Working Weak

For those outside of any kind of office environment, I get that the nuances between different departments get a bit lost. For example, I advise employees on a daily basis over the specifics of their pay structure, but Accounting deals with the actual mechanics of getting people paid. I coach and terminate employees on a weekly basis, but I don’t get into the specifics of termination conflict resolution – HR does. As an aside: Of all of the different departments associated wit

I'm old school and have a machine that plugs into the wall  (I know, right?) as an alarm clock. "Way to date yourself.” “Why don't you just use your cell phone?" Yeah, yeah, I don’t live under a rock and appreciate the incredulousness. But, hear me out. I'm not the most...well...I'll just lay it out there: I don't wake up in a positive mood. I'm a bit of an angry waker.  Essentially, I want to murder whoever or whatever woke me up. My old-school alarm clock has a snooze butto

Here's a brief rundown of technology as it exists in 2026: Our applications are online. We don't do paper ones. The end. Great. Now that you're all caught up, let's move on. There are a variety of ways we collect potential applicants (e.g., phone, in-person, website, etc.), and the single fastest way to get someone started on the application and interview process  is to redirect them to our website to fill out an application. That also gives them the opportunity to attach the

Resumes are an infinite source of comedy gold for a recruiter. Take formatting, for example. Most resumes are pretty dull, with minor variations on work history straight after the name and contact information. Maybe there is a little blurb at the top discussing the type of position he/she is looking for and how it relates to work experience. Eg: "Motivated production worker with seven years of medical device-specific experience looking for career growth." Or something along t

My job is pretty frenetic throughout the day. Nothing particularly challenging, mind you, but there are A LOT of different things to juggle. I like to think I thrive in this type of environment and will even go so far as to say there is a kind of elegance in the controlled chaos of a peak hiring season. BUT. But, I have a flaw. (I know! Me! Shocker!) A silly, strange flaw. A flaw that means I forget the darndest things sometimes. I am that person driving down the road with my

Anyone ever try to learn a foreign language? Maybe actually succeeded at learning a foreign language? I am very definitely in the “tried” camp and learned the hard way in high school Spanish that foreign languages were not something my brain was going to casually absorb. That being said, I very distinctly remember that pretty much the first thing we learned was the days of the week. You can picture, it, I’m sure: Forced conversations with your fellow schoolmates where you ina

I am of a certain age. Enough of an age that folks (significantly) younger than me have referred to “people of my generation” in a non-ironic sense as an explanation for how or why I did something vastly different from what their worldview would have led them to believe. In my opinion, of course, I usually do things better than the younger generation – but I’m equally confident the younger generation believes they do things better than mine. I suppose it is similar to appreci

English is a confusing language. We have a lot of words, those words can each mean a lot of different things, and context clues are used way more than the average native English speaker appreciates. I get it. I do. For example, the term 'bi-weekly' technically has two different meanings: twice per week or every two weeks. For a non-native English speaker who has lived on a commune for the entirety of his/her working life and never received a paycheck, I can see how this is a

My former boss once summarized The World Before GPS in a way that has stuck with me ever sense: “We never knew where we were, didn’t know how to get to where we needed to go, and never knew where to get dinner.” Nowadays, of course, the concept of being “lost” is synonymous with “my phone doesn’t have service” and only a fool goes to dinner at a place that gets fewer than two stars. [Non sequitur: The local Waffle House gets four stars. Does it make me a fool to eat there or

There is a single in the country music orbit right now that has a lyric I really like: “Lately it’s been crazy living up here in my head…” It resonates with me, you know? I feel like that most days! My personal outlet for all the crazy is this blog, as it turns out. I write it all down in a cathartic purge, which leaves space for more crazy to backfill inside my head. If I didn’t get it out, I’d probably be infected by the crazy and go a bit nuts myself. Maybe I am nuts alrea

I recently overheard one side of a conversation between one of my coworkers and a contractor that was funny enough to rate an all-stop with what I was doing so I could concentrate on eavesdropping appropriately. Coworker: What do you mean you fell asleep? It's your first day. Contractor: <inaudible> Coworker: Well, they need to go through the training thoroughly so you know what to do, and if the machine takes a few minutes to finish the cycle and you need to wait, then that'

There are people who are just too  comfortable with certain things. Things that might make others uncomfortable. Things that might prompt...

Texting and emailing are not new. I mean, they're 'new' if we compare them to things like the printing press and telegrams, but they're...

Working at a school comes with a  strict Monday through Friday schedule, which works well, obviously, for those who are unable to work on...

Time Travelers Accuracy on a resume is important. I mean, I get it. NO ONE likes updating his/her resume. For most of us, updating a...

It is not at all uncommon for us recruiters to see resumes from the same people that are different. There are reasons for this: The...

I read an article recently about a freshly graduated finance kid that wandered around Wall Street with a sign and a QR code lamenting his...

Your resume is an ever-expanding story, if you will, of your career path. I would try to pull in a never-ending story reference, but I...

I am self-aware enough to know when an irritant is one of my own making. When I could choose  not to be irritated but don’t because my...

Email has a unique set of etiquette and special rules relative to other forms of business communication. It is simultaneously the most...