August 11, 2012 | Hongkie Town

Seen this one yet? A baby pees into a paper cup with help from his parents while at a table in a restaurant. It happened at a restaurant called Xiabuxiabu in Beijing. It made the front page of a Beijing newspaper and the English language post on Beijing Cream has gone viral. Supposedly there’s even a video of this “event.” What I find especially interesting is reports that other people in the restaurant at the time complained to the management, who did nothing about it, suggesting that these are rich people and therefore can get away with anything. It’s the Beverly Hillbillies moved to Beijing!

(This coverage of it over at Gawker is funny – mostly because the comments have turned into a conversation between two people on where to hang out in Hong Kong.)

My first, um, exposure to this sort of activity was in 1997 when I was in Xi’an – that was my first time to see Chinese babies with that button-crotch underwear taking leaks and dumps right in the street. Here’s a pic of a kid taking a leak in the street in Mong Kok in 2009.

What can one say? You can’t indict a country of 1.5 billion people over this but at the same time, this sort of thing does not seem to be a rare occurrence. Unfortunately some of these people bring this behavior with them when they come to visit Hong Kong. The oft-quoted litany about “5,000 years of Chinese history” adds up to what exactly?

If you were to look at my profile on LinkedIn, you’d get the impression that I’m astonishingly busy with work. I did this on the basis that companies are always more interested in people who are in demand and that, to put it in the words of an acquaintance, putting on LinkedIn “looking for my next challenge!” makes you look like a loser.

Actually everything there is real. Except out of the three projects I’m working on, only one is actually bringing money in. The second is for equity and the third is on a commission basis. But perhaps I did things too well because the only messages I’m getting on LinkedIn are from other people asking me for a job.

I have dealt with literally hundreds of headhunters in my 15 years in Hong Kong. It’s not just a matter of times I’ve been looking for a job; I’ve done a lot of hiring at the various positions I’ve held here.

Today I was turned down for a job after 4 interviews. The opportunity came to me via a recruiter – I’d sent my resume to someone at an agency, he wrote back to me, handed me off to someone probably more junior, and then the process began.

What pissed me off about the entire thing was how completely useless the headhunter was in the entire process. Each time I had an interview, he did absolutely nothing to prepare me for it.

He had no insights to offer regarding the people I’d be talking to or the company in general.
He never called or even sent an email the morning of or the night before a scheduled interview to ensure that I was going to be there and that I was ready.
Following each interview, he never called to check on how it went and never asked questions about if there were any issues that arose during the interview.
I’d send him a note immediately following each interview and then …. nothing, not even an acknowledgement that he’d seen my message.
After each interview, after one week of not hearing anything from him, I’d call or message him and then he’d get back to me, generally to ask me when I was free for the next one.
He never once asked me what I thought about the position and if I would take it if it was offered.
After the 4th interview and again, not hearing from him after a week, I sent him an email and he responded by email the next day writing, “ I afraid they don’t think you are a perfect fit at this point.”

He did get the reason they passed, or perhaps he made one up. Do you think he knew enough about me or about the company in question to be able to respond to them on any issue they might have brought up? To be able to say to them, “Hey, he is a perfect fit, because of X, Y and Z! You’re not going to find anyone better out there!” I highly doubt it. I think he listened and said, “Oh, okay, thanks.”

The only reason I’m not more upset by all of this is because there were so many negatives that came up from their side during the interview process that I wasn’t even sure how much I wanted this one. And no, it’s not a case of sour grapes. 50-75% travel, a large part of that to North America, economy flights only. Right, fly 15 hours sitting up in economy and then be expected to be in the office and productive the next day, or maybe even the same day? I don’t think so. Beyond that, the parameters of the position were poorly defined and after four interviews and lots of questions from me I still was unclear on the scope or the success factors. Be that as it may, since I need a job, and since the company had some interesting products, I might have taken it if the price was right (I could use the money).

At this point it’s a toss-up whether writing this blog post is enough to get the anger out of my system or if I should call this inept fuck’s boss and tell him what went down – and how much money they lost because this guy didn’t have a clue how to do his job. The one thing that’s stopping me from doing the latter is the feeling that the guy’s boss wouldn’t care either.