Tips For Job Interviews

I've been doing a lot of interviews at work lately, and I'm set for another 4-hour marathon tomorrow. It's been a good experience for me; it's taught me a lot about proper conduct in an interview, and what employers are looking for in a candidate. So, I've composed a short list of tips of interview dos and donts for your reading pleasure.

1. Dress like you're going to an interview. Even if your interviewing for a crap-shoveler position and your local dairy farm, at least wear a nice shirt. If anything, it shows that you care about how you look.

2. Smile and show some enthusiasm. This one seems obvious, but you would be surprised. I've had a couple of interviews where I seriously thought I was talking to a coma victim or Wednesday from the Adams Family. People with no personality are not customer-friendly, and will probably no get hired.

3. Do a little research. Find out the manager's name or a bit of history on the company. Browse their website and figure out what they're all about. This impresses people. It shows that you have an interest in the company.

4. Don't swear. I once had a person respond to the question "Why would you like to work at Prime Shine?" with "Cuz I'll kick some fuckin' ass out there." Yeah...bad idea.

5. Extra reading materials (such as resumes, cover letters, recommendations, etc) are always good. It shows you are prepared and that you have taken time to present yourself as professional. But...

6. ...If you do go through all the trouble to make a resume and stuff, please make it look nice. Don't just crap something out in 5 minutes. A bad resume can be far more damaging that no resume.

7. If you've applied at some many places that you don't even remember giving me an application, don't make it obvious. Statements like "This is my fiftieth interview this week," and "Did I really drop off an application here?" are not winners in my book, nor in anyone else's.

8. Fill out an application completely and thoroughly. Nothing says "I'm lazy and will do nothing at work" like not filling out half of an application.

9. Don't complain about your past bosses. It makes you seem defiant and means I should anticipate you having problems with authority.

10. If I asked you a question ten minutes ago and you're still talking, shut up. Just shut up.

11. After an interview, one phone call is sufficient. Anything after that is irritating.

The Day That Started It All

It has been brought to my attention that I have yet to blog about the fact that I am getting married in just over three months, and that I also haven't blogged about my wife-to-be. I think it is all related to my natural aversion to writing about love. One of the things that plagues my writing and really acts as an obstacle is that I hate thinking that what I'm writing is unoriginal. I have taken whole pieces and thrown them away because I think they sound too much like whatever author I had been reading, or because I am borrowing phrases and words from related works. Love is hard to write about for this reason. It is the subject of an unfathomable amount of works of art (in any median) and has been explored from every image and metaphor I can conceive of. I am worried that whatever I put down will just consist of bits of everything else I've ever written, and it ultimately wouldn't be worthy of the heavenly person that Sarah is. I love you, Sarah, and one of these days (hopefully by November 17th) I will conceive of the perfect way to say it.

What I can do quite easily is tell the great story of how we became the dynamic duo we are today.

I honestly don't remember the first time I met Sarah, and I'm certain she doesn't remember the first time she met me. What I do know is that we did meet casually in a group of people a couple of times. I was familiar enough with her, and she with me. I had a girlfriend, and she thought I was way too young, so nothing ever went farther than casual conversations.

However, that changed on May 19, 2005. But let's jump back a few days earlier.

My dad was invited (that is, ordered by his boss) to go to a conference in Long Beach. After he mentioned this to me and discovered that I had a few days off at around that time, he invited me to come with him. Later that day, I was talking to my roommate Daniel, and he informed me that he was leaving that same day for another conference with a group of youth leaders, and that some of them were planning to see a midnight showing of Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith. I talked with my dad and arranged a plan whereby I would travel down with Daniel, see the movie, and then meet my dad at his hotel afterwards.

Daniel and I drove down to the theater and met Beth Wornack and Sarah Soon-To-Be-Andrews, who came down with the rest of the group in a big 15-passenger van. We watched the movie, and it turned out to be much better than I had expected. Once the movie was done (approximately 2:30am), he realize he have a problem with getting people home. We have no cash for a cab, and the girls needed to get to Azusa Pacific college, which was a bout 10-15 minutes away. Daniel drives a 2-seater Silverado. So, what we decided was Daniel would take Beth to the college, com back, take Sarah to the college, come back, take me to my hotel, and then drive himself back to the college.

Daniel left with Beth at about 2:45am. Sarah and I sat inside and waited, talking about random things. I think we got up to play some pinball for a while, but mostly we just talked. Pretty soon it was 3, and then 3:30, and we thought it might be a good idea to call Daniel. Once I get him on the phone, we find out that he is lost and has no idea where he is going. Furthermore, upon looking at a phone book map, we can't even find the streets he's naming off. And then our phone start to die.

So, 4am comes around, and that turns into 5am, and still no sign of Daniel. Sarah and I just talked most of the time, laughed at Daniel, laughed at our situation, and then consulted the phone book again to try mapping out a walking route. Finally, at around 6, as the sun is rust rising over the line of buildings, up pulls Daniel. Frustrated, he hurled his keys into the empty parking lot and told me to drive her home.

That's the story of how Sarah and I got to know one another. Nothing happened right away - I still had that pesky problem of the other girlfriend and she still thought I was too young - but it set a solid foundation for a friendship to ultimately blossom into a romance almost 7 months later.

But that's a story for another blog...

A Day in Portland

Saturday, 7:45 am:
Our plane lands at PDX. We (meaning me and my friend Taylor) had left the house at 4am to leave Sacramento at 6:30, and were still in the early stages of waking up. The guy sitting behind me makes a very vulgar comment regarding my Giants hat. I ignore it and move off the plane to collect my luggage and hit the town.

8:15am
We board the Tri-Met streetcar. I get very excited about places with excellent public transportation systems. Riding the bus is a hassle in a place like Modesto, but sure as hell beats driving in places like Portland and New York.

As we ride, we discover that Northwesterners are, in general, very friendly. We had a few random conversations with passengers, which proved beneficial since one of them ended up informing us that we had gotten on the wrong car. A while later, I see a group of Jehovah's Witnesses who end up being from Modesto. We got into a lengthy conversation (mostly about how we preferred the Portland rain over the Valley heat, which proved beneficial because it kept him from giving me flyers.

9am
We arrive at our destination - McMenamin's White Eagle Rock'N'Roll Hotel. First, a word about McMenamin's - it is a small chain of pubs/hotels in the Portland area that makes a habit of buying strange buildings (old mental institutions, whorehouses, elementary schools) and turning them into awesome pubs and European-style hotels. They have the best burgers and really good beer. Needless, to say, I was pretty excited to stay there. We knew that we were in for more hostel-like accommodations since the room (with bunk beds!) was only $30 a night.

The website describes it as being "nestled in the industrial district," but that didn't prepare me for the worn-down building located in the middle of an endless sea of factories, shop yards, and breweries. It was very out of place, but at the same time, it was very quiet and peaceful since it was 9am on a Saturday morning. We hauled our luggage a few blocks to the hotel to find the restaurant closed (which we had expected), and there being no way to get to our rooms. We knocked on the door a few times and finally called before we got someone to come out. Turns out they had no real "front desk," and that check-in wasn't even until 4pm. We managed to convince them to hang onto our luggage ("Just set it over there by the stage, it'll be fine") and set out to Downtown to find some breakfast.

9:45am
We arrive, via bus, in the Pearl District of Downtown Portland, and wander the streets looking from some breakfast. We saw some bars, some pubs, some taverns, talked about the differences between the three, and saw some more of each, but never really found a good place to eat breakfast. We passed by a French bakery, but knew that we would probably leave there still hungry. Finally, in order to better absorb the unique culture that is Portland, we settled on...

10:30am
...Baja Fresh. How lame is that. We actually sat outside and waited for it to open, like a pair of groupies. But the food was good, and we decided that is was more of an "early first lunch."

11:00am
The highlight of every trip to Portland - Powell's City of Books. It's designated as a city because it takes up an entire city block, and is a couple stories high. When you walk in, you have to grab a map to find your way around. For book nerds like myself, it's the closest thing to heaven on earth. They have an unparalleled collection of new and used books, which are all very fairly-priced, and, because it;s in Oregon, is entirely free of sales tax. I am both very proud, and at the same time, very ashamed, to admit that I have spent in excess of $150 here at one time, and would do the same every time I came in if I had the money. On this particular trip I did not have the money to spare, so, with a strict $20 limit, I grabbed We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch (in order to expand my growing library of books about Rwanda), and Chris Hedges' Losing Moses on the Freeway: The Ten Commandments in America.

12:00 pm
Not knowing what else to do, we started walking towards Portland State University. On the way, we passed by the Portland Art Museum, the Oregon Historical Society, and a very large Farmer's Market. We also saw an ad that stated there were 193 countries in the world, and while we walked, we set about trying to name them all. The campus itself reminded me of NYU because it was a series of buildings downtown distinguished only by signs and small common areas. Nevertheless, it was very green and very pretty, and we started to get a light sprinkle of rain that felt pretty good on this warmer-than-average Portland day. We tried to explore some of the buildings but they were locked, so we hopped on a bus and headed north.

1:30pm
We got off near Powell's again because it was a landmark that I could recognize. While walking down the street, we passed by a unique place called The Living Room. It is a bar/cafe/movie theater dedicated to providing a comfortable atmosphere to view independent and foreign films that you don't get to see every day. I found this place to be incredible. We had an afternoon beer, and chatted while we waited for a movie to start.

2:30pm
We walked into the theater to watching Dreaming Lhasa, a documentary about Tibetan refugees that ended up being a fictional movie about a documentary about Tibetan refugees. It was slow moving and half in Tibetan, but was still very interesting. What impressed me most, however, was the theater. It had room for only 50 people, with plush seats, enough leg room to fit a footrest (which we did), and tables in the back so you could bring your drink and dinner. It was absolutely the most comfortable movie-going experience of my life.

5:00pm
We arrive back at the hotel to check in. Thankfully, our luggage is still at the base of the stage where a jazz trio has set up. We take out bags up to our room, which I'm pretty sure had to have been a jail cell at one time. It is a small bunk bed room with a sink and a table. It's probably no more than 10 or 12 feet wide and 8 feet long. Plus, we were right above the stage, so we could hear the music perfectly. However, because we knew we weren't in for a 5-star resort, we found our expectations oddly met. He unloaded our things and went downstairs to have dinner. On our way down, we ran into two guys with small electronic devices who were roaming the hallway looking for ghosts. We told me that the reading was off the chart and it was because of a dead hooker from about 100 years ago. I nodded curiously and then went downstairs.

6:00pm
We had burgers and tots while listening to the jazz band, along with a drink (or two, or three...). This lasted about two hours as we reminisced about the past and mused about the future.

8:00pm
Taylor regretted not buying a Korean comic, so we hop on the bus and head back to Powell's. We wander the halls with a pretty good buzz and I suddenly regret not buying more books.

10:00pm
After a brief stop at the corner store for water, Snickers and Gummy Savers, we head back to the hotel and crash in our room with the soothing sounds of the rock concert coming from below our floor.

Epilogue
I wake up to the most beautiful morning ever - an overcast sky, yet slightly warm, with a hint of a breeze making it just right. This, and a strange man sleeping on the floor outside my neighbor's door. They don't call it the Rock'N'Roll hotel for nothing, I guess.

So I've Made a Big Decision...

I graduated a few weeks ago, which means that now it's time to start making some decisions about life. I manage a car wash now. It's a decent job that pays pretty well with really good benefits, but it's just not something I want to do forever. I've already decided that I want to write (see the post "So I'm Writing a Book...," which is kind of a prequel to this post), but finding a job is somewhat difficult for someone who's had no internship experience and would probably have to take a devastating drop in pay for an entry level job. So, I came up with a another option - back to freelancing!

A freelance writer, for those unfamiliar with the title, is a writer who works with publications on a temporary and contractual basis, often for a single assignment rather than a steady flow of work. This is something that I got into in high school and early college. I started out as a contributor to the Modesto Bee's Teens in the Newsroom program (which produces the Thursday Buzzzz section) for a couple of years, and then wrote several pieces for a now-defunct (I believe) magazine called Valley Views, had a fling with a magazine called Valley Weekly, and covered Turlock-area high school football games for the Turlock Journal. It was all flowing along pretty nicely, and then it stopped. I got promoted to a manager position, and between working fifty hours a week and going to school, my writing jobs got lost in the shuffle. I simply didn't have time anymore.

Well, things are changing. I'm bringing writing back. I've been doing extensive research into the life and work of a full-time freelancer, and am realizing more and more the necessity of having a game plan and setting goals. If I don't give myself something to shoot for, I'll lose focus and end up slacking. So, here are some goals for myself for the next year:

1. Write every day. No exceptions. Even if it's senseless drivel, random words on a page, or stream-of-consciousness scribbling, I must write something. Consequently, that may mean that this blog will probably be updated way more often than I've been doing now.

2. Work my way up to writing articles for national magazines. I'm trying to reestablish some of my ties with the local publications I used to work for, and create new ones with some newer publications that have popped up in recent years. Once I do that, I will gradually start taking stabs at some of the larger publications with more readership and a bigger spotlight. I've been thinking that the two main areas I'd like to focus on are travel and religious publications, and ultimately, I'd like to move up from local by my deadline.

3. Look into copywriting and work with a few clients to see if it's my thing. Copywriting is more your everyday stuff that you normally wouldn't think about - brochures, advertising, newsletters, etc. Someone writes all that stuff, and that someone is usually a freelancer. I know very little about this area though, so I'd like to at least give it a try.

4. Attempt to do some poetry and short fiction. I don't really feel like this is really my strong area, but I do eventually need to get over my fear of failure and just write something and submit it to contests and publications to see if it gets me anywhere.

5. Join a writing group of some kind. I don't know if there are many Modesto-area ones out there, but somehow I need to get into the process of being in community and bouncing my work off of others before I submit it.

6. Propose my book. This is a big one for me. I found out that most nonfiction books are sold before being written, so after I build enough of a foundation of experience, I'd like to get an agent, write some sample chapters, and put together a book proposal. If all goes well, someone will pick it up, get me an advance, which leads to my next and final goal....

7. Quit my job to write. Or at least quit my job and write in addition to a less demanding part-time job, preferably in an area somewhat related to writing.

So, that's it. Those are my goals for June 15, 2008. Now that I have something to shoot for, hopefully it'll improve my accuracy.

So I'm Writing a Book...

All my life I've wanted to write a book. When I was younger I tried writing short stories, eventually planning on writing an important novel that would change the world and go down in history as a classic work of American literature.

Well, as it turns out, that's probably not a reality. For one, I don't have the stamina to write a novel. Furthermore, I don't think I'm very good with fiction. I've noticed that I get a lot more out of writing about real things, like my life, or the lives of others. So, while I may still write a novel someday (though I don't at all think it will be the least bit monumental), I think I've realized that non-fiction is more my cup of tea. I just needed something to write about. For a while I wanted to be a travel writer. I wanted to go on a massive road trip or backpack the world or something like that and write a book that will be very important and go down in history as a classic work of American literature. Actually, that's not true. I just want people to buy it and like it, that way I can have some money to go on more crazy adventures and write about them. That was pretty much a daydream though. No money, no time, too many things going on here; there were always excuses to make it something that would never happen.

As I've grown in Christ, I've noticed that I've been reading a lot more things coming out of the "Religious" section at Barnes and Noble: C.S. Lewis, Don Miller, Brian McLaren, and so on. After a while I started to realize that I didn't need to go on extravagant adventures to produce good and exciting pieces of writing. I could write about God. I didn't know what I would write, but the idea of writing something that would be shelved in the "religious" section grew more and more appealing, especially as I realized that a lot of these authors were not Doctors of theology or seminary graduates, but ordinary people like me.

The real kicker came about a month ago. I went to San Francisco with Sarah to go listen to Ann Lamott, who is a very liberal kind of Christian. She was speaking at the Grace Cathedral, which is an Episcopal Church. I browsed the website and noticed the Reverend of the cathedral was wearing the black-suit-with-white-collar outfit, and I immediately though of priests and Catholicism, and as a good non-denominational Protestant child with former Catholic converts for parents, I was taught, both directly and indirectly, that Catholicism was wrong. They worshipped saints and distorted Christianity. Our church was "pure"; theirs was "corrupt." So I made connections in my head and started making judgments about the church.

So I went and listened to this Reverend converse with Ann Lamott, and he actually agreed with her quite a bit. I bought a book of his called Reimaging Christianity and I was blown away by exactly how wrong I had been in my judgment of the Episcopal Church. I came to a realization - I knew nothing about this church. I started looking into Episcopalianism and that head me to look into some other churches, and I came to realize I knew very little about any of the other denominations, including Catholicism. I had never really gone to any other church besides non-denominational ones. As I looked into the different branches, I started seeing how superficial some of the distinctions were. We are all brothers and sisters separated by what Brian McLaren calls "fine print," things that, in the grand scheme of things, don't really matter.

It hit me then - I should write a book about this. It was something I was tremendously interested in, and it wasn't epic or unrealistic. I am fortunate enough to live in one of the more diverse states in America, which means I can literally find a church of just about any denomination within a two-hour drive of here. I would look into the history and doctrines of each denomination, and supplement that by actually attending the churches I was looking at and talking with pastors, priests, attendees, etc. I don't want the book to be scholarly; rather I want it to be personal, and also well-researched. I want to go on a spiritual journey and take everyone else with me. I've done some research and so far, I haven’t found any books really meeting that description. There are plenty of denominational guides, but nothing as personal or readable as what I'm aiming for.

And this isn't just something that I'm planning for the future. I've actually already started. I've attended Episcopal services a few times in the last month, and have started to do some extensive reading into their history and beliefs, as well as about other peoples personal experiences with the church (all this instead of the school work I should be doing), and I'm hoping to get my first chapter on Episcopalianism done in the next couple of weeks to a month. I'll edit it and mess with it a bit, send it around to a few people to make sure what I'm trying to do is interesting to anyone else besides me, and then start on another one while I maybe try to pitch it to publishing companies and see if (by the grace of God) I can maybe get an advance, or at least an interested company and a deadline to really throw me into gear. Prayer would be greatly appreciated in this department.

I've kind of already structured the book in my head. There are a million official denominations out there, so I picked some of the bigger and more well known ones as well as a few that I found absolutely fascinating (Copticism, which is an extremely old offshoot of Orthodoxy that is centered in Egypt and his its own Pope, and Messianic Judaism, which is essential a group of Jews who believe Jesus to be their Messiah and conduct synagogue-like services in Hebrew and everything, to name a few). I also set a pretty vague two-fold litmus test to see which ones I should actually include: 1)belief that salvation comes through Jesus Christ, and 2)belief in the divinity of Jesus, and therefore, that God is one person with distinct persons (the doctrine of the trinity, basically). This ousts a couple of popular "cults" (such as Jehovah's Witnesses and Unitarians), but also includes controversial groups like the Mormons. So far, I have roughly three sections: 1)traditional faiths, which would be Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and a few others; 2)Reformation religions, which includes Lutheranism, Presbyterianism, Anabaptist religions, etc; and 3)Newer Developments, which includes everything from the Baptists and Methodists to Mormonism, Christian Science, Pentecostalism, and so on (though I may divide the third one into two smaller sections).

Now I realize this is my longest blog ever, but I have to admit, I am REALLY excited about this. I feel like God is helping me use my writing, something that I've always considered to be a talent and source of joy for me, to further his kingdom. I would appreciate continuous prayers as I try and get this worked out. Pray that I don't get burnt out once the initial excitement wears off, something I've been known to do in the past. Most of all, pray that God will guide me in this and use me for his will.

Family Issues

I had one of those arguements with my mom today. I mean that kind that starts out as something small and insignificant but gradually rises until we clash at the same points we always do.

I could go on and list the details of difficulties I've had with my family (or better yet, my families), but it would be pointless. The arguements themselves are masks to cover the greater problem - we have conflicting flaws and just can not see eye to eye on life. It's hard to make progress when for years you both accuse each other of doing the same thing, when one (or both) people refuses to see the writing on the wall, or when no one really "communicates" at all.

So today I got mad. Really mad. I said and thought a few things about my family that later regretted, and I started thinking that this was no way to live life. I am almost 22 years old, and I can't seem to let go of this ongoing probem with my family. The more I try to boil it down, the more I see that what I really want is love and acceptance from my family, and I don't feel like this unconditional Christ-like acceptance is never something I am going to get from them. This then led to a question - "Is this holding me back from fulfilling Christ's purpose in my life?"

I did a bible.com search on parents (I'm at school without a Bible) and I read an often-quoted passage in Luke:2 "I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life." (18:29-30). In context, Jesus is speaking to the rich young ruler who wants to know how to get into Heaven, so what he's saying here is not to abandon your family, but to realize that my devotion lies first to God, and secondly to my family.

I am spending way too much time thinking about my family and why their opinion matters so much. I am pondering what I've done to not gain their acceptance, and that leads to one of two feelings: firstly, I feel like a complete and utter failure because my parents are dissapointed with me, and so I go along with whatever they want regardless of whether or not it's what Christ would do; or secondly, I dwell on how their thinking is flawed, how they're wrong, and how they're they are to blame for all of my faults.

Of course neither of those two conclusions are proper conlcusions to make. What I need to learn is that I'm not a child anymore; I'm a man and I need to take responsibility for myself and leave them to God. If I'm wrong in my thinking or actions, God will make that known to me if I focus on Him, and if my parents are the ones who need help, I will pray for them and love them. I am reminded of a passage I read today in A New Kind of Christian where Brian McLaren, talking about who goes to Hell and who goes to Heaven, ultimately gives a valuable lesson on judgement and our belief regarding the hearts of others:

It's none of your business who does and who does not go to Hell. It is your business to be warned by it and to run, not walk, in the opposite direction! It is your business to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love your neighbor as yourself, and to have confidence in Jesus Christ and live as Jesus lived.

I need to turn my gaze to Heaven, love my family, and hope that my parents do the same, and through Christ I believe all will become well