Response to Resume Articles

The first article that caught my eye was "Pretty in Ink: Making a Resume Look as Appealing as the Content," by Sarah E. Needleman. I have always wondered if it would be inappropriate to use some formatting in my resume that would not necessarily be part of what has traditionally been accepted as standard. Although I did think that the idea of using past employers' company logos was interesting and different, most of the ideas in this article unacceptable to me. One woman had formatted her resume to reflect a press release, for example. I find that to be inappropriate. It would make me extremely uneasy to submit a resume that strayed from a standard format because although it can help the resume to stand out, it would not be worth the risk of looking unprofessional to the potential employer who would read it. I want my resume to be eye-catching and easy to read without leaving behind the acceptable format that is used in the business world.

The second article that I found to be extremely interesting was, "Taking a Career Break to Travel And Explaining That on a Resume ," by Emily Meehan. I absolutely love to travel and have always planned to do a bit a travelling after I graduate before beginning a formal job. I was worried that this may reflect badly on my resume. This article explains that sometimes travel is a wonderful way to get to know one's aspirations and likings in order to be a better employee or find a better suited career path. Although putting travel on a resume can be a positive or negative addition, it may be important to share with a potential employer how travelling has led to personal growth.

Interviewing Technique Response

Questions: After reading one of the articles. . .Did anything that you read surprise you? Was there anything that you had not previously considered important for an interviewee to know? Did you learn anything useful that you will be able to apply to future interviews? Was there any advice with which you did not agree? If so, why did you disagree?

After reading "How to Answer Any Interview Question," I found that although most of the article contained information that I had heard before, there were some points that I had not necessarily thought about as much. It surprised me to read that some interviewers ask about your weaknesses or past mistakes. I have not been asked this question in a job interview thus far, and I think that it is something that I will definitely think more about in the future. Focusing on what I have learned from past mistakes or aspects of weakness may actually help in an interview if the focus is on the positivity and not the negativity.

There were a few useful tips that were also new to me. I found Jeff Braun's Q=A+1 method to be extremely interesting, and I think I will definitely use it in the future. The method basically illustrates that when one is asked a question in an interview, the best way to answer consists of three parts. The first is the answer, the second is the bridge needed to portray a certain message, and the third is the message itself. This is an extremely useful technique because when asked any type of question, it is possible to gear the answer toward something that will make you as the interviewee look appealling to the company.

I knew that anecdotes were important, but I did not think to have multiple examples for general questions that are likely to be asked. Usually when I go in for an interview, I have one or two stories ready about a difficult challenge that I have had to face in the workplace or a circumstance that displays a strength, but now I will think of at least three or four to use as examples.

Overall, I agreed with everything in the article and will use some of the information that I learned in the future.

In Ten Years. . .

In ten years I will be thirty years old. There is so much that I hope that I will have accomplished at that point.

The first thing that I see in my future is living back in the West. I hope to live permanently in Colorado, but if that is not possible because of a career stiuation, then I at least hope to live in California or Texas, where I can be closer to my family. As much as I have loved living in the South, the cost of living and real estate are much lower here than they are in the Colorado, so I think it would be necessary to establish myself somewhere that has similar costs so that I am not struggling financially when I move back.

I also hope to have a wonderful, stable career at this point in my life. I am an extremely motivated and dedicated person, and I hope that these attributes will help me to succeed in my job and provide me with great, worthwhile experience. I am a finance major, and right now I am interested in Corporate Finance or Commercial Real Estate Finance, so the job will probably be in the same domain as these fields.

By the time I am thirty, I also hope to be happily married. I do not like to be alone, but I am extremely picky and do not go searching for relationships, so hopefully the right one will come along by that point.

One of the most important things to me in my life is to be healthy and active. Because I hold this lifestyle to be so important, I think that I will continue to eat healthfully, excercise, and be outside as the years go on.

The most important thing that I hope to see in my future is being able to time manage well enough to have a lasting relationship, a strong family, a solid faith, a good career and exceptional friends.

Response to "The Machine is Us/ing Us"

Question:

What do you think the title of the video means? How does Web 2.0 affect someone who is ready to enter the workforce? How does it affect people who are already in the workforce? What do you think it means when it says that we will have to rethink everything?

Answer:

I think that the title of the video, "The Machine is Us/ing Us" is extremely clever. The Internet is a collection of billions of facts, opinions, definitions, explanations, and questions that have all been mixed into a collasal concoction of a representation of "us." It is an unstoppable machine of information that grows larger and larger by the second. This growth is beneficial and undoubtedly expands our horizons greatly, but when something becomes so large and influential, it may become a force that begins to use us just as much as we use it. Society, in a way, is controlled by the Internet. Since society has become so based in technology and computers, the Internet has become a necessity to the people. In this way, we are no longer in control of the Web, the Web controls us. Without it, society would not operate as efficiently as it is able to today.

In regard to the workforce, Web 2.0 is of the utmost importance. Since everything is based so much on the Internet and information that is posted and obtained on the web, it is absolutely necessary for a person entering the workforce to be familiar with the Web. Those already in the workforce probably understand first-hand how important the Internet is to daily operations, questions, uncertainties, and progress. Without knowledge of the Web, a company or am employee will certainly be left behind in the fast-paced world of technological advance.

When the video says that we will have to rethink everything, I think that it means that the Internet has power that may be greater than we know. It has the power to expose things that we had not thought of before, and we have access to things that we may not have had otherwise. Because of this exposed mass of information, we may encounter things that will cause us to rethink anything and everything. Because the Web contains information about an unlimited number of issues, the issues that we may be forced to rethink are unlimited as well.

Intro Continued

This is the lake behind my house!

Introduction

Hi! My name is Stacy Metzger, and I am a junior from Boulder, Colorado. Boulder is one of my favorite places in the world. The city sits in a valley below the foothills of the Rocky Mountains under an incredible range called the Flatirons. I grew up without knowing much about crime, laziness, or fast food! As a result, I am extremely active, health-conscious, and outdoor oriented! During the summer I love to boat, jog, hike, wakeboard, and bike. In the winter, my family and I snowmobile and ski. I have been skiing back-country with my brother and dad since I was ten years old. I also love to travel. Having travelled internationally quite extensively, I thought that I was fairly well-rounded and cultured. I had no idea that moving to the South would be the biggest culture shock of my life! I had never been around poverty or racism for any prolonged period of time, and it was extremely difficult for me to get used to the fact that those two things exist here to such an extent. At first I did not like living in South Carolina at all, but after I made more of an effort to understand the culture instead of judging it, I began to see the South in a more positive light. Now I love it here and could not be happier!