Employer: "You're So Smart And You Got An Impressive Background, So We've Decided To Hire Someone Else..." Me: "Que?"

So as far as my career goes this year, I have been trying acquire employment with a Physiotherapy climic; I have had 4 interviews, with zero success thus far, despite being told I have a great skill set, and that I am a really nice guy.  I try to get constructive feedback, but they either skirt the question, or they have ignored me completely.

This begs the question:  Are employers getting so afraid of hurting the feelings of people, that even constructive criticism is now off the menu?

How are you supposed to improve your hard/soft job skills, when you can't get the crucial perspective of an outsider?  No matter how honest you are about your strengths and shortcomings, you are inherently biased about certain aspects of your character; these are things that only another person can pick up on.

I guess I'll have to make some blind guesses about where I'm coming up short, and see if it changes anything, but if there's any advice I would have for hiring managers/business owners out there, it would be this:  Don't mistake being assertive with being aggressive.  Offering up contructive criticism of somebody's skills isn't equal to berating or bullying them (especially if they are asking for it explicitly!)

Home for the Holidays!

Well, I just booked my flight home for the holidays ... arriving in Halifax December 24th at 10:20am, and returning to Edmonton December 28th!  Gonna be great to be home, if only for a short time!

DOOM DOOM DOOM DOOM RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!111one

So I hear that a recession is coming, or it's already here.  How do I know this?  Because everyday, the newspaper and the TV is filled with predictions of doom; they're even dubbing it "Great Depression 2.0" ... good grief!

To all the folks in the media ... YES WE GET IT, times are more economically challenging than they were at this time last year, due to the market crashing (never mind that it happened in 1998, 1987, and in 1974, and the world didn't descend into the apocalypse) and credit freezing up temporarily.  There is no need to regurgitate that which we already know, or to speculate endlessly on nightmare scenarios, while ignoring inspirational stories of economic triumph that point the way out of our economic woes.

The point is, bellyaching about the state of the economy will NOT cure it ... promoting success stories that provide lessons on how ingenuity and perseverance overcome challenges just might!

Cliff Notes:  Whiners almost never achieve success, doers eventually will, in good times and bad times!    

Obama Landslide? I Hope So!

It's the eve of the U.S Election, and Obama is up between 6-12% over McCain .... whoo-hoo!

All you folks down in the States, get out and vote tomorrow, the Dems won't win unless you make it so!

Back Again...

I've ignored this blog for too long, as Facebook kinda filled the "what's going on in my life?" niche for a while.  But recently, I've come to realize that I miss the process of writing, so I'm going to start posting on here again ... besides, it adds depth that status updates can't provide!

Coming up this week, I'll let you know what's changed in my professional and personal life ... stay tuned!