Sorry, we can't hire you, we dont like your personality

I've heard about these personality tests that companies give to potential employees. I've never had to do one, but I have a good friend of mine graduating in May that has had to take a lot of these tests for places like Bank of America.
I personally think that this is a good idea for the sake of the company. People need to be able to get along in the work environment. Sure, work can still get done if the people don't get along, but there will definitely be higher turnover, and less motivated works. This leads to higher costs to the company, and less efficient work being done.
Yes, you may lose out on valuable skills that people have, but in the end it would lead to better profits for the company. A good example is with a sports team. A team can have a superstar on the team with amazing speed and skill, but may not get along with the other teammates. This leads to poor team chemistry, and a lesser possibility of winning. On the other hand, a team can have a group of "ok" players, but have great team chemistry, and win more games than the team with the superstar.

Hawaii Commercial

I just recently watched a commercial for people that might want to vacation to Hawaii, and thought that the commercial was a perfect example of dual coding. Not only did the commercial have a calm and soothing voice explaining why Hawaii was great to visit, but it also showed video of Hawaii's beaches, and other tourist attractions. These two coding methods worked perfectly because they helped emphasize each other instead of distracting the viewer between the two.

Another commercial I saw though did not use the dual coding theory effectively. It was trying to advertise a new product. It had a person explaining the product, but also had text on screen describing the products features. This was not very effective because the person and the text were competing with each other, and therefore the viewer can not decide which one to pay attention to, causing the message to get lost.

Group Thoughts

So far, I think our group has done fairly well. Everyone has had great ideas to input into the project so far. Everyone has gotten along well, and had done their fair share of work. There hasn't been much miscommunication between us besides letting all group members know when meetings are taking place on occasion.

The only thing I would change for phase two is to maybe set an agenda beforehand so we can accomplish more in a shorter period of time instead of wasting time trying to figure out what needs to be accomplished during the meeting

Interview

The interview that I had was a little bit more nerve wracking than I anticipated it to be. I knew that it was not going to be strictly graded, and that it was only a mock interview, but somehow I got nervous. I guess this happened because since it was supposed to be treated as a real interview I put it in my head that I should also treat this as a real interview, and therefore got nervous

I think the interview went smoothly, although I did falter at one or two of the questions, especially the one that was about what I thought my weakest point was. What is frustrating is that I came up with an answer to this question before the interview since this is a very common question that interviewers ask. Another question that I faltered at was on the question of whether I had any questions for the interviewer. I said no, but I should have said yes, and made something up so that the interviewer could see that I had some sort of interest in the company.

Overall, I think this was a good learning experience, especially since it was my first interview. I've been working for my family's businesses since I was 15, and have never had a "real" interview so this helped prepare me for future interviews if I choose to get a job outside of the family business once I get out of college.

And the Work Begins

Well, I guess it finally hit me this year, I'm about to graduate and go into the "real world." It's kinda scary actually. I'm going to have to pay these things people like to call "bills." I remember not being able to wait to get out of school when I was in high school, and even during college my first 3 years, and now I want to stay in longer. Well, I guess in a way I will since I'm a semester behind :(

I don't know whether to be freaking out about getting a job or not. One of my best friend's parents back in Charleston own a construction company where his mom manages the finances. She said she's ready to stop working, and told me I could take control of the finances. She also said I could get a job with a friend of hers who is an accountant. Also, I could do the accounting for my dad's two businesses if I wanted. So in a way I have a job ready for me, but I just have the feeling I should be out looking for other jobs. I guess I'll know more of what I'm going to do within the next year, and ease my worries.

Sneaky Sneaky

I read the article "More Sneaky Job Hunter Tactics: Faking an Insider Referral." I was reading this article and thinking "Wow, that's genius, why didn't I think of that?" How can people think of things this extreme to get a high paying job? Making the application look approved already to get it to the hiring manager is underhanded, but if the person can pull it off then that's impressive.

This, in a way, reminded me of developing countries. There people do this kind of thing on applications, but that is because their economy is unstable, and they want to land a secure job even if it means fudging their resume. What does this say about our present economy? I thought we were supposed to be the unfailing U.S economy. Although this was just a thought that popped into my head when reading the story, it does make you think of how our economy is being run, and what it may be a preview of for the future.

Slacking Off is a Skill?

I just finished reading the article "Ability to Pull an All-Nighter Can Be as Useful as a B.A." It was interesting to say the least. There were things such as being able to pull an all nighter that I would've thought that employers would frown on, but instead considered it an asset. It was surprising that some employers took "skills" like this into consideration when hiring college graduates.
It was kind of amusing to read that a girl used her "proficiency" in Facebook to help land herself a job. Normally I would never think of using this because it's true that some employers search your name on Facebook to try to find incriminating evidence to not hire you. She, however, used it in a way to promote the company, and portray herself to be "tech savy." I know I would I guess it's just releaving to know that there are employees that smile upon to ability of being able to write a paper hyped up on Red Bull only a couple hours before its due. I guess I'll have to work on my slacking off skills, and make sure to bring them up on my next interview.