Mock Interview Reflection

I had my mock interview on Wednesday morning. I thought it went fairly well, but there were definitely things I could improve with practice. I have not had many "real" formal interviews so I have not had very much experience. I was just a little bit nervous but not really because I knew it was not real. I didn't really know what to expect in the way of questions. I was "interviewing" for a teaching position at an elementary school in Greenville. I was asked questions about different aspects of education, No Child Left Behind, and why I would be a good or qualified teacher, among other things. Some of the questions were a little bit difficult because I am just now getting into my education classes since I am only a sophomore. I think because I have this class as a sophomore, I can begin to build on what I have already learned and what I will continue to learn in this class about the work world.

All You Need Is Love...

I think The Beatles got it right when they penned this bit of philosophical wisdom. This concept, the idea of love, is something that has lately been on my mind. If people lived by the Golden Rule and truly loved, the world would be a different place. I don't mean the superficial, constantly changing love that depends on the occurrence of particular variables. I'm talking about real, deep, genuine love that cannot be shaken. What if we decided to really live out of love? We would radically change the world. If people understood the bigger picture, the idea that we are all one, all brothers and sisters on this planet of ours, I think we could learn to see past our petty differences and selfishness and just love one another. My faith is very important to me, and this is a topic that we have lately been really been pondering and discussing within FCA. We believe that if we as Christians, as children of the one true God, a God of mercy and grace and love, were to live by the example of Jesus, this campus would be revolutionized. This is much easier said than done, however. It is our human nature to look out for ourselves first and foremost and then to consider others if we have time or money or desire. The list of excuses runs long, but if we really want to change the world with the love of Christ, we have to be willing to step out of our comfort zones and start to love people. And I mean we have to love people for who they are, not for what we can get from them or for who we think they can be. We have to love them as they are, right where they are, for who they are. And if this love is genuine, if it is real and steady and deep, we will be reflections of the Savior who we claim to follow. What a better example of faith than to live as the One who first loved us with a pure, unconditional love and love everyone as genuinely as we can? John 15: 12 sums it up when Jesus says, "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." I for one, can't really argue with that. I think I'm going to give love a try.

Cover Letter Information

I have never written a cover letter so I did not know anything about them before reading these articles. There were several pieces of good advice in them that I will keep in mind when I write my cover letter. I think it is a good idea like the article "Sample Cover Letter" says to take the time to make the letter personal and specific to the strengths I have to offer and how they will benefit the company to which I am applying. I also liked the advice to be proactive in a job search. The articles said that companies will remember an applicant much more clearly if the applicant makes an effort to contact the company. I thought the idea in "The Postscript Technique" was odd; to add a note at the end seems slightly boastful to me, and not as effective as they claim, but I guess that is how you get what you want in the business world. I don't know that I would try that. I liked the advice to not use a cover letter as an excuse to sit back and be lazy, but instead to use it as directed marketing targeted at a specific audience. That seems much more effective than just making a very broad, general letter. Using a testimonial sounds like a good idea as well, if you can creatively work that into the body of the letter. The checklist will definitely be useful in the future when I am writing a cover letter. I think the majority of the information in these articles was helpful and I will most likely use it for my personal cover letter.

Response to Articles

As I read through several of the articles on the website given, I came across many interesting ideas and hints about the interview process. The two articles I chose to focus my blog on were "Four Questions to Ask a Potential Manager" and "How to Answer the Toughest Interview Questions." These two articles addressed some of the things that I think I would be worried about at an interview.
Sometimes, when I am put on the spot with a tough question, I freeze and my mind goes blank and I cannot think of anything to say, or I do not give the best answer I could. The article about answering tough questions gave some good tips for that. It said to not be too specific when answering questions about your future but to answer very generally, referring to your personal values and broad professional goals. If asked about salary, the article suggested to first try to deflect the question by asking another question, such as the general salary for the job being sought. If the interviewer is persistent, the article suggests giving a range, but not backing down too much. This is one question for which it is very important to be prepared. I thought it was interesting that the article suggested practicing in front of a mirror and talking about your strengths and why you should be hired. This is a good idea because I personally would feel like I was boasting when answering this question, so practice would definitely be good. Lastly, when asked a seemingly silly question, the key is to not freeze but think quickly and rationally and then be able to reasonably why you picked what you did. I think these were all good tips to prepare for questions likely to come up during an interview.
The other article I read discussed some potential questions to ask the interviewer or potential manager. When I am in a situation and someone asks if I have questions, I usually say no because I cannot think of anything to ask. This article gave me an idea of questions that I could plan to ask ahead of time. Asking these would help me seem prepared and well-informed and sincerely interested in the position. The questions mentioned in this article would also help me to get a good idea of how my personality and goals and beliefs would mesh with those of my potential manager.
Reading these and other articles gave me some good insight into the interview process and provided several ideas for both questions and answers that will definitely benefit me when I interview for jobs in the future and when I do my mock interview for this class. I think I will be better prepared to both answer and ask questions that will help me be a better potential employee and hopefully get the job I want.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2010400,00.html#
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I think the link got cut off in my last post.

Persuasive Communication

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2010400,00.html#article_continue

With election season fast approaching, examples of persuasive communication are not hard to find. Many presidential candidates have visited Clemson's campus recently, and I went to see two of them speak. One of my roommates and I went to Mike Huckabee's rally when he came to Clemson. The week after that, I went with another one of my roommates to hear Barack Obama speak. Political opinions aside, I was much more impressed with Obama than I was with Huckabee. Obama's eloquence alone made him a much more appealing and persuasive speaker than Huckabee. He immediately connected with his audience because of his strong ethos. He told stories that really helped people feel like they had a connection with him. He made several arguments that boosted his ethos and his ideas just made sense, which appealed to logos. One example that sticks out in my mind is the story he told of how he went to work and live with the people in the slums of Chicago (I think) when he graduated. He came across as a humble and down-to-earth candidate who actually cared about people and not just about pushing his own agenda. Granted, I think it is a general truth that politicians say things to intentionally gain credibility with their audience (ethos), appeal to people's emotions (pathos), and come across as logical and reasonable (logos), but Obama did an excellent job of incorporating these three aspects into his talk. He even alluded to Martin Luther King Jr.'s Letter from a Birmingham Jail, arguably one of the very best examples of persuasive communication in history. King used many of the same tactics in his rhetoric to appeal to emotions and logic and gain credibility with the church officials to whom he was writing. His writing was passionate yet he wisely chose his words to be incredibly effective. We also had guest speakers in class last week who spoke on the art of persuasiveness. They themselves were not as persuasive as I expected them to be, especially since their jobs were to persuade people of the benefits of joining the Army. I did not find them very persuasive at all. They did several of the things they told us not to do, and they did not seem to try very hard to appeal to the ethos, pathos, and logos of their audience (our class). Overall, I was very impressed with both Martin Luther King, Jr.'s letter and Obama's speech but not with the guest speakers we had in class.

Ten Years from Now

I like to think about the future. I enjoy thinking about how my life will be in the years to come, what will have changed and what will still be true about me.
Ten years from now, I will be approaching my thirtieth birthday. I hope that between now and then I will find an amazing man who shares my passions and who can love me as I will love him. I hope that I will be married and have started to create a life with my husband. I want to have children by the time I am thirty, probably two or three. I hope that we will have a happy, content family and be able to enjoy and appreciate each other. I want to make faith a priority in my family, because if we do not have our faith to hold us together, we have nothing to live for. I want to live somewhere in the southern part of the United States so I can be close to my family and my kids can know their grandparents and spend time with them. In addition to being close to my family, I really love the weather and the distinct seasons here.
Professionally, I do not know where I will be. I am currently studying elementary education, so it is possible that I will be in a second or third grade classroom teaching children every day. However, if my kids are young, I really hope that my family situation will allow me to be at home with them. I was never in daycare as a child, so I hope to raise my children the same way. I do not want to miss spending time with them and seeing them grow up because I am too busy helping other people's children grow up. If my kids are school-aged, I would like to go back to teaching because I enjoy being around kids and helping them discover a desire within them to learn. I just do not want my career to ever become more important to me than my family.
This is just a glimpse into my dream for the future. Even if my life does not happen exactly the way I have imagined it, I really just want to be happy and not take any day for granted.