The Next Dark Age
We're in it Now
Animal Rescue Site Contest
The Animal Rescue Site is running its Vote for Your Favorite Shelter thing again. Best Friends Animal Sanctuary always wins, but the top prizes aren’t awarded to the same shelter more than once a year, so we might have a shot at a state prize.
Please visit, click on the Shelter Challenge and look for A Refuge for Saving the Wildlife in Illinois. Vote early – vote often (once a day is the rule)!
Stupid Eco Friendly Stuff
Dear Aquafina:
Applications
Not that you’ve asked for my job hunting advice, but Joy and I were talking about some résumés this afternoon and I feel the need to get up on a soap box. My standard disclaimer applies – HR people are all different and we do not make hiring decisions, anyway. We are just the gatekeepers. Feel free to try and go around us. I don’t care.
First. Cover letters are not optional. Some job post web sites have a box to check if the hiring employer is requiring them and I do not check the box. Because I am judging applicants based on whether they bother to do so without being told.
Second, there are all of these new-fangled ways that the experts are giving people to “brand” themselves. Things like listing all of your accomplishments together – the actual titles and employers and lengths of service are secondary – or less. Employers only care about what you can do, not where you did it. Some are even saying not to add dates at all.
I think that is garbage.
Particularly when we have to sort through piles of applications, if the thing that differentiates you is that I have to hunt for the information I want like “is this person a job hopper” and “is there a pattern of progressively responsible positions” – that is not in your favor. If you get too creative, it makes me think you are trying to hide something. Oh, and trying to hide your age is silly. First, because I don’t care how old you are and second, it also tends to hide your experience.
The other new résumé thing is sections on “objectives” and “summaries”. I have never read one single “objective” section that made me want to hire a candidate, but I have read many that made me dismiss them. On the “summary” I can go either way. If you think it adds something, by all means include it. But if you use it to broadcast “excellent communications skills” or to declare yourself a ”top notch professional”, I think it is a waste of space on the page.
Bottom line: don’t get cute on the résumé. Differentiate yourself in the cover letter. I have said before that the best cover letter I have ever seen included a list of the job requirements and then pointed to how the candidate had that experience. She got an interview.
(stepping down now)
I Think I am Over It.
Last semester, I had stockpiled a bunch of episodes of a bunch of TV shows. When I looked at the full batch, it was pretty intimidating. I watched the last half hour of the end of Grey’s Anatomy and deleted the rest of the season. When it started up again, I thought I might watch it on the weekend. Then I decided it could wait until the quarter break between classes. Then I decided I would just read it on Television Without Pity.Counting Blessings
So I decided that my obligation just went from giving the Red Cross money to Giving the Red Cross Money and Posting about it on the Internet so that Maybe Other People Will Give Them Money, Too. Here is the link to donate to the Disaster Relief Fund.
Dental Care
This is a pretty good article on the state of dental insurance, particularly as an employee benefit. It talks about all of the things that I tell my people, including:
- Dental insurance does not work the same way as health insurance. You are going to pay more out of pocket for treatment.
- Employers place a much lower priority on stellar dental coverage because they are worried about how to maintain the health insurance.
- This is particularly true regarding orthodontics. At my office, the philosophy is that orthodontics are something you can plan for save money ahead of time. We would rather spend the benefits dollars on the health insurance program.
Another thing I say all the time is that dentists are not beholden to the insurance companies the same way that doctors are. If a doctor tells BCBS of Illinois where it can stick its “negotiated fees”, she might as well leave the state. A dentist can get away with it. So I will say again:
Dental insurance is not the same as health insurance. But here was something that I didn’t know:
“Although dental insurance premiums have remained relatively steady over the last decade, especially when compared to skyrocketing medical-insurance premiums, between 1998 and 2008 the increase in the cost of dental services exceeded that of medical care and far exceeded the overall rate of inflation.”
I wonder if that statistic will outlast the recession.
Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.com Juggernaut, by James Marcus
Book 37Marcus talks about how Amazon was staffed with an editorial department filled with bookworms and writers, charged with writing what he calls the “haiku” of book reviews. The cool thing was that they were not told to make it all positive, so as to sell more books. They wrote what they thought. Over the five years that he worked there, editors were slowly replaced with customer reviews and auto recommendations. Finally, Marcus took his stock options and ran.
And speaking of those stock options..there is some mention of the ride of the “accidental millionaires”, cashing in the shares and buying new cars. Until one day it all crashed.
Of course, we all know that Amazon survived. And it seems that James Marcus grew up to be a real writer.
Noodles and Mushrooms
Did CBS Listen to Peyton Manning’s Commercials?
I’ve been doing my homework with the CBS early game on the TV on mute. An hour ago, it was the third quarter of the Eagles game. Then, at some point, it switched to the Titans and the Jets. I can see from the ticker that the Eagles game is still on and they are winning by a lot. Wait..Direct TV says that I should be watching the Eagles. The Jets are only up by 7. There would not be much local interest in either game.
Did CBS make a spontaneous switch, mid-game to the more interesting event? That would be new. And kinda cool.
I am not this nice.
If you haven’t heard the story, the short version is this:
A lady went in for IVF. An embryo that she had previously frozen was implanted and she became pregnant. Then she found out that the embryo actually belonged to another couple. The clinic made a mistake.
The lady, Carolyn Savage, carried the baby, gave birth on Thursday and delivered him to his natural parents. No fights, no lawsuits. No discussions of abortion or custody.
I saw the story below on the Today Show this morning. The legal and moral issues are dumbfounding, but it is so nice to see someone do the (incredibly) magnanimous thing first and worry about suing the clinic later.
The Next Dark Age 