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Daniel of Doulogos Name:Daniel
Home: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
About Me: I used to believe that evolution was reasonable, that homosexuality was genetic, and that people became Christians because they couldn't deal with the 'reality' that this life was all there was. I used to believe, that if there was a heaven - I could get there by being good - and I used to think I was more or less a good person. I was wrong on all counts. One day I finally had my eyes opened and I saw that I was not going to go to heaven, but that I was certainly going to suffer the wrath of God for all my sin. I saw myself as a treasonous rebel at heart - I hated God for creating me just to send me to Hell - and I was wretched beyond my own comprehension. Into this spiritual vacuum Jesus Christ came and he opened my understanding - delivering me from God's wrath into God's grace. I was "saved" as an adult, and now my life is hid in Christ. I am by no means sinless, but by God's grace I am a repenting believer - a born again Christian.
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The Buzz


Daniel's posts are almost always pastoral and God centered. I appreciate and am challenged by them frequently. He has a great sense of humor as well.
- Marc Heinrich

His posts are either funny or challenging. He is very friendly and nice.
- Rose Cole

[He has] good posts, both the serious like this one, and the humorous like yesterday. [He is] the reason that I have restrained myself from making Canadian jokes in my posts.
- C-Train

This post contains nothing that is of any use to me. What were you thinking? Anyway, it's probably the best I've read all day.
- David Kjos

Daniel, nicely done and much more original than Frank the Turk.
- Jonathan Moorhead

There are some people who are smart, deep, or funny. There are not very many people that are all 3. Daniel is one of those people. His opinion, insight and humor have kept me coming back to his blog since I first visited earlier this year.
- Carla Rolfe
 
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Thursday, September 15, 2005
Job Interview today

I work as a computer programmer for the provincial government of Manitoba. On the government website a few weeks back I saw a posting for a job that looked like it was a perfect match! Not for me mind you, but for this fellow at work named Chris. He doesn't read my blog, so I don't mind using his real name. :)

Now, the position happens to be one level higher than either of us are currently working in (we are level II, this position is a level III job) - so when I saw it I immediately called my friend Nicole and asked her about it. Nicole was a lady I went to college with and who was picked on because she was younger than most of the guys and one of the very few women in the class. On top of this she was one of those girls who was "endowed" as it were. One day I came into the cafeteria and she was red faced and weeping about some comment someone had made about her, and I really felt sorry for her. She was a bright kid, and this sort of harrassment was getting to her. So myself and a couple of the guys "took her in" as it were, and made sure that sort of stuff came to a stop.

When we graduated Nicole went on to work at the provincial government while I went to the private sector and bounced around. Eventually I ended up teaching night courses at the same college we graduated from - and she even took one of my courses. She has become a friend of my family and we stay in touch. I mention her because she works at the place where this job was posted - Manitoba Health, and I called her up to get the insider info on the job. I also put in the good word for my pal Chris at work, mentioning that he was perfect, absolutely perfect for the job.

And so it would have ended there, but about a week after setting Chris up for this job I realized that we were in a hiring freeze - and that meant that if Chris went, all his work would have to be picked up by someone else. Now, I have inherited three other full time positions since I started here - that is, three people have left, no on has filled their positions, and all their work has been handed down to me. I suddenly understood that if Chris got this job, it would mean that I would get all his work - and Chris is a work horse. If I stagger beneath my work load now, I couldn't fathom what it would be like with Chris' work as well.

So on the last day that the posting was open, I slapped my resume together with an impromptu cover letter, and emailed it. I certainly didn't expect to get an interview, but when Chris got the job, I wanted to be able to console myself that I had at least made an effort to get out of my situation - even though it was doomed to fail, yet I would not feel as bad knowing I had made an effort to avoid it. Really I didn't give it much more thought than that.

I do however know how human resource people wade through hundreds of applications and pick only five to interview - they look for buzzwords. In the advertisement they put up to twenty buzz words or so, and then they go through the resumes that they receive and count up how many buzz words they find in the cover letter. The ones with the most buzzwords are selected. It saves them having to read hundreds of letters. Maybe they don't do it that way - this is just my suspicion - but upon this premise I make a point of including every single buzz word from the advertisement -- even if only to say things like "I never even heard of WEBSPHERE before!" etc.

So when I was phoned on Monday and told that they were going to interview me, I thought that wasn't so bad - I talked to Nicole and they were only going to interview five candidates, and I was sure that Chris would have been one of them - and that meant that Chris had one less person to worry about - since I don't consider myself any where near as qualified for the position as Chris would be. I spoke to Chris however, and he said that he decided not to apply.

Not to apply! So here I applied for nothing? Oh well. I am going to go to the interview today (2:30 Central time) and I plan to be as candid and frank as a man who doesn't care about the interview can be. My hair is a mess and I didn't shave - and I don't plan to pander to these people begging for the job - in fact, I plan to be blunt about my own self assessment - surely I do not possess the skills the job lists - at least not with a level of proficiency that they would prefer. If I get a job offer out of this, it will mean that they are perhaps the most desperate people imaginable.

I will post about how the interview went.
posted by Daniel @ 10:04 AM  
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