Interview Reflection

Were you nervous? How did you deal with this?

Going into the interview I was nervous simply because I was running as little late. I defeat nervouness by drinking water or soda and that is what I did as I scrambled to Angela's office.
2. Did you get any questions that threw you? How did you handle those questions?

The question about "why do you want to come here?" thrwe me off a little becuase I didtnt really give it much thought going into the interview. I focused on why I wanted to studt economics in general but not specifically why I liked a certain program.

3. If you could do the interview again, what would you do differently?

I would explain the research that I did a little better. I felt tha I used too much jargon and should have made it more easy to understand. I should have walked thorugh the entire data collection process in more simpler terms

4. What did you learn from this experience?

I leraned that interviews do not have to be stressful as long as you take them as an opportunity to learn and display your qualifications.

My Favorite Presentations

The three presentations I liked the best all had one thing in common; food. The presentation on gatorade, cheesecake and the history of halloween were my favorite because I got to experience and the topic.

I have always been a fan of gatorade and I drink it with most meals at home. It was interesting to learn about the science behind the drink as well. Cheesecake is a America's dessert in my opinion. Nothing goes better with any meal than toppng it off with nice chilled cheesecake of any flavor. Finaly, learning about halloween is excititng for this time of year. What made it more fun was the nice bag of candy that accompanied the presentation. It was also nice to see two classmate tag team the topic.

The Reality of Cover Letters

I agreed with most of the advice of the article. I think that cover letters are read second if at all especially if their are a larger pool of applicants. It makes sense for the employer to focus on the resume becuase it tells them exactly what they are looking for. Where you have worked, your education and the like. What I did not agree withis the advice that the cover letter should be about the company. You could argue that the employer wants to hire people that share their vision and by explaining this vision you can gain an edge with the company. However, if you do not have the skills that they need knowing the vision will not help. You can teach someone with little education the direction you want to take a company, but it doesnt mean that they will be able to help.

Privatize Profits Socialize Losses

What the 700 Billion economic bailout has taught us is that the strictly conservative free market philosphy is a farce to make people vote their wallets. We are told that government should stay away when times are good, but once times are bad we are called upon in a hurry to bail out the exact same people that w anted us to stay away. Bill Clinton once said "The Era of big government is over" that was 16 years ago and today we are on the brink of handing the fate of the world economy into the hands of the most unreliable administration we've seen in a while; Karl Marx would be proud.

Article Review

I read the articles about telling stories as an interview strategy and the article about asking the interviewer questions. I liked these two becuase it helps win no only the interview but what to do after the interview ends. Telling stories helps you to sound natural and authentic. Companies are looking for more than skill, they also want someone with good character and persona. Telling stories helps you to portray this better. The second article talked about post interview question which are as impoartant as the interview intself. You can share more about what you know by asking questions that were not explicitly covered in the interview. Keep in mind that you as a potential employee have leverage and you obviously want to find a company that will hire you, but you also want to be selective and find a place that is right for you.

Ten Years is a Lifetime

Since I'm in college and my mind thinks in chunks of fall in spring, it is hard for me to imagine where I will be in 10 years. I know I want to atleast earn my masters in Economics that takes me two years into the future. From that point I'm not sure if I want to go for my PhD and become a professor or go for an MBA and go into the business world. In either case I think I would like the flexibility to jump into the other option. I think I want to have children or a child before I'm thirty, and at some point before then start to play chess seriously like when I was younger. I want to go overseas to Europe or somewhere not because I particularly like foreign coountries or cultures but I need and excuse to have a passport. :-)

Web 2.0

I think the title reflects how we all will have to think about the web in the future. We have to keep learning the new things that the web has to offer. Web 2.0 brings more opportunity to people who are looking for a job. They can create their own page that describes their qualifications and gives them the ability to display their skill set more uniquely. For those who are already in the workforce it lets them do their job more efficiently with less effort. We have to rethink everything we know about the web because it is very fluid and forever changing with new techniques.