My credit card limit went up I from $300 to $800 within a year plus they sent me my deposit back.


Started to drop resumes in the private industry to see what happens.

Oooohhh, that could be exciting. Good luck with it.

I finally have a part time job!

I joined a 90 day weight loss challenge; winner takes the whole amount of money everyone put in to participate.

Stay happy!

Sunday at my part time job: someone backed into my car and did some damage.

By Wednesday I was able to get a check from their insurance company for the damage.

I used the money to pay the rest of the immigration fees.

I don't have time to go get the car fixed and quite frankly as awful as it sounds I want to get another car and will most likely finance it.

My car has two big issues and I am not sure if its threatening or just a false alarm: oil is leaking and when it accelerates it shifts hard and I just got the motor mounts fixed.

Twiddling my thumbs and trying not to make an emotional purchase.

I am just tired of the nonsense with owning a bruised car.

Man, one of these days you have to buy a lottery ticket because your luck really must change for the better soon. Congrats on the part-time job, but really sorry for you that this happened.

As far as a car purchase, what do the numbers look like? How much have you spent on repairs in the past year? How much will your car payments be per year, and for how many years? What do you anticipate maintenance will be on the new car (are you buying new or used, and how old if used)? Maybe the numbers make sense and it won't be just an emotional purchase.

Kate1 those are great questions: I am not going to pull the trigger just overwhelmed for the moment. I will pull through. I used to think I was born with bad luck but it doesn't bother me anymore it is just a matter of handling whatever comes my way with as much grace and patience I can muster.

Great attitude, good on ya!

I did apply for the position I was mulling over:someone told me to look at it as practice for interviews.

I had to readjust my mindset; it is probably time for me to get away because it is apparent in my attitude at work. I do my job, but my overall countenance is rather caustic.

The experience is also a great cat to have in my bag.

Slowly I am detaching myself (emotionally) from the job.

I have placed multiple applications with other state agencies because I am no longer afraid of seeing what's on the other side.

I have been scheduled for an interview. Hopefully I hear from more agencies. The car situation a lot is happening stay tuned.....

congrats, and good luck on your interview! Do you have a plan or routine in place to prep?

I do not have any interview routines to be honest: if you would please provide me with some suggestions it would be awesome.

Certainly. I tend to prepare for interviews the same way I would for oral exams when I was in school. So, it involves taking a lot of notes and then reviewing those notes until I am comfortable enough with the information that I can recite it effortlessly.

The first thing I do is make notes (generally bullet points, as those translate to talking points more easily) on the company or organization itself. What are its primary missions? What is its geographic area of responsibility? What products/services is it known for? What are its business processes? If you have a close contact inside the company, that's a great place to get some of this information. If not, Google works wonders.

Next, I review the job announcement and (if I can get ahold of it) the position description, and identify what I understand to be the primary duties. Oversee X and Y programs. Manage Z amount of money. Supervise employees. Etc.

From there, I google "most common interview questions" and pick about 10 of those to use for practice. These usually consist of questions like, "What are your strengths or weaknesses?", "Tell us about a time when you had to do X (X being one of the requirements of the job)?", "Tell us about yourself." etc.

Based on the information I collected about the company, the job announcement, and my resume, I make bullet points under each interview question to answer the question. After that, I just practice over and over until I'm comfortable speaking the points.

In my experience, I've found that I usually am asked about half of the interview questions I've identified and practice. However, by the time of the interview, I'm usually comfortable enough with the talking points I've developed that I am able to adapt them to the other questions asked that I didn't prepare for fairly easily.

At the end of the interview, they usually ask if you have any questions for them. If you can think of one or two questions (two tops) in advance, it shows some initiative and thought on your part to the interviewer or panel. For instance, the last interview I went on, I knew the organization was implementing a new business process, and this section of the organization was the first to implement the new process, so I asked how their daily operations changed based on the new process. My second question is always (if they haven't already stated), "When do you expect to notify candidates of your decision?"

After the interview, I send thank you notes to all the people on the panel (snail mail is best, but email is okay as well). When I am notified of the decision, I always request feedback on my interview performance to help me prepare for the next one.

I know it sounds involved, but I always figured that if I want the job badly enough, the time I put into preparing is always worth it.

Good luck, and let us know how your interview goes!

Alohabear had a great response.
Another question they may ask is 'why are you leaving your current position?' and 'what is it about this position that made you interested in applying (i.e. how does this fit into your future plans)?'

Make sure you have a firm handshake and look people in the eye. I can't stand weak handshakes, interview or not.

You'll do great and I'm happy you applied. They obviously like your resume because they called you in for the interview. Be confident and sure of yourself and you'll get the job!

It's a bit challenging for this position: I don' t have text book experience but real world experience.

I wouldn't be doing what I am doing now, something totally different but in the same unit nonetheless.

Thank you

What alohabear and peachy said!

Good luck...and let us know how it goes. We're all cheering for you!

Cecily