Sunday, April 8, 2012

sayings/ job fair/ job interview tip

Mar. 29 Sayings: I read this in a Dustin comic strip: "Failing to plan, is like planning to fail." It reminds me of this ruler/ bookmark in my agenda in jr. high school. On it, it said: "When you plan your day, you're on your way."

It also reminded me of a quiz question in Teen magazine. The quiz was something about being too optimistic? The question:

"You have this big project due for class. You:

A. Spend a month working on it.
B. Spend a month worrying about it.
C. Wing it. The teacher seems to like you."

I'm thinking about this, because I had the past 2 days off from work. I haven't had 2 days off in a row from work since the spring time last year. But I think I had 3 days off one time in the summer for vacation. My memory's kind of fuzzy here.

Stress: The past 2 days was really productive because I did a job interview and looked for a job. I was mainly preparing myself for my temporary part-time job. I was studying the manual, looking for the place, planning it out.

If you are nervous and stressed out about an exam, job interview, or job: study, prepare, plan, and research. If you prepare yourself enough, your stress will decrease.

Job: Today was kind of crazy as in I learned 2 of my co-workers have quit. They have been here for years.

Commercial: I put this on twop.com:

I know I'm overthinking about this Pepsi Max commercial, (you know where a guy beats himself up in the office and all the candidates run away.)

But I have to add something to my earlier rant. In the commercial, there are 15 people in the waiting room to be interviewed. Why are there so many people at one time?

I have done interviews before where 1 person is in the room, and I'm waiting outside. I go in, and then I do the interview. I then leave, and another person is waiting. That’s how you do interviews with 1 person waiting at a time.

What if there weren’t a lot of people waiting in the waiting room? Are you going to beat yourself up in the interview then?

Also, how come it’s not a group interview?

I’m just really annoyed at how unrealistic it is.

Mar. 30: I got some more news, and it turns out it's 3 co-workers who have been dismissed. They are good and nice workers. They show up on time, and do their job well, and have been here for years. I will look on the bright side, they have school and other jobs to go to.

This reminds me of one of my friends Justin. He worked at a restaurant for over a year, and was dismissed because a new manager took over. The manager got rid of old people, and replaced them with new people.

Job interview: I told my friend that I went to a job interview at that law firm that she did an interview at months ago. She said she got a call back, and didn't go to the interview because she already did an interview months ago, and they didn't hire her. So why go again? She said she thought they would recognize her from before.

I did the interview again. I have done interviews with the same companies and the same people a few times already.

Networking: Also my friend was networking with me. I had worked at this one place for 2 yrs, and she asked if she could get a job there. I told her, they weren't hiring and she needed to be able to speak the foreign language there.

TD: Today I was reading in the Edmonton Journal and it said that the TD call centre in the City Centre mall will close down in Mar. 2013. It looks like they gave their staff 1 yr notice. I thought that was a lot of notice. I had a friend who used to work there before he quit.

Good news: In other news, there used to be a vacant space by City Centre mall because of a fire in 2009. According to the Edmonton Journal, they're going to build a big office building there.

Apr. 3 Sad news: So I got more information about work, and the three workers who were dismissed, turns out they weren't really that good.

New job: Yesterday I started my new temporary job. It was okay, I worked for 2hrs. Today I did 3.75 hrs. However, I'm not counting the hrs I spent prior to preparing for it. I don't count the hours I spent calculating how much I completed because the shift is over. It's only temporary, so if I don't like it, it will end soon. If I do like it, then I will do it again.

Apr. 4: Today I worked 1hr because I was busy with other job-related activities.

Job fair: Today I went to a job fair on my day off. I heard about it last month on their website, and my career counselor emailed it to me too. It took me an hr to get there so I read the business section of the newspaper. So my photocopier/ printer/ fax machine doesn't totally work. Well the printer doesn't work, but the photocopier part did. So I was able to photocopy my resume and brought it to the job fair.

The pro is I thought the interview went well. I was well-dressed, and answered questions of why I wanted to work there and how I heard about it.

The con is that when I got there, I overheard a worker say that 15 people were there in line right at the beginning. Then it kind of died down. When I was there, 5 more people came in. So 20 people came within the first hour and there's a lot of competition.

To get there, do the interview, and come back home took 3hrs.

Job interview tip: Rahmit Sethi the author who wrote I Will Teach You How to Be Rich. He said you have to think that there are a lot of applicants with a lot of experience who are also being interviewed like you are. A good tip was that go to as many job interviews as possible even for places you don't want to work for, so that you have job interview experience.

You learn by doing. If you go to enough interviews, you have more practice.

Job test: Today I did a job test and it was over an hr long.

Apr. 6: The other day I went to a job interview at a medical office. It was a unique interview because I had to do some tests. She tested my ability on how well I did the tasks that were required for the position. I have never done a test like that and I have done a lot of interviews for medical offices.

No comments: