The Job Interview and how to fail it

One of the tasks of my job is to conduct interviews; there is a lot involved, it isn't just asking questions. As always, first impressions are the most important and you have no idea how many people just fail right there.  Once I had a candidate show up with bones in his ear lobes.  I am sure he thought he was quite dashing.  He was interviewing for a Sales Associate position in our flooring department and I couldn't help but wonder if he actually thought people would say "I want the guy with the bones in his ears to sell me Martha Stewart carpet."

T-Shirts are another way to automatically fail.  I see a number of candidates coming to interview wearing T-Shirts.  If you're going to an interview you should at least try to show you understand employer dress codes.  How do you do this?  Take a walk through any large retailer, Sears, or Home Depot or K-Mart and count the number of associates wearing T-Shirts.  If associates aren't wearing them to work then don't wear them to an interview.

Failure to impress

Remember, you're not there to hangout with friends, you're trying to sell yourself as a potential employee.  At least wear a polo shirt, something with a collar.

If you're a guy, make sure you shave unless you already have a beard.  Stubble is another way of saying "hey, I've been so busy over the past couple of days I just didn't have time to shave."  This is horse shit.

If you're a female, don't wear a lot of make-up.  Oh, and if you're a chick and you think you can get away with wearing bones in your ears, forget it.  You look just as stupid.

Another thing to keep in mind, if you're a single mother don't bring up the subject.  Being a single mother is not a job qualification yet so many 'single mothers' think by mentioning this fact they're going to get a job.  Nope.  If I have 5 interviews and 4 of them toss in the 'single mother' bit and the fifth tells me her father was a house painter and he used to take her along to work in the summers when she wasn't in school, who's going to get the job in the paint department?

Getting hired is proving you are the best possible candidate for the job and you're the one who has to prove it.

The hair up Apple's ass

Let's wait for the next version

Well, the new Iphone is out.  Who cares?  Why the Appleheads around the world.  Who are Appleheads?  Those individuals who live and breathe Apple.  Every time a new product comes onto the market they upgrade simply because it's the newest toy by Apple.  This is a very good reason to question all of the press releases they dump into the media as a form of massive advertising.  At this point they're bragging about having orders for 5 million and there may be problems supply the vast demand.  That's pretty much horse shit.  No company worth it's weight in gold is going to be caught with its pants down when it comes to meeting the demand of their customer base.  Yep, that's right, Apple puts out a lot of Ho Ho Ho.  I think it's funny that this time around they took off Google Maps and installed their own mapping software which just happens to suck.  Basically they shit on their base because they hate the competition.  Now don't read this to mean I hate Apple, I don't, I own an Imac and have my music on 2 Ipods, but I also own a Dell desktop and a Dell laptop.  I use a Samsung Galaxy tablet and a Garmin phone.  Each one fills a need I have.  Too many limit themselves by deciding one product is more holy then the other.      Wrong.  The maps on the Garmin phone are better then those in Google Maps, I know because I used both to go to a Team Depot and found that Google had me wondering around on dirt roads way off from my destination.  What did I do?  Plugged in my Garmin and wow, there was my destination less then a mile away on a well traveled highway.

So why does Apple have this big hair up its ass?  Because they want to own market share.  It's all about domination.  They failed with Apple TV because, well, there is such a better selection out there.  They think they're golden because there has been no Ipad killer.  Unfortunately for them the Ipad has already peaked.  When ever somebody releases a new product they actually lose market share since those customers buying a Kindle Fire or a Galaxy note or even new Nook being released shortly are choosing those products over Apple.  The slow death has already arrived and they're doing everything they can to deny it.