Over Spring Break, I read Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert. She takes a year of her life to travel to Italy, India, and Indonesia. I really enjoyed her writing style. I felt that it was easy to read, and she included a lot of humor into her book. She takes the time to travel because she is searching for happiness in her life. Especially in India, she is searching for a deeper meaning in life, and she describes how she experiences God through meditation. Although her experiences and revelations were deep and full of meaning, she relates them to the audience in a light-hearted way that is easy to understand. I really liked her laid-back style. After reading the book, I felt like I should be on a first name basis with the author because I felt like I knew her so well from the way she communicated her experiences.
I liked the entire book, but I particularly enjoyed the section about her travels in India. At first, she really struggles with meditation. She finds that it is really hard to quiet herself to concentrate on the meditation practices. While she faces many challenges with this form of prayer, she pushes herself to overcome the obstacles. She endures physical pain while trying to sit through the meditation, but by the end of her journey, she comes to actually embrace the meditation practices. I admired her perseverance, and I think it shows an important lesson about how things do not always come easily. There are many things in life that require a struggle before you can reach the good part, and it is important to not give up as soon as something gets hard. I think she comes to love meditation because it was so hard for her in the beginning. Many times, something becomes much greater if you have to endure challenges to reach it.
Another part I liked about the book is that she focuses on experiencing God through her own spirituality and experiences with Him. Recently, I have been thinking a lot about religion. I think that sometimes people get really caught up in the differences in beliefs among different religions or denominations, and I think people need to take a step back to look at the bigger picture. It is not about your religious beliefs; rather, it is about striving to live the best possible life and striving to connect with God or whatever greater being you believe in. In her book, Gilbert does not try to interject anything about her personal beliefs. She simply relates how she reached God through meditation practices, and I really enjoyed the way she discussed the subject. While I do not see myself living at an ashram in India, I do hope that I can one day reach the depth of spirituality that Gilbert found during her stay at the ashram.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
Lying on your Resume
I think that it is very sad that it is becoming common to find people lying on their resumes, but it also does not shock me. Since I have not started applying for jobs and I do not have a lot of experience in the working field, I do not personally know people who have lied on their resumes. While I was reading this article, it made me think back to when I was applying to colleges. I knew a lot of people who embellished their college applications to make themselves appear more qualified than they really were. In most cases, people exaggerated the truth, which is still lying. For instance, people would join a club and never once do anything with it, but they would say that they actively participated in the club. It frustrated me to listen to the ways people would try to make themselves seem like a better applicant than they really were. I knew it was not uncommon for entering college students to lie on applications, but I would have hoped that people would be mature enough to report the truth by the time they are applying for jobs after college. After reading this article, I know that is obviously not the case.
I think the problem is growing because more and more people resort to lying about their qualifications. Honest and qualified job applicants feel like they have to make themselves look better because everyone else is lying to look good. The trend continues to grow because as more people lie about their qualifications, more people have to lie to keep up with the competition of the liars. While it is easy to see why this trend is growing, it is not right. Just because other people are lying to get jobs does not make it right for you to lie. Eventually it is going to catch up with you, and most likely, the consequences are going to be far more detrimental to a person's career than if she had simply told the truth in the first place.
I personally would not be satisfied knowing that I got a job using false information, no matter how qualified I felt I was for the job. I think it is wrong to lie about qualifications, and it is wrong to give employers a false impression of who you are. While lying could help someone earn a job, it is going to catch up with them eventually. I think it is sad that our world is full of so many dishonest people. It is sad that employers should even have to question the legitimacy of someone's resume, but changes in technology will help catch future lies. As technology continues to expand, it is going to become much easier for employers to check the validity of resumes. Integrated technology makes it easy for companies to receive access to all sorts of information, and people need to be aware of the risks they face by lying on resumes.
The site offered many tips to help people design an impressive resume. Many people may lie because they do not want an employer to see a large gap in their employment history, and the site gives advice on how to present the truth without emphasizing the gap. Their advice focuses on ways of presenting the truth in a way that highlights all of the good qualities, as opposed to the things that people try to cover up. Many times people do not need to lie about the things they lie about on their resume; instead, they need to change their resume design to draw employers to the qualities they want to highlight. I'm sure there are a lot of helpful resume sites that present the same advice. I hope more and more people are able to learn how to present the truth in a desirable way, and I hope the trend of lying does not continue. It's scary to think of a world full of dishonest people.
I think the problem is growing because more and more people resort to lying about their qualifications. Honest and qualified job applicants feel like they have to make themselves look better because everyone else is lying to look good. The trend continues to grow because as more people lie about their qualifications, more people have to lie to keep up with the competition of the liars. While it is easy to see why this trend is growing, it is not right. Just because other people are lying to get jobs does not make it right for you to lie. Eventually it is going to catch up with you, and most likely, the consequences are going to be far more detrimental to a person's career than if she had simply told the truth in the first place.
I personally would not be satisfied knowing that I got a job using false information, no matter how qualified I felt I was for the job. I think it is wrong to lie about qualifications, and it is wrong to give employers a false impression of who you are. While lying could help someone earn a job, it is going to catch up with them eventually. I think it is sad that our world is full of so many dishonest people. It is sad that employers should even have to question the legitimacy of someone's resume, but changes in technology will help catch future lies. As technology continues to expand, it is going to become much easier for employers to check the validity of resumes. Integrated technology makes it easy for companies to receive access to all sorts of information, and people need to be aware of the risks they face by lying on resumes.
The site offered many tips to help people design an impressive resume. Many people may lie because they do not want an employer to see a large gap in their employment history, and the site gives advice on how to present the truth without emphasizing the gap. Their advice focuses on ways of presenting the truth in a way that highlights all of the good qualities, as opposed to the things that people try to cover up. Many times people do not need to lie about the things they lie about on their resume; instead, they need to change their resume design to draw employers to the qualities they want to highlight. I'm sure there are a lot of helpful resume sites that present the same advice. I hope more and more people are able to learn how to present the truth in a desirable way, and I hope the trend of lying does not continue. It's scary to think of a world full of dishonest people.
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Group Business Plan
Our group has chosen to create a water sports business. We are going to sell equipment for a variety of water sports as well as offer rentals for the equipment. Additionally, we are going to offer lessons for activities like snorkeling and parasailing. The name of our business is going to be Snappy Shark Watersports.
Originally, our group was planning to place our business in Coconut Grove, FL. This area in SL seemed like a good place for a business. However, when we met this past week, our group decided to change our place of business to Key West. After exploring Second Life, we saw that a lot of people had established businesses on islands they had made up and created on their own. Most of the places we visited had very low traffic coming to the area. Obviously, low visitors does not help create a successful business. Then we visited Key West, and we noticed that this area had a lot of traffic. We reasonably concluded that people are more likely to visit places in SL that actually exist in real life. Key West is a well known tourist and vacation area, and people are attracted to it. People know about the attraction to Key West in real life, so they are also drawn to the area in SL. In reality, businesses in Key West receive a lot of business from vacationers, and we feel that the same is true in SL. Since our target audience is mainly vacationers, we decided that Key West is the perfect area for our business.
Key West already has a lot of businesses, so we know that competition might be difficult. For this reason, we have also decided to try to partner with an existing resort or hotel. By doing so, both our business and the business of the hotel or resort would benefit. It would greatly help our starting business because we could easily get business from their already established clients.
The businesses in SL seem to follow many of the same trends and patterns of businesses in the real world. Recognizing the similarities, we have made decisions that we would make in a business setting in real life. Our decision to create a partnership is definitely a trend seen in real life businesses. Based on our research in SL, I feel that our business decisions will be successful in SL.
Originally, our group was planning to place our business in Coconut Grove, FL. This area in SL seemed like a good place for a business. However, when we met this past week, our group decided to change our place of business to Key West. After exploring Second Life, we saw that a lot of people had established businesses on islands they had made up and created on their own. Most of the places we visited had very low traffic coming to the area. Obviously, low visitors does not help create a successful business. Then we visited Key West, and we noticed that this area had a lot of traffic. We reasonably concluded that people are more likely to visit places in SL that actually exist in real life. Key West is a well known tourist and vacation area, and people are attracted to it. People know about the attraction to Key West in real life, so they are also drawn to the area in SL. In reality, businesses in Key West receive a lot of business from vacationers, and we feel that the same is true in SL. Since our target audience is mainly vacationers, we decided that Key West is the perfect area for our business.
Key West already has a lot of businesses, so we know that competition might be difficult. For this reason, we have also decided to try to partner with an existing resort or hotel. By doing so, both our business and the business of the hotel or resort would benefit. It would greatly help our starting business because we could easily get business from their already established clients.
The businesses in SL seem to follow many of the same trends and patterns of businesses in the real world. Recognizing the similarities, we have made decisions that we would make in a business setting in real life. Our decision to create a partnership is definitely a trend seen in real life businesses. Based on our research in SL, I feel that our business decisions will be successful in SL.
Reflection on Mock Interview
My mock interview in Second Life was much easier than I expected. I wasn't as nervous as I would have been if I were having an interview face-to-face. Although my interview went well, I came away with the opinion that Second Life interviews are not a great idea. My interview started late due to technical difficulties. It was a little confusing in the beginning because there were a lot of people in the room. It got better once everyone's issues were addressed, and I was able to actually start my interview.
The thing that I found difficult was the time lag due to having to wait for the other person to type. When I was answering a question, I would type the first part of my answer. Then after submitting the first part of my answer, I would continue to answer the question. I felt that is was easier to break up my answer, so I didn't type a really long paragraph and then have the other person bombarded with a lot of text all at once. This strategy seemed to work pretty well, except for the fact that there were a few times that this caused us to be on slightly different pages. I would want to continue to add to my answer to a previous question, and I would already have another question waiting on my screen. Without being in person, it is hard to tell how much they are looking for in each answer, and also it is hard to express that you have more to add to your thoughts.
The waiting aspect also limits the amount of conversation you can have in a short period of time. I felt like a lot more could have been said in a 10-15 minute face-to-face interview, and I did not feel like I got to say a lot during my interview.
Although I did not like having an interview in Second Life, I think it is good experience to have. Additionally, I was able to see the kinds of questions I will be asked in an interview. I think that my responses to all the questions were good, and the only question I hesitated with was responding about a weakness in my character. Obviously everybody has weaknesses, but I was afraid to say something that would make me look really bad; however, I think that employers like to see that you are able to identify both your strengths and weaknesses. Weaknesses just show where there is room for imrpovement, and it is not necessarily a bad thing. Although it was not the most ideal interview, I think that my good responses and the experience gained from a SL interview led to an overall good experience for me.
The thing that I found difficult was the time lag due to having to wait for the other person to type. When I was answering a question, I would type the first part of my answer. Then after submitting the first part of my answer, I would continue to answer the question. I felt that is was easier to break up my answer, so I didn't type a really long paragraph and then have the other person bombarded with a lot of text all at once. This strategy seemed to work pretty well, except for the fact that there were a few times that this caused us to be on slightly different pages. I would want to continue to add to my answer to a previous question, and I would already have another question waiting on my screen. Without being in person, it is hard to tell how much they are looking for in each answer, and also it is hard to express that you have more to add to your thoughts.
The waiting aspect also limits the amount of conversation you can have in a short period of time. I felt like a lot more could have been said in a 10-15 minute face-to-face interview, and I did not feel like I got to say a lot during my interview.
Although I did not like having an interview in Second Life, I think it is good experience to have. Additionally, I was able to see the kinds of questions I will be asked in an interview. I think that my responses to all the questions were good, and the only question I hesitated with was responding about a weakness in my character. Obviously everybody has weaknesses, but I was afraid to say something that would make me look really bad; however, I think that employers like to see that you are able to identify both your strengths and weaknesses. Weaknesses just show where there is room for imrpovement, and it is not necessarily a bad thing. Although it was not the most ideal interview, I think that my good responses and the experience gained from a SL interview led to an overall good experience for me.
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