Having made the flight from Seattle to Atlanta I had less than 72 hours to visit Bogota. The classic in and out so not a lot to report. I was here to work to evangelise and explain a new global social media recruitment strategy that the team I work for is deploying around the world. I was also here to talk about some direct sourcing techniques using Boolean logic to pin point information using search engines and databases. A training that helps our recruiters around the world source more passive candidates on the internet. I stayed in a boutique hotel called Hotel Casa Medina, which was very comfortable and very close to the office. I’d highly recommend it if you come here.
What strikes you straight away when you arrive is the security protocols. Fingers prints needed to change money. Finger prints needed to enter the office. Guards and sniffer dogs checking our cars as we enter into shopping malls. Like a lot of south American countries you have to pay attention to where you are going, when, what you wear, etc. One of the girls in the office kindly brought me and one of my other colleagues from the US to the famous T junction one of the nights which is a big shopping mall beside a T street full of modern western mostly restaurants. While there we stopped off at the local Irish bar where on a Wednesday night I got the chance to watch a packed pub of Colombian’s sit back and have a few beers after work. While there Claudia our host from the office told me a little about the FARC guerillas and how they are almost completely wiped out by the present government even though they still manage to detonate occasional bombs with devastating effect in the country. We also heard about stories about how beautiful Cartagena on the coast and the capital of flowers Meddelin. While, only paying a quick visit to Colombia I’d definitely like to come back. While the traffic was bad in the city and the security is high, I felt safe, the people we met were very nice and the government seems to be stable and moving its economy in the right direction.
