Posts filed under ‘Work’
How NOT to get a job at a busy hospital
Over at the Being Veruca blog, healthcare professional/respiratory therapist Mommy A has a description of how a desperate job seeker interrupted her lifesaving work to ask pointless questions.This leads to her posting on How Not to Get a Job.
First, let her set the scene:
It is 3 AM. I have been busy as all hell because A) people keep trying to die in the hospital and we have had more codes than I thought possible in one shift. And I have the main ICU.
Tip: Don’t call the busy ICU floor in the middle of the night if you’re looking for a job. The conversation could go like this:
Moron:”How many patients do you have? Right. now. How many units of the hospital are you covering? And how many therapists do you have there tonight?”
Me: “Well, we have 4, which is standard at night. I have the MICU, and I am covering all of the patients in that unit. There are 10 ventilators running up there right now and…..”
Moron: “OH MY GOD! Do they always work you like that??? I heard they did. I work at XXXXX now and I only have 2 treatments to give before 8 in the morning. That’s what I’m used to. I don’t like to work a lot. Or very hard. Ewwww. And a ventilator? I hate running vents. I haven’t run a vent in 10 years.”
Me: “Ummmm, we are usually pretty busy here. And since there are only 4 therapists in house at night, all of us may be asked to handle a vent or an intubation, even if we aren’t assigned to an ICU…” (Okay, now I think I may be being punk’d. Where’s Ashton?)
Moron: “Whatever, I guess I can try it. Where do I fill out an application?”
I had to give her the website where she can apply online. And I had to tell my boss this morning that if anyone calls who works at that hospital, to please not hire them. Who? Who really tries to get a job like that? Especially in our current day where even healthcare professionals are having difficulties finding jobs. I mean, when I applied for my current position, I called. But when I called, I spoke with the director of my department and simply asked, in a polite tone, if they had any available positions for a registered therapist. He asked me a few questions about my experience, and before I had even completed an application, HR had called me to schedule an interview. I actually completed the application and submitted my resume at my interview. But I was polite. And professional. And was eager to work. And motivated. Really.
Notice Mommy A’s reaction: She told her boss not to hire. Her call is a better model for getting a job in a busy hospital.
Wired: 10 Space Jobs
Wired Magazine has a list of possible space jobs that might be opening in the near future. These would be fun to recruit for.
- LEO pilot (eventually, lunar transfer pilot)
- Space-travel ticket broker
- Spaceport traffic control (also, on-orbit traffic control, Earth and lunar)
- Human-rated spacecraft maintenance
- Space communications specialist
- Space Construction and Repair Specialist
- Lunar base psychologist (presence on the moon not required)
- Mars colony psychologist
- Nuclear and solar power engineers
- On-orbit refueling specialist
Check out the whole article for more details about these career opportunities.
AoM on The Importance of Paying Your Dues
Courtesy of the Art of Manliness blog, some advice for those who want instant gratification in their career:
Success comes from years of hard work. Not only do many millenials expect to land their dream job right away, they also expect to immediately live the same lifestyle they had when they left their parents’ house. They want nice clothes, nice furniture, a brand new car, and a nice house the moment they set out in life. Of course, in order to do this right off the bat, these young people have to take on huge amounts of debt.
McKay goes on:
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he posits that greatness comes through adherence to the “10,000 hour rule.” Pointing to people like the Beatles and Bill Gates, he argues that their success came from practicing their skills for 10,000 hours, not through some inherited genius.
We’d all love to be rich overnight, but unless you win the lottery, it just isn’t going to happen. The path to success is hewed through years of dedicated and relentless hard work. In short, you have to pay your dues before success comes.
The emphasis above is mine. See the whole article here.
Mike Rowe on the War on Work
Since my employer is looking at a $54M budget shortfall, my civic co-workers and I enjoyed an unpaid furlough day today. While spending some time this morning shoveling out after yesterday’s blizzard, I had a chance to contemplate the nature of work. Once my driveway and that of my neighbors were clear, I came in to catch up on world news. Coincidentally, I found this 20 minute video of a talk that the Discovery Channel’s Mike Rowe gave back in December 2008. Rowe explains how castrating lambs during a Dirty Jobs filming brought discovery and enlightenment about work.
This video is worth watching. The first 7 minutes are the castration part, and then Rowe quotes Aristotle on discovery (ἀναγνώρισις or anagnorisis) over the next three minutes. At 16 minutes, Rowe hits on his theme: How modern American society has declared War on Work. See the whole thing:
Rowe’s great insight is about the War on Work. He points out that this was not a planned campaign, but that it is a civil war, and a cold war. Rowe correctly identifies four fronts in this War:
1. Hollywood
2. Madison Avenue
3. Washington DC
4. Silicon Valley
Listening to him provoked a minor bit of anagnorisis for me. As a technical recruiter, I’ve been guilty of fighting against skilled labor on the Silicon Valley front. At one point, I believed that everyone should become computer literate because ever job could be done with a computer. What I didn’t appreciate is that Innovation without execution is meaningless. I didn’t appreciate the hard work it takes to build great technological devices until I worked in a manufacturing plant. Every genius with a gizmo need people who can assemble multiple copies of that gizmo. That where the skill is.
Hearing Rowe talk about Madison Avenue’s message about the War on Work was enlightening. Thinking about America’s current struggle with “work/life balance”, I realized that Rowe puts the blame in the right place: on the Advertising View that works against Work:
So many of the commercials that come out of there (Madison Avenue) in the way of a message. What’s really being said is, “Your life would better if you could work a little less; if you didn’t have to work so hard; if you get home earlier; if you could retire faster; if you could punch out sooner. It’s all there – over and over; again and again.”
“Life is better if you work less” – that’s the core message we hear about work/life balance. Not that we have to be effective. Not that we have to get ‘er done. Less work doesn’t make people happier – accomplishments make people happy. Working, being needed, and demonstrating mastery are what make people happy. And we wonder what happened to the American work ethic.
To help raise awareness of the forgotten benefits of labor, Rowe has a new project:
People often tell me that Dirty Jobs reminds them of a time when Work was not seen as a thing to avoid. When skilled tradesmen were seen as role models, and a paycheck was not the only benefit of a job well done. We need to recapture that sentiment. We need to celebrate, on a bigger scale, the role models right in front of us. Dirty Jobs has given me the opportunity to do that. With a little luck and the right support, mikeroweWORKS, will take it to the next level.
Good work, Mike! For what it’s worth, I’m adding you to my blogroll.
Hat tip to The Anchoress for the video find.
