"Aramark"/Craigslist Scam

I was ALMOST scammed on Craigslist today, and if you found this because you Googled this BS advertisement too, you're welcome.  If you are just reading my blog because you're friends with me on Facebook or your name is Caitlin Nosal, sorry.  This might be boring.

Here's the general summary: A job posting purported to be from Aramark Regional Staffing Centers, titled "Part Time Online Recruiter, No Exp. Necessary" is a fraud.  Don't do it.  It's not legit.  The end.

Now, the story...

So while I was frantically searching for internships on Craigslist yesterday because I hadn't heard back from any, I came across a posting that looked a little like this:

 This isn't the original because Craigslist took it down, I think.  At least, I couldn't find it when I went to go look back at it today.  It was posted over the past month on various job websites all over the US, so it may look slightly different than this.  It links to the website http://www.sermeer.com/, which will take you to this:

Note the Aramark logo at the top of the page; that's what originally made me think the ad was legit, until I looked closer.  This website ripped off the Aramark logo, and sermeer.com is in no way affiliated with Aramark, Inc.  Aramark is aware of the scam, as noted on their careers site:

Also, after I did respond to the advertisement, I got an email that looked like this:

When I tried to Google the advertisement to check up on it, I found some other scams that this Aramark imposter has tried to pull over.  However, I haven't seen this one written about, blogged about, or even listed on a scam site, so it was hard to verify that it was a scam via the Internet.  So I figured I would post something about it, just in case anyone else is in the situation.  Hopefully I've put enough key words into this to get it to pop up on Google!

Boring blog entry?  Maybe.  We'll save pizza party for later.  But important blog entry?  I definitely think so.

PS: If you love me and were worried about my state of well-being that I was resorting to Craigslist for internships, no need to fear!  I most likely fretted too early for no reason, once again, and I am no longer crying over the fact that I'm graduating in, oh, I don't know, five months.  That is... I'm not crying right now.

Love and beating the bad guys,
Courtney

It's That Time

It's that time....

When I have to start applying for internships.
Which reminds me that this is my last semester to apply for internships.
Because after this semester I'll need a job.
Which makes me nervous.
Which makes me hyperventilate.
Which makes me run around my room a little.
Which doesn't last very long because my room is like 7 feet by 5 feet.
Which reminds me that I'll also need to find an apartment.
Which will probably be very small.
Which makes me wonder where I will put all my clothes.
Which makes me give up and want to just watch Grey's Anatomy on Hulu.

Just kidding.  A little.  But it DOES make me put in a shameless plug on my blog to say:
Hey!  If you are an internship that I applied to this week and you Googled me, hello!  Yes, I am the Courtney S(hizzle - sorry, had to take it out so my peeps can't Google mah blog - 6/21/11) that you intended to find on Google because I have pretty much determined that I am the only Courtney S(hizzle) in the world.  I would REALLY LIKE to intern with you, and I promise that I'm hard working and a good writer and will do anything you ask me to do.  Trust me, I worked at the Today Show, and the word "No" wasn't allowed within the doors of 30 Rock.  So please, interview me!  You won't regret it!

It is also that time...

For a new Mimes and Mummers show to open!  We had our opening night last night and it went excellently, so we need to TOP it tonight!  8pm, Collins Auditorium... be there!

Also, afterward, as is tradition with the Mimes, we put on a sketch parodying the show.  I have to say that I was pretty darn funny.  But that's just me.

I would also like to say that it is two weeks and one day until my birthday.  I.  Am.  So.  Close.  To not being a baby anymore.  Yayyy!

Love and LAUGHTER,
Courtney

You Can Stand Under My (Red) Umbrella, ella, ella

Disclaimer: Yes, I know I've been a little MIA lately, but I am trying to win the "most obscene display of materialism" award on Tuesday at move-in and am trying to pack everything I own into bins and suitcases.  It's tough, time-consuming work, so don't blame me.  Please.

After two summers and a winter at the T, Travs, Travelers, as a non-tech technical intern (contradiction?  Yes), Friday was my last day in good ol' Hartford.  Well, maybe.  Unless Amy and I get the a-okay to come back in the winter.  But just in case, I am mourning this ending as it should be mourned.

In honor of Travelers and all the people in it, here are some pictures from my phone that I took while interning this summer.  They bring a tear to my eye...

This is TechDP headquarters, aka "The Corner Part 2," aka the place everyone wants to be, aka Amy's and my desks.  Normally, they're a lot messier than shown, but we were... were... were... about to leave.  Pictured in the desk area are Amy (naturally) and two of the main frequenters of our desks, Jay and ScottyMac.  HEY JAY!  HEY SCOTTY!  BET YOU DIDN'T WANT ME TO POST THIS PICTURE, DID YOU???

Do you miss us?

...Jay?  Scotty??

...you miss us, right???!?!?!!

Sad now.

[Update 8/23/10: This section of my entry was clearly a desperate cry for attention, and I expected some sort of heartwarming and/or sarcastic comment from Jay or ScottyMac on my blog and/or Facebook.  I got neither.  From either person.  Disappointment reigns.]

Here is the entrance to our desk area, complete with a picture of last year's TechDP intern class (NOSTALGIA) and a sign for the counseling chair which subsequently went out of service when we got our exercise balls.  Oh, and there's a quote about our exercise balls.  It reads: "Do you know what this is?  This is a fitness orb, and it has completely changed my life." -Dwight Schrute.  Only the coolest of cool kids live their lives by The Office wisdom.

We left the signs up when we left.  Everyone must remember us.

Speaking of exercise balls, here is mine.  It used to live under my desk; now it will live under my desk at school.  It misses its friend, Amy's exercise ball, just as I miss my friend, Amy.  COME BACK FROM NEW HAMPSHIRE!

This is FrankyPanky, another intern.  He is one half of the intern combo Frandy, of which the other half is not pictured.  I'm not sure if that sentence was grammatically correct.

I love this picture because Amy and I are so devious.  Gregg will totally miss us pranking him 24/7.

Oh yes.  Oh yes.  Excellent.

I first learned about VitaMuffins at Travelers, and Amy was nice enough to bring one in for me.  I ate it.  It was very delicious, as the package boasts.  I need to buy me some of those.

Oh wait... we do work at Travelers?  I almost forgot.  I didn't take this pictures (obviously), but here are Amy and I presenting our end-of-summer presentation.  Why present together?  Possible reasons: we are the same person, we did the same thing all summer, we don't like extended periods of time away from one another, we rely on each other for validation, we didn't want to waste everyone's time by saying the same thing twice, we wanted to...

On our last day, Nancy took us to lunch and we got these gorgeous looking lemonades and iced teas.  Then we tasted them and had a sugar rush for ten hours.

There was also a giant heart character in a top hat to send us off.  Amy was especially excited and ran up to hug him right away.  And by that last sentence, I actually meant that she was totally freaked out and hid behind me as we walked by.

Some fine gentlemen were practicing their Wii skills in the Link.  Everyone knows that to be a successful businessman you have to have excellent golf skills!  Just ask my Dad.  And John Rossley.  Nerd.

But of course, we had to let everyone know that we will never be gone for good.  AmCo leaves a permaimpression wherever we go.

-----

Bye, dearest Travs!  See you soon...??

Love and red um-ber-ellas,
Courtney

Unrelated PS: SOMEBODY THAT I DON'T KNOW ACTUALLY COMMENTED ON MY OLD BLOG!  THEY THANKED ME FOR A RECIPE!  I'M FAMOUS!

10 Things You Learn from the TechDPi Summer Challenge

On Wednesday, July 28th, Amy and Courtney finally learned how to breathe again as the Travelers TechDPi Summer Challenge came to an end.  Not only did they completely rock it out and become promoted to co-CEO's of Travelers, they also learned a thing or two.

1) College kids make everything into a competition.  It was probably all that Wild and Crazy Kids we watched back in the day.

2) Real-world people make everything into a competition too.  Don't let them fool you.

3) Nobody likes to be the project manager during the project.  If they tell you they do, they're lying. 

4) Everybody likes to be the project manager after the project is finished.  If they tell you it doesn't matter to them, they're lying.

5) The man who created the concept of "Happy Hour" was definitely a project manager.

6) The chocolate stash that you keep in your drawer runs out a lot faster when you're three days away from a deadline.  But you deserved it, right?  Right?  Validate me please?

7) How to do this:

I swear this was my first try. I have superpowers.

8) Those "funny quirks" that your team members have aren't so funny by week two.  Or three.  Or eight.

9) When you're working on a live problem for a project, it's easy to develop severe dependencies on alcohol. And on Chinese food. Just ask Amy's local liquor store and Chinese take-out place. They gave her free extras for being a "valued customer" when we went there last week.

10) Vacations are really, really necessary.  Which is why we are (both!) leaving on one... tonight!! 

Love and the joys of being an intern,
Courtney 

VIP Tickets to John Mayer on Today (Subtitle: The Perks of Being a Former Intern)

Last week, my supervisor sent me an instant message because she was working from home.  It went a little something like this.

N: Courtney, can you...*something something something work related*
N: By the way, did you know that John Mayer is playing on the Today Show next Friday?
Courtney: *immediately turns on away message and gets on the Today Show website, ignoring relevant work message*

You see, having been a do-it-all intern at the Today Show in the fall, I worked many a concert, and I know that there are both indoor and outdoor concerts.  Indoor concerts can't have an audience because the studio is really small and really busy.  However, outdoor concerts are outside and therefore need an audience.  So, long story short, I signed up for fan passes, emailed my former boss and two former producers, and generally had a conniption until I got so many responses that I ended up with no less than eight passes to the John Mayer concert.

Did I ever tell you that I'm an overachiever?  Well, I am.

I drove down to New York last Thursday night, went to bed at 11, and exuberantly woke up at 3:15am to get to the city.  Joe, being a JMayer fan, but not being as crazy as me, was not as excited to wake up pre-dawn.  We drove to Rockefeller Plaza and got in the (longer than expected) VIP line.  I was very surprised that I was not the only VIP.

Just kidding.  But I'm a little bit serious.

Apparently JM's management had given out a ton of VIP passes the day before, which I didn't know about, so we only got there at 5am.  We're soooo lazy.

After getting loaded into the main pen and unsuccessfully trying to sneak into the usual VIP pen, it was time for the sound check.  I missed Steve Jordan and Melanie and Julie, but the man himself was there... John Mayer.

Side note: Did you know that last November, I worked on JMayer's segment when he was doing an in studio concert?  I filled out all the contracts and helped out on set... and I spent an hour getting up the nerve to talk to John.  It didn't help that NBC4 New York had shown clips of his sound check without his permission.  That wasn't so good.

But anyways, we totally have a connection.  He'll know about it one day.

I'm not a fangirl.  I just like to feel important.

-----

This is what Johnny boy looked like when he emerged at 6:30, an hour and a half after I arrived.  You can tell that he was performing outside and not inside because he sprung for the collared shirt.  Or maybe that's what he was wearing the night before.  One can never tell.

There were a lot of crazies around us, including Middle-Aged Super Fan.  Let's call her... Marge. Marge seems like an appropriate name.  Marge was so excited to see JMayer that anytime anyone said anything at a higher-than-average decibel or shifted their weight in any way, she was all up on the situation.  Take, for example, the following scenario:

Courtney: "Joseph, this girl next to me is being a bee-otch.  Woooooooow."

Marge: "What??  WHAT??  DO YOU SEE ANYTHING???"  *Flails widly*

See the head with the sunglasses in the picture above?  Meet Marge.

Lots of people brought signs.  Marge was sure to yell "SIGN DOWN!!!!!" anytime someone raised one.  It was so courteous of her.

At a certain point between the sound check and the live performance, we got a little impatient.  It led to us becoming, shall we say... loopy??

Joe started eating his VIP Pass.  I had to remind him that that wasn't socially acceptable.

"What?  This is a VIP Pass?  Then why are we so far back in the crowd??"

I don't know, man... I was asking the same thing.

We got some Today Show sunglasses.  What goes best with Today Show sunglasses??

...a duckface, that's what.

But we took a second to act normal before going back to our usual lunacy.

And then John reemerged, dressed in his Sunday best.  And by Sunday best, I mean the part of Sunday when you put on your plaid pants that don't touch the ground and go golfing.
PS: At this point, there was a crew member in the way of our perfect camera angle.  Marge was sure to yell at him to get out of the way for us.  Such a sweet lady.

When you've got a million screaming fans around you, you gotta make sure your earpiece is in place.  Or else it's off-key city.

You also gotta make really funny faces to really get the sound out.  That is what John Mayer taught me.

By the way, did you know Al Roker can fly?  He can.

"Please, ooh and ahh over me as I make sweet love to this microphone."
Don't worry, I did.  Joe got a little jealous.

GET IT, John Mayer.  GET IT GURRRLLLL!!!  I mean...  GUYYYYYY!!

After all that performing, fix that hair, man.  Check yo'self before you wreck yo'self.

Aw, man.  That's a nice face, JMayer.  Singing on the Today Show is hard work.

-----
All in all, it was a little difficult for me to accept that I didn't work at the Today Show anymore.  And even more scary... it really made me want to work there again.

Has anybody seen my sanity??  I would like it back, please.

Thanks, John Mayer, for coming back to Today just for me, of course.  And thanks, Today Show, especially Courtney, Julie, Katie, and Nassdja, for gettin' me back there!!

Love and no I am not a fangirl (most of the time),
Courtney