Dara Torres, the 41 year old USA swimmer and Olympic medalist gave this quote in her interview after winning the silver medal with her relay team. Her statement is such an inspiration to everyone and gives me hope and inspiration that even as I get older, there is no age limit to achieving your dreams.
0 CommentsMonthly Archive for August, 2008
I’ve got tech recruiters from agencies all over Los Angeles calling me everyday - almost twice a day pitching me jobs and my number is not even listed anywhere. Tech recruiters have always used somewhat “grey” techniques in trying to find candidates such as asking people to refer their friends or colleagues to receive a referral fee, or cold calling companies asking for random people until they find a tech person who they can pitch a candidate, or pitch a new job. Now these agencies are trolling LinkedIn cold-calling companies and lying that they are connected to you through LinkedIn. What really annoys me is their fake way of trying to establish a friendship with you asking “what are your plans this weekend?” I’M NOT YOU’RE FRIEND! Why the hell should I tell you? And do all tech recruiters use the same script? I’ve been asked the “what are your plans this weekend” question multiple times by multiple recruiters at multiple agencies. AND NOW the new technique they are using is “I’m not calling to pitch you a job, but to ask you for a reference”. TWO recruiters from TWO different agencies almost used those exact words. Is there some shady tech recruiter conference that these people all go to?
I should open up my own tech staffing agency - but run it like the Hollywood studio system back in the old days. Hollywood studios used to sign actors with whom they saw potential and would groom them to be movie stars. I would sign top programmers who could not only code but were attractive and had really good presentation skills and then represent them through their entire career through the myriad of jobs that tech people go through - or help them start their own company. Top Hollywood agents and managers do this now and just collect a 10%-15% agency/management fee or establish a back-end deal with the actor.
On another note - why do tech people need to use recruiters anyway? In this day and age of LinkedIn and other social networks it should be easy enough for anyone to find a job through their friends and end up with a higher salary since they aren’t going through a recruitment agency. The true hustlers will never need to use an agency. They will find business opportunities for themselves or even better, create their own opportunities.
Don’t get it twisted. In many ways I’m not mad at this situation. There’s obviously no recession in the internet/tech sector.
2 CommentsI surprisingly received two calls from my agent today. On the first call my agent wanted to know if I’d be interested in doing a U5 (under 5 lines) or non-speaking role on General Hospital. Of course I said “Yes”! It’s been a long time since I’ve been on a set or done any acting professionally so I’m happy to take a small role. I joked with my agent asking if General Hospital was back in Hawaii - because it seems like every time the plotline goes to Hawaii I get a call and end up with a small role on the show. If I get this role this will be the 5th episode of GH I’ve appeared on.
The second call from my agent concerned a commercial print audition for Adidas - basically a modeling job. The shoot would be over 3 days and I would receive a $5k buyout for the shoot. Not bad. Then tonight I read the breakdown and noticed that for wardrobe it says “will also be shirtless”. Crap. I’m the skinniest I’ve ever been since high school yet I’m still not as ripped as I’d like to be. I still have bad memories of another audition for Bud Light where I had to be shirtless for the audition and I was 30lbs heavier (not in a good way). Well, it is what it is.
Along the same note I looked at the Xflowsion site to see if the new infomercial was there and it is! But I see they re-tooled the new version of the infomercial and I’m no longer in it. That’s ok with me - but I did find my filmed testimonial in the raves section - which proves to me that I’m still not as ripped as I’d like to be.
I’m going running in the morning.
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