Job Applications and the End of Common Courtesy

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

I have spent much of my time over the last six weeks or so updating my resume, composing cover letters, and filling out job applications.  As this is my first foray into the job application process following my seemingly endless years of higher education, I have been struck by the dehumanizing quality of the job application process (in fact, of almost any application process).  The gap between what the job search really is and what companies have turned it into is shocking.  You are told, in no uncertain terms, "Don't call, don't write, don't email, don't visit us in person, just fill out the application, don't inquire about it's status, just wait and we may or may not ever get back to you."  You want to make a personal connection, to be something more than a set of keywords and numbers, but the job application process at nearly every job discourages this.  We would rather simplify the process and make it more efficient than actually get to know people.  What ever happened to common courtesy, for instance, when one spends a great deal of time applying for a job, never hears back, sends a follow-up note, and then doesn't hear back from that, either?  Are we really okay with a world that works like this, in which we are so bound by bureaucracy that we can't even communicate on a human level?  Is that professionalism?

Incompetence

Friday, September 25, 2009

Call me cynical, but I am continually astounded by the complete and utter incompetence of some people.  Three recent examples:

(1) I logged into my University of Edinburgh account to see if my final grade was up.  It was not, but I did discover an anomalous and befuddling charge on my account, which should be closed (since I am finished with school) for about 36 pounds for accommodations charges for the 2009-2010 school year.  (A) I am not enrolled for that school year.  (B) I do not have university accommodations for that school year.

(2) We got a call today from AT&T, threatening to charge us a late fee if we didn't pay our cell phone bill.  But, we protested, we never received said bill.  Turns out when we signed up for our new account a month ago, they took down the wrong address.  Like, not wrong as in a transposed set of numbers, but wrong as in the wrong numbers, the wrong street, the wrong city.  Where they got this address from, I have no idea.  We narrowly avoided a late fee.

(3) This one is my favorite.  We had to sign up for renter's insurance for our new apartment.  This was accomplished over the phone in an excruciatingly long phone call.  The crucial part of renter's insurance, it seems to me, is the actual address of the rental property being insured.  I gave this to the guy.  But, somehow, instead of our real address, I discover on our first statement that he has taken down the following: "3524 Greystpme Dr., Austim, TX."  Now, two things.  "Greystpme" is simply not a word.  I couldn't have even pronounced this to him over the phone.  And, second, this insurance agent is based in Austin, and surely knows that there is no such place as "Austim." Seriously.  I called shortly after receiving this communique to correct the information, thinking that it might be important for the address I had paid to insure to be the one where I actually lived.  The guy acted put out by this, but said it would be corrected.  I just got a form showing the corrected address.  My new address?  "3524 Greyst0ne Dr." Wow.

National Healthcare is not like the DPS

Monday, July 13, 2009

A rant:

I am getting so tired of hearing the following line: "Do you like waiting in line at the DPS?  'Cause Obama's healthcare plan is going to be just like that."

Granted, the DPS sucks.  We all know this.  However, two things remain clear to me.

(1) Most people who make this statement have probably not lived in a country with nationalized healthcare.  If you have, and see the DPS as a valid analog, then by all means, you're entitled to your opinion.  If, like most people, you have not, then you simply have no basis for comparison.  I can say that in my experience in the UK system, nationalized healthcare bears little resemblance to the DPS.

(2) People are quick to make the leap from "DPS is inefficient" to "government programs are inefficient."  This just doesn't follow.  I don't hear people who complain about nationalized healthcare complaining about other national programs from which they benefit, such as interstate highways and an army.  Or how about national parks.  Or free public schooling for children.  Yeah.  We've got it pretty bad, huh?

Granted, any program that can be done can be done poorly.  But, that doesn't mean that it is necessarily the case, and unless you know what you are talking about and really don't care for all of the other fine government programs from which you draw benefits, then I suggest engaging in more thoughtful discourse on the subject.  End rant.

Climate

Friday, June 12, 2009

As you know, I will be moving back to Austin at the end of the summer. I have started to realize that I am in for a rude awakening in terms of the climate. Now, I have lived in Texas for much of my life and was for some time thoroughly acclimated to hot weather. Not that I really enjoyed the hot weather, per se, but I was able to survive it. However, I have noticed a change in my attitudes since being in Scotland. Today, for instance, it is about 61 degrees outside and I consider this to be a very warm day. Why, when the long winter started to come to an end and highs of 45 were common, I thought this to be rather mild. And, when we were on vacation in Italy, it got up to around 80 a couple of days, and both Kellie and I were rather hot. Funny how your perceptions of warmth and cold shift.

Moral of the story: I will be in Texas next week. It will be around 100 degrees whilst I am there. I am going to die.

Youth

Friday, May 22, 2009

My head hurts and I can't for the life of me concentrate. This is due to lack of sleep, or rather, interrupted sleep. Exam time is winding down at the University of Edinburgh, so our upstairs neighbors, a flat full of freshman girls, were extra exuberant. I got to sleep fine initially, but was awakened around 3:30am by Alanis Morissette's "You Outta Know," which I could hear so well through the ceiling that I could have sung along. This effectively prevented me from sleep for another hour or so, when they finally cooled down and went to bed. But, by 4:30, the sun was coming up, making our flat, whose window faces east, bright as day. Nice.

It's to be expected, I suppose. College kids will be college kids. The funny thing is that I remember days, not too long ago, that I would relish staying up until 4 in the morning, listening to music and such. Now, dagnabit, I just want my 8 hours of uninterrupted sleep. When did I get old, or rather, when did college kids start seeming so young? Yikes.

No, I Do Not Want to Become a "Fan" of Laughing

Friday, May 01, 2009

Okay, facebook, enough is enough. I appreciate the idea behind "friend recommendations." This can actually be kind of a clever thing and can help people find long-lost friends. I get that. What I don't get, and what is an increasingly great source of annoyance, is that this recommendation engine is now recommending that I become fans of "things." Some of these things are understandable. Sure, I would like to become a fan of The Decemberists or Stephen Colbert. But the things one can become a fan of are more and more abstract and ridiculous. I was asked this morning, for instance, if I would like to become a fan of laughing and of procrastination. What!?!? First of all, these aren't things one can become a fan of, at least not in the same way as one becomes fan of The Decemberists or Stephen Colbert. Am I a "fan" of laughing? I don't really know. Am I a "fan" of breathing? Am I a "fan" of having a regular heart beat? What does that even mean? That's not even the most perplexing part of this. The question I want to ask is: who is spending their time making "fan" pages for laughing and procrastination? And why? In the case of the latter, perhaps the answer is inherently obvious, but still, I fail to see the point.

I like to laugh. I spend a good amount of my free time engaging in activities designed to promote laughter. In fact, I am a fan of some of these laughter-inducing things and people. But, I do not think I am willing or able to enter the bizarre world of laughter "fandom." Let's just leave it at that.

Extreme Nerd Annoyance

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Chalk this entry up to my extreme nerdiness and my propensity to get annoyed at trivial matters.  You have been warned.

I have many passions in this life, but two of the greatest ones are the following: Star Trek and the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Austin, TX.  I could relate to you a lengthy narrative of why these two phenomena are so great, but suffice it to say, they are awesome in their own respects.  So, imagine my disappointment last week when I read that the Alamo Drafthouse was going to have a free screening of my favourite Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan, to be shown along with 10 minutes of exclusive new footage from the upcoming J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie, to be released in a little over a month.  This was disappointing, but not devastating.

However, as I recently read on the Internets, this is what actually went down.  They started the movie at the Drafthouse, but about two minutes in, they pretend the movie has screwed up and needs to be fixed.  The lights come up, and Leonard Nimoy, Spock himself, appears and asks the audience, "Wouldn't you rather see the new movie instead?"  The crowd, of course, cheers, and the Drafthouse proceeds to play host to a surprise world premier of the new Star Trek movie.

Very cool for Austin, very cool for the Drafthouse, very cool for Star Trek.  Thing is, I am in Scotland.  Had I been in Austin, there is a good chance I would have been there, as I possess the aforementioned passions for the Drafthouse and for Star Trek.  Alas, alack!

Sheer Terror

Sunday, March 08, 2009

I took Thursday off in an attempt to clear my head and relieve some stress.  There was no real agenda and I ended up spending most of the day simply walking around town.  In the afternoon, I wandered over to Cornelius Beer and Wine, which is perhaps the best beer shop in town, to see if the fellow there had any new and interesting things in stock.  I looked around the store for a few minutes, read a few labels, and then decided to depart.  I was just a few yards down the road when I heard a shout from behind me.  It was the shopkeeper from the store, and it sounded like he said something about a bottle, but I couldn't make it out.  I wondered if he recognized me from the last time I had been in and wanted to show me a new beer or something.  But, next thing I know, he is rushing toward me, and before it even registers that he is running after me, he catched up to me and grabs me around the chest with both arms.  Now, until this point in my life, I do not believe I have ever had someone run after me and grab me, outside of games on the playground, so this was something entirely new to me, and at once a completely terrifying experience.  Once the rush of adrenaline began to subside, he, somewhat embarassed, explained that another customer had thought I had stolen a bottle, and so he had taken off after me.  Yikes.  Not something I want to repeat, but strangely enough, this is the second time I have been (falsely, mind you) accused of shoplifting in the last six months.  I guess I come across as much shadier than I would have thought...

Urine My Way

Monday, December 22, 2008

One of the singular charms of living in the middle of a city is the, shall we say, colorful behavior one encounters. Take, for instance, the fact that people keep urinating on the front door of our apartment building. Now, I am not opposed to urine per se. Urination is a necessary part of life; I encourage it. Nevertheless, our door is not the best place to do this. There are two reasons for this, aside from any legalities involved. First, the door is not flush to the floor, so urine deposited on the outside of the door inevitably makes its way inside. No one likes to hop over a urine puddle on the way out. Second, as a consequence of this, said urine puddle makes the entire stairway smell really, really bad. Yes, while I am not opposed to urine per se, it is an objective fact that urine does not emit a pleasant aroma. Pity that it doesn't, otherwise our stairwell would smell quite nice right now. So, on the off chance that the wonderful individuals who have abused our door in this way happen to read this blog, let me say, for the record, that I take strong exception to your act. That is all.

On the Virtue of Brevity

Friday, November 21, 2008

Just to clarify: having to cut down a 7000 word essay into a 3000 word essay, for the sole reason that one was, at the outset of one's research, misinformed about the required length, is neither fun nor, as the kids say, "cool."

On Threats Received

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Threatening Letter

Saturday, November 15, 2008

We don't have a TV in Scotland. There reasons for this are twofold: (a) we don't want to buy a TV; (b) in the UK, to have a TV, you must buy a TV license. Yep. So, that's the context for this. I, along with all the other people in my building, received the following letter last week. It was in an envelope marked, "Do not ignore!" :

"YOUR STUDENT ADDRESS IS NOT LICENSED FOR YOU TO WATCH TV

To the present student

If you watch or record TV at this address, you could be breaking the law. That's because you don't have a TV license for this address. We know this from our database.

If you're a student, you need to be covered by a TV License to watch or record TV as its being broadcast. It doesn't matter what channel you choose - it could be terrestrial, cable or satellite. And it doesn't matter what equipment you ue - it could be a games console, laptop or mobile phone. You still need to be covered by a license.

It's quick and easy to buy a TV License (NB: for about £140, $220 or so), and you can always spread the cost.
...
Of course, if you don't watch TV, you don't need a TV License. But please let us know so we can remove your address from our list of student homes to investigate (emphasis added). Just call XXXX XXX XXXX. We may send a TV licensing officer to confirm what you say (emphasis added). We will then update our database to show that you don't need a TV License.

If we don't hear from you at all, an enforcement officer will be scheduled to visit your address (emphasis added).  If you're found to be using TV without a license, you may later be prosecuted, summoned to court and fined up to £1000 ($1500ish) plus legal costs.

If you gave recently bought a TV License, you don't need to do a thing.  Your details with be recorded on our database.

Yours faithfully"

Now, I don't get a lot of unsolicited threatening letters, so this was actually quite surprising. But here's what's funny to me: (1) That the British Government wants to expend the time and resources to specifically seek out and prosecute students, who do not have any money. (2) This guilty until proven innocent approach, which apparently involves both threatening letters and visits from your friendly neighbourhood enforcement officer, even if you say you don't have a TV! (3) The fact that they are willing to pay enforcement officers to come to your home, just to see. 

So, wow.  Just wow.  Like I said, we don't have a TV, and download all our shows on iTunes (which is exempt, according to the letter).  So, I'm interested to see if they will actually come to inspect us.  Stay tuned... (unless you don't have a TV License, in which case you should either purchase one and then stay tuned, or face a possible fine for staying tuned illegally)

On Being Robbed

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) can go to hell. Please. I thought I had finished with them after being deprived of some $140 for the privilege to take their blasted test, which ultimately shows only that I know how to read directions. Not exactly cheap, and what exactly did all that money go toward? As if that wasn't bad enough, I got on their website to request score reports to be sent to the schools where I am applying, only to find out that each report is $20. Each one! One sheet of paper that cost nearly nothing to produce! That's nearly $100 more dollars! And what is this money going toward? My friends, I have been robbed. Shame on you, ETS, for charging such obscene fees to students, of all people, who don't have a lot of money to spare.

Allergies

Monday, July 21, 2008

For the record, I am really, really glad that I don't have allergies.  My wife, however, does.  And they suck.  Poor Kellie.

Frustration of the Extreme Variety

Monday, July 07, 2008

So, as you may know, Kellie and I are moving to Edinburgh in about two months.  Two months.  And, as of today, I am still waiting on an unconditional acceptance letter from the University.  I sent them my transcript a month ago, have written numerous emails, to no avail.  They have all they need from me, and indeed, have had it for a month.  All they need to do is enter it in the computer.  Until they do so, our housing application cannot be processed and we cannot apply for visas.  I don't know what else to do.  I am extremely frustrated.

And Another Thing...

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Also, I bloody hate Tuesdays. There's not enough of leftover weekend relaxation, and it's still 4 days until the weekend. Just not a good day. There, I said it.

In Praise of Construction

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Today, upon checking my campus mail, I discovered that I have been issued a dumpster key. I was thrilled. Due to ongoing construction, our dumpster is being moved closer to the road. There was apparently some concern that this would lead to the public "using and abusing" our dumpster, so the decision was made to put a lock on said dumpster. Now, this may or may not be a good idea (I, for one, have little time to devote to the relative merits of dumpster-locking), but regardless, I find it infinitely amusing that I am now in possession of no less than SEVEN keys at Austin Seminary: (1) apartment key, (2) apartment outer door key, (3) apartment storage closet key, (4) apartment mailbox key, (5) school mailbox key, (6) library key (for work), and (7) the dumpster key. Never in my life have I needed so many keys to access the essential places of my daily comings and goings.

O Tuesday, Where is thy Sting?

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

So, after delivering the aforementioned sermon, I was rather pleased with myself and took a well-deserved break before heading off to work. After relaxing for a few fleeting moments in my apartment with a cup of hibiscus tea, I headed back to campus. Whilst crossing the parking lot and navigating the construction, I heard an insect buzz and pass close to my face. I reached up to scratch my neck, feeling that it had come close, and lo and behold, there was a bee on my neck, which promptly stung me for my curiosity. It was the end of an era: in 25 years, I had never been stung by a bee, wasp, hornet, or yellow jacket. And it hurt like hell. I was very pleased, however, to discover that I am not allergic to bee stings, which is good because I really did not want to die today.

The conclusion of the story is this: still cursing and clutching my neck wound, I entered the library and, before even sitting down, was promptly asked to shelve a cart of books. The end.

Also, hurray for Tuesday.

Post Office

Monday, February 25, 2008

Martha (Stewart) (our resident wedding adviser) suggested that, to keep our invitations in pristine condition, that we go to the post office and politely ask them to hand cancel the stamps. So, when we finished up with the invites last night, I figured, "Hey, what the hell?" I went there this afternoon, and after waiting in line for 20 minutes (seriously, what are so many people doing at the post office in the middle of the afternoon?), the postal employee handed me the stamper and gave me a place on the counter to do it myself. After waiting in a 20 minute line, it seemed silly to decline at that point, so I personally hand canceled all 150 or so of our wedding invitations. Yea for the post office and huzzah for customer service!

Under Construction

Monday, February 18, 2008

Oh, how I love waking up every morning to the thundering rumble of construction equipment, punctuated only by horns and the shrill sound of the backing-up alarms. I am so glad they get to start at 7am every morning. Yeah. Just FYI.