All about Yvonne

Chinchilla treat recipe

2011-03-11T15:38:00.000-08:00

So long story short, I wanted to get a puppy, but my landlady was so not up for that. After giving it some thought, a chinchilla seemed like the perfect pet. Cuddly, fluffy, and also doesn't bark. :)

So I adopted a chinchilla named Boba, he's a black velvet, which for those of you who understand what Boba (tapioca pearls in pearl milk teas) means as well as what a black velvet chinchilla is will be able to make the correlation. If not you can always check him out on Twitter: @BobaMonster.

Reason for the post is that when I adopted the little guy, the lady at the shelter had given me some home baked biscuits that he can have as a snack once a day. Once I ran out of course I wanted to bake my own! I figured going online to find a recipe should be pretty easy, but it was actually sort of hard! Seems like chins are way more common in the UK, and people care to post about their chins and chin care alot more out there!

So I put my sourcing skills to good use, and did find a recipe, which I used last night. Boba is now enjoying healthy, organic (buy your ingredients from Whole Foods or other organic markets!), homemade oat and fruit biscuits. He loves them! :)

For anyone else who may have a chin, or have a friend with a chin, feel free to share this recipe! I've already adjusted some measurements and times based on my own experience. Thanks Tabitha from Pets Hub!

Ingredients:

1/3 carrot (finely grated)
1/3 of an apple (finely grated) - including the juice
1/2 cup of oats
1/2 cup of chinchilla pellets (blended into a powder in a food processor)

1 large, or 1 1/2 medium bananas (mashed)

Method:

Put the first four ingredients together in a bowl. Add about 3/4 of the mashed banana and mix well. The mixture needs to be moist and hold itself together. If it doesn't mix easily, and feels too dry - mix in some more banana.

Cover with Clingfilm, and leave in the fridge overnight (up to 24 hours).
This will allow all of the moisture from the fruit to soften the pellet mixture.

Pre-heat the oven to 250F.

Roll the mixture into treat-sized balls, and place on a non-stick baking tray (you can flatten them into small disks if you want to, but you won't get as many on the baking tray).

Cook in the oven for 1.5 hours (you only want to dry the mixture out, you
don't need to cook it).

When the cooking time is up check to see if the treats are done by cutting the largest treat in half. If the middle is darker than the outside, it hasn't properly dried out all of the way through, so put them back for another 15 - 20 minutes.

Limbo

2010-12-09T11:38:00.001-08:00

Laid off after only two short months. There was a lot of "it's not you, it's us" during the discussion. In my case I believe them since recruiting is always the first to go when a company isn't hiring, so can't say I didn't see it coming...

Luckily for me, VMware really is like my family, and are welcoming me back with open arms. For others affected like myself, I'd have to say they're less lucky, and I'm doing what I can to connect them to others in my network to help them out.

If your company is hiring, now is a good time to reach out to me if you're looking for great talent because I know of some great people looking for work!

More to come after a weekend in Vancouver!

Back to social gaming!

2010-10-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

Yup I've done it. I've moved on yet again!

Tomorrow I will start at CrowdStar (a social gaming start-up, you may have heard of some of their games, ie Happy Pets, Happy Aquarium, Zoo Paradise, check out www.crowdstar.com for a complete list) as their Staffing Manager. They've risen quickly as a major contender in the social gaming industry.

I've had a chance to play a part in participating in and shaping many different types of staffing infrastructures and processes, and now I've been given the chance to build my own. Definitely feeling that bit of IC-transitioning-to-management anxiety right now.

I can't thank my team at VMware enough for the support, encouragement, and the good laughs they've provided during my second stint. I shall be looking forward to the occasional catch-up sessions in the future :)

Having met with the intelligent and dedicated team that CrowdStar is comprised of right now, I have no doubt that I'm in for an awesome ride. My limits will be tested and pushed to the extreme (oh how I've missed start-up life!) and I can't wait to begin.

More to come after I find out just what I've signed myself up for!

Did I mention I'm now back at VMware?

2010-09-15T16:24:00.000-07:00

Done it yet again! Someone read my blog and reminded me of how an update is so tragically overdue!

So let's play catch up! Between a trip to LA, Michigan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Maine, and Las Vegas, here's what I've been doing work-wise:

I went to Playdom back in July 2009, and left at the end of Feb 2010. Playdom was at over 400 people by the time I left (props to the recruiting team for a bang-up job!), and was just recently acquired by Disney.

I'm very proud of my Playdom Peeps, made a lot of great friends, and wish them nothing but continued success, but I just couldn't resist coming back to VMware to work with my old manager, aka my greatest mentor of all time. He popped the question, I said yes, and voila, full-circle, back to my old stomping grounds!

A few things have changed since I left.
#1, they now have this AWESOME gym! I still remember pitching the fact that VMware is in the middle of building this world-class gym to candidates back in 2007, and in the back of my mind calling BS, but they've done it! Place is run by staff from Club One Fitness, has the latest exercise equipment, and a basketball court which can also double as a volleyball court, a racquetball court, a fully manicured soccer field right outside, and instructors who come in to teach spinning, martial arts, TRX, and most importantly YOGA. (I've sort of become obsessed with yoga ever since my time at Playdom.)

#2. No more free lunch Wednesdays. But the snacks are as plentiful as ever, there is still on-site dry-cleaning, and Posh Bagel Wednesdays.

#3. Since Facebook is now headquartered about 2 blocks from where we are, I can frequently go visit and have nachos on Wednesdays.

Haha ok so my priorities are very blatantly exercise and food-related. But I will also add that the amount of talent I now see at VMware is tremendous! We're attracting many industry leaders to come work for us, and there have been some awesome product releases and major acquisitions. VMWorld 2010 just took place in SF two weeks ago and had over 17,000 in attendance!

I'm currently working on filling positions in the areas of Product Security, Cloud Services, Virtual Datacenter Flash Computing and Enterprise Management. Things are as challenging as ever, with me working hard to fill "purple squirrel" requisitions. (What is a purple squirrel you ask? They don't exist. Duh.) Keeps the brain busy!

Of course if you happen to be reading this and would like to make my life easier by referring industry experts or presenting yourself to me as an industry expert, please feel free :)

I think that covers the past year and two months!

Social Gaming

2009-08-06T14:54:00.001-07:00

Having moved onto my latest residence at Playdom, Inc. I'm now seeking software engineers with experience in Java and MySQL, PHP, etc. As well as Linux Sys Admins, QA engineers and UI designers.

Yes I'm doing tech recruiting again!

So what happened with FB? 10 months, finished the Dublin quota, so therefore it was time to move on since there were no more heads to hire. Ironic but I guess I did a good job, haha.

Playdom is a pretty neat place. Roughly 80 people, most crazy about online games, and are doing a bang up job by taking over MySpace, and now FB. Time will tell how long I'll call this my home :)

Yay!!

2009-02-26T11:01:00.000-08:00

I guess I really really really need to work on keeping this up to date! It's always exciting when someone contacts me and tells me it's because they saw my blog :)

Of course as usual I have a GREAT excuse for why I haven't been doing this. The past two months has by far been the most dramatic and crazy in terms of my personal life for a looooong time...lots of heartbreak to say the least. But as usual, life goes on, with or without me, so I'm hopping back on the train before it leaves me behind!

As far as recruiting, Facebook Dublin is doing well! The team is growing, making their office more like home, like a little happy family. Seeing their pictures on Facebook always make me smile, and it's always a good feeling knowing I've contributed to its growth.

The madness continues! I'll continue to recruit for Online Operations folks that are bilingual in Italian, French, Spanish, Arabic, Turkish, etc etc. I welcome anyone to reach out to me regarding openings because as the office grows our needs will grow as well. Again I apologize to those who have reached out regarding English-speaking roles, since that's just not our priority right now.

So here's to you, 2009! I'll hang onto my optimism and hope everything else falls into place.

In anticipation of Valentine's Day

2009-02-11T15:10:00.000-08:00

Ludgwig van Beethoven - Letters to the Immortal Beloved

Though still in bed, my thoughts go out to you, my Immortal Beloved, now and then joyfully, then sadly, waiting to learn whether or not fate will hear us - I can live only wholly with you or not at all...

No one else can ever possess my heart - never - never -...

Be calm, only by a calm consideration of our existence can we achieve our purpose to live together -

Be calm - love me - today - yesterday - what tearful longings for you - you - you - my life - my all - farewell.

Oh continue to love me - never misjudge the most faithful heart of your beloved.

ever thine

ever mine

ever ours

Wrapping up my week

2009-01-16T06:27:00.000-08:00

Wow just like that and it's Friday! 17 interviews, the last one going on right now, then one more day for me to be a total tourist and take a bus tour around Dublin.

I honestly wasn't sure if I could pull this off on my own, haha. Tuesday was by far the most challenging since I was facilitating interviews and meetings for a different group with back to back interviews and meetings that started at 9 30am and lasted all the way through to 6 30pm. I sort of "fake calmness" when I'm stressed, so I think I managed to convince others that everything was ok when inside my stomach was doing cartwheels.

I think I really like Dublin! The people are extremely friendly, and the whole city has this rustic yet modern look and feel to it. Tons of brick everywhere, meat pies and Guinness, traffic is scary and no one seems to pay attention to stop lights, not to mention despite the "look right" and "look left" signs on the ground I'm still confused about which way cars are supposed to be coming from. Also the weather is not nearly as bad as everyone said it would be, the sun is actually shining right now, I guess you appreciate what you get when you're prepared for the worst :)

Tonight I'm accompanying part of the landing team to watch their speed-dating escapade, I'll just sit back with one of the other guys and drink beer and heckle them from afar :)

I'm excited to see beyond Graftston Street and St. Stephen's Green tomorrow! Guinness Factory here I come!!

Then Sunday, leaving on a jet plane, back home to the complications of real life again...

Facebook Dublin

2009-01-07T16:11:00.000-08:00

It is so embarrassing when candidates tell me they've looked at my blog, and the last time I updated was over 3 months ago...

The latest and greatest will be Facebook Dublin! I'm currently hiring for Online Operations in language specific markets. If you'd like more details regarding our openings, please feel free to contact me!

Excited about going to Dublin next week and freezing :)

Facebook

2008-09-19T15:59:00.000-07:00

For those of you who actually pay attention to my LinkedIn profile and therefore know about this blog has probably also noticed that I've moved to Facebook.

It's really quite perfect actually. I stalk Facebook all the time, so what's better than working at the company itself?!

For now I'm done with Eng recruiting, and working more with Marketing & Communications, so I've had to completely switch my focus and curse myself for not making more connections with people outside of Eng on LinkedIn. But I guess this just means my network is going to get even larger ;)

Overall though things are going well. So anyone interested in working at Facebook, contact me!!

Very ready for the weekend :)

Long overdue update

2008-06-27T14:03:00.000-07:00

Woohoo, I've worked from 17 reqs down to 6, finally got some room to breathe :)

First let's go over my latest requirements in case you happen to be my potential next hire. There are 2 main categories: 1) you create your own Silktest or Python scripts, or 2) you're a software design engineer well-versed in C or C++, and work with Win32 API. If you fit either of these descriptions and you'd like to work at VMware, remember to contact me!

It's been 3 insane months that flew by at the speed of light. I'm glad to be able to sit down and blog again. Even Facebook has been put on the backburner, and those of you who know me know I <3 my Facebook!

Now onto something totally NOT recruiting related, but has done its fair share of taking up my time: weddings. 1 down, and 3 more to go. Not really my friends, but the bf's friends, maybe because he's a couple years older, but everyone is settling down!

For me, personally, the idea of marriage is terrifying, I'm still trying to talk my bf into letting me get a puppy. So why everyone's in a total hurry to get hitched is a mystery to me. Whatever floats their boat I guess. I just really want a Goldendoodle.

Last weekend I was at Point Reyes at a couples' picnic. Fresh oysters! Everything was great, except that we dressed for the summer and by Sunday it was Winter again. Good thing my taste buds still worked! The low point occurred when I managed to bruise and cut my back when I got home. One of those freak accidents where I'm kneeling and intently inspecting my cooler and cleaning it and bf pulling out the cutting board from the drawers to cut up oranges, then BAM! My back hits the corner of the wood block. I was going to go play paintball tomorrow but I think I'm hurt enough...

Today I have to go to a rehearsal for a fashion show event. It's a new venture that my bf and some of his friends are doing, a makeup service called Pureblendz (www.pureblendz.com). They've got some crazy good makeup artists, and the girls are gorgeous, but I'd prefer to be watching Angelina Jolie in Wanted. Hopefully I can still make it after rehearsals. *fingers crossed* Then tomorrow, Brazilian BBQ in the city at Espetus Churrascaria!!

The next big thing: I'm turning the big 2-5 and going to NYC in July! I'll definitely make an effort to update about that when I return! ;)

Waiting, endless waiting

2008-03-18T14:45:00.000-07:00

So I've been sitting here ALL DAY now, on my laptop, waiting for a miracle to happen.

My contract "ended" which triggered Oracle to expire my account, which in turn caused me not to be able to log onto my work computer, or access email from anywhere.

If you think this sounds bad, just think about how it felt yesterday when I was sitting here WITHOUT my laptop, just SITTING all day.

I'm so brain dead I really don't have much to say. I just wish they'd figure out whatever bug this is that makes me invisible in the system.

I would go home but then I wouldn't get paid. BLAH, going out drinking on a Monday night, even if it's St. Patty's Day, was not the brightest idea. I wouldn't say I'm hung over, but just feel so out of it right now, haha.

Hopefully I'll report tomorrow with better news.

The general opinion

2008-03-06T13:34:00.001-08:00

Something I've learned since my time at VMware, which was not so apparent to me before: Most people despise recruiters.

Now definitely this claim is not aimed at anyone in the industry in particular, and it's almost understandable why we're so hated.

There are alot of headhunters out there who SPAM.

Now while most of us, myself included, would be incredibly flattered that someone went through all that trouble to find me and offer me a job opportunity because they recognize my skills and talent, I think there are others that are just plain fed up, always being called or emailed at work, sometimes regarding positions that have nothing whatsoever to do with them. They start to regard these calls as those made by dreaded telemarketers that most of us screen or hang up on.

Now this is my opinion on this topic:

1. I NEVER email or call anyone at a work related address/phone number. I wouldn't want you to ambush ME at work either.
2. If you're not interested in what I'm presenting, a simple "no thank you" will suffice. Otherwise I would probably follow up with you to make sure my email somehow didn't end up in a spam folder but you were actually interested (this actually happens quite often). Please don't get too worked up about me following up, since that IS my job.
3. Please consider my feelings as a human being before you come back with some harsh or unnecessary response when all I did was ask you about your interest in exploring new opportunities.

For the most part, those I've contacted are easy-going when I approach them, so keep in mind my opinion is aimed at the general masses, and not at any one person in particular.

On a lighter note, I'm STILL looking for that hardcore Silk programmer. Do you or anyone you know fit that description?

Making up for lost time

2008-03-05T16:07:00.000-08:00

OMG it's been a WHILE since I last wrote in here! Thanks to one of my wonderful candidates for reminding me I still have a blog! :)

Also recently I got a less than nice message about my LinkedIn profile picture, sent straight to my vmware.com account. Just want to say to whoever it was: NOT COOL! Definitely NOT appreciated! And unless you have something nice to say, find something better to do with your time instead of writing hate mail!

That picture was actually taken during my Hawaii vacay with bf. I did remove it from my profile though because I'm scared there are other less than nice people out there just dying to send me an email about it.

So since the last time I wrote, a few things have changed. My dear friend who came on board at the same time as I did has gone back to Google. I'm sad I no longer get to see her every day, but at the same time I'm so glad I get to enjoy Google lunch once every two weeks now.

I eat at my desk just about every day now, especially since my other close friend who came from Google is on vacay in Thailand. So please, send me emails telling me you're looking for a job. I'm definitely available to help!

So just to update what I'm looking for right now: the Russian G11n person I was previously looking for is no longer needed, my main goal is to find a super hardcore Silk programmer. Otherwise my main criteria for my other reqs are still UI QA, mainly manual testing but experience in automation on the Linux or Mac or Windows platform. If you are a great Windows/Networking admin, I'm also looking for you!

I'm excited that I now get a chance to meet my candidates who make it onsite, since I'm now training to be full-cycle and more involved. I've been given the privilege now to extend intern offers, and God willing, if I ever hire another person (yes btw hiring has been slow...) I might get to extend an offer to a FULL-TIMER. Then FINALLY I'd feel I've accomplished something. (It might sound weird that I get so excited about this stuff but I'm all passionate about all of it! I'm guessing I actually like my job!)

So please, if you or anyone you know is interested in working for us, contact me! I'm scouring LinkedIn, job boards, the internet every day trying to find you people! Why not just come straight to me? ;-)

It's just lovely weather outside!

2008-01-23T17:15:00.001-08:00

Ugh. It's only 5pm and it's super dark and gloomy. That is the down side to sitting so close to windows and the door. I think if it wasn't for my heater I'd freeze to death from the draft that comes in every time someone opens the door facing my cube.

Recruiting is slowly picking back up. My brain has somewhat defrosted and I'm filling my pipeline.

So onto more interesting stuff. I'm actually looking for a room right now. Last night I drove to this place in San Jose. I was so convinced that it was the same distance as going to Milpitas, since Google maps told me so, but in the end the drive was almost an hour long through some pretty horrendous traffic. The place itself was decent, in the nice neighborhood off of Capitol Expressway. $700 for the entire first floor of the house with private entrance and patio, plus utilities and internet included. The catch being the washer and dryer would be right outside my door, shared with 2 other house mates. That and the thought of keeping house when both my other house mates will be guys was pretty much the deal breaker. At least the drive back home to Milpitas was short and painless.

I also just got my tattoo redone. Finally! I spent like half an hour yelping about the place I went to so I'm not going to go through that here again, but feel free to look up Da Wei Tattoo if you go on Yelp! and you'll see what I mean.

Another funny thing, well curious thing I guess. My good friend whom I met while studying abroad in Singapore, he's from LA but feels that Singapore is home, so he spends alot of time out there, just messaged me today and told me that he broke up with his gf out there. Now I wonder if this is every guy, but when I asked how he felt he actually said he felt relieved, because he's been wanting to break it off but just wasn't sure how she'd handle it emotionally. I just always thought guys don't really care about stuff like that but my friend maybe a particularly sensitive soul.

I just also told another friend to get mojitos at XYZ bar inside the W in SF when he meets with his ex gf whom he broke up with back in 1996, lol. Hope that was a good idea...

Sourcer's block

2008-01-10T15:42:00.000-08:00

Kind of like writer's block I guess? I'm at my wit's end right now trying to figure out some new ways to source. I keep on running across the same people, either qualified and not interested, or super-interested but not qualified.

A friend suggested to me that perhaps I should think about a career change, after all, I am a psych major, IT might not be my interest and I'm just fooling myself into thinking this is my dream job :-(

Things took a down turn after I got my Fit n Fruitful smoothie at Jamba Juice which was messed up and tasted like nasty goop. Usually it's my favorite smoothie. (Note: stay away from the Jamba Juice next to Palo Alto High School during their lunch time.) I might need to go write about it on Yelp, it has become my latest and greatest obsession to write trashy reviews.

The gloomy weather isn't much help either.

If only there's a magical way to reach out to all the QA engineers out there. And if only my candidates stop getting rejected for being "over-qualified."

Alright I'm downright whining! Tomorrow will be a better day, after all, there will be another beer bash!

Russian Globalization QA Engineers anyone?

2008-01-07T17:00:00.000-08:00

So one of my hiring managers came to me today and asked me to help her find Globalization QA Engineers that speak Russian. Easier said than done. If anyone out there knows of anybody, please PLEASE clue me in!

To backtrack a bit, it's been a pretty hectic month. I was in Chicago visiting my parents for the week of Christmas, came back just in time for a black-tie NYE event, then just braved a wedding last night. Hectic but awesome because I get to keep dressing up in new dresses and shoes :-) The getting ready part is annoying but then you get to look all nice at the end.

I also got my first passive hire at VMware while I was in Chicago (yay!) so that was pretty good news. Also just been working out alot. NY resolution: back to college shape. Now that I'm done traveling and all the annual festivities are calming down I'll be more regular about updating my blog.

Happy Birthday Hirji!

2007-12-18T14:48:00.000-08:00

Today was Hirji's birthday. (He's also a QA recruiter, sits in the cube next to mine.) We went to La Bodegita for lunch along with a few others in Prom D. Our waiter was a complete waste of space. Took him over 10 minutes to bring us water and bread. He took an order for 2 Heinekens which never came, because it turns out La Bodegita doesn't serve Heinekens! Then of course, the crowning touch, cutting up Hirji's birthday cake and returning it to me in a box instead of serving it to us, then wanting to charge us $2 each for a dessert fee. (Also I asked him to cut it into 6 pieces, we ended up with 8.) Overall, a very memorable experience. Don't get me wrong though, the food was oh so good! I recommend the skirt steak, medium rare.

My first blog entry,EVER!!

2007-12-17T13:59:00.000-08:00

I guess this is kind of cool. My own blog :-) Somewhere for me to express my private self and let the whole world read about it, lol.

I'm a recruiter at VMware, Inc. mainly looking for QA folks. Since I look at people's blogs in my candidate search, I figure I might as well start a blog too. Make it fair, since I looked at your blog you can come and peruse mine.

Today has not been the best of days. 2 candidates, yes, TWO! decided last minute that they don't really want to work here and canceled their on-site interviews. One actually canceled the day of. Having had a great weekend and coming back to work to get this news just blows.

It's starting to sound like a diary, and I guess it will go on being this way from now on. Once I learn more about how to post pictures and all that jazz, I'll update.

Bye for now!