Monday, June 11, 2012

job interview tip/ Celebrity Apprentice/ Linked In

Jun. 2 Job interview tip: Yesterday I did some training and worked at Telemarketer #2 job.  It's interesting because of the book my sister gave me called 59 Seconds: Think a Little, Change a Lot by Richard Wiseman.  He said that in a job interview, you should get the bad stuff/ flaw right out first, and then tell all about your good qualities so you can redeem yourself.  If you do the whole interview, and then say the bad stuff at the end, you look dishonest like you were withholding this info the entire time. 

Here's the book.  It's like psychology with helpful tips on job interview, being creative, dating, personality, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/59-Seconds-Richard-Wiseman/dp/023074429X

Telemarketer: I wasn't thinking about the book during the interview.  On the application she gave me when I came in, it asked if I worked for the company before.  I then talked to the boss and told her that I did work for the Telemarketer #1 job a couple of weeks ago, but it was a short time so does that even count?  She said yes, it does.  She and the other boss know each other.

So Boss #2 asks me how I can improve from my last job and what have I learned?  I told her to work on listening to the person on the phone and my tone of voice.  I thought if I told her that I wasn't good at Telemarketer #1 job, I would risk that she wouldn't hire me.  But I had to tell her because it was weighing on me.  They ran things the same way at both places.  Maybe this job will work out.

Confront your fear: I went to Telemarketer #2 job.  I was nervous because I was afraid that if I tell the boss about Telemarketer #1 job, I wouldn't get hired.  So what if I don't get hired?  It's not a major loss.  What if I do get hired, and then I get dismissed?  So another telemarketing job didn't work out.  It's not a big deal.  It's a sign I should call people to do surveys instead of buy stuff because I did well with surveys.

I'm afraid of rejection and failure, though I experienced it a lot.  You have to go through it so you can achieve success.

Writer jobs: Here's something I haven't done: Go on Linked In and search "writer jobs Edmonton."  I got two pages and most of them were from staffing agencies, outside of Edmonton (like Calgary or Fort McMurray), and jobs that don't have anything to do with writing like analyst.

Jun. 4 Callback: I got a couple of phone calls from this office I did a job interview at 2 weeks ago.  She said about us playing "phone tag."  She told me that I didn't get hired and asked if she could keep my resume on file.  I said yes.

Jun. 5 Focus: It can be hard to focus, but it's about prioritizing.  I haven't been looking for an office assistant job because I got my telemarketer job.  Instead I've been looking up production companies to send my resume to or pitch my script to.

I've also been reading my Freelance Writing group emails.  There are all these links and I click on them.  It can be writing jobs, tips, job articles, blog links.  There's a variety, but I still maintain focus on writing.  After I read it, I then delete the email because it's like I'm cleaning my inbox.

I feel like there's not enough action on my part.  I can tell if I'm reading and researching too much.  I then see if I pitched and submitted enough by looking at what I've done so far.  I write it down on a piece of paper to record it.  I also blog about it to share my information that I have learned.

Celebrity Apprentice: Liz Nutt sent me a fun and informative article called "7 Business Lessons Learned from Celebrity Apprentice."  It's about business and TV so I had to read it.  I don't watch the show, but the tips are good.  Some are behavioral like "Don't let your emotions get the best of you" and "Play nice."  They provide examples of the show about what occurred and how it should have been handled.

"Ask for feedback" like when La Toya Jackson (Michael Jackson's sister) got fired, she asked Donald Trump how she could have improved.  She was brought back to the competition.  "Stick up for yourself" like when you're about to get fired, mention all your good qualities and past successes.

That kind of reminds me of Call Centre #4 dismissing me after one day.  I then called them back later that day and mentioned I got 9 completes which I thought was good.  It turns out it wasn't.  But at least I stuck up for myself and gave it a good shot.

Linked In: I thought up this idea to connect with my NAIT classmates on Linked In back in April.  I had connected with some of them on Facebook back in 2010.  I was unemployed back then and decided to connect with all of them so I can ask: "Do you know of any job openings?"  There were the challenges if this is the right person, and most of them have moved to another city, so they can't help.  Some said no, they don't know of any job leads and some were vague like "check the classifieds."

There were a few that were good leads.  Now it's 2012, and I went on Linked In to find them.  I only found 10 of them and 3 of them I'm not really sure if it is the right person.  Yeah, well it's better than nothing.  It was cool to see some NAIT people actually knew some MacEwan people that I know.

I connected with most of the NAIT people on Facebook, but the social network was really more for fun.  They don't really put their resume up on that site.  At least with Linked In, I can see their resume.  There's also some NAIT people who aren't on Facebook, and are actually on Linked In and vice versa.

Email: I decided to cover all my bases and sent this mass email to the NAIT people.  I have all their email addresses on one of my email accounts.  I had sent them a mass email in 2007 just to say hi.  Now I sent a mass email to them telling to add me on Facebook and Linked In to stay in touch and help each other in our careers. 

I sent it, and then got 5 "can't send."  Yeah, well I got most of them. 

Jun. 8 Job interview: On Tues. I got an email to see if I could come into an interview on Wed.  I was busy with meeting a TV producer and then later my telemarketer job, so I didn't email back.  On Thurs. I emailed back because I didn't want to put obstacles in front of myself.

I did the interview today.  It's in downtown, Mon.- Fri. office job which is what I wanted.  I thought it was okay.  I got there on time.  She did ask about if it's not too hard to get here and it isn't.  She said there have been people who live far away and it's hard to get here, so the job doesn't work out.  She asked about having a license and a car.

She asked about some words to describe myself which I have gotten that question before.  She asked more common questions like how my job experience and education would be relevant to this position.

Job search: I've been busy with my restaurant job, and my telemarketer job so I haven't been doing my job search for the past week.  So today I did.

Jun. 9: Only one person from NAIT has confirmed my connection on Linked In so far.

Jun. 11: I have to write about it, so I can get over it.  Well, it's not that much to get over.  The Telemarketer #2 job didn't work out because I didn't make a sale within 4 days, just like the first one.  I wasn't really surprised after the 4th day.

I called constantly and got a lot of no answers.  When I do get people on the phone, a lot of them aren't interested and say they will think about it.  I have applied to this other telemarketer job before, and I haven't been interviewed before.  I'll stick with calling people to do surveys.

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