Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Dessert Relaxation

It's crazy how much life has changed. It used to be that these families would occasionally manage to sync up long enough to meet for a park day. Now, we're (mostly) grown up with more schedules to coordinate and we still somehow managed to sync up for a whole week! Mom's best friends, Velma and Cindy and their daughters, Mom, me and Laura all went to Indio, California - eight of us total.

Mom works for a timeshare company and got a killer deal, three bedroom suite in the dessert for a week. The resort was amazing, surrounded by lush green landscaping and then the craggly dessert mountains in the distance. The view from our balcony was perfect.

The theme of the trip, for me at least, was a balance between discover and relaxation. I spent a sufficient amount of time floating around the lazy river and lounging by the pool, read a book, listened to a book, read my Mental Floss. But I also went on a drive through the Mojave Dessert, hiked through an oasis, went to an art museum and explored San Diego.

See the Travel Blog for the full scoop and I'm working on getting all pics on Flickr.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Bozo's for Head Hunters

With the recession that's fallen upon our country there is an overwhelming number of qualified and often over qualified candidates lusting after each and every job opportunity. Due to this fact, there is an increase in the number of companies who opt to hire a staffing agency to locate the ideal candidate hence saving them the time and trouble. I say trouble because they will inevitably chose the over-qualified candidate since that highly skilled individual is backed into a corner financially and desperate for any work they can get, even if this means using all of their expensive skills while only getting paid half their worth. Then, when this over-qualified candidate finds a job that pays fairly for their skill set and leaves the company can count on the staffing agency to deal with all of the sticky details. Underpaid employees is a whole other post....but staffing agencies-GRR!

I understand why they're out there and why they're currently flourishing. I do. But I absolutely hate the fact that I have to put MY job search, MY future, my FAMILY'S financial stability in the hands of some shmucky sales person who couldn't care less about me but who's sole focus is filling the seat so they can get their commission.

I interview really well. Until this recession and my recent run of forced unemployment I had a 95% success rate of being offered a job after scoring an interview. But with these staffing agencies I can't even get that far.

You've been unemployed for over a year, why the sudden rage? You might ask. I've been working with a specific staffing company, we'll call them Wacko Inc and with a specific agent, we'll call him Bozo.

LAST July Bozo thought he might have something for me, wanted me to come in and meet him quickly before sending me to interview with the client. This is standard but I am sick - like sleeping 20 hours a day, look awful, sound awful sick. But, the next day I use all of my energy reserves and go in to meet him. He's 30 minutes late, spends 5 minutes with me, doesn't have my resume or even remember which job I'm interested in. I follow up with him a few times and finally find out that the client hired internally. Overall it sounded like he knew the whole time that it was a long shot but wanted to throw a candidate out there just in case - never mind if I'm sick. Since I was so thoroughly unimpressed I was prepared to cease communication but an old colleague happened to give me Bozo's specific name as a lead I should follow so I stayed in touch.

In April Bozo calls and tells me that he has an opening to fill that's a perfect fit, very excited. Next day I get a call from his assistant, annoyed because she can't modify my carefully designed resume to insert the Wacko Inc logo. She's insistent that I need to send her a text only copy of my resume ASAP. Mind you that my resume is the result of hours and hours of tweaking and perfecting. I tell her it will take me a couple of days and suggest she just tack a cover sheet on to it. An hour later I receive a voicemail from Bozo, Nevermind he says the job's been filled. How convenient....(smoke coming out o fears)...I'm done.

Last week Bozo emails me to tell me a Jr PM position is open. Do I have any programming experience an if so do I want to be submitted. I give him an overview of my experience (basically, copy and paste from my resume) and tell him yes, go ahead and submit. I haven't heard anything since.

So yesterday I stumbled upon a job board posting for a Jr PM, programming experience preferred posted by Wacko Inc.... I submit my resume for good measure. This morning I received a call from a new agent, we'll call him Joker, my resume was a good fit, could I send him my resume so he could submit. I did and I've already received a second email from him that he successfully submitted my resume (apparently his assistant knows how to do a cover sheet) and could I be available for a phone interview this Thursday. He'll call me tomorrow to prep me for the interview. Sweet!!! A tangible lead. I'll take it!

But this now has me thinking...why did the client like my resume better coming from Joker than from Bozo, unless...Bozo never actually submitted it. Which makes me wonder what exactly went on with all of the other submissions. While Bozo twiddles his thumbs and slacks off my bank account is dwindling and my career is slowing down more and more.

I hate staffing agencies!