Struck out again. At least this time when they said "we'll let you know by the end of next week" they meant it. Too bad too. Seemed like really nice people with a lot of potential.
What's the starting pay as a rent-a-cop these days...?
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Monday, March 24, 2008
Cell Phones
Like most people, i too have a cell phone. I've been a Sprint subscriber since 2000 and being a 20-something year old, I accept that it's part of my daily life. That being said, I've had an odd reoccurring experience lately.
While in school, classmates would turn their phones to vibrate (which is extremely loud in a quiet lecture hall) while mine was consistently turned off. I've found no statistics on what proportion turns their phones off vs vibrate even though it would be an interesting study. On one occasion i had a classmate who had his phone out but that's because his wife was pregnant and expecting any day which is 100% understandable.
Every couple weeks i turn my phone off for a day or even the weekend. I've come to accept that i am not considered "normal" because i do this. Once again, this weekend i had a friend call and was upset that i didn't answer my phone when they called because it was off. Because i have a cell phone, apparently i'm supposed to be able to take calls 24/7 from people. I find this idea to be deeply offensive.
It bothers me that in our culture of instant communication that people can have the nerve to expect that you should always be reachable. This is beyond a privacy issue in my eyes. When did we allow ourselves to reach this level of forced social interaction? There have been studies about BlackBerry users who are obsessively checking their emails and freak out when their service goes out for 10 minutes. (no url suplied but a simple search will find plenty of examples) Why is it that we as a culture believe now that we're supposed to answer the phone just because it rings? If you're in heavy traffic while searching for an address and the weather is terrible, do you answer your cell when it rings? I'm sure you said "of course not" but how many of you REALLY mean it?
I have one friend that doesn't have a cell phone and doesn't appear to be in any major hurry to get one. I have said repeatedly that if my phone dies or if Sprint pisses me off, i'll drop it completely and walk away from these devices. I know one person that was set on tossing his phone after his contract expired and just having a land-line. Even with his g/friend offering to pay for one, he seemed dead set on ditching wireless communication. Needless to say, he caved in and is still amongst us "normals".
The benefits of having a cell are great. I love the long distance for obvious reasons. It's also nice if my job needs to get ahold of me to call me in early (thus making extra $$). Internet access for a news fiend like me is another huge bonus. It's easier to get ahold of people if you go out and plans change. Despite all of this, i feel no true need to have one. I survived while in ireland for 3 weeks without one. I turn mine off all of the time. Oddly enough, the only reason why i carry mine as much as i do is because i'm used to the physical weight in my left pocket.
In the past 5-10 years we have made cell phones a key part of our every day lives. Most troubling is, walk into Wal-Mart (or wherever) and look at how many kids (under 15) are walking around with them in hand. Look at how many displays for cheap phones you see and how the packaging is geared towards that age bracket. Look how many kids you see using their cell phones as a music player as they walk through a crowded store. Now ask yourself if you see anything wrong with what is now the "norm".
My point???
It's politically correct to preach about energy conservation and recycling but heaven forbid if anyone looses their cell charger or even their bottled water!
We have artificial holidays like Earth Day and Sweetest Day. How about a day where people turn off their phones? I am seriously considering setting aside a day or even weekend every month that i will keep my phone off. If anyone is interested in participating and has suggestions as to when this should take place, i am willing to hear them.
While in school, classmates would turn their phones to vibrate (which is extremely loud in a quiet lecture hall) while mine was consistently turned off. I've found no statistics on what proportion turns their phones off vs vibrate even though it would be an interesting study. On one occasion i had a classmate who had his phone out but that's because his wife was pregnant and expecting any day which is 100% understandable.
Every couple weeks i turn my phone off for a day or even the weekend. I've come to accept that i am not considered "normal" because i do this. Once again, this weekend i had a friend call and was upset that i didn't answer my phone when they called because it was off. Because i have a cell phone, apparently i'm supposed to be able to take calls 24/7 from people. I find this idea to be deeply offensive.
It bothers me that in our culture of instant communication that people can have the nerve to expect that you should always be reachable. This is beyond a privacy issue in my eyes. When did we allow ourselves to reach this level of forced social interaction? There have been studies about BlackBerry users who are obsessively checking their emails and freak out when their service goes out for 10 minutes. (no url suplied but a simple search will find plenty of examples) Why is it that we as a culture believe now that we're supposed to answer the phone just because it rings? If you're in heavy traffic while searching for an address and the weather is terrible, do you answer your cell when it rings? I'm sure you said "of course not" but how many of you REALLY mean it?
I have one friend that doesn't have a cell phone and doesn't appear to be in any major hurry to get one. I have said repeatedly that if my phone dies or if Sprint pisses me off, i'll drop it completely and walk away from these devices. I know one person that was set on tossing his phone after his contract expired and just having a land-line. Even with his g/friend offering to pay for one, he seemed dead set on ditching wireless communication. Needless to say, he caved in and is still amongst us "normals".
The benefits of having a cell are great. I love the long distance for obvious reasons. It's also nice if my job needs to get ahold of me to call me in early (thus making extra $$). Internet access for a news fiend like me is another huge bonus. It's easier to get ahold of people if you go out and plans change. Despite all of this, i feel no true need to have one. I survived while in ireland for 3 weeks without one. I turn mine off all of the time. Oddly enough, the only reason why i carry mine as much as i do is because i'm used to the physical weight in my left pocket.
In the past 5-10 years we have made cell phones a key part of our every day lives. Most troubling is, walk into Wal-Mart (or wherever) and look at how many kids (under 15) are walking around with them in hand. Look at how many displays for cheap phones you see and how the packaging is geared towards that age bracket. Look how many kids you see using their cell phones as a music player as they walk through a crowded store. Now ask yourself if you see anything wrong with what is now the "norm".
My point???
It's politically correct to preach about energy conservation and recycling but heaven forbid if anyone looses their cell charger or even their bottled water!
We have artificial holidays like Earth Day and Sweetest Day. How about a day where people turn off their phones? I am seriously considering setting aside a day or even weekend every month that i will keep my phone off. If anyone is interested in participating and has suggestions as to when this should take place, i am willing to hear them.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The Joys of House Calls (Part I)
(I'm confident there will be follow-ups on this topic even though this is the first posting.)
WinXP on a p2-366mhz w/ 256mb is painful. There's no other way to put it. Every time the user clicked on IE it would open up and then blue screen. Turns out she had the full M$N messenger suite installed and it was the M$N toolbar that was ironically causing the BSOD's. How did i figure that out? Simple. Remove any and all toolbars. No mercy. Never met a toolbar that i liked (excluding Google because Google is our lord and savior). Removed it and machine runs... er... walks just fine now.
Did i mention that i'm EVENTUALLY going to get $20 for this mess?
Later in the same day i went on a call to another house. Nice guy and very easy to work with. Not afraid to ask questions or call for help if he thinks he's even getting close to breaking something. Basically all i had to do was swap a networking cable with a known good one. Fired up FireFox afterwards to make sure the global interwebs worked and weren't clogged.
"Firefox did not close properly in a previous session. Would you like to restore the session?"
"Sure!" i foolishly said and clicked accordingly.
There's a naked dude on this dude's browser window. Well. At least it was artistic. As he's looking over my shoulder i just grab the mouse and click on HOME right away and don't say anything about it. Mutter a couple comments about various widgets popping up with the weather and how i would find them annoying and didn't say jack shit about the naked dude i just saw.
Sigh.
No charge for the networking cable swap because it didn't wind up solving the problem. Modem is probably dieing and so it's someone else's problem. I don't fix the problem means i don't get paid.
Sigh.
These two calls in addition to everything else that happened that day made for a very very odd day. Why the hell am i doing this kind of work again???
WinXP on a p2-366mhz w/ 256mb is painful. There's no other way to put it. Every time the user clicked on IE it would open up and then blue screen. Turns out she had the full M$N messenger suite installed and it was the M$N toolbar that was ironically causing the BSOD's. How did i figure that out? Simple. Remove any and all toolbars. No mercy. Never met a toolbar that i liked (excluding Google because Google is our lord and savior). Removed it and machine runs... er... walks just fine now.
Did i mention that i'm EVENTUALLY going to get $20 for this mess?
Later in the same day i went on a call to another house. Nice guy and very easy to work with. Not afraid to ask questions or call for help if he thinks he's even getting close to breaking something. Basically all i had to do was swap a networking cable with a known good one. Fired up FireFox afterwards to make sure the global interwebs worked and weren't clogged.
"Firefox did not close properly in a previous session. Would you like to restore the session?"
"Sure!" i foolishly said and clicked accordingly.
There's a naked dude on this dude's browser window. Well. At least it was artistic. As he's looking over my shoulder i just grab the mouse and click on HOME right away and don't say anything about it. Mutter a couple comments about various widgets popping up with the weather and how i would find them annoying and didn't say jack shit about the naked dude i just saw.
Sigh.
No charge for the networking cable swap because it didn't wind up solving the problem. Modem is probably dieing and so it's someone else's problem. I don't fix the problem means i don't get paid.
Sigh.
These two calls in addition to everything else that happened that day made for a very very odd day. Why the hell am i doing this kind of work again???
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Yet Another Head Hunter Bytes The Dust (Follow Up)
When we last heard from the hero of this tale , he was patiently awaiting the call from the head hunter. "I should know by Tues evening or Wed morning about interviews," he said to me. Translation: I knew i wasn't going to hear jack until fri.
Today at 1pm this joker called me up. Wanted me to interview tomorrow @ 830am. That's less than 24 hours notice for an interview. The problem with that is that i have a doctors appointment from 9-10am which means i can't do the interview until after. Realistically it would be 1130am at the earliest that i could actually be there (it's appx 30 min away) and that includes hauling ass. So the guy tells me that he'll call me back later with a time that i can work with better. It's now 11pm and i never heard a peep from him for the rest of the day. Thanks. Real classy.
How much is it to ask for 24 hours notice? Companies can take their sweet time making decisions on whether or not they want to decide as to when they'll have a meeting about the decision to set the date that they want to decide on interview dates. In the meantime, people like me are supposed to drop everything and run and get punished for having prior commitments. They have no idea what my doctors appointment is about and it's honestly none of their business. It's called courtesy. Anything less than 24 hours and you're setting people up to fail. How am i supposed to properly prepare for an interview with < 24 hours? Banking an awful lot on me having proper preparation for the interview!
So....
Tonight i got home from work and there were to messages on the answering machine. Some head hunter from the 412 area code (Pennsylvania) called about a job. I wanted to punch her in her face when i heard the message. My name is Sean. It's NOT pronounced "SEEN". Got it? Why are you even bothering to call people when you can't pronounce their name? Not only is that annoying but i find that highly rude. I understand butchering last names. That's why you apologize for it and ask for proper pronunciation. It's called courtesy.
And so continues my stint of being "Professionally Unemployed"....
Today at 1pm this joker called me up. Wanted me to interview tomorrow @ 830am. That's less than 24 hours notice for an interview. The problem with that is that i have a doctors appointment from 9-10am which means i can't do the interview until after. Realistically it would be 1130am at the earliest that i could actually be there (it's appx 30 min away) and that includes hauling ass. So the guy tells me that he'll call me back later with a time that i can work with better. It's now 11pm and i never heard a peep from him for the rest of the day. Thanks. Real classy.
How much is it to ask for 24 hours notice? Companies can take their sweet time making decisions on whether or not they want to decide as to when they'll have a meeting about the decision to set the date that they want to decide on interview dates. In the meantime, people like me are supposed to drop everything and run and get punished for having prior commitments. They have no idea what my doctors appointment is about and it's honestly none of their business. It's called courtesy. Anything less than 24 hours and you're setting people up to fail. How am i supposed to properly prepare for an interview with < 24 hours? Banking an awful lot on me having proper preparation for the interview!
So....
Tonight i got home from work and there were to messages on the answering machine. Some head hunter from the 412 area code (Pennsylvania) called about a job. I wanted to punch her in her face when i heard the message. My name is Sean. It's NOT pronounced "SEEN". Got it? Why are you even bothering to call people when you can't pronounce their name? Not only is that annoying but i find that highly rude. I understand butchering last names. That's why you apologize for it and ask for proper pronunciation. It's called courtesy.
And so continues my stint of being "Professionally Unemployed"....
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Yet Another Head Hunter Bytes The Dust
I was recently contacted by yet another head hunter. Phone contact went well and i got the honor of going to meet the guy face to face. As i think back on this experience, i can't help but laugh. I laugh and shake my head at the same time.
The head hunter i met admitted right away that he knew next to nothing about computers and "is happy when it just works". Oh great. How am i supposed to tell this guy that i'm a viable candidate when he doesn't know wtf i'm even talking about?
I knew i was in for a world of pain just based on the job description. Here are some highlights:
IT Network Technician
Duties:
5. Provide user training, including e-mail, Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel, Company internal programs and general Windows 95/98.
7. Present professional image at all times.
8. Follow procedures and rules in company employee manual.
9. Communicate effectively, both written and verbal.
10. Demonstrate professional attitude when approaching work assignments.
11. Promote positive, self-motivated atmosphere, promoting a team environment.
12. Maintain helpful, friendly attitude while always keeping internal and external customer service in mind.
Specifications:
2. Possess high level of self-motivation.
Physical/Mental Requirements:
1. Prolonged sitting.
2. Extended periods of computer use and keyboarding.
4. Understanding vague and implicit instructions.
5. Emotional stability and personal maturity.
For the love of all that is holy, what kind of person are they looking for??? The head hunter and i are hoping that the windoze 95/98 is a mistake!!! What little technical stuff they have listed relates to desktop support and NOT networking. Why for he love of Xenu is this listed as an IT Network Technician? Imagine what a Cisco-guru would say if they saw this description!
So when i met the head hunter the other day, i pretty much destroyed him. Poor guy. He had no idea what hit him. After about 5 minutes of me asking for more specifics followed by "i don't know" i threw in the towel. I came out swinging and wound up squaring off with the equipment manager of the grade school kick ball team. It was bad. Poor guy looked like a deer in headlights when i got on a tangent about the pros and cons of open source solutions vs the standard M$ suite of headaches. At least he didn't pull out the generic 5 questions that they seem to ALWAYS ask. "How much experience do you have with TCP/IP?" On more than one occasion i've laughed out loud on the phone when they ask that one because of how vague it is and they have NEVER been able to elaborate.
After a couple minutes of him turning pale and having a blank expression on his face i brought the conversation back to something that he can understand. Soft skills they call them. The job description is essentially looking for someone who can spell IBM and can play nicely with others. Personal maturity... yeah count me out right there! ;) I eventually took pity on the guy because he normally staffs skilled tradesmen and similar people. I took the time to explain a few concepts with examples so he could begin to grasp what i was saying. For example, when i mentioned open source he said he had no idea. I mentioned Firefox and all of a sudden he now has something familiar to him that he can relate to. *Sigh*
When i walked out of the meeting/interview/whatever, i was grinning from ear to ear. I know he's going to get me an interview with this company. I know i'm going to go to the interview and come out swinging which is what i do best. I'm going to sell myself and not short change my knowledge. I'm going to get turned down for someone who is cheaper and less experienced because they're going to view me as someone who will want to reinvent the wheel. I'm comfortable with this. They are going to say they want experience but they really want someone they can mold into their backwards and half-assed ways. Thus i will continue my current run of being "professionally unemployed". :)
*Sigh* (again)
I guess you had to be there....
The head hunter i met admitted right away that he knew next to nothing about computers and "is happy when it just works". Oh great. How am i supposed to tell this guy that i'm a viable candidate when he doesn't know wtf i'm even talking about?
I knew i was in for a world of pain just based on the job description. Here are some highlights:
IT Network Technician
Duties:
5. Provide user training, including e-mail, Outlook, MS Word, MS Excel, Company internal programs and general Windows 95/98.
7. Present professional image at all times.
8. Follow procedures and rules in company employee manual.
9. Communicate effectively, both written and verbal.
10. Demonstrate professional attitude when approaching work assignments.
11. Promote positive, self-motivated atmosphere, promoting a team environment.
12. Maintain helpful, friendly attitude while always keeping internal and external customer service in mind.
Specifications:
2. Possess high level of self-motivation.
Physical/Mental Requirements:
1. Prolonged sitting.
2. Extended periods of computer use and keyboarding.
4. Understanding vague and implicit instructions.
5. Emotional stability and personal maturity.
For the love of all that is holy, what kind of person are they looking for??? The head hunter and i are hoping that the windoze 95/98 is a mistake!!! What little technical stuff they have listed relates to desktop support and NOT networking. Why for he love of Xenu is this listed as an IT Network Technician? Imagine what a Cisco-guru would say if they saw this description!
So when i met the head hunter the other day, i pretty much destroyed him. Poor guy. He had no idea what hit him. After about 5 minutes of me asking for more specifics followed by "i don't know" i threw in the towel. I came out swinging and wound up squaring off with the equipment manager of the grade school kick ball team. It was bad. Poor guy looked like a deer in headlights when i got on a tangent about the pros and cons of open source solutions vs the standard M$ suite of headaches. At least he didn't pull out the generic 5 questions that they seem to ALWAYS ask. "How much experience do you have with TCP/IP?" On more than one occasion i've laughed out loud on the phone when they ask that one because of how vague it is and they have NEVER been able to elaborate.
After a couple minutes of him turning pale and having a blank expression on his face i brought the conversation back to something that he can understand. Soft skills they call them. The job description is essentially looking for someone who can spell IBM and can play nicely with others. Personal maturity... yeah count me out right there! ;) I eventually took pity on the guy because he normally staffs skilled tradesmen and similar people. I took the time to explain a few concepts with examples so he could begin to grasp what i was saying. For example, when i mentioned open source he said he had no idea. I mentioned Firefox and all of a sudden he now has something familiar to him that he can relate to. *Sigh*
When i walked out of the meeting/interview/whatever, i was grinning from ear to ear. I know he's going to get me an interview with this company. I know i'm going to go to the interview and come out swinging which is what i do best. I'm going to sell myself and not short change my knowledge. I'm going to get turned down for someone who is cheaper and less experienced because they're going to view me as someone who will want to reinvent the wheel. I'm comfortable with this. They are going to say they want experience but they really want someone they can mold into their backwards and half-assed ways. Thus i will continue my current run of being "professionally unemployed". :)
*Sigh* (again)
I guess you had to be there....
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