An irreverent and snarky look at what makes America great. If I can't be funny, at least I'll try to be interesting...
How Not to Show Attention to Detail During the Resume Creation Process...
I was asked recently by a business colleague to be a job recruiter and find the right candidate for her vacant administrative assistant position. To that end, I received about 60 resumes for this position over about 4 weeks. There were many gaffes that I noticed by reviewing all of these resumes but the one recently captured my attention.
The applicant misspelled proficiency (proficines) when talking about her past marketing experience. She spelled 'Excel and' 'Exceland.' She appears to be good with Word but forgets or ignores the spell check function. That comes through clearly. You're selling yourself to a job recruiter and looking for help -- is this not the epitome of carelessness? Especially on a resume. If punctuation and grammar issues are found on the resume, what will her work look like when she communicates with clients in her administrative position?
Decrease Military Spending During Peacetime?
The former Vice President was quoted this week on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. "We must demand this administration (referring to Biden) increases military spending immediately, (arms) Ukraine with lethal weapons to counter Russian armor and aircraft, and President (Joe) Biden should sanction all Russian oil exports worldwide." So what is Pence saying? If war breaks out somewhere in the world, should we increase military spending? Or, if a war breaks out near NATO countries, should we increase military spending?
Let's look at a more peace-oriented scenario. If we have peace for two consecutive years in the world, should we then decrease our military budget? Shouldn't we be fair on this issue? If war, increase military spending, and if no war, decrease spending. It will never come to fruition but is something I think should come to fruition which means the military budget may fluctuate every couple of years.
NBC Interview With the Former Attorney General
This week, Lester Holt, the NBC correspondent, interviewed former AG, William Barr, who talked about the election and how Trump took the news that he indeed had lost.
Good News, William Barr thinks Trump lost the election. Barr also downplayed those sensational reports from questionable news outlets that the election was stolen by the Democrats.
Bad News: Barr said on Monday it’s “inconceivable” to him that he’d vote for someone other than the Republican presidential nominee in 2024, even if it’s Trump.
Consider all the heartaches and frustrations Trump forced upon William Barr and he'd still vote for him for the Republican presidential nominee in 2024. It's inconceivable -- I'm having a very hard time within my mental capacity to understand his thinking.
Job Search Advice Used But Not Always Plausible
Years ago, during the great recession, some economists thought that there were 5 times as many job seekers as actual openings -- at least within the professional and corporate space. During that time of my job search, an employment specialist who I’ll call Bill regularly preached there were 4 things to do to stand out among other job seekers. Good advice overall but not completely effective during these trying economic times. Why wasn’t the advice overall good? The advice was useful in some situations but less so during 2009-11 with the high unemployment.
You had so many more job seekers than jobs available so that advice doesn’t hold a lot of water. I'd be sitting at a table of other job seekers who were hearing the same advice I was receiving. How could this information be a competitive advantage? This wasn't bad advice but didn't fit into the right economic context of the time. However, in today's job market, this advice may be useful because there are more job openings than job seekers so using some of these tools may help you stand out among others.
You Can't Have it Both Ways...
According to the NY Times, the Texas abortion law, also known as Senate Bill 8, enacted late in '21, amounts to a nearly complete abortion in the state and prohibits abortions after about six weeks. Those right-wing radicals in power are essentially saying to Texas residents, "It's not your body and not your choice." However, when it comes to the vaccine, they have a different opinion: "my body, my choice." Funny how some Texas Republicans change their tune depending on the topic at hand. If they think vaccines are their individual choice with their bodies, then that same principle applies to abortion.