Paragon Lounge

So, I'm at Starbucks

Since I consider premium coffee a life necessity rather than a luxury, I’m often wondering into a Starbucks.  But I’m trying to be more health conscious, so I tried their new protein shake, the Vivanno, instead of my usual syrup-sweetened concoction.  Pretty yummy let me tell you.  The helpful man (my “barista,” if you will) informed that it’s made with whey protein, a whole banana, a quarter cup of 2% milk and some of the Naked Antioxidant Mango juice.  Caloric intake – 250.  I’m thinking sweet, I like it, it’s refreshing, don’t feel terribly guilty about drinking it, and he gave me the recipe.  I might try making these at home.  Hope I don’t put Starbucks out of business, because I know they are already closing 600 stores.  My Starbucks isn’t one of them, which I confirmed today when the company released a list of stores that are closing.
--Jennifer

Is The 10-Hour Work Week Ideal?

Is “TGIT” the wave of the future?  This past week the state of Utah announced that they will be going to a four day workweek in an effort to go green and battle our struggling economy.  Government employees will now be holding office hours between 7:00am and 6:00pm Monday through Thursday.  The thought is that by turning off lights, heat, and air conditioning, the state will save a considerable chunk of their budget and conserve energy.  Employees are expected to save at the pump, and less traffic will equal fewer harmful emissions.

The state of Utah is also very hopeful that this practice will help to recruit and keep younger professionals.  The topic of retention is also very relevant in our great state of Iowa.  I personally will be interested to see how the year goes.  Will it affect employment, the budget, and the environment as hoped?  What are your thoughts?  Does a four day workweek appeal to you and for what reasons?

--Sarah

I'm A Gamer

I’ve read where some parents think Nintendo games are bad for kids, but I tend to disagree.  As a kid, I grew up the old school Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Atari, Sega, and Sony Playstation systems and believe that it helped me learn to think outside of the box and honed my logical thinking.

You start playing these games when you are younger and play until you outgrow them (or maybe you never outgrow them!).  I played a lot of Super Mario Brothers. It takes you though multiple scenes and scenarios. Some of the levels are advanced and you learn strategy and trial and error. Sometimes exit doors to the next stage are hidden and you have to get creative and find it. Who new that going into the coin world stage in Super Mario 3 to stock up on a gazillion guys so you have enough for the end mother ship is a good strategy? It makes you plan and use logic.

How about Duck Hunt? This game helped me in the accuracy category. Mario Kart?  It taught me to be competitive. You want to do your best to come out on top and that has carried throughout my entire life.
--Malay

iPhone Addiction

Picture this:  It’s 3:30 a.m. with thunder cracking and lightening flashing and a one hundred pound dog trying to snuggle in bed because he is scared of the storm (we actually have three dogs, the smallest weighs 60 pounds, who are all terrified of storms).  I’m a fairly light sleeper, so as the dogs are all on the bed trying to settle themselves I’m trying to be still so I don’t wake my husband.  All of a sudden the bedroom becomes illuminated with a bright light that I know is not lightening.  “Are you on your phone?” I ask my husband. 

That’s right, we have an iPhone addiction.  Now, the dogs don’t irritate me but for some reason the phone does.  His purpose, you ask, of using the phone at 3:30 a.m.? To look at radar to see “where the storm is.”  It’s “right on top of us…hear the rain and the thunder?” I tell him.  The iPhone—anytime, anywhere, any data you can possibly think of—can impair your common sense. 
--Jennifer

Women in IT--There's Room For More

Recently, as my husband and I were going through the mail we came across an invitation for our daughter.  The invitation was to a three-week long math and science summer camp.  My initial reaction--three weeks of summer vacation spent at a math and science camp might be a tough sell. 

She didn't need much prompting.  Our daughter is actually more excited about this camp than she is for her basketball camp, and I am excited about that.  Let me tell you why.

Around the same time she received this invitation, I came across an article discussing women in technology.  Being an IT recruiter, I was not surprised when I read that women only account for 27% of the workforce in the IT field.  I see it every day, in fact when I look at my own personal contacts in the field only one out of five is a woman. 

It’s no secret that there are plenty of opportunities, as employers often include the disclaimer “women encouraged to apply” in their job postings.  Women bring a different perspective and focus than their male counterparts.  In the article, Bill Hardgrave, professor of information systems at the University of Arkansas, addresses some of the more prevalent stereotypes within IT. 

He talks of men being more interested in the “geek” factor while women tend to be more focused on the end user experience.  Interesting…

It made me think.  I’m going to encourage my daughter to flex her intellectual muscle, not just the athletic ones.  She can start by trying to improve my Scooba!

--Sarah

Tri Training

Have you heard about how companies are losing almost half of their workers to the Hy-Vee Triathlon?  Actually, it only seems like everyone is training for a triathlon.  Well it's addictive, let me tell you.  Now I’m not at the full tri level, but I am training for a sprint tri in June.  A sprint is a 550 yard swim, 15 mile bike and a three mile run, so about half the distance of a full tri and not nearly as much as an Ironman.

I’m in about week nine of training.  In week seven I participated in an indoor sprint tri.  I didn’t finish first but I didn't finish last either (I think I was 2nd or 3rd to last in my heat).  I was disappointed in myself so I didn’t stay around for my official time.  My struggle—running.  I’ve never been a runner. In fact, I kind of despise it. So why in the world would I sign up for a tri?  It’s challenge, a goal, something I’ve always wanted to tri (my apologies). 

What I do like—consistently exercising. What I don’t like—consistently exercising.  It tends to rule your life outside of work because although you don’t have to put in a lot of hours (typically about four hours a week) it is working through the swim, bike and run in a way that helps you train and rotates the longevity and intensity of each workout.

I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.  So far, it just goes.  My goal—to finish and not be last!
--Jennifer

It's Time To Reset Those Resolutions

It's spring break time, everyone’s out on vacation in the nice sunny weather somewhere and I’m stuck in my office making phone calls. How fair is that I’m thinking? But then I take a step back and think about how I’m going to stay motivated through the next week, not to mention the next two months with the rainy weather coming.  It’s about this time of year that I find myself at a plateau in my resolutions for the year. January is a great month for most people, they’ve set their goals high, they start going to the gym, doing more community service work, being kinder, excelling at their job, but then it hits them—it’s  been a very cold and snowy winter, goodbye motivation, we have Spring Fever!

To keep motivated this time of year I do a few things. I go back to my resolutions list that I made for myself and evaluate where I’m at with them and make a new list with bigger and better goals. I think it’s only fair to ones self that you challenge yourself, challenge your mind and challenge your body.  So, this week while I’m sitting in my office just dreaming that I was on the beaches of Mexico where everyone else is, I’m going to pretend that it’s January 1st all over again, get my pictures out of when I was 5 lbs. less, see what I’ve made of myself as a recruiter and what I need to do to excel in the workplace and in my personal life, and remind myself that I’m only a quarter into the year, and I need to still keep going in all I do.

Remember this, resolutions are only as good as you work on them!
--Dena

Tattoos at Work

For the last six months I have been talking about getting a half-sleeve tattoo. I’ve been doing a little bit of asking around the office to see what people would think.  An article in U.S News & World Report says that companies such as Ford and Wells Fargo have accepted body art as a part of their appearance code. It also is known that at Yahoo, workers are openly allowed to show their tattoos.

The reality is tattoos today are not just for sailors who tattooed their body with portraits of pinup girls. For some it’s art and for others it’s meaningful. The demographics of the young American worker are ever changing and along with that tattoos are becoming more acceptable in the workplace. According to the Journal of the American Dermatology, about half of the people in their mid 20’s either have a tattoo or body piercing. The hard part is to get people to not judge you when you go to things like a job interview.

It’s almost like your race. Some people are judging you for your race, some people do not; your race doesn't define you. Your race does not define your character, your work ethic or your life.

Ultimately, it will be my decision of whether or not I will get one. I work for an awesome company and I know that if I got one I will not be judged on a tattoo. I’m not the kind of girl that wears tank tops or skirts in the summer anything like that…period. I can easily hide a half sleeve tattoo. I actually recently got another tattoo in the inner part of my left bicep, easy to hide. This tattoo means a lot to me. The half-sleeve I want will also have great meaning to me.  I know that when I do get it, nothing will change with work or how I perform in my job.
--Malay

Worth a Mint

Let’s talk personal finance.  Some of us are very organized, monitoring our cash flow and tracking every penny.  Some of us to think we have our money under control but really don’t have a clue as to where it goes every month.  Some really don’t have a clue: ”I owe what in fees!?! Why?!? I didn’t spend $158.32 shopping online at Victoria Secret! What are you talking about?!?”

Now there’s really no excuse to not know what’s happening in your personal finance world thanks to mint.com.  This is a service that logs-in to all of your credit card and bank accounts and keeps you informed on how you are spending your money. It will tell you when bills are due, limits are maxed and statements are real.  It’s a personal finance solution – that’s free. Yes, free!  It will create pie charts showing you how much fast food you’re eating vs. how much grocery shopping your doing, allow you to create budgets (and tell you when you’ve exceeded that budget) and it updates nightly, on its own.  Every day you can log into your account and see true, up-to-date records where your finances are concerned.

Good-bye checkbook! 

So what’s the catch? Well, not all banks are supported—mine for instance. It’s a small, local, bank where the tellers know my name and is just finally getting around to online banking. I don’t think they’re on Mint.com’s radar (I know this because I emailed Mint.com to ask if they could add my bank to their approved institution list and haven’t heard back).  But that’s not to say that the big names are thrilled about the idea. I mean, they spent all that money on their IT folks and websites and they want you to use them.  So big name banks are putting an extra step in the login process to get around Mint.com’s service. 

So, they have a few kinks to work out. In the mean time, it’s a great way to get a handle on your spending.
--Nikki

Brain Drain Recovery

I was interviewed recently by the Des Moines Register for a story about brain drain (keeping Iowans in state after they graduate from college).  The story came about through a report released by the Generation Iowa Commission, which offered some suggestions on how to combat brain drain. 

A couple of the suggestions in the report are to focus on higher paying jobs and assistance with student loan repayment.  I was asked if I agree, and I do.  Like many college students right out of college, I needed a job to pay the bills and found one that would offer student loan repayment assistance—IN TEXAS (here’s my quote in the story).

I was also asked, “As a native Iowan, how else can we differentiate ourselves?” Hey, let’s brag out our great state! 

Nearly everyone has heard of “Don’t Mess with Texas,” the origin of which was an anti-littering campaign.  It was so popular that Matthew McConaughey was featured in an ad.  Texas has him; we have Superman and Ashton Kutcher.  Surely there’s a campaign we could create with those two. 

Texans do a great job of promoting their State.  You probably know “Everything is Bigger in Texas”.  Another popular bumper sticker in Texas: “I Wasn’t’ Born Here, but I Got Here as Quick as I Could.”  Iowans are so humble.  We need to be proud and promote our state and our eclectic cities to live and thrive in.  Let’s celebrate what we have and work as a state to keep people here.  Promote pride and why others should come to live here as well.  The Generation Iowa report is a great start and we are, after all, a field of dreams!
--Jennifer