Resumes
A resume will not get you a job, but it should, must, be good enough to get you an interview.
A resume is just a summary of some thing about you. It never tells a reader everything about you or all the jobs you've ever done before.
'I'm working on my resume' is not a profession. If you are stuck and fed up to the back teeth with your resume....GET SOME HELP. This can be from a friend or relative or from someone at an employment centre - there are many different places to get help.
Ask someone who knows you to look at it. Does it look and sound anything like you? Does it tell any of your story - where you've been, where you might want to go next, a little of who you are?
It should show your journey, in about 15 seconds - the average resume is read for about 15 seconds the first time it's seen - does yours allow a taste of your journey to appear?
Gaps?
What have you been doing for the last 6 months, year, two years, five years?
What about my references and my gaps in work?
Answering the 'why did you leave your last job' question.
It's impossible! No, it's not.
The principle is simple: it has three parts - acknowledge, dismiss, move on.
acknowledge - 'Yes, I was taking care of some family business for two years.....'
dismiss - '...and now that's taken care of....'
move on - '..I'm looking for a job with an established company which will make use of my great experience which is why I applied for this interesting job....'
Working in the Chinatown area of Downtown Vancouver I am surrounded by reminders of faith and belief in chance, luck, fate, fortune and destiny; it seems a very Chinese, and more broadly Asian, philosophy.
The western world and the English language have their own version though, so the idea of being in touch with, in pace with, in tune with, what we should be doing and feeling is not exclusively Asian.
The English word is 'hap'.
'Go Fish' or 'Let's go fishing'?
'Give a person a fish an you feed them for a day; teach them to fish and you feed them for life.'
This common principle used to guide many employment programs sounds good practice on the surface (sorry) but if you take it apart it truly is a nasty piece of right-wing propaganda.
It's reminiscent of that cow Thatcher's infamous 'There is no such thing as society. Only individual men and women.'
This article from Francis Bula at the Vancouver Sun suggests private money is required to provide enough homes for people. In July over $400 million will be 'given' to the people of B.C. in the shape of $100 environmental cheque for each inhabitant.
Now the $100 isn't enough to make any real 'green' improvements, but if even if 25% of the B.C. population of 4.1 million gathered together and pooled their $100 cheques that would raise $100 million, enough for a least 400 homes for 'low income' poor people in our midst.
Shelagh
visits with Dr. Gabor Mate, the staff physician at the Portland Hotel.
It's an addiction treatment centre and residence in Vancouver's
downtown eastside. Mate introduces Shelagh to some of his patients. And
he talks about his new book, "In the Realm of the Hungry Ghosts: Close
Encounters With Addiction" which presents some controversial ideas on
the roots of addiction and ways to treat addicts.
