What exactly is “the meaning of life?” It can mean different things to different people. You could think of the meaning of life as being as successful, and wealthy as possible while another person, would say that it is to have a good and healthy relationship with the ones you love, and cherish.
A lot of time the meaning of life, when being explained to someone, is like being thrown a curveball, they say yeah its this and that, but that person might have different boundaries, morals, and standards!
The meaning of life has its share of “add-ons” as well; religion, lets throw that into the pot! Being a Christian, I tend to believe that material items are not that much of a necessity, but when you throw lets say, society into the pot; society + religion? Well lets just say its almost like trying to mix oil and water.
See, society is a giant dust ball all its own. over time (and i mean by like seconds) it collects more and more dust and grows and grows until, the next thing you know your pulling out the Pledge. With society, its everyone’s beliefs, morals, personalities, styles, ideas, and nonsense all in one! Society isn’t something that is meant to follow, its not a religion, HA, its not even a person, place, or thing! Society is something that was, always around; basically what i believe is that society is for the weak and the followers (NOT TWITTER).
Society plays a huge, enormous role in finding our “meaning to life".” We all have our own standards and our own ways, and basically society adds them all up, calculates the averages, and what every comes out is considered to be “normal.
Now if you are trying to find the meaning in your life, don’t search the internet, don’t ask your friends or family, don’t ask anyone except for yourself. We spend our entire lives trying to find our “purpose” in life, and the reason we are here on earth. well as you work your way to finding the meaning of life, then you will eventually accomplish the goal of finding your purpose.
The meaning of life and life’s purpose are almost the same things, but yet so far apart! your life’s purpose is the thing that you are meant to do in life, like be a writer, or be the next hit singer, or even a garbage man; and believe it or not God, has a lot to do with your purpose in life!
your probably wondering, why the hell would my life’s purpose be to collect garbage from peoples houses. well, guess what, don’t ask me, i mean maybe you will see someone being murdered in their house and you go in and save them, maybe you were put on this earth to keep your fellow co-worker company cause he is going through a hard time. it could be big or small, and basically your not going to find it be searching for it; you just got to live your life, and hope it finds you.
now back to life’s meaning! what is it? well life’s meaning is what YOU want to do with your life not what you were meant to do. this is where YOU come into play; you set your standards and your goals, and your future. This whole “i want to find myself” thing. Its a major thing in all of our lives, we all want to know who we are and be proud and confident!
So….Basically you cant go around asking the question, “what is the meaning or life” and you for sure cant go around asking, “what is my life’s purpose.” you have to search down in your soul, deep down inside, and BE WHO YOU WANNA BE AND LIVE YOUR LIFE LIKE THERE IS NO TOMORROW!
Electromagnetic Design Engineer – Salary in the 80s to lo 90s
Our client is a rapidly growing global manufacturing business with approximately 20,000 employees worldwide and annual sales in excess of $2 billion. Serving a wide array of markets from high technology to heavy industry, the company’s product lines include electric motors, generators and mechanical power transmission equipment.
Fortune 1000 company with manufacturing, distribution and sales presence in the: United States, Canada, Mexico, India, Australia, Thailand, Europe, and the People’s Republic of China.
Location: Indiana
Responsibilities:
Primary responsibility will be as a key and active member of the New Product Development (NPD) team responsible for electrical and electromagnetic design of NPDs that are based on Single or Three phase AC induction motor or brushless DC motor platform and other topology.
Key role in motor design, building and testing the validation of engineering samples, design growth and design confirmation samples all the way through pilot run and production ramp. Must work closely with manufacturing engineering and production facilities to develop manufacturable designs, and safety agency engineers to ensure UL/CSA approvals.
Utilize simulation tools like ANSOFT/Infolytica to optimize electromagnetic lamination of Single & Three phase AC induction and brushless DC Motors. Development and maintenance of mathematical models & simulations tool to perform analysis and design systhesis of single phase KCP, KC, KH, KCR induction motors and three phase induction motors required. This effort will include continuous improvement of tools based on feedback of design engineers.
Qualifications:
Bachelor/Masters of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering required
For immediate consideration – please send your resume with salary requirements to blake@ibotconsultants.com
As a writer I know the power of word association. Anyone can tell you that words have incredible power to anger, incite fear, and to conceal anything. Just watch any White House Press briefing and you can see in action the very best wordsmith, the White House Press Secretary, do a beautifully choreographed ballet around facts and truths to deliver an inspired briefing with little to no actual content, but oh so many words. Lyrics of music can make us cry and labels placed on us can make us weep just as hard. In recent times words have become the tool of the symphony of the press. Now more than ever we rely on the careful word choice to portray our story, and the choice of one synonym over another can drastically change the skew of a story. In America we have begun to use very specific words to comfort and explain events, and as such have begun to follow mindlessly the explanations we are presented for the questions we ask.
I speak on this because of the swirling controversy surrounding the most recent ‘terrorist’ plot on America. In this piece I will not go in to the details, if you want to know then check out any paper in the country. Instead I want to cover the language being used and the power in it if we make some very small changes, or had decided to do so a long time ago.
First let’s look at two words that have been used thus far in the coverage of this most recent event: “thwarted” vs. “botched”. When this story first broke, I got my usual NYTimes news alert that there had been a botched terrorist attempt on a jetliner. The connotation of botched is that the person in question had screwed up. This specific word means that the terrorist failed in his own regard and that the failure to pull off the intended money shot was his own fault. A few days later though, the idiot terrorist suspect was now some great mastermind with ties to Yemen, and we as a nation had “thwarted” his attack; it was now our victory in our war on terrorism and the hard work and diligence of parties involved that kept this terrorist from getting the job done. In a matter of a day or two we had gone from lucky as a nation, with the incompetence of our would be assassin, to an incredible crime-fighters, like we had kicked in his door and found him making the bomb at a work bench delivering justice with the business end of an M-16.
As you can see, the subtle change from botched to thwarted moves us from the role of doofus to hero in the matter of one additional syllable. This is not uncommon. All the time we see the choice phrase or word to change the tone of an action or event. In our American history books in schools today we see this choice. When the Indians slaughtered our American soldiers it was termed a “massacre at (blank)”; but by the same token, when our boys crushed men, women, and children, it was termed “the battle of (blank)”. In Vietnam they had their “search and destroy” missions, but this was seen as too harsh of a term, so for the very same activity they came up with something like “survey and secure” or whatever. Do you see the subtle difference? Same fucking thing was occurring in both situations, but the words chosen were very different in their association. How about our “shock and awe” we so liked? Could have easily been called “bomb the shit out of those bastards”, but the same event would have been seen as something ugly, and not the July 4th fireworks display the official moniker seemed to indicate.
This brings me to something more sinister in this event, and more or less all events since 9/11. I hate the blanket use of the word “terrorist”. This word has been used for every kind of attack over many different groups and has been prostituted since day one for the express purpose of policy and partisanship in this country. Since we were attacked we have declared a war on it, stamped anyone with ties to the middle east and a hard-on for explosives with it. We have used it to push policy, law, and a couple of wars, simply on the use of this word. The WORD “terrorism” is actually scarier than the actual act or the small sliver of people that actually deserve the label. Now, every time there is an event of violence, a foiled plot, or a group that we don’t like that feels just as strongly about us, then they are labeled terrorists, and as such, since we have declared a war on them, we now reserve the right to fuck you up. If there is any single event planned by some disgruntled jackass he is now a terrorist, and by a very close association that we have cultivated, he is now in league with Al-Quaeda and probably gave Bin Laden a half&half in a remote cave on request.
It is so typical of Americans to need these labels like ‘terrorist’. We don’t like the idea that there is an ether that anti-american sentiment is floating around in. As a country, a frenzied mob of hysterical elitists, we feel the need to label and therefor categorize our fears. It is in our blood to lump those things that scare us in to nice little boxes we can point at and fill with all the stuff that we don’t want to handle on a case by case basis. It is so easy for us to just grab a ton of different, independent events and ideas, and shove them in to the world’s worst toy box, closing the lid so we can breath again. For Christ’s sake, there is a color coded system of fear we are told we should be feeling! When did that come in to existence, when the Bush administration felt that there needed to be a carefully crafted system for the American people to refer to when they weren’t sure if they should grab a helmet, stock up on gas masks and water, or just shit their pants. (FYI, “shit your pants” is actually a course of action when we hit level “orange”)
When we label these individual zealots “terrorists” we are giving them the power of the word. When we think terrorist, we think of some shadowy mastermind in charge of a vast network of well-funded and intelligent operatives that want to blow up your house and rape your wife, literally YOUR wife specifically, like you, John Q. Public, is actually pinned to a cork board in some cave filled with plan-hatching psychopaths that don’t like your fucking pretentious corn-flower blue tie and are ready to do something about it. This specific label lends itself to re-inflating the fear balloon I had hoped we had popped, and giving the actual terrorists like Osama more power, when, in all actuality, he had nothing to do with it. When we give this power to these isolated events plotted and carried out by misguided, misinformed misanthropes with a panache for the dramatic, we continue to feed our own fears and add to the paranoia that has gathered en masse in this country. It’s like calling some 10-year-old learning the G-chord on his Christmas guitar the long-lost fifth Beatle.
I have a simple solution for this situation, stop buying in to it! “Terrorist” has been retarded by our use of it, and we need to get back to basics and call these vigilante bombers what they are, though ‘vigilante bomber’ is perfectly acceptable; they’re Assholes! Don’t you like that better? Isn’t the world a little less scary when there is a “poorly co-ordinated, rag-tag bunch of assholes” out to get us rather than a “shadowy network of sleeper-cell terrorists” that are capable of attacking at any time, any where? Hey, it is the same exact group of people in both statements, but the latter is a much easier pill to swallow, and just as accurate. Don’t believe me? Well if they were so fucking good, then why are they recruiting idiots like this guy to do their work? Seems to me we might already have the cream of the ‘terrorist’ crop locked away in Gitmo and Ba’ram.
This brings me to the other side of the word; association among the terrorists. Now hear me out, what if calling this asshole, or the Fort Hood jag-off, a ‘terrorist’, is offensive to real terrorists? I can just see it now, Osama is kicking back in some cave with satellite TV, reading the Times when he stumbles across an article about this Yemen-connected idiot.
“What the fuck is this!? He is no Allah-damned terrorist, I’m a terrorist!” He screams. A fellow terrorist comes storming in.
“What is the matter, Osama?” He inquires nervously.
Pacing about the cave-den, “The Americans are calling this guy a terrorist! Remember, about six months back we had a meeting at the lodge and that gangly looking kid from Yemen showed up?” His cohort nods feverishly. “Well it turns out humus-for-brains over here thought he could pull off that Airliner job he was ranting about. Guess what, couldn’t do it.
“So now the pig/dog Americans are saying they ‘thwarted’ a terrorist attack and are still safe.” He shakes his head, looking around for effect and bugging out his eyes. “This guy is killing me, Mamud!” Mamud gets a bit nervous now. “This crazy bacon-eating bastard comes to ONE meeting and now he thinks he can go out there and make me look bad, undermining everything I have worked for. My fifth wife has more “terrorist” in her pinky finger than this goat-lover had in his entire body!”
He drops down in to his Barack-a lounger (get it?) and heaves a sigh while rubbing his temples. His companion shuffles nervously and slowly makes his way out of the room when Osama speak, stopping him in his tracks.
“You know, Mamud, kids these days just think they can go out there and be terrorists. They have no idea what it takes to really get organized work done when you have to break five times a day for prayer; it really throws a wrench in things. Who is he to try and blow up a plane…that’s my thing, I did that. I mean really man, be original; just taking all the fun out of the job.”
…and scene.
What do you think? Maybe there is something to this? I don’t know, but I do think that we can’t go on categorizing and quantifying our fears with labels and carefully orchestrated dances of the silver tongue. Fear is not even coming from these attacks anymore. I was not more afraid of terrorism after Fort Hood, and I am no more afraid of terrorism after this botched attack. I am only afraid when a man in a three-pice suit utters the word “terrorism” in speeches and interviews in Washington. My fear now comes from which policy or act they are pawning off as necessary now. I am most afraid of what it will cost and what it will not accomplish. It is time we faced the fact that there is more than Al-Qaeda out there. We need to realize that there are many fractured groups and individuals out there, and though it may be comfortable, they don’t all fit in to the terrorist box. (though a terrorist box would be cool, just put ‘em all in there and chuck it in the ocean) It is time we called these people and groups what they are, a bunch of Assholes. Calling them this would end the war on terrorism because we wouldn’t have anymore terrorists, just a bunch of assholes; besides the world’s already brimming with those, so what damage can a few more do?…Then of course we might declare a War on Assholes, definitely would take more than eight years though.
Reading my devotional I came across this scripture. It hit me today and then I was speaking with a co-worker about his 19-year-old as well on this topic. WORK! At anything and everything you do, WORK at it. Don’t be lazy. Don’t expect things to be given you. There is no such thing as ‘OWED!’ Nothing comes free and all is given at a cost/price. Even our Salvation cost Jesus His life.
Learn the value of a dollar. WORK for the things you desire and WORK hard. Even a lazy, half-hearted effort will get you something, but you will also reap what you sow and half-hearted returns will be what you get. Shortcuts and easy way outs and excuses are for the birds. Don’t be stuck in the lack of caring, lack of responsibility crowd. Own up to your faults, make things better for you and your family and WORK hard at everything you do. WHY?…because a worker is worth his keep.
“Lord, help us to work hard and give us the strength and guidance and direction to do so. Amen.”
Talk Show Host, Entertainer, Author, Reporter, Comic
Posted February 10, 2009 | 03:31 PM (EST)
It started with a call to arms at a time of inspiration: “But I cannot do this alone, government cannot solve the problems, it’s up to each of you…”
As I stood, transfixed to the podium along with 80,000 of my closest friends watching the first African American man become the Democratic Nominee for 44th President of the United States (an office he would later win) I was called to action. Yes, Barack Obama said I had to actually do something. That We, the People were going to have to do everything we could now, not later, now, to start solving the problems. We were, are, going to have to change.
I’ve known what to do for years. We all have. We all do. But, like most, I’ve said that being greener either costs too much money, takes way too much effort for the return, on and on, reason after reason I told myself that going green was for Ed Bagely, Jr., not me.
Well, Barack said nope, better get busy.
So, what could I do, right now? What can everyone?
In my world, the two biggest areas of power consumption are my home (which is also my work and studio, both radio and TV) and transportation.
I live in an 1800 square foot house (Park Howard) on a 8000 square foot lot a mile from the beach. During the winter, monthly light bills average about $275 and during the summer, $500. I have central air and heat, a 300 gallon marine fish tank, koi pond, and a fully functional audio/radio broadcast/recording studio (and video), computers, flat screens…you know, your house (minus the AV stuff and small ocean). There had to be a better way.
Enter SunRun solar. I found SunRun through my radio show, and after grilling a principal of the company Nat Kreamer for over an hour, my curiosity was peaked. For a very small fee up front, I could supply my home with all the power I need, even sell some back to Edison so I could use it at night. I wouldn’t have to finance $40k or more and if I watched day time consumption I could end up with a zero Edison bill. Zero? $500 to Zero. Hmm.
Thanks to a return to science and reason, solar is now a very viable energy source. However, 6-8kw systems (what the average family home would need) have been cost prohibitive for most in the past. Enter SunRun and companies like them. They do power purchase agreements instead of sales of equipment. Now, it’s not the only way to harness the sun, and each way to get solar on your roof has pros and cons. But all in all, Power Purchase was for me.
I now pay a fixed rate for power, about ¼ what Edison charges, power that was hitting the roof every day anyway for the last 10 years. Except now, it’s working for me. SunRun’s project representative Katie Brodnik arranged for the design and installation of the system through Borrego Solar in Orange County, CA. Borrego is an area leader, and specializes in installation, sales and leasing themselves.
Chris Lacher is an energy consultant for Borrego. Lacher, Brodnik and people like them are the consumer’s liaison to the solar world. Lacher and Brodnik took me through the permit process and explained the letters I’d be getting from the California Public Utilities Commission and Southern California Edison (I’m a registered Power Plant now, how exciting). Borrego and SunRun worked closely and seemlessly, in a unique partnership. Power Purchase companies are new, whereas companies like Borrego have been around for some time; they are symbiotic now.
“We can get these systems up quickly, buy, rent, lease, power purchase, it’s all the same,” Lacher told me. “It often depends various utilities and permitting agencies.. Luckily, because of the need and interest, not to mention demand, the agencies are faster and easier to work with,” he added. “Everyone is on board to get as much solar and alternative energy going as we all can, it’s a partnership with state, local and commercial agencies and it’s working,” he concluded.
It took about three months from start to finish (planning, permits, etc), with the actual installation taking less than four days. Now Park Howard’s roof (my home is named, why isn’t yours) is covered with the latest solar panels. I can log on to a user interface and see how much the system is generating and how much carbon I’m keeping out of the atmosphere.
And the beauty of a power purchase agreement is that should something go wrong, SunRun maintains the system. Should the technology change, needs, etc, they work with you. And the bill? I pay about $40 a month to SunRun, and $5 to Edison. $45 down from $500 and I’ve kept over 1000 pounds of carbon out of the air so far. The agreement is for 18 years and is assignable should you sell the house.
There are other ways to get solar other than Power Purchase Agreements. As mentioned, companies like Borrego Solar design, sell, lease and maintain panels and their are loan programs and incentives in various states. There are leasing agreements, and of course, downright purchase. Systems can go from $25k all the way up to $75 k or more, depending. After rebate, it can still be a good amount to finance. And once you own them, they’re yours, financed, paid for or not. That’s why many, like myself, are going with the Power Purchase or Lease agreements.
Renting? Form a coalition and urge the landlord to go solar. Right now in CA there are rebates of up to $35k to install systems. It can be done. I will never live in a home without solar from this point onward. It just makes sense.
Fate made it easy to decide how to conserve fuel. As gas prices soared to $4 a gallon, my car was totaled by a driver that ran a light. It was older, so I only got $5k from it. Gas was bankrupting people and the thought of buying a $20k or $30k vehicle that gets under 100 miles per gallon (what we all could be getting right now). Not to mention at the time the only semi-progressive vehicle, the Prius, had a waiting list.
Americans use over 400 million gallons of gasoline a day about 22 million barrels, more than any other nation. We fight wars over the substance, and have spent more blood and money on it than almost any other. Our nation is beholden to places like Saudi Arabia, the home of the terrorists that attacked us on 9/11. Once my car was gone, I found it harder and harder to get another conduit to the oil company profit machine and the Saudi’s bank accounts.
Motorcycles and scooters get incredible gas mileage, but safety has always been a concern, plus the need for a special license. But they are the only thing that gets over 50 or 60 mpg consistently.
Enter the Piaggio MP3 series, currently taking America by storm (I have two!). The bikes come in 250cc, 400cc and 500cc. And don’t let their sleek European scooter design fool anyone; these are full-fledged vehicles that can gain speeds in excess of 60 ad 90 mph, all while getting 50-65mpg or more; and, they have three wheels, two in front, one in back, thus eliminating the need for a special license (Class C is the only thing needed unlike other scooters and bikes).
Piaggio is the parent company of Vespa, and introduced a line of three wheeled touring scooters to the European market that completely took off.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. You HAVE to have a car. Wrong. I thought that. Plus, I’m a pansy and proud of it. Motorcycles terrified me. Actually, I loved them parked. But while moving, the signified rolling death to me. Well, desperate times call for desperate measures. Change I can believe in.
I first took a two day course from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation of America, just to see if I could do this and if I could, how to do it right. They offer classes across the land, and after taking one, anyone getting on two or three wheels should be required to attend. You don’t even need your own bike. I learned on a Harley. Yup, a Harley. It was a sight.
By taking the class I was able to skip the whole motorcycle permit thing and just take the test for the license. I passed first time at the DMV. After I got a license I wasn’t going to need for a bike I didn’t have, I got my hands on the MP3 250 from Vespa of San Francisco (no other dealer in CA had them at the time). I paid under $8k out the door.
The MP3 250 is the perfect around-town and shorter distance bike. Peppy, sporty and fuel efficient, the under seat storage capacity and additional top case make it able to go grocery shopping or take a friend around town on errands.
The dual front tires make corner stability unbeatable, while the automatic transmission and other creature comforts make use extremely easy. Everyone from 16 to 60 can use one. My 250 (Gio is his name) has 2100 miles and I’ve spent under $150 on gas total since June, 2008.
Now the 250 is perfect and will perform well at any distance (I went from Long Beach to Barstow, no lie, to watch a Change of Command Ceremony of Eric Palacia, my personal Afghanistan veteran and hero) it’s bigger brother the MP3 500 is the long distance touring scooter America’s (and me, apparently) waited for to break the bike/scooter barrier. With a 500cc engine and redesigned body, the 500 is the bike for trips to Los Angeles, down the coast to Escondido to Art Throb Tattoo to see my cousin Geoff for great new ink or up the coast to Malibu for the day. To increase engine size, storage capacity suffers, and while the 500 could also be a perfect around town bike, it likes to cruise. It reaches speeds of up to 100 mph (no personal knowledge, of course) and is fully street and freeway legal (all are). I love Giotron as much as Gio, and each has their own purpose.
Now, Karel, that’s extravagant you say? Wrong. My insurance is under $1000 a year for both. They both get 55mpg or more. The 500 could go cross country if I needed it to, and the combined purchase price of both is still around the same as a decked out Scion XA.
Prices range from $7000 to $10,000, total. It was under $100 to register in CA and holds 2.75 gallons, or less than $8 for a fill up that will go almost 200 miles.
Other scooters and bikes are out there getting great gas mileage, but these are leading the way in innovation, the future. To find out more go to www.piaggiousa.com
And for total zero emissions, how about Vectrix. Long Beach Motosports at 3291 Cherry Ave., Long Beach, carries them as does scooter shops throughout the country. Vectrix first came to my attention on Jay Leno’s web series Leno’s garage (on his show as well). These scooters charge in under three hours, go from 0-60 in seconds, and go 60 miles on one charge. Vectrix are made in Massachusetts, and are the equivalent to a 250cc bike. They retail between $8k and $10k, about 1/3 the price of most cars.
And I know what many are thinking, how do you shop on a motorcycle or scooter? Well, I go to Costco, buy my guts out (less these days) and get strange looks standing next to one of my MP3’s; until the cab arrives, I put all my goods in, the cab follows me home ($10 from Costco) helps me unload and Violá! As for events or multi-passengers, rental cars are about $25 a day; rethink your needs. You don’t NEED a car to get around to most places. Even moms and dads. How many empty minivans, just a driver, have to be out there before we get the message sometimes we don’t need a traditional car? It’s obvious we won’t walk or take traditional bicycles, so…
There are always Smart cars, America’s real only micro-compact vehicle. However, it takes premium only and tops out at about 45 miles per gallon and starts at $13k, going up to $16k with features. But it’s a start.
“My Smart Car is the perfect solution for shopping, for almost everything. True, it took some getting used to on the freeway, but inside it feels no smaller than a Mini or other small car,” Smart car owner Brian Good told me. “And no, it’s not perfect. I wish it got even more mileage and had just a few more creature comforts, but what I’ve saved in gas alone is remarkable. And, I can park horizontally or vertically downtown.”
There’s also the Zenn, Zero Emission No Noise car. Like Chrysler’s GEM Car (I owned one for years, and was joked I had a golf cart on Steroids) and all NEV’s (Neighborhood Electric Vehicles) the state caps their speed at 25mph. These cars can go faster, but the state says no for now. As these technologies expand, speeds will increase. And of course, it’s all in the batteries. Right now, batteries are in the last century; but over then next 10 years look for this to be one of the biggest fields of innovation: battery power.
So Barack asked, and I answered. Park Howard now generates all of its own power on most days and then draws back from the grid at night inexpensively. I went from 30 miles per gallon in my vehicle to over 60 and cut vehicle expenses by $200 a month or more.
Two small green changes, thousands of pounds of carbon out of the air and hundreds saved in my pocket.
Barack asked all of us. Your turn. I found solutions. Maybe they’re not for you, but find your own. They’re out there. Don’t wait for a bail out or a government program or hand. Take the lead. The first green job to create is your own.
After all, I’m saving a lot of green by simply going green in two areas. Saving money and the planet can’t be all bad, right?
Executive Sessions is a small, informal forum for executives and professionals in transition. We provide information on networking groups, share expertise and discuss issues and challenges associated with the job search process. Executive Sessions meets the first Tuesday of the month at Panera, 25 Rice Lake Square, Wheaton. We also meet the third Thursday every month at Panera, 154 W. Wilson St., Batavia. Meetings start at 7:00 pm and run until 8:30 pm. For more information contact Ellen Huxtable at ellen@advantage-biz.com.
I have just come back from my first job interview in months (I’m not counting the call centre thing, that was a group interview in which we all had 30 seconds to speak). Ages ago, I remember knowing straight away, as soon as I walk out of the building, how well I’ve done, but today I am completely emotionless. Maybe it’s just been way too long since the last one (which was some time in July) that I have forgotten how to read the interviewers – and by read I mean with my intuition, because that’s usually how I figure out where I stand.
When I was still in high school, I remember having a lesson in job interview behaviour in year 11. I know that they taught us how to shake hands when you first meet your potential employers (never put you hand on top because that means that you are dominating, or on the bottom because that means that you are submissive), and how to hold your posture upright and how not to use the word “um”. I also remember how they told us to wear collared shirts, pants/skirts and proper shoes (preferably with a little bit of a heal) and how to keep our hands firmly placed in our laps or by our sides when we’re speaking. The funniest thing I remember them telling us is not to chew gum when we go into an interview….who would be crazy enough to do that, it’s common sense (I have realized since that there are plenty of people who don’t know what ‘common sense’ even means). The reason I mention my year 11 “how to behave in interviews” class is because I attended an IPA Recruitment “how to behave in interviews” three day training session about two weeks ago. They didn’t really tell me anything I didn’t already know (even they mentioned the chewing gum issue), but what they did do is confuse me with all the things that I believe in….
See, my personal theory (and I sand by it because it has proven itself worthy over the years) is that when you go into a job interview, the first thing you need to do is try and relax and the second is to listen. When the employer tells you about the company, which is usually what they do before they ask about you, you can already figure out pretty much what they’re looking for in your answers. Having said this, I by no means claim that I am an expert in job interviews, but the third and final component which I believe works is – honesty! In every single job interview I have ever been to, I have always been as honest as I possibly can. That way I eliminate two dangerous things that could cost me the job: 1) lying about the things I’ve done or the things that I’ good at and then risking being found out anyway when I got the job, and 2) stuttering, stumbling and sounding foolish because instead of talking about myself properly, I’m constantly thinking about whether one lie corresponds to another that I mentioned 5 minutes ago. When I said this to the IPA people, they told me that complete honesty is not a good way to go because you want to draw in the potential employer by telling them what they want to hear. There’s a huge possibility I would agree with this theory if I was being interviewed for a job that I wasn’t particularly interested in, but if I truly want to work for a certain company and I believe that I will benefit from the experience I could gain there, there is no point in telling my interviewer only things that thy want to hear. This is someone who will tomorrow be my boss (and hopefully over time my friend), someone who has obviously seen something that already interests them about me (other wise I wouldn’t be at the interview), so I believe that it is also someone who deserves to get to know me well enough (within that half an hour) to fill in most of the blanks. My belief is that if we are right for each other (as employer and the employee) my interviewer will see right away from my honesty whether I am a suitable candidate.
And finally, what I would like to add (for all those creatives out there who certainly know what I’m talking about) in terms of the dress sense for interviews is: show a little bit of yourself when you dress up for the interview. Again, this advice doesn’t really apply to say, a lawyer, but I’m no talking about interviews in the creative industry. I don’t mean to say that you should go to an agency interview wearing your latest make-shift attempt at fashion design, but have at least one accessory that defines you. Personally, my trade mark would probably have to be my high cut Converse sneakers, because they compliment the honesty that I was talking about earlier – this is me, what you see and hear is what you get (and because I am a little laid back you can also expect to get even more that what you see).
So to conclude…. my theory for job interviews is that honesty truly is the best policy and if you’re happy with yourself and you know exactly who you are, when your interviewer sees that, they will b very likely to appreciate it and if nothing else, have respect for you.
