So, it is tempting to stay in the same job if they offer you a promotion both in duties and salary. You think that maybe, just maybe, that means they recognize your value and can’t stand the thought of you leaving.

The sad fact is that your leaving is a huge pain in the rear for them and while there might be some disappointment that it’s you personally who are leaving, much of their desire to keep you stems from their lack of desire to have to replace you. Replacing employees is a pain and way more expensive than just giving a willing drone a little pay bump. If they really wanted you personally to stay because they like you so much and don’t want to lose you because you’re fabulous and brilliant, chances are they would have told you that earlier, not because you’re threatening to leave. It’s like any relationship: If the person you’re with can’t tell you that you’re valuable to them and there’s a reason they like being with you, you shouldn’t have to give them an ultimatum to get them to admit their feelings.

So, you see why it’s hard when someone decides to stay with their company even when I’ve worked hard to find them a better opportunity. It’s worse when they accept my opportunity and then, at the last minute, back out. When you’ve already got a start date, agreement letter and offer in place with a client company, it’s a little embarrassing to tell them that they don’t have a new employee after all and have to start from scratch.

Still, as I’ve said before, it’s the nature of the business particularly one where humans are your resource. Like with my dogs and thunderstorms, I can never predict what they’re going to do. In my dogs’ case, they sometimes frolic amidst the crashes and flashes of the storm and other times they simply want to be cuddled and hid in my lap.

On the plus side, it makes each day a new adventure. On the downside, not every adventure is a good one. Yet I learn something every time and I suppose that’s something, isn’t it?

Happy Thursday!

Job Gratitude...

You know, one of the things that I always tell myself if I have a bad day at work is that someone always has it worse than me.

This is not to say I had a bad day at work today. In fact, it was pretty decent. I may have just got another candidate a job if everything goes well. I like working with good candidates; they make it fun. Now I’ve been doing this job a while, I’m learning the way I like to do things. My strategy is simply to get to know the people I’m working with. I was taught in my early training that building relationships is important and I’m finding that to be true. I have one candidate who is going to start a new job with us in a week and he’s so comfortable working with me that he tells me the contents of his freezer. This sounds odd but it’s actually kind of endearing, believe it or not. In a job like mine where there’s a lot of completion to get the good candidates, it’s nice to have that type of relationship with your candidate. It means they trust me and feel like they know me which is exactly the way it should be. Changing jobs is a big decision in life and I like to make it easy for people by making sure that it’s the right thing for them.

I’m sure I’m a bit of a sucker. Some of the other recruiting companies out there are all about the resume. They pull thousands off Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com each day and just call the people, promising good jobs, high pay and benefits. However, they have a bit of an impersonal approach. Even if the candidate doesn’t really fit, they’ll try to shove them in a job anyway because they have a quota, they need the revenue and their client needs an employee. It’s a quick turnaround.

I could work this way but I don’t. I try to find out what the person behind the resume wants. Are they fed up of their job because they’re bored? Is the commute too long? Do they work overtime and they’re missing their kids sporting events? There’s always a reason and I like to find out. This way, it’s easier to find them jobs that actually fit rather than trying to make them fit the job. My way is slower than the ‘resume farm’ companies but it means I build up relationships and my candidates remember me. In turn, they recommend me to their fellow IT job seekers. It’s a nice feeling to hear that I was recommended because I did my job well.

Granted, hearing the contents of someone’s freezer is a little extreme but it’s all part of a day’s work. It’s nice to have days where I really get to work with people.

As I said before, working with people was one of the reasons I left my last job. I didn’t get to work with people unless you count my coworkers and, well, I really didn’t. Certainly, there were some good people there but it was such a cliquish, awkward atmosphere that the rather insane quiet of the cubicle farm where I worked was just not a healthy environment for me.

Now I have my own office and the buzz of my coworkers is around me. We communicate here. We have meetings. We have gatherings. We chat. We laugh. We do our jobs. It’s the way things should be in an office.

So, I’m not blogging today to whine about my job. My original intention was just to say that I’m quite lucky to have the job I do and I’m thankful for it every time I see someone doing a job I most certainly would NOT want to do.

One of the jobs I find the most baffling are the sign-holders on street corners. They hold signs advertising a store or restaurant. Sometimes, the more interesting sign-holders get bored and do a series of spins and flips with their sign to get attention. Of course, this means you can’t actually read the sign but, well, it’s sort of fun to watch.

I don’t look down on the sign holders. They’re clearly doing it for the cash/paycheck at the end of the day. Instead, I question the need for sign holders. If there’s a big neon sign visible during daylight and darkness only 400 yards down the road for a business from a sign-holder, what’s really the point of the sign-holder? Am I really more likely to go to Bob’s Furniture Emporium because there’s a guy on the corner holding a sign and pointing me there than I would be if I drove by it?

I suppose some people might pay attention to the sign- people who, say, didn’t know Bob’s Furniture Emporium was there. But, really, it seems a little silly.

I’m always amused by the Chick-Fil-A cow too. Someone dressed as the cow is often outside our local Chick-Fil-A trying to get cars to honk at him. I suppose those that recognize it as the Chick-Fil-A cow as they’re driving by may suddenly think, “hey…cow. It’s the Chick-Fil-A cow! Oooh, Chick-Fil-A!!! MUST STOP, TURNAROUND AND GO BACK TO CHICK-FIL-A RIGHT NOW BECAUSE I WANT A #1 COMBO WITH WAFFLE FRIES AND A COKE!”

Most likely, however, people can see there’s a Chick-Fil-A right there and a waving cow isn’t likely to make them decide to detour through the drive through any more than seeing the restaurant might.

Other jobs I’ve noticed lately that I’m glad I don’t have are being a salesperson on those carts at the mall. More specifically, those that sell the lotion-type stuff. If you don’t know what I mean, you’re lucky. They are usually manned by pushy salesmen who have some type of ‘miracle’ lotion and they’re rather aggressive as people pass by, trying to get people to try their free lotion sample. This also applies to the hair straightener sales people and the mineral makeup that isn’t the name brand stuff. What I’d like to see is a stand for something like, cupcakes, where the salespeople chase you down to eat their free cupcake samples. Alas, the closest I come to this is the person standing outside the cookie place with teeny samples of cookies on toothpicks. These people are NOT aggressive and often give you a look as if to say, ‘cheapskate. You know what a chocolate chip cookie tastes like. Just buy a damn cookie instead of eating my free ones.’

I’m also glad I’m not a furniture salesperson. In the extreme heat that we’ve been having, I’m very thankful I don’t have to work outside and I feel bad for people who do.

Though the list of jobs I am glad I don’t have could go on for pages and pages, I won’t bore you any longer. Just watch “Dirty Jobs.” I don’t want any of those jobs. Nor would I want “Billy the Exterminators” jobs because he deals with dead animal corpses, bugs and alligators. You get the idea. What it comes down to is that even when I have bad days at work, I’m still grateful to have the job I do. It doesn’t involve chasing people with lotion, flipping a sign or crawling into a basement to pull out a rotted raccoon corpse.

I admire the people who do those jobs because it means that I don’t have to and, for that, I am immensely grateful to them. I’m also appreciative that I have the job I do. And though sometimes I do have to remind myself of that, all it takes is the sight of the Chick-Fil-A cow outside on a 95 degree day to drive that home.

Happy Thursday!

Some Days Are Just Not My Days...

Today was one of those days again where I woke up and needed at least another hour of sleep. This is my own fault for staying up too late. The problem with reading instead of watching TV in the evenings is that with TV, there’s usually a set schedule and when the program is done, you turn off the TV. When you’re reading, it’s so easy to talk yourself into “just one more chapter” that another hour can pass before you realize it.

This is why I’m crotchety today. I stayed up too late reading and then had trouble sleeping for no apparent reason.

When I got to work, I realized I was not in a good mood when I got an email from one of my coworkers with a resume she’d found on Monster.com and a subject line of “CALL NOW!!!!!!!!”. As soon as I saw the email come in, I had an uncontrolled burst of irritation and I was annoyed.

The reason I was annoyed is that this coworker isn’t a recruiter like me. She’s an account manager. This means it’s her job to bring in jobs for us to fill and the recruiters will fill them. She still likes to recruit though and it’s a compulsion of hers to go on Monster first thing in the morning and find new resumes. Most mornings, it irritates me a little but I don’t let it bother me because that’s what she does. Today, it irritated me because I was already grouchy. The major problem I have with it is that Monster.com is one of my resources and I have my own system of finding resumes. Half the time she sends me resumes, they’re people I’ve already called and talked to or I haven’t been able to get hold of them. The other half are for jobs we have open that I’m not really working on and the emailed resume serves as a distraction because I’m in the middle of doing something else.

Still, most days, as I said, I can live with it because it’s just what she does.

The rest of my morning, I felt tired and useless. I’m having another one of those periods at work where I’m just not getting anywhere. Even when I find good people for jobs, the companies either move too slowly and my candidate takes another job or there’s something that the company doesn’t like and my candidate doesn’t get the job. Mostly, it’s just part of the package of being a recruiter. Yet there are some days where it just makes you feel beaten down because there’s no real positives happening.

By lunch time, I was hoping for a break to revive a little. It didn’t help that my left eyelid was twitching all morning which, according to Google, is a sign either of allergies or tiredness. Since it only twitches when I’m already stuffy and watery-eyed from allergies and I’d run out of Claritin, I figured that, at least, was something I could take care of to make the afternoon better.

So, I decided to stop at CVS on the way home to buy some Claritin. Because I find that the stuff you can buy off the shelf doesn’t really do anything, I had to go to the pharmacy for the ‘controlled substance’ version with the pseudoepinephrine (sp?) in it. No problem. I got my little cardboard picture of the medicine and took it to the pharmacy county. I handed them my driver’s license with my normal flush of resentment towards the crystal meth makers of the world for making hayfever make me look like a druggie. The pharmacist took my license, swiped it and…it froze. I stood there for ten minutes while she and the other pharmacists tried to get their computer working but, in the end, they couldn’t and I left empty-handed having killed 15 minutes of my lunch hour waiting in line in addition to actually driving to CVS. Irritated, I headed home to let the dogs out. Naturally, at the place where I turn into my neighbourhood, there was a utility truck and the road was closed so I had to go all the way around.

When I did get home, I greeted the pups, let them out and started to make a quick plate of salad for lunch. Then I heard a peculiar sound- it sounded like something heavy fell over followed by a high pitch whine of what sounded like pain.

I abandoned my salad-making and went outside, worried one of the girls had hurt herself. Instead, I was greeted by a small brown rabbit that ran right by my feet, pursued by two avid dachshunds.

The rabbit ran, the dogs followed. Around and around the garden they went. They were whining with their ‘need’ to catch the bunny and the poor creature, no matter how hard it tried, could not find its way out of my fence because of the security measures I’d taken to keep Rory in.

The bunny kept running, throwing itself at the chain link fence to try to find a way out. Seconds later, the dogs caught up and the bunny ran again. Given that it was so hot outside, I was getting worried that the dogs would get overheated but they obviously didn’t share the same concern.

Finally, just as I was about to open one of the back gates to try to shoo the rabbit out, it found a small gap under the fence and ran for its life across Possibly-Joe’s garden.

My dogs proceeded to try to follow it. I checked to make sure that the fence was secure. It seemed to be but the problem with dachshunds is that they’re obsessive. They won’t stop until they find a way out if pursuit of a small furry creature is possible.

Thus, though I brought the girls inside, they insisted on going back out and since they had to do their business still, I let them. This meant I spent the time I was eating worrying about if they’d find their way out. Needless to say, it was not relaxing.

So, when I went back to work this afternoon, I still was not in the best of moods. The afternoon didn’t get any better as my coworker delivered the news that one of my most solid candidates did not get the job for which she was literally quite perfect.

By the time I’d left, I wrote the day off as being ‘just one of those days.’ I’ve had a few of those lately and I need to do something about it.

I think I’ll start by getting more sleep. Even if tomorrow is bad, it’s easier to face if your brain isn’t fuzzy and, well, you have to start somewhere.

Happy Thursday. Thanks for reading!

Up and Down Sort of Days

Some days are harder to blog than others. I can’t explain why but it just happens. It’s not that I can’t find anything to ramble about, it’s just that every time I start to ramble, I suddenly feel like it’s an asinine topic and no one will want to read it.

Today is one of those days. It’s been a weird day. It has been an up-and-down day at work. In our morning meeting, our boss, away in Chicago at the moment, attended via phone. We have a couple of new jobs to fill and so, during our morning meeting, I got to select which ones I’d work on while my fellow recruiter, who was out of the office, would get his assignments later. My boss is a little worried we’re not getting many candidates to fill jobs lately so he was in his most extreme, “work hard, get candidates” mood.

This would have been fine except what we’re working on at the moment is very hard. They’re the type of jobs where there’s maybe 5 or 6 people in a city who can do the job. I spent all morning trying to fill a job because my boss said I needed to have at least one candidate by tomorrow. Taking him seriously, I did absolutely everything I could to find someone…and still had no luck.

Then, my fellow recruiter comes into the office, gets his assignments and…manages to find a candidate for the job I’ve been trying to fill all morning. This is annoying by itself but given that he wasn’t even supposed to be working on it, I was a little frustrated. Our office is generally not competitive so I don’t begrudge him filling the job and not me. It’s just that he has this horrible habit of pretty much doing what he wants despite what he’s supposed to be working on and this happens quite a lot.

My boss doesn’t mind who gets the candidates, as long as someone does. Thus, I can work on my fellow recruiters’ jobs too and fill those. It’s just that…I don’t. I think it goes back to the fact that I have a touch of the Hermione Granger in me. I always worried about breaking school rules as a child and I always saw the teachers as points of authority. As I got older, even if I didn’t like my boss, I’ve always respected that they were, in fact, my boss and even if I thought them the worlds’ biggest idiot, I still did what I was told because that was my job.

This job is no different. It’s just that in this case, I like my boss and, again, like Hermione Granger, I want to be top of the class to prove that I’m good at my job.

It just doesn’t always happen that way. My fellow recruiter is not a rule-follower. He doesn’t have to be because he’s been working as a recruiter for 17 years. I, on the other hand, am now approaching my 8-month mark and I still feel as though I’m learning.

On the plus side, I did manage to find out that one of my favourite current candidates was offered a position for which I submitted her. This is a good thing on many levels. Mostly, I’m just happy because I really like her and she’s been a pleasure to work with. Also, she really, really wanted the job and even postponed another offer to see if this one would pan out. I like it when someone gets a job when they really want it. As an added bonus for me, it’s a new company which means I get a little boost in my commission at the end of the year. I really do count that as a bonus because as corny and altruistic as it sounds, I really do like my job because I get to help people more than I like it for the money.

I don’t think all recruiters have this approach. It’s probably not a good thing I do have that approach because it means I’ll never be as successful as some of the other recruiters in the field. I met one of them the other day. He’s just been hired by one of our branch offices and he was in town to do some training with my boss. All of the staff of our office had to meet with him and talk about how we did our jobs.

It became quite apparent about five minutes after meeting with him that I did not like this man. For one thing, every time I started to talk, he’d bulldoze over me with a story of how successful he’d been in his past job and how fabulous he’d be working for us. He really is quite fabulous according to himself. Also, it sounds rather rude but he was just…creepy. He had a bit of an air of “hey, little girl…do you want some candy?” if you know what I mean. By the time he left my office, I was very relieved and also quite glad he wasn’t going to be working in our office permanently.

It turns out that all my coworkers had the same impression. The younger account manager even got the same pediophilic vibe from him that I’d had so it wasn’t just me. He was just unpleasant. It didn’t help that he told me lots of stories about as a recruiter, you have to show your candidates who’s boss and if they didn’t like it then tough, he didn’t want to work with them.

That is not the attitude I have. To me, being a recruiter is a partnership. There is no boss. Sure, the candidate will end up working for our company in due time if they’re successful but as far as the job interview process goes, there are no absolutes. If they hear the description of a job during an interview and it turns out to be double the amount of work that we were originally told, they have every right to think they should probably get paid a little more than we’d initially agreed. It doesn’t mean they will get paid more but it’s not unreasonable to try. According to Mr. Slimeball’s philosophy, “They’ll get paid what I want to pay them and that’s all there is to it.”

So, you can see why he rubbed me the wrong way. That’s not my approach. While I’m not a doormat who does whatever my candidates want, I do try to listen to their needs and try and approach them in a way that works out best for all. I don’t like to bully them. I’m a firm believer in the fact that when working with humans, for better or for worse, it’s best to let them act like a human. It comes back to haunt you later on if you don’t. It’s best to build a relationship with someone rather than treat them like a commission check. That’s my philosophy, anyway.

It might be a childish, inexperienced philosophy but, for now, it’s working for me. It means I can be excited to call my candidate and be happy to hear the joy in her voice when I tell her she got the job. She earned it and I’m glad that she was rewarded for her efforts. So, even on days when things don’t go quite my way in other areas, there are these moments that make it worthwhile.

It’s nice to have a job where no two days are the same even when the days don’t always go completely your way.

Best of all, even if you have a string of days like that, there’s always a weekend at the end of the tunnel. I, for one, am looking forward to the weekend even if it does involve tiling a floor and most likely very little else.

Thanks, as always for reading and I hope your weekend is a good one!

Happy Friday.

Muddled Mondays

Today was definitely one of those days where staying home, sleeping in and being lazy would have been a lovely thing to do.

It started with the Dog Whisperer. He has taken to letting the dogs out around 6 a.m. They inevitably run around yapping as they do every time they go outside. Unfortunately, they like to yap by their back gate which, sadly, is probably less than 20 feet from where my bed is inside my house. This means that not only do the beasts wake me up but they also get Rory and Sookie on edge.

When we did get up, it was to a very grey and gloomy day. Our forecast was for severe storms. We ended up just having lots and lots of heavy rain but even without the thunder and lightning, it was the type of weather that’s best enjoyed being lazy indoors.

Nevertheless, I went to work. It was a busy day. The solution to a grey and gloomy day is to be so busy that you don’t have time to think about it being a Monday. Because the other recruiter is out of the office due to his mother’s passing away, I’m the lone body trying to put people in jobs. This isn’t so bad- I like being busy. It’s just a little difficult when everyone wants me to do everything and there’s only so many hours in a day.

Still, I’d rather be swamped than sitting at my desk, twiddling my thumbs. It’s nice when you look at the clock and realize the day is passing in a blur.

On the downside, it was still one of those days that felt…muddled. Even though it began with a job offer for a candidate who badly wanted a job, it was one of those days where things just weren’t smooth. For this particular candidate, the company who wants him to work there is a huge pain in the bottom. Their HR manager is the type of person who expects everything done IMMEDIATELY. She wants things RIGHT NOW.

And yet when it’s her turn to provide information or something else, it takes ages. This is why our poor candidate has waited 2 months since his initial interview to find out if they actually wanted him. Even when we found out he’d got the job, we still didn’t know how much they wanted to pay him, when they wanted him to start and if they were going to have him work on a contract basis through us or they wanted him to start directly with them.

This makes it a little difficult to tell someone they have a job offer. It pretty much whittles down to, “Hey, X…good news. X Company wants to make you an offer. I don’t know how much money they’re offering, when you’d start or who you’ll actually be working for but, hey, none of that matters…right?”

Of course it matters. It’s hard to be vague when a job hangs in the balance. Still, the candidate was excited enough that he was happy to provide his own start date and salary requirements. Now all we need to do is hear back from the company.

This is the type of thing that can turn a day into a muddled mess very quickly. Also, when you have an interview scheduled for a candidate who doesn’t show up because he had a childcare emergency, that can also muddy up the schedule.

Then, finally, when you have to wait at work for a candidate to show up after hours, this can muddle up everything the most. It’s hard to wait because by around 5 p.m., I’m already planning on how I’ll go home, change into comfy clothes after having a happy reunion with the pups and vegging with a nice healthy but tasty dinner.

Still, as Mondays go, even with the muddle, it wasn’t a bad Monday. It was gloomy and grey. It was a little hectic but I’ll take that any day over a Monday that drags by without any type of forgiveness or redemption. Those days are tough. I actually miss the fact that the TV show “24” is no longer on Monday evenings- I’m still convinced that it was a marketing strategy to say, “Hey, you think YOU’RE having a bad day? Jack Bauer is having a WAY worse one than you.”

Jack Bauer was usually having a worse day than me. My bad Mondays usually consist of slowness at work, irritating but non-severe problems and work and a general desire to be anywhere but where I am. Jack Bauer’s bad days had things like decapitating suspects with hacksaws, having to deal with radiation sickness, watching your wife be murdered by your partner and finding out your daughter was held hostage by a mountain lion.

You can see how all that can make me feel a little shallow when I wine about being tired and cranky because my candidate didn’t show up for an interview. What’s that compared to having to singlehandedly save the U.S. at least a couple of times a year on a really bad day?

I miss Jack Bauer. He made me appreciate the goodness in a bad day. Also, he made me wonder simple things like whether he had to go to the toilet, whether he ate food or if he ever just went to bed and stayed there for a week or two without worrying if evil enemies would find him hiding underneath he covers.

Even though Jack Bauer is no longer around to put things in perspective, I’m learning to try to appreciate Mondays for what they are. At best, they’re good days that don’t feel like a Monday. At worst, they’re a day full of faltering before the week begins to hit its stride.

While I didn’t get to stay home and be lazy with the pups, I think going to work and getting things done was a good alternative.

Even if it wasn’t nearly as comfy.

Happy Tuesday!

It's the Small Things that Make a Day Remarkable

There are some days in life that don’t seem particularly remarkable on their own but there are moments that will make them remarkable in your mind for a long time to come.

For example, today was remarkable because I got to make someone very happy. It’s a lovely feeling.

Part of the reason I was not happy in my last job (besides bad bosses, optimistic bathrooms and office politics) was because I didn’t get to work with people. As a general rule, I quite like people. Granted, there are days like I had on Saturday where I just feel crotchety towards the whole human race because they seem to be working against me but, for the most part, I generally like people. They’re unpredictable. They don’t always do the right thing. Yet they also make life nice and interesting. Also, it feels really good to help someone. I like helping people.

In my job, I see all types of candidates. I see the ones who aren’t employed because they were laid off and the job market has just been bad. I see the ones who aren’t employed because they were ‘let go’ from their job. One thing I have learned is that when someone was ‘let go’ from a job, they were never “fired” and it was never their fault. It was always the fault of the manager or the HR department. While I think in some cases, this may be the case, usually if someone was ‘let go’, there was a reason. It takes a while to dig to the reason.

During an interview, I’ve learned that I have to be sneaky to whittle out the good candidates from the weirdos. Another thing I’ve learned is that everyone is a little bit of a weirdo. Most of the time it’s manageable and it doesn’t really show. These are usually candidates who are currently in a job but want more money or more of a challenge. The candidates who haven’t had a job in a while but have been on a ton of interviews to no fruition…well, they’re a little trickier. Usually, I try to do in-person interviews with these folks. That way you can see them while they’re talking to you and it helps you figure out what might be ‘wrong.’

Sometimes, as awful as it is to say, it’s apparent quite quickly. For example, there are candidates that show up who clearly don’t bathe much. Sitting in a small conference room with them and having the door closed actually makes it quickly apparent that it might be a little hard to work with them. We can’t really discriminate against them but there are times when we do have to suggest that if they get an interview with a client, they need to be clean and tidy.

We’ve had candidates with no teeth. Quite a few of them, actually. I try not to discriminate on something so minor as having no teeth but it’s a little…offputting. We still try to send these candidates on interviews but we can’t control our clients’ reactions and, sadly, if they have a problem with toothlessness, we can’t force them to hire a candidate. It sounds mean because, after all, maybe they have no teeth because they have no job and I really WANT to help them find a job so they can get teeth but we have little control over if candidates actually get hired.

I’d like to take this opportunity to point out that I am not a bad person and I try to respect every person and so if I have someone come in who’s missing, say, an arm or a leg, I wouldn’t discriminate against them AT ALL. It’s harder with teeth. I can’t explain why. It just..is.

Maybe it’s because people with no teeth have a less interesting ‘story’ than someone with a missing limb. A missing limb could have been bitten off by a shark or mangled in a lawnmower. Missing teeth if knocked out in a fascinating way generally get replaced. If they’re missing without replacement, they probably just fell out. That’s not such an interesting story, say, as my dad’s story- he lost several teeth as a youngster by playing on a slide. They were playing “bridge’ where one person straddles the slide and the other kids slide underneath. My dad was the bridge. He fell off and knocked his teeth out.

My dad has a story to go with his teeth. He also have false teeth. He likes to flip them down so he has this rather creepy skeletal grin and do a slow wave. It makes me laugh every time. Also, he lost his teeth in the English Channel once. That’s another story to go with his teeth. Still, most of the time if there are false teeth involved, you don’t know they’re false teeth. Thus, if a candidate comes in without any teeth, false or real, you can’t help but wonder why they don’t have any teeth but you can’t ask their story.

That was a rambling about teeth especially since it most likely was a thinly veiled attempt not to make myself sound evil for judging someone based on their teeth. Or lack thereof.

Anyway, moving on, sometimes candidates come in and they seem normal. Then you ask them something as simple as “what’s your dream job” and they spend ten minutes explaining how it would be rebuilding antique cars. Now, while I think that’s a perfectly respectable ‘dream job’, it’s not terribly helpful. What I prefer is someone who says, “my dream job would be to work on antique cars but since that’s not very realistic, I’d like a job that fits my skillset, provides me with a challenge in a company that doesn’t suck.”

When I don’t get that response but, instead, a ten-minute diatribe regarding the beauty and freedom of the antique car, it’s a little…disturbing.

In short, what I’m trying to say with my ramblings about teeth, antique cars and amputated limbs is that it’s important to interview candidates in detail because it does actually work out. Which leads me to the original topic of today’s blog: Helping people.

A few months ago, one of my first placements was a lady who’d been out of work for a while and feeling down about it. When I told her she had a job offer, she was so excited, she hugged me and promised to send people my way. That was a good day and it made me love my job.

The best part is that she did send someone my way. It was a friend of hers who’d been laid off and had been out of work for months. Then she found a very low-paying job that made her miserable. When I talked to her, there was a certain level of empathy on my part. Having had a job where I had to psych myself up to get out of bed and go into the office every day and how I had to make sure to control my urges to strangle people with a yoga strap, I knew what she was going through. Thus, I wanted to help her.

Today, I got to tell her we’d found a position for her and that she’d be starting in two weeks. When she came in almost immediately to fill out her paperwork, she was so happy, she was almost crying. She gave me one of the hugest hugs and “thank you’s” I’ve ever had.

That’s why I do my job. The paycheck is nice. I like my coworkers. My office is nifty. I like that I get commissions and incentives.

Yet, honestly, cheesy as it sounds, that’s the best part of my job. It makes me feel like I’ve done something nice, something that’s slightly remarkable because I’m helping someone make their life just a little better.

Sometimes, it’s the small things that make a day remarkable.

That and a full set of teeth, real or false.

Don’t judge me. Please.

Happy Wednesday!

Beware the Ides of March!

It’s the Ides of March today. That really doesn’t mean much in our society. The only reason I even remember it is because we studied Shakespeare’s “Julius Ceasar” in high school and it stuck with me.

When you study something in high school, you don’t just casually read it. You read it and then discuss it. Then you analyze it. Then you have to read it again because you’re taking a test on it. Then you have to write a paper on it.

The upside is that often, it stays with you as in the case of the literature we had to read that I enjoyed. I liked Shakespeare. I can still recite most of Hamlet’s soliloquy. I cannot, however, really tell you what happened in Moby Dick other than it’s about a man obsessed with a whale because, well, I never read Moby Dick. I tried really hard to read it but I could not get passed the first place. Each time I tried, it was like this curtain came down in my brain and everything in the world was more interesting. Still, somehow I managed to get an A on my paper in class. I’m still amazed at the fact that there is a way to construct sentences so you sound like you’re saying something really important but really, you’re saying nothing.

Anyway, long story short, I still have March 15 bookmarked in my brain as a day to ‘beware’. (“Beware the Ides of March"- Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2,)

Fortunately, so far the only thing I’ve had to beware is trying to avoid a bird as it flew perilously close to my car this morning and, also, getting wet since it’s raining. Work was pretty quiet but nicely productive and no cause for beware-ing so that was a good thing.

It’s a pretty typical March day out there, Ides of March or no. It’s wet and soggy and even the daffodils that have bloomed early are hanging their heads to avoid the rain.

Yet, the nice thing about March in the Midwest is that while it’s chilly and damp today, tomorrow, it’s supposed to be warm and sunny. Thursday is supposed to be positively lovely with 70 degrees and sun.

It’s going to be hard to work on Thursday. It’s always hard to work when it’s nice outside but I find on the first truly nice days of the year, work is something that one must be talked into doing. I’m not the only one who feels this way. In my old job, it was a day when all of those with laptops (read: Everyone BUT me) got to go outside and “work” while I, chained to my large old desktop PC, got to see them laughing and chatting from the window. My boss used to go outside too without so much of a “hey, sorry you’re stuck inside” to me. This is one of the many reasons he’s my ex-boss.

My current boss is much nicer. On nice days, he doesn’t mind if we leave a little early. One of my coworkers is an avid golfer and on nice, balmy, dry days he leaves the office to go hit the golf course.

Once again, I have to say, I like my job. I’m thankful that I escaped from the old one and landed here. I actually was talking to a candidate yesterday who is stuck in a job that makes her miserable. She said that it’s hard to talk herself into getting up in the morning and not calling in sick. I know how she feels. Truth-be-told, at my last job, that’s where I was when I decided to solve the problem by finding another job. I’m glad she came to me. I’ve made her my #1 priority- no one should be stuck in a job that makes them miserable.

Yet, I try not to look back to much on my old job. It’s hard sometimes because I’m still friends with a couple of my old coworkers and it’s easy to get sucked back into the gossip and news in the office. It’s just simply nice to know I work now for a place who not only makes me feel appreciated but also makes me feel respected. That’s a huge thing that doesn’t seem important until you realize how much of a difference that makes.

Sometimes when I talk to my old coworkers, I wonder if things would be any different if I stayed. Yet when I hear the stories of backstabbing, passive-agressiveness and office-politics, once again that amazing flood of relief washes over me and I am eternally grateful I got out of there.

But, the beautiful thing is that most of the time, I don’t need those reminders to make me appreciate my new job. It’s the small things such as not having to pay 35 cents for a Diet Coke but having it provided for the small cost of occasionally having to stock the fridge. It’s the “thanks for your hard work” I get from my boss at least once a week. It’s the fact that my boss buys a 24 pack of beer and brings it into the office so we can all hang out in the break area for a while.

It’s the fact that a bad day at this job has yet to send me outside my building to place an emergency venting call to my mother or my friend because I’m on the verge of either throwing a heavy object at my boss or I’m going to do something worse- go cry in the bathroom because I’m so frustrated and angry.

Really, bad days at work are relative to how much you like your job. Mondays, rainy days and the Ides of March really don’t seem so bad after all when, in the grand scheme of things, you’re simply grateful to be where you are.

And, in my case, I truly am- in all aspects of my life.

Happy Wednesday!

The Peril of People...

There are some days when I think it's best to not be around too many people. For me, today was one of those days.

This is actually somewhat ironic since one of the many reasons I left my last job was because I missed working with people and found interacting with my computer and our software to be soul-sucking and dull.

So, I found a job where I could work with people. Most of the time, I enjoy working with them. People are fun. I like nice people. I've met quite a few nice ones in my short time in this job. I have a new buddy down in Kentucky who is just the sweetest lady ever and I'd love to find her a job but unfortunately, the market isn't cooperating. There are other nice ones too. The ones I like most are the ones who take job searching seriously. They know I can help them and they're willing to cooperate with me.

Unfortunately, they're still people. People lie. It's a sad fact but it's probably one of the truest statements ever. I think Dr. House would agree since that's his personal motto.

Everybody lies.


It's true. I'm learning it on a daily basis. I don't think there's any malicious intent in them. They don't lie because they're mean people. They lie because they don't want to tell the truth for whatever reason. The reason can be as simple as not wanting me to know they're working with other recruiters in case I take it personally or as complex as them wanting a new job that fulfills them but, when it comes down to it, it's all about the money.

It's often about the money. I find that fascinating. As a recruiter, it's my job to find out why someone sent me their resume or they're on the great wide interweb looking for a new position. They all want to be more fulfilled by their jobs. It's common sense. We, as humans, are looking for happiness and soul-satisfaction.


Yet, it very often comes down to the money.


I try to match people up with jobs. I take into consideration the commute, the amount of hours required off-the-clock, the salary and their background. I like to get to know them, find out if they have young children which might prevent them from wanting to work too far from home or if they've been out of work for a while, what they've been doing to pay the bills.

It all helps. I like getting to know my candidates personally. It's fun.

It's just that they lie. What they don't tell me is it's not really about job satisfaction as it is about that big paycheck. I try to get them the highest salary possible but more often than not, they hear a high number and they start to wonder if they can go higher so they look elsewhere as well.

Then they tell me they're not close to getting another job or they're not really looking. Thus, I do what I can to make sure I find them something. I have a soft spot for the desperate. It sucks to not have a job, especially this time of year. I work harder for those candidates than the ones who have a job but want to do something else.


So, often, my candidates get submitted to positions. They get interviews. They get second interviews. Then, just when I know they're going to get the job, they phone me to say they've accepted another position.


It's happened more than once. It's very, very frustrating because, all along, I asked them to let me know where else they were interviewing. Not only does it let me know where our company stands in their job search but it makes sure we don't submit them somewhere where they've already been submitted. I don't take offense if they're working with other companies. It's sensible. I just hate when they lie about it.

It always makes me feel cheated. I've worked hard to get them to the point where they're going to get a job and boom! They no longer want it.

I understand the knee-jerk reaction, particularly for the unemployed. A job is a job. Yet when you have a candidate who quit his last position in protest of them laying off half his staff, you don't expect him to take another position where the same thing is going to happen.

How do I know the same thing is going to happen? It's my business to know. We know which companies are in the process of outsourcing to India and which ones are going to be cutting jobs. As cutthroat as it sounds, we have to know this because we can help the people getting cut find new jobs. You have to be quick.


I sound bitter. I'm not. I'm just a little tired of getting my hopes up that I've succeeded in getting someone a job. It's not about the small commission I earn on each placement, it's about me feeling like I'm a success. I've had three candidates in the last week get close enough to be offered a job but before we can get final confirmation, they've taken another position.


It makes sense. Panic sets in, the automatic response is to accept whatever comes your way. It's a bad economy. Jobs are scarce.

I just wish it wouldn't come as a shock each time because my candidates have told me they weren't close to getting another position so, therefore, I don't expect it.


It's not all like that. When I do work with a candidate and he gets a job and he's happy, it makes everything worthwhile. It makes me happy that I work with people.

Overall, I love my job. I love the idea of helping people find satisfaction in life. It's just that sometimes I wish it wasn't so much about the money as finding the right job for the right person. Still, there is enough of that on somedays to make up for days like this when I feel a little like a failure because I've lost a good candidate to another job.


It's all a learning curve. As I said before, it's the side-effect of working with people. They're not automated software that can be rebooted if it crashes. They're walking, talking living creatures with their own minds and opinions.

It's what makes the job fun.

Mostly.

Now, about those lies...

Happy Wednesday!

Slow Moving Days

Today was one of those days that felt like it passed rather slowly. It was probably something to do with the fact that it began to rain heavily last night just as the pups and I were heading to bed and it didn't really stop until this evening. The ground is thick with puddles, the sky was dark all day and it the sun didn't even think about shining.

It's supposed to get cold enough to snow tonight. Naturally, being the snow loving creature I am, this has me a wee bit excited. I love snow and especially the first real snowfall of the season. We had a few dry, cold flakes last week but it was barely enough to notice. What I'm ready for is the first downpour of thick, fluffy flakes that merits breaking out the Williams Sonoma peppermint hot chocolate and seeing in the finery of winter in the right way.

I know, I know...not everyone feels this way. Once again, I can feel my mother cringing in her chair as she reads this, her body already starting to grow cold with the sheer imagining of the snow. I can't help it though. Snow, to me, is something to be celebrated.

Still, it's not snowing yet. Instead we have a soggy day where it was too wet to really be outside. The puppies try to play out there but they come in sodden and muddy and I have to wipe their feet with a towel. They seem to be staring at me accusingly as if to say, "why is it raining? We don't LIKE rain!" To make matters worse, they didn't get their evening walk because I don't have a real raincoat and the idea of traipsing around the block in the rain was not terribly appealing. The pups would agree if they thought about it but, instead, being the creatures of habit, they still wait expectantly for me to say, "Wanna go for a walk?"

It's days like this where I think it might be nice to be a puppy, curled up in my crate in the morning as the rain pours down instead of in my office, looking at my computer. I like my job a lot and it's different every day but no matter how much anyone likes their job, sometimes it's just appealing not to be at work.

Still, the day passed....slow as it was. Now we're ready to relax this evening. I have fennel roasting in the oven, the puppies are lying on the couch, wondering why I'm in my office yet again. They don't like it when I'm in here because they don't understand what's so interesting about this machine I'm always sitting at. It's a shame. I'd quite like to discuss my writing with them but even though Rory cocks her head adoringly like she's actually listening, her vocabularly is still limited to "Biscuit, outside, walk, treat, chicken, cheese," and "sit." It makes for a lousy conversation unless you're talking about Chicken in a Biscuit crackers.

I think the problem is that we're in the holiday season. There's so many things I'd like to be doing. I need to put my tree up. I need to take down my fall decor from outside- the silk leaves I wrap around my little outdoor lamppost and my scarecrows in the garden- and replace it with my Christmas decor. I need to do some shopping. I want to do some baking. There are holiday movies I'd like to watch. There are friends I'd like to see. There's wrapping to do. December is a busy month and sometimes it seems a shame that work has to get in the way.

Of course, without work, it might be hard to have a busy Christmas season because of the need for a paycheck. It's a bit of a Catch 22. Until I become independently wealthy or a mega-million copy selling author, it's off to work I go where I can sometimes squeeze in a little online browsing between looking at resumes.

It's not so bad really. After all, I'm no longer at my old job where, chances are, I'd be debating whether to call in sick so I could do other things. Or, I might be sitting in my cubicle freezing because our area was always freezing and the spaceheater that someone had loaned me when I first started was claimed by another coworker even though I'm almost 100% sure it wasn't hers. These are things I no longer have to worry about. Also, we're allowed to acknowledge Christmas at my current office. We're even going to do...stuff. We're having a party and a happy hour for our consultants. That's not bad going. In fact, I keep waiting for someone to come in and say, "Ha! Fooled you! We're not this nice after all."

It's funny. My current coworkers apologize if they've been 'cranky' and feel like they've snapped at me. In truth, I don't even notice because even at their crankiest, they're still nicer than many of my old coworkers. It's sad, but true. This is the time of year when we're supposed to be thankful for the things in our life and thus, I am thankful that I have a new job that I like with normal people who seem to respect me.

All in all, slow as the day was, it wasn't so bad. It's just like with everything else, no matter how happy we are, we always think we could be happier. For now, however, I get to curl up on a chilly, wet night with two puppies, watch TV, eat roasted fennel with parmesan and enjoy the fact that, for now, thats as complicated as life needs to be.

And maybe, just maybe, it will snow tomorrow.

Happy Wednesday!

Good Days, Bad Days...It's Nice to Like My Job...

This week is going quite quickly. Tomorrow's already Thursday which means it'll soon be Friday.
You'll hear no complaints here. This has been a better week at work. I've learned there's an ebb and flow to the recruiting business. Somedays, it's like spending the day fishing without getting a single bite. Even when you think the fish is biting, it turns out that your hook is actually caught on a week or you've caught a leaf. In my case, it tends to be that the weeds and leaves in the analogy are job seekers who, sadly, aren't really authorized to work in the U.S. even though they indicated on their resume that they were. It's frustrating for both sides- it's not that we don't want to sponsor anyone's visa but we simply aren't in a position to really do that.

Sometimes the weeds that masquerade as fish are people who simply don't want to accept the realities of the world. For example, I contacted a woman today about a potential job. She's been out of work for a while but not desperate for a job yet. She wants $100K for a position. The position I offered her was $85K and she pretty much snorted into the phone with derision. I have to admit, I have no tolerance for that attitude. I deal with enough desperate professionals each day who are victims of the economy that people like this woman make me cringe. I suppose it shows my middle-class upbringing but I can't help but think of all the people who take jobs as fast food employees, cleaners or shelf stockers just because their unemployment has run out and they have to feed a family. The economy is improving but it's still not great. There are still a lot of unemployed folk out there. I get irritated at people like this woman who don't understand that to the average, middle-class or lower worker, $85K is a pipe dream. In all honesty, she was on the third tier of people I contacted anyway so it's not like she's top of the line. Still, it's a lesson to me that not everyone really wants a job, even when they advertise online that they do.

It's all a learning experience. I'm learning that, as a recruiter, sometimes you have to sell your candidate to the account manager. So far, my instincts aren't proving too badly. My first placement was someone my boss didn't think was fabulous and yet he managed to get the job. I have another candidate who I knew could do a job but my account manager on that one didn't believe me. He's going into the second round of interviews so he's definitely not doing too badly.

It's all rather fun at times even though the days when you don't get a single bite are frustrating. They make me feel a bit like a failure. I've been told that it's a silly way to feel because then I'll have a day like today where I get three candidates for submittal. It's all just a big old circle. What I'm learning is that talking to people and getting to know them is the best way for them to want to work with you. Today, I helped a woman who's reuniting with her ex-husband from 30 years ago get a job interview up near Dayton. I helped another woman who's been job seeking for months and wants to live anywhere she can find a job get an interview. I found out she's been having a lot of bad hair days and so it's only natural she gets the interview during a period like this.

It's fun to get to know people. There are some rude ones- the guy who decided that he needed to send a rather long email correcting my grammar in response to a bulk email I'd been told to send, for example- but there are some really fun ones too. There's nothing better than talking to someone who's dejected and tired of job seeking and offering them a lifeline in the form of hope. It's satisfying. It's also fun to reach out to them as a human, to find out that they're having a bad hair week and they're wondering if it would be bad to wear a hat to an interview or to find out that they're reuniting with their ex-husband after 30 years.

It's not all like that but I'm quickly learning that the nice people make up for the rude people. It's one of the reasons I wanted a job like this. It's much more rewarding to get a message on your voicemail first thing in the morning from someone you placed in a job that tells you how happy they already are and how much they love thier new job. They say thank you. It's what I missed about my old job. There was no instant feedback like that. There was really no feedback at all though I'll blame that on the bad politics/human resource efforts of my former company rather on the nature of the software industry in general.


It's nice to be told thanks. It's nice to hear "good job" from your boss when you do something right. It's addicting because it makes you want to keep doing it. Granted, I get a commission for every placement I do but it's not about the commission, it's about the feeling of satisfaction and success I get when I do my job well.


It's been a while since I've had this feeling. It feels nice. It's nice to come into an environment like this from an environment where not getting fired seemed like a good reward, even if you had no reason to even get fired. You don't realize how paranoid you are that you might just get axed until after you've seen a company fire three people at different times, seemingly out of the blue. I'm sure it wasn't completely out of the blue but that's how it seemed to me and to the rest of the minions at my old company.


In addition, it's a pleasure to work for a stable company. I confess, given the rocky transition of my old company from being a university-owned company to being a private company to being a merged company, it never made me feel very secure. I'm hoping for the sake of my former coworkers/friends that the company sticks around but, honestly, I don't think anyone will be astounded if things don't go so well in the future.


So, four weeks in to the new job and I can safely say that I'm glad I made the decision to try something new, to leave behind the safe but crazy world of my old office. Having a day like today where I feel like I did my job well almost makes up for the bad breakup I had to endure with my old boss.

Almost, at least. It's going to take some time to get over that one.

Happy Thursday!

The Nature of the Job and of Humans...

Well, it's Friday tomorrow. It's been a strange week. I've been at my new job three weeks,almost. My past two weeks flew by. This week has gone more slowly. The process we have at work is that the two account managers try to get clients to ask us to fulfill their IT personnel needs. In turn, me and the other recruiter in the office get job descriptions and we're in charge of finding people to fill the jobs.

The process we follow is to try to locate people. We then phone screen them. We try to bring them in for an interview. When we're confident they're a good fit, we submit the person's resume to the account manager who decides at that point if they can 'sell' the job candidate to the client. If so, they forward the resume. With luck, the client likes the candidate and they get a job.

If they get a job, we call it a 'start.' As recruiters, we're required to get 3 starts a month, if possible. If not, we don't get in trouble but we do have to make up for it and keep working.

It's harder than it sounds. This week I had my first couple of 'bad' days. I had managed to get a candidate an interview at the jobsite. This is good because he's jumped most of the hurdles. At that point, it's up to him why he can prove that he can do the job.

Except then my candidate got another job offer so he backed out of the interview. He'd told me he wasn't that close to getting a job.

I then had to scramble to find another candidate. I found one who had called only two days before desperate for a job. I'd told him I'd see what I could do and so the minute an interview slot opened up, I fast tracked him and he got an interview with the client.

Guess what? He got another job too and cancelled on his interview. I felt hoodwinked. I'd fallen for his desperate story and sold him to my boss without feeling completely comfortable that he was the absolute best match. I think he could have done the job. I think he would have done it well but I bypassed other resumes in order to help him out.

I learned a couple of lessons this week. Mostly, that candidates lie. They need a job. I understand that. They don't want me to think that they don't need an interview even if they think they might have a job offer. So they tell me they're still looking and then, boom, I'm left holding their resume while they're about to start another job.

Secondly, I learned not to take it personally. That's a big thing. I have to look at it from their point of view. They need a job. They're going to say anything so that I help them get a job. If they find a job, they no longer need my help. It's that simple.

It was a tough lesson to learn. I'm a creature that likes to suceed. I also like to control things. I've been working with software. It has a strict pattern that it follows to get the job done. If the software breaks, I generated a bug report and someone fixed it. It's an A to B type of process.

Working with people is different. It's been a while since I worked with people. People are not A to B creatures, for the most part. Even the most organized humans aren't that simple.

That's what I've had to remember this week. Humans are not software. They can get other job offers, they may answer the phone but not be able to talk because they're in the middle of making meatloaf and their hands are covered with hamburger. They may come into the office and drink a can of Mountain Dew in less than one minute and in one drag and then ask for another please. They may walk up and down stairs while reading a book and not even look to see where they're going.

Yes, these things all happened this week. The point is, humans aren't predictable. I need to remember that. I love my job but I need to start remembering that I'm dealing with real live people with real live...lives. If they don't show up for an interview, I can't file a bug report with my boss and have him fix it. It doesn't work like that.

It's going to take me a while to get used to it. I admit, I love it, even when things don't go quite the way I planned. It's different every day. Sometimes, it's different from hour to hour.

It's a different change of pace but it's exactly what I needed. Now, if I can just get stop candidates from lying to me....

Happy Friday!

The Awesomeness of Autumn

Well, I had in mind a long winded post that waxed poetical about my new job, Autumn and the like.

Unfortunately, the site on which my blog is hosted is down and so my attempts to blog this evening have been thwarted. I’mblogging, instead, using the old fashioned method of typing it up in Microsoft Word in hopes that the site revives itself soon.

The nice thing is that I can type the words “Microsoft Word” and not feel this strong desire to duck. Having been surrounded by computer geeks/snobs for a while, I’ve been shamed into the zombie mentality of Microsoft=Great Evil. However, as I’ve always felt, whether or not Microsoft is truly evil, I’m a fan. Without Microsoft, most of us wouldn’t know our Start Menus from our Control Panels and so, for the mere fact that Microsoft treats everyone in an equally simplistic fashion, I’m a fan.

I use Microsoft every day in my job and…so does everyone else. Gone are the days when I have to sit through meeting after meeting in which I constantly hear about the inferior ‘double click’ of Microsoft Windows vs. the “superior” single click of the Apple.

In my new office, NO ONE has a Mac. It’s lovely. As the newbie, I’m the guinea pig for Windows 7 and Microsoft Office 2010. The other staff are a little nervous. While I think this go-around meant Microsoft was trying a wee bit hard to emulate the Mac computer, it’s still the same basic software and so I’m happy to double-click my heart out.

I digress. What I’m really saying is that it’s now been almost a weeks since I walked out the old office. I left with apprehension and a slight case of fear of the unknown. I left unhappy because my ex-boss had been nothing but rude and insensitive to me. I left sad because after two years, leaving a building without any real sense of loss was just…sad.

Now, a week later, I’m already feeling embedded in my new office. I go in a little early now. The day flies by. I always have something to work on. Each day, I’m learning more. Each day, I achieve a little more success. Each day, I feel…appreciated. My boss told me tonight that, “I know it’s only been four days and I’ve thrown you in the deep end but I want you to know you’re doing great.”

I don’t think he knows how much that means. It’s not just me. I know I escaped from a somewhat unhappy situation and, thus, praise is foreign. However, there are many people out there who are not completely miserable in their jobs and yet they never, ever hear a word of praise from their supervisor.

Let me say…it feels good. It’s nice to know that even though I feel like I’m flailing around, a little disorganized and completely overwhelmed by all the potential work I should be doing, that I’m still doing pretty decently.

If all goes well tomorrow, I should have placed my first candidate. I should be feeling like I’ve done something right.

It’s a nice way to end a week. It’s been a good week. It’s going to be a good weekend too. This weekend, I plan to celebrate the Awesomeness of Autumn. I had originally planned on heading up to my parents. As much as I’d love to see them and let the puppies go fishing in my parents’ ponds, after this week, my brain and body is a little too tired to think about the 2.5 hour trip each way. Thus, I think I’m going to use the weekend to both recharge and celebrate Autumn.

As I said last year, each Autumn, I celebrate Halloween in my own way by carving a pumpkin while watching a “Harry Potter” movie and drinking pumpkin beer. Well, this year, I already have the pumpkin, the movie and the beer. All I need is the carving.

I plan on eating baked sweet potatoes, roasting pumpkin seeds and enjoying the fact that we’re due for our very first frost this weekend. Autumn is finally, truly upon us and I , for one, welcome the season.

Most of all, I love the fact that, as a transitional season, Autumn has brought change into my life. I’m no longer trapped in the job that sucked away pieces of my soul. Instead, I’m in a job that, slowly but surely, is making me feel like a human again.

It’s a lovely feeling….and it’s only been a week. But what a week it’s been!

Happy Friday…and thanks for reading.

Have a great weekend!

Time Flies When You Like Your Job!

I can't believe this week is going by so fast. It's unusual to say that. Usually the weeks drag by while the weekends fly.

I don't know if it's because my job is new or if it's always going to be busy but it seems like I barely look at the clock during the day. I find this to be a very good thing. In my former job, clockwatching was my main event. On days when I didn't have very much to do at all, clockwatching was an obsession.

The thing is, now I look back, I always got my work done. I never missed a deadline. Granted, I probably could have got more done on my backburner projects which were really busy work but I don't recall ever failing to get my job done.

Which may not seem like a huge thing but, well, if I told you how little work I did some days, particularly when there wasn't much to be done, you might be shocked. Let's just say that if they ever took a look at my internet logs, my former workplace might notice I had a bit of a web-surfing addiction.

I web-surfed while I was working on other projects. You might wonder what I could constantly find to surf the web about. Well, here's an example of a fairly normal unbusy day at work and the sort of things I would read on the internet.

1) Recaps of my TV shows on Entertainment Weekly.com

2) Facebook. Yes, my office did block Facebook.com but there are these things called proxy servers and if you use one, you can bypass firewall blocks. Hey, they paid me to do web security. You learn a thing or two.

3) I would see these brightly coloured cookie things online or on magazine covers so I'd go on a quest to find out what they were. Turns out they're called French meringues. Who knew? The Internet did!
4) I'd want to know how to stop my puppy from barking at strangers when we walked so I'd look to see what tips I could find.

5) I wanted to see if a cookbook I borrowed from my mother was available in the US since she got it in England and I fancied my won copies.

6) I'd read recaps from televisionwithoutpity.com. They have a huge library of recaps. It's good for hours of endless reading. Unless Jacob wrote the recaps in which case regardless of how much I like the telly program, I simply cannot read his awful waffling.

7) I'd check my Hotmail account

8) I'd check to see if I had any email in my author email account

9) I'd see if my book had any new reviews

10) I'd email my friends, particularly my two librarian friends.

11) I'd read another recap on televisionwithoutpity.com

12) I'd try to find out what the berries on the tree outside my house were because Rory keeps trying to eat them and I want to make sure they're not poisonous.

13) I'd find out about woolly worms because I remembered seeing tons of them at my parents' house and, at the time, I didn't realize they were woolly worms. I thought they were having some bizarre caterpillar invasion.

14) I'd google "Bad Bosses" to see how my boss compared.

15) I'd go to Monster.com to see what else was out there. This is how I found my lovely new job.

Sadly, this is probably less than two hours of surfing time.

I have a problem. I know. However, in my defence, it's only when I'm bored. In my current job, I don't have time to get bored. It's rather fabulous, actually. I'm working all the time and enjoying it. I'm getting stuff done.

I promise in a couple of days, I'll stop blogging about how wonderful my new job is compared with my old. I'm suffering from post traumatic job disorder. Once it passes, I promise to move on to other subjects.

In the meantime, I'll continue to be amazed at how quickly my days are going and how much I'm enjoying learning about what my job will be. Today, I managed to find a candidate for an immediate job placement and if he does well on his interview tomorrow. If he gets it, it will be my first placement. I'll earn a commission but, honestly, it's not about the money. It's about knowing that I've found someone who's out of work, has a six year old son and who really needs a job and helped him find one.

That's a nice feeling. It beats surfing the internet any day.

Happy Thursday!

Feeling Like It's the First Day of School Tomorrow...

I'm hoping I'm blogging this on the evening of the beginning of something wonderful. Tomorrow, I start my new job. I'm going to move from being in the exciting world of software testing and documentation (sarcasm intended) to being an IT recruiter. This means I'll be working at actually helping people find jobs and doing a little career counseling. I'm excited. I've long been frustrated in my old job because I stared at a computer screen and only got to interact with other employees. Now I get to work with real live people and do something that feels like it will be a little more fulfilling.

I'm nervous, I must admit. Just like the first day of school, the first day at a new job is nervewracking. I'm going to be the new kid on the block. I don't yet even know where the bathroom is. To me, that's one of the vital things about any new location. Whenever I've dealt with new employees or coworkers, the very first thing I do is show them where the bathroom is. Not only is this a vital need to human beings but it also gives them a place to run to if they get so stressed out they need a moment alone. This is not to say I expect that to happen tomorrow but, on the off chance it does, it's rather nice to know where I can run to when I need to decompress for a few minutes.

Still, I'm sure I'll find out when I get there. At least I know where my own office is going to be. I already have my clothes picked out. I need to pack my bag. There are a few vital office supplies I need. I put all my office stuff from my old job in a reusable grocery tote but I think I'll give it a couple of days in the new office before I completely move in. I have a lot of toys and silly stuff. It's not that I don't think I'll be staying but I like to at least feel like I know how the office works before I bring out my Green Day International Superhero action figures. However, my Harry Potter calendar, collection pencils- currently Halloween themed- and my box of tissues are musts for my desk. These are what I consider to be vital. Yes...I'm odd. Yet it's the items like these that can make even a cubicle feel like my own.

It was strange packing up the last of my stuff from my old job on Friday. I have to say, it was the oddest last day at a job I've had. When I left my job in California, I was taken out to lunch three seperate times by different groups. I recieved goodbye and good luck cards. When I left the job prior to that one, I even got flowers from my coworkers. I didn't expect any of that stuff but I expected...something. Instead, I got a free lunch at IHOP because my coworker had a buy-one-get-one-free coupon. I know- it's the thought that counts. It was just...pretty unsurprising.

I ended up having to do two exit interviews. One with our HR manager and one with the HR manager of the company with whom we've merged. Surprisingly, our HR lady was very good. Originally, upon resigning, I had planned to say very little other than the fact I was leaving for a new opportunity. However, given how painful the past two weeks have been, primarily due to the fact that my boss has acted like a jilted ex, I decided to be pretty honest. It was pretty therapeutic. I didn't hang my boss out to dry but I was blunt as to many of the reasons I felt he was a poor manager. Our HR manager actually ended up using our interview as a way to vent her own frustrations and it turned out, they were the same as mine. Since she's in the position to do something about it, being a manager, I'm hoping she gets to stand firm and try to make a change.

The other exit interview was decent. It was much more structuralized than the other one. There were questions that had to be answered. Since I was completely honest, I'm sure I sounded like a whiny brat but I said what I really thought. I don't think I burned any bridges in doing so but even if I did, nothing I said hasn't been whispered loudly between my other coworkers as they, too, have had the same frustrations in their own ways.

When I left, it was...anticlimactic. My boss politely shook my hand and that was it. I didn't expect anything else but I wanted something more. I wanted some kind of appreciation for the fact that while I did resign, I gave that job some solid effort and did a lot in my two years. I didn't get it and when I left the building for the final time, it was far more bitterness and regret than I meant to have.

I did, however, sing "Born Free," loudly and off key as I drove home, per my good friend Ms. P. down in Texas. She was kind enough to provide me with the lyrics earlier in the week and I took the liberty of printing them to remind myself that I was glad to be out of there.

It was harder than I thought though. It meant change and change is never easy. Change means new and unfamiliar things and I, being the creature of habit I am, prefer not to have much change.

Still, tomorrow will bring change. It will bring new hours, new coworkers, new challenges and new experiences. I am both nervous and excited. I'm just glad I don't have to ride the schoolbus with a bunch of unfamiliar kids as I would have to do if it was the first day of school. I will, however, be clutching my new pencils, using them as my safety blanket.

I'm sure it will be fine.

As long as I can find the bathroom.

Wish me luck!

Thanks for reading and Happy Monday!

Hunting Geese on an Autumn Day

I'm on my last Sunday evening before I start my new job. This is the last Sunday I'll have, I hope, where I remember that I have to go to work the next day and I feel that a grey cloud is settling over me.

I've had bad jobs before where I've been unhappy. This job is unusual in that I didn't realize how unhappy I've been until I decided to leave. It shouldn't have been hard to figure out. If I go back and read my blogs from the past two years, it's pretty obvious that I've felt trapped and discontented. It's just that it wasn't until I decided to make a change that I realized I've been unhappy with the way things have been.

I have no idea if my new job will make me happy but I have an inkling that it might. I'm excited to start the job. Ever since I decided to take it, I've felt a metaphorical weight being shifted off my shoulders.

It's made life fun again. It's made things seem more real, like I'm not stuck in my rut anymore. It's making me appreciate the world I have around me. This weekend, for example, it's been beautiful outside. I'm not sure if it's too early or not to declare it but it seems as though we're having an indian summer. The temperatures have been in the high 80's during the day but dropping down to a delicious crisp low at night.

I decided that the best way to appreciate such a gorgeous day was to take the pups for a long walk. We actually ended up having two of them. As is my habit on weekends, I've taken to letting the puppies play outside when they wake up at 7:30 a.m. and I go back to bed and doze until they've had enough frolicking outside and come inside to find me. This morning, however, I was awoken by a furious yipping from the girls. Last time one of them yipped like that, it turned out Sookie had escaped the yard and was squirrel hunting in the street. Thus, I got up with a start to see what the barking was about.

Well, it turned out that one of the pups' "friends" had come to visit. Our neighbourhood is full of dogs. As we go for our evening walks, there are several dogs who always come to their fence to exchange a friendly bark with the puppies. I call these the girls' "friends." This particular 'friend' was a large, yellow mutt from down the street. I'm not sure if he'd escaped or his owner was walking him without a leash but by the time I was outside and dressed, the dog had gone. I was a little worried that he'd escaped and, putting myself in his owner's shoes, thought it might be a worry. So, I put the girls' harnesses and leashes on and we went for a walk in the neighbourhood.

We never did see the dog again but it was a nice day for an 8 a.m. walk. That time of day is interesting. There isn't much traffic on the roads, the squirrels are out in full force and the smell of bacon drifts out from a few houses.

Even though we had a walk first thing in the morning, I decided that we'd still go over to the woods for what is becoming a semi-regular Sunday walk. This week, I hoped that we wouldn't stumble upon a sponsored walk. All I have to do now is say, "Walk?" to the puppies and they go and sit by the front door, their tails wagging in anticipation. So, we headed to the park.

We got there by around 10 a.m. and it was still pretty quiet. There were quite a few joggers. There were one pair who were a little perplexing. They appeared to be communicating through bluetooth, even though they were not that far apart. When we pulled into the parking lot, they were walking haphazardly around the picnic benches in the parking area. Then, as we began to walk along the trail, they crossed our path again. This time, they were about 20 feet apart, still communicating via bluetooth and walking the opposite direction from us. I know they were communicating with each other because it was like they were having a conversation...only they were 20 feet apart. It was peculiar. What was more annoying is that the male was making really unpleasant comments about "The amount of damn dogs on the trail," and, as he passed us, he gave the puppies a rather threatening look. This, obviously, did not make me happy. The trail is about ten feet wide. My dogs are small and they were happily trotting side by side far away from the man. While I can understand being annoyed at dogs if they're either not supposed to be there or they are actually bothering you by getting in your way, I didn't understand his animosity.

Still, we shrugged it off and kept going. It was an amazing day for a walk. Autumn is fully here now and the sheer grandeur of the colours of the leaves is seriously breathtaking. There are bright golds, reds, oranges and greens all blended together. It's just stunning to take them all in at once. We stopped a few times so that the pups could have a drink and rest for a minute. Then we got to our favourite area of our walk- it's the area where we go 'off trail' and run around in the leaves while the puppies get to sniff out their prey.

Today's prey didn't need to be sniffed out, it was pretty visible. There, where we normally spend some time while the puppies have some leisurely sniffing time was a flock of Canadian geese.

This may not seem like anything unusual but for Sookie, this was a dream come true. She's fascinated by the things. They often fly over our house, honking loudly. No matter what Sookie is doing, as soon as she hears that honk, she's looking upwards, trying to find it's source. For many months, I believe she has longed for her very own Canadian goose.

Thus, today, her dreams were almost realized. She and Rory, upon seeing the flock, got very excited and pulled their leashes taut, trying to move towards them. Knowing that geese can be mean, I held back for a while but then decided that it wouldn't hurt to let them go closer. If the geese pecked them, well, then, maybe they'd be less enthusiastic in the future.

We moved among the flock. Sookie was beside herself with excitement. She got close to one and then...it flew away and landed gracefully in the small lake nearby. She got close to another and that one flew away. Each time she got close, the silly geese flew away.

Still, she didn't seem discouraged. Rory was very enthusiastic also. She'll jump into the thick of anything without a moment's hesitation. She joined her sister in attempted to herd the geese into a corner so that they could pounce. Unfortunately, neither pup can fly and so after a while, they were discouraged.

I finally pulled them away and distracted them by leading them to a large pile of leaves. They promptly dove into the leaves and happily forgot the geese. We walked on. We came to the area where we can either go home or loop back around the lake again. I wasn't sure how tired the pups were so I let them lead me where they wanted to go which turned out to be looping around the lake.

This of course put us right back into the thicket of geese. It was once more into the breach, we went. Once more into the breach.

Sookie joyfully tried once more to catch herself a goose. Rory also gave it her best effort. Neither pup had yet learned to fly and they were thusly thwarted in their attempts to catch a goose.

I pulled them away. We moved beyond the geese back to the grass that would lead to the car. Sookie and Rory promptly sat down, clearly exhausted. My attempts to tire them out so they would sleep had worked. They were just working a little too soon.

I ended up plopping down on the ground so they could rest for ten minutes. At the distank honk from the geese, Sookie had an energy burst but as soon as I attempted to use that burst to my advantage and walk them to the car, she promptly laid down again.

Finally, they had the energy to walk and we made it back to the car. Their energy burst returned as soon as we got home and they spent much of the afternoon running around the garden. This means that they'll probably climb up on the couch this evening and won't move until bedtime and they won't stir again until morning.

It was a beautiful day for a walk/geese chasing. I feel like I got to appreciate nature with a fresh pair of eyes. With my freedom from my current job approaching and the hope of fresh possibility at my new job looming brightly, I think I'm finally shaking off the cobwebs of frustration. It's a beautiful world of autumn out there and it's nice to it share with with two puppies, a flock of geese and the other intrepid walkers we passed on our morning jaunt.

I'm just glad they didn't catch their goose.

Happy Monday!