missing michael jackson today

one of my favorite of many dance sequences:

be the best you!

i seem to discover

i often forget…but later seem to discover that the very things i need are often right in front of my face.

one example of many:
i have made a sparkling sweet 70s looking banner with my own computer and my own software after spending waaay too much time trying to find sooo many other programs/pictures…banner ideas.

i had everything…at the touch of my fingertips…the effort was so minimal and like that…i have exactly what i need.

happy summer solstice!

looking for a job? check yourself

i just found this article that may prove to be helpful to job seekers who cannot seem to land jobs or call-backs. we may have to dumb ourselves down…yikes but worth the try.

good luck!

The New Resume: Dumb and Dumber
by Jane Porter
source: Wall Street Journal
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
link: http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/107119/The-New-Resume-Dumb-and-Dumber

Kristin Konopka sent out nearly 100 copies of her résumé in January in search of receptionist work, but got only one callback. That’s when Ms. Konopka, a 29-year-old New York actress and yoga teacher, took her master’s degree and academic teaching experience off her résumé.

The calls started coming in. The slimmer version of her résumé landed in 30 in-boxes and earned her three callbacks and two interviews. “It definitely picked up the interest,” says Ms. Konopka, who realized quickly that people don’t “want to hire anyone who is overqualified.”

Securing work in a tight economy means more job seekers might find themselves applying for positions below their qualifications. Many unemployed professionals are willing to take paycuts for the promise of a paycheck. But to get a foot in the door, candidates are gearing down their résumés by hiding advanced degrees, changing too-lofty titles, shortening work experience descriptions, and removing awards and accolades.

In the past eight months, Jamaica Eilbes, an information-technology recruiter for Milwaukee employment agency Manpower, has had to weed out more overqualified résumés than usual from the stacks that cross her desk each day. “I’d never feel comfortable putting a really high-level candidate into a lower level position,” says Ms. Eilbes, who recruits for Manpower and other clients. “We don’t want to take you on if we think you are going to jump ship.”

But in recent months, Ms. Eilbes has seen more master’s and doctoral degrees at the bottom of résumés instead of at the top. She’s also seen candidates omitting or trimming job descriptions that showed they had substantial years of work experience. Résumés on which job descriptions taper off as they progress down the page raise Ms. Eilbes’s suspicions. “How do I know I can trust them later down the road if there’s something on their résumé they decided to take off so they could have a better chance at getting that job?” she says.

Still, for some professionals who find themselves constantly rejected despite decades of experience, scaling back the truth — or at the least, some of their experiences — can feel like the only chance at an interview.

Lenora Kaplan, 49, has 26 years of marketing experience but doesn’t want her résumé to show it. When she lost her job as vice president of public relations at a small Las Vegas marketing firm in January, Ms. Kaplan searched for work with little success. At an interview for a shopping-mall marketing-director position in February, she was told that the hiring budget had only enough for a junior-level employee and that her résumé showed she was overqualified.

Many of the jobs she comes across ask for far fewer years of experience than she has. “There is nothing to apply for” at my level, Ms. Kaplan says. She quickly realized her job experience was pricing her out of too many positions. Her solution: To try not to look as senior level as she really was. So she eliminated certain jobs and removed details about speaking engagements and board positions.

In some cases, job seekers are being told by hiring agencies to tone down their résumés if they want to get hired. When Bridget Lee, 29, moved to New York from Shanghai eight months ago and put her application in at three temporary agencies, she was told to play down her work experience before they would send her résumé to potential clients. The temp-agency version of her résumé changed titles like “manager” and “freelance trend researcher” to “staff” and “office support” and omitted entirely her title as partner of a small marketing agency. “It’s been a lesson for how I present myself,” Ms. Lee says.

Career counselors advise against making too many drastic changes. But they also say the demand for this kind of restructuring is on the rise. In the past three months, Tammy Kabell, a Kansas City, Mo., job-search coach, says more clients are requesting her help to “dumb down” their résumés, whether by changing job titles, playing down experience, or altogether omitting some impressive achievements. One recent client, a 61-year-old former chief learning officer at a tech company, insisted on omitting her C-level job title from her résumé. She was fearful her application would be weeded out by the Web search-optimization tools companies use to manage résumés.

Some résumé writers advise reworking a résumé into a functional one stressing transferable skills instead of past job titles and accomplishments. “Instead of focusing on the big achievements that might scare an employer away, you can spell out what you can bring to an employer in the next position,” Ms. Kabell says.

Of course, reducing your résumé to a skeleton of what it truly should be isn’t likely to land you the job you really want. While it took Ms. Lee eight months to get a call back for a job that matched her real experience, this month she landed a position as a temporary account manager — with potential for permanent work — at a New York design firm. The interview and job offer weren’t earned using her dumbed-down résumé, but rather with the original.

“You have to make those creative edits when it comes to short-term work, but in terms of long-term work, you have to stay true to your experience,” says Ms. Lee.

why pres. obama why!??!?!

if you know me…even sorta know me…you know how passionate and supportive i am and was about president barack obama’s ‘hope’ movement and a one that we need so bad in this country. however i learned last week that president obama decided to cut funding for historically black colleges and universities and the grief and concern i feel is heavy.

here is the article:
from: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/lawmakers-frustrated-over-obama-plan-to-cut-funds-for-black-colleges-2009-05-14.html

Lawmakers frustrated over Obama plan to cut funds for black colleges

By Walter Alarkon and Kevin Bogardus

Posted: 05/14/09 07:23 PM [ET]

A bipartisan group of lawmakers and historically black colleges are questioning President Obama’s plan to cut a program he once backed that sends $85 million annually to the schools.

The colleges’ allies, including at least one member of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and a Senate Republican, have said that the cut is coming at a bad time for schools that have long been under-funded and are now struggling through a recession.

The White House program has been sending $85 million annually to historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) for the past two years. The Obama administration has said it’s willing to let the program expire next year as it begins to fund more programs that directly help students. Department of Education officials have pushed back against criticism by pointing to Obama’s proposal to increase the maximum Pell Grant for low-income students by $200 to $5,550. Obama has also proposed increasing direct funding for the schools from $238 million to $250 million.

Yet the proposed net loss of $73 million in annual funding for the schools isn’t sitting well with lawmakers.

“That’s not going to happen,” Rep. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.) told The Hill.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who has 10 historically black colleges in his state, suggested that the program is far more worthy of federal dollars than other programs Obama is willing to fund.

“Cutting this critical HBCU program while at the same time continuing to fund programs such as the historic whaling partnership program raises the question of the priorities of this administration,” Burr said, referring to a $9 million program to promote whaling history in Massachusetts.

The White House said the increased Pell Grants will increase federal aid to historically black colleges by $3.2 billion over the next decade. A spokesman also said that the president isn’t cutting a program but is allowing it to expire as scheduled.

“This year’s budget provides increased funding to schools that serve this community through programs specifically for HBCUs as well as increases in Pell Grant funding which is received by more than 50 percent of students who attend HBCUs,” said White House spokesman Corey Ealons.

The HBCU program’s supporters said it’s one of the few that helps the colleges address a variety of needs, including keeping tuition costs low, defraying upkeep costs and helping fund research grants.

Michael Lomax, president of the United Negro College Fund, noted that Obama as a senator in 2007 joined the Democratic-led Congress in supporting an increase in funding for the historically black colleges and universities and other schools that serve minority groups.

“These are communities of students and institutions that need these funds in very difficult economic times,” Lomax said. “Now is the worst time to cut them.”

Key CBC House members are trying to work with their colleagues and the administration to find a solution.

Rep. Robert “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.), a senior member of the House Education and Labor Committee, said he met with an administration official and leaders from the schools last week.

Scott said he’s still studying Obama’s proposal, but added that the schools need more funding, especially for their buildings on campus. The schools were “vastly under-funded” during segregation, and the buildings are now seeing those effects, Scott said.

Obama had attracted earlier criticism from CBC members when his Justice Department said it would cap discrimination claims legally owed to black farmers at $100 million — a fraction of the nearly $4 billion that they are estimated to be owed. But Obama quieted his critics somewhat by augmenting the money through a more generous budget proposal.

Obama put out a budget request that included $1.25 billion — more than 12 times the cap of $100 million — to pay the claims made by black farmers.

CBC members said they also expect Obama will come around to increasing funding for historically black schools.

Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), a member of the House Appropriations subcommittee that will consider Obama’s education budget, said he was encouraged by the president’s proposal to increase the discretionary spending set aside for the schools by $12 million.

Jackson said he’s committed to raising the overall level of support for the colleges.

“HBCUs have been doing so much for so long to ensure that the doors of opportunity and higher education remain open to all students,” said Jackson. “I know that President Obama shares that vision and mission.”