Jul. 17 Social skills books: Tim Handorf sent me this article through my blog called "25 Books to Sharpen your Social Skills and Transform your Career." This should be useful for me because my Career Counselor says I need to work on my social skills. On #20 Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip Heath and Dan Heath. It looks familiar. My sister may have checked out that book.
#17 The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything by Stephen M.R. Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People). The summary said this: "If self-help books turn you off with advice that makes you feel like a phony, this is the book for you. Covey lays out the ways to build real trust in your relationships, whether they’re business, friendship, or love."
#23 Small Talk Big Results: Chit Chat Your Way to Success by Diane Wingdingland. The description: "Small talk is often boring, unauthentic, cheesy, and repetitive. It’s also an unavoidable part of living in a society, so you might as well get good at it." Yeah, people always say: "Hi, how are you?" And everybody always says: "Good." That's why I don't ask that question. When people ask me that, I usually try to think of more than "good." I add something like: "Good, because it's sunny outside."
#11 was How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The article said they wanted to put this book as low as they could, but it's on it's 75th anniversary.
Emotional Intelligence: I went to this Arts Career Fair at the U of A months ago. I stopped at a booth and got a business card promoting the book The Other Kind of Smart by Harvey Deutschendorf. He is an author, speaker, and coach. Check out the website:
http://www.theotherkindofsmart.com/
Linked In: I got an email and it turns out 5 of my connections have changed jobs. It mentioned about how it's halfway through the year. I know, my family and I were talking about how the year went by fast earlier this month.
Jul. 18 Staffing agencies: I was talking to one of my friends and how she worked at this place through the staffing agency Kelly Services. She didn't get paid for her 2 days of work, because her recruiter left for maternity leave. My friend kept calling, and then gave up. It's been about 8 months ago.
However, my brother's friend goes to that staffing agency, and he got a lot of warehouse jobs through there.
Cooking classes: Here is another direction. I could take some cooking classes at NAIT. When I was working at that office job for that one day, I realized I really like working at the restaurant. My company can pay for my college education if it's related to work. I know some other companies do that already.
There are a few part-time classes. Interesting because one of the servers is in university to be a geologist. He wants to be a cook, but a geologist makes way more money. He will cook in his free time. Another server wants to get into Baking at NAIT, but there is a lot of competition.
There are a lot of 1 and 2 day classes here, and all you need to do is bring your own apron, and containers to put the food in that you made.
http://www.nait.ca/search/search.aspx?searchType=program&PCSubject=Hospitality%20amp%20Culinary%20Arts&PCDelivery=&PCCredential=&PCLocation=&txtSearch=
Beverage: I have now went and checked out all those hospitality classes at NAIT, and it's mostly cooking. I think the only class that my company would pay for me to go to is the
Beverage courses here:
http://www.nait.ca/program_home_81493.htm
Jul. 20 Question: I had asked: "Am I being too picky with my job search?" No, because I started applying to staffing agencies now. My parents told me to not go there in 2008 and I have avoided the agencies since then.
Jul. 21: To add to the answer, I'm not picky because I have done interviews to all these places I didn't want to do interviews at. Well some were really far away like I have to take a bus to an industrial part of the neighborhood.
Maybe I subconsciously didn't do as well in the interview because I didn't want to go to it, but I forced myself to. I thought it could be because I was nervous of the challenge of the interview and the job. The important thing is, I went to the interview. I just didn't get hired
I have taken jobs I didn't like, ex. the Fruit Place. Also the temporary job in April, except that was an okay job.
Seneca: I found this old job article I clipped out from the newspaper and it talked about senecacareerlink.com. It turns out Seneca is a Toronto college and it helps their students connect with employers. Looks like this won't help me.
Media Strategy Inc: I was reading the Globe and Mail and it talked about Media Strategy Inc. It's run by a communication skills coach named Jim Gray. You have to pay to see him at his presentations. Or you can borrow his book from the library called How Leaders Speak.
http://www.jimgray.ca/contact.html
Occupational Outlook Handbook: Today I was reading the Edmonton Journal, and there was an article about a book called the Occupational Outlook Handbook. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics releases this book every 2 yrs. It has a 10yr projection on "the expected demand, compensation and educational requirements for 350 jobs."
I knew that the postal service is decreasing in jobs. What I didn't know from the article was switchboard operating. It's a good thing that I didn't take the switchboard job that was offered to me a few months ago.
Jul. 23 Meetup: I have been getting these emails from the social media group Meetup. One was for the Business Link Alberta and Edmonton Entrepreneur Meetup. I haven't been to them, but I figure it's a good way to network if you have or want to start up your own business.
Jul. 24: I applied to this ad in the Edmonton Journal to be a sales associate. I emailed them and they emailed back asking if I had sewing experience. I said no, and they said they needed someone with basic sewing experience. Whatever, I wasn't very interested in working there. I'm not really disappointed.
Flashback: Come to think of it, the last time I sewed was back when I took sewing in gr. 8. That was 13 yrs ago. I wasn't good at it, I didn't really like it after I tried it. I made a bear and a pillow. 4 yrs later, I ended up donating those things.
I was Industrial Arts in gr. 8 and 9. I also donated the tray I made in gr.8. I did keep the mirror I made in gr. 9. It's still being used in my room.
The important thing is that I tried some new things in school, and learned what I was good or not good at, and what I liked to do and what I don't.
Jul. 28 Rant: I decided to type into Google "staffing agencies suck." I found this blog called "Lola's World." A guy was ranting about how he's been lied to by staffing agencies and how they were rude to him. This was a post back in 2005. There are 64 comments about it since then over the years.
I've been scanning through the comments and they're all dissing staffing agencies. If you want to get your hate on, then read this:
http://thinkinglola.blogspot.ca/2005/08/why-recruitment-agencies-suck.html
I had gotten one call from a staffing agency. I was in the middle of something, so I didn't pick up. Then I learned where it's from and didn't return the call. Then I got a call from another staffing agency and I didn't call back because it was Fri. afternoon. I guess I don't feel comfortable going to them. |
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