Interview Mind Tricks

Today I wore a very nice green shirt to work. I actually got complimented on it several times today. To one of my co-workers, I mentioned that it was the same shirt I wore to my job interview for that company. I then told him how I wore it for the specific reason that it was green, and the company's corporate color is green. I was trying to play a Jedi-mind trick by showing the people who were interviewing me that I was "one of them".

It must have worked because I got the job. I'm sure it had nothing to do with my qualifications, it all had to do with my great green shirt. But it got me thinking about things I do when in a job interview. Here are some of the basics.

• Look the part - Dress up. I don't care if it is a casual environment, come looking like you mean business.


• Come prepared - Nothing turns people off more than you not knowing something about both the company and the industry


• Ask questions and listen carefully - You can almost always tell the answer someone is actually looking for by the way they react to you. You need to size up your interviewer. Figure out what they are in there to figure out about you and what is important to them. Focus on that.


• 90% of the time, it isn't what you say but how you say it - I'm always told I interview well. It really isn't what I say, but the fact that I speak well and confidently.


• Agree, A LOT - This is something you should do in general when trying to convince anyone of anything. You should almost always agree with someone, even if you disagree. By that I mean you need to find something you agree with in what they are saying or at least make it known that you understand or empathize with them.

And of course, wear a shirt or blouse that matches the corporate colors.

Splitting the Bill

Whenever I go out with friends, I make sure to always leave more than I should when it comes to splitting the bill.  I find that most people leave too little, usually forgetting tax or tip or often not paying for the drinks that they had.  I normally don't correct people when this happens, I hate squabbling over a few dollars, but it definitely does bother me when people don't pay their fair share.

The thing is, someone is always underpaying.  I usually don't take any money back and we usually leave the right amount.  So if I'm overpaying, someone is underpaying.   I often wonder if people realize this.  Do they think other people just don't notice, and that they are getting away with paying less than they should?  Or do people generally not know how much they should be paying?

I like to give my friends the benefit of the doubt.  I think most of them are fair and honest people and definitely not just trying to save a buck or two at my expense.  However, when I go out with people I'm not as good of friends with, I often wonder.

What are your thoughts and experiences?  Do you find yourself paying a greater portion of the bill than you should?

Finished Taxes

I finally finished my taxes this year. I'm usually not a procrastinator, but this year it was really hard for me to get to them. Between the new job and traveling back and forth to Seattle, I just haven't had a lot of free weekends to sit down and do my taxes.

So I finally did it and I got some money back. Unlike most people, this doesn't excite me. It actually upsets me to some degree since the government held my money for most of the year and has graciously decided to give me back money they should have never had. This time of year also reminds me just how much in taxes I pay. It's a lot. Since I am without kids and a house, I'm of course a second class citizen in the eyes of the government, so my deductions are few and far between. It's one of the many reasons I hate our tax code. It's a reason I would have considered voting for Huckabee despite the fact he is way too far right when it comes to social issues. I would love to see the fair tax go into place because there are so many problems with the current tax code.

I compare my experiences with California and Washington. I lived in California for 14 days this past year so I had to file a tax return. I lived in Washington for 351 days and didn't have to do squat because Washington doesn't have an income tax. I didn't have to worry about deductions, credits, or an Alternative Minimum Tax. I just blissfully ignored the fact that I lived in Washington when tax time came around.

Taxing income is just so inherently difficult. So many different definitions of what is and what is not income. It is ludicrous to me that my girlfriend, who received some land from her mother this year, actually has to hire someone to look into the tax implications of receiving said gift. All we need are property, customs, and a retail sales tax. Nice and simple and something that would greatly simplify the tax code. It would broaden the base, simplify everyone's life, and in fact probably cost people less in taxes than any alternative. Throw in the fact that you would be able to almost eliminate the IRS, tax audits, and an entire industry that is created just for compliance to the income tax code, and you have icing to go on top of that cake.

Taxing income is also pretty damn sneaky. Don't believe me? Why do you think people get excited about getting tax returns. The government has trained people to think that you are getting something good. People just don't realize how much the government is taking from them throughout the year. That's why, when they get their rebate check, they are so excited. How sick is it that the government took this money from you, interest free, and then returned a small portion of it back to you because they took to much, and people feel excited about this.

Cheap Gas Worth it?

Gas is getting more and more expensive.   Here in California, we are at about $3.75 a gallon depending on where you are.  $4.00 looks like an absolute certainty.  Despite this lunacy, I think it is even more ridiculous the lengths people will go to to save a buck on gas.

If I asked you to just stand still for five minutes for $0.60, would you do it?  I'm betting most of my readers would not.  However, that is exactly what is going on down the street from me.  There is a 76 station down the street that is known for having the least expensive gas in the Pasadena area.  Since it is down the street, I drive by it often and regularly see lines extending out to the street to get gas.

I never wait in this line.  If there is nobody there, and I need gas, I'll get gas. But if there is the smallest hint of a line, I just go further down the street and get gas somewhere else.  The thing is, the gas is about $0.05 cheaper than it is just down the street.  On a 12 gallon fill up, that amounts to about $0.60 or a 1.3% savings.  Is that really worth waiting in line for?  I'm all about saving money when it makes sense, but this doesn't make any sense.  Now if you factor in that a lot of these cars will sit and idle while they wait, then then these people are actually spending more money by sitting and waiting then they would be just going down the street.

What do you think?  Do you think it is worth it to wait for cheap gas?  Why do you think other people think it is worth it?

Two Weeks Notice - Is It Necessary?

I was talking to a co-worker the other day about a new hire he just recruited. The new hire was to start in two weeks because he had given his two weeks notice. My coworker than told a story about how, at his former job, they required him to work the full two weeks, even requiring him to work half a day since he had told his former employer in the middle of the day.

I couldn't believe this story because giving two weeks notice is a courtesy. It is absolutely not required, and anyone who tells you otherwise is just wrong.  Now to be fair, if you will use this employer in the future as a reference, you probably want to leave on good terms.  In addition, I am a strong believer that you never burn your bridges, you never know if you will come back or where your paths may cross again.

Now, I've always given the courtesy of two weeks notice.  On a interesting side note, I once went to talk to my boss to tell him I was quitting.  He actually told me I didn't need to give him the notice because he knew that his boss was coming in to town to fire him.  If I wanted to leave the next day, I was free to do so.  Sure enough, the next day his boss came to fire him.

I've been on the other side of the table too.  I've had an employee come to give his resignation and not give me two weeks notice.  He did give me one, but even if he hadn't I wouldn't have blamed him.  I am a strong believer that people need to do what's best for them.  If it was necessary for my employee to leave sooner for a good reason, I support that 100%.  It hurt a little bit, but the truth of the matter is is that there was probably not even two weeks of work for him to do.  As soon as he gave notice, I couldn't have him work on any new projects, I just needed him to document the current stuff he was working on.  After he did that, there really wasn't much left for him to do.

Now here is the thing.  Most employees are at-will employees.  That means your employer can fire you at anytime and for any reason without giving you any notice.  It is the norm for an employer to fire an employee without any notice.  Employment is a two way street.  So if your employer isn't going to have any remorse seeing you leave without notice, why should you feel bad when the tables are turned?

What are your thoughts on the matter?  Do you think an employee should always give two weeks notice?

Another Birthday

There is another birthday in my household. My cat's birthday was yesterday. I actually almost forgot about it because I've been so busy.

I don't know if it is his actual birthday. I picked my cat up off the street. He was just a stray that kept coming around my apartment. I took him in one day and he stayed (or I wouldn't let him leave depending on who you ask). I know I'm approximately right because he was about two or three months old when I found him and I picked him up in June.

He is now six years old. I feel somewhat like a parent in that I can't believe he is already six years old, it certainly doesn't seem like it.  I used to give Bandit gifts for his birthday, but I realized he doesn't realize its his birthday nor does he really care.  I just said, "Happy Birthday" to him and he just ignored me.  Maybe he has reached the age where he lies to everybody how old he really is.

My Housing Crisis Solution

Congress met today to discuss a plan to try and save owners who might be foreclosed upon because they have a loan they can not afford.  I find this somewhat laughable but then again, I find most of what our government does laughable.  This one in particular sticks out because I find it to be a strange circumstance of Congress moving too slow and too fast at the same time.

If Congress was going to do something, it should have done it years ago when it was clear to any rational person that housing prices were going up too quickly.  Of course, they wouldn't have done this, despite today's predictable situation, because too many people were getting rich quickly and nobody wanted to stop that gravy train.

Now, they are moving much too quickly.  In reality, they should not be moving at all.   People need to lose their homes.  Banks need to lose money.  Those banks that took the worse bets need to go bankrupt.  The alternative is what happened in Japan during the 90's, decade long stagnation which is probably worse than a quick correction.

Of course, our government isn't smart enough to do something like that.  They will slap together a plan that doesn't make any sense, helps the wrong people out, and in the end only makes the situation worse.  The worse part about it is that it will create incentives for the wrong people.   Think about this for a second.

There are a large number of families who would love to be first time home buyers. However, the decided, prudently, that they would only buy something they could afford.  Novel idea I know.  There is another group of people who don't do that.  These are the people who, when they want something, they just buy it and don't worry about if they can really afford it.  These are the people who have twenty credit cards and always pay the minimum balance.  Since they could do it with credit cards, these people took out two mortgages and decided that they would have it interest-only for the first few years and worry how they would pay the priciple later.  After something magical would happen to save them.

That something magical is the US government.  They will prove the idiots right.

I keep imagining the scene in Atlas Shrugged as Hank Rearden asks, "There's no way to make the irrational work.  What can save you now?" To this James Taggart cries, "Oh, you will do something!"  And he is right.  The government will save those who should have known better at the expense of those that did.