Are You Afraid to Keep Your Job?

Last Friday was a really good day.  I did a lot of work and did some hiring and some training.  I got a lot done which I'm really happy about.  It is cutting into my job search but at least I'm beginning to get all of the goals I need to get done.

I'm still having a problem with my trainee following up on all the on boarding she needs to do.  But maybe she's too busy or maybe I'm giving her too much work.  I'm not sure.  I'm going to have to talk to her.

I have Saturday off.  Sunday early morning, I worked at a health food store.  Or rather one of those vitamin health stores.  It was really nice.  I'd never worked at one of those before and it's my kind of place to work.  Health is really important to me.

When I drove the manager of the job back, we have conversations back and forth.  He came up with an interesting question to me.  We had talked about one of the managers who quit on Saturday suddenly.  He was a manager who our boss was really pushing for because he had a good rapport with people and customers.  I don't know what happened but I got a text saying that this manager quit.  Unfortunately, the manager I was with, was very jealous about the attention this other manager had.  He really took it to heart, feeling like this other manager was being favored by all the other managers.  When this manager heard that the other one quit, I'm sure he felt very vindicated as if everything turned out right for him.  Personally, it doesn't matter to me.  All that matters is that he has a job still and that he does his work, and that he does his work so that our customers and our employees are happy with him.

So one of the questions he asked me or the comment he made was that my trainee was saying something to the effect that she likes the hiring managing responsibility more than a manager.  Now, I've never heard back from her and to me, she's the kind of person that will just do anything you ask her.  This is the kind of person who proves herself by taking on any responsibility.  Whether or not she said that, I don't know.  But I don't care.

I'm the kind of person who thinks that if you are after my job, I shouldn't be afraid of you. I should be the kind of person who feels that training you to take my job would be a great skill that I have.  I don't think I've ever been afraid of someone taking my job.  Even in this economy, I can prove myself.  And if I can train people to do my exact job, that means a person to be cross trained to do anything else.  Besides, I'm looking for another job anyways.  It would be more advantageous to the company to be able to train someone to do my work well enough so when it is time for me to leave, I will leave them without a problem.

I love training.  I love helping people.  So I should not fear anybody wanting to do my job.  Eventually one day I'll be too old to do my job.  Somebody's going to have to learn how to do it.

Today, I spent a few hours at the employment development Department in our area.  I was under the impression that all that was going to do was do interviews.  I was ready for that.  I was not aware that I was going to do a whole presentation and then only have three hours to interview about 20 people.  I got through all the people, which I didn't think was 20 people.  I think it was more like 12 or 15.  But my presentation was in front of about 50 people.  So I had to think fast on my feet.  I do presentations every day for work so wasn't a big deal to stand in front of the people.  I just felt that I wasn't prepared and that I could've done a better job with a slideshow presentation or something like that.

It was enough for people who wanted to get a job.  The nice thing about today was that there were more people who were my age than the younger people.  Not that that's a problem, but these days people influence others to say what's on their mind.  There are no reservations about hurting another person, or sounding stupid by condemning others.

I don't mind people sharing their opinions but just as I have an opinion about something so does everyone else.  And people should not be condemning people for their opinions.  It bothers me when anything I say can be taken the wrong way.  It does and it has.

I have a very busy week and a lot of hiring and training to do this week.

Dream Job part 2

I missed writing yesterday because of the holidays.

I forgot that there was one more job that I have thought about when I was younger.  I wanted to work with animals.  It is a weird idea because I've never had pets but I always liked studying them.  I always checked out books from the library about animals.  There was something about learning about them, the classifications, and the families of animals that really intrigued me.  I almost thought about being a zoologist but then the idea that I would have to cut open animals to understand their bodily forms and functions turned me off.  I did dissect a frog when I was in fifth grade.  It wasn't a big deal but it wasn't my favorite thing to do.  I still remember the smell of formaldehyde.  It was gross; whatever the smell of dead frogs and whatever else was mixed in there to keep it fresh.

I think that's it with dream jobs.

I think I was going to talk about superheroes.  Yeah, if I were to say what superpower I would have or want it would be flying or getting one place to another.  I think that's why I would prefer magical powers then superhero powers.

I've always been very intrigued by stories of people who have magical powers.  I do like superheroes.  I think it's cool to have people rely on you to save the day or that you help people out.  It's funny that I would think that because I've never thought about being a law enforcer or a fireman or a doctor.  Those are the things that we usually think about when we think about heroes in real life; people who would give up their lives to save others.  This also includes the people who serve their countries.  Again, not a job I would want to do.  But if I had to choose between all of those jobs, I would rather serve my country as a service person than any of the other ones.

So enough about wanting the dream job and superpowers and magical powers.

I spent most of December 24 filling out applications.  Nowadays, it takes a long time to get every word in your resume to reflect what people are looking for.  Especially when companies use applicant tracking systems to pull special words out, I really tried to make sure that my resume and cover letter cover all of the requirements of skills that the company wants.  It's not an easy job and it takes a long time especially if you want your letters to sound great.

As I was revamping my letters and resumes, I thought that I finally got an eye-catching cover letter.  I still have a problem with length because I'm trying to put everything there that recruiters may want, which may not be spotlighted in my resume, but I think it sounds a lot better than it used to.  It's really a letter for the company saying here I am and here's what I can do for you and his my experience.  It's something that I learned in my class earlier this month.  I feel a lot better about that.

But still, it takes a long time to look at what the company wants, put it in your resume, and make sure you have those qualifications.  I was only able to finish may be 4 or five resumes and letters for that evening.  By either this morning or yesterday, I received a response to one of them.  Of course, it was a letter of rejection.  I was feeling pretty low.  After I looked at it again, I realized that it was an automated letter because it did not reflect my gender.  I was not very happy with the company's way of returning the rejection.  Maybe it's one of those companies I don't want to work for.  I just thought it was really quick for them to refuse or deny my application.  Maybe the application was too late or maybe the job opening had close and they found someone.  That's great.  But I still felt that rejection especially since yesterday was Christmas.

The only thing I really wanted for Christmas was a full-time job.  I was texting a very close friend and he asked me what I got for Christmas.  I said the only thing I wanted was a full-time job.  It's not something I can wait for Santa to get me.  I have to try my best, no I have to try better than my best to make my letters and resume look great and standout among hundreds of applications.  It's not an easy job.  I noticed that it's not an easy job for the hiring managers either.

I forgot the one more thing I learned again.  Again, companies or career building blogs and websites are saying that you really need a website.  So I might put together an inexpensive website or free website for work.  I have no idea what they put on there because I haven't really done anything that I can put online.  But I promise that if I have a new job I will definitely do that.  And I promised myself that I will do better with my connections.  That's the part of New Year's resolutions but I'll get to that when New Year comes.

Dream Job?

During my in a job search, I've been thinking about what I really want to do.  Or maybe what I want to do after I get my graduate degree.

The experts and specialists have been saying that certain technology experience is important if you want to grow with the jobs coming in the future.

Right now, I want to work with a company that will give me more experience in what I know how to do.  I'm looking for more recruiting experience and more administrative or executive assisting experience.

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to get my Masters degree in next year.  I thought about studying  business again, but maybe I need to have some more technical skills.  Math is an option because it can lead me towards more technical experience.

I thought about the obscure question, "What would you do if you didn't have to worry about what people thought of you, about cost of education, and just go out there and do it," or something like that.  I have a few ideas that I hadn't thought about before.  My interests have changed and my desires change.  I could start with what I wanted to be when I grew up.

1. Dancer

I grew up very physically although I wasn't slim and lithe.  I was very flexible.  I still am, but in a different way.  I really never thought of being a dancer professionally until I was interested in music.  The idea was more of an entertainer including dancing, playing instruments, and choreography.  I do wish I had really followed that dream more fully, even if it was a side job.  Every time I see an instructor that I have worked with, they seem to have great joy in what they do.  In fact, I was inspired by one of my college teachers who taught all types of dances.  I never thought that my dance skills were so vast that I could teach other people.  I have taught choreography and I have taught dances to other people.  And I have performed professionally.

2. Writer

I started writing, forced by my mother when I was 8 years old.  It was journal writing and it was important,  but it wasn't very interesting.  Since then, I have written stories, now called fan fiction.  I still write and blog my own experiences and thoughts.  I had never thought of being a published writer.  I have tons of friends who wanted to become a published writer.  It was never a goal that I really thought of doing myself.  But I think that my stories and my opinions could be something to help others.

Someone wanted to write my biography when I came back from Brazil.  I didn't think my life was that interesting at that time.  I think it is a lot more interesting now.

Eventually, I think I do want to write something to be published.  Definitely not a novel, though.  I liked reading self help books and books that really make you think.  I think I want to write one with my own experience. 

3. Chef

I'm not really into cooking but I'd love to spend the day trying out recipes and sharing recipes with other people.  My secret to good health is when you cook your own food, you really don't eat as much as you do when someone else cooks your food.  At least, that's how it works with me.  When I cook my own food, I eat  sensibly.

But I have this desire to collect recipes so that I can use them in the near future.  I belong to over 20 or 30 cooking blogs.  I find recipes fun and in a way, a necessity.  We have to eat.  I'm definitely not known for my cooking, but when I cook, I do really good job.

4. Professional organizer

I love to organize.  I'm still thinking about doing that as a side job because I have such a great passion for it.  One of my favorite shows on TV is called Neat.  I get so many ideas on how to organize one's life.  I think organization is a critical part of anybody's and any business' life. 

For one of my projects in college, we had to come up with our own business and write a complete business project.  I really didn't know what I wanted to do, but when I completed the assignment including customer relations, suppliers, etc., I was kind of excited.  And so was my instructor.  He really enjoyed my work in writing a business project.  The project I chose was a professional organizing company that builds its own organizing tools and products that are eco-friendly, easy-to-use, and affordable.  Of course, it is a dream but who knows, maybe someone is coming up with that idea.

If someone is coming up with this idea, I would love to work with you.  I have a lot of great ideas.

5. Musical Entertainer

Hey, with my dance experience and my love for music, and some musical background and studies, it was only obvious to me to have a desire to pursue such a background.  At times, I still think that it's possible to maybe become a song writer.  I have tons of ideas that pop in my head and I record them.  I know that it's not an easy market to get into but with the Internet, music can be heard by anyone and everybody.  It probably won't get to the ears of the big music companies but then again a lot of musicians are self publishers.  With access to such a large market, anybody can hear your music.

6. Entrepreneur

I have a few ideas about new products.  As I've been looking into different companies and see what they have to offer in a job, I see that it's very possible that there are some ideas that I have might be able to make out there.  I don't want to put those ideas out because someone might take them or think that I've stolen the ideas.

7. Web designer

I love working online.  I used to have my own website and I loved updating it.  It was the most fun I had creating, and I love to be creative.  The website wasn't as fancy as other companies or other websites.  The other area I need to work on is being able to design something new.  Although I still have a website per se, I do have this blog and other blogs and other areas of media that I do update.  That is not the same.  One of the nice things about having your own website is that everything is centralized.  It was easy to stay because everything was right there.  This also makes sense for customers where they can find one place for everything.

8. Filmmaker

I like telling stories and I like visuals.  It was only when I realized that those two could come together in my life, that I thought about pursuing filmmaking or actually a film editing.  I took a class in community college between college classes in filmmaking.  I loved the class.  I wanted to take more but I couldn't afford it.  I still want to study more about filmmaking and presenting a story visually to people.  I have a ton of ideas of what I want to do, from short stories and documentaries to fictional stories.  I don't think I'll ever win an award for them but if I can just tell them and share them, I think it will do me good.

I also have this desire to make music videos.  I listen to music, think about the story, and play those pictures in my mind.  There have been many videos I've watched and thought to myself, I could have done a better job.  

9. Talk show host

This comes with a story.  At my job, I drive van pools for our crew members.  I was driving a crew back to our office after a job.  I was sitting and listening to one of these young crew members talk about the things they watch on TV like judge this or judge that, or these talk shows that have a lot of fights.  The young crew member asked me if I ever watch those kinds of shows.  I replied that I do not, I don't waste my time.  The crew member kind of mock me for not watching what I consider junk.

The idea came after that to bring a show that doesn't rely on gossip or trash.  I was thinking more of an intelligence conversation with highly educated people.  Not one of those PBS or 60 minutes type of shows where older people talk about everything else or talk in this type of environment.  Something fun and relative.  I thought about  intelligent people talking about things that matter whether you're married, single, have kids, don't have kids, on your own, with people, etc.

One of the things that bugs me about one of the new talk shows is that every time they introduce a guest, the hosts would say something to the effect that so-and-so is an actor and the mother of three, or a father of two, or a grandmother of that.  While I was watching the show, I felt excluded.  I felt that the show was not speaking to me.  If I felt that way, then other people must've felt that way.  It's still a successful show but I have other ideas to be more inclusive and less intrusive.  I'm not talking any more about these ideas but I think that this is something that could be brought at the local channel to a national viewing audience.

10. Display Artist

I can't remember what this was really called but when I worked for various department stores, I always thought that working on displays was very fun.  In one company, I was able to create displays in my department and my displays sold really well.  It showed creativity and ingenuity.  I might've been the first person to put together a T-shirt over a button-down shirt.  I don't know but I did that a long time ago in high school.

I love to decorate for the holidays.  I used to decorate friends and families homes and probably have enough equipment to decorate a small neighborhood.  I have seen that there is a company in the area that decorates for the holidays and makes the huge displays in their own warehouse.  It is not a type of job that has a lot of customers or competition.  You definitely have to have a love for if you want to do it.

11. Motivational speaker

I guess this goes with the type of publishing I want to do one day.  Sometimes I have to practice for meetings, presentations, teaching assignments, and talks, and I practice in front of the mirror or practice while I'm driving in the car.  I like doing masters of ceremonies although I'm probably not the funniest person you meet.  At least, I get the information out that you need.  And I do accents.  I guess I feel that if I say something important to someone maybe it'll stick.  I don't have the southern accent of eastern state accent.  Maybe I should really brush up on my wanna be British/Australian/Kiwi accent.

12. Mechanic

There are three things I think that are mysteries to me: cars, computers, and taxes.  I would love to learn more about how to fix cars.  Actually, I love fixing things with tools and stuff.  I prefer to fix things than to buy them.  I love the idea of fixing things with tools.  

13. Marketing/advertising

I did a lot of this for online groups and I really enjoyed it.  I don't know how good I was, but I enjoy being passionate about something and telling people about it.  It is one of the areas I'd like to more about.  I would still like to try this out.  

I think that's it so far.  I think the only other thing that I wanted to be when I was little was to be a superhero.  I don't think there a lot of people who haven't had the desire to be a superhero.  If I was a superhero what would I be?  I don't know.  Wonder Woman is pretty and what girl doesn't want to be considered pretty.  She's not my favorite superhero.  I prefer Superman because I love the myth of the story and I enjoy the actors who have played him.  I've always wanted the superpower of flying.  I always need to be in a million places at once.  I love traveling and I would be a great way to travel.  Actually, I would prefer to have magical powers like Bewitched or Jeannie.

I think there is going to be a part 2 of this writing.

District Meeting and Back to the Job Board

Last Friday, we had a district meeting with all the supervisors and managers in the district.  There were at least 50 people or maybe over 50 people.

We had classes about how to do customer service, how to make a game plan, technical updates for our equipment and computer, and anything else a district manager wanted.

It was informative and I learned a lot of things I need to update the training.  

After five hours of training, I spent the next three hours or making cold calls and making sure that new hires were ready to be trained this week.

My plan next week for my trainee is to really take over more and more responsibilities.  The following week, I wanted her to start from beginning to end including making a schedule, making sure she goes through on boarding, calling up people, and anything else she needs to do.

I spent Saturday not doing anything else but wound up going out with a friend of mine from work.  Sunday, I worked on getting myself ready for Monday.

Even though I haven't mentioned yet, I did have an opportunity for a second interview with a company.  I guess I didn't make it because she was supposed to call last week.  I did have my phone off for three days so I don't know she tried to call me.  I'm going to call her sometime next week maybe on the day I don't think she's going to be working and leave a message just in case.

I guess I will be spending my two or three days off looking for new job.

My trainee is pretty much good to go.  In fact, I was told by my boss that everybody was highly impressed with the new trainee.  She introduced herself to everyone and they had tons of praise for her.

I don't know if I should be jealous because I don't know if I got that much praise when I first started.  I know that my trainer gave me a lot of praise which is really good.

The only reason I should be jealous is that maybe I won't be doing as much hiring.  My trainee is very good at hiring but she's not really good at following through.  She hired somebody and has been trying to get hold of her but hasn't really tried.  So finally on Friday, I e-mailed the hiree and said to her that she needed to contact us or we're going to say we're not hire you anymore.  Today, I saw an e-mail response from her and told her she needs to keep in contact with us or we can't get her in to work and get paid.

Most of the time if someone changes the phone, or has a problem with a phone, or loses a phone, they try really hard to get back to us.  This person hasn't really tried very hard so we were iffy about her.

I need to train my trainee to really follow up on things.  Granted, she has her own project she's working on which is fine.  I do need someone who has more accessibility outside of the office to do stuff.  But I really need her to take the reins because eventually, I intend to leave.

I just want make sure my bases are covered and that even though people will miss me, it won't be a burden.

Note-I went through e-mails and well, I didn't get the job.  

Back to the drawing board:  revamping the resume, sending applications, and more.  

Looking for a new job is not my most favorite thing to do.  I can imagine doing more good elsewhere, like actually working for a company.  I spend a lot of time that could be used for socializing, charity, school, fitness, and more.  

But I must tread on. 

Third Day's a Charm

Another day of feeling successful at work.

Not that everything went as planned.

I had planned on meeting my boss at one of the job locations to assist him in awarding some of our employees with merit awards.  Afterwards, I was to pick up some office supplies and get ready for a hiring session.

I wound up working in the store with the rest of the crew for another hour, leaving the job site a half hour before I had to start hiring.

Hiring went well, well sort of.  I had invited 5-6 people but only 2 showed up.

I always say, showing up is half the job in this type of business.

Two young men who have children applied for second jobs.  They both did really well in the equipment use practice.  They both had a very nice demeanor.  I like when people really try to impress me, not by words, because I've heard it all.  I really have, and then some. 

I like people who are nice but don't try so hard.  People who are just trying to get through each day with their families in hopes to better their lives.

I know you all want or need a job. 

I know you want to be hired.  I used to feel extremely sympathetic towards their needs.  But I learned that all talk and no action is a deadly combination.

I think this week we've hired really good people. 

After my hiring session, I spent the rest of the time at work, cold-calling candidates from the ATS.  While I was working on that assignment, my boss was on a district conference call.  The district manager has assigned all the managers and their hiring managers to make sure contact with candidates happen in 12 hours. 

Personally, after spending all day calling in the office, I really don't want to use my minutes to call from home. 

I have worked at home before and I don't mind.  Right now, the reason I'm looking for a job is that I cannot afford to work all day in the office and work at home, too.  I know my boss would pay me more if he could get away with it. 

If a company wants to pay me for the use of my phone (which our company does IF you have an Iphone, which I don't and cannot afford right now), then I would be willing to do whatever the company wants. 

I'm not difficult to work with, but I know that there are companies who pay much more than what I make.  I make about 50 percent over the California minimum wage on a part-time basis.  You figure out that.

It has been nice to put in 40 hours a week, which doesn't happen too often.  I need these kinds of hours before the holidays. 

After work, I came home early to rest after a very early morning assignment.  Tonight was our Christmas party.  We had a blast last year.  This year it was hard to get people to come on a weekday.  We have an early morning district meeting tomorrow and a few people are leaving or gone already for the holidays.

We had fun, but I was so tired from my 4 am wake up call this morning. 

Goes to show you how flexible I am. 

A Day When Plans Go Accordingly

Today was a real test.

Today, my trainee took the reins with our new hires and interviewees.  It gave her a chance to see how to do both jobs in one day, as I do very often.

While she was doing the hiring today, I did little projects around the office, including getting ready for a district meeting this weekend.

During her orientation, I sat in to watch her work.  Our district manager walked in and whispered to me, "She's really good."  I agreed.

There are some areas to tweak as I asked her how she thought everything went today.  Of course, I started off telling her the good comments the district manager said.  Everyone deserves to hear something good about themselves. 

She's getting better with her confidence.  I didn't even go in for her interviews.  I have enough confidence in her to trust she knows what kind of people she wants.  

I left her in the office to finish off her payroll so I could take care of some family needs. 

If and when I leave, the company will have a fully, trained recruiter and hiring manager. 

It was a good day, as pretty much everything went according to plan. 

I'm ready for a new opportunity.  I think when you can completely train someone to take your place, you are good to go if you so desire.

Working and Looking for Another Job=Not Easy!

One of the most frustrating things is looking for work.  If you don't have a lot of people to network with, you spend a lot of time looking for a some kind of connection.

Now, if you are working in a job that requires a lot of hours, but doesn't pay your full worth, you can feel overwhelmed looking for the career that you feel of worth.

I love what I do.  I really do, but it's a part time job, and I really need full time work.  I'm worth it.  Ask anyone I've hired or worked with in this company.

I enjoy going to the office and helping people find work.  I get really excited when the right people come along.  

I had such an experience today.  At first, I wasn't impressed with my selection.  But as the training went along, I was happily surprised with the results and couldn't wait to hire some of them.

I go through a thorough interview if I am not really sure about people.  I do offer second chances, but the ball is in their court.  They either take it or I don't call them again.

Today, I was very excited to work when I got to work.  I can't always say that I'm overly excited, but I am glad to be at work when people show up for interviews and I can achieve my hiring goals with good people.

Hiring went pretty smooth.  By 10 am, I was done with that part of the day and ready to screen people for interviews.  I spent the rest of the day on the phone with some really exciting prospects.

The rest of the day was spent on the phone, answering questions, pushing new hires to finish their onboarding forms, calling managers about schedules, and more.

Good day at work!

Busy Weekend of How To Find A Good Job

Fridays, unless we are majorly hiring, is usually the day we catch up on things. 

Friday was a day of calling and making sure I had work to do the following week.  My trainee had to leave early for something or rather, so it left me to make sure that things happened.

Our boss was in the office as it was also equipment inventory.  My trainee decided to do a clean up of the office.  I did the same thing when I started. 

We had made a couple of call backs for people to come back to the office for a second chance at work.  Only one person came back, which is nice to see her enthusiasm for the work.

The office was bustling.  It was nice to see all the managers come by for the day.  Usually, the office is very quiet, with only my trainee and myself, other than the hires or trainees. 

My trainee learned how to do equipment inventory.  She also learned how to complete the recruiting process. 

Next thing to learn is to finish the hiring/onboarding process. 

This weekend, I spend the whole day in class on Saturday, learning how to better my odds in finding a company to fit my needs. 

I do a lot of researching to better my chances and still, I had a lot to learn.  I had so many questions.  The other thing I learn is how to be a better hiring manager-what to look for, what to ask, etc.

It was a very full day.  Tons of information.  I used my very special 'secret weapon' to keep track of notes.  One day, I'll share with you all.

The last time I shared my secret weapon with a perspective employer, they took my idea but didn't take me. 

My secret weapon is available online, so it is not really secret, per se.

I think it's a cool gadget.  I am a gadget girl.

Trainee's First Presentation and Flexibility in the Workplace

In the company I work for, anything can happen. 

Plans were to train new hires including a day in a local store.  Then, I planned on my trainee to do her first interview session. 

I did orientation and training but we didn't get to the store.  Our boss was supposed to sit in with us but we had an emergency that required his assistance elsewhere. 

It almost changed my schedule, too. 

This job requires extreme flexibility. 

Orientation went well.  Three new hires were very anxious to start.  I learned that our HR department does part of my work; explaining how to get into the company's employee intranet through e-mails to new hires.  I usually spend time showing new hires how to find all the information on the website.  I guess I don't have to anymore.  But it is one of those things that I didn't know about because I did not get information from corporate.  I found out through the new hires.

It took a little longer to complete orientation because I was also training.

When I have two scheduled meetings, I usually start one at 7 am and the other at 11 am.  I usually have a break between the meetings.  Today, we went from one meeting to the other, with hardly a break.

It was my trainee's turn to do her first presentation.  It went well, but I also had to communicate with the boss to see what happened about the emergency we had this morning, while my trainee did her work.

This is one of the many ways I have to multitask during work.

My trainee did pretty well.  I told her I liked her stories about work that exemplified policies and the work environment.  I gave her some more tips and corrected any policies that she may have mentioned erroneously.

She took the information with the idea that she would go through her notes and review and change anything she felt she needed.

I did the interviews, while she sat in.  She gave me information about which people would be good and which ones she had second thoughts.  I went from there, hiring those I thought would be good, and asking the ones that didn't do too well, to come back for extra training.

Right now, I am way behind in finding people to hire.  Yesterday, I spent a lot of time cold-calling people.  I even went back and called people who didn't show up.  I had some people refuse the job because of pay.

I somehow knew that the job pay would be a problem in the near future.

Right now, I need numbers.  I'm way behind in new hires, but I don't have many people to choose from.  Our applicant tracking system barely has 2-4 people filling out applications.

I am afraid that I will be working overtime during Christmas and New Years to get bodies for our office.  It will be ok because I am determined to get the bodies we need, and my hours will feel like full-time.  It is cutting into my job search, though, which is another thing I was afraid of if I didn't find something by the end of November.

I gave the assignment for my trainee to contact the local colleges online to see how to post job openings for the company.  I've hired quite a few people who are going to school, so I need to find people who will be able to fill those missing hours.

We are trying a lot of different ways to find employees.

If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear it. 

After our meetings, I trained my trainee to complete the hiring process for her new hires and call them to let them know that their backgrounds went through, to make appointments for orientation, and to finish all forms online.  Then we input our office hours and finally went home. 

It was a long day filled with planning ahead and more training for tomorrow. 

Better Success and Continued Change of Plan

Today was very productive.  Interviews were really good.  Six people were invited although only four showed up.

It always boggles me when people don't show up for interviews, but then again, I'm not interviewing for a top paying company.  It is a very entry-level company.

Analyzing for a moment and the change of the employment environment, it is much harder this year to hire than it was last year.  Last year, I couldn't keep up with hires.  I needed the backup, but I feel I did a great job.  I hired 10-20 people a week during the company's slow time.  This year, hiring started late, which I don't think is a good thing.  People get tired of waiting for calls.

This year, I am really working all points, even calling people back who didn't show up for interviews, which is something I don't usually do.  Numbers are important for the company, but so are skillful  people. 

I was excited about two of the hires.  They already had experience with our kind of work so I think they will do well if they can keep up.

I do enjoy giving presentations and I've been able to cut the time spent on presenting presentations. 

I've worked on better questions for interviews, which seem to do really better than what I have been taught.  I have been researching for a couple of months and have found some great ideas that have really helped me to ask questions that are needed to hire people.  It takes out some of the problems with new hire's schedules that conflict.  I'll post some of the links of information on another day that I am not scheduling.

One of the questions I hate is to be asked, "How long is this going to take?"  Normally, people ask that because they have a ride waiting while at the interview.  But I still hate being asked that question in any form in this type of job.  You can't ask that because it all depends back on you and your team.  If you slack, you lose time.  It's not my responsibility. 

I seem to have a really good trainee.  I gave her the assignment to report to our boss and his boss about what we did yesterday.  She got a great pat on the back from the boss' boss.  I'm quite proud but I think that some of that pride is not all mine.  She's done this before and has some great ideas.

I hope that by Christmas, she can take over, so I can continue doing my job search.  I had to take over my hiring job within two weeks.  I have a lot more to teach my trainee than my trainer had to teach me.

Upping Our Efforts and Running Extra Errands

I started my day visiting one of the accounts nearest to our office.  I wanted to start training in the store this week.

With our boss and my trainee, we did a quick visit to meet with the store manager, test out machines and barcodes, and figure out where the best place to train to get out of the way of customers.

We have to train before the store gets busy for the holidays.  I look forward to really training in stores.  It will help our employees have more confidence.

The rest of the day, I spent the day driving with my trainee.  Our goal was to get in touch with all EDD job centers near our office. 

From 9:30 am we visited 6 areas nearby, handing out flyers and business cards.  It was nice for me, because there are areas I've never visited, at least that I remember. 

We also were asked to run an errand for the boss: we had to pick up a laptop from our other office in San Jose.  So more or less, we were in the car for 6 plus hours. 

While I left my trainee to do the talking in the office, I kept the car running nearby, instead of having to pay for parking. 

After getting back to the office, I let my trainee go, but gave her the assignment to write up all events for the day.

I have to say, she's good.

I spent the last few hours making cold calls to get interviews.  I hope we get more candidates because it has been too easy to catch up on our applicant tracking system.

What To Do When There Isn't Much Work To Do?

Today at work was a day where when plan A doesn't work you need to follow Plan B, or C, or D until you run out of the alphabet.

You have to be prepared for things that don't go your way.  And things don't always go my way.  That's human.

Being prepared for times when schedules don't correspond with each other, is a great asset to any company.

Since I'm in charge of my schedule when I worked in the office, it's important to keep busy and work on goals to better the output of whatever I'm expecting to accomplish.

Today, I was supposed to have five or six interviews and it wound up only being one.  One of the things I learned a while ago is that you cannot make interview schedules for entry-level candidates, further than one or two days.  One day might not be long enough for some candidates to accommodate the schedule.  More than 4 or 5 days notice results in people forgetting when they're supposed to be at a job.

Ideally, I should not be hiring such people, right?  Those are the kind of people might slack off or cat off or do things they think they can get away with.

I do give second chances.  Sometimes things happen that you have no control over, but if this is the way that they are going to work at a job, it can be very difficult.

Instead of three or four hours in the hiring process in the morning like I had originally planned, I had to start plan B.  Plan B is always doing more calling and connecting.  Plus, I had to finish hiring the people I hired last week.  Paperwork had to be done and background checks had to be complete.

I feel pretty confident about the few people we hired last week which is really good.  I'm really a stickler for people who cannot work with their schedule.  We do a lot of accommodating to help people out.  We know it's hard to find a job these days.  I mean, here I am blogging so that people will know what I do and how I work.  I'm looking for a job and I'm not being as successful as think I should be in my search.

I spent the rest of the day connecting with people who called and left messages.  I connected with people who sent in applications and were accepted by the applicant tracking system.  I also did some other connecting with people coming in and out of the office.

My schedule is pretty full until about Friday this week.  I have until tomorrow to update the schedule for Friday.

One of the things I have to do is let us my boss know what's going on with my schedule, hiring, and training.  It's a weekly progress report.

A Change In Schedule

After just a week, I decided that I'm not going to write every day.  I'm not going to put myself through weekend writings for this because I have a lot of other things I need to get done, including blogging for my personal blog and looking for job.

I'm just going to write about things going on with work from Monday through Thursday.  On Mondays, I will summarize any work happenings during the weekend including Friday's.  Especially during the holidays, I have a lot of things going on during the weekend that are non-work-related.

I have a lot of homework also for work.  I've to get a lot of things done to make sure that my backup will be ready for pretty much everything for next week.

Today, we went through the hiring session together and she did a lot of training.  The next thing I want to do is go through interviews with her and talk to her about what was going on.  We did talk about the hiring pool today.  I had six people scheduled and only three show up.  One e-mailed me that he couldn't make it and wanted to reschedule.  I'm fine with that.  The other two I do not know what happened.  The most important thing though are the driving people.  I need to make sure I have about three drivers or two full-time drivers.  This driver that I'm going to hire is a pretty fast counter, but he's only available nights and weekends.

I was really bummed about that because I was excited for very fast counter and a quick counter to drive for our grocery stores because we need fast counters for that.  I mean, we love our drivers and their precious to us but the managers want someone who can count fast, too.  Most of our drivers are experienced in age so they cannot move as fast as the younger bunch.  All of our drivers are very good and very dependable.  We couldn't do any of our work without them so I can even say enough about them.

So until next week, wish me luck!

Back to Hiring

This was the first day of hiring in a couple of months.  I think there a lot of people excited about finding jobs right now.  I had a really good group.  Four people show up for a group session and we had some shining stars.  One of the nice things was that everybody was ready for an interview.  Everyone dressed the part which has been somewhat of a concern for my boss right now.

My boss, other employees, managers, and I have discussed the fact that sometimes people do come to an interview dressed in street clothes.  Maybe they didn't know that they were actually being interviewed.  Maybe I didn't make it clear that I'm going to be interviewing for a job.  To make sure that doesn't happen again, I specifically tell each person I cold call that even though you're going to be meeting with more than one person in the room for presentation, I am going to be interviewing separately and individually.  I even reiterate that they need to be ready for an interview.  It seems to work at least the first day.

Even better that everyone who I made appointment with showed up today.  Sometimes I think, "Ohhhh, no one is going to show up,"  but today was different in that everybody showed up.

I have a lot of hope that I'll be able to get my hiring goals complete even though I don't have enough people coming in for two sessions a day.  It looks like I will have people available by next week for two sessions.  I have completed 1/10 of my goal, or 1/8, depending on how many people I really need to hire. 

I believe my goal is somewhere between 30 and 40 depending on how many people come back to work next month.  If all former employees show up, then I think it's somewhere between 30 and 35.  If I'm going to hire people to take place of people who left then I need to hire around 40.  So I have for today.  I think that five or six come in tomorrow and then six more on Monday so far.  If I do that well then in 10 days, if everybody shows up and finishes all the paperwork, I will have all the people I need for the company.

That's how you get your goals.

Cold Calls and Hiring

Today was to be a training in cold calling and setting up appointments.  My poor trainee was sick overnight and has an assignment to supervise tomorrow. She was able to stay in the office for about an hour, but I let her go home.  We are training her to be like me, to be able to do a lot of things like I do, especially since I am looking for a new job.

I do better cold calling by myself anyways, aside from the District Manager being next door to my office.

The trainee been doing a pretty good job.  She catches on very quickly, which is one of the nice things about working with her.  She understands proper English and correct English.  I don't have to talk with an urban dictionary in order for her to understand what I'm saying.

In my job, I've learned to speak a different language: Ebonics.  Don't laugh.  I've had to learn, understand, interpret, and explain back and forth what people mean from one side of town to the other side.  Luckily, I ask a lot of questions.  People are kind enough to explain to me what's the difference between ghetto and "GHET-TOW" with a capital G. 

I have a lot more success to date with phone calls.  My goal was to have two sessions a day so that I can hurry up and hire and train people.  My trainee gave me a couple of ideas which I thought was very good about promoting the job.  An hour later, the district manager came in and said the exact same things.  So I made an appointment with my trainee to go and do the things she had suggested.

One of the things is to go to the employment development departments in the area.  There's one really close to my house which I would love to just going to by myself one of these days.  The other is to go and visit three other centralized departments of employment in the area.

Our company uses Craigslist a lot for new jobs.  I've caught up on all the new and referred candidates so far.  I have talked to them or left messages.

Tomorrow is my first day of hiring in about two months.  I explained to my trainee about the actual hiring process that our company is teaching the hiring managers.  My trainer last year taught me a completely different way.  I followed it because I didn't have any other types of point of information.  But as I learned and grew to understand how people respond and communicate with me, I've had to change a lot of the learning process and hiring process.  I have made my own hiring process developed in the manner that the company wants hiring to happen.

Training Day for My Backup

Yesterday was the first day of coming back into the office after a couple of months.  Early in the morning I spent with my trainee, teaching her how I take care of the phone calls and the applicant tracking system.

There will be three parts for training, recruiting, and hiring.  The first part I told her is the phone calling and inviting for interviews and job sessions.  The second part will be about the actual job session and hiring sessions with interviews.  The last part is going to be the training and orientation.

Most of the day today, I spent looking for people who fill the requirements that we need.  My goal was to get for hiring sessions for Thursday and Friday, two each day.  Originally, it was for Wednesday but I wasn't able to get my phone calls done yesterday because there were too many people in the office and it just gets too loud.  It gave me a chance to teach my trainee about all the websites they use and all the tools I use to do my job.  I also gave her a chance to look at what I do in the office to maintain files and the office itself.

One of the things I told my trainee is that if you spend the day making phone calls and cold calls, that it's better to get into the office when no one is in there.  But you also don't want to call too early when one's home.  I usually have pretty good luck between 10 and 2 o'clock in the daytime.

It looks like I will be doing a lot more hiring next week if people know that where hiring.  Because I haven't hired in about two months, the amount of interested parties is very low.  I did notice that it seemed that people were talking about hiring and I saw more names showing up in our system.

My goal is to do most of my hiring starting this week but with the holidays coming around, people have holiday jobs that they're trying to get through.  I may have to push again some more.  I left a lot of messages and I called back every person called for the job whether they were able to work in the area or not.

We'll see how it goes tomorrow.  I'm going to let my trainee do some of the phone calls and check the phone messages in the morning.

So that's one part of my day in the office.

So Why A Blog?

As stated in my previous blog post, I found out that blogging could be a way to help me find people to connect with who need my skills.

I want a new job. 

One of the websites that I subscribe to, is called BrazenCareerist.com.  Information from the website is mainly for recent graduates to help them find jobs.  I found a lot of really good ideas for those of us who are other types of job seekers.  This is where I found the idea to blog about my job search.

One of the ideas from a blog post called, "What to blog about when you're looking for job," by Marian Schembari.  She writes about two ideas to write about in one spot.  One idea is to write about the industry which you are working.  She suggest to write about your skills, your knowledge, and your experiences.  You can write about your opinions and thoughts about an industry.

The second idea is to write about your job search.  One thing the writer mentions is to write about why someone should hire you.  That's a really good idea.  As many resumes and cover letters as I've written in the last few months, I should know myself pretty well.  Or at least I should know what I want other people to know about me. 

My next post will be about my thoughts about the industry that I work in.  Unfortunately I cannot write about the customers that we have nor specifics about the company.  I cannot post pictures from our company either.  As a hiring manager and part of the human resources department, one of our policies is not posting work pictures on line without previous consent.  I have no intention of posting things like that.

I can describe some the situations that happened or what my workday was like.  I can describe the problems and how I was able to answer problems.  I can talk about general policies that everybody else has. 

Tomorrow I will be spending the day in the office.  In fact, for most of this month my job will be in the office as a recruiter and hiring manager.  I will also be training a backup to help me achieve the goals before Christmas.

I look forward to readers contacting me for recruiters looking for more information about my experience.

Welcome to my Umpteenth Blog!

I've been doing research on careers as I have been looking for an opportunity to upgrade my skills and most importantly, my salary.

I've been actively searching for a really good opportunity to join a company that needs my skills and experiences.  Every moment that I have available, I apply for job openings.

So in my research, I found a lot of interesting ideas about job searches.  I found a couple of things that were suggested by websites that may help me connect to people who are looking for my skills and experience.

One of the things that was mentioned was blogging.  I thought about that idea since I've blogged before.

I've been an active blogger since 2004-2005.  Unfortunately, the blogging sites that I used have closed down.  I have not replaced my personal blog, but I still blog on my computer.  I enjoy blogging.  I enjoy writing about my thoughts of the world.

So this new blog, that I really wasn't expecting to start, is mostly going to be about my ideas about work and career, with other ideas I have and opportunities I experience.

The most important thing right now is to find a company that needs me and my experience.

My goals are:

-To connect with companies for employment purposes.

-To represent myself in the way that will be interesting or thought-provoking.

-To share ideas.

-To illustrate my writing and thinking skills.

I plan on writing at least once a day and I have a lot of thoughts to share.

So, I'm on my way on whatever journey this new, purposeful blog has in store.