vancouver

My Experience and Shaw Tower Open House

by Mike Browne on July 23, 2010

in activity,blurts,gratitude,vancouver

This week my long and arduous job search came to an end. I applied for a job with Shaw Cablesystems. I’ve been a customer for many years using their digital television and internet services. I have always had good experiences dealing with the company and its representatives so when I found out that Technical Service Representative (TSR) jobs were available there I pounced on the opportunity.

I received a link to the job by a friend. The link had an online questionnaire around my technical knowledge and an “apply now” button at the bottom. On the next page I set up my account for the Shaw careers database filling out all of my information and copied and pasted a plain text version of my resumé into the form provided.

On the same day I got a phone call about coming in to Shaw Tower for a screening interview with a Talent Supply Coordinator from the HR department after which I scheduled for back for a second interview the next day with two supervisors from the Technical Service department.

I had to bring my passport (which I seem to have lost on the way home) and my driver’s licence so a credit and criminal record check could be done on me.

After the second interview, which I thought went well, my interviewers told me that I should to wait for a call one way or the other.

The phone call with a job offer came a day later. It included an amazing benefits package that starts right away, not the least of which is an employee discount on the old cable bill. Nice! Every bit helps.

The whole hiring experience was extremely pleasant, professionally executed and efficient. At no time was I made to feel I was just a number.

The offices in Shaw Tower are beautiful and modern. The people I met were all friendly and accommodating. That’s a corporate culture I can get used to.

I start training on Monday. I am looking forward to this new adventure.

If you’re in Vancouver and might like a career at Shaw you can attend the Shaw Tower Open House tomorrow. Here are the details —

We have three questions for you:

  • Are you customer service driven?
  • Do you have a passion for sales?
  • Do you love technology and innovation?

If the answer is YES, then come to our open house and bring a friend!

Shaw Tower is opening its doors on Saturday, July 24th from 2 to 4 p.m. and we are looking for enthusiastic people to join our Customer Service and Technical Service teams.

There’s never been a better time to join the Shaw family as we continue to grow and expand our business.

So, if you know anyone who would be interested in applying, please pass along the information below.

Shaw Tower. Vancouver

Details

  • When: Saturday, July 24
  • Time: 2 to 4 p.m.
  • Where: Shaw Tower, 1067 West Cordova Street, Vancouver
  • Open Positions: Customer Service and Technical Service Representatives
  • What to bring: Your resume
  • What to expect: Be prepared to have an on-site interview with one of our Customer Care Supervisors

IMPORTANT: These jobs are all PART-TIME and only guarantee 20 hours per week. Our call centre operates 7 days a week from 7 AM – 11:30 PM. All candidates must be available to work anytime within these hours.

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Vancouver’s Winter Olympic Games are over. Now what?

by Mike Browne on March 2, 2010

in Vancouver 2010

Like many other Canadians, specifically Vancouverites, I woke up on Monday morning with a sense of loss and a bit of an emotional hangover. The euphoric buzz of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, over less than 24 hours, quickly wore off. It left me with a question that I’m sure many of us are asking, “Now what?”

Photo by kennymatic on Flickr

In 17 short days Vancouver hosted the biggest extended party it has ever seen and, possibly, ever will see. I’m even going so far as to say that a Stanley Cup win by our beloved Canucks would not even come close to the carnival (as fugitivephilo says in a thoughtful blog post about consumerism & patriotism) that we saw. Wow!

A better fictional account of the most dramatic Canadian Olympic games could not have been written.
[click to continue…]

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Granville Street Gong Show

by Mike Browne on February 21, 2010

in activity,vancouver,Vancouver 2010

Carol, always pursuing the next great pin, and me on a quest for an official Vancouver 2010 mug a former teacher braved the crowds and traffic and headed downtown in to the Olympics related madness. It took over an hour to get to the parking spot Carol had for us in the building where she works. As soon as we walked out of the building onto Granville Street, this is what we saw:

There were buskers busking, clowns clowning and men in pink underpants putting on shows all along the usually traffic laden Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. There was a different type of traffic today. No cars. Just a mass of humanity aimlessly milling about watching the mass of humanity aimlessly milling about.

Here’s another shot:

I’ll do a post tomorrow about Carol’s pin mission and my quest for the mug. For more you can read Carol’s post about our day out and about.

I’m pooped, but what a load of fun.

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Stephen Colbert in Vancouver

by Mike Browne on February 19, 2010

in Vancouver 2010

Yesterday a team of us from DOXA Documentary Film Festival headed down to Creekside Park to see day one of taping for the Colbert Show in Vancouver. We were hoping we would be able to get a camera package for our upcoming EXPOSED! Celebrity Camera Auction fundraiser to Stephen Colbert. We passed our package off to an AD and hopefully Mr. Colbert will get the package and agree to participate.

I took Carol’s camera and got a ton of great shots from my vantage point back stage and running around through the crowd snapping away.

We weren’t the only ones to show up. There are estimates that over 5000 people were in attendance and the patriots were out in force.

The place went nuts when Stephen Colbert arrived and he did not disappoint. I was especially impressed with his improv. He is more charismatic in person than I thought he would be.

Oh look, Colbert must have seen me in the crowd as he waved right at me. He was actually counting down from five, but hey, a guy can dream can’t he?

Here’s a slide show of the best shots I snagged of Stephen Colbert, his guest Michael Bublé and eTalk Canada’s Ben Mulroney, as well as a few other lucky shots from a great day.

Many thanks to Carol Browne for letting her camera out of her sight for the day and to Miss604 for posting a couple of my photos .

Showing appreciation is nice. “And that’s the word”.

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Great coffee shops on Commercial Drive

by Mike Browne on February 9, 2010

in vancouver,Vancouver 2010

I have been working at DOXA Documentary Film Festival as the Social Media Coordinator / Blogger for the past two months. The office is on Commercial Drive, one of the funkiest neighbourhoods in Vancouver. One of my favourite things about this block is the number of fantastic coffee shops I have to choose from.

Yes, I can go to the most recognized, corporate shop with the green awning and mermaid in the logo if I wish, and often do. This morning rather than heading there for my usual latté and an apple fritter I was introduced to Fratelli’s bakery by my co-worker Desirée.

While I was eating two ham and cheese croissants and drinking a dark roast coffee at my desk I got to thinking. I realized that some folks, perhaps in town for the 2010 Olympics, may be looking for a more authentic Vancouver coffee experience. So, here I am dioing a quick post about Fratelli’s and the other two fabulous coffee shops nearby Continental Coffee and Café Calabria.
[click to continue…]

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30 days until the games

by Mike Browne on January 13, 2010

in Vancouver 2010

Today makes only 30 days left until the start of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Being in a position to blog as a Vancouverite during the upcoming games is kind of cool. Especially interesting is that these are going to be the most covered games of all time with every second of every event available either on TV or streaming online.

I wasn’t exactly sure I wanted to participate at all after seven years of listening political blather about infinite subjects relating to this fast approaching event. All the negativity has left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. However, the closer we get, the more I feel myself being drawn into it. After all, there are thousands of athletes who have worked basically their whole lives to come here to compete. I am looking forward to seeing that.

The road closures start January 15, 2010 for the Olympic Games in VancouverWithout a doubt our day to day lives are going to be impacted. Things that we take for granted like commuting to work, going out for lunch, even shopping and picking up groceries are probably going to change. The sheer number of people coming to the city from all over the globe is going to put a massive strain on our infrastructure. Getting around Vancouver under normal conditions (like most cities) tends to have its moments of frustration for commuters. But this is going to be a gong show.

We’re being told to walk, bike or take transit into work during the games as there are going to be road closures around venues as well as lane closures specifically for Olympic vehicles, all starting on the 15th of January 2010, this Friday. Walking and biking are pretty much out for us as we live far enough in the burbs that transit is the only viable option, unless of course we want to get up and go three hours before we have to be at work. No thanks.

Transit? Yuck. It can have that third world I am a sardine in a can feel on a good day. I am looking at all of this as an adventure. I’m sure we will figure some kind of routine. It is only temporary after all. Maybe travelsmart2010.ca can help to put my mind at ease about the transit situation.

Finances are such that we won’t be attending the Men’s Gold Medal Hockey game (tickets are $2500+ per seat) or any other sporting event. We will most likely head downtown for a bit of fun on a Saturday or Sunday to watch celebrations and maybe meet some people. Carol will be more likely to get photos during the week as she will be sporadically heading to the downtown core to work.

I’ll be blogging during the lead up to and throughout the games as well as, I am sure a bit about the aftermath. There a strict guidelines for bloggers to follow according to VANOC and the IOC, but thankfully places like True North Media House have put a ton of work into providing detailed resources for people like myself who are interested in covering the games.

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Aoki Sushi on Broadway rocks

by Mike Browne on September 9, 2008

in mobile,old stuff,vancouver

Carlo, Dan and I went on another lunch excursion today. This time it was a block away for sushi at Aoki Sushi, 1888 W. Broadway St, Vancouver. We’ve been there a few times and there’s always great food and excellent authentically Japanese hospitality right down to the automated voice that thanks you, in Japanese of course, when you walk through the door.

I had the pacific salmon sashimi in a cool shaped ice bowl:

It’s made by my favourite sushi chef on the planet:

He wears the funny plastic hair hat every day and always greets with a smile. One day while sitting at the counter across from him as he worked, seeing as I’m brave enough to go for sashimi, he offered me some fresh sea urchin and fatty tuna to test the culinary lengths I was willing to venture to. Although I didn’t bite he took it in stride and teased me for the rest of our visit.

In short, I like Aoki Sushi.

Check out the dinhere.ca reviews and the 2006 article from The Vancouver Courier for more about Aoki Sushi.

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Seen on Arbutus

by Mike Browne on September 8, 2008

in mobile,old stuff

Dan, Carlo and myself went to Quiznos on Arbutus for lunch. On the way back to the office I snapped a picture of the above truck with my iPhone. Another well placed ampersand could make the innuendo even dirtier.

Aren’t we all happy enough to sing after that?

I wonder what the first two words translate to. Probably nothing near where the gutter known as my mind went.

Anyway, free adverstising for the company in question.

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Kids plus wet cement equals fun

by Mike Browne on August 27, 2008

in old stuff



Kids plus wet cement equals fun, originally uploaded by MikeBrowne.

Spied by Carlo while out grabbing a coffee this morning.

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