None of that is unusual.
First of all, it is important to point out that the contract agency does not work for you. In fact, their interests are for the most part contrary to yours. They want to place someone at the job and they want to pay them as little as possible while billing as much as possible to their client. Their client pays them, and they work for the company you are placed at. You are little more than a talking sack of meat and bones to your contract agency.
That being said, it is possible to develop a good working relationship with them from time to time, and apparently you have done that. That is great. But you can still and SHOULD be working with several different agencies at any time.
So to answer your questions, Yes, agencies modify resumes all the time to remove their competitors names, customize your experience to fit the job and to do pretty much anything else they think will help them get the contract.
It isn't malice. It is just what they do.
No, Zeke is not your friend. He never was. They want you to think they are your friend, but don't fall in to that trap.
Nearly all of that is applicable to HR people also.
entering the US. Aren't they asking for retinal scans or fingerprints in some places, now?
no. not some places. Every entry point takes fingerprints of every visitor who is not a US Citizen or legal US Resident.
There is also some pain in the ass procedure that people have to do online. 24 hours before they get on the plane.
The US has just totally lost it both on the entry procedures AND airport security. The only place where the airport security is more of a useless pain in the ass is the UK, but it is a close race. The UK and the US seem to be competing with each other on who can make the most worthless security procedures.
It is a term refers to the ability to type without looking at the keys, meaning that you could read from another source (draft or handwritten copy) and type it as you read it, keeping your eyes on the original paper. We continue to use the term even though we don't create letters from handwritten papers much anymore.
Interestingly, there used to be special handwriting called shorthand, and shorthand was often taught along with typing. As far as I know, shorthand is long dead. (But I bet someone here can come up with someone who is still using it for something)
Well, I took touch typing in high school, and this was back when we used these things called typewriters for typing. (You can google it later) Anyway, I agree with the author that this was one of the most useful courses I took in high school. I went right into computers and in all my early jobs, I typed much faster than anyone else. I always felt that this gave me an edge. It still does.
I would have assumed that touch typing would have been a standard course for years now, and I would have figured it would be bein offered in junior high as well. I guess that would be a wrong assumption? Is it still offered as an elective only? If it is optional, doesn't everyone sign up for it? They should.
So every day(year) after lunch, those guys are talking about how this is a HOT summer this day. The idle banter about the weather must get really repetitive there.
It sounds just like the pay boxes we use here in Madrid. Except we don't have the option of paying by credit card. And the boxes have a 2 hour maximum, so you have visit the paybox every 2 hours and take the new ticket back to your car. They suck, but it doesn't sound like the cost as much as Chicago. Here you would pay around â25 max per day. (assuming you remember to go to your car every 2 hours. If you forget, you can bet little meter maid people will be on hand to write you a ticket.
It is summer time, and like the rest of europe, he is probably on vacation somewhere. Maybe Ibiza. No need to panic until september when people start thinking about getting back to work.
And it what must be completely unrelated, Linux seems to be much more widely used here. In Spain, we have about half of our technical users using Linux ONLY, the other half run both. The non-technical users are still mostly on windows, but some run linux at home. I see a lot more linux on the desktop in Europe than in the US, and also, with the exception of Microsoft Exchange and the odd MS SQL server here and there, ALL the other servers are Linux. I haven't touched a server running microsoft in years now. Not because I really have anything against them, we just don't need Windows servers for anything.
Well that cetainly sounds exciting. However, it was slashdotted as soon as it posted. Something like this would be very useful. I am surprised it wasn't done before now.
Sites like LinkedIn, seem to exist primarily for professional purposes and job searching, references, etc. Not using that for recruiting seems foolish.
On the other hand, if someone is online talking about their collection of fetish porn and doing it under their real name on a social networking site, it shouldn't be a big surprise when HR puts their name into google before hiring them.
I was more or less in agreement with the article until he got to this part: Microsoft can redeem themselves towards the Icelandic economy if and only if they immediately reduce the price of all of their products to zero, permanently.
I am not sure that would really do anything. It certainly doesn't make any sense for Microsoft. He starts off wanting a break for the MCPs and ends up wanting Microsoft to set the price of everything to zero.
The article is mostly about Office (I Love the quote about Access*). What do Exchange Server, SQL Server, Sharepoint, etc have to do with this?
*The only important difference is that OpenOffice.org doesnâ(TM)t support all of Microsoft Officeâ(TM)s weird macros, and it doesnâ(TM)t come with a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Access, the only database software on the planet thatâ(TM)s better at printing mail-merged stickers than it is at storing data.
Slashdot Mirror
None of that is unusual. First of all, it is important to point out that the contract agency does not work for you. In fact, their interests are for the most part contrary to yours. They want to place someone at the job and they want to pay them as little as possible while billing as much as possible to their client. Their client pays them, and they work for the company you are placed at. You are little more than a talking sack of meat and bones to your contract agency. That being said, it is possible to develop a good working relationship with them from time to time, and apparently you have done that. That is great. But you can still and SHOULD be working with several different agencies at any time. So to answer your questions, Yes, agencies modify resumes all the time to remove their competitors names, customize your experience to fit the job and to do pretty much anything else they think will help them get the contract. It isn't malice. It is just what they do. No, Zeke is not your friend. He never was. They want you to think they are your friend, but don't fall in to that trap. Nearly all of that is applicable to HR people also.
WTF? Are companies paying people to represent them in a virtual environment?
TSA is one of many organisations that make up DHS.
Interestingly, So is the US Coast Guard.
Sorry. The correct answer was Bacon. Remember that for next time. Bacon.
entering the US. Aren't they asking for retinal scans or fingerprints in some places, now?
no. not some places. Every entry point takes fingerprints of every visitor who is not a US Citizen or legal US Resident.
There is also some pain in the ass procedure that people have to do online. 24 hours before they get on the plane.
The US has just totally lost it both on the entry procedures AND airport security. The only place where the airport security is more of a useless pain in the ass is the UK, but it is a close race. The UK and the US seem to be competing with each other on who can make the most worthless security procedures.
Why do you hate America?
That is only 3 things.
It is a term refers to the ability to type without looking at the keys, meaning that you could read from another source (draft or handwritten copy) and type it as you read it, keeping your eyes on the original paper. We continue to use the term even though we don't create letters from handwritten papers much anymore.
Interestingly, there used to be special handwriting called shorthand, and shorthand was often taught along with typing. As far as I know, shorthand is long dead. (But I bet someone here can come up with someone who is still using it for something)
Well, I took touch typing in high school, and this was back when we used these things called typewriters for typing. (You can google it later) Anyway, I agree with the author that this was one of the most useful courses I took in high school. I went right into computers and in all my early jobs, I typed much faster than anyone else. I always felt that this gave me an edge. It still does.
I would have assumed that touch typing would have been a standard course for years now, and I would have figured it would be bein offered in junior high as well. I guess that would be a wrong assumption? Is it still offered as an elective only? If it is optional, doesn't everyone sign up for it? They should.
Now who is doing to tell me when the warranty on a vehicle which I may or may not own is going to expire?
So every day(year) after lunch, those guys are talking about how this is a HOT summer this day. The idle banter about the weather must get really repetitive there.
My god, won't this thing ever end?
How can this thing keep coming back?
I am so sick of hearing about it.
It sounds just like the pay boxes we use here in Madrid. Except we don't have the option of paying by credit card. And the boxes have a 2 hour maximum, so you have visit the paybox every 2 hours and take the new ticket back to your car. They suck, but it doesn't sound like the cost as much as Chicago. Here you would pay around â25 max per day. (assuming you remember to go to your car every 2 hours. If you forget, you can bet little meter maid people will be on hand to write you a ticket.
only 99%? that makes for a lot of errors.
Aside from XML, doesn't CSS violate this ridiculous patent?
I've seen people use it here for hours and not even realize they weren't using Excel or word.
It is summer time, and like the rest of europe, he is probably on vacation somewhere. Maybe Ibiza. No need to panic until september when people start thinking about getting back to work.
And it what must be completely unrelated, Linux seems to be much more widely used here. In Spain, we have about half of our technical users using Linux ONLY, the other half run both. The non-technical users are still mostly on windows, but some run linux at home. I see a lot more linux on the desktop in Europe than in the US, and also, with the exception of Microsoft Exchange and the odd MS SQL server here and there, ALL the other servers are Linux. I haven't touched a server running microsoft in years now. Not because I really have anything against them, we just don't need Windows servers for anything.
Here you go.
If only google voice would allow termination to a SIP number, it would be a great solution.
Well that cetainly sounds exciting. However, it was slashdotted as soon as it posted. Something like this would be very useful. I am surprised it wasn't done before now.
Sure those sites are important, but trying to ban anyone from ever landing within 100km of the site is absurd.
Sites like LinkedIn, seem to exist primarily for professional purposes and job searching, references, etc. Not using that for recruiting seems foolish.
On the other hand, if someone is online talking about their collection of fetish porn and doing it under their real name on a social networking site, it shouldn't be a big surprise when HR puts their name into google before hiring them.
yes.
I was more or less in agreement with the article until he got to this part: Microsoft can redeem themselves towards the Icelandic economy if and only if they immediately reduce the price of all of their products to zero, permanently.
I am not sure that would really do anything. It certainly doesn't make any sense for Microsoft. He starts off wanting a break for the MCPs and ends up wanting Microsoft to set the price of everything to zero.
The article is mostly about Office (I Love the quote about Access*). What do Exchange Server, SQL Server, Sharepoint, etc have to do with this?
*The only important difference is that OpenOffice.org doesnâ(TM)t support all of Microsoft Officeâ(TM)s weird macros, and it doesnâ(TM)t come with a drop-in replacement for Microsoft Access, the only database software on the planet thatâ(TM)s better at printing mail-merged stickers than it is at storing data.