Little typo

So I was filling out interns evaluations. Generally the word PUBIC is not one you want to read on an evaluation, but there it was.

Some words leave a bad taste!

I've been doing interviews for interns again and  I interviewed someone from a university with a borderline GPA. He's at the lowest cutoff. Of course that doesn't concern me  so long as I can hire the person and they do the job I want them to do.

One of the questions I ask these days is "Why should I hire you instead of any other student at your university in your program".  I guess he figured since his grades are lower then many of his classmates, he was going to play with that. So he said that  he actually understands the material. That he doesn't memorize it the night before to vomit it up for the exam.

Yes he used the word VOMIT.  Usually people use regurgitate, since it's closer to the actual process.Either way, you shouldn't use the word VOMIT in an interview unless it was brought up by the interviewer. I figure in some fields, like janitorial, it might come up in interviews. Or even in nursing......

But when applying for an internship in an engineering company the word vomit, has really no place in the interview. I was on an empty stomach at the time and the word affected me adversely.  Hell it's 2 weeks later and that's all I remember about this interview. He didn't stand out as being knowledgeable or interesting. No he stood out because he used the word VOMIT.

In case you're wondering, I actually felt nauseous after this interview.

Long week before release.

Most who read this blog know I was shipped to Toronto Monday July 21st and came back on the Thursday. I was sent to Toronto because the company I work for is producing a product based on an AMD chip.

In some ways it was a thrill, because ATI technologies, has been my favourite graphics vendor for over 20 years.  It was too bad that it wasn't before the merger with AMD. I suspect the company mentality was different before being bought by AMD

The products I've been working on are out as customer samples and I have to get a release on our website by Monday morning.  I've been working on this project for easily a year and it's been a long year. This project has by far been the most confusing, with the least possible documentation.

Usually I get some form of specification which helps me understand the software and drivers. This time, nothing. Trying to get information is like pulling teeth.  Also because those responsible for drivers aren't in our building or even in the same city,  and the guy who is our go to guy at AMD, while being an outstanding human being, is a lousy tester. He tries, he really does. But it means I get to revisit scenarios over and over and over again.  To prove to my bosses, that yes, the problem is still there. Why they aren't seeing it at AMD... your guess is as good as mine.

Some time ago, I ranted about Eyefinity cards. I talked about how much more congenial our software and interface is then theirs, but how their graphics engine was far more awesome then any of ours. Well we will now have the best of both worlds. Our very user friendly, configurable software interface with their kick-ass hardware.

I have to say, I've been validating the AMD version for 8 months and our spin-off since mid july, my specialty is to find catastrophic fails in display drivers.  Their driver is reasonably well validated, as I found very little display driver issues per say.  Most of the issues I'm finding are communication issues between their driver and their low level interface which talks to our interface. 

This week and next week are going to be killers, with many hours of overtime. Hopefully what gets posted on the web Monday as a beta for customer samples is going to be a success. We worked really hard like headless chickens in the past few months, would be nice to see some results.

Of course while all this is going on, this is when I start going through CVs and am doing interviews for hiring interns that would start in January. I started yesterday with 3 CVs and it's going to continue. The timing is so wrong but if I miss the deadlines I miss having interns and that would be a bad thing. 

Also our June equipment budget  only got approved in July and while the purchaser was on vacation, so while I'm trying to get this release out the door, I've been flooded with new equipment . Most is unpackaged but I still have a huge box of items to tag before distributing it.  I have LCD's that are doubled on shelves because I don't have the bandwidth to re organize my benches and my teams work benches. And if this wasn't enough, we got maintenance to postpone waxing our floors THIS week-end. That would have meant that all systems are shut down for week-end, and all cables rolled up otherwise EVERYTHING gets caked in wax.. That's going to be next week-end.

Today is Hump Day!

The middle of the work week. Speaking of work, last Friday I was given a certificate for 20 years of employment. [It was given to me 21 1/2 years there].  I had already received my gift certificate at the beginning of the summer, and ended up getting the Tamron 18-270 Piazo lens with it. Nice multi purpose lens that is awesome when just taking one lens for a walk in the park.

My new batch of interns, while being very young and very green are a good batch. It's a bit surprising. Usually the winter semester is where I have the worst candidates, and the summer semester is where I get the best candidates. This batch is all from COOP universities and includes one female student.  Other then the fact they don't read, I haven't really had an issue with any of them.  I say they don't read because all of them have repetitively asked me questions that are answered in the "information guide" I give them on the first day.  Most recently my phone extension and email address. I had to remind them that all pertinent telephone numbers and email addresses they might need to contact us, are all neatly written on page 5 of the booklet. And then I've stressed that first before answering questions they should look at all provided information.

It amazes me that the ONLY student recently that used this guide and read it properly was the one I had last semester, that I'd interviewed twice and not chosen. The one who was so poor interview but turned out to be on of the best stagieres I've had in years.   He never asked a question that was already answered in his guide. But he's a very rare breed.

I managed to get 2 20-25 minute walks in Bois de Liesse on Monday, sadly Tuesday rained most of the day so instead went to bulk barn and dollarama with a colleague.  Today hopefully I can get 2 more walks. I always feel so much better when I go walking in the woods.

Oh and the coworker I keep bitching about, the one with the bathroom fetish and the like, she's taken to coming to work wearing Fuck-me boots this winter. I had one day where one male colleague pointed out she really needed to wear a bra. You could see way too much of her breasts despite wearing a top.

Freezing rain sucks

Yesterday it went up to 6 and we had freezing rain most of the day. Made for spectacularly icy roads, which reminds me I need to salt my path so the mailman does not kill himself.

Yesterday was the first day back at work and I had 6 interns start. So far so good, none are grating on my nerves already and they seem ok. We'll see as time goes.

I also had a date last night, for the first time in years. Probably since 2006 or 2007. Yeah I don't go out much. I met him at Pushaps, on Sources.  When I arrived, the owner asked me how I was doing. I've been going to this restaurant for close to 20 years, so I asked him how business was doing. He answered business is good, especially with loyal customers such as you who brave the bad weather to have dinner here :)

My date arrived on time, and seemed happy to see me [no he didn't have a banana in his pocket]. Conversation found us just as easily in person as it did online both emails and chat.  That was a relief. as I have particularly awkward days.   In person he reminds me of the father of my daughters.  He's about same height and built, though probably much slimmer then ex now.  Once I was able to get his work clothes out of my head and see him more as himself, it helped a great deal.  Tucked in shirts and business casual is not as bad as suit & tie but apparently does nothing to turn me on either.

After dinner I invited him back to my place to talk some more.  We had a really nice time. Cannot wait to see him again. Jethro had a nice talk with him and even Ziva liked him, my little anti-social diva!

Oh and don't get me started about the cats. First they sat and watched us interact, then they fought. I mean how often do Jethro and Ziva fight? Practically never. She was hissing!  Both managed to take off their collars and play with the collars on the floor to make noise and tell me that they had taken it off. They also tore around the house like maniacs and Ziva enjoyed play deer. Between their antics and how I'm feeling there's definitely another storm coming our way

Now have to get my ass in gear to get ready for work. It's -15 outside today, nice contrast to yesterday's warmth and everything will be iced up today.

A little surreal.

This week has gone by so fast it's almost surreal. 

It's Wednesday night and I don't know where the time flew. I didn't really do much of anything this weekend other then to veg out. Went shopping on monday with my gf.  Went to Carrefour Lava [as my gf's auto correct says]. We went early morning around the time the stores were opening. Thank God. By noon we were both ready to kill a few people. 

I swooned. They opened a Vans store in Carrefour Laval. I'll have an easier time getting my favourite Vans. I know there is one downtown and I went once or twice, but their layout was really not conducive in me finding the right shoes. I wonder if there will be a boxing day sale at the Vans store.. Swoon.   I can't explain why I like skater wear, but the past 10 years or so, I wear Vans running shoes and the past 5 years it's been Billabong dresses.  And last summer one of my favourite combo's was the Vans with the hot pink laces, and a Billabong dress with hot pink detail, seen in the scenic photo below.

In August 2013, at the lookout on Mont Royal.

Old Navy had some of my favourite long sleeved cotton tops for $5 a piece. I took 5 home of different colours. The purple, burgundy and hot pink one were v-necks. the Monet blue, and charcoal grey are extra stretchy and scoop neck.

Work has been so busy for me. Usually the week between my interns I have to set up equipment for them.  Anyway I'm realizing many of the systems don't have windows 8.1 on them.  It's quite the task to set them all up.  But trying to make sure each intern has 2 systems available to them fully configured.  Dunno if I will succeed. Maybe they will just have 1 that is and one that isn't that will get rotated out once I have others done.  I have work for weeks, doing it between other tasks.

Why bother having a CO-OP program - RANT

I've been hiring interns I think for the past 18 years.  I've seen the good, the bad and the ugly. Usually though it was the students, not with the support staff in the universities that deals with the students.

I've had issues with one particular University with one of their stage coordinators and until this summer, I had not hired anyone from that University, in probably close to 10 years.  Because of the way I was treated by their coordinator.  So finally I chose to interview a few students from there. For starters we had all sorts of issues with Skype. It was extremely painful to interview that way because the voice kept cutting in and out, if the student on the other end even moved a hair while sitting   You would think that they would have tested their Skype setup before the interview day. 

I've interviewed a student once through MSN messenger video chat who was in  Jbeil Lebanon, and although he could not receive video, I had an easier time with that interview despite Lebanon's piss poor internet service of the time. The audio and video I received from him was sufficient and he understood me. 

In the end after the lousy skype interviews, I had chosen one student. I chose to make her an offer, but not to the other two that I interviewed because I did not think they were a good fit for me.   What they were expecting me to do is to send them a message that said

Student a  - 1
Student b - 2
student c - 3

What I did was the equivalent of this. Which I have every right to do.

Student a - 1
student b - 0
student c - 0

My HR person just basically sent them the name of student a, as being the only student we were making an offer to.  On a day where she was out of the office, the coordinator decided to call her.  He called her backup who said "This isn't anything that can't wait till tomorrow, wait till she's in". So he called my colleague who interviews with me, but got his voice mail. Next he called me. That's when he started saying "It's obvious you don't understand our ranking system, so I'm calling to explain it to you". That's when I said to the guy, that I was making one offer. He says "What if she refuses, you get no one". I answered "I have students from other universities I'd rather make an offer to". He tried again to explain to me the ranking system. I told him that I've been dealing with ranking systems for coop programs for 15 years, besides if he has a beef with HR, he should talk to HR.

Student A did accept my offer and she's working with me. She was a good fit in the team, and is doing an awesome job.  Normally during the internship, the  coordinator is supposed to come for a visit. That has to be scheduled through our HR department. But no, the coordinator sent me and the student an email saying he'd be at my office on a particular day at 2:30.  Well that's nice, but 1) what if I was meeting another coordinator from another university that day 2) I was on vacation 3) there were no free conference rooms to reserve for that day and time, because it's not like I can take him to my desk, I work in a restricted area.  So I forwarded the email to HR, who called him to tell him that he has to coordinate with HR to schedule appointments with my student and I.  It's still up in the air as to when this will happen because the coordinator managed to really piss off the HR lady.

Now let's think this through. The internship program is to benefit the students. So they get some experience in the field they are hoping to work in. The support staff in the universities that help make this possible, should not be pissing off employers. They should be working hand in hand with the HR department of the companies they deal with.  We almost always have one HR person dedicated to handling everything that goes with the internship programs. I've worked with every single one of them and they were all competent organized people.  Rarely did it happen in the past that a coordinator would phone or email me directly. It all went through the HR department.  Now all of them do it. So I get phone calls and emails from 6 different schools. From various coordinators and their support staff. I get spammed by all sorts of emails from the various universities for all sorts of things I should never be emailed for.  Like each time the school has an award presentation I'm invited.  Let's be honest here. Who goes to award ceremonies other then those receiving awards and their close family and friends?

Despite the fact HR asked all of them to contact HR only, they all try me. And I have one broken record CALL OR EMAIL HR!  Apparently I was the first who had that attitude and forwarded to HR all the emails I get, and send emails to advise HR when I get phone calls. Now all the other managers who hire students do the same.

I mean the 3 main universities with COOP programs are Sherbrooke, Concordia and ETS [Ecole de Technologie Superieure ].   I have beefs with all 3. One of them tends to send me candidates from first year bachelors to masters students.  I now know why. The staff tell the students "apply to all jobs that you like and ignore the pre-requesites".    One of them spams me constantly with junk mail, despite asking over and over and over to be removed from their mailing lists.  Their website to get resumes is woefully painful. I had 15 applicants for my fall 2013 position and it took me over 2 hours to print the resumes of those that had adequate GPA. 

IT's a great idea to put everything electronically. Sadly when I interview either at their campus or when I interview in a room at work, I don't have access to even a laptop to view the resume. So I need to print them regardless. So having their whole system electronically has not improved things  but has made it more difficult. For instance it's very nice that I can do the evaluation online but it's a pain to print it so that we can keep a copy for our files for instance. Doesn't print very well. PRobably done on purpose by some environmental nazi. to discourage printing.

Same university again, about a year ago, I chose a whole bunch of candidates to interview and then never got given an interview schedule for the day I was supposed to interview at their campus.   And then the last university is the one I've been bitching about with the coordinators from hell.  I had issues with them and Skype  4 months ago. Apparently the Skype interviews that were supposed to happen today,  got completely messed up by the university . HR person sent all her instructions for how to connect to Skype via email.  When she called to ask why no one has connected by Skype to the manager, she was told that she hadn't provided the right information.  They blatantly lied to her twice today.  I'm so looking forward to meeting that coordinator. When he asks how come we rarely hire students from their university I am prepared to give him an earful, more then he cared to know that's for sure.

Then there's McGill, Polytechnique and UQAM who also sends us interns. One of them I can't really complain about. I don't get many candidates but the ones I've hired have been exceptional.  Another one for some reason now for the 3rd time in a row sends me resumes of students who are registered full time for the period for which they are applying for an internship. HR assures me that it says these are full time positions. How do those students expect to do 5-6 classes during the day and work full time? Or when I'm looking for winter positions they  are applying for summer positions. So CV's go into reject pile.   The last university, rarely sends me students at any other time then for the summer positions. But then I have so much more choice in the summer that their students don't get a fair chance sometimes.