Stranded in Bangkok equals lots of waiting and waiting and waiting

The good news is I’m safe and I have food and a place to stay. The bad news is protesters have taken over the Suvarnabhumi International Airport and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight any time soon.

I was scheduled to leave for Manila yesterday morning. I was packed and ready to go but, uncharacteristically, decided to glance at the local newspaper as I headed out the door. The headline read “PAD shuts Suvarnabhumi.” I didn’t know what PAD stood for at the time (People’s Alliance for Democracy) and i wasn’t quite sure if that was my airport, but the secondary blurbs caught my attention “Thousands stranded as outbound flights canceled,” “Army refuses to step in to boost airport security,” “Somchai to call emergency meeting of security agencies.” I might have been half asleep when I picked up the paper, but I woke up in a hurry.

So that was yesterday at 6am in Bangkok. Updates have been few and far between.

I’m lucky to have some awesome friends and colleagues. As it turned out, I don’t have a global phone–in retrospect, not the best idea when traveling to Singapore, Bangkok and Manila (oh, and i missed the Manila leg of the work trip). But, because I was only going to be out of the country for a few days, I thought I could use calling cards and emails to stay connected with friends and family. And that’s where my support network has checked in. Everyone has been offering to help me find transportation, update my family back in PA, and otherwise giving me a lot of moral support.

For the most part, I’ve been able to remain pretty cool. Except for when I was on the phone with a travel company and the person I was speaking with told me she didn’t believe their insurance policy covered war. Needless to say, at this point I’m really not too worried about their policy on war. Hilarious.

Then news of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai. Reading about that conflict really made me appreciate having safety, food, and a place to stay.

I’m not sure when I’m going to get out of Bangkok but I hope it’s soon. That’s all for now.

This just in…you probably want to monitor what you put on Facebook

According to a story that appeared on WRAL.com today, it appears that there are still a few people out there who have somehow missed one of the what seems to be 7000 or so articles and news stories about the importance of filtering the stuff you put on Facebook. And this story comes on the heels of the New England Patriots dismissing one of their cheerleaders for some offensive pictures that were posted online.

Before you post anything online, use a little common sense and stop and think about how will it impact your microcelebrity both good and bad.

10 things every job seeker must know before they interview

As a career counselor, I spend most of my time shaking my fist in the air, warning clients that they need to do their homework before they reach out to potential employers. But I never seem to spend enough time focusing on what “doing their homework” really means. So, that prompted me to come up with this handy dandy list. And, before you get to excited, just to be clear—these are the things you need to know at a bare minimum. This list is by no means exhaustive.

 

1. Current stock price (if publicly traded). If you, your roommate, your neighbor, or your Aunt Joan have a computer with internet access, there’s really no reason you shouldn’t be able to find the company’s stock price in a minute or less. Check Yahoo! Finance. 
2. Number of employees. Usually found on the company website (if they have one). It’s unlikely that they’ll ask you about the number of employees directly, but knowing this information can give you perspective on their scale and global footprint.
3. Name of the CEO. The interviewer says “Yes, Warren Buffet was featured in The Wall Street Journal today” and you respond by saying “I really like that song about Margaretville.” Is my example a stretch? Yes. But it’s something that trips up a lot of job seekers.
4. Location(s). You say “I’d really like to work in your San Francisco office.” They say “We don’t have a San Francisco office.” It happens all the time. Make sure you know their locations and, in a perfect world, whether they’re recruiting specifically for those offices before you stress how much you want to work in a certain geographic area. You can get picky about location once you have an offer. Most medium- to large-sized companies will list their locations on their website.
5. Products and services. Make sure you know who they are and what they do before you show up for your interview. This is especially true about knowing their brands for those looking to work for those wanting to work for consumer packaged goods companies like Kraft.
6. Their industry or industries. They say “Are you interested in working in the healthcare industry?” You say “Not particularly” and you’re interviewing with a company in the healthcare industry. I say “no job offers for you!”
7. Key competitors. This one is a little trickier to find because it sometimes requires a little more research (i.e. you’re probably not going to find it on the company’s homepage). Start by checking Yahoo! Finance.
8. Recent (including day of) news stories about the company. If it was positive and it made the news, interviewers are almost always going to bring it up. If you respond by saying you didn’t get a chance to read the article before the interview, you’re going to be at a disadvantage. And no, that doesn’t mean you should bluff your way through it by saying you had read it.
9. Specific reasons, based on your research, that you’re interested in the company. This means more than “You’re a big company located in (insert city here).” Why do really want to work for them instead of one of their competitors? Is it their culture? Their vision? The people you’ve met who work there.
10. Specific questions, based on your research, that you have about the company and the position. Good questions incorporate your research and go beyond the most ineffective, generic, and lame question of all time “What’s a typical day like?”  

 

Showing up for an interview is only the beginning. The web has made researching companies and industries a whole lot easier. But that also means accessing that information is easier for anyone who has a computer…even your Aunt Joan. If you’re going to come away with an offer, you’ve got to outprepare the competition…and that means you’re going to have to do a lot more research than clicking on one to two links on a company’s website.