Sarah Palin for Republican VP

Since the news of McCain's choosing Sarah Palin for his VP hit the wire, I've not been inundated with people wanting to know my thoughts. So for all those people who are not asking, I thought I'd write a post and let you know anyway. :-)

First, let me say that politics are very, very new to me. There are a lot of reasons for that which I'm not going to get into right now. But I've only recently begun to learn about politics and how our government works and in turn become interested in it. I haven't paid much attention to the presidential race up until the last couple of weeks because, well, it was a lot to take in and it was just a bit much. But now that we're down to two candidates, I think I can handle it.

I find it frustrating that I cannot completely agree with the politics of either party. Nor can I fully buy into the policies of either candidate. So I'm left with a "lesser of two evils" situation. My husband assures me that everyone is right there with me.

All of that being said, I think the choice of Sarah Palin was fabulous. A lot of people wanted Hillary in office. Obviously Sarah is not Hillary, but a lot of voters would rather vote for Sarah than no woman at all. A lot of voters are disgruntled that Barack did not pick Hillary as his VP. And now McCain has done something that nobody expected and invited not only a woman, but someone who is quite young to be his running mate. Shocking, yes? She can bring a fresh perspective and she is someone that many people can identify with; a hardworking wife and mother of several children, one of whom is in the Army and delpoying to Iraq. She too has a vested interest in the war and whatever she is lacking in foreign policy experience will be made up by her connection with her son who will be there. I look forward to her debate with Biden. I'm excited to see how she handles herself and what she plans to bring to the table.

Everyone has a different opinion, especially on a subject as volatile as this one. Tell me in the comments what yours is.

Recruiting Database Maintenance

Fair warning - This is a rant against both Recruiters and Candidates. Please bear with me on this.

As the Office Administrator (or the "She'll Do Anything You Need" person), one of my responsibilities is Database Maintenance. We switched to our current database about two years ago and this new one is my baby. When we switched over, I went through the entire database person by person looking for duplicates, merging them, formatting resumes properly, entering information in the correct places. Obviously I have an attachment to the database beyond most people here. Currently I try to keep tabs and make sure no more duplicates are added, I format resumes before we submit them to clients, make sure all the information has loaded in the correct spots, and ensure that each recruiter has entered the proper notes. This is not a bad job, nor that difficult, but it is extremely tedious. A lot of resumes come in every day and that's a lot of effort to keep up. Lately I've been covering some responsibilities that are not usually mine, so this has fallen by the wayside to an extent. I've been catching up over the last couple of days, and here are some thoughts I've had.

Candidates

• When I ask for a Word version of your resume, please do not send it in PDF. I know you have it in Word. Save the me the hassle of reformatting it or, worse, retyping it.
• Do not type your resume in a table format. I know that formatting resumes is frustrating. Microsoft Word has plenty of very nice, clean, professional formats that do not involve tables. Or text boxes.
• Clearly indicate which number is your home number and which is your cell phone. I would think this was self-explanatory, but evidently it is not.
• Do not send your resume from your work e-mail address. When I ask you for a personal e-mail address, do not give me your work e-mail address. It is bad business for everyone involved to correspond through your work e-mail.

Recruiters

Listen, I know that your time is money. I know you need to be on the phone with a candidate or a client to make a placement and a commission. However, it does not take long to do these things, so please just do them. If it does take you a long time to do it, you're doing it wrong. I will personally show you to do it right. Everyone will be happy that way.

• Enter all of the notes you need to enter. This is a company rule. This is not something I do to terrorize you. In fact, it makes your life easier when your notes are there. So just do it.
• Search for the name before you add it. I can almost guarantee it's already in there. You probably entered it six months ago when you had a similar search.
• Call me crazy (actually, don't), but since the candidate has e-mailed you their resume, I know that they do have an e-mail address. I also know that you have it. When I ask you for it, give it to me. We both know it needs to be in the database. Unless you don't want anybody to place your candidate. Which is fine with me.

I think that if we all work together, we can make the world a better place for our poor admins who are tearing their hair out to make your life easier. Of course, anybody who works with a database has a pet peeve. What's yours?

Disconnectivity

Wow, time flies when you're having fun. Or working a lot. Or don't have a laptop so you can't get online at home very much. And if all three of those things are going on, it's all over.

I'm still without laptop. I'm saving up to buy the laptop that I really want. It's a Sony Vaio with a built-in webcam and microphone. It's beautiful. :) And although it's still a budget machine, it's a bit more than the other ones available. Still, I really think it will be worth the wait. So until I get it (hopefully in October), my online presence will be sporadic at best.

I've been working overly much lately. Since I'm doing my job as well as handling responsibilities that would normally belong to my boss' assistant, I've been a little overwhelmed. In fact, some things are slipping, which is never good. We've recently landed a huge contract (yay!), which is great, but a LOT of extra work. I'm always glad to help, but it has caused some loooong days.

Every day I seem to come up with great blog ideas. Something will happen, or I'll read something, or I'll hear something, and I'll think, "I should blog about that!" And then life catches up with me and no blogging really happens. It's frustrating for me because I enjoy blogging. Whenever a significant period of time passes without me blogging, I feel as if I'm starting over again. And that really just frustrates me more.

All of this has led me to a feeling of disconnectivity (I'm trademarking that word) with my interwebs. I'm still reading all the blogs I love and commenting when I can, but I don't feel as though I'm really dedicating the time to blogging and online friends that I should. Hopefully I can stick it out just a little bit longer and then I'll be back on the wagon with my new laptop.

Toodles!

Why I Could Never Be A Recruiter

This may seem odd coming from someone who works in a recruiting firm. Don't get me wrong, it is fun to work here. One person's success is everyone's success. When one person makes money, the whole company benefits. Because we are such a small firm, it's easy to see everyone's connection to each other. The flip side is also true. When nobody is making money - nobody is making money. And there is where I falter. The great times are great. But I don't see myself handling the not so great times. The stress would be unbelievable. I can hardly imagine. I feel bad enough being an Administrative person, knowing that I don't actually bring in cash flow. So to be a recruiter must be that much more difficult. Our firm specialized in homebuilding. Now that homebuilding has slowed down, we're branching out, sort of coasting until we figure out the next big thing. The tension in the office is palpable. We've downsized due to people leaving. Everyone wants to make money, and nobody is. Candidates don't have jobs and they are stressed out, constantly calling recruiters. Recruiters have no jobs for these candidates and all people involved are becoming more and more stressed out. No way I could handle it! Of course this is still a great place to work, no matter how things are going.

The Sony PSP

... is awesome!! I am sitting in the parking lot of the college and I'm writing a blog post while I wait. This is so awesome. My laptop is on the fritz again so my new love is my PSP. Look for more posts this way. Now if I can get Twitter to work on here....