BoofleBlog

This seems so obvious, and yet…

If you’re looking for a job, Google yourself before you send out any resumes. Google both your name and your email address. Trust me when I say that potential employers will do this before they bring you in for an interview and you want to be sure that you know more about yourself than the employer does.

You might also consider Googling any other information on your resume that the employer might look up (the name of the small company that you used to work for, for instance, or the obscure programming language that you claimed proficiency in).

I’ve been involved with doing interviews lately, and I’m stunned that candidates are surprised that we know something about them before they come in.

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I have a tendency to make up words and phrases and I came up with one today that I like:

While puttering around the house, I caught my finger on something (hardly an unusual occurrence). We had some bruising and some skin loss. I decided that my house is so pleased that I’m fixing it up that it gave me a little kiss. My bandage is covering what I have now named a house hickey.

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After about two weeks, I finally have the layout of this site looking (I think) good. I swear — I won’t tweak it any more just to put off actually writing something. Instead, I will procrastinate by playing video games.

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I’m a liberal. Most of my friends are liberals. One friend saw me putting together care packages last week. I pointed her towards anysoldier.com the other day and suggested that she might like to write to someone, too. She said that she wanted to, but didn’t know how to do it without being a hypocrite. Here’s how:

Dear soldier —

[blah, blah, opening paragraph about how someone put your unit up on anysoldier and why I decided to write to this unit instead of some other one.]

I just wanted to remind you that folks back here haven’t fogotten about you. We appreciate all that you’re giving up to serve your country. At the very least, you’re putting your life on hold to do what your country has asked of you. We won’t forget that you volunteered to be there when your country needed you and we won’t forget what you’re giving now.

Please thank your family for us. Your deployment has to be tough on them, too. Tell them that other Americans are keeping them in our prayers and that we’re ready to help out if we can.

May God bless and keep you,

J.T.

Nothing there about the rightness or wrongness of the war. Nothing about defending freedom, since I didn’t think our freedom was threatened by Saddam. Nothing about anything political. Just a heartfelt thanks for the willingness to do a job, even at great personal sacrifice. Surely we can get over our political differences at least that much.

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As of this writing, around 140,000 American troops are deployed in Iraq, with thousands more in Afghanistan and in other countries supporting the war effort. Regardless of what any of us think about American military involvement in the region, these people, mostly kids, who signed up to defend their country deserve our support.

While the DoD has prohibited mail addressed to Any Soldier (for security reasons), there are organizations intent on allowing us to contact our troops, even if we don’t personally know anyone who’s deployed. Check out anysoldier.com for a list of service members who have agreed to distribute letters and care packages to the folks they serve with. Send a letter, a postcard, anything to let these folks know that we appreciate the sacrifices that they’re making.

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