Is Mistaken Identity Preventing Employment?

In this age when EVERY aspect of ones life is just a few clicks away, how much should or do we trust what pops up on a computer screen? What comes up on the screen MIGHT be factual, but the person reading it might just be a total idiot who cant even count to lettuce.

Twice this week I have been a victim of mistaken identity due entirely to stupidity and it is only Tuesday.

First, if you didn't know, my name is Eric D. Carlson. This is a very well established fact. I moved to Maine November 2011. Too bad state employees and temp agency employees do not know this. Oh wait, they do.

This is a recap of what happened with incident 1.

I applied for a job through @Work Personnel Services in Brewer Maine. I know, temp agency, lame job. NO. This was a job that would put me back into the income I was making as a professional in NC 4 years ago and have not seen since. I met every qualification and have the experience to back it up. I figured it was as good as done. The application process was longer than many I have seen but here is some of the info they asked for which is actually standard for many job applications.

Current Physical and Mailing Address
Previous addresses for the last 7 years
Photo copy of SS Card and Drivers License (we know what ID hoops are needed for those)

So we can assume they are pretty damn sure they know who you are. The client that I was applying for also requested a criminal background check, so, why not I have done these before, I have nothing to hide, I am clean. @Work requests that I check in with them (via phone) every week. I was doing this nearly every day, asking specifically about the job I applied for. 3 weeks later, I am getting rather annoyed that I have not heard about it so I call in and ask specifically about this job. I was told that my background check cam back and it was not clean. WHAT?!?!? Yep, according to them I have been arrested here in Maine several times. gong back as far as 1995 (see above info). I told them that this is incorrect info. Their response was a non-response and could only tell me that this is the info that came back from SBI [State Bureau of Identification] when they requested the info with only (pay attention now) First name, Last name and Date Of Birth. Thankfully I have such an unusual name that I can not be mistaken for anyone else. Oh, right, I don't. Next move, call SBI. I talked to to very helpful people over at the SBI, Dave and Dana. They both confirmed that what happens is that the info (name and DOB) is fed into a computer and that uses some algorithm to come up with a close sounding match. Really? Yes. That is right, a close sounding match. I was also informed that for the same price a fingerprint back ground report can be requested by the potential employer. I asked what can I do about this. The only recourse is on me, totally 100% on me. I need to go get fingerprinted, and have a fingerprint based background check done as a challenge, oh and this could take up to 2 weeks. Oh and I am sure the employer will wait on hiring someone so I can do this, right? I called back @Work, and again asked them what they will do. Nothing. But they will email a copy of said report to me, so that I may challenge it, "today or tomorrow." It is now tomorrow, and by 3 PM, no email. I called, and this time asked for the manager and explained what happened and also explained why this should be taken more seriously by @Work. Here is the hypothetical situation I gave them:

"Lets say someone applied for a job, they have a lengthy criminal background, you do the standard haphazard background check that 75% of businesses use and it came back clean because it had a close enough sounding match. This person is then employed and does something consistent with their background, the employer then gets sued by their customer. Who do they come back to? You, and ask to see the background check and compare it with a REAL one provided by the police. Who is then getting sued?" Still nothing they can or will do short of talking to SBI them selves.

Here is where the real idiocy comes, Take a look at the first 2 pages (of 6) of the report that came back, keep in mind ALL the identifying info and documents about ME they have in their possession and What I told you above, about me.

I'll wait.

I'll just let that sink in.

Done?

Ya, that is what I thought too. How could they possibly have thought this is me? IT'S NOT EVEN THE SAME NAME!! Did they even read this?

Before I received this I was on my way to the local jail (because that is where I was told (by the police) that I need to go to get finger printed) and while on my way I again, talked to @Work and asked where the email is? I was assured it would be sent today.

At the local county jail I was told that they can NOT just finger print anyone that walks in and asks for it. WHAT? Really? Something in writing from either a potential employer or SBI is needed. Idiocy, again.

So tomorrow guess where I am going. Yep, the jail again, with this report in hand, and also to @Work. I will ask them to pull my file and verify that they do indeed have all the identifying documents they once had and ask them to compare this report with the LEGAL DOCUMENTS they have and then ask them: "What on this report suggests that this is me?"

I may be going to local news outlets (tv/newspaper) with this. This needs attention.
How many jobs have I NOT been hired for due to something like this? How many other people has this happened to?

Moral here, ALWAYS insist on a fingerprint based background check on none at all. Always. It is your right. 

Dont get me started on what happened at the DMV today. 

To The Skies We Travel

As The Crow Flies

We are taking to the skies over Maine. There has been hints and pieces of information given and posted in many places as to thing to come with us, well, here it is. Gypsie and I are in the beginning steps of opening a small family owned business right here in Blue Hill Maine.

I totally blame her for all of this. It all started with asking what do I want to do for a career, more to the point what would I want to do every day for the rest of my life, what kind of job would get me out of bed every morning excited about going to work. Money aside, what would I do with the adage "if you love what you do you will never work a day in your life."It took a while to think of it but I remembered something that I always wanted to do since 4th grade (thank you Dr. Luzetti).

I want to fly.

Phone calls were made, and information found, bad news. There is little to no chance of some type of meaningful career in aviation in Maine working for someone else. Not to be dismayed by this, I thought more and figured, if I can not work for someone, I wil work for myself, I will create a meaningful career for myself.

So here we are today. We will be starting As The Crow Flies, a seaplane based, air tour and charter company operated here in Blue Hill. Again, credit it goes to my amazing and inspirational wife for the name. We will have unique features not offered anywhere in the area. Mainly, the ability to land/take off from either water or land, seating for 6 passengers. There are a couple sea plane tours in the state, but much further south, in the Portland area but mostly operating in the lakes region, there are other air tours some what nearby, but they can only take 3 passengers. There are other charter services in the state but they are either too small to have a decent useful load carrying capability or they are on the other end, the elite, ultra expensive corporate type. We will fill that middle area nicely with our intended plane, a Grumman G44A Super Widgeon.

Isn't it just beautiful?
 Yep, that is what we will be flying (ok maybe not that specific plane, but it's the same make/model)

These are some of our services offered:

• Take-off from and return to Blue Hill Bay
• Air tours of 30 min or 60 min.
• Sunset air tours with option to land at uninhabited islands off the Maine coast for viewing
• Lunch tours to islands
• Light House Tours
• Penobscot Bay
• Schoodic Peninsula
• Stonington Lobster Boat air tours
• Acadia Park and Mountains
• Fly-Stay packages with local Inns: Pick up passengers, fly in to area (even right to the back door of the Inn in some cases) to stay at Local Inn, booked offered through the Inn (i.e. Bar Harbor Inn) limited to a 300-500 mile range. 

•  Charter service, passenger or cargo.
• Charter Services available to a 500+/- mile range including Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New York,  Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Washington D.C. Northern Virginia (in the first year, allowing for expansion to a larger service area as the business grows)
• Fly-Stay Packages to include ski resorts, hunting, fishing etc throughout Maine limited to 300-500 mile range. 

At some point, maybe a couple years after opening we also plan to give back to the community as much as possible. We would like to start a little side non-profit business teaching kids (adults too) at a drastically reduced rate, how to fly. This opens up a world of opportunity that, if they had to pay full price, would never be able to do. Yes we live in a touristy area, but there are many towns and many people around here who just get buy, or worse. What kid if given the chance, wouldn't want to learn how to fly? Once they have that first license, they can go anywhere with it. We want to make this opportunity affordable.

As you can see these are some very ambitious plans we have made. Right now we are just in the beginning stages and (re)writing our business plan. Once this is done we will be very actively seeking funding to get this going. This really is a massive undertaking and will be more work than we can probably imagine right now just to get it going but I always have had a few lofty goals tucked away for myself.

Yes there is an obvious question I can hear you all asking, "Eric, since when do you know how to fly?" Well, I dont, not yet. That is all part of our plan. I will be getting all the required flying credentials over the next year. So this is a long term plan, nothing that will be happening anytime really soon but we do already have some good feedback from a couple local inns that are eager to see us operating to take part in the fly/stay packages. 

Our goal is to be a family run business and eventually having Gypsie and  the minions all flight trained to join in the family business and keep it going as long as possible.

As for funding of this, we are at 0 right now, we are going to be hitting up indiegogo and other venues, private investors, awesomely generous folks and financial institutions. So if anyone out there knows someone who is interested in helping start a business, we are always willing to give in return as well. There is quite a bit to be done, we are on the right path, but just taking the first steps now to get As The Crow Flies off the ground (sorry, had to put that one in there).

If you can, or if you know someone who would, please help us make this happen here: As The Crow Flies
Thanks!

And Away We Go...

Greetings! Ok so the last time you read anything going with me was back at the beginning of January, I have been slacking, really. Big things are (almost) happening here. I am successfully unemployed (seasonal job, blah blah) but am looking to move on to a more lucrative career, maybe even one that pays. That is the small stuff. The next I blame on my dearest, my sunshine of my life, my wife who some of you may know around these parts as Gypsie over there at thewanderinggypsie. Maybe not directly, but I blame her for planting the seed for this. While discussing future careers the question was put to me "what would you love to do, what would you want to get out of bed every day excited about doing?" There is something that I have wanted to do since about 4th grade or so (no I am NOT saying how long ago that was). I made a couple phone calls, asked (too) many questions and discovered that career opportunities for this just plain do not exist here in our little corner of Downeast heaven. Dismayed, but not giving up, I thought, why not hire myself, be my own boss, and not work for someone else, but for myself. Well fast forward about a month or so to today. We met with a great guy named Ed at S.C.O.R.E. [Service Corps Of Retired Executives] with our first draft of a business plan. Yep, that is what the first steps are for starting your own business, the idea, some basic info, then a business plan. Scary? YES! We have never done one of these, there seems to be no end of "how to" advice on-line for these, so what did I do? I took a basic outline given to me of what one should be and went from there. It was most certainly flawed, missing key pieces of info, too much info in the wrong place, but over all, not all that bad. Time for Business Plan 2.0. With a little less info where it is, and more info where there isn't any, but that will take some digging and "market research" for what we want to do. Oh, I also had a job interview today too, that went well, but the better news there was it was at the same place that we plan to work with as a business. The general manager was extremely excited about my proposal and even sent me to another facility that they partner with to suggest the same. The result there may not have been as exuberant but still a positive reception to the proposal. So a very productive day today. Frankly, our plans are HUGE, I mean, for a small business, these are really REALLY big. There is a disgustingly large amount of capital needed just to open the doors, but with a bit of luck and begging, and lots of smiles and hand shakes and talk it up, I think we can get it and get this thing going. We have so much to learn about this but it will be as fun as it is hard too. I am not really going to say too much about what exactly it is, as of right now, (and if you know don't say it please) but I will put this out there; 2 areas of business, the first will be seasonal for the tourism season, the other will be somewhat tourist and somewhat professional, but year-round. Also, I have nominated, seconded, and voted unanimously that my dearest, the sunshine of my life, my wife, be the owner, not because I don't want the headache, but for a myriad of other reasons and a few "because she is better at it" reasons too. I will be the work horse of the business until we "promote from with-in." This is a family owned and operated business that can (no, WILL) grow with our family.
We are off to a good start, a good solid plan and each other for support, what more do we need? Oh, right, investors, yeah, they would be great, we need them.
So here is to doing what you love, being your own boss and working your ass off to live a dream, and with that, I am off to bury myself in research for writing Business Plan 2.0.

GROUNDED!!

Here is a bit of fire prevention for everyone out there, weather it be for your home or workplace. Take it for what it is worth, coming from a parent and fire fighter and avid user of electronics.

Ever use those little adapters to plug a 3 prong (grounded) plug into a 2 prong outlet? How many of you actually take the time to properly attach it? This means taking that little screw that holds the cover plate on and screwing the adapter to the outlet which grounds it. This takes the place the ground prong. I have always known this and usually done this unless I was just temporarily using it, very temporary, like maybe an hour or 2 but continuously supervised. Well my wife did not know this and we had a very close call recently with one of these. Our house is old, very old, the wiring is somewhat more recent but not recent enough to have grounded outlets everywhere, many are just the old 2 prong style, including in the room we use as an "office." She had plugged one of these in to be able to use a 6 outlet strip for her computer and other such things. We had went to NH for the weekend of before Christmas and, from the signs of things, lost power at some point because clocks were flashing and her computer was off. I took that opportunity to properly install the adapter that she had been using as he did not ground it. When I unplugged it, this is what I found:

We got damn lucky.
You see that little metal tab? USE IT! You may not be as lucky as us.

The next day we went to the local harware store and bought several of them, typically they are around $1.00 each, cheap and simple to use but dangerous if not installed correctly. I replaced this one, and a couple others inthe house and made damn sure they were all grounded. Wifey learned a valuable lesson, thankfully not the hard way.

If you use these, please, ground them every time.