Services account password needed to fill out timecard

Starting later this week, all employees will need a services account password to access the Fermilab Time and Labor electronic reporting system.

You can activate your account through the Tune IT Up Web site: www.fnal.gov/tuneitup.

Volunteers will offer help activating services accounts in the Wilson Hall atrium at lunch periodically throughout the month.

Your services account password will eventually grant you access to multiple additional applications, including Fermilab e-mail service, Meeting Maker, VPN and Fermilab instant messaging.

Some applications, including Exchange e-mail service and the Fermilab Service Desk, already support the use of the services account. You also need this password to access the Tune IT Up Assessment.

Job seekers flock to Fermilab booth at virtual job fair

Fermilab recruiters created this booth for a virtual career fair on June 30.

More than 800 prospective applicants checked out Fermilab's booth at a recent job fair, but laboratory recruiters did not meet a single candidate face-to-face.

The June 30 event was a virtual job fair, conducted through ChicagoJobs.com's online virtual-reality interface. Instead of ferrying posters, pens, and people to a crowded conference site, the 17 participating employers, including Fermilab, bought spots in an airy "atrium" in cyber-space. Job-seeking attendees, depicted by photographs or computer-generated characters, could virtually approach an employer's booth to read more information or strike up an instant-message conversation.

"Virtual career fairs allow us to reach a large portion of the applicant pool in a way that is greener and much less expensive than regular job fairs," said Juanita Frazier, manager of Fermilab's Workforce Relations Office.

Without a large budget for recruitment, Frazier said, Fermilab representatives cannot set up the largest or flashiest booths at conventional job fairs. But the virtual fair's design studio allowed them to create an eye-catching two-story booth complete with large video screen and glass-walled meeting room.

"We did have the sense of being at a real job fair, without all the hassle of being on your feet," Frazier said.

Throughout the day, many attendees chatted one-on-one with Fermilab representatives about positions available at the laboratory. Others joined group chats about working at Fermilab. By the fair's end, 825 unique visitors had stopped by the Fermilab booth-many more than recruiters said they typically see at a traditional fair. Since the event, several applicants have cited the virtual job fair as the source of their interest in the laboratory.

Another bonus of the virtual fair: Frazier said the average attendee was better prepared and more qualified than job-seekers at regular fairs, thanks to screening by the event's organizers at ChicagoJobs.com.

Frazier and her colleagues are excited to participate in another virtual career fair this September.

"And next time," she said, "our booth will be even better."

-- Rachel Carr

New employees - July 13

From left: Bradly Verdant, AD; Trupti Patel, WDRS; Paul Lahn, FESS; Carolina Sinclair, CD; Jonathan Hunt, FESS; Miriam Boon, DI.

New office for John Kent, Wilson Hall building manager

John Kent, building manager for Wilson Hall, has relocated his office to the fifth floor, west side from the mezzanine. You can contact him for building questions, concerns, complaints and compliments in his office or at x4753.

U.S.-based editor moves on

From iSGTW, July 22, 2009

Editor's note: iSGTW's former editor, Anne Heavey, says farewell to the publication while welcoming new editor Miriam Boon.

I - S - G - T - double-U
Anne's time on board, it is through
The weeks, they have flown
My knowledge has grown
Dear readers, I hope same is true

Wow - what a great year I've had, working with Dan Drollette to bring your stories to the greater grid community and to help this community grow and cross-pollinate. I've enjoyed learning about the research and technologies that grid computing advances, transforms, or simply makes possible, and about you - the people behind these endeavors. It has been a pleasure to work with so many of you as contributors, and to meet many of you face-to-face.

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