“You seem on edge. Like you’ve had 3 coffees in 10 minutes.”
Really? I seem on edge? Maybe it is because you are kinda of weird and odd, and don’t look anything like your Linked In picture. (note to real estate agents, Linked In users and others, you are not helping yourself when you use your 20-year-old “best picture taken of me ever” on your business card etc. It only just weirds the rest of us out when we see you in person and it doesn’t match) And so began my first meeting in Burlington to talk to two recruiters. I took his advice and for 10 before my next meeting, I sat in my car listening to Schubert’s German Mass. It calmed me down, yes, but I think the couple of guys having a conversation near me thought I was a little odd. I mean, who hangs around in business attire listening to Schubert at high volume in a car? Well . . now that I think about it. . . perhaps a lot of sales people waiting for meetings. Maybe Metallica instead of Schubert.
Anyways, the second meeting went much better, and I was much more comfortable with him and his set-up. He was an old guy who rambled on about things and kvetched to me about the bad habits of employers a bit, but was certainly a nice fellow who seemed to genuinely want to help me find a fulfilling career. He’s even going to feature me in his Newsletter.
Friday hadn’t been a day I was looking for to. We need to renew our passports, and beyond that I had to drive to Burlington to meet with these fellows. Both could be fraught with inconvenience – waiting, terrible logistics, traffic, getting lost, etc. I don’t do well with inconvenience.
I set my alarm for 8:15, but awoke feeling refreshed at 8:00. We rolled out about 8:15 and made it to the Passport office about 8:25. There was a notice on the door letting us know that the location would be closing TODAY end of day and moving to the big shopping center. Phew. A friendly security card directed us to the pre-screening room to have our applications reviewed before the actual Passport Office opened. Then we waited for about 2 minutes – fourth in line – and the another friendly security guard directed us to the office – now open. There were six wickets and SIX tellers working (please other agencies take note of this simple math), so being fourth in line meant being first. It took the woman 10 minutes to process our applications – and let us know we would receive them by May 11th by registered mail.
April 27th, 2012 Extra-Ordinary: Excellent process, process control, logistics, execution and customer service. I could sit here all day.
The Daily EO 