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Georgia Ranked #1 for First Time Ever
NEW YORK -- By the time Georgia was done demolishing Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl, it was apparent the Bulldogs were well on their way to being No. 1 -- to start the 2008 college football season.
Seeking its first national championship in 28 years, Georgia is on top of The Associated Press preseason Top 25 for the first time.
The Bulldogs received 22 first-place votes and 1,528 points from a panel of 65 media members in the poll released Saturday.
"To have people believing we have one of the best teams in the nation going into this thing, it's exciting for us," Bulldogs coach Mark Richt said in a telephone interview with the AP. NEW YORK -- By the time Georgia was done demolishing Hawaii in the Sugar Bowl, it was apparent the Bulldogs were well on their way to ... more -
The Best College Football Players come from the South
The first college football game was played 139 years ago in New Jersey, between Rutgers and Princeton, and the sport was dominated by Northeastern schools such as Yale and Harvard in its infancy.
By the middle of the last century the South had risen in college football, and these days there’s no question: If you want to win a national championship, it’s best to play in places where sunscreen is more important than snow boots, and the grits are better than the bagels.
Why? Simple. Because that’s where the best players are.
Since the Bowl Championship Series started crowning a national champion in 1998, Ohio State and Oklahoma are the only schools that play in cold weather to have won a championship. And it’s important to point out that Oklahoma borders Texas, which has more high school football players than any other state. The first college football game was played 139 years ago in New Jersey, between Rutgers and Princeton, and the sport was dominated by ... more -
Iraqi Vets Against the War - PDF on Recruting
Anyone who is even considering joining the armed forces needs to read this! This was posted yesterday and buried, even though it was at the top of upcoming. It picked up another 70 diggs after being buried. Anyone who is even considering joining the armed forces needs to read this! This was posted yesterday and buried, even though it was a... more
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Interview 2.0 - Employers switching to interrogation tactics
In today’s ultra-competitive business environment, people have the resources available online to present their qualifications and knowledge in the best light. They can learn through experience or research what questions will be asked and how best to answer them. For today’s top executives needing to hire managers and leaders for their organization, it is important to have some questions that cut through the normal responses like a scalpel.
They need to master Interview 2.0 techniques.
It’s okay to get personal
One of the biggest mistakes that employers make is that they do not get personal enough in an interview. There are boundaries depending on the law of the land that define what one can ask — anything that stinks of discrimination has to be avoided. Still, it’s possible to get personal without asking “What church do you attend?”
When starting with personal questions, always precede it with a disclaimer. “The questions I am about to ask you may get personal. If at any time you feel that you do not want to answer, just let us know and we will skip the questions.”
Once the disclaimer is out of the way, find out what you can about the person. What do they like to do when not at work? Do they have a blog? Do they prefer to cook or go out to eat? What did they do last weekend?
These questions may seem frivolous, but it isn’t in these answers that you are judging them. From their responses, you will find something that you can latch onto. It’s the follow-up question that makes the difference.
Say, for example, that they like to play video games when not at work. What is their favorite game? Have them describe the game to you. Ask them how often they play it? Do they play online?
What about cooking? Does someone else cook for them? What is their favorite meal? Favorite restaurant? How do they handle it when their order doesn’t come out properly?
Blogging - do they have one? Many? Do they read blogs? What are some of their favorites? Do they write for any others? Share photos? Are they involved with social media or social network sites? Do they have a Facebook account? LinkedIn? Digg? YouTube?
Now, you’re probably wondering, what’s the point of all of this knowledge? If they’re into solo RPG’s, they’re likely more into strategy and independent. This guy will likely do well with a project that he’s solely responsible for. What if they always eat ready-made meals or have mom do all their cooking? They’ll likely lean on their teammates and be good at some things, but without a supporting team they aren’t going to shine. What does maintaining your own blog say about you? If you have a blog, I want to read it before giving the thumbs up. Bloggers tend to be passionate, team players and want to share, help others and connect.
When you get someone talking about something that is part of their daily lives, you have a better chance of gleaning how they will handle particular situations in their professional lives. Life happens every day. Interviews happen once in a while. Get them out of interview mode and make them talk about something they do normally. The way they react to normal situations is a closer representation of how they will respond in normal work situations.
Unrelate them In today’s ultra-competitive business environment, people have the resources available online to present their qualifications and know... more -
National Guard to recruit 'Rock Stars'
In August, the US Army National Guard will launch a mobile marketing campaign, supported by outreach to local media, to sign up recruits at various music festivals and other outdoor events.
Developed and executed by RedPeg Marketing on behalf of prime contractor Docupak, the "Rock Star Hero Challenge," as the campaign is called, features a tour bus with 52-inch touch screen displays that allow potential recruits to see and participate in virtual missions.
Interactive kiosks where visitors can pose with images of rock bands will sit outside the buses, tying into the musical nature of the events and emphasizing the figurative "rock star" quality of Army National Guard members.
The 12-week tour begins the first weekend in August and will go to about four events per week, with each event expected to last eight to 12 hours and draw 50,000 to 100,000 attendees.
Despite earlier reports of problems meeting recruitment goals since the Iraq war, LTC Joseph Day, chief of the Army National Guard's strategic actions and marketing, said that the National Guard is currently on track to meet its recruiting goal for 2008. Since 2005, it has increased its "end strength" total from 330,000 to 380,000.
RedPeg will manage outreach to local media covering music festivals and sports events like NASCAR races and bass-fishing tournaments.
"Recruiters will know about the events [in advance] and pre-market them," said RedPeg president and CEO Brad Nierenberg. "The events will be a way to engage with consumers who haven't considered the National Guard before now."
Day said that recruiting is typically done on a local, grassroots level, with recruiters attending any large event where its "target demographic" might be found.
"The interactive nature makes the 'Rock Star Hero' different and will appeal to our demographic's thirst for technology," Day said. In August, the US Army National Guard will launch a mobile marketing campaign, supported by outreach to local media, to sign up recrui... more -
Lockheed Martin wins $1.2 billion TSA contract
The Transportation Security Administration this month inked an eight-year, $1.2 billion deal with Lockheed Martin Corp. to provide TSA with comprehensive human resources support. The contract could expand into a $3 billion project if the Homeland Security Department decides to use it for human resources support at its headquarters operations.
The unprecedented deal is being viewed by many as a bellwether of things to come. Many expect a fast-paced outsourcing of HR services by federal agencies in the months and years ahead.
The outsourcing trend is fueled by a recognition that in-house HR methods are behind the times and unresponsive to growing needs. Agencies across government are seeing large-scale turnover of their staffs because of retirements, and that means accelerated recruiting, hiring and training. The move, proponents say, will enable agencies to employ smaller HR staffs that can focus on crafting strategic hiring plans and pay-for-performance systems. Meanwhile, contractors will handle the day-to-day operations of processing pay and benefits, recruiting and hiring, and managing personnel files, experts say.
“The role of HR has changed,” said Solly Thomas, associate partner for human capital management services at IBM, one of the contractors added to the government’s HR Line of Business program. “It’s gone from just processing, to looking at how they recruit and hire, and [considering things like] performance management practices.”
The White House is pressing agencies to consolidate their HR operations under a handful of service providers, both federal and private sector, under HR Line of Business. The program started in 2004, but officials overseeing it expect to win congressional support in coming weeks to greatly expand it.
The HR Line of Business program currently includes five federal HR service providers: the Defense, Health and Human Services and Treasury departments, the Agriculture Department’s National Finance Center, and the Interior Department’s National Business Center. Those agencies provide payroll processing services, process employee benefits and manage employee personnel files. Some also provide training, labor relations and strategic analysis. Actual hiring decisions remain with the customer agency, and agencies set their own goals and strategies.
Lockheed Martin said it’s getting increased interest from federal agencies. “Some agencies that have previously done everything in-house are starting to put feelers out, and see what benefits the private sector can offer,” Lockheed Martin spokeswoman Emily Simone said. She would not say which agencies she was referring to.
The reason for the increased interest, experts say, is that the private sector is way ahead of the government in offering innovative Web-based personnel systems and other cutting-edge services.
Kelley of Ameriben/IEC said HR work at intelligence and national security agencies should probably remain in-house to avoid security breaches. And agencies should specifically spell out what it expects from contractors to avoid confusion, sloppy work and wasted money, he said.
Because of the urgency with which it was created shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, TSA has always relied extensively on contractors to run its HR operation. The Lockheed Martin contract consolidates work previously done by Accenture, CPS Human Resource Services and Avue Technologies. TSA spokesman Greg Soule said the deal will streamline operations and improve efficiency.
Homeland Security now relies on Northrop Grumman Corp. to provide many of its HR services at its headquarters and has no plans to drop the company, said DHS spokesman Larry Orluskie. But if DHS adds a new division or suddenly needs to ramp up hiring, it will turn to Lockheed Martin, he said. The Transportation Security Administration this month inked an eight-year, $1.2 billion deal with Lockheed Martin Corp. to provide TSA... more -
“leftists” get "weed out" by the Justice Department screeners
Justice Department officials illegally used “political or ideological” factors in elite recruiting programs in recent years, tapping law school graduates with Federalist Society membership or other conservative credentials over more qualified candidates with liberal-sounding resumes, an internal report found Tuesday.
The report, prepared by the Justice Department’s own inspector general and its ethics office, portrays a clumsy effort by senior Justice Department screeners to weed out candidates for career positions whom they considered “leftists,” using Internet search engines to look for incriminating information or evidence of possible liberal bias.
One rejected candidate from Harvard Law School worked for Planned Parenthood. Another wrote opinion pieces critical of the USA Patriot Act and the nomination of Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court. A third applicant worked for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton and posted an unflattering cartoon of President Bush on his MySpace page.
Another applicant, a student at the top of his class at Harvard who was fluent in Arabic, was relegated to the “questionable” pile because he was a member of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a group that advocates civil liberties. And another rejected candidate said in his essay that he was “personally conflicted” about the National Security Agency’s program of wiretapping without warrants.
The report, prepared jointly by the office of the inspector general, Glenn A. Fine, and the Office of Professional Responsibility, is the first in a series of internal reviews growing out of last year’s controversy over the dismissals of nine United States attorneys. The report is the first from an official investigation to support accusations that the Bush Justice Department has been overly politicized.
In 2002, Attorney General John Ashcroft gave his political aides final say over hundreds of applications in response to what some officials believed was a liberal tilt favoring Ivy League schools.
Source: NY Times Justice Department officials illegally used “political or ideological” factors in elite recruiting programs in recent years, tapping l... more -
Things you’d love to say aloud at work
1. I can see your point, but I still think you’re full of sh*t.
2. I don’t know what your problem is, but I’ll bet it’s hard to pronounce.
3. How about never? Is never good for you?
4. I see you’ve set aside this special time to humiliate yourself in public.
5. I’m really easy to get along with once you people learn to see it my way.
6. I’ll try being nicer if you’ll try being smarter.
7. I’m out of my mind, but feel free to leave a message.
8. I don’t work here, I’m a consultant.
9. It sounds like English, but I can’t understand a word you’re saying.
10. Ahhh…I see the screw-up fairy has visited us again.
11. I like you. You remind me of myself when I was young and stupid.
12. You are validating my inherent mistrust of strangers.
13. I have plenty of talent and vision; I just don’t give a damn.
14. I’m already visualizing the duct tape over your mouth.
15. I’m not being rude. You’re just insignificant.
16. Yes, I am an agent of Satan, but my duties are largely ceremonial.
17. And your crybaby whiny-assed opinion would be…?
18. Sarcasm is just one more service we offer.
19. If I throw a stick, will you leave?
20. Errors have been made. Others will be blamed.
21. Too many freaks, not enough circuses.
22. Nice perfume. Must you marinate in it?
23. Chaos, panic, and disorder — my work here is done.
24. I thought I wanted a career; turns out I just wanted a salary.
25. Who lit the fuse on your tampon? 1. I can see your point, but I still think you’re full of sh*t. ... more -
Modern office distractions cost billions
According to the received wisdom, computers are a godsend for productivity. Word processors relieve us of the burdens of flawless typing; digital files zip onscreen faster than the paper kind can be found and are easily mined for the smallest detail; and the Internet, with its document sharing and virtual conferencing, offers new paths to smooth workplace collaboration.
But the practical experience of working in a modern office can be remarkably frazzled. Instant-communications technology and the natural impatience of co-workers and bosses can create an unholy alliance designed, it seems, to rob the workday of any sustained interval of unbroken attention to a particular task. Social life, allegedly enhanced as networks of acquaintances wire themselves over networks of computer hardware, can be equally jumpy, with constant "friend requests" and "status updates." From email to instant messaging to Twitter - an update service devoted to what-are-you-doing-at-this- moment inanity – the interval between interruptions appears to be approaching zero.
In "Distracted," the free-lance writer Maggie Jackson takes a searching look at this trend, especially the distractions that technology has helped to bring about. The result is a scattershot tour that ranges from anthropology and neuroscience to fast food and the rites of meditating monks. Along the way, Ms. Jackson samples from the thinking of a series of experts – often described as visionaries or mavericks – who study our habits of attentiveness and diversion. The result is more reverie than argument, but "Distracted" does concentrate the mind on a real problem of modern life.
In the workplace, a distracted knowledge worker is a fallow asset. Thus current research into worker habits is especially valuable. In the spirit of Fredrick W. Taylor's scientific management, Ms. Jackson reports, researchers have found that workers "typically change tasks every three minutes" and "take about twenty-five minutes to return to an interrupted task . . . usually plugging into two other work projects in the interim." By one estimate, "interruptions take up to 2.1 hours of an average worker's day and cost the US economy $588 billion a year." Many distractions turn out to be self-initiated: It appears that we just can't wait to read the next email or blog entry or check to see what might be happening in an online discussion.
So what to do? In "Distracted," self-discipline proves the key to the attention puzzle. Martin Seligman and Angela Lee Duckworth, two psychologists at the University of Pennsylvania, recently adapted a famous experiment that tested the willingness of young children to defer gratification: If you put them in a room with some prize – a toy, a marshmallow, an envelope full of money – will they take the prize immediately or hold out for a greater future reward?
In the end, Ms. Jackson makes her way to a Buddhist monastery, where people are learning to practice samatha – that is, to exercise voluntary control over their attention. Mountain retreats may not be for everyone, but the spirit of such an effort makes obvious sense in an era of information glut and tech-driven interruptions. Of course, if samatha – or something like it – turns out to be a good idea, it will be blogged about, praised in group emails, discussed online and debated in instant messages. Work will just have to wait. According to the received wisdom, computers are a godsend for productivity. Word processors relieve us of the burdens of flawless typi... more -
I'm too sexy for your oil
Graduates are turning away from the oil industry because it is "not sexy enough", it was claimed today.
The suggestion came from KBC Advanced Technologies Chief Executive George Bright at the Asia Oil and Gas Conference. He said the oil sector was the "bogeyman for everything that goes wrong in the world", adding that it struggles with an "image problem" amidst links with climate change.
Fields such as banking, biomedicine and information technology are far more alluring to the newly qualified, he claimed. The recruitment issue creates major hurdles in expanding operations and tapping reserves.
BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward stuck a different spin on the topic, however, claiming that many of the people leaving university did not have the "right qualifications" to work for the UK supermajor.
He said the problem is compounded by the fact that many of the best people in the industry are now closing in on retirement. Graduates are turning away from the oil industry because it is "not sexy enough", it was claimed today. ... more -
Two criminal billionaires under 40
Not only does the old adage “crime pays” ring truer by the day, but it now seems that massive feats of white-collar criminality have become a great way to attract the attention of upper echelon headhunters.... Not only does the old adage “crime pays” ring truer by the day, but it now seems that massive feats of white-collar criminality have b... more
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NBA Comes To BigLaw
The NBA style of play if finally coming to a Law Firm near you....
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Walmart: low prices and equal opportunity healthcare
A Missouri woman who suffered brain damage in a car crash must reimburse Wal-Mart $470,000 for medical expenses because of an insurance settlement.
The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Debbie Shank's appeal. A federal appeals court in St. Louis had found that Shank must repay everything Wal-Mart's insurance plan paid, even though the settlement with the insurer of the truck driver who hit her falls short of that amount.
Shank, 52, now living in a nursing home, was a Wal-Mart employee at the time of the crash.
As if things couldn't get worse for Debbie, her 18 year old son recently died in combat in Iraq. A Missouri woman who suffered brain damage in a car crash must reimburse Wal-Mart $470,000 for medical expenses because of an insuranc... more -
Biggest name brand companies are set to expire
Some of the world's most notable and powerful companies are on track to exit themselves from the marketplace
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Newspaper editors dropping like flies
A number of prominent US publications have handed their editors walking papers.
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Medical marijuana patients can lose their job
California Supreme Court rules against employees
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Union trys to organize Starbucks employees
The International Workers of the World union has been trying to mobilize employees of the ubiquitous cafe to unionize since 2004.
This Monday, protesters with placards of cats pouncing on lattes stood outside a Starbucks in Manhattan.
They claim Starbucks employees were forced to work the Martin Luther King holiday, without getting paid for overtime.
I think its interesting that as the US shifts to an increasingly service-based economy, so does the intentions of its labor movements. 100 years ago the IWW would not expect to be unionizing baristas. The International Workers of the World union has been trying to mobilize employees of the ubiquitous cafe to unionize since 2004. ... more -
gloves off
organized labor fights for the democratic candidates http://current.com/items/86425151_afscme_union_psa_parody
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scabs and the WGA strike
dare to cross the line?
"In order to discipline a scab, of course, the Guild must know who has performed scab work and it often does not require "CSI"-style detectiving to find out. Production staffers and others who work on shows or films have been known to contact the Guild, provide information, and sometimes even furnish evidence."
more:
http://current.com/items/87117991_celebs_on_parade
http://current.com/items/87109471_wga_strike_day_1
http://current.com/items/87452021_senator_edwards_at_th...
http://current.com/items/87455641_a_voice_of_reason dare to cross the line? ... more
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Recruiting
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Recruiting
