Christmas Shopping

This Christmas season is my first season with a credit card. Ugh oh! The problem is that my family is so easy to shop for because we are so close. When I started writing down ideas for each member of my family their totals came to about $500 each! My mom and dad prefer that my sister and I do not spend over 50$ each on them and my older sister prefers I spend all my money on her but she knows that will never happen. I work all day long on a computer plus I live in freezing, cold Canada therefore shopping online during my work breaks is the most appealing option of Christmas shopping to me. Unfortunately all good deals have an additional $20 to $30 shipping fee on top of the taxes! Everyone knows the best gifts to get on Christmas are the personal ones that people put more time and thought into than money. For each member of my family I tried to think of something they did or said that I remember smiling and laughing about for days after it happened. For example, my dad is a pen lover (I know, he is weird). One day he left for work and came back about a half an hour later because he had gotten to work and realised he left his $100 fountain pen at home. From then on my family always kids around about him loving that pen more than the rest of us. I bought him another fountain pen so that he doesn’t have to turn around when he forgets his other pen at home. Fingers crossed that I don’t get too carried away with my credit card and that my dad doesn’t read my blog which would spoil his Christmas gift surprise!

Researching Interviews

Today we had a second interview for a new position at work and I was asked to sit in on the interview again. As a teenage girl, judging people based on first impressions is an everyday task in school therefore judging in an interview setting should be a synch. But the last interview I sat in on I realized I don’t really know what type of questions to ask or how to judge someone based on other things than what they physically look like. Half of my page was filled with things like, “nice hair”, “phone is vibrating”, “seems nice”, things that don’t really matter in a job interview. So I started researching the perfect interview and I found out the best questions to ask to see how genuine or quick thinking my possible future co-worker is. I found a few questions that he or she could answer to see how similar we are and if we would get along and another few to review their work ethics. Unfortunately this candidate did not get hired either because to be considered for the job you must first show up to the interview.

Cyber Monday

This morning I woke up, checked my texts and my missed calls then my emails. For the first time in my life I got excited from what I saw in my junk email folder! Cyber Monday; the day you can shop and get all the deals you wants without getting punched in the face a few times like on Black Friday. The only problem with today is that I am at work, on a computer, all day, on websites that have sales and I cannot buy anything. On the weekend I went to see the new 007 movie and it got me thinking. Although James Bond has been through a lot of torture and pain, I think that I have to endure more today by seeing these deals and most likely purchasing these discounted items tomorrow at full price. I’m debating on whether or not I should shop online anyways and if my boss catches me I’ll say something like, “Oh shoot! I was just about to buy your gift; I hope you didn’t see it!” He can’t get mad at that! Hopefully I’m not on too girly of a website if he walks into my office because that could cause a very awkward situation.

Black Friday

Black Friday is the name given to the day after Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping season. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early and offer promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season. Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many... wait, what? I am sitting here on my break looking up deals and I read that, it brings tears to my eyes. Now I have to start thinking of excuses to tell my boss when I ask for the afternoon off. I would never use the death in the family excuse because I’m not a good liar and that excuse drags on and on. I could say I’m mentally ill and I can’t stop crying because no man (including my boss) would want to deal with that type of mess. Or I’ll skip work until 4pm and then run into my boss’ office and yell, “Don’t pay the ransom, I escaped!” Unfortunately my boss knows me too well and before I had the chance to leave today he said, “So what is your excuse going to be tomorrow to go to shopping?” He read me like an open book.

 

Thanksgiving Day

Today is Thanksgiving Day in America and I am stuck here in Canada at work and hungry. Thanksgiving in Canada was on October 8^th and somewhere in-between October 9^th and today I wish I had moved to the states so I could get today off. For those of you who think I’m being unreasonable I can almost pinky promise you that if I took two Thanksgiving breaks it wouldn’t be for the day off to relaxing or the amazing food I would stuff my stomach with. It would be a second chance for me to re-state and re-word what I am thankful for. Regrettably my speech didn’t go so well at this year’s family dinner and I would like a do-over. Each year my family goes around the table saying what they are thankful for in a few short sentences. My father started it off with the usual, “I’m thankful for my family and good health of all our loved ones” and everyone repeats the same phrase with a little bit of words mixed up so they sound original. I decided that it would be a good idea to say something different so I started looking around the room and thinking hard of what to say because my turn was coming up quickly. Unfortunately the last thing my eye’s looked at was my new puppy on the floor eating one of my slippers so I said, “I am thankful for my puppy and my parents should be too because she makes me not want to have kids for a very long time.” I really thought it would be a good thing to say since I am very young, living at home and in-between men. Just my luck apparently everyone’s hearing stopped working at the same time and they all missed the part where I said ‘not’ and thought I said I did want to have kids. No one informed me of what they had heard until the drive home when my sister’s boyfriend said, “So let’s talk about that shocking comment Alana made at dinner.” That will be the last Thanksgiving I try to be unique with my speech.

Interviews

My boss is looking to hire someone new to help with marketing.  Since we are a new online-based company, he is looking to hire someone who is familiar with social media and also video.  He has big expectations, so I don’t know if anyone is going to gain his approval. When I walked in this morning he told me that he had an interview with a possible new representative this afternoon. In my head I giggled a little and wished her good luck! I was asked to sit in on the interview so when she walked in so I shook her hand, took a seat in the meeting room and grabbed a paper and pen so I could take notes. First note: pretty, second note: nervous. Heck, I was too when my boss interviewed me, so I couldn’t blame her for that! She stumbled a few times on some of the more tricky questions, but she did mostly well on the interview.  Unfortunately she was not hired because she was applying for a full time position while she was still in college for another four years. Hopefully the next candidate will be a better fit if they can get past mister picky first!  It would definitely be a relief for me to have someone else helping out with the work around here.

Learning About the Magnetizer

Back in school we learnt about and studied global warming, watched The Inconvenient Truth and wrote essays on the importance of the three R’s (reduce, reuse and recycle) which was always the part in the class where every student would starting texting or falling asleep. So when I started my new job at EconoMag.net I thought there was no need to research global warming again when I was asked to but I was wrong. In high school all social media websites are blocked (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) because the board says that no student can learn from them and most of all they wanted to make sure we didn’t have any fun. As it turns out social media is where all the interesting topics are and the only website I have ever learnt something new on since grade two. In grade two I learnt that cars are bad and trees are good. For the following ten years of school the teachers would try to make the same statement more detailed and intelligent sounding. Such as, “Motorized vehicles cause toxins in the environment that can be crucial to the extinction of the human race” in other words “cars are bad”. That’s great, at least I can sound intelligent when I type out statistics but I don’t know any statistics so I spent the day learning some new facts. For instance scientists predict 141,000 of New York City’s citizens will be living within three feet of high tide by the year 2100 due to global warming causing high tides. I spent the rest of my afternoon studying every little detail of the new Magnetizer product so that if I was asked any questions my answers would be better than, “Cars are bad and trees are good”.

Marketing

The first task my boss gave me today was market research. Wait, Marketing? Here’s something I know about marketing: put Justin Beiber or Robert Pattinson on the box and it will be sold to every teenage girl worldwide. Here’s what else I know about marketing: nothing.  But then it turns out that all I have to do is talk to the customers on our website and ask them about their opinions. And you have no idea how much people love giving their opinions which in a weird turn of events makes my job that much easier. In other words, I have to listen to people and find out what they like and don’t like.  So let me get this straight … I get to sit down in front of a computer (which I have been told has 'the best view in Ottawa’ behind it) like I would normally do at home and read other people opinions on stuff I’m interested in?  For me this is the same as a dog getting treats to chase a cat. I was going to do it anyways so why not do it for a purpose? Generally most people would be ecstatic and natural in this kind of job but of course I have to over-think everything!

Country Girl Meets City Job

I was a little nervous that my boss didn’t like my work ethics and the quality or quantity of work I had done. I walked in the office a little shy then sat down at the conference table as ready as I could be for the morning meeting and hopefully prepared for any questions I would be asked. But the whole meeting so many thoughts were going through my head, “be yourself”, “no, never mind! Act normal”, “I bet what I just said made me sound dumb”. I was freaking out over every little thing so nervous that I wouldn’t live up to his expectations. But then I remembered what my mother always taught me. Every time I ever went through a break up or bad school picture my mom would always repeat the same advice, “Breathe. If it was meant to happen, it will and there is nothing you can do about it. Breathe.” That worked for all of three seconds and then I started thinking too much again! I started thinking how proud my mom said she was, my dad saying I am doing a great job, my sister getting fired and so much more that I almost forgot to answer my boss’ questions! I think he realised that this job was a new situation for me and that maybe I am a little crazy, so he reassured me that I was doing well and that he didn’t expect perfect which took a lot of stress off my shoulders and made me relax for once! Thank goodness the people around here are so understanding because if they weren’t my first day could have also been my last!

Starting Day

Finally, the day has come that I’m the newest member of EconoMag.net. The first thing that happens when I walk into the office is the signing of the contracts and policies so the company can be sure that I’m not going to go crazy and make a fool out of their product. Second thing is to get introduced to the product. So I research some and then take a little break to read some books on marketing to refresh my memory. I got so carried away with the work that I forgot about my lunch break and my boss had to remind me to take it. I walked around downtown trying to fit in as much as possible bearing in mind I was born and raised a country girl. When I got back to work after my break I was in a curious mood and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to stay focused with what I was supposed to be doing and not getting distracted by the weird noises and sights the city has.