Getting Closer to Fab!

As of this morning I got all the front portion of my cube covered in pink and white....

I like having a bit of color now all I need it to get a couple frames rather than having the wedding pictures pinned to the wall...and also change out my calendar and other pieces of the "regular office supplies".

Add to that....today there was some revenge in the office my recruiter David arrived today to a desk covered with glitter

And then next to him Dustin's cube was toilet papered overnight.....

You've gotta love holiday weekends and short work days in our office....I'm thinking though that the cleaning crew might hate us tonight.

Drab to Fab!

So yesterday for some reason the tan/cream color of my little cube here at work was starting to get to me....It was drab and really not "me".

Now yes there are articles out there in every business magazine and publication saying that putting personal touches on your work space is a big No-No...however I see my office as not one of those typical business offices.

The boys have a basketball hoop, at any given time there are stress balls being thrown across the room, and we have a Dallas Mavericks flag still proudly displayed after their victory (that or it's just been forgotten to be taken home).

So this morning I started on my "Cube Re-Vamp" and plan to take my work area from Drab to Fab over the next week or two.

Clutter and papers gone! I'm going for the green feel and going all electronic (or at least trying to) and hopefully adding some light pink hues and green to my little area. Here's my progress thus far....

I'll be sure to post updates as I go. Step one will be just finishing the pink and white draping around the front of my cube and then I plan to get some "girly" (pink and green) trays to keep papers rather than the ugly black plastic stacking thing that I have now.

Rene might laugh at my spending of $12 to change things up but I figure I spend the majority of my time here and have had the same surroundings for 3+ years why not change it up right?

Thought of the Day...

Lack of coffee this morning and late arriving employees set me off to a bad start. So today my thought of the day is why is more of a statement and a question…

Why is it that today’s generation (my generation) feel like they are entitled to everything? Office hours don’t seem to matter to them, they arrive late and leave early, they take longer than an hour lunch, and can’t meet the basic goals that they should be each day…

Then when it gets brought to their attention they act like it is a shock they are getting reprimanded for arriving at 8:30am rather than 8 or taking the hour and a half long lunch….maybe it’s just me (and Rene because we converse about it a lot), but it just seems like people now think showing up at all is better than nothing when it comes to their job and they don’t need to put in the work because they are on a salary.

I just don’t get it. You are at the office for 9+ hours a day what else are you doing but working during that time??

I seem to ask myself this a lot now that I over seem a team of recruiters and constantly have to bring this up to them. I feel like today “management” has just become a glorified term for babysitter in the office…

Another Step to Further My Career

Add one more thing to my list of “bettering myself”…or rather one more thing where I’m reading and taking a 2 hour exam on my summer break before classes start again for the Summer semester!

Over the past few months I have been highly weighing my options in terms of certifications that would benefit my career in staffing and placement of physicians. I can’t obtain an ASPR certification that they issue since I am not in internal recruiter for a healthcare agency, and I looked into a PHR (professional of human resources certification) but that seemed a little too broad and also over $1,000 which I didn’t think would really “pay off” right now in my career.

My last certification that I looked into was with the National Association of Personnel Services for a CTS (certified temporary-staffing specialist) which also will allow me to obtain a Physician Recruiter Certification after I obtain my CTS.

After talking it through with Rene and looking at the costs: $250 for a yearly membership (required) $350 for the exam and then CMEs each year to keep current. The PRC certification is another $100 on top of everything else and double the CMEs, I decided that this was something I wanted to do.

So last Friday I officially registered for the exam. After a brief and to the point proposal to my director I was even able to negotiate myself the testing fee paid for by him! It was nice to feel that the company was willing to invest in me and my desire to strive to set myself apart from others in the industry! So now starts the ongoing reading of legal documents, requirements for the IRS, and lots of other rules and regulations that are involved in the temp-staffing world.

Hopefully I’ll be able to take the exam sometime in the first or second week of July – and fingers crossed I only have to take it one time!

And of course I'll get some bragging rights with Rene, while he has 2 certifications technically after his name (MAcc, CPA) I am going to be catching up with him (MBA, CTS) :)

Working to Improve Myself at Work

This week I finished 2 of the books that I had planned to read to better myself in my career. It's funny how "the boss" takes so much notice when you read a work related book at lunch rather than just another Sookie Stackhouse book :)

This week first I finished
Jeffrey Gitomer's Little Red Book of Selling
This book gives 12.5 rather basic telling principles that while yes all of us may have learned them when we first started our jobs, sometimes the little pieces slip past us in our day to day work and we forgot. It was a very easy and quick read that I finished pretty much between Monday and Wednesday of this week.

The second book is one that I had started earlier in the spring semester, then with classes it got book marked and sat on my desk for the next few months. So I picked it up on Thursday and Friday at lunch and polished it off as well!

The second book was
Smart Selling on the Phone and Online by Josiane Chriqui FeigonThis book was much more suited for the inside sales person (hence the title)...but I really thought it was quite beneficial. As I was reading I was able to pick out some of my own recruiters who work under me and pin point some of the things that they do (or don't do) on a day to day basis. Hopefully my use of the information that I have tabbed all over this book will allow me to better develop them in the office.

I would suggest either of these books for those in the sales field. Even if you aren't in phone or face to face sales, either book does have tips, tricks, and "reminders" that could help anyone.

I feel quite accomplished in knocking down a few more of the books from my must read list for the new year! Now it's off to start another Sookie Stackhouse novel (I'm on #8 of 11) ...I figured that I need something to hold me over until the new season of TrueBlood starts!

Wow today has been a day...

I am not one to generally look too far into horoscopes, however recently they have seemed to be pretty dead on....after the day that I have had today (too awful to even think about any more)....I am hoping that my weekly career horoscope maybe mixed up Monday with Tuesday because of the holiday weekend. In any case I am going to pretend today was Monday so that the stars will align and apparently get better.

Capricorn

For the week of July 5-11: Uranus goes retro on Monday, starting a trend that will complete itself early in December. You think seriously about the pros and cons of leasing/renting versus buying property or other big-ticket items. You carefully examine the numbers and go into each negotiation well prepared. The only surprises that occur this week will be positive, as far as your career and finances go. Monday may be a roller coaster ride, but the rest of the week looks very positive. You get traction in deals that had been given up for dead, but unexpectedly reanimate. You make money from investments that had begun to seem like bad bets. A partner or colleague may need some time off or "time to think," most likely between the weekend and the next couple weeks. A new partner or colleague may step in and pick up the slack, possibly becoming a permanent staffer.

Fingers crossed!!!

Career Updates for the Blancos

“Your Career Plans Look Bright” At least that’s what my Panda Express fortune cookie told me in May.

Now I am not one to “buy in” to the whole horoscope and fortune teller idea but occasionally (rather once a month) I do look at my horoscope. The only reason though is that I get a little insert in my credit card bill and I find it amusing to see how things pan out accordingly.

Well to add to my fortune cookie my May horoscope added that I could find enhanced satisfaction in my daily activities in the month and also that a sense of financial promise could color the 6th to 11th and that I could capitalize on that and my strengths later in the month in terms of my career.

That led to the fact that I received a promotion at the end of the month. It’s nothing huge no 6 digit salary increase or anything like that but I will be heading up the inpatient side or our company in a middle management role. I was glad to see that at least someone here thinks that I know what I am doing!! I have had my ups and downs with the current Director since he arrived about 8 months ago but I think that I have proven him wrong in many accounts and that in itself if victory enough! Hopefully adding a year or two in management and the finishing my MBA and hopefully pursuing a PHR certification (when I can actually find the time!!) will benefit in the long run.

So I guess that I must give in to the idea of horoscopes, fortunes and the zodiac at least for the next month or so… I mean it did somewhat say that I was looking at good things career wise right?

What does June have in store for me? Well my horoscope did say that a change in salary was inevitable and that more responsibility brings greater salary in the end (and I did get a little bump in my salary and comp package this week) so maybe it’s not completely wrong…I guess I’ll just have to wait and see!


This past week also brought around the day that Rene has been waiting for…he got to take the last and final portion of the CPA exam! Which means no more studying for him for the time being! Now we just wait for the results and he gets to start the licensing process to be “official”. He also has finally gotten some recognition from Deloitte and he received 2 different awards of sorts for his performance over the past year. I couldn’t be happier that his hard work is paying off finally.

The end of May turned out to be very eventful for the Blanco house in our careers to say that least and it was great news to head into the Summer and really a great start to our 3rd year in Dallas.