Monthly Archives: August 2012

GAS & PRODUCE PRICES

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Images in this blog from: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

When I think of getting gas for my car or truck and drive around and for the past 2 days have seen the prices go on the rise, again, I cannot help but think to myself the words WTF! I am sure I am not the only one to think the same. These are some harsh economic times for a lot of people and I am NO EXPERT on gas but come on! Because of one fire or some incident , does that make it right to automatically raise the price of gas?? The cost should stay the same until the next shipment of gas purchased by the gas station is delivered, not a second after an incident. When a cow dies, does the price of milk soar that same instant? Hmmm, maybe better off not asking that one. Don’t want give anyone any ideas.

I do believe we import a lot of our oil. Why? Not sure. Not sure if it’s more of a political thing. Can we just not drill our own off shore? I mean, no matter how you look at it and what anyone can do, we are all going to get screwed with prices sky rocketing. I remember about a year ago or so one of my uncles, who is business savvy, turns to me and says do you know that by next summer gas will hit $5 a gallon? I looked at him and just said yeah, ok, sounds about right, jokingly, but it did make me think. Well, he was not off by much! Who knew?? We have already toppled the $4 mark and then some not too long ago. Recently, it seemed that gas prices were slowly going down a couple of cents here and there and I’m sure we all thought there would be some relief and hopefully the gas prices would keep dropping.

Well guess again people. Now, because of a recent incident I am not familiar with and I have no idea what impact that would have on gas, the price jumped up a few cents already. Am I missing something here? Am I the only one questioning what is going on with gas? Is anyone really monitoring this industry to put some type of control in place or are we being crooked while losing more of our hard earned money? Seriously! I have been unemployed for 2 years and was just offered a position and accepted the offer. Only thing now is, I have to pay a toll both ways for a bridge, pay for gas and pay for a big chunk of my family medical plan. It’s not like the job is paying even close to what I was really making, but it’s a job with potential and I really needed to also get out of the house! My out of pocket expense will only go up now and will take money out of my family as well. I cannot have my wife stay home full time with the kids because we need noth incomes. Something I’m sure alot out there can relate to. Am I the only person that is stressed out about the gas gorging? Can anyone stand up for the average Joe and say “Hey, enough is enough” and put something in place to control the cost of gas?

I would not hold my breath. The Gas companies would be the only ones benefiting, someone say corporate greed? We do not benefit anything, not you, me or even the Gas Station. They charge more because they are being charged more and they make almost nothing from what I hear off of has and we the consumer, have to bite our lips every time we fill up our gas tanks and watch that cost dial roll up, up and up! What else is there to do? Maybe take a bus or train to work? Get a Motorcycle or Vespa? Walk? Some of us really do not have a choice but to drive to work. I’m sure a lot of people have not traveled or driven far for vacation due to the cost of gas. I’m sure a lot of us either went to close locations to stay, just going to your local beach or maybe did what I did; get an above ground pool to keep the kids occupied during the summer while I spent time job searching. Whatever the case, all those vacation spots I’m sure are hurting in today’s economy. I’m sure people who were able to travel did a lot of window shopping at gift stores instead of the usual let me buy this and that.

Anyways, not to fall off track here, I have been feeling pretty nauseous and irritated whenever I see my Gas low light turn on or level hitting bottom and know it’s time to refill. It does not pay to drive around looking for cheap gas. Why? Because you’re wasting gas and $$$ doing so! Hopefully things will settle down and the prices start to drop again instead of it rising. Who Knows?

Well, just heard on the news today about the Midwest not getting enough water and causing drought that is effecting the growth of corn. Who knew that corn was that important economically? This is also playing a factor now with Gas prices as well as the produce we buy at the supermarkets. CNN reports a possible 6% increase on produce. This increase would be due to the Mississippi River being the lowest in water level ever! Cargo barges carrying a lot of items cannot carry as much anymore due to the weight and already the bottom of these barges are lightly touching the floor of the river. It was even considered that they may close the river to barges all together! This will in the end make getting goods to us harder and being delivered by land which costs a lot more money.  

So, I guess we all will see worse in our current economic crises before even thinking that things will eventually be turning around for the better and until then, we must try and get by.

Today’s Kids & Teens

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 Images in this blog from: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How many parents today feel the same as I do about how easy our kids have it today? Really, it’s incredible. Between the Cell phones, Computers, Texting, Facebook and other Social media networks, our children have become too dependent on technology.

Sure, I remember growing up there was Atari… and think that was the one main technology thing that kids went crazy for. You either owned one or you spent a lot of time at a friend’s house who had one. Today, you cannot have just one gaming system.

How many of your kids have at least “2” of the following: iPod, iPad, Mac Laptop/Notebook, Desktop Computer, Wii, Playstation 2, 3 and or handheld, Gameboy, Xbox, Cube, etc. etc. and ETC. PLUS probably a cell phone with internet access. Then you have each game that costs the average of $60 each and other costs factors for each of these items like accessories that we are told they need.  I’m going crazy to just keep up with my kids. Who knew that it seems that they can never have too much?

Thank goodness for GameStop. I became a Power Rewards Member there and it has been worth it. You can return old games, gaming systems or accessories and you can at least get something of value back from them. That is not to say they give you top dollar unless that game you’re returning is still in High Demand. Sometimes if you know you can get more, place the item for bids on EBay or other Bid sites. You can also buy used games at Game Stop. Games would be a couple of dollars to half or more off of a more recent game. You can sometimes try and sway your kid from buying that $60 game and pick up a couple of used games that would keep them occupied. You may not always succeed because I always hear “But Dad, everyone has this with the bonus pack and are online playing it”, but it’s worth a shot.  

Then we have our kids in somewhat of a trans with texting and social media. I don’t know, I can say I also have been texting and using Facebook and other Social Media’s but somewhere in the transition, our kids seem to be living via texting 23 hours a day. Do you notice even if you are a room away in the same house, our children may text us instead of coming to us to talk about something? I guess it is the in thing to do. Everybody is doing it. I will tell my daughter when she goes out with her friends to “call me when you’re ready and I’ll come pick you up” and I get from her “K, Bi.” 

The following seems to be the usual routine during pickup time:

Daughter Txt: COME IN 5 MINUTES

My TXT: OK, WILL BE THERE IN 5 MINUTES

5 SECONDS LATER…..

Daughter Txt: COME!! WHERE ARE YOU!!

My TXT: OK, LEAVING NOW

5 SECONDS LATER, WITH BACK TO BACK TXT’S….

Daughter Txt: HURRY!!!

Daughter Txt: R U ALMOST HERE??

At this point, I’m driving and I really do not want to txt while driving so I wait until I’m at a red light and txt quickly

My TXT: YES, PLEASE WAIT.

Daughter Txt: K BI

Phew, glad that is over with. When I try to call her before I left the house to verify, I get her voicemail stating it is full. She never cleans out her voicemails which drives me nuts. When I texted her to call me back, most of the times I get a text back stating “My battery is dying”. Now I know a few of you if not most of you know what I’m talking about. But we as parents put up with it.

Then we have the Facebook, Tumbler and Twitter craze. Either on a laptop, desktop, or handheld, they always seem to be posting, replying or following their friend’s status, if they are not in the middle of texting that is. I guess that we as parents are to blame. One, for wanting to give them everything we never had. Two, for not standing behind our “NO’s!”. Some do, some don’t but I usually at the end give in, but not always. What can I say? Three, so our kids do not feel embarrassed by their friends of not having that means of communications and last, we also do not want them to fall behind in the tech world as it is changing on a daily basis and would help them in the future by staying on top of technology.

Another fun thing our kids are getting involved with is sleep away camps in the summer. I have no problem with this and wished my parents thought of doing this for me when I was a kid. This to me is a good way to make new friends and learn about responsibility.  My daughter who is going to be 15 in the matter of days has been going the last 3 years. First year for one week and the last 2 years for 2 straight weeks. She Loves It!!! She goes with her best friend every year and with some girls from school. Now that this year was her last year as a camper because she will be considered too old for this camp, she wants to become a Camp Counselor but first has to be accepted and start out as a CIT (Counselor In Training).  My son, who is currently 11 yrs. old will be going to this camp next year for his first time. I’m sure that will be fun to have them both at camp at the same time…..

One of the most important things we have to be aware while our kids are growing up during these times is to make sure they eat healthy, get enough exercise and stay in shape. Get them involved with sports like Soccer, Baseball, Football, Lacrosse or any other sport that will keep them busy and moving, not stuck in front of a gaming system, computer or Internet enabled phone most of the day.

As kids get older, there mindset change for the better. They know that hygiene is important, getting enough sleep at night by not staying up too late watching TV or being on the Internet and even the choice of clothes to wear. My son never liked wearing anything but a T-Shirt and shorts. He never liked wearing jeans, just maybe sweatpants. This year, he will be going to middle school for 6th grade. I think now also that his mind set changes on his view of things, such as girls, it also has changed his view of clothing and presenting yourself. We went shopping last weekend and for the first time, he said he wanted to buy jeans. On his own! Without his mom or dad forcing him to. I think he is getting to the age that he also wants to impress the young ladies and dress appropriately during the winter. I cannot help but to chuckle, I knew one day he would get older and his mentality would start maturing.

We have to keep an eye on our kids and insure we help them make the best choices. It is hard, especially when they hit the “TEEN” years. They think they know it all and have all the answers already. They do not want to be bothered and just want to do whatever they want. We all have been through that and can understand that those years are the hardest to deal with various situations. From what I see in today’s “TEENS” is that they may have just a little too much freedom for comfort and we need to insure to try to keep them safe, on the right path and hope that they grow up and become a productive member of the community.

Last note I will make on this blog because this just happened today, I was driving my daughter back from someplace and had the radio on a station she listens to often and is popular with the Teen community. There was a song called You Can Blow My Whistle. The words in the song, I could not believe what I was hearing and was embarrased listening to with my 15 yr. old daughter next to me. I usually just change the channel when something like this happens. As I’m sure you can probably figure it out from the song title what it was in reference to, an explicit sexual act! This is not the only song that I feel is not appropriate for young teenagers or even anyone under 18. The words literally blew me away! This is not limited to the music our kids may hear; some of the TV shows like on MTV are outrages! Is anyone actually broadcasting these types of music or show’s ever think about what age audience would be exposed to this? I cannot believe what our kids are exposed to today to what I had growing up. But kids do not know any better. They are still young, trying to fit in with their friends. They hear their friends talk about a show or sing a song and they think it is ok.

Bottom line Parents, Please be aware of what your kids are exposed to and explain to them why a song, show or anything explicit on the Internet is inappropriate for them. Some kids will listen and try to avoid these and some will not but as Parents, we need to try. Unfortunately, with stuff like this being exposed on public radio, TV or the Internet to our kids today only scares me to think of what they will hear and see when they get older and have kids and what they would be exposed to…

 

WHERE ARE ALL THE JOBS??

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All images in this blog are from:  FreeDigitalPhotos.net

That is today’s question. Some may ask what do you mean? There are plenty of jobs out there. Well, Yes and NO. Let’s first discuss the 3 main methods of job hunting. First one is looking and searching on the Internet, second is using Recruiters and third is Networking.

First the Internet.  There seems to be a lot of open jobs on sites like Careerbuilder, Dice, Monster, Simplyhired, Indeed, LinkedIn and so on but when you’re searching on the web and apply to multiple jobs, realistically, and this question are for those currently unemployed looking for a Corporate job or really, just any job. The question is what percentage of positions you applied for on the internet did you actually have gotten a reply or even interests from either a recruiter or a hiring company? How many times have you seen the same position day after day relisted? Sometimes those positions make you wonder if it is really an opening. Who knows? I also question some of the Job Description’s to the position. Sometimes it seems to be a lot more then what the position or title may make you think. This either tells me that the poster either does not understand what they are looking for or trying to find that one person to do the job of 5 people which seems to be the norm today. Maybe that is why a lot of those positions are relisted on a daily basis with no closure.

To me, I feel and it does seem that most of my applications end up in a black hole. By that being said and from what I also understand is that certain sites you apply for a position also having what I think is a “Weeding Out Process”. This means  that the system you applied on can either look for choice words relating to the position or just simply put you in a trash folder or similar so your application may never have been seen by the actual recruiter or hiring manager. I think that this process is unfair but it is what it is. How can a company or recruiter simply push your application to the side without actually taking a peek, seeing your qualifications and even possibly meeting you face to face, or at least a phone interview to see what you are about? But I guess they must have some sort of good reason. I am sure they are bombarded with resumes for all sorts of position in today’s high unemployment climate. But will say this is pretty frustrating to the average job seeker such as myself.

So, that is my take on Internet Job Searching.  I’m sure you all have your own opinions.

Second, Recruiters. I personally must have about 30+ recruiters I currently use. Some are those who I dealt with during my years as a hiring manager while others are new contacts that either found my resume on the web or have actually contacted me via applying for a position. Recruiters are probably one of the best means to finding and landing a job. They usually have a lot of Human Resource connections in companies and may even deal with hiring managers directly. They would usually call you to find out about your background, what have you been doing and what you’re looking for. Then they see if they have any current openings available to consider you for. So you know a phone interview or face to face with a recruiter could be just as important as an actual interview with a company.

But also be aware, Recruiters do work on commission so if they do not currently have something open for you now, they could easily brush you to the side to find the right candidate for their current openings. That is how they get paid, commissions. You cannot blame them really; they also must make an income. For the Recruiters you do have a good relationship with, they have you on there “Radar” and will reach out to you if they see something that would fit your background. If you’re fortunate enough to get a Job Interview scheduled, then you’re on your way hoping to land the position. Only thing you would need to slightly worry about are the other candidates applying for the same position and hoping you are the best candidate that stands out of the crowd.

The biggest worry, which I can personally say has happened on more than one occasion is losing out on an offer because the other candidate was referred to by an internal employee. That would be part of the next method I will touch base on below. Overall, Recruiters to me are a valuable resource.

Word of advice. Try and apply for positions of equal or better levels. Reason I say this is because personally I have applied to many positions, even on the lower end but in most cases, I have been deemed “Over Qualified”.  For some other positions I have interviewed for, I got the sense when asked what I did and I could see it in the hiring managers eyes, I maybe bringing too much in and in turn, job security clicks in for them. Not saying that this happens a lot, but does happen. Some of us have done the job of a few people so bringing too much to the table may actually hurt your chances of being considered. Who knew that being “Over Qualified” would be a bad thing?

                                                        

Third, Networking. One site which is great for Professional Networking is LinkedIn. I have heard both pros and cons to LinkedIn but to me it’s a great site to setup a profile and explain who you are, where you work, provide information and some details of your professional background and skills. There is also a Job Search section which can be useful and you can apply directly to those positions using your LinkedIn profile and can create or join a group as well as follow companies. You can connect to former and current colleagues, family, friends and other professional business contacts. You can also have Recommendations posted that would give an insight of the type of worker you are to anyone who would be interested in you. Unlike Facebook which is more for posting pics, videos and for other more personal use, LinkedIn is the Professional Business Site for Networking. 

Another Networking method is your current contacts. Possibly managers you worked for in the past or co-workers that maybe in other companies, friends and family. In today’s world of hiring, it’s pretty much of whom you know and you could possibly get a referral that will give you an edge against other candidates. This does not mean that their company would have any current positions available for you but it’s nice to have these connections in case anything should arise and have a slight edge. Networking can be means of meeting with recruiters, business associates or anyone else. Maybe going to an after work social Network gathering of business people near your location to try and network with people and present yourself to possible clients or company representatives. Hey, you never know.

To end this blog “Where Are All The Jobs”, I’m using this as a figure of speech to those saying you can find anything, anytime, anywhere? Really? Unless you’re not currently unemployed, sorry to say that, you truly do not understand today’s harsh ongoing job search for millions out there so this is why I wanted to post this to hopefully try and explain it a little better. Day after day I hear more and more negative possible job losses, corporations still looking to trim or outsource employees or that employee’s are not truly happy working at their current jobs because of being overworked and not appreciated but they have no choice but to stick it out and hope for the best. Trust me, I have hear this from various people in various business fields so there has to be some truth to this.

So before anyone says or thinks you can snap your finger and get a job, ask any unemployed person how easy it really is today to find one. It’s not a question of laziness, or going back to school to get that degree or online certificate and definitely not because a person does not care to bother to get a job. Even with utilizing the above methods looking for a job, it just seems to be a losing battle.

Let’s be real here. Really, think about it. Anyone who had a job of course wants to work and bring in some kind of income, pay those bills and provide for their family. It’s not just that simple anymore. Things have drastically changed, for the worse and it will be a long time before it turns around and get any better. It is a new corporate world out there now. Is it only going to get worse? Answer is who knows where this is going and will there eventually be enough jobs out there to trim that Unemployment Rate down!!!

Well, I thought I was done with this blog until I noticed this article posted this morning that the title caught my eye from CNBC, written by Jeff Cox: “Economy Creates 163,000 New Jobs but Rate Rises to 8.3%”. It sounded like there were alot of jobs out there being created but then why was the unemployment rate rising also? That only means that 163,000 people that may have just lost their jobs or a combination with already unemployed people may have gotten a job but there are still plenty of people out there still unemployed and it’s growing. Supply does not meet the demand. You can create a million jobs but if the Unemployment Rate stays the same or increases, does it really make a difference? Slightly, just less people in the unemployment line. Are these jobs actually held by US Citizen’s or are they being outsorced overseas? Who knows? Would like to find an actual Statistic breakdown on that online. So to finally end this blog, again I state, WHERE ARE ALL THE JOBS??