Things I’ve been up to over the last couple of months:

• Flew out to Baltimore for a few days to meet a bunch of people I work with.  The crab cakes at Gunning’s (corporate Staple / Dive bar) in Maryland are definitely not as good as the ones in Seattle
• Drove up to Friday Harbor for a weekend stay at the Friday Harbor house.  I had a craving for Mexican Food in the middle of the night and ended up in a torrential downpour walking back to the hotel.  I would highly recommend this place if you’re looking for a hotel in Friday Harbor
• I Became a wine member for the very first time in my life and we received our first shipment.
• Took a few days off from work and drove to Eastern Washington with Shanelyn.  We stayed at a winery called Cave B inn.  When we took a bike ride and I accidentally rode into a swarm of about 100,000 bee’s.  Some local farmers were cross-pollinizing a crop and I was totally unaware of what was going on until getting caught in the thick of it.
• I finally set the date, and we’re getting married at a beach house in Maui this October, more details to come

I Went to see The Watchmen this weekend with a few friends at the Cinerama in Seattle. Aside from the Vodka continually passed around (Thanks Tom), the movie was confusing and dragged out, 2 hours 43minutes. It all started with the multiple characters that were hard to side or identify with, so I didn’t really care if one charater died or another survived. It was hard to follow because the plot went back and forth so many times I couldn’t understand why this one guy was glowing and naked. I’m not talking about the “after sex” glowing, he was literally glowing. In all fairness, I never read the comic book that was based on the movie before watching it, so that may have been a good start. If you’re into the movies that are based on comic books this one is for you, otherwise I’d say pass.

Ceasar ready to be dried off

After work today I went out with some of my friends and co-workers for Happy Hour at The Melting Pot in Bellevue.  I visited this place before with Shanelyn and was not really impressed.  So tonight I wanted to give it one more try.  I sat down with everyone and decided to order a bottle of wine for the crew.  After pouring the wine ordered, the waiter asked me if I wanted to try another wine that was much more smooth than the bottle I just ordered.  I told him I’d try it a little later, so after 15 minutes he showed up at our table and corked another bottle of wine and poured a little in my glass.  After tasting it he asked me what I thought.  I was a little confused since I just ordered a bottle of wine not to long ago, so I told him it was okay.  He set the new bottle of wine down and said, “I knew you’d like it”.  A while later we started drinking wine from that bottle only to learn it was really $100.00 for that wine, plus 33% gratuity.  When I asked the manager about this he told me the waiter doesn’t say how much the wine is because he would never want to down-sell the wine or make anyone feel cheap by telling someone how much the wine cost.  This was happy hour, not a wedding anniversary dinner and this restaurant is located in the ground floor of an apartment complex…

The icing on the cake came when the waiter brought our table the other half of the check, charging extra for items ordered during happy hour but delivered after happy hour.  I checked the reviews on this place and wasn’t really shocked to see the poor reviews. I don’t think I was being unreasonable. Overall, this place is manufactured romance, trendy pop culture, and way overpriced.

After putting Ewanme.net on the back-burner last year I’ve decided to get back to blogging and giving my unsolicited opinion.  Let me catch everyone up to speed since my last post:

1. Moved from technical recruiting to business operations within the Workforce Management arm of our parent company.  My job is balls-to-the-wall crazy, but I work with some great people and I love what I do, which is really all that matters.
2. Shanelyn and I bought a place in Issaquah. I’m so proud that we’re realizing the goals we made together three years ago.  We have a great place in a quiet neighborhood close to where I work, now we just have to get married.
3. I Hurt my knee pretty bad last year, but after some physical therapy I’m running between 1.6-2.0 miles per day.  When I hurt my knee I was so scared that I wouldn’t get to run ever again, I love running!  When did humans start to love running anyway, versus running only when being chased?  I guess the fear of the big animal jumping out of the bush is gone.
4. Saw O.A.R. while they were in Seattle.  The concert was excellent but I drank way too much tequila, still remember the headache. 
5. I finally caught-up to the year 2009 and signed up for a Facebook account, meh it’s okay.
6. I jumped on the iPhone Band Wagon, best phone I ever bought especially when you can download apps like iPity, the Mr T application with a bunch of sound bytes from The A-Team.
7. Just got back from a week in Napa Valley with Shanelyn.  I read a book, went wine tasting all over northern California, learned the difference between a good Zinfandel and a crappy one, got lost in wine country, and found out the toll to get over the Golden Gate Bridge is $6.00 cash only when I only had $4.00 at the toll gate, I’ll explain that one later.
8. Went hiking with Shanelyn this weekend and got frustrated with all of the other people being so loud and obnoxious in the wilderness.  Next weekend we’re going off the grid.

Until next time…

As many of you know I’m a technical recruiter. One of the biggest problems our industry faces is the transactional quality of our work. Let me try and map out the process of a job requirement. The hiring manager has open headcount and emails HR to create a job description. HR completes the job description and sends it to the hiring manager. The hiring manager ads on a few things and sends it to the account manager of the staffing company. The account manager turns around and sends it to the recruiter and the recruiter makes phone calls to potential clients to fill it.
From this point the recruiter matches someone up with the job requirement, sends them for the interview and a few things happen. They get the job but continue to look for work after being hired because they are still unsure about the position, or the hiring manager  says “go-fish” and the candidate doesn’t get the job and then they’re resubmitted for another one. The problem that our industry faces is that most job requirements are emailed or faxed to the account manager, and they in turn are stuck in this transactional mode whereby having limited access to the client versus the consultative mode where the account manager calls the hiring manager and ask specific questions about the job/culture/environment/project.
If you’re a consultant, you need to be sure to have a company that operates on the consultative model, unless you’ll be starting your new gig and looking for another one at the same time. I’m trying to come up with ways to improve the way I do business, and one thing I know now is that people don’t join companies, they join cultures. I’ll try and blog a little more about staffing and so forth in the coming months.
If you’re a consultant who contracts, tell me what our industry is doing wrong and how we can improve so you’re not stuck in a gig that you’re unsure about.

Yeah, its summertime again! I’ve been cutting my hair shorter-and-shorter over the last couple of months and finally decided to shave it off completely. Shanelyn was in complete shock when she came home from work, I laugh every time I picture her face. I hate spending all that time in the shower anyway, so this saves about 3-4 minutes off my morning routine (shampoo, rinse, style).
Last weekend Shanelyn and I were going to take a day-hike in the Mt. Baker National Forest, but after staying up waaay to late to watch Top Gun, we woke up late on Saturday and decided to take a Ferry ride to Bainbridge island and both fell asleep in the car. We stopped at this casino and Shanelyn actually hit a jackpot. We were both in complete shock as we boarded the ferry to go back to Seattle. After we got home we bought some Top sirloin and a nice bottle of Grgich Hills 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon. By the way, I’d recommend that wine over the Oberon cab.

Where did the sun go???