Interview

I had my interview on Wednesday.

1. Were you nervous? How did you deal with this?
I was very nervous- I am not used to going through that whole process, so it was a little awkward! I just tried to think about the questions and what I could say to make the interviewer see that I was right for the job... thinking kept my mind off of being nervous.

2. Did you get any questions that threw you? How did you handle those questions?
The personality questions threw me. I guess I forgot that those kind of questions might be asked. I just winged it with them, trying not to stumble around with my words.

3. If you could do the interview again, what would you do differently?
I think I would come a little more prepared especially when it comes to what I think about my personality- so that I don't get caught off guard again!

4. What did you learn from this experience?
I learned that I need to try to relax a little more and to prepare a little more.

Interview

Well, I was one of the people scheduled for a Wednesday interview- so I guess I can't really do this blog yet.

I did go to the CAFLS Career Fair on Wednesday though, dressed up and all. I handed out my resume to 4-5 companies, but I was rather disappointed overall. There were maybe 2 Animal Science related companies, and they were both swine and poultry operations. I would have liked to see more companies related to horses, cattle, or something else.

I'm working on getting a picture of my Anderson county livestock show trophy up! I don't have a camera, so I'm waiting for someone to send me the pics.

Presentations

I would say that my three favorite presentations were Cassidy's, Cammy's, and Kyle's.

I picked these mainly because they were all about animals, and that is of course what I am most interested in! Cassidy of course had great props with the dogs, and her presentation made me want to start fostering some animals. I can't do it right now, but I will definitely look into it in the future.

Cammy's was interesting as well since she brought in the cute little squirrel. I always thought I had a bunch of animals, but I've never quite had the diversification that she does! So I really liked hearing about all the different species she has.

Kyle's was good because I think it was on a topic (beef) that a lot of people like- but they know so little about. I really think that people need to know where their food comes from, and I personally can't believe how many people fall for the silly "Certified Angus" meats as if it makes any difference. I can't remember if he had the certification specs on his powerpoint, but several breeds of cow can actually be "certified angus".

I really enjoyed presentation week!

Free Topic Post

This week is our free topic week.

First of all, I'm not up to date on the news/politics or anything like that, so my post will not be that impressive. I do not watch the news... too many bad things happen.

So the "current events" I'll discuss will be current events in my own life. I hope that is okay!

I have been really busy lately! I am currently halter breaking a Dairy heifer to show this season. If you've never done that before... it is a LOT of work! I spend several hours out at the farm just getting her used to me touching her and teaching her how to lead on a halter. She's a little fiesty thing, and she's tried kicking me once already! However, my heifer is leading nicely now, I'm very impressed with her- she learns fast.

I've also been riding horses 3 times a week. I ride every Monday and Wednesday in a class here at school. On the weekends I drive back home and ride my own horse... she is nowhere near as well trained as the school's horses, so it's always more of a challenge! But I like to think that we are both learning together.

And of course, regular classwork has kept me quite busy as well. My first test in my hardest class is coming up next week... so naturally I'm getting very worked up about it. I mean do you know how the Krebs cycle or the TCA cycle works? Yeah, me either.

Cover Letters

I do agree with a lot of the advice given in the cover letter links. The sections I found most useful were The Reality of Cover Letters and The Worst Use of the Cover Letter. They both talked about how you should not mass mail your cover letter and resume to companies- if you do that, you’ll likely be rejected or just filed away. I had always assumed mass mailing your info was a real option for job seekers.

I was not aware (or maybe I just didn’t remember) that you could add testimonials to your cover letter. I don’t think I’ll actually use this when writing my cover letter in preparation for the mock interview. However, it is a good thing to know about.

The cover letter checklist is a nice, concise tool to use to make sure your cover letter is a good one, and I found the example cover letter to be extremely helpful as well.

Interview Articles

The two articles I read this week were: An Interview Strategy: Telling Stories and Interviewing With Body Language.

The article called An Interview Strategy: Telling Stories gives some tips on how to set yourself apart by telling stories about what you have personally accomplished at your previous jobs. The article will help with job interviews because it encourages you to be more conversational. Plus, it says that sharing personal stories can really help to set you apart from other applicants.

The article called Interviewing With Body Language gives some tips on how to act during an interview. This article is particularly helpful because body language can speak volumes. It would be easy for people to make many of the mistakes discussed in the article, including showing strong expressions and sitting back in your chair. This article is definitely worth reading before going into an interview.

10 Years From Now

To be honest, I have no idea where I'll be in ten years.

To "dream big," I'd love to be married to a great guy, and we'd own a horse racing stable here in South Carolina (it's the perfect wintering spot for racehorses!). I'm thinking of a large Thoroughbred broodmare band, their cute young foals, and a talented racing string to go along with them. However, that would require a LOT of money... so unless said future husband is filthy rich, or if I have some long lost relative who decides to leave me millions... then I don't think this is really going to happen. Wouldn't it be great if my future husband had an English accent, too? Hey, I can dream.

More realistically, I'll graduate from Clemson in December of '09 and then get a steady job somewhere working with animals. I am very flexible on this, and I could persue several career fields such as web design or some kind of marketing job. As long as I can have some animals to come home to! I've always wanted to have my own family farm. I do NOT want to live in a city. I need a lot of space. I've always lived on a farm (of sorts), so I can't stand being away from that kind of lifestyle. Oh, and I would still like to be married to a great guy! I also think I would like to have kids someday, just a couple.