Job Fairs - a public relations stunt

I took a friend to a job fair this week to support the job search.

What a disheartening event!

This job fair was actually in Loudon County, Virginia. What does that mean? It means that this job fair was held in one of the wealthiest counties in the nation. Ok, well, at least it was a year or two ago. So, I found the experience quite shocking and feel for the rest of the country.

The publicity promised to have a lot of corporations, government contractors (more applicable names may be "beltway bandits" or "private" sector), and government agencies. As publicized, they were all there.

We arrived over an hour early and so we were about 30th and 31st in line respectively. We quickly made friends with the couple of people in front and in back of us. One woman was a substitute teacher looking for a full-time teaching job in Loudon County. She's been subbing for two years. The other was a fairly high level contracts type person with great interpersonal skills and professional appearance. She's been out of work four months. I was the only person in the immediate surroundings that 1.) Has a job and 2.) Has a stable job.

The discussion over the hour of wait was both realistic and funny. It seemed to give everyone an extra boost of confidence to have the moral support of "the line." I even had hopes of running into a better opportunity as the doors finally opened and everyone swarmed in with resumes, sweaty palms, empty pocket books and high hopes.

All I can say is that I really feel for everyone out there looking. And, a word of advice - don't bother with the job fairs!

Each and every booth resulted in the same interaction. Something like this:

"Hi, my name is ..."

"Hi, .... how are you?"

"Good, how are you?"

"Good, I am interested in ... do you have any opportunities in these areas?"

"We don't" or "Yes, here is one. If you go to our website and apply ...."


Really? You are going to have all of these people dress up, copy off resumes, drive out here, stand in line (and rain), trigger anxiety attacks talking to table after table and you are going to tell them to "go online and apply" for positions that they have either already seen or will see on the Internet?

The people showing up to this gathering weren't idiots. They all looked professional and experienced. Some of them appeared to be CEO material. Most of them work on the corridor a few miles away dubbed "Silicon Valley East" which means these people can either create your resume database or hack it. Or, manipulate the Internet to give you bad publicity. Regardless, it was obvious that they had taken time to look good, pump themselves up (or get a pep talk from a friend) and walk into the masses hoping to somehow stand apart from the throng.

I even felt demoralized as I targeted a few booths to keep myself occupied just in case my dream job somehow existed nestled between the CIA and Homeland Security booth. Yeh, that didn't happen. Or, they just didn't "confirm or deny" it existed.

I walked outside after just one hour and saw the line meandering around the building and to the back of the parking lot. It did something to me. I wanted to cry, but even more I wanted to go give a piece of my mind to someone in charge. All the while, more and more cars were driving up. I wanted to get on a speaker phone and tell the people not to bother and to just go home, put on their pajamas and search the web. Better spend the time there and at networking events than partake of a job fair.

I have some ideas of how to improve this situation. I'm not going to put them here, but the wheels are turning and a more solutions based idea may be emerging from my head soon. No more wasting time of professional people that are already facing tough times.

And, by the way, it won't involve sending the intern or the lowest paid entry level employee to man the booth. I actually inquired about something I saw and was told to go talk to someone in another line. I asked, "Does this person you are sending me to have hiring authority?" They did not. So, I turned around and went elsewhere.

All in all, I'm glad I went. There is something different that happens to you when you are actually standing there and not watching this take place on tv. You see faces. You talk to those faces and they become people. You run into those people every few minutes during the event and share feelings. People turn into friends. Friends care about friends.

Times are tough. I'm feeling the impact in my life and doing my best to pay my bills, live simply, help others in need and try to express daily gratitude that I do have a job.

Let's stop the public relation stunts marketed as "job fairs" and do something that really connects talent to openings. We do want positive outcomes, don't we? Right now it's just discouraging the jobless and creating more traffic jams in the DC area (though the later is less important).

I'm going to be keeping my eye out for a few more people...and perhaps created a new kind of fair of my own. But, I'll make sure to keep my day job.

Regardless of your opinion (or mine)

Regardless of any of our thoughts...

...last night was a significant event for the world. It was the culmination of a tough campaign season for all candidates in a historical election. What a wonderful thing to have so many different people representing who can run for president! (Past post on this topic - Hilary)

Today I received a text message from a friend in DC. She wanted to know if we had "run out of posts?" I didn't know what a "post"was, but wondered why someone would be looking for one a day AFTER the election when people should be pulling posts out of the ground and throwing their election signs out. Ha.

She actually wanted to have a Washington Post and all of them in DC were sold out. I quickly went across campus and saw all newspaper stands sold out. Darn it! Why didn't I think of this before? Of course you have to save the newspaper on a day like today! If you dont remember, don't worry - magazines will be great to collect in the next few weeks. Even though I'm almost all "electronic" at this point, there is still something about keeping that old newspaper from the day something important happened.

On another level this next president is felt to be the embodiment of progress for all black (African-American, African, etc.) people that feel that equality had not yet quite been served in our United States of America. And, it's just not Blacks, but other races as well. To see people overflow with emotion on the news last night was powerful. But, even more meaningful to me was talking with friends closer to home who, as African-Americans, felt an official acceptance flowing into their hearts that was evident by votes cast by millions of Americans. In other words, it was action and not just words. These same friends are extremely well educated in history, literature and the political movements surrounding those rights that most of us hold close to our hearts AND have come to accept as common place. These same friends also expect Barack to be treated the same as any other President, but at the same time be an example and "raise the bar" in performing the job well. He does have quite the task to undertake, but luckily...his aren't the only shoulders that bear the burden.

At the global level, though the "World is Flat," the folks on the planet haven't been too happy with the United States over the past few years. In many countries people are celebrating. In fact, one of my friends said he received calls throughout the night from friends and family around the world that were overjoyed that America was showing that they do want change, that they do accept different types of people and that we might start working together instead of creating more wars. Even a Muslim commented, in disbelief, that he couldn't believe America actually elected someone with the middle name of Hussein. This kind of response tells a lot. A lot of people hate us far more than the news lets us know. However, the events of last night allowed some of that hate to dispense a little and opened the door of possibilities.

I was sitting in our corporate library today when a librarian from Southeast Asia told me that she had only knocked on doors for one day and wished she could have done more because this was such an important moment for her people. And, she is Asian. She basically bore her testimony of the ability to vote, to support a person that she could identify with, etc." She said she got "goose-bump" just talking about it and ...I admit...I did too when she opened her heart to me in that moment.

I'm glad we are at this place. More Americans than ever voted. Congratulations to us! Even if our candidate didn't win, and even if our vote didn't actually count (yes, both Republicans and Democrats have an equal amount of bad eggs anxious to skew elections) , most of us were able to walk up to the polls without fear of death, rape, flogging or intimidation. In fact, most of us probably drove a nice car to the voter registration location. Most of us probably went back home or to work with a little sticker proving that we could vote and had embraced the opportunity. We participated in something that was bigger than ourselves. Something that we get to do every four years and sometimes more. We participate in elections that most will never experience in their lifetimes.

As far as the actual politics of all of this history making, who knows what will happen. Candidates at this level rarely deliver what they promise. Most of the time not even close. Most of them know, or quickly find out, that Washington, DC doesn't quite say "yes sir" to the President most of the time. Not that anyone cares, but the President doesn't get very high security clearances and doesn't actually know what goes on "behind the scenes," or at least certain scenes. So, really his/her influence can go only so far ...unless of course they try to pull a George. (Full disclosure - I voted for George - what was I thinking?)

But, let me not go negative on you here. Oh, but just one more negative - why did all the candidates attack DC and say they were going to overhaul it? Um, candidates, that's weird. Would you walk into any other job interview and knock the team, knock the location of the office and tell everyone that you were going to clean house and take names? We've hired these people at my work before and they were swiftly led toward, and out of, the door. C'mon, saying you are going to completely overhaul Washington shows a blatant mis-understanding, or denial, of what exists. Sure, it's politics, but....And, who likes new people coming into any office acting like no one has done any work before they appeared? Alas, most of us won't agree with most of what goes on in DC, but I do know for a fact that these political people work hard (to the point of regular 15-16 hour days and sleeping with their Crackberrys) and most do have the desire above and beyond the rest of us to make America a better place. They spend their lives proving it. Many of them make terribly low salaries to do so. Of course, I'm not talking about Senators here.

I don't know if the best man won. I would venture to say that he, and the other candidates, aren't half as bad as we think in some ways and far worse than any of us can imagine in others. There are plenty of sheep and wolves costumes available in politics. Unfortunately, some of the same people wear different costumes depending upon the date/time/location of the party. In my mind, none of the options are particularly good, but then again it's kind of subjective even for people that claim that they have researched all the issues and are unbiased. We are all biased. Our hearts and minds are fully, or not, engaged in different issues at different times. We change opinions about spouses, friends and other close people in our lives even if none of the facts have changed. Most of the time I can tell exactly what party someone is voting for by their reaction to information. Most of the time I can tell which news station they think is more credible by the arguments stated and refused. Unfortunately, we are all drawing our opinions from people that are paid to represent ideas in certain ways ...even if they started out with the best of intentions. Sometimes we stick to our firmly held political beliefs even if, at a later date, the true facts are revealed.

Other thoughts:

• The Man Upstairs - as far as I have been taught, God does not claim a political party and sometimes we act as if this is so. Goodness! There is a reason that we are all allowed to go into a private place and make a personal decision. Even among Mormons (which I am) we are free to choose. Our leaders claim to vote for various parties and encourage us to support the person we think is best. I've heard comments on all sides make accusations in this department. Let's keep some of Ceasar's stuff separate here...

Final Comment

Regardless of all of this overflow of electron verbiage (my writing), the fact is that Barack Hussein Obama is now the 44th President of the United States and Senator John McCain is a Senator...that gave an eloquent speech when he conceded his loss and bowed out gracefully.

So, let us all move forward together and take some steps, as Americans, toward cleaning up this mortgage mess, world opinions, our 401ks, job losses, and global warming (OK, i just threw that in there, but don't get me started on that one...even though VA has been in the 70s a lot lately...hmmm).

P.S. Because I don't want to end on global warming, CNN wins the award for having the best electronic map interfaces, the best map choreographer (John King) and the best use of a holographic guy in an interview. Seriously, I watched the coverage flipping back and forth between 10 channels and this one was good. Charles Gibson needs a little help with his map skills, but I'm sure they will put that in his upcoming performance plan. As a technology lover...this was the most fun of the evening for me.

Skeptical - and right

So, last night I heard a story on the news about a girl that said she was robbed and the person etched a big "B" on her face because she was a McCain supporter. At first I was shocked and then the wheels started to turn. I called my boyfriend up and told him that I thought the story was a farce. I mean, when do you hear of someone being beaten up, having their purse stolen and then...having a perfectly carved letter on their face? If they (the robber)even bothered, it would be all jagged and shaky because they are, of course, going to be half dangerous and half scared of being caught.

I just went on to CNN just now and low and behold - it was a lie.

http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/cnn-news/17789356/detail.html

Just another example of the weirdness that politics brings out in people.

Go Vote regardless!

Leadership and lack thereof

Some thoughts I emailed to myself last week that I figured I'd post to my blog.

On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 12:16 PM, wrote:

With the upcoming election I've been doing a lot of thinking about leadership. Many of the candidates go out of their way to sound down to earth like the gal/guy next store. Apparently, this is what we Americans want - someone just like us. Or is it?

Does misery love company? Do we despise those that are more successful than ourselves? Do we want to relate on every level to those that lead us? That lead the world?

I'm not so sure I want a leader just like me. In fact, I know I don't.

I eat too much, don't sweep the floor ever, get anxiety attacks over little things, ignore phone calls, spend too much money, neglect to do my hair on most days and often blow people off that I perceive as a waste of my time. I'm also addicted to cookies and milk.

I have no intentions of running for the job as president of the United States. I know how hard it is to navigate politics in the federal government. I speak from very personal and first hand experience. I have no desire to be a part of it. It turns smart people into drones or into highly ticked off people that the drones perceive as irrational. Either way, through my experiences I'm smart enough to know that I'm not qualified for the job as president and that the job is a lot different than the news media portrays. Kind of like the court system - it has nothing to do with morals or principles. It's pure politics, relationships and precedent. One must be a person that is capable of maneuvering these waters.

We need a leader. Leaders should be different than the following crowd. In my opinion, which I am allowed to state in my personal blog, I think leaders should be far more successful than the common person. They should be superior in all aspects that they have control over (height, race, gender and attractiveness don't count) as a result of their efforts to become a person.

I expect them to have more homes than me and more in their bank account. I expect them to have earned it in honest ways or successfully held on to family wealth and increase it (parable of the talents). I want them to have a better grasp of history than myself. They need to have a strategic outlook on the world and be open to advice from smart people that are expert in stock market analysis, banking, agriculture, terrorism, and customer relationship management. I want them to be able to operate on the world stage amongst different cultures and people that think completely differently than we do about human rights and decency. As a leader, I expect them to make decisions based upon advice from trusted and smart people, but know when to follow their gut...and when their gut isn't telling them the right information.

I want a leader that has experienced hardship and pain, but also knows extremely success. Some of this knowledge can be vicarious and other through personal experience. I want someone that can put first things first and is an exemplary standard of doing so. The same person that can keep first things first also seems to know when to make changes to the second, third and fourth priorities. After all, those are up to a little more interpretation than whatever is first.

There are so many mediocre people in the world - at work, in politics, on the news, on MTV and walking around town. Some don't want to be mediocre deep down, but become so through constant exposure to mediocrity. By mere fact we live on planet earth, we can't really get away from our exposure to the junk, but we can limit our access. It is easy to fall into the trap of complacency and mediocrity.

On the flip side, don't we all know someone that we truly look up to? Someone that always seems to be trustworthy, wise, empathetic, and consistent. A person that is an example of "excellence." These are those people that we proudly follow and want to represent us in difficult situations or when the tough choice has to be made. They remain calm and respectable despite the challenges, and they "rally the troops" when the troops are down (troops in the broad sense - child, team, congregation, class, organization, etc.). We somehow believe and trust them because they have mastered areas of their lives and brains that the rest of us haven't quite conquered.

These people do exist. We don't happen to have anyone that fits this particular leadership type running for president or vice-president right now. In that case, we still can pick the one that will surround themselves with the best team to accomplish this task. I'm not sure who that is right now and I may not decide until I go in to vote.

Either way, I can strive to be a standard of excellence in my personal life. I can be a leader in my own little bubble of world. After all, that is really the only place to make a true difference. For all we know, the vote is already rigged (call me a conspiracy theorist if you'd like, but I have seen the beltway politics at work for a while and it would be no surprise to hear this happened...the information will probably be unclassified twenty years from now).

And this, my friends, is as close as I will get to a political rant. Believe me, I am doing more ranting offline and I love the Tina Fey impersonations.

Kudos to Hilary Clinton

Actually, I can't believe I'm writing this entry, but some things must be acknowledged.

I received this automatic email from CNN on Saturday:

-- Hilary Clinton suspends campaign, endorses Barack Obama for president

I've not been a Hilary fan, but can anyone deny that this woman can fight, endure, debate, defend, etc. with the best of them? She really is quite the contender!

It is also refreshing that we are in a point in time where black, white, women, men, Hispanic, Mormon, war hero, UFO believer, evangelical, old, young, etc. can all run for president. Granted, some of these (race, gender, age) are things that we have no control over. In fact, I've decided that I should select someone to vote based upon things they choose for themselves and not what they are/are not born with, but even so it is great that this barrier has either been overcome or is in process.

So, even though I'm more likely than most people I know to vote Republican, kudos to Hilary for a fight well fought and the will to keep going even when I would talk to the tv and tell her to give it up. Maybe I should stop listening to the naysayers in my life and take some advice from her.

Another "It's been a day and it's not over yet" entries

Well, I'm doing that thing that I always thought amusing in grad school - quoting oneself in another document. It seemed like a lot of experts started doing that perhaps to further solidify belief in their own unique idea. But, I did write a blog entry a while ago about a bad day - http://rebeckeronline.blogspot.com/2008/01/one-of-those-days-and-its-not-over-yet.html and I have had another bad day. Or, shall we say, another bad week.

Tomorrow I become a fully vested employee at my job and so I'm being all the more open with my feelings about it. The past year I've really spent a lot of time and effort in gathering all of the past and current project information and creating a taxonomy with surrounding processes for a content management system, a database that will feed information to another massive database and a project request website. All of these things basically put my entire job into an electronic, paperless set of systems that are easy to maintain while also providing tons of information to all of these people that want to have data about every little thing all the time.


I've tried to do what is best for all the users of the systems and more importantly - provide realistic solutions that people can learn quickly.


Unfortunately, what trumps this is politics and turf. So, now instead of gratitude for all the work that has gone into taking a bunch of information/documentation/etc. from multiple servers, emails and "My Docs" folders, I'm getting major push back for taking initiative, utilizing resources effectively, and completing this over a span of 200-300 hours with little complaint. My new boss and my old boss are starting to "protect their territory" and instead of enabling some of us to move forward and do what people are hired to do (work smart, contribute, innovate, etc.) they are pushing back on anything that looks like a solution. It is frustrating and most importantly - discouraging. I had to take a walk after my last meeting today because the tears should not be seen in the building, but must be shed.


I've been dealing with push back for a few weeks. Most of the time, I move forward regardless because I do feel like what I am doing is right for the organization and for those that I work with, but there are these moments where the inner strength has exhausted and the will to continue with the task just isn't there. It doesn't help that it is raining and dreary outside. I'm sure that adds to the drama. However, I'm not the only person experiencing this and so it has impact on entire teams of people.


I will make sure to complete everything possible before I leave. I will make sure the status of every project is documented, that there is a "job description" tutorial for the next person, and that there is adequate information for the next person to come in and manage all of the people, politics and projects that are involved in this program. But, there comes a time when the learning experience is complete and it's time to move on. I think my time has come.