Working from the Hotel, Recruiting at the Brewery
San Diego - Thu, 16 Jan 2020, 10:30pm
It's been a workday today even though I've spent a lot of it at airports, at a hotel and... at a brewery.
After landing in San Diego around noon today I Lyfted over to my hotel in Mission Valley and set up to work for a few hours from my room. The first thing I did was notice that my 1:00 meeting had been pushed to 1:30, leaving me time to grab lunch. I walked over to Wendy's a few blocks away for a fast food quickie. Back at the hotel I attended a web meeting (curiously people complimented the artwork hanging on the wall behind me!), spent an hour after that working on materials for a customer presentation next week, then joined another meeting. By then it was going on 5 so I took a break for 45 minutes.
At 6 this evening we had an industry meet-up at a well-known local brewery my company was co-hosting. While staff from the other cohosts gave confusing, overly details presentations about their entire product lines, mine pitch was simple. I talked a bit about the company and the products to highlight how interesting they are but then made my pitch for hiring. Like I noted in my previous blog, the whole point of me coming on this trip is because my team desperately needs a person in San Diego.
You might think that after I made an invitation for people to connect with me during the evening and chat about employment, I'd get a bunch of people wanting to talk. I didn't. I started joining conversations with everyone who made eye contact with me as I circulated the room. I had several conversations about working in my industry, but nobody admitting to looking for a job themselves. One or two had "a friend" who's looking. Okay, I understand that code. I handed out cards so they could contact me later. But oddly most people I spoke to about jobs were eager to talk about how much they like their current jobs, even if some of the conditions they described were... less than likable. Shy, maybe? Or maybe now, in year 10 of a long upward economic cycle, skilled professionals are fully employed and by now have sorted themselves into jobs they're happy with rather than ones merely paying the bills.
It's been a workday today even though I've spent a lot of it at airports, at a hotel and... at a brewery.
After landing in San Diego around noon today I Lyfted over to my hotel in Mission Valley and set up to work for a few hours from my room. The first thing I did was notice that my 1:00 meeting had been pushed to 1:30, leaving me time to grab lunch. I walked over to Wendy's a few blocks away for a fast food quickie. Back at the hotel I attended a web meeting (curiously people complimented the artwork hanging on the wall behind me!), spent an hour after that working on materials for a customer presentation next week, then joined another meeting. By then it was going on 5 so I took a break for 45 minutes.
At 6 this evening we had an industry meet-up at a well-known local brewery my company was co-hosting. While staff from the other cohosts gave confusing, overly details presentations about their entire product lines, mine pitch was simple. I talked a bit about the company and the products to highlight how interesting they are but then made my pitch for hiring. Like I noted in my previous blog, the whole point of me coming on this trip is because my team desperately needs a person in San Diego.
You might think that after I made an invitation for people to connect with me during the evening and chat about employment, I'd get a bunch of people wanting to talk. I didn't. I started joining conversations with everyone who made eye contact with me as I circulated the room. I had several conversations about working in my industry, but nobody admitting to looking for a job themselves. One or two had "a friend" who's looking. Okay, I understand that code. I handed out cards so they could contact me later. But oddly most people I spoke to about jobs were eager to talk about how much they like their current jobs, even if some of the conditions they described were... less than likable. Shy, maybe? Or maybe now, in year 10 of a long upward economic cycle, skilled professionals are fully employed and by now have sorted themselves into jobs they're happy with rather than ones merely paying the bills.