Archive for the 'Tales from the Field' Category

lessons learned from a bad workplace experience

Friday, July 13th, 2007

I had dinner last night with my manager from the Major International Staffing Firm (we were good friends before I started working there, and continue to be good friends now). We were talking about how acquaintances that we don’t see often usually express surprise when we tell them we left the MISF.  “But I thought […]

what i’ve learned

Monday, April 30th, 2007

So, here’s something I learned during my recent job search.
I’m not cut out to be a recruiter. At least, not like some people are.
Don’t get me wrong. I loved my job. For nearly two years, it was the best job I ever had. But I learned that what I loved about […]

A Tale of Two Walk-ins

Wednesday, February 21st, 2007

Ordinarily, I don’t really don’t interview walk-ins. For most of my time here at the MISF, I’ve been focusing on experienced interactive media people- developers, project managers, etc. If someone fantastic walked in, I’d stop to talk to them, but most people were politely encouraged to email a resume in and make an […]

a kindred spirit

Thursday, February 1st, 2007

Jason at Recruiting.com posted this there and it made me so, so very happy:
Dumb stuff I read on resumes

a long afternoon at the office

Thursday, January 4th, 2007

I have a former coworker who remains my Language buddy- that is, she’s the person I check with when I’m stuck on a word, or the appropriate phrase, or other such English language quandary. Hence, we had the following email exchange:
From: Tiffany Bridge
To: Language Buddy
Subject: I’m blanking.
What’s the noun form of “conform?” I’m […]

“follow-up” is good. “stalking” is a felony.

Tuesday, January 2nd, 2007

When a candidate sends you his resume at 9:28 AM on the first day back from a long holiday weekend, and then sends a follow up message the very same day at 4:30 PM to ask if you got it and ask for a response, is it totally out of line to reply with:
“Yes, thank […]

damn it feels good to be a gangsta*

Friday, November 17th, 2006

You know what feels great? Telling a problem client to take a hike.
Some of you all are quivering at the thought of telling a client to take a long walk off a short pier, but I suspect that most of you are grinning, just a little bit.
You see, it is my contention that […]

time is money, friend

Thursday, November 16th, 2006

I answer the phone today, my first day back at work after recovering from the plague.
“Thank you for calling [MISF]. This is Tiffany, how may I help you?”
“Uh, yeah. I was callin’, um, because I’d like to, uh, come in and… apply for… uh… um, um… uh, what’s it called…”
“A job?”
That probably wasn’t […]

your staffing companies talk to each other

Tuesday, October 24th, 2006

Late this afternoon, nearly at closing time, we got a call from a professional contact of a recently-departed manager. It’s a manager at one of our competitors, calling to ask an awkward question and hoping we could help her out.
A client that she has been working with, a client who also works with us, […]

more stupid attitudes

Monday, October 9th, 2006

One of my coworkers has a client who expressed irritation that a long-term freelancer he was working with had demonstrated the audacity to - gasp! - bring in a small framed photo to put on her desk.
“Freelancers are like guests in my home,” he pontificated. “They shouldn’t act like it’s their home.”
First of all, I […]