Things I Want To Buy When I'm Employed

I'm making a list of things I'd like to buy once I'm employed. You know, things to stimulate the economy. I'd like a new TV. The one I had in out living room went a few months back. We took the 19 inch from the bedroom and put it out there. I can't read the crawls on the bottom of ESPN, so I never know any scores.

Yes, I'd like a new TV but there are more important things. A guy can dream, right?

Business Casual Today

Today is the interview where I'm supposed to be business casual. We'll see how it goes.

UPDATE:

Interview went really well. It was like a casual conversation between friends. Of course I didn't let my guard down but I really liked the way it went. When leaving and shaking hands, he had some encouraging comments. The next step will be an invite to their home office, which will be extended next week. Stay tuned.

Where Have I Been?

It's been almost a week since I last posted something. No, I haven't lost interest, or received a job offer, I was having computer problems. My daughter did something with her ipod or Itunes account and screwed up my computer. Yes, she has her own computer so I don't know why she has to use my hunk of junk. My wife has a computer too, my old laptop hunk of junk, or that's what it has become as it's slowwwwwwwwwwwwww.

I seems that I had a lot of spyware on this computer and I'll take the weekend as a great opportunity to reformat the hard drive and clear out all the junk and start fresh.

Big One Today

Big interview with a rather large national company. They are heavily into the construction market but now they want to go after the industrial industries. Looking for someone with contacts with utilities, refineries, chemical facilities, any type of industrial processing facility. I sure have been in enough of these facilities to more than qualify.

I'll be meeting with two people today and if all goes well, I'll be asked to take a personality test. I believe they use the Caliper test, one that I took 6 months ago and did very well on. So well that the company I took it for wanted to offer me the position until one of the brothers, family own company, got his nose bent out of joint that he didn't get a chance to interview me. He got his chance and I knew right then and there that he was not going to OK me to spite the others. My Spidey sense was confirmed a month later after bumping into the hiring manager, who was a rather cool individual.

Unemployed Need Not Apply?

Here's an article from CNNMoney about companies telling the unemployed not to apply.

Business Casual?

I'm meeting with someone next week to interview for a sales position. It's a construction product used in the utility industry. I feel very excited and positive going into this interview except one thing, the gentleman said to dress business casual as he would be too.

I wear a suit for every interview. I even write down what color suit, shirt and tie so I don't wear the same combo twice. Should I wear a suit or business casual? Every article I have ever read has said to dress up for the interview, of course, but I have never seen anything saying business casual if the interviewer is going that route.

My instinct tells me suit, to show him this is important to me but what if I make him feel out of place?

Your thoughts?

Rejection Letter

Do you feel you are owed a rejection letter, email or phone call if you have not been asked to continue in the hiring process or they have hired someone else?

I certainly do not feel that you are owed anything, just for sending in a resume. However, today, I did receive an email from a company that I sent a resume to. It's a rather large construction company with many divisions and they let me know they received my resume and it has been forwarded on to the hiring manager. It was a personal response, not computer generated. It's a well know, quality first company.

I have been on many interviews and second interviews. It would be nice to get an email stating that they were moving on in the process without me. I know I'm not owed it but you took the time and expense to meet with them, a quick email is not going to kill anyone.

What do you think?

US vs. England In Legos.

For you Lego lovers out there.

And I Thought Every Day Would Be The Weekend

I used to think that every day was the weekend for those unemployed. How wrong was I? My week consists of interviews, resume rewriting, searching and calling people. Yes, it's very stressful, that's why I need my weekends to recover.

This week, I have a huge interview that I'm really looking forward to. Actually, I look forward to all of them but this position sounds very interesting. I also had a telephone interview with a company, last Friday, that I expect to hear from this week. I just got good vibes from the call. Oh, you were expecting a link to the Beach Boys?

College Football Happenings

Those of you that know me, know that I'm a huge college football fan and The University of Oklahoma is my favorite. Looks like OU will be taking their game to the Pac10 or would that be Pac12 now that Colorado is in? I really haven't had a chance to cry over the demise of the Big 12 but let's just take a quick look at the winners and losers.

Biggest loser in all of this conference realignment activity? The Big East. They'll probably wind up losing Rutgers, Syracuse and Pitt to the Big 10, WV and UConn and maybe Louisville to the ACC.

Winners? Pac10, Big10 and the ACC. Pac10 will get a conference championship as well as the Big 10. Big 10 will get the NY market with the addition of Rutgers. ACC will just get a few more teams. SEC? If they get Texas, it's a plus but if they don't, who cares, still the best conference in football. The Mountain West would wind up being a winner since they add Boise State and pick up a few teams from the Big 12.

There's even some talk of the Big 12 sticking around, adding BYU from the Mountain West and a few other schools.

Does this force ND into joining the Big10? TV money is huge. It will all depend on what the BCS decides to do once things shake out.

Damn, I love college football!

Oddball Interview Questions

Glassdoor.com lists some oddball questions that were asked during interviews. I have never been asked an oddball question but at least I'll be ready if it ever happens. Have you ever been asked a weird question?

Tick Bite NC?

Come on, you got to be kidding me! There's an application on the right side of the blog that shows where people are checking in from, don't worry, it is anonymous. Someone checked in from Tick Bite, NC. I'm waiting for my first visitor from Bird In Hand Pennsylvania, down the road a bit from Blue Ball and Intercourse.

Interesting Point

KP posted something interesting yesterday about receiving 60 to 100 resumes through CareerBuilder or Monster. They suggest handing a resume to a company or even calling them. I did a little research last evening and calling a company directly was mentioned as something to do. Also, when sending a resume you should let the person know that you will call to follow up.

I am in sales and I do this all the time, being proactive and letting someone know I will follow up with a call. It's what good salespeople do but at first I thought it might be a bit pushy. Then again, you are selling yourself and all good salespeople follow up with phone calls.

I'll let you know how this works out as I'm going to include this in future cover letters and will be calling the ones I just sent out. What are your thoughts?

Today's Action

Got a call from a company that I really want to work for and set up a 2nd interview for next Friday.

I have sent a number of resumes through Monster and CareerBuilder but haven't received a call from the ones that I figured should be calling. I resent a resume directly to the hiring manager from one company and got a call 4 minutes later. I'll have to go back over the resumes I sent through these people and resend them. Has anyone else had problems like this? This is the second time that I have done something like this and received a call within the half hour.

When Unemployed, Run For Office

NJ Primaries were held on Tuesday and it looks like I have something in common with Alvin Green. No, I do not have a felony complaint sworn out against me but I did run as a write in candidate for local office as an unemployed American. I noticed that there were 4 people running for 5 spots for Township Committee. I don't have a clue what they do, they don't run the town, but this didn't stop my write in candidacy.

I'll call the election board office today to see how I did.

Flyers Lose

The Philadelphia Flyers lost last night ending their Stanley Cup run. It was a fun run and I'm sure I'll hear a lot of comments like "We'll get them next year." I believe this is the sixth consecutive Cup final loss since back to back Cup wins in the 70's. "We'll get them next year" is getting old.

Winning those Cups, in 74 and 75, was a lot of fun. Gene Hart, the voice of the Flyers back then, making one of my all time greatest final seconds calls. Playing street hockey before and after the game, just loads of fun.

This years team was also fun to watch because of the way they bounced back so often. I guess we'll get them next year?

Needed A Topic For This Blog

I certainly will not bore you to death with my job search but I did need a topic and a title so we'll go with the employment thing for now. A little commentary here a little pop culture there, maybe a shout out or two is what we'll be doing. My sister started a blog about turning 40 but she ran out of steam. Maybe I can get her to write a thing or two about something we both enjoy...coupon shopping! Hey, when you're unemployed you need to cut corners.

My younger brother writes a very cool blog called the Conservative Wahoo. Although he's a lot more conservative that I am, he's probably a lot more fair with opposing views than I could ever be.

My older brother doesn't have a blog that I know about but he knows a lot of stuff, maybe we'll get him to throw something out there.

I promise I'll get better as I move forward.

I Don't Understand Unemployment

The state of NJ makes it so easy to file for unemployment. File online and claim your benefits online. It's a pretty smooth transaction until a problem occurs and then you're on the phone forever. Last week I went to claim online and a message said I needed to call in to claim. No big deal as I had until 5pm to do this and it was 4:30. I called and another message said I had to speak with someone but they all left for the day.

The following morning, I call back and was told that I could not claim that week, had something to do with NJ having to contact PA about unemployment funds I had over there. Why couldn't someone let me know sooner? I was told that there was a message on my last mailed statement. Had that puppy right in my hand and there was no message to be found. Now she makes an appointment for me to speak with someone on the 15th at 11:20am and I also had to call in for benefits today, although I would not be getting anything until I speak to the next person. I asked her to explain why we are doing this and she tried her best but I'm afraid I don't speak the language of the state worker, which is very fast. Hopefully someone will talk slow and explain it to me on the 15th.

Today's Action

I interviewed with a company 2 weeks back. It was for an Architectural Sales position. The first interview was tough as I felt I was being put through the ringer. I decided to push back a bit because I didn't want to walk away from it thinking that I should have been more aggressive. It worked. After the interview the guy told me that he's not a "dick", his words, and that he wanted to see how I responded to possible rejection.

I got to meet with the President of the company and I felt real good about the interview. I felt good because I gave 100 percent and walked away knowing I could not have done any better. I also walked away knowing that I wasn't going to get it. Although I worked getting products specified by many of the top Architects and Engineers, this was a high end glass company and I knew they wanted someone with more of an eye for art, more of a designer. My idea of art is Kieth Haring, theirs was Degas or Daygas as I called him while ordering tickets for an exhibit a few years ago. I'm not into ballerinas.

I got the bad news today but they did leave the door open a bit. They are building a new sales force and the next position is for a national specifier and the President asked that we stay in touch.

Now it's on to next week's huge interview with a large equipment company. The position deals with industrial accounts. They are a nationwide company and this is a new position for them. They liked that I have construction and industrial experience. I'll update this next week.

The First of Many...or Maybe Not

I have some time on my hands from being unemployed, so I decided to blog. I'm sure some may say that if I have time on my hands, I should be looking for a job. I'm doing that too, along with laundry, cleaning, cooking and driving the kids around. You know, mom stuff. Just kidding!

I lost my job November 30, 2009. I knew it was coming. I was in the construction products industry. I'll explain in future writings why I knew this was coming besides the obvious...THE ECONOMY! Since November, I have been on numerous interviews. Some pretty good, some pretty bad. My intention is to blog my job search process and hopefully get people to respond to some of the things I say and do. Rip me apart if you like, or make me feel good and praise me. I won't be mentioning names because I don't want future employers viewing this blog knowing it's me.

I titled this "The First of Many... or Maybe Not" because I figured if I get a job I would quit blogging. Then again, I could always change the title to something else if people care to read and follow.