Team Clever

Summer is usually the time when employees search for new jobs and leave their current companies.  The reason for this? Well… There are not much benefits to lose during summer. Online job search engines are very common now so it is easy to find a job. Just this month in our company, 3 employees have resigned. All of them in the same department. As this may cripple some tasks in the department, the HR ensures that they have a reserved pool of applicants to hire.Most people don’t know this, but the process of hiring people is a very stressful task. Just like in our case, over a hundred applicants are interviewed just for a vacant position. This is to ensure that we get someone who is best suited for the job. We usually take the skills and experience as secondary. What is important to us is the work attitude of the person. When interviewing we usually ask about your weakness and strengths. This may seem very common yet they are the hardest questions to answer.Just a tip to you guys who are thinking of applying for a new job, create a diary  of your accomplishments however small they seem to be. You can also add your experiences during tough times. It is important to write down how you deal with situations like these because this will definitely be asked when you will be interviewed for your next job.

Yesterday, my sister and I spent the whole evening watching the first season of America’s best dance crew. We usually do this when we are soooo bored at home. It was the first time I saw JabbaWockeeZ in action and I have to tell you THEY ARE AMAZING! They freaked me out a little bit because of their scary movie type masks and hip hop clothing but they sure are great dancers. I just love their break dance style which is quite unique compared to the other dance groups. There was just no reason for them to lose.I was quite surprised to know that the members of that dance crew are mostly half american. Doing some research from wikepedia:

Benjamin (Ben) “B-Tek” Chung Korean-AmericanRynan Shawn “Kid Rainen” Paguio Filipino-AmericanKevin “Keibee” Brewer African-AmericanChristopher (Chris) “Cristyle” Gatdula Filipino-AmericanPhillip (Phil) “Swaggerboy/SB” Tayag Filipino-AmericanJeff “Phi” Nguyen Vietnamese-AmericanJoseph (Joe) “Emajoenation/Punkee” Larot Filipino-AmericanSaso “Saso Fresh” Jimenez Hispanic AmericanRandy “Wish One” Bernal Filipino-AmericanEddie “Eddiestyles” Gutierrez Hispanic AmericanGary “Gee” Kendall African-American

This just shows why they gained international support that easily. Anyhow, I heard they already have a dance video featuring their outrageous dance moves so I’ll be looking for this one next time.

The company recently did a makeover of the office lounge and it looked amazingly modern and elegant. They designers have adapted a very modern look using metal lighting fixtures and modern sofas. The combination of chrome metal and black leather certainly is an eye candy. And not only that, a 50 inch LCD was also mounted on the wall!

The lounge was so perfect that it became a sort of coffee place for everyone now including the boss. Some colleagues even brought blu-ray titles to try in the LCD. Now if only I can plug in my PS3… now that’s what you call an office lounge!

Since Asus started the whole netbook trend, laptop manufacturers started producing their own. There is just a huge market for these kinds of devices because of their portability, functionality, and low price. Typical users just want to be able to surf the net, watch movies and just use word processors - and this is exactly what netbooks are made for. And so the question is… are expensive laptops still worth buying?Well… These days, the thin line between netbooks and notebooks are starting to fade. Netbooks are now made to be more powerful, and even better than some notebooks. Among the netbooks with the highest specs to date are the MSI Wind12 and the Lenovo S10-3t. The lenovo is a netbook that can also function as a tablet while the MSI Wind’s dual core processor and ATI graphics is already suitable for cad drawing. None the less, the only thing lacking in these netbooks now is just an optical drive and nothing else.So going back to the question “are expensive laptops still worth buying?” I guess the answer depends on how the device will be used. If the user intends to use the laptop as his main PC then the laptop is definitely the choice however, if it will be used on the go, and processing power is not that important, then a netbook will already be suitable.

After my appraisal last February 25 and finding out that the highest position and salary range I can ever get in my current company is my existing position and salary, I finally waived my white flag and acknowledged that it’s now time for me to start thinking of other options. However, if I really want to up my prize in the current market (although I already know I can demand more), I intend to level up more and gain whatever knowledge I still can from my current company.

To start with my level-up, I’m planning to enroll myself in two short courses this coming March: Managing Information Technology (IT) Outsourcing and Project Management. My only concern was cash for enrollment. Then again, I checked my credit score online and saw that I was in good standing; so less worry. I was lucky enough to have a friend who recommended a prestigious school that allows credit card payments and student loans.

Leveling-up, now processing!

I was recently promoted to a higher position in the company so I needed to change my business cards because I always need them for clients. Since most people are busy in the company, I decided to just make my own business card. Our log designer is usually the one in charge for this but since I am not doing anything much (for now) I worked my way in Adobe Illustrator. It was the first time I used it and now I can conclude that… I suck at it! hahaha.

I’m an intermediate user in photoshop but Illustrator is a lot different. All those concepts about vectors just don’t register in my head. Anyhow, what I did was just get the softcopy of my old business card and looked for a business card printing shop in the mall. I just asked them to update my position, department and contact details. Voila! It took them just 30 minutes to print a hundred cards and no sweat coming from me. hehe.

You probably may have heard about the hype about the newest product introduced by Neutrogena - skin id. Apparently, this new line of skin products are designed specifically for different skin products. There is a Skin ID matched to a certain type of skin so all you need to do is run their skin test to determine your type. However, Looking into these products, we found out that they are no different from the other anti-acne products. SkinID has the same ingredients like benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid. The only difference is their concentration in the formula. It seems to me that this is just more of a marketing scheme that the real thing.

This line of products are very expensive considering that there are alternatives that offer the same results. Consumers must be wise in choosing our products and we must not always look for the branded ones.