Mike Malloy : John Ashcroft is now a lobbyist for Choicepoint and Oracle.

[shance]

Interesting.

[AnnieBW]

1. He Was Speaking at CES

He must've gotten some big bucks to speak at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, too.

[shance]

2. Choicepoint sounds like a citizen police company.

Very disturbing the amount of data they seem to be accumulating on Americans.

[deadmessengers]

4. My Choicepoint story

A few months ago, I got a call from a recruiter from Choicepoint who had found my resume on the Internet. My field is IT security, and Choicepoint had just suffered one of the worst information-disclosure leaks in the history of corporate America. They were spending huge amounts of money revamping their data security measures, and hiring people like me left and right to help them rebuild from scratch and try to make people trust them again.

After a couple of rounds of interviews, I got a VERY lucrative job offer - about a 15% increase over what I was making at the time. But, something just bothered the hell out of me about that place, something I just couldn't put my finger on. Ultimately, I turned them down, and the reason I gave them was that I didn't want the name Choicepoint on my resume - someone might see it in the future and think I was there pre-breach, and think I was incompetent. Basically, I told him that Choicepoint was "damaged goods". The recruiter's response absolutely floored me - he immediately increased the offer by 25%, on the spot. I told the recruiter I would think about it, but ultimately decided against it.

In retrospect, I think I did the right thing turning them down, despite the 40% pay increase. First, any company so desperate to hire someone that they would authorize recruiters to increase an offer on the spot HAS to be a crappy place to work. It's the "golden handcuffs" school of personnel retention - give people a shitpot of money, and then you own them - they won't dare leave no matter how crappy they're treated, because they're accustomed to the lifestyle that goes with that much money, and won't be able to make anywhere near as much elsewhere. Second, there was just something vaguely sleazy about that entire operation, and (and this ties back into the original thread) their hiring Ashcroft is a perfect example of just how sleazy they are.

[shance]

5. Thank you for posting.

Sounds like an interesting experience.

After listening to what some of their focuses are, it sounds as though your instincts were right.

[upi402]

3. Choicepoint (DBT) -vote rigging in Florida 2000

So he's directly betraying democracy. I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you!