I noticed last week that monster rolled out a new updated version of their website. They added a lot of new ajax stuff on the front, which might seem cool, but obviously they didnt adequately test it. After using it for several days, I have experienced a lot of bugs.

Here is an example:

I find a job I am interested in. I click the apply button and the dialog box for me to enter in my information is off the top of the screen leaving me unable to apply for this position. This is just one of the many user interface bugs I have found. Not being able to apply for a job is a pretty big problem if you are a job site. At this point, I have to say the new monster.com sucks.

Have you had problems with the new Monster.com? Let me know in the comments.

I hate headhunters. The ones I have dealt with have all been talentless hacks that don’t even understand the technology business that they serve. If I had a nickel for every occasion I wasted my time with a headhunter, I’d be rich. This post is about a encounter with a particular headhunter at Winter Wyman, a technical staffing firm in Massachusetts.

About four months ago, I was thinking of leaving the position I was at, so I started putting out some feelers and sent out some resumes. It was during that time that I was contacted by a woman at Winter Wyman. I won’t name her, but she is a Prinicipal Consultant for the Information Design and Delivery Group there.

So she contacts me and says she’s seen my resume and has a few positions that would be a good fit for me. She had a few SEO positions to fill and asked me to send my resume to her in word format. So I did.

A few days later, I got an email back from her critiquing my resume, and suggesting that I re-write it. I made the changes she suggested and sent it back to her. Amazingly, she sent it back to me again, requesting that I make more changes. This went on for several revisions. I didnt want a resume coach, I wanted her to get me an interview. At one point I mentioned that my resume has served me well over the 16 years that I have worked in technology. To this she answered back that she has been in this business a long time and she knows what she’s doing, or something to that effect. We finally arrive at a resume that she is happy with, incorporating all of her suggested changes. We speak and says she’ll be back to me shortly.

Then, I dont hear back from her for a week. So I email her and leave her a voicemail. Another week goes by, and I haven’t gotten any response back. Yet another week goes by and still nothing. So I email her and give her a leave a voicemail again. Are you seeing the pattern here? Another few weeks go by, no response. After all the hassle of re-writing my resume for this idiot, she never follows up. So I chalk it up to yet another bad experience with Headhunters. You’d think I’d learn by now….. I figured she had left Winter Wyman, which would explain not having the courtesy to return my multiple messages.

Last week this moron sends me an email saying one of her colleagues passed on my resume to her and she has some exciting positions available. What an idiot. It was like the movie groundhog day. She contacts me like we have never talked before. So I send a response back, reminding her that that she never followed up with me before and that because of my previous experience, I have no interest in dealing with Winter Wyman and most definately not with her.

She must have remembered me at that point and emails me back in an arrogant manner saying that my reaction to her was a “strange one” and that she offered her resume tips to me “free of charge” based on her years of experience blah blah blah… I explain to her that my unhappiness was not with the changes, but the fact that after I took the time to incorporate those changes into my resume, she never returned my emails and phone calls.

At the end of our recent email exchange she mentions that she is “happy” to be a resource for me in the future. For a laugh, I email back asking her to send me the details of what she has for open positions.

That was ten days ago and no response. I hate headhunters.

Today was my last day at MembersFirst. Spent the day finishing an SEO project and creating about 175 new images / icons for the new User Interface for our product. Worked 10 hours on my last day. No “lame duck” exit for me…

I wish them the best and I am excited to see the final implementation of the new UI.

My last days at MembersFirst are soon approaching. I am busy finishing up the user interface redesign work on our product and transitioning the SEO dept. duties to a colleague of mine.

Emerson is the 4 year old son of Margaret Strojny, a colleague of mine at UpToDate. He has been very ill for many months. As a parent, it tears my heart out to imagine what Margaret and her family are going through. When I learned that they had set up a website and donation page to help with their ever increasing medical expenses, I thought I could help out.

I decided to build a free Letter From Santa creator for parents of young children. The idea is to offer a free Santa Letter and bring attention to Emerson’s donation page at the same time. The hope is that parents who use the creator will read about Emerson’s struggle and might consider donating to help ease the financial burden brought on by it.

Please take a moment to read Emerson’s Story.

Visit LetterFromSanta.org and create a letter (and donate if you can!)