I always have problems coming up with good ideas to do for things like this. Probably one of the most important current events going on is the Wall Street crisis, but I don't know too much about it, even though I should since I am a finance major. Since I can't really think of anything important to talk about, the current event that I am going to talk about is the beginning of the NFL football season. I'm not really much of a college football fan. For some reason NFL football interests me so much more.
My favorite team in the NFL is the New England Patriots. To this day I am still depressed about their loss in last years Super Bowl to the New York Giants. I hate the Giants, and it's unfortunate because they are 3-0 this season. The other week the Patriot's quarterback, Tom Brady, tore his ACL. This is huge news in the football work. Tom Brady is perhaps one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. Him being gone is a huge loss for the Pats. Their new quarterback doesn't have much experience. He hasn't done too bad so far, so it will be interesting to see how they do this year. The other day they got crushed by the Miami Dolphins, who were by far the worst team last season, and were off to an 0-2 start this season.
On the subject of sports, now I'm going to move to the MLB. I also like professional baseball more than college baseball. My favorite team in the MLB is the Boston Red Sox. Big surprise. They have almost clinched a playoff spot, even though they have dealt with a lot of injuries this year. The Red Sox won it all last year, so it would be amazing if they could repeat. I love seeing the New York Yankees do terrible, not only because they are the Red Sox's biggest rivals, but because they spend ridiculous amounts of money on their players. Plus they are taking a lot of heat for building a new stadium. The locals are incredibly angry at the organization and city of New York for this.
P.S. My friend showed me this video on youtube the other day. I just had to link it for you since you love animals so much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keE8I0uup1E
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Saturday, September 20, 2008
Cover Letter Response
There was a lot of information about cover letters on that web site. One thing I did not like about it was the negative tone that the writer had. He or she just seemed miserable. Other than that I pretty much agreed with all of the advice that this article offered. I thought it was amusing that the writer said that most cover letters aren't even read. This fact didn't really surprise me at all. Since we already learned that many resumes are electronic and never even read, I figured most cover letters aren't read. I learned that cover letters shouldn't be about me and that they should be more about the company. This makes sense since our resume shows off all of our qualifications and achievements. I'm not sure if I completely agree that sending out resumes is just sending out rejection letters. I understand that the most important part is moving through recruiting programs.
I liked how the advice compared writing our cover letters to selling a product. This makes sense since we are essentially selling ourselves and our abilities. I like how in the cover letter formula section they gave you examples of things to put in your letter. This is probably the most important section of the tutorial for me. Knowing what to put and what order to put everything in pretty much what the cover letter is all about. The example also helped a lot. It gave me ideas on how to word things.
A new thing that I learned in the tutorial was the postscript technique. It's a small thing that can really help improve your impression on whoever is reading your cover letter. Testimonials are also something new that I never learned about before. It's sort of like just taking quotes out of a letter of recommendation and putting them in your cover letter. I wish I had some testimonials to put in my cover letter for the mock interviews. Hopefully I will be able to incorporate some of this information in my cover letter.
I liked how the advice compared writing our cover letters to selling a product. This makes sense since we are essentially selling ourselves and our abilities. I like how in the cover letter formula section they gave you examples of things to put in your letter. This is probably the most important section of the tutorial for me. Knowing what to put and what order to put everything in pretty much what the cover letter is all about. The example also helped a lot. It gave me ideas on how to word things.
A new thing that I learned in the tutorial was the postscript technique. It's a small thing that can really help improve your impression on whoever is reading your cover letter. Testimonials are also something new that I never learned about before. It's sort of like just taking quotes out of a letter of recommendation and putting them in your cover letter. I wish I had some testimonials to put in my cover letter for the mock interviews. Hopefully I will be able to incorporate some of this information in my cover letter.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Response to Articles
This first article that I read about is titled "Laid Off? So What?" I decided to read about this one because the title caught my attention. After reading the article it seemed perfect for this class, because some of these very things were in the book, yet there was new information to me.
I learned that you should always let people you are being interviewed by know that you have been laid off, and that it is also important to explain everything you did during the layoff. I guess maybe if they think you have accomplished things during your layoff that you are a productive and motivated person. This article definitely reminded me of the readings in the resumes in cover letters section since I just read about those last week. A valuable piece of information I learned from the article is to not mention your layoff in the cover letter, because you are trying to market yourself. I'm sure that if any employer reading your cover letter knew that you had just been laid off than they would immediately be biased against you. Instead the article says you should focus on what you did at that job in your resume. This is kind of reminiscent of the indirect method we spoke about in class (for business letters).
The article also spoke about networking and interviews, which was also in the readings. Libby Pannwitt, from the article, said that you should make it seem there are no bad guys when you are laid off. I can definitely see how that is important during the interview. They don't want someone who hates their employers. It explains how crucial face-to-face communication is. In my opinion it is almost more important than your actual resume when doing an interview. This article taught me some information that I need to retain for when I am older.
The second artcile I read was "Four Questions to Ask a Potential Manager." Most of the articles had to do with interviews, so I decided to read this one because I've done a lot of reading on interviews in the book and my previous article. One thing this article wasn't clear about is when do you ask the manager these questions? Is it during the interview, or after you have already gotten the job?
The article basically says four questions to ask a manager, and based on the manager's responses what kind of person they are. I thought it was good to know because I generally either like my higher ups a lot, or I dislike them a lot. These questions can help me know before hand what I am getting myself into. I would kind of feel awkward just asking a manager these questions when I first meet him or her. I wish the article gave a bit of advice on how to bring them up. I agree when the article says that happiness can come down to your manager. I negative manager who yells a lot can bring everyone's attitudes down. I really hope when I get my first job in the real world that the manager is cool.
These articles weren't anything too new to me, but they went a little more in depth than what we have discussed in class. That taught me a few things that I'm sure will be valuable to me in the future.
I learned that you should always let people you are being interviewed by know that you have been laid off, and that it is also important to explain everything you did during the layoff. I guess maybe if they think you have accomplished things during your layoff that you are a productive and motivated person. This article definitely reminded me of the readings in the resumes in cover letters section since I just read about those last week. A valuable piece of information I learned from the article is to not mention your layoff in the cover letter, because you are trying to market yourself. I'm sure that if any employer reading your cover letter knew that you had just been laid off than they would immediately be biased against you. Instead the article says you should focus on what you did at that job in your resume. This is kind of reminiscent of the indirect method we spoke about in class (for business letters).
The article also spoke about networking and interviews, which was also in the readings. Libby Pannwitt, from the article, said that you should make it seem there are no bad guys when you are laid off. I can definitely see how that is important during the interview. They don't want someone who hates their employers. It explains how crucial face-to-face communication is. In my opinion it is almost more important than your actual resume when doing an interview. This article taught me some information that I need to retain for when I am older.
The second artcile I read was "Four Questions to Ask a Potential Manager." Most of the articles had to do with interviews, so I decided to read this one because I've done a lot of reading on interviews in the book and my previous article. One thing this article wasn't clear about is when do you ask the manager these questions? Is it during the interview, or after you have already gotten the job?
The article basically says four questions to ask a manager, and based on the manager's responses what kind of person they are. I thought it was good to know because I generally either like my higher ups a lot, or I dislike them a lot. These questions can help me know before hand what I am getting myself into. I would kind of feel awkward just asking a manager these questions when I first meet him or her. I wish the article gave a bit of advice on how to bring them up. I agree when the article says that happiness can come down to your manager. I negative manager who yells a lot can bring everyone's attitudes down. I really hope when I get my first job in the real world that the manager is cool.
These articles weren't anything too new to me, but they went a little more in depth than what we have discussed in class. That taught me a few things that I'm sure will be valuable to me in the future.
Monday, September 1, 2008
My Future
To be honest I have not given my future too much thought. This post is my opportunity to think about what I would like to be doing in about 10 years. I'm the kind of guy that has not even thought about my next semester. I guess that I kind of live in the present, but I don't do stupid decisions that I know will negatively effect my future.
In 10 years I will be 30 years old. That's scary to think about. To start off I'll talk about how I want my personal life to be. Hopefully by then I will have met that special girl and have a girlfriend or possibly be married. I am still not sure yet if I want to have children at all, but I know for sure I do not want to have children at 30. Maybe I will just have a dog or cat. Hopefully I'm not living too far away from my family. Right now and most likely in the future my family will still be around the Greenville area. I really hate the heat down in South Carolina, so I wouldn't mind maybe living in a state like North Carolina or Virginia. I used to live up in Vermont, but the weather is a little too cold there live in.
As far as my career is concerned, I was thinking about being some sort of financial analyst. There are a lot of different kinds of financial analysts, but I'm not sure exactly what kind I want to be yet. All I know is that I do not want to be a workaholic and work nights and weekends. I'd be happy with an 8-5 job. Money is not really what makes me happy. I'm happy with just an average income. Truly I would love to get involved in investing or working in some sort of sports gym or tennis center, which leads me to the next aspect of my life.
I hope to still be in pretty good shape. Right now I'm fairly muscular from when I used to lift weights religiously. I hope to maybe be lifting once or twice a week when I'm older, so I look healthy. I also want to still be playing tennis once or twice a week. I'm a huge tennis fan and I love to watch and play the sport, and I don't ever want that to change.
Currently my family is all very tight nit. Pretty much everyone talks to each other a couple times a week. I hope that my family is still like this in the future. I'm sure my two married sisters will have children by then, so it will be fun to watch our family grow. I also pray to God that everyone in our family is still healthy. My parents will be over 60, so I hope that when I'm 30 I get to see them a lot and take care of them.
Venting about this almost makes me feel sad. Just knowing that everything will be so different frightens me. I don't like to think that these are the best years of my life. I try to stay positive. The future is inevitable, so the best time to prepare for it is now.
In 10 years I will be 30 years old. That's scary to think about. To start off I'll talk about how I want my personal life to be. Hopefully by then I will have met that special girl and have a girlfriend or possibly be married. I am still not sure yet if I want to have children at all, but I know for sure I do not want to have children at 30. Maybe I will just have a dog or cat. Hopefully I'm not living too far away from my family. Right now and most likely in the future my family will still be around the Greenville area. I really hate the heat down in South Carolina, so I wouldn't mind maybe living in a state like North Carolina or Virginia. I used to live up in Vermont, but the weather is a little too cold there live in.
As far as my career is concerned, I was thinking about being some sort of financial analyst. There are a lot of different kinds of financial analysts, but I'm not sure exactly what kind I want to be yet. All I know is that I do not want to be a workaholic and work nights and weekends. I'd be happy with an 8-5 job. Money is not really what makes me happy. I'm happy with just an average income. Truly I would love to get involved in investing or working in some sort of sports gym or tennis center, which leads me to the next aspect of my life.
I hope to still be in pretty good shape. Right now I'm fairly muscular from when I used to lift weights religiously. I hope to maybe be lifting once or twice a week when I'm older, so I look healthy. I also want to still be playing tennis once or twice a week. I'm a huge tennis fan and I love to watch and play the sport, and I don't ever want that to change.
Currently my family is all very tight nit. Pretty much everyone talks to each other a couple times a week. I hope that my family is still like this in the future. I'm sure my two married sisters will have children by then, so it will be fun to watch our family grow. I also pray to God that everyone in our family is still healthy. My parents will be over 60, so I hope that when I'm 30 I get to see them a lot and take care of them.
Venting about this almost makes me feel sad. Just knowing that everything will be so different frightens me. I don't like to think that these are the best years of my life. I try to stay positive. The future is inevitable, so the best time to prepare for it is now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)