Signs of Age

I was introducing myself to one of our summer interns from Michigan this afternoon. At one point, he asked me what year I interned at this company. Caught off guard, the best I could say was that it was "sometime this decade". I did not want to admit that I was an intern eight years ago.

You know you're old when you are afraid to own up to when a trivial event like a summer internship happened.

Family Fun Time...

I've been MIA for a while on this site. A lot has been going on over the past couple weeks. Now is not really a good time to get into everything, but right now my mom is visiting for a few days. Her aunt died a few months ago her cousin in Boston organized a memorial service today. I never really knew my aunt Eva, but she sounded like a wonderful person. Eva was the youngest and last survivor of seven siblings (including my grandfather), and I think she also had the strongest personality of a very tight family based on the stories shared today. I think the last time I saw my aunt was at my Bar Mitzvah back in 1993, and who knows when I saw her before then. I hardly know most of my mom's family , but I really did enjoy spending the day with my mom and her cousins much more than I thought I would.

Unfortunately, my mom is visiting at a very bad time, for so many reasons. Maybe I'll write more later, but with all that's going on right now (lots of work, but more personal), I really wish she was not visiting this weekend. I'm still enjoying her visit as much as possible, and I can't really control the circumstances surrounding the timing, so I guess it is what it is.

Sorry for the vagueness, but I think you are all smart enough to figure it out.

You Give My Profession a Bad Name

TheCrazyCanuck told me about this youtube "hit" tonight. Definitely feeling a lot of shame for my profession this evening.

Wow.

Things You Don't Say in an Interview

I did a phone interview this evening of a full-time actuarial candidate with a year of experience at another company. The interview was going somewhat ok for the first twenty minutes. The candidate was able to communicate some decent examples. Although I had some doubt, I was still at least considering the possibility that I might recommend the candidate for a home office interview.

Then we started talking about his first full-time job. I found it odd that his resume said that he worked there until March 2008. Although I originally thought the candidate started applying for new jobs in March, it was clear that I was calling him in a location that was different from where he was working (I was calling him in Canada and his job was in the US). I figured he was no longer employed, which can be a red flag. I decided to ask why the candidate was looking for a new job, and he mentioned that he was let go from his first employer.

Getting let go from an employer is definitely concerning, but there are plenty of plausible explanations. I knew I needed to follow up, so I asked if his employer was simply laying off employees for some reason (very leading question...a poor interview technique). Since the candidate was only there for a year, it's perfectly plausible that he was laid off since he had the least experience, even though from experience I know that those selected for layoffs are usually targeted more for their abilities than because their specific role was no longer deemed necessary. That's when the candidate provided me with the biggest red flag I've encountered for a candidate that I ever seriously considered:

"They told me that I was not a good fit". Wow. I gave him a chance to elaborate, but he declined. Essentially, I believe he was fired for doing a poor job. Definitely not something you want to say to a potential employer unless you are prepared to elaborate. There will a million lies I would have believed since the candidate seemed competent.

While I could have looked past that if the interview was fantastic (since I did appreciate the honesty), it was definitely a deal breaker in this situation for a borderline candidate. First time someone ever admitted to me in an interview that 1) they were let go from an actuarial job and 2) it was for poor performance

We-Need-Pitch-ing

The Tigers were making their last ever trip to Yankee Stadium this week. What a perfect reason to make my first (and only) trip to Yankee Stadium before they move to a new stadium across the street next season!

I went down there last night, expecting to see two great baseball teams. Despite the Tigers horrid start, they were starting to play really well.

Thankfully, the Tigers were able to emerge victorious despite allowing the first three Yankees batters to score in the first inning. It sure made the cold steady rain more bearable!

The best part was when Cabrera hit a home run to put the Tigers up 8-4 in the 7th inning. The Yankees fans who did not run for the exits when it started raining turned on their team. Cheers against their team came from all directions around me. This one drunk girl tried to start a 'We-Need-Pitch-Ing' chant, which seemed harmless at first. She the went into a tirade through the rest of the Tigers half of the 7th inning (and probably the rest of the game) about how the Yankees were the suckiest bunch of sucks every to suck. I felt bad for the guy who was there with her. He seemed so annoyed. If the Yankees had not won anything for 20+ years, they would be no different from Philadelphia sports fans! However, her rant registered a zero on my sympathy scale. I hate the Yankees, and I hated them before I met DrT! :)

My only regret was that I didn't move down to the lower deck and grab better seats since the stadium was at best 30% full. I went down there to watch a couple batters prior to leaving (didn't want to miss the 10:30 train and wait another hour to leave NYC, so I left during the 7th inning stretch), and the view/atmosphere was amazing.