No biting the personnel

    I’m in Montréal for work. Could you really ask for more than a paid trip back to your home town? Then again, even if this week has been ok, February is about the worst of times to visit.
    I spent the last two days at my alma mater’s career fair. It’s been a great but sobering experience. I’ve always thought that getting to my first interview was a fluke; I submitted my resume the first year of my Master’s for an interview (for a full time position) 16 months later. However, thinking back, my resume even then had clear hints to the recruiters of my interests. Until now, I’d taken having a “here’s what I want to do” statement for granted. Wow… was I wrong.
    Here’s one conversation I had yesterday:

Candidate: Hi, I’d like to know more about the opportunities you have.
Me: We’re hiring for the entire company, what product or area would interest you?
C: I don’t know…
M: Well… let’s think about the products we make that you’d like to change, improve or even understand more about.  Which or our products do you really like using?
C: I’m not sure…
M: Ok, how do you use your computer? which of our products do you use often?
C: I send email a lot and I browse the web.
M: Anything you think is missing in your web browser?
C: I … I’ve never thought of that.
M: Mhhhh, about we look at this another way. What’s the software project you’re most proud of?
C: Oh, that’s easy. It’s got to be the second introductory programming class I did 2 year ago. I had to learn about recursion and I’m not that good at it.
M: Ok, that’s a good start. Do you have a resume I could look at?

    A few more details and a look at the resume confirmed everything I thought; and that was the end of it. What annoys me most is the fact that he hadn’t at least prepared for a few minutes or couldn’t improvise. I saw many other candidates like that.
    But there were some gems. Here’s one that got me and the other alumni really excited. On Thursday this young woman walked by and, almost naturally, did a double take. It seems the word hadn’t quite gotten around that there was a career fair. She listened in for a few minutes to some of the other questions before I eventually spotted her.

Me: You! I saw you! You made eye contact.
Candidate #2: oh… ok, (moves in closer). Hi! I’m —
Me: I’m M–, welcome to our booth.  I know you’ve got questions.
C#2: Sure (chirpy and giddy, big smile), what positions do you have for engineers?
Me: We’re hiring for the entire company, what product or area would interest you?
C2: Well, I’m not sure. If I was to pick an area I’d say I really think it’s how cool to see x in y. (I think her thing was computers in cars). Frankly I think I’m more interested about the type of job right now. I really enjoy researching projects, planning what we’re going to do, focusing the people on my team on the goal; stuff like that. The technology I haven’t settled on an area yet.
M: Well, first, we do have a team that works on the area you’re interested in but I hear you on the settling part. That’s common and we’ll help you figure out where you’d be most happy. What you also described though is a type of discipline that we have. We call them program managers. Here, let me show you what the official brochure’s description is…

    So for a few more minutes we talked about what being a PM is; what her background and experiences were; why not development as a career; whether she really wanted to work in automotive stuff; etc. Then I pulled out the real question, the one that’ll cut the conversation short if you don’t have the right answer.

M: Do you have a resume I could look at?
C2: No… I don’t (sheepish look). I didn’t know this was today. I feel really bad. Can I email it to you guys?
M: Actually, we’re here for the rest of the day as well as tomorrow. If I was you, I’d print out a copy and bring it over later. You’re always better off giving it to us directly.
C2: Oh (big smile), thank you. Yeah, I’ll absolutely do that. (Thinks for a second) Should I write a cover letter?
M: Doesn’t hurt.

    Then she left. I looked at my colleagues that had overheard the entire conversation and we were all kinda bummed. She was obviously smart, very passionate, great communicator, etc.
    She stopped by again today and got to talk with one of the PMs (whom I think remembered her from yesterday). She did great and her resume was put aside as a strong one that we should maybe call up for an interview. As the day wrapped up I tracked down her resume to look it over and read the additional notes that had been made.
    I noticed two really cool things immediately. She’s the only interviewee to have pulled anything like that of everyone we’ve seen and, as much as we can make it happen, she’ll get special treatment for doing so. Hopefully she’ll get to go straight to main campus for the real thing. A bit of hard work got her a few days’ all expenses paid trip and the opportunity to get a full interview loop. You can guess what she did, right?
    Her resume did have a cover letter. It was a surprisingly clean and good one. One paragraph on who she is, one on what she sees herself doing and how her experiences have lead her there and one on why she thinks she’s a good fit for our specific company. Yup… She tailored her cover letter specifically for us and made sure to demonstrate that she’d researched us enough to explain why her personality and interests would match our culture. The stuff wasn’t generic and showed she’d thought about what exactlt to say. Even if her resume as a 2nd year in college is limited, her ability to describe herself that way puts her ahead of her peers.
    But she did one more thing. She addressed the letter specifically to me. The full thing: Dear Mr. M– J–.
    I did not give her my business card. She also didn’t ask for it. Moreover, my handwriting sucks enough that my name card was unreadable by anyone out there. Actually, it’s bad enough that she couldn’t read my first name and, therefore, had to remember it from when I spoke it while shaking her hand. I know because she spelled it as I pronounce it in English which, of course, leads to spelling errors. But it was recognizable and she got the family name right.
    I know… it’s cheesy but I can’t stop feeling giddy about that candidate. It’s the same feeling I had when I was lecturing in school and I saw the students who really worked hard to excel pull off a very well deserved strong grade. It’s the feeling you get when you meet someone that has their act together: talent, skill, presentation, etc.

This blog’s title has been changed. You ask why? Mostly because “Fizzz’s blog” is a tad boring. Where then does the new title come from? Ah…

Kucci. She’s now a 10.5 lbs adolescent cat, bigger and darker than Truffles. Looking at her, resting on the top of the sofa, surveying the living room, you might think she’s in a somber mood and ready to tear apart someone or something.

The reality is much much worse. In a foul mood, she might try to nip you! You, the staff that caringly feeds her, caresses her and even handles her litter.

[Update: context people, context! Sigh…]

Sometime last week I hung out with people from work. It was fun and informal. This weekend, one of these peers sent me a LinkedIn invite. While I’m honored by this simple gesture, I am also troubled by who this individual has connections with. A cursory glance suggests that an entire product management organization at work has “linked” with one another.
This made me realize that I really don’t know what to think of LinkedIn. It’s not like I use it to track the life changes of friends and coworkers. Nor has it introduced me to smart hardworking people I’d like to work with (that would be useful when trying to fill an open position). The only excitement it’s brought me is the thrill of the hunt: does this acquaintance have a LinkedIn account? How many connections? Since LinkedIn is about your public face as you network with others, isn’t looking up a LinkedIn account implicitly better than googling that individual?

Today S, myself and a friend went to see this exhibition in downtown Seattle. While S had seen ads somewhere, I got semi-interested after watching the advertisement in the new James Bond movie. In that scene you see a number of bodies playing poker. Frankly, I thought that setup was in so-so taste. I didn’t really want to go to the expo. I got dragged there wimpering.

3 hours later I was calling that product placement false advertising. Even the images on the web site don’t do justice to the display. I’ll be blunt: it’s almost as academic a treatment of the body as what you’d expect from a museum. Yes, everything is in good taste (although tastes may vary). Yes, you can bring your kids along. It’s incredibly educational. Remembering my time in school, I envied the biology students who were there. I actually hope one day every major city will have something like this. No book will convey to you the nature, complexity and wonders of the human body quite as well as seeing the real thing.

Notes:

1. I’ve never heard so many random people discussing the human body simultaneously than at this event. It’s as if instead of chatting about football, every one started discussing the details of lung cancer.
2. The bodies were either donated or unidentied and unclaimed. There were prepared at the medical department of a Chinese university. Once you understand this, it’ll impact how you look at the bodies. For example, most of them (but not all) are of smaller stature. Moreover, the one on display to highlight the relationship between fat and weight would hardly be called overweight in North-America. You do wonder however why all the models doing sports are male. There are only a handful of female bodies. That’s a tad unfair (as one of the people accompanying me would say).
3. The process and its results are incredible… Still there are so many negative questions that can be asked. For example, how many bodies were mangled for each that remains? Where do the profits from the show go? Etc. Sooner or later you assume that a show like this must require some very special and no doubt well scrutinized permits (after all, there are preserved human fetuses).

Anyways… if you have a chance, you should stop by and spend a few hours. It’s worth the cost and I guarantee you’ll come out amazed.

Sure, my workplace has free Starbucks automated drip coffee (caff or decaff). S’s workplace has puppies training to be guide dogs. Her coworker has a blog for the adventures of Lester and Louie. Fun reading.

My family is asking what I want for Christmas. The answer was about to be the same vague unuseful advice until I had an idea. From these trips back home I often bring back music of Quebec. It’s hard to know here what francophone music from there is worth listening to. Thus I’ve decided that instead of asking for advice from friends once I get to their party I should ask beforehand. I’m sure my mom will appreciate.

You know who you are. Write a comment or send me an email with your suggestions of CDs that she should go buy for me. In the past I’ve brought back Bete & Steph, Jean Leloup, Bori, Daniel Bélanger, etc.

IMG_1566

Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

Earlier in the year, maybe when we were away from home visiting Montreal, a light bulb started flashing periodically: could Truffles be bored? After all, it can’t be that much fun to be cooped up in a house alone all day long. At times we’d joke that we should get him a companion, a Trufflette.

It’s during our recent trip to Japan, after the scar of Tokyo’s stray cats, that we resolved to adopt a kitty. The day after our flight back we marched into the Seattle Animal Shelter and, low and behold, fell in love with an adorable puff of black hair.

Please welcome Kucci. That is her new legal name.

She’s a young female of the domestic short hair (DSH) breed. She also has a puff of white hair on the tummy. Life was very stressful for her at first. After her surgery she spent a week alone in a bedroom. Then she had multiple visits to the vet with sharp devices. Finally, this is a new world for her and there are so many rules to learn: no scratching the sofa; no nipping; no meowing; no jumping on top of the fridge to play with the flowers; no attacking feets passing by while hiding under the bed. Sigh…

There’s also the other cat. Since she’s between 7 months and 2 years old, she’s more energetic than the 5 years old king of the house, Truffles. When introducing a new cat into a house use common sense: introduce slowly, step by step. No one likes their world disturbed. Plus it’s so impolite of you to not provide a notice ahead of time. But by now they’re good friends. We were awaken a few days ago at 4:30 AM by two bullets playing tag in the bedroom. Yesterday they were wrestling on the bed. Periodically she licks his fur into place; a never ending task for him. He pays her back by eating all the wet food they’re meant to share. What a gentleman…

When considering a second cat we were afraid that it would always be judged against our first one. After all, we’ve yet to meet someone who doesn’t like Truffles. He has fur softer than Teddy bears and his American Curl ears give him a distinctly cute look. But Kucci is so physically different that we can’t compare them and of that we’re glad.

When I moved to Seattle years ago one thing gnawed at me for a looong time. I felt disconnected from pop culture. I missed hearing decent music and discovering the good upcoming groups. To be fair I didn’t have cable TV at home nor did I immediately appreciate the musical tastes of my new friends. It took a while before I settled into a groove. My first discoveries were KUOW and KPLU. One’s mostly talk radio while the other is a Jazz station. I couldn’t live without either nowadays. Then through a heated argument with W about Tori Amos came the British invasion which from Kate Bush went to Shakespeare’s Sister and Elvis Costello. There was also a bit of South-African music and a wiff of american groups (whose style did match my interest: Depeche Mode, Linking Park and Moxy Fruvous). But I was still without a decent everyday music station.

For sure there are many radio stations in Seattle besides the NPR ones. For example the C89.5 dance station is great (plus its run by students). But the others seemed very narrow. How much 80s rock can you play? Do I really want a country music station? Clear Channel must own stations in Seattle. I remember once approaching Vancouver and noting to myself how great the music was. Are Canadian radio stations, like Montreal’s Mix96, better? Not sure but everytime I go back I ask a good friend for samples of the new stuff. Diversity, it turns out, is the spice of my musical life.

Tonight at 4:34 PM a Seattle radio station played Malajube’s Montreal -40C.

Yup…

Long live KEXP, 90.3 in Seattle; my new love. Thx E for introducing me.

Since they are member sponsored they have very few ads (kinda like NPR). Their live feed, which I encourage you to listen to, gives them an international audience. Their focus is also obviously multi-national: this Monday evening’s programming included music from Congo. Finally all of their playlists and charts are online.

Judge them yourself. I need to go listen to more of the Tokyo Police Club and of The Decemberists.

IMG_1562Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

8 days.

Any dreams we had of arriving at an exotic destination other than the U.S.’s west coast were shattered when we landed in the fog, got stuck in the traffic on I-5 heading to the city (at 10 AM on a Saturday morning), circled for 15 minutes that evening hoping to find parking downtown and awakened to a drizzling rain the next morning. In short, Truffles, we’re not in Tokyo anymore.

We’ve been back in Seattle for more than a week now, an eternity in vacation land. If there’s such a thing as the vacation blues, I’m still suffering from it. S, lucky her, isn’t. Seeing her cat probably helped. Its life must have been dreadfully boring while we were gone: 50 minutes a day of attention from a cat sitter isn’t much. True, my parents occupied the house for a few days during our trip. That might explain why Truffles’ food bowl had been replaced by a crème brulée bowl. In any case, whatever misgivings he had about our prolonged absence were quickly forgotten with a serving of wet food.

So what have we done?

Saturday night we forced ourselves to stay up. Following the suggestion from Seattle Bon Vivant we headed for Tom Douglas’ Serious Pie. If you’re looking for a different pizza experience this is the place to go. Each pizza is certainly worth a try as the toppings are unique enough that you’ll probably have a favorite. I had the yukon gold potato one. S had the house mozarella. We each enjoyed ours but not the other’s.

On Sunday we hit the Ballard Farmers Market. Apples are still in season and the Mt. Townsend Creamery camembert is as good as ever. After this we detoured by the international district’s Uwajimaya for supplies and a stop at our favorite bubble tea store right across the street. Note the hot bubble tea for cold and rainy Seattle days.

The rest of the week flew by.

1. As has been mentioned in the press, our world got reorg-ed. There’s little to say except that times like these are always full of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD): a fun comeback to work on Monday.
2. On Tuesday I got up early and did something I wouldn’t have considered doing at anytime during our month out of town: I drove to a bakery and to a coffee shop. It’s not that you can’t find either in Asia; of course you can! It’s that I had to drive, on the highway no less, to both places… Good news though, with a thick and crunchy yet not crumbly crust, a full and tasteful body, a great aroma and a reasonable price, the best baguette in town is back at Dahlia Bakery which now has, once more, it’s own oven. Don’t be afraid though, the croissants are still anemic. Of course with good bread I had no choice but to stop by Vivace by I-5 for a latte and a cafe caramel.
3. Thursday… Thursday we had dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant and recounted our Japanese cuisine experiences to the owner chef.
4. Friday was the Toastmasters fall division E contest. As the division governor for half of Seattle’s east side it was my job to organize it. I’d done a good chunk of the work before leaving (and a few emails from Beijing) but it’s still always 15~20 hours of preparation: hunting down role players, booking a location, buying food and gifts for helpers, preparing certificates and awards, etc. As always some thing s didn’t work out as planned but in the end, also as always, everything fell into place. Everyone left happy.

Busy week. Overall I must have slept an average of 5 hours per night last week. Quite different from our vacation.

However, if the contest wrapped up the week with brio, Saturday was the icing. A friend of mine capped off a strong year with a 12 hour Ironman in Hawaii only a few weeks after qualifying at Ironman Canada. Go Lesley! As we got the SMS message that she’d crossed the finish line, we were listening to Wynton Marsalis at the Paramount. What a gorgeous venue for this great artist. I especially enjoyed the diversity of the pieces played. The last time I saw him was at Benaroya Hall some years ago. While I find the sound there better, the concert back then was strictly instrumental.

Today, today I got a short run in, the first in 6 weeks.

IMG_0856Originally uploaded by Fizzz.

We head back in a few hours. Our last day in the throngs of Tokyo’s humanity has gone by. I’m not sure where I first read this description of Tokyo but I can’t think of a city I’ve visited more deserving of it. Once you’ve seen the scramble crossing - a pedestrian crossing for all directions simultaneously, including diagonals (japanese “sukuranburu kousaten”) - of Shibuya, neither Beijing, London, or New York appears as densely populated.

We’ll go back to Tokyo. For me, it’s the first labyrinth I’ve visited where, after more than 6 days there, I still can’t always tell North from South coming out of the subway. There are so many nooks and crannies to surprise us. Yesterday was our shopping day. Between the web and our guide books we jumped back and forth through the city: Asakusa, Ginza, Roppongi, Shibuya, Shinjuku, etc. One of the store we visited has a small entrance you could walk by 500 times without noticing it. Its stairs go down 4 floors before you reach a cavernous room.

To be fair, our shopping wasn’t all that successful. For clothing, the Japanese physique is simply too different from ours. They don’t sell getas in 12 1/2. Moreover, nowadays most books, music, or electronics found here are available in North-America. Whatever isn’t, I’m probably not informed enough to buy here. Finally, neither of us likes tourist souvenirs. In Kyoto it was easy to find traditional hand made goods. Here it wasn’t. Instead I would have left with a modern painting. There are plenty of art galleries.

Some questions still need to be answered about our trip:

Q. What have you done besides eating?

A. A lot. As the pictures show, we did all the touristy things recommended by our books and more in each town.

Q. Should one write postcards on a train ride?

A. No. As you will all agree when you receive the cards, the jerky motions of the trains transformed my already awful handwriting into the scribbles of an uncoordinated monkey. Solace was only to be found on the Shinkansen Hikari Railstar.

Q. S and I each bought a new carry-on before leaving. It is the easiest way to travel by train around Japan. She bought a Tumi on eBay. I bought a Samsonite at a clearance store. So… which faired best, Tumi or Samsonite?

A. Tumi. While the Samsonite has more cubic space for its surface area as well as a nifty “laundry” section, it suffers from a number of very annoying problem. The biggest being that it doesn’t balance weight easily. When fully loaded, it becomes unstable. If left alone standing, the carry-on would tip forward. It would also roll over sideways if one of it’s wheels hit a bump at angle (e.g. a paved sidewalk). Finally, after a month of travel the retractable handle is not sliding in and out as easily as it once did.

Q. Which guide books were you using?

A. To explore Japan we used Fodor’s Japan and Fodor’s Exploring Japan. After a day in Tokyo, I bought The Rough Guide to Tokyo at Kinokuniya, we already had The Rough Guide to Beijing.

Q. Fodor’s or Rough Guide?

A. In general I like the Rough Guides a lot more. I really enjoy their wit and pragmatism. Fodor has a very neutral tone which often tells you little more than the basics. Some of the information in the Rough Guide could have been better although the internet was a great backup.

A sad note as we depart. On the way back to our hotel last night we walked the west exit of Shinjuku station. This is where many of Tokyo’s homeless take shelter until morning. We’ve seen little poverty here. Unlike Beijing, there are almost no hecklers or beggars throughout Japan. During the day, this corridor links the financial side of Shinjuku as well as the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building with the gigantic transport hub and the commercial part of the district. At night, as the foot traffic dies down, about 200 people move into the alcoves. They build their own private areas with cardboard boxes and shield their eyes from the electric lights with clothing or towels. Neither side, passers-by or unofficial tenants, looks at the other. If you did though, you’d notice that they, mostly men, are all well shaved and well dressed, often dress pants and shirts. Were it not for the situation, you might mistake them for blue collar workers. Since we were both curious, I went looking for some information last night. Here’s a good article on the topic.