General Musings

First off, an apology for my lack of posting lately. Hubby is fully into his new program at school, and we are discovering the complications that come along with only owning one computer. A new laptop will be joining us shortly, and then I should have a little less competition for computer time, and will hopefully be posting a little more often again.

The job hunt continues for me, though it's been interesting in my current position as of late as well. It seems that the economy is heating back up here, and I'm interested to see what happens with corporate recruiting strategies as a result. The calgary area regional manager had scheduled six interviews for entry-level roles here yesterday, and only one candidate actually showed up to the interview, so it's starting to feel like 2007 all over again. Recessionary recruitment and compensation strategies are not going to cut it anymore, and some rethinking needs to start taking place again, I suspect.

My sister-in-law, who is 22, was talking at dinner the other day about the economy and job hunting. She grew up out here in Alberta, and the past couple of years was apparently a very new experience for her. Until about 2008, she was pretty accustomed to walking in the door with her resume and getting hired on the spot. This past summer, she was unemployed and job-hunting, and really struggled to find work for the first time in her career to date. She starting working part-time at 14, and never had any issues finding the kind of entry-level positions open to students, waitressing, etc. until recently. Apparently it was a bit of a schock to the system.

There's an economic indicator whose source escapes me at the moment that talks about the inverse correlation between the strength of the economy and the hotness of the waitresses in New York City. The Hot Waitress Index is suggested as a leading index of economic strength. Maybe I just don't eat out enough to notice it here in Calgary, but I am aware of one restaurant that uses the legally at best ill-advised hiring practice of requiring headshots from all prospective employees, and another high-end place that apparently makes it a practice of only hiring male waiters in their 30s. If the economy is really heating up here again, can we expect to see this change?