Inspiration for the job seeker by Yana Parker, author of The Damn Good Resume Guide

CONTRIBUTIONS from job hunters -- to other job hunters

"I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."

Life is Learning
BOOSTING SELF CONFIDENCE
ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING
ATTITUDE: THERE MUST BE SOMETHING TO IT!
ENCOURAGEMENT: (condensed Chicken Soup) 12/99

Life is Learning
sent by Judy White, Oakland CA

I've learned that I like my teacher because she cries when we sing "Silent Night." Age 6

I've learned that you can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk. Age 7

I've learned that when I wave to people in the country, they stop what they are doing and wave back. Age 9

I've learned that just when I get my room the way I like it, Mom makes me clean it up. Age 13

I've learned that if you want to cheer yourself up, you should try cheering someone else up. Age 14

I've learned that although it's hard to admit it, I'm secretly glad my parents are strict with me. Age 15

I've learned that silent company is often more healing than words of advice. Age 24

I've learned that brushing my child's hair is one of life's pleasures. Age 26

I've learned that wherever I go, the world's worst drivers have followed me there. Age 29

I've learned that if someone says something unkind about me, I must live so that no one will believe it. Age 39

I've learned that there are people who love you dearly but just don't know how to show it. Age 41

I've learned that you can make some one's day by simply sending them a little card. Age 44

I've learned that the greater a person's sense of guilt, the greater his need to cast blame on others. Age 46

I've learned that children and grandparents are natural allies. Age 47

I've learned that singing "Amazing Grace" can lift my spirits for hours. Age 49

I've learned that motel mattresses are better on the side away from the phone. Age 50

I've learned that you can tell a lot about a man by the way he handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights. Age 52

I've learned that keeping a vegetable garden is worth a medicine cabinet full of pills. Age 52

I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you miss them terribly after they die. Age 53

I've learned that making a living is not the same thing as making a life. Age 58

I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance. Age 62

I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back. Age 64

I've learned that if you pursue happiness, it will elude you. But if you focus on your family, the needs of others, your work, meeting new people, and doing the very best you can, happiness will find you. Age 65

I've learned that whenever I decide to do something with kindness, usually I make the right decision. Age 68

I've learned that everyone can use a prayer. Age 72

I've learned that it pays to believe in miracles. And to tell the truth, I've seen several. Age 73

I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one. Age 82

I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love that human touch -- holding hands, a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back. Age 85

I've learned that I still have a lot to learn. Age 92

BOOSTING SELF CONFIDENCE

Sent by Gil Kempenich who writes: "I was looking through my materials recently and came across the following article that I thought was really great. Thought I'd share it with you."

"Boosting Self Confidence" by Joni E. Johnston, PsyD, Texas Alcalde - UT Austin

Alumni Magazine, May/June 1992.

An effective resume and good contacts are essential, of course, if you are searching for a job, but belief in your ability to succeed is your most powerful asset.

With self-confidence comes motivation, and together they bring success. If you believe you can do something, chances are you will behave in such a way that confirms you can. Psychologists have labeled this the "circular effect" - your performance is determined by your self-perception.

It is important to get self-doubts out in the open. Trying to ignore them or push them aside only gives them time to grow and multiply. Doubts and fears are like children - the more you ignore them, the louder they yell.

Mental preparation goes a long way toward building confidence and reducing the stress of a job interview. The following points should be useful.

* KNOW WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR. Take a pro-active approach by identifying your goals, values, and strengths - the clearer you are about them, the easier it will be to communicate them to potential employers.

In the best-selling book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey recommends the development of a personal-mission statement that would identify your values and also serve as the basis for personal and professional decisions.

* BE PREPARED. In the job search process, you have total control over the effort you make. The more you prepare, the more confidence you will have. Research your job market, read company newsletters, do anything that will increase your sense of readiness for the job hunt.

Preparation also includes care with your grooming. Take a little extra time once you're on the scene for an interview to check how you look. Few things are more distracting than worrying about whether you have lipstick on your teeth or lettuce on your tie. Once you have confirmed that you "look professional," you are free to focus on the questions the interviewer is asking.

* GET SUPPORT. If you know someone else who is job hunting, you can use each other as a source of support and encouragement. Work up specific plans of action, set deadlines, and be accountable to each other. Network with each other about job leads and possible contacts.

* GET MOTIVATED. If you lack motivation, listen to a favorite motivational tape or read a chapter in Anthony Robbins' Unlimited Power. No matter what anyone says, there's nothing like external motivation if you have a day when you think you can't get your motor running.

* TAKE CONTROL OF FEAR. They say butterflies in your stomach are positive if your wings are flying in formation, and you know that a little bit of anxiety can produce energy and enthusiasm. It's only when fear is out of control that it becomes a negative influence.

To take control of fear, it's important to define what you are afraid of. What do you say when you talk to yourself? Are you focusing on factors that are under your control, such as your preparation? Or are you thinking of the challenging economy or the imagined brilliance of others being interviewed? Are you equating the outcome of an interview with some measure of your self-worth or are you seeing it for what it is, an opportunity that at the very least will provide practice for a better interview next time?

Write out your specific thoughts and fears: "I'm scared about my interview tomorrow." What are you scared of? "I'm worried that I won't make a good impression and that other candidates will be more qualified than I am." This gives you a chance to assess your fears objectively and consider ways to control them. Stress management for many is achieved through some simple activity: exercise, a bubble bath, meditation, or a talk with a close friend. You might also overcome your fear by role-playing an interview with a job-seeking colleague. Whatever the solution, you succeed in changing a destructive emotion into a solvable problem. You do something about it.

You free yourself of recurring fear and negativism by redirecting your thoughts and energy to your skills and values.

CONFIDENCE BUILDING doesn't guarantee a job immediately, but it guarantees internal satisfaction along with a jump start on handling the challenges of the job that's waiting for you when you turn the right corner."

Thanks, Gil, for sending this along. And thanks, Joni Johnston, for writing it. –yp

From Kristy Beavers (Portland, Oregon resume writer):

"Hello my friends. I received the following story from one of my friends and felt that it was important to pass it along. Take care. "

ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING

By Francie Baltazar-Schwartz

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a unique restaurant manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live." "Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action." "What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,' I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!' Over their laughter, I told them. 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

Jerry lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything. You have two choices now: 1. save or delete this mail from your mail box. 2. forward it to anyone you care about.

THERE MUST BE SOMETHING TO IT ... because another website visitor sent this quote about ATTITUDE:

ATTITUDE -- by Charles Swindoll

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company. . . a church . . . a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past . . . We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude . . . I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you . . . We are in charge of our Attitudes."

"Keep on truckin'"

Website visitor Melody Shaeffer sent this for our Job Seekers' Lounge:

DON'T LET DISCOURAGEMENT GET YOU DOWN ...

From Condensed Chicken Soup for the Soul

By Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, & Patty Hansen

General Douglas MacArthur was turned down for admission to West Point not once but twice. But he tried a third time, was accepted and marched into the history books.

Basketball superstar Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team.

In 1889, Rudyard Kipling received the following rejection letter from the San Francisco Examiner: "I'm sorry, Mr. Kipling, but you just don't know how to use the English language."

Winston Churchill failed sixth grade. He did not become Prime Minister of England until he was 62, and then only after a lifetime of defeats and setbacks. His greatest contributions came when he was a "senior citizen."

The parents of the famous opera singer Enrico Caruso wanted him to be an engineer. His teacher said he had no voice at all and could not sing.

Albert Einstein did not speak until he was four years old and didn't read until he was seven. His teacher described him as "mentally slow, unsociable and adrift forever in his foolish dreams." He was expelled and was refused admittance to the Zurich Polytechnic School.

Louis Pasteur was only a mediocre pupil in undergraduate studies and ranked 15th out of 22 in Chemistry.

In 1944, Emmeline Snively, director of the Blue Book Modeling Agency, told modeling hopeful Norma Jean Baker (Marilyn Monroe), "You'd better learn secretarial work or else get married."

While turning down the British rock group called the Beatles, one executive of Decca Recording Company said, "We don't like their sound. Groups oguitars are on the way out."

In 1954, Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis Presley after one performance. He told Presley, "You ain't goin' nowhere?son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."

When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, it did not ring off the hook with calls from potential backers. President Rutherford Hayes said, "That's an amazing invention, but who would ever want to use one of them?"

Rafer Johnson, the decathlon champion, was born with a club foot.

When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he tried over 2,000 experiments before he got it to work. A young reporter asked him how it felt to fail so many times. He said, "I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2,000-step process." (That one's my favorite)

After years of progressive hearing loss, by age 46 German composer Ludwig van Beethoven had become completely deaf. Nevertheless, he wrote his greatest music-including five symphonies-during his later years.

P.S.
Yours truly, Yana Parker, was almost 50 before Ten Speed Press owner, Phil Wood, discovered her self-published "Damn Good Resume Guide."