mastering interview skills

For you to avoid stammering during your interview, you have to "master" some interview skills. The interview is one area where the universal Filipino mantra "bahala na" (come what may) does not save the day.  It is not enough to show up for the meeting, hoping that inspiration will hit you.  While a well-crafted resume will definitely help carry you to first base, it is the interview that will ultimately bring you to home base - or lead you to a strikeout.

Therefore, knowing how to play the interview cat-and-mouse game cannot be overemphasized.  There are different forms of the interview but the basic principles of good interviewing remain the same.  Dig up all you can about the hiring company and prepare ahead of time by anticipating questions and having ready answers in your head.  During the interview, extend a warm handshake, show confidence and enthusiasm and flash your pearly whites.  After the interview, don't forget to thank the interviewer and to inquire about what will happen next. Back home, draft and send a thank-you letter to the interviewer immediately.

A serious job seeker shouldn't have this crucial stage of the search process to chance or luck.  Here are the 10 rules of thumb for a winning interview performance.

1.  Come prepared.  Research beforehand on the company's services, products and operations - get the details from their annual report or website.  This way, you will be able to intelligently discuss how your talents, skills and experience can help reach their organizational goals.  Bring along additional materials for a successful presentation, such as an extra resume and work samples.

2. Arrive early.  The horrendous traffic is no excuse to be late to your appointment and thus earn debit points from the start.  Leave for the interview at least 30 minutes earlier than necessary to cope with any contingency.

(to be continued on next post...)

yummy food @ sbarro

Other than greenwich's lasagna, I never tried (and never dared) eating lasagnas to other italian resto.  I recently tried sbarro's lasagna, and i must say that it's yummy and sumptuous! 

Their lasagna has layers of pasta, Sbarro meatballs and sausage, creamy ricotta, mozzarella and grated Romano cheeses, and of course —  signature tomato sauce.  (200Php)

Baked Ziti, and other Pizzas are also good!  You can choose whatever-style-of-pizzas you want.  From New York style pizzas to specialty pizzas!  Their Baked Ziti is really good, especially the white sauce.  Ziti contains creamy ricotta, melted mozzarella and Romano cheeses and seasoned tomato sauce.

@ sbarro SM Mall of Asia

For more info, just log on to www.sbarro.com

Bon Appetite! ^_^

application time!

A week after graduation, I began to send my resume to several companies.  Two schools responded to my application, out of the five schools where I sent my resume.  They both had a telephone interview.  The first school is a school for kids, and the second one is a computer school.  So, they called me for a teaching demonstration, the school for kids, I found the teaching demo quite difficult because I'm not a graduate of early childhood development course.  I'm having a hard time making lesson plan, and think of an activity that I thought would be nice to the topic.  I also have to adjust my standards, as well as my patience to my students because they ain't college nor high school students.

As for my demo teaching in the computer school, it is nice, and i felt more comfortable.  I have 6 judges.   The school director, three senior faculty members, and two from the HRD.  The topic is MS excel.  Of all the topics that they might gave to me, Excel is the only subject that I'm afraid I couldn't teach well.  It's my weakness.  I'm not good at it, and don't know how to use it either.  But, as my college professor said, even if you don't know the subject matter you're going to demonstrate, be sure to be prepared, and as much as possible, don't say that you DON'T KNOW IT.  So, I did it well, after an hour of teaching demo, the panel just had a 15-minute short panel interview on me.  

My big day - graduation day @ world trade center, pasay

This is it! My big day! A week before graduation, I thought I won't meet the deadline for the candidacy for graduation, this week and the previous months has been hellish, but it's worth it because today is my graduation, and Yey! I'm a certified bachelor degree holder now! :D

I woke up late, (thank God it didn't rain!) because I can't sleep last night (excited? LOL) I don't have much time to fix myself because the car is already there, and I still have to put my make-up on.  Anyway, this is a graduation, not a party, so I decided to fix myself when I got at the venue later.

on our way to World Trade Center

The ceremony will start at exactly 8:00a.m., and we got there around half past 6a.m. (am i being too early? haha) mind you, there's already a traffic jam because they don't allow cars to be inside the center (that's why dad hired a cab.)

Yesterday during the rehearsal, we were advised that we shouldn't bring any bag inside because it is prohibited, and I don't know why on earth it is!  So if you saw that pink paper bag behind me (above), that causes the security personnel of the venue to argue with me.  She said that it is not allowed, and I said it's ok, I will just leave it to the table behind them.  She pushed me (yes, it's a SHE.)  and have my back pressed against the metal barrier.  It really pissed me off, so I just told the other security personnel to take care of my belongings.

Moving on, the ceremony is solemn than the other graduation ceremony that I attended few years ago.  I wasn't able to take pictures with my former classmates because frankly, I'm not in the mood, and i can guess that you know why.  

drat, what happened to my digicam? i looked like casper with a ceremonial robe!

A few photos for my classmates (they are not my real classmates since I transferred to the other block)

Block III

w/ Shar Lynn

After the ceremony, we will go to Duty Free 'cause dad just came home from abroad...

too tired!

Graduation rehearsal

The day before our big day - our graduation day, there's a low pressure area approaching the country, and the weather is not good, I just hope that the sun will shine tomorrow.  I was late (as usual) there are about 3000 graduates that will occupy the venue in the A.M., and another 3000 in the P.M.

The venue is still not properly set-up, we rehearsed from 9a.m. up to 1p.m.  I am familiar with the World Trade Center since it's not the first time that I went there.  I go there every time they have Car shows, Photo Exhibits, Job Fair, Bazaars, etc.  The place is huge enough to handle 4000-5000 people.

The rehearsal started exactly 9:00a.m., and we repeated the flow of tomorrow's program about 3x.  They decided that we will not have the student's procession (meaning, the students will proceed to their respective seats) because it is a waste of time.  

After the rehearsal, the rain is out.  And even it's raining, we still have to rush to school to get our ceremonial robe...