Preparing for an Interview

First impressions are everything! It is important to note that up to 60% of the hiring decision is made within the first three minutes of the interview, so your impression is critical! By preparing for the interview, both physically and mentally, you will feel more organized and ready for the meeting. It is natural to feel somewhat nervous about an interview. Take consolation, though, being nervous means you care.

Dow Jones, riding the wave.

Good news about the markets today for the first time in what seemed like forever.

Does this mean that the worst is over? No one knows but I’d say not by a long shot. Even if the markets do rebound it still doesn’t solve the problem that started the mess in the first place. Although one thing you can bank on these days, as the markets go up, so will the price of oil. I noticed that some stations around town where up a penny already.

Crude for November delivery rose $3.49, or 4.5%, to close at $81.19 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?column=Futures+Movers

Tent Cities

I just watched a story on CBS news about tent cities cropping up around the nation.

This is not a new phenomenon by any means but it’s still rare you see the evening news focus on things like this. The part that was really unsettling to me was the couple they interviewed. They had both worked and lived in a rented house. The husband had been a forklift operator, when they both lost their jobs, they ended up homeless, living in a tent.

I guess what scares me most is the fact this guy’s work experience is similar to mine. They briefly looked over his resume while interviewing him. Where he’s at there just isn’t any jobs to be had. At least not for him or the other people in the tent city.

It makes it really scary knowing when you wake up tomorrow, you won’t have a job but not knowing what you can do about it.

Interviews

I haven’t slept too well this week and wasn’t even going to post anything today. However since we’ve been covering interviewing today. When I found myself watching Palin’s interview from yesterday, all I could see was all the interview mistakes she was making.

I guess we should all feel a little bit better, no matter how far you climb the ladder, you can still mess up an interview royally.

I robot, you good work.

I stumbled upon this today and thought I’d share:

Reference Letter Generator

Newspaper Ads

It’s sad, the NewsLeader has combined the sports and Job ad pages. The job ads now take up only half of one page, at least for weekday editions.

I thought that the paper looked smaller, more narrow but figured it was my imagination, until recently. I found an old paper from a few months ago tucked away. Comparing the old to the new I found that the new was in fact more narrow, by about an inch or so.

As I was growing up I’d always heard adults talk about everything getting smaller. I just assumed that it was their eyesight failing, I now know better.

Ads in the newspaper seem old fashion I suppose. At least job ads, there are quite a number of cars and homes for sale. But maybe that’s a sign of the times?

Job Fair tomorrow, I’m trying to hit every company’s website before I go but so far it’s been a waste of time. One company, oddly enough a company that among other things does job applicant screening, failed to send a confirmation e-mail to even acknowledge that I had registered.

I was planning on telling their reps that I had already been to the website. I suppose now when they say “Goto our website.” I just respond, “Dang, I put on underwear for nothing!”

Lazy Day

Well, one of the good things about being unemployed is having more time to goof off.. Err I mean get stuff done, like chores.

Today is Friday and the first sunny day all week here. Time to mow the lawn! Something is killing my Zenia, I think it might be a fungus. I need to spray them but since it will rain again tomorrow night, don’t think it will do any good.

Anyway, since I have no news to report for the day, here’s a joke instead:

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted,’Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where I am.’

The woman below replied, ‘You’re in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees west longitude.

‘You must be an engineer,’ said the balloonist.

‘I am,’ replied the woman, ‘How did you know?’

‘Well,’ answered the balloonist, ‘everything you told me is, technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.’

The woman below responded, ‘You must be in Management.’

‘I am,’ replied the balloonist, ‘but how did you know?’

‘Well,’ said the woman, ‘you don’t know where you are or where you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you’ve no idea how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.’

Gustav go away.

It’s raining here, perfect sleeping weather.

When I was a boy, my dad tore down a shed that was made of old, old, oak planks. I took the planks and build a shack, I used old sheets of tin for the roof, which never seemed not to leak somewhere. I would hide out in my little shack and listen to the raindrops on the tin roof and read a book, just glad for the moment of peace.

Seems like today is a good day not to run around.

Rain

It’s raining and I feel glum. Just another day of fruitless pavement pounding, watching my gas gauge go down with every red light.

You know, when I was working I always thought having nothing to do would be relaxing, but it’s just boring. I guess the ideal would be to have nothing to do and enough money to do it with.