Popovers

Popovers are baking. Popovers are one of the few things I've found where it is worth it to buy the specialty baking pan. The pan appears to come in all kinds of sizes now, but I have two pans, each with 6 metal non-stick cups held together in a metal frame. I grease mine the night before and put them in the refrigerator overnight. We used to have popovers on Christmas morning and I remember having to wait until Mom got them in the oven before we could open presents, because they take an hour to bake. They are really easy to make, but I remember that waiting for Mom on Christmas morning seemed like an eternity. My favorite recipe is for giant popovers in the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook.

Yesterday afternoon I washed my car so I could take it to the DMV this morning and change the title and registration to Idaho and get Idaho plates. I'm not sure if the dirty looks I get sometimes are due to my California plates, but I don't want to take another trip out of town with them. I also received my absentee ballot and filled it out, so I can drop that off next door at the election office while I am there and save myself a stamp.

Last night I wrote a blunt cover letter to HP. I have not finished the ending, but it starts,

"To whom it may concern,

In 2006 the County of Ventura launched a new information technology system to determine eligibility for human services programs. Prior to launch, there was a popular misconception, which management perpetuated, that the new software program would replace people. The truth is that software does not replace people. Computers and computer software are just tools to make a job easier or better and can allow the user to spend more time doing the things that make a job require a human, such as compassion or creativity. My experience with the Hewlett Packard employment application process shows me that Hewlett Packard suffers from the same misconception as County of Ventura management.

I have a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, because art is what I love doing. I have a Master of Public Administration degree because I also wanted an academic degree and after developing video games I wanted to do something socially positive, although that part has not worked out so well. The Master’s program showed me that I can write, I can do research, and I can make a presentation in front of a group.

While working with the County of Ventura I again had the opportunity to facilitate communication between the software users and developers. I understand the logic of information technology systems well enough to troubleshoot issues for users and to create documentation of how to use the system when the developer provided none. I know when the issues are due to system design errors and can document these and articulate changes needed to software engineers.

Your employment application process would benefit from more humanity and less software. The software on your employment site that uploads my resume and puts the right data in the right field is excellent. Whatever happens after that is not. Your job matching is inappropriate. It is almost impossible for me to read your job descriptions and figure out where I might be a good fit. Rather than me submitting the same application 20 times for various jobs, or sometimes 10 times for the same job, would it not be more effective if someone looked at my resume and said, hey, this is a good candidate and what jobs might be a good fit? One resume, one interview. Then if HP does not want to hire me, I can stop wasting my time and yours.

I understand that the competition for jobs today is fierce and that Hewlett Packard receives an amazing number of applications every day, but searching for a narrow group of key words and eliminating all candidates that do not meet narrow criteria will not allow you to find the best employees."

I may inundate HP with applications over the weekend and then I am moving on. Last Sunday's paper included Idaho's top 75 private companies, so I'm going to go through them and see who and what they might be hiring. One of them has to want me. Otherwise, Big 5 is hiring for Christmas.


Time for breakfast.