Joel Dahlin

Sabrina 1 and half years old.

Sabrina turned 1 and a half today!

Fun on the slide

Sabrina throws a fit when we have to leave, I swear she can slide down, go around climb the stairs and down the slide again FOREVER. :)

Ummm..

Anyone else confused? #Census2010

How do I get this ringtone?

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Interviewers

This is an open letter to all interviewers out there.

I've had a few interviews recently for contract positions.  I realize you (the interviewer) have a lot of people to interview, but please take 10 minutes to look over my resume before you come and talk with me.  Make me wait an extra 10 minutes longer even.  I find it frustrating and unprofessional when you come in sit down and pull out my resume.  "Ok, lets see here, it says, you have done this and that..."  Yeah it does. Maybe you could have looked before-hand and came up with some questions regarding the projects on my resume.  


I actually have felt like they don't even know what to ask so I end up elaborating on all kinds of stuff not knowing if they care about it or not.

That's all...

Firefox, what happened?

HOP Fit Club

Tonight I am getting together with the core group of the HOP Fit Club to iron out the details for the 2010 season.

For those of you who don't know what this club is....

4 years ago, Newman, Brandon and myself started the club simply to motivate us to stay fit get together and have some good times.  The first year we had 12 members.  We had some jerseys made up that we wore to the events we did.  The following year it grew to 40 members.  Last year we doubled again reaching 80 members.  

It's great seeing all the HOP Fit Club jerseys at all of the events.  Are two biggest showings have historically been the Earth Day Half Marathon and the Apple Duathlon.

We're hoping to have another season with a lot of members.  
If you enjoy or are looking to get into running, road biking, mountain biking, and triathlons come to the meeting on Feb 25th at the House of Pizza downtown.

Hope to see you there.

Damn Recruiters

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Warning:  This is just a total rant.

I am sure there are some good recruiters out there that are up front with you about everything, but I have not had such a good experience with them.

It seems I am constantly contacted by recruiters.  99% of the time I blow them off because they bring me something I have no interest in.  However, recently two different recruiters approached me with something that I actually sparked an interest.  So began the talks.

I swear you talk with these guys and then one of their partners before you ever actually get to talk with the actual company.

So recruiter 1A speaks with me for on a couple of occasions about an opportunity then hands me off to recruiter 1B. I am not sure if 1B got any background info of me because we basically went over everything as I did with 1A.  Finally had the opportunity to meet the company over the phone.  This was their internal HR.  So she took down again mainly the same info as I already went over with 1A and 1B.  Next she scheduled a phone interview for me with their Team Lead for Monday at 2:00pm.

2:00pm rolls around no call.  I shoot an email to my recruiter telling them I was stood up.  They quickly get in touch with the company and I get an email from the HR gal.  "Sorry for the confusion, can we re-schedule?"   I replied, "What was the confusion, we had scheduled an interview for Monday at 2:00.  Yes we can reschedule."   So we did, and I finally spoke with the Team Lead.  He in-turn asks nothing technical, just wanted to basically find my interest in the project.  I'd like you to come in for an in-person interview.  My thought was ok fine..   He said he would have his people contact my recruiter to line something up.  Man too many people involved.  

After a few days I got a call from my recruiter, "They really liked you and want to bring you in for an in-person interview, but your rate is too high."  Which really means, the rate the recruiter proposed to them is too high.  I don't know how much they marked up my rate, but obviously way too much.  1B said she they were willing to take a big hit, but I still need to drop my rate a bit.

Enough of the talks, I said I am not going any lower and if they (you) change your mind let me know.

Ok now for the rant with a different recruiter. Lets call him 2.  2 contacted me with an opportunity that he wanted to discuss with me.  Sounded good so he forwarded me more info on it.  I gave him the go ahead to propose me to the company.
He came back with a couple of things needed.  He wanted me to lower my rates a bit just like the last recruiter company (here we go again).  I actually was willing to drop a bit for this one so I said ok.  Next he needed a couple of references.  I gave him a couple of references expecting that they would simply be forwarded to the company to be contacted via phone.  Turns out he emailed them this big reference form (attached).  Wow, I didn't know he was going to do that.  I wouldn't ask this of my references, I felt like an ass.

2 recruiter companies in 2 weeks.  Blerg.