Wow the week got by me.

helpwanted

On the job front nothing is new. Meaning that I’m still getting lip service from headhunters who’ve managed to insinuate themselves into even direct hiring processes.

You apply to a company, on their corporate website, and then you’re contacted by ManPower or some other third party organization, because the company you applied to, is overwhelmed or doesn’t have an HR department.

American businesses have trimmed and pared down to the point that they can’t hire without outside agencies, it’s representative of how changed the hiring landscape is, and how the placement agencies have adapted to those changes. It’s an effective business model.

Like good parasites, the placement agencies have become integral to their hosts, without killing them. I suppose that the relationship is now symbiotic instead of parasitic. But since so many of these placement agencies have roots in other countries, or significant numbers of employees who are from other countries is it any wonder that H1B1 workers may have an advantage over native workers?


webdesign

A friend told me flat out, to stop banging my head against a wall trying to get back into my former profession, and do nothing but web design.  This speaks well of how happy he is with the web site I built for his business. I’m not sure that I’m good enough to be competitive but maybe he’s got a point.

I get SPAM from India all the time telling me how starting at $400 they’ll build me a website.

What I bring to the table is helping someone find a web hosting service, getting a domain name, and getting their site built, tested, uploaded to their new host and connected to their shiny new domain name.

I’m not sure how to price myself, in that market and there’s all the things I don’t currently know. I’ve been involved with publishing one way or another, since almost my very first job. I’ve done marketing collateral for corporations and been the primary driver / layout / publishing person behind a local 30 page full color magazine. I mean people ate up the magazine like candy. 

Of course, I designed the magazine to be visual candy, so I suppose that was mission accomplished.

Even this blog, as simple as it is, I’ve gotten compliments about. This blog is nothing more  than vanity. The blog is a way for me to keep writing, even if I’m not writing stories, writing frequently helps me with phrasing and putting my thoughts on “paper”.

It’s not a big deal for me to transfer that experience to a new media. 

I guess it’s a confidence issue, people say I’m good at this kind of thing but am I? Or are people just being nice?

Domain Names are fairly inexpensive to purchase. Meh, it can’t hurt to see if people are interested in finding someone that’s willing to put their web sites together and then maintain them for reasonable prices.

I suppose that folks I’ve built websites for, might let me link to their sites as a sort of portfolio. Maybe that’s the next step, I’ll ask.  It would give their sites more exposure and help me too.


SIRI & The FBI

I saw this today and laughed out loud. I thought I’d share it.

I was watching the evening news and thought I was having a stroke

BenShapiro

In hindsight, perhaps a stroke would have been better.

I’ve been searching for a job for a number of reasons.

Among those reasons; I want to go back to school.

The goal is to get a degree that will make me more marketable in the workplace, feed my sense of personal accomplishment, and perhaps provide me with another career should the bottom fall out of whatever I end up doing between now and that as yet, undetermined future.

I think I may have waited too long to execute this educational goal. Here’s one of the reasons I’m concerned.

Ben Shapiro, an attorney, conservative, Orthodox Jew, author, journalist, & millennial, was scheduled to speak at CSULA

Author Ben Shapiro was invited to speak this afternoon at Cal State LA by the Young Americans for Freedom, which is a registered student organization. The event, “When Diversity Becomes a Problem,” was funded by the Associated Students, Inc., the student government.

problemwithdiversity

Leading up to the event, there were a number of emails and social media posts that caused concern for the campus community. Given threats and expressions of fear, President William A. Covino proposed a rescheduled event that would be civil and inclusive, and in which Mr. Shapiro and speakers with other viewpoints could offer their perspectives in an organized forum.

“My decision was made in the interest of safety and security,” Covino said. “I am disappointed that Mr. Shapiro has not accepted my invitation to speak in such a forum. He has indicated that he will come to Cal State LA to speak today at the University-Student Union Theatre, where he was originally scheduled to deliver his talk,” Covino told the University community Thursday morning.

Covino added: “I strongly disagree with Mr. Shapiro’s views. But if Mr. Shapiro does appear, the University will allow him to speak. We will make every effort to ensure a climate of safety and security.”

A reporter filming the BLM crowd’s protest of Ben Shapiro was assaulted outside the venue. Attendees of Shapiro’s talk were forced to enter the venue via a back door because the school’s police wouldn’t clear the protestors from the main entrance.

Shapiro and the Attendees were forced to wait in the building until a police cordon could be established that allowed them to exit safely.


BLM CSULA Protest

I can no longer clearly determine which is worse, Daesh (ISIS), The Taliban, Al Queada, Fundamentalist Christians, or Black Lives Matter.

I think I missed the opportunity to obtain higher education without becoming embroiled in some harebrained Social Justice Warrior bullshit.

If I’m going to pay for an education, I’m not interested in having to put up with a bunch of leftist crap. I wouldn’t mind IF both sides of an argument were explored with a purely academic objectiveness.

Click

That is what I always thought education was supposed to do. I’ve believed that education presented you with the facts, and you were supposed to evaluate the merits of each side of an issue then make a decision based on your upbringing, personal beliefs, and personal philosophies.

I believed that as you learned more, and gained experience, that you could and would change your mind, and positions.

I never expected in my lifetime to see higher education perverted into an SJW exercise where the people on the side of “Right” would demand freedom as an oppressed group and at the same time prevent people with differing opinions from expressing those opinions.

freespeech

I never in a million years expected to see in this country, MY Country, people accepting, even tacitly condoning the suppression of other people’s rights.

I expected to see us marching into a Star Trek like, egalitarian future.

Clearly I’m an idiot!

Now I’m considering really strange things. Do I want higher education? If I do, now I have to choose a school not only based on it’s academic qualities, but also on it’s political leanings. Should I try to determine if a school’s reputation for the antics of the SJW crowd will taint any degree I may graduate with?

The antics at CSULA last night were absolutely beyond belief. They’ve made me think that perhaps I’m right in considering questions other than the simple academic standing of a particular school. 

Legitiamately, I’m asking if I would even be physically safe on a college campus because my opinions do not line up with the SJW or BLM crowd.

Participation in classes, particularly those dealing with the Humanities would potentially expose my beliefs and therefore potentially compromise my personal safety leaving classes or being on a campus.

I suppose I can attend classes on-line.

Even then, would my grades be adversely affected by expressing dissenting opinions? Would I get a fair shake based strictly on the merit of my work?

Warp drive starship

I should have done the whole school thing a long time ago.

Yet again, this is one of those times when I wonder where the hell I am.

Maybe I did have a stroke, and I’m really in a coma.

Perhaps my area of study should be Physics.

With luck, I might be able to build the means to get off this planet of psychotic apes.

Ya know… I just want to find a JOB

I don’t think that doing so should require that I sell my soul to the company store! That  comparison is a bit of a stretch but it’s the closest I can come to expressing what I feel.

I was applying to a retail position. When they asked me for the last four of my Social Security Number to CREATE an account, my security senses were heightened.

As I read the terms and conditions governing my use of the 3rd party site handling the application I came to a FULL DAMN STOP! 

I’m linking to a full PDF of the terms to which I was expected to agree.

Screen Shot 2016 02 15 at 6 15 15 PM

I had a couple of problems with the terms.

This is a retail position. I don’t see why I should be required to forfeit my right to privacy to apply for the position.

I strongly disagree with the premise that it’s alright for my information to be extorted from me, while trying to get back to having gainful employment.

I believe It’s wrong that the company, PeopleAnswers not only is making money from the employer but they are collecting data, reprocessing that data and then using it without my express permission or my ability to delete or control that information, so that they make additional money. 

Screen Shot 2016 02 15 at 6 15 46 PM

They go so far as to absolve themselves of any and all responsibility for the information that they create. They continue by telling you that you’re not allowed to take any legal action against them.

EXCUSE ME?

They create a situation where you aren’t able to apply for, or potentially keep, a job except by agreeing to vacate your right to privacy. You have no right to know what they’re doing with your information, who or where that information is going and no legal recourse for any damage done to you by the release of that collected information. 

This is WHY I’m opposed to online job application services / tests / and all that goes with them.

I’d suggest a boycott of these sites, the problem is that those of us who value our privacy are in the minority.

So where does that leave job seekers?

Screwed that’s where. Between a rock and a hard place. Give up your privacy, or be homeless.

I’d write a letter to my representatives at the state, and federal level, but I think that I’d be better served taking that sheet of paper, crumbling it up and wiping my ass.

I’m going to try walking into the business and see if I can fill out an application.

I must be Bored!

I just posted my first yelp review.

CartmanYelp

NO! I’m not becoming a “yelper” like those depected in South Park!

The episode “You’re not Yelping” cracks me up every time I see it.

OH Crap! Now I’ve got the boogers & cum song stuck in my head!

LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA !

Damn! Maybe some Nine Inch Nails will flush that all too catchy South Park tune out of my head.

Anyway, my very first yelp was about a recruiting firm.

Basically, I just lambasted them for their unprofessional behavior and muddying the waters for people like me that are genuinely searching for a new job.

ConfusedRecruiters

I was going to contact the management of the recruiting firm but trying to find out who even owns the place is nigh impossible. And don’t even try to reach a manager or supervisor. It’s all double and triple dead ends designed to obfuscate. Which means that essentially no-one is responsible for anything at the place.

It’s my fault for believing in ANY recruiter.

I got suckered by an email that described exactly what I’m looking for. I want a job that is in my field and that is close so I’m not spending my life on the freeway.

After the woman at the recruiting firm milked me for all kinds of information she said she was going to send my information on to her client. Then she went all radio silent and isn’t responding to emails or anything else.

A few days later I ran across an ad for the exact same position that appeared to have been posted by the hiring company on a public jobs board. So now I can’t apply because I don’t know if the recruiter submitted my resume or not. I also don’t know what is going on because the recruiter is not responding to any of my entreaties.

(Cool word, you just don’t get enough opportunities to use cool words these days.)

Since I have no mechanism to bring this recruiters unprofessionalism, to the attention of her superiors, I was left with adding my review to the chorus of reviews of her agency on Yelp.

Not my first choice, by a long shot, but hopefully it will help some other poor schmuck not waste his or her time.