U.S. Economy Getting Better, I Think

BBC News reports that

The US economy enjoyed unexpectedly strong growth in the second quarter of the year, according to latest figures, prompting suggestions it has finally turned the corner.

The Next 10 Highest-Paying Jobs in the US

Job Search Frustrations

Today, on the way from my therapist appointment, I saw that the Longhorn restaurant on Dorothy Lane had just opened. I went inside to get an application. One of the managers told me to come back at 2 PM this afternoon so that we could talk about a bartending position. I filled out the application, and got changed for the interview. When I arrived at the restaurant, the gentleman with whom I spoke earlier wasn't available. I talked with another manager/partner, who told me, "If you had only been here 3 weeks ago..." This was not what I needed to hear, but I finished the meeting gracefully.

Then I went to the bartending school just to check in. The manager there told me to call her back before 5 PM today.

I then went to "Restaurant Row" along Miller Lane to obtain and complete applications at restaurants I had not previously applied to earlier. It was a "learning experience." Many of these restaurants do not hire bartenders, but instead hire servers who later get "promoted" to bartenders. I told one proprietor of a certain "Austrailian-themed" restaurant that I was willing to be a server, but he basically said that, unless I had 2 to 3 years of experience serving I shouldn't even consider completing an application for his restaurant.

I asked him if he knew where I could go to get this experience he was looking for. He didn't have any idea. I was very upset and frustrated at what he said, and my whole saga of finding a job, by this time. He offered his hand for me to shake, and, at first, I didn't want to do it, but I resisted the urge to be rude and shook it anyway.

As I walked out, I thought about getting some rotten eggs and returning to the restaurants. I won't, though.

I came home and vented. You may be aware that I have a blog called "Letters to God." It is a great way for me to pray, and I feel better for having done it. Much better than I would have if I, say, found some rotten eggs, if you know what I mean.

I could probably continue this post for a little while, but I guess I'll end it here. Let me encourage you to share your frustrations. Write them down, share with a friend or confidant, send an email - just be open with it so that you can feel better. Sometimes having a listening ear is the best therapy.

Bar's open! :)

Make the Most of Every Opportunity

My daughter started Kindergarten last week, and I met another family, whose daughter gets picked up at the same bus stop. I told the mom about my looking for a job, and a day or so later, she told me that she'd been looking at her company's job board for me. I didn't ask her to do it, but she did it anyway.

We're getting ready to head to the bus stop shortly, and I've created another few business cards to give her. That way she'll have my email address and other information so that she can forward me email, and she can also forward my card to other potential interested parties.

Never miss an opportunity to network!

Update: She wasn't there this morning. Perhaps her daughter was ill. Maybe tomorrow!

Avoiding Résumé Blunders

Sixteen simple résumé tips for job hunters, care of Steve Viscusi, host of the nationally syndicated radio show On the Job With Steve Viscusi and author of On the Job: How to Make It in the Real World of Work (Crown: Three Rivers Press). He recently appeared on ABC's Good Morning America and reviewed thousands of résumés.

Glance on Tax Credit Checks Schedule

You may be aware that the U.S. government is issuing tax credit checks to taxpayer households who have children. The linked page details the "schedule for mailing for government checks worth up to $400 per child to more than 25 million families over three weeks", beginning the week of July 25, 2003.

How Hiring Works

Wow! This is a good article about Interviewing Techniques, and it includes other links to pages that describe how the whole hiring process works. The entire set of articles appears to be written as though the audience is the hiring manager. Hence, I read it with a strange sense that I'm getting "behind the scenes" information.

Brought to you by the folks behind "HowStuffWorks.com."

More Job Seekers Are Trying To Hide Their Ages

According to a recent article in USA Today, a survey conducted by the online job board HotJobs reveals that many older job seekers are omitting dates or work experience from their resumes, while others are opting for hair coloration products, or, in some cases, cosmetic surgery, to make themselves appear younger to potential employers. Take resume fudging, for example:

Some career strategists push job applicants to omit dates from résumés. Career coach Kathy Sanborn routinely advises clients to omit graduation dates and list only the last 10 years of their work history.

Be careful, though, as such tactics can backfire. Some hiring managers may see omissions in work experience as another reason to remove the resume from their pile.

This begs an important question, which I offer to you, gentle readers and job seekers:

How do you go about placing enough work experience (if you have a lot of it) on your resume while keeping it to an appropriate length, usually a maximum of two pages?

Submit your comments here, or if commenting is unavailable, send me an email to danimal0416 at yahoo dot com.

Proof That Your Job May Not Be That Bad?

Yesterday, Karen posted from an email she recently received (check out the Thursday, July 24, 2003 post -- permalinks are not available). I recalled reading the story some time ago, and on a hunch I checked out Snopes.com to see if it was a true story.

They couldn't really determine whether it was or not, but claim that certain details of the story are suspect. At the same time they agree that there is no harm in enjoying the story. I prefer the version that Karen posted because it doesn't contain as much profanity as the one on the Snopes.com page does. So, without further ado, here it is:

This is even funnier when you realize it's real! Next time you have a bad day at work, think of this guy. Rob is a commercial saturation diver for Global Divers in Louisiana. He performs underwater repairs on offshore drilling rigs. Below is an E-mail he sent to his sister. She then sent it to radio station 103.2 on FM dial in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, who was sponsoring a worst job experience contest. Needless to say, she won.

Hi Sue,

Just another note from your bottom-dwelling brother. Last week I had a bad day at the office. I know you've been feeling down lately at work, so I thought I would share my dilemma with you to make you realize it's not so bad after all. Before I can tell you what happened to me, I first must bore you with a few technicalities of my job. As you know, my office lies at the bottom of the sea. I wear a suit to the office. It's a wet suit. This time of year the water is quite cool. So what we do to keep warm is this:

We have a diesel powered industrial water heater. This $20,000 piece of equipment sucks the water out of the sea. It heats it to a delightful temperature. It then pumps it down to the diver through a garden hose, which is taped to the air hose.

Now this sounds like a darn good plan, and I've used it several times with no complaints. What I do, when I get to the bottom and start working, is take the hose and stuff it down the back of my wet suit. This floods whole suit with warm water. It's like working in a Jacuzzi. Everything was going well until all of a sudden, my butt started to itch. So, of course, I scratched it. This only made things worse. Within a few seconds my butt started to burn.

I pulled the hose out from my back, but the damage was done. In agony I realized what had happened. The hot water machine had sucked up a jellyfish and pumped it into my suit. Now, since I don't have any hair on my back, the jellyfish couldn't stick to it. However, the crack of my butt was not as fortunate.

When I scratched what I thought was an itch, I was actually grinding the jellyfish into the crack of my butt. I informed the dive supervisor of my dilemma over the communicator. His instructions were unclear due to the fact that he, along with five other divers, were all laughing hysterically.

Needless to say I aborted the dive. I was instructed to make three agonizing in-water decompression stops totaling thirty-five minutes before I could reach the surface to begin my chamber dry decompression. When I arrived at the surface, I was wearing nothing but my brass helmet. As I climbed out of the water, the medic, with tears of laughter running down his face, handed me a tube of cream and told me to rub it on my butt as soon as I got in the chamber. The cream put the fire out, but I couldn't poop for two days because my butt was swollen shut.

So, next time you're having a bad day at work, think about how much worse it would be if you had a jellyfish shoved up your butt.

Now repeat to yourself, "I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.”

The Key to a Successful Freelance Career: A Diary crossposted to Streams of Consciousness

A humorous account of a day in the life of a freelance writer.

Wired News: Making It Illegal To Hire Abroad

Some people are interested in making it illegal for companies to outsource work overseas. The Wired News article includes many links to the stakeholders.

Recession's Over!

"The federal government announced today that the recession ended back in November 2001. Be sure and pass this good news along to all the unemployed people you know." -- Jay Leno, July 18, 2003, via NewsMax.com's Late-Night Joke Archive

Networking for Introverts

So you're not blessed with the gift of gab. That doesn't mean you can't network effectively. A recent article in the WSJ College Journal offers some tips for introverts to use their disposition to their advantage to find that perfect job: "Networking When You're a Job-Seeking Introvert".

Thanks to the WetFeet.com Weblog, July 7, 2003 post.

Update: I was just browsing the article, and it looks like some good advice for anyone, not just introverts.

Surviving and Thriving in a Tough Job Market

You don't have to tell me that we're in a rough job market right now. Sherrie Gong Taguchi of Stanford's Graduate School of Business offers some advice on how we can be our best as we enter the job market. Read more, and go get that job!

Going Beyond Salary in Evaluating Job Offers

This article from the folks at WetFeet discusses how to rate job offers based on your priorities.

Quotations

How about some quotes?

• "Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born." -- Anaïs Nin
• "We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done." -- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
• "A great deal of talent is lost in this world for want of a little courage." -- Sydney Smith
• "You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance." -- Ray Bradbury
• "The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money." -- Anonymous

All quotations are found in QuotesBlog - growing wiser on the wisdom (or stupidity) of others

How to handle market-sizing case interviews

From the title alone, I honestly had no idea what market-sizing was. This article answers that question and offers some help in answering questions that may arise in this type of interview. Read more...

What to do when you get laid off

Uh oh! You've arrived at work, morning coffee in hand, ready to haul through another day's work, and there's a pink slip on your desk. What now? Do you call mom and dad hoping they haven't turned your old room into a den yet?

Read this article for step-by-step advice on how to get back to work as quickly as possible, and keep your chin up. Read more...

500,000 U.S. IT Jobs Projected to Move Overseas by Year-End '04; IEEE-USA Sees Continued Loss in U.S. Economic Competitiveness

From an IEEE release on the U.S. Newswire:

One-half million jobs, or 10 percent of the U.S. information technology (IT) professionals currently working in IT services firms, will be displaced in the next 18 months as their jobs move overseas, according to Gartner, Inc., the Stamford, Conn.-based research firm. The Gartner projection, in a 15 July research note by Diane Morello, would bring total IT job losses to one million, when added to the 500,000 IT professionals estimated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics to have lost their jobs in the United States since 2001. read more...

The Balancing Act

Compared to 25 years ago, the typical family puts in 1,000 more hours a year at work and more than 8 million of us work two or more jobs. So it's no wonder that finding a balance between work and life is difficult.

But balance is essential to our well-being and our ability to perform well at home and at work. Here are five ways to get a better footing:

• Simplify. Need help with housecleaning? Consider hiring a cleaning person once a week. Feel like you don't have time? Say "no" to things you don't want to do or don't have time to do.
• Be grateful.Even in the midst of the most hectic and stressful times of life, there are things for which we can be thankful. Reflecting on the good things in our lives helps keep an all-important balance in our outlook.
• Be a kid and play. Get down in the dirt and help the kids make mud pies, watch a movie with them, or have a long chat over coffee with your teen. Give your family one-on-one time.
• Pay attention to yourself. If you don't stay healthy, you'll be less able to handle the stress of work and home.
• Stop procrastinating. It takes more energy fretting over not doing a project than actually doing it. So save your energy for better things and just get started.

Source: Ragan Communications

President Bush's Radio Address: July 19, 2003

I just read via the U.S. Newswire, the text of the President's weekly radio address. He talks a lot about the Jobs and Growth Act of 2003, which he recently signed into law:

... Next week, the United States Treasury will begin printing and mailing more than 25 million child tax credit checks, putting over $12 billion back into the hands of American families. These rebates are the result of the Jobs and Growth Act I recently signed into law, which increases the child tax credit from $600 to $1,000 per child. And because this new law reduced income tax rates, businesses earlier this month lowered tax withholding for worker paychecks. Now, those workers and their families have a lighter tax bill and more take-home pay...

... My administration remains focused on faster economic growth that will translate into more jobs. Now that Americans can keep more of what they earn, we can expect to see rising demand for goods and services. And as demand increases, companies will need more workers to meet it...

... Government does not create prosperity. Government can, however, create the conditions that make prosperity possible. The Jobs and Growth Act of 2003 was based on the fundamental faith in the energy and creativity of the American people. With hard work and daily determination, entrepreneurs and workers are moving this economy forward. The American economy is headed in the right direction, and we can be confident of better days ahead.

Down-and-Outplaced?

ABCNews wants to hear from you. Seriously!

ABCNEWS is looking for unemployed people with a story to tell. If you are interested in speaking with an ABCNEWS producer, please contact us and include phone number(s) where you can be reached. We may also use your comments in our coverage on ABCNEWS.com.

They have set up a form for you to email them about your situation.

Feel free to share them here as well!

Help support the unemployed: with your friendship

In today's Dear Abby, someone writes with some advice others can do for those who are unemployed. Thanks to Mom for the Houston Chronicle link!

The Power of a Simple Thank-You Note

"So few job applicants send thank you notes that you automatically stand out if you do."

That's just one of five reasons Peter Vogt mentions why thank you notes are powerful and effective tools to use during the interviewing process. Read more...

Crucial small-business hiring looks up

The USA Today reports:

Ten percent of small companies plan to add workers in the next three months, a June survey out today shows. That's up from 1% in March, says the National Federation of Independent Business trade group. read more...

Wings & Wireless - Casual Networking Event via email from the Greater Dayton IT Alliance

After the great turnout to last month's Tech Thursday at Buffalo Wild Wings, we're going back. This month's casual networking event will once again be held at Buffalo Wild Wings in Sugarcreek. So come out for great networking opportunities and to connect the wireless network available at no charge, so bring your laptops!

Don't have a Wireless Card or a Laptop? Both 802.11a and 802.11b cards and Laptops will be available for use.

More Details:
When: Thursday, July 17, 2003 from 5PM to 7PM
Where:
Buffalo Wild Wings
6210 Wilmington Pike
Centerville, Ohio 45459-7019
map

For more information, contact

Bob Brogan
BBrogan@daytonitalliance.org
(937) 229-0054

Check out the Event Photos page of last month's event, which I enjoyed attending.

My New Sig Line

Jenny, the Creative Tech Writer, has added this quote from Bertrand Russell to her signature line. She shares from her experience of being unemployed for a year and her journey to get a better perspective. I'm glad to link back to it here.

A Nightmare on the Job

"When is a company responsible for a shooting?"

The July 21st issue of Newsweek describes the recent tragedy at the Lockheed Martin plant in Meridian, Mississippi and ventures an attempt to answer that question.

What's Your Sign?

As a bartender, I have to "card" individuals to verify that they are within the legal drinking age. I have to be wary of those with fake ID's.

I was taught while at bartending school was to ask the individual their "sign"; i.e. what his or her Zodiac sign is. Then I could verify that against the birthdate on the ID to see if it is real or not.

I don't believe in what these horoscopes say, but I've included this link to Webshots Daily Horoscopes for my own reference. I don't have them all memorized, you see.

Duck, duck, goose.

The game of chasing each other, fighting for a spot in the circle. And this, my fowl-loving friend, may not be a game you left behind in kindergarten. Think about the people in your life who might be fighting for a spot in your circle - your circle of recognition. If you adopt a pattern of life that focuses on golden eggs and neglects the goose, you will soon be without the asset that produces golden eggs. On the other hand, if you only take care of the goose with no aim toward the golden eggs, you soon won't have the wherewithal to feed yourself or the goose. Now, before you ruffle your feathers, here are a few tips:

1. Be timely. Don't wait. Praise should be given as soon as possible after the action or achievement occurs.
2. Think individual-individual. Recognize the individuals who took the positive action. If it was a group effort, first recognize the individuals and then the group as a whole.
3. Be sincere. Be sincere and show that you care; otherwise the recognition does more harm than good.

Sincere recognition—an eggcellent approach!

This Effectiveness Tip of the Week comes once again via email from the good folks at FranklinCovey.com

Business Wire: The Global Leader in News Distribution

Got Interview?

Don't make any of these Ten Fashion Blunders as you dress for it. Rule of thumb: "Dress on the conservative side."

Teen Summer Jobs Market is Worst Since World War II

U.S. Newswire reports:

New data on employment rates show the proportion of teenagers who have summer jobs has fallen so dramatically it is now lower than any year since the end of World War II, making the summer of 2003 the worst in nearly 60 years, according to Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies and the National League of Cities.

Why The Check Was Not In The Mail

Well, I finally spoke with someone today from the ODJFS. It turns out that I'm waiting for a determination to be made to see whether my application for the extended benefits will go through. I should receive a determination letter within the next week or so. Only if the application is approved, will I then be able to receive benefits.

I'm getting tired of having to deal with the government for all this stuff. I miss having a regular paycheck. I realize that I shouldn't have made a postdated car payment last week.

Sorry for this post to be such a downer. It's just how I'm feeling right now.

Silicon Valley's Salvation?

Fred Sampson offers an interesting post about the government's mandate to improve homeland security. While it may not provide a solution for hi-tech in the long run, in the short run, it could provide some employment and help pay off some past due bills, etc.

The Check Was Not In The Mail

The unemployment check didn't come in from last week. The ODJFS sent me a new claim card, which usually contains the check. I waited until the mail came today to see if it would come. It still hasn't.

I've tried to call the local and toll-free numbers to talk to a human (as opposed to the automated phone system) about this, but I haven't been able to get through.

Jobless Rate Jumps to 6.4 Percent

"The nation’s unemployment rate shot up to 6.4 percent in June, the highest level in more than nine years, in an economic slump that has added nearly a million people to jobless rolls in the past three months."

Hi there. I'm one of them. I'm looking for a job as a bartender, but I'm willing to let this blog serve as a sounding board. So, bar's open? What'll you have? And, how are things going with you?

Job Update on a Friend

I mentioned earlier that one of my friends is changing his job. He just sent me an update:

Hi there!

I talked with my boss, and his boss, and many of my concerns will be taken care of. Have you ever had bosses who will do ANYTHING to keep you? And yes, in the changes... CANADA! And a new truck. So, I will be home from this afternoon (7/3/03) until Monday morning.

Question to think about... if you wanted to leave your employer, would they do anything to keep you based on your performance, or would they think you're replaceable? Answer: star employees are the last to go!

Have a safe holiday!

Todd

Monthly Focus: Abundance

In my Franklin Planner there is a montly focus that changes each month. This month the focus is on having an "abundance-mentality." It states:

Live with the attitude that there is an abundance of resources and opportunities.

I think that this is especially important to have with respect to the job search. I find myself thinking that I have so much competition for a particular job. If I win, then someone else loses. This monthly focus is a challenge to see things differently.

Sure, the competition for jobs is heavy right now. But why not think as though your job is out there, waiting for you to find it. I've posted a number of great quotations about Abundance over at QuotesBlog for today, 2 July 2003. I cannot link to all of them here, because they are all worthy of reading. You will be encouraged as you think about what they mean.

I do feel compelled, however, to leave you with a small bite of what you'll find:

• "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known." -- Carl Sagan
• "Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit." -- Napoleon Hill
• "Life is constantly providing us with new funds, new resources, even when we are reduced to immobility. In life's ledger there is no such thing as frozen assets." -- Henry Miller
• "There are no ordinary moments." -- Dan Millman
• "Let your hook always be cast. In the stream where you least expect it, there will be a fish." -- Ovid

Now, go get that job!

Interview Cheat Sheet

Help! I've got an interview tomorrow, and I don't know how to prepare for it. Relax a bit and check out this article.

Summer Jobs 2003

Some guidance from MSN Careers about looking for that summer job this year.