Archive for June, 2005

Another Job Interview

// June 22nd, 2005 // No Comments » // Just Stuff

Since I’m still unemployed, you may find me talking quite a bit about the job situation in Toronto.

Today I have another interview and I have to say that what it took to get a phone call, was a revision of my resume. You may want to look at your own resume and ask whether it is interesting enough to get you an interview. Also look at the formatting and whether your selling points are easy enough for a potential employer to glean at a glance.

I’ve been searching the net to give me tips for the interview, hoping it will help me get the job.

I found these 50 Standard Interview Questions from College Grad dotcom.

  1. Tell me about yourself.
  2. What do you want to do with your life?
  3. Do you have any actual work experience?
  4. How would you describe your ideal job?
  5. Why did you choose this career?
  6. When did you decide on this career?
  7. What goals do you have in your career?
  8. How do you plan to achieve these goals?
  9. How do you evaluate success?
  10. Describe a situation in which you were successful.
  11. What do you think it takes to be successful in this career?
  12. What accomplishments have given you the most satisfaction in your life?
  13. If you had to live your life over again, what would you change?
  14. Would your rather work with information or with people?
  15. Are you a team player?
  16. What motivates you?
  17. Why should I hire you?
  18. Are you a goal-oriented person?
  19. Tell me about some of your recent goals and what you did to achieve them.
  20. What are your short-term goals?
  21. What is your long-range objective?
  22. What do you see yourself doing five years from now?
  23. Where do you want to be ten years from now?
  24. Do you handle conflict well?
  25. Have you ever had a conflict with a boss or professor? How did you resolve it?
  26. What major problem have you had to deal with recently?
  27. Do you handle pressure well?
  28. What is your greatest strength?
  29. What is your greatest weakness?
  30. If I were to ask one of your professors to describe you, what would he or she say?
  31. Why did you choose to attend your college?
  32. What changes would you make at your college?
  33. How has your education prepared you for your career?
  34. What were your favorite classes? Why?
  35. Do you enjoy doing independent research?
  36. Who were your favorite professors? Why?
  37. Why is your GPA not higher?
  38. Do you have any plans for further education?
  39. How much training do you think you’ll need to become a productive employee?
  40. What qualities do you feel a successful manager should have?
  41. Why do you want to work in the _____ industry?
  42. What do you know about our company?
  43. Why are you interested in our company?
  44. Do you have any location preferences?
  45. How familiar are you with the community that we’re located in?
  46. Will you relocate? In the future?
  47. Are you willing to travel? How much?
  48. Is money important to you?
  49. How much money do you need to make to be happy?
  50. What kind of salary are you looking for?

Their advice on these questions…

Don’t just read these questions–practice and rehearse the answers. Don’t let the company interview be the first time you have actually formulated an answer in spoken words. It is not enough to think about them in your head–practice! Sit down with a friend, a significant other, or your roommate (an especially effective critic, given the amount of preparation to date) and go through all of the questions. Make the most of every single interview opportunity by being fully prepared!

The Devil You Say

// June 20th, 2005 // No Comments » // Just Stuff

Church SignPerhaps this is one of the reasons why I get so few visitors here. I didn’t know there was a warning about me!

I’m from Toronto, I live in Toronto, I’ll probably always be in Toronto… breeding ground for sinners.

Go ahead and get your own sign here. But be careful, you never know whether the baptists are going to come after you now that they know where the sinners are.

Monday’s Quit Smoking Day

// June 18th, 2005 // No Comments » // Events

Since I quit the job I started just a week or so ago, I find myself not having too much cigarette buying power. So our household has officially declared that Monday is Quit Smoking Day.

It’ll be tough but I’ve got a fake cigarette (CigANot) and the patch to help me through, so I’ll just have to pull together some of that willpower to go with it.

And at http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr_2004/posters/benefits.htm, they’ve got all kinds of different articles for smokers (or quitters) such as:

Compared to smokers, your…

  1. Stroke risk is reduced to that of a person who never smoked after 5 to 15 years of not smoking
  2. Cancers of the mouth, throat, and esophagus risks are halved 5 years after quitting
  3. Cancer of the larynx risk is reduced after quitting
  4. Coronary heart disease risk is cut by half 1 year after quitting and is nearly the same as someone who never smoked 15 years after quitting
  5. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease risk of death is reduced after you quit
  6. Lung cancer risk drops by as much as half 10 years after quitting
  7. Ulcer risk drops after quitting
  8. Bladder cancer risk is halved a few years after quitting
  9. Peripheral artery disease goes down after quitting
  10. Cervical cancer risk is reduced a few years after quitting
  11. Low birth weight baby risk drops to normal if you quit before pregnancy or during your first trimester the benefits of quitting

I’m not planning on having any more children at this stage of life, but I suppose those lessened risks should mean something to me. Perhaps I can think of that when I’m sitting around, dying for a smoke.