Anonymous reference checking

After reading an article by The Whisperer I got interested.. ever wanted to ask someone about their salary, but wasn't sure whether it would be appropriate? Or feeling you'd want to do a reference check on your future employer's work ethics, treatment of work life balance etc.? This site is for you!

Be aware though that you give away personal information, which may never be used as you expected. For those that are uncomfortable with that I would recommend not to use the site and find other means of reference checking.

As it is anonymous some care may need to be taken with the correctness of the information on the site. The user review questionnaire is quite rigid and therefore as any anonymous questionnaire it allows for rigging. The user giving a review of an employer has to rank their (former) employer on several categories on a scale of 1 to 5. Additionally, he/she has to fill in several text fields with Pro's, con's etc. After registering and browsing it I found it provided me with quite some information. Especially for bigger US corporations it showed a significant number of reviews. Enough to form a solid image of the employer and salary levels. Smaller corporations may be harder to find. I found general industry search on comparable companies resulted in some decent information on expected salary levels.

Considering the site only just started and is in it beta I give it a "thumbs up".

24

Those are flight hours, not the american hitseries. Flying from EU to New Zealand took me 24 hours, including a stop over in HK. I'd like to share a couple of snapshots from places visited.

First stop Hong Kong:
















Final destination Auckland - NZ:




With my girfriend in the US (West Coast) in the same period I was able to experience a whopping 19 hour time difference. Her being a day behind me most of the time felt strange. Especially monday around 6PM just after work, at which time she was in full party mode in San Fransisco on Sunday evening.

I enjoyed the stay. Eventhough it was short the spaciousness of the country and friendliness of the kiwi's made me feel relaxed. However, back and forth in 7 days, just over 2 of which spent in the air did leave me exhausted. I am happy I have been able to enjoy bits and pieces of both Hong Kong and New Zealand several years before.

Next destination unknown.

Lyon - La Part Dieu

A recent business trip France had me located in Lyon. I had not yet been there and was hoping to be able to see something of this southern French city. Arriving there I took a taxi and asked the driver if she could bring me to my Hotel located in La Part Dieu. During the trip we had a pleasant conversation in French. Now, my French is not really up to standard, which is a bit embarrassing considering the fact I have a (beautiful) French girlfriend and thus plenty of opportunity to speak the language. Nonetheless, I managed to understand her and make several coherent replies. It seemed they had some problems with brouillard that day, which resulted in some delays on the airport. Nothing serious, but nonetheless inconvenient.

The hotel I was booked into in La Part Dieu was nothing special (don’t believe a word of people that brag of super nice hotels when traveling for business purposes, most of them exaggerate), but it served its purpose and was conveniently located near a taxi stand and a Centre Commercial. The taxi stands facilitated easy access to Lyon centre. The behemoth Centre Commercial had every magasin you can imagine. Though I was a bit surprised it only had one Pharmacy, normally France is littered with them.

In Lyon itself I had a lovely dinner in Le Sud, a brasserie/restaurant of The French Michelin awarded Top chef Paul Bocuse. Normally eating at a Michelin awarded cuisine is expensive. However, to allow the plebs to experience his cuisine the (¿arrogant?) Chef opened one affordable restaurant for all four winds. But I admit that the food was good and indeed very affordable. Bravo Chef.

Next week I’ll be there again, although located in a different hotel in a different area of Lyon. No Centre Commercial, but alas only a 5 min drive from the city centre. Hopefully I will have the opportunity to see something more of the old city of Lyon. I am told it is lovely.

Maybe I’ll try the menu in Ouest.