How to Nail an Interview

Are you sitting at your desk at home or at your current job that you are unhappy with? Do you count the minutes until you get to go home? Do you dream of bettering yourself and finding a career? Did you graduate and still work at the place you did during the time you were in school??  If you answered yes to any of the above questions, you have come to the right spot!! Trust me you are not alone. I graduated in May of 2011 and I am still working for the same company I did when I was going to school. There is no room for me to grow here and if there was, I am not sure if I would want to.

Another question. Do you hateeeee when people ask what do you want to be when you grow up??? ME TOO. I am still so young and trying to figure out my purpose in life. I want to learn and experience and find what I want to be, I don't want to have to choose just yet. Yes, there are people who knew they were going to be a nurse since the age of 2, but there are also many of us who still to this day have no idea. Well, i've decided i'm going to get my shhhheat together and do something with my life. So if you are just like me, pay attention to the following tips about how to nail an interview and get your dream job.

1. You MUST be confident not cocky. Even if you are sweating from head to toe, you need to act cool and calm and let your interviewer know that 'you got dis'. Tell yourself over and over that you are the perfect fit for this job and you are the candidate they are looking for.
2. Do your research!!! You need to look up everything about the company and the position, take notes and understand their mission statement
3. Write good questions to ask. ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS. An interview is a two way interview. The company wants to know you did your research and are actually interested in them and not just getting paid. Make a list of 10-15 questions and ask as you are going along. It is okay to bring a notepad with the questions, no need to memorize and make yourself freak out even more.
4. Spruce up your resume. Make sure you get just the right amount of information out there but do not give too much detail, that is what an interview is for. Ask for help! If you want your resume to look/ sound better, ask someone with more experience to help give you tips for your layout. Be simple. Keep it to one page. Use key words.
5. Keep good eye-contact and really listen to what they are saying. You don't want to not pay attention and ask a question that was already answered.
6. Always speak positively. Even if you loath your current job, dont bring that up in the interview. Do not get too personal, focus more on the job you are interviewing for.
7. Make sure to eat and drink before. You don't want to be in the middle of the interview and have your stomach start growling. Also, in case you are super nervous its good to eat something before so you don't pass out.
8. Make sure you know how to get to the building and know how long it will take you. It is TERRIBLE to show up to an interview late. DO NOT DO IT! Always show up early if you can.
9. Sell yourself. You know why you are great for the company, tell them! Be comfortable, let them see your personality. 
10. Do a follow up email right when you get home. Thank them for meeting with you and restate why you believe you are the best candidate for the job. Let them know you are available if they have any questions that were left unanswered.
11. Lastly, dress for the part! Wear neutral colors and nothing revealing. Take it easy on the makeup and jewelry. Pearl earrings and watch are perfect.

BE YOURSELF!

Now go out there and kill em!! Good luck :)

Oh how pinteresting!

Happy Wednesday/ Hump day everyone!This is my first time linking up with Michelle at The Vintage Apple to show you some of the recent things i've pinned!

I love finding motivation stuff on Pinterest!

In love with these H&M shoes, I wish I could find them

Def making this for Thanksgiving but using marshmallow fluff

This image makes me happy

I wish I had organizing things like this! I love white/neutrals with a pop of color

I.Want.Now

My dream kitchen

Such a cute DIY project to make for the kitchen or front walkway

Reminds me of Lilly, how can you say no to the face!

This color combination is really in the season. 

So perfect for a little boys room!

Salivation in 3...2...1.. mmmm stuffed cabbage

I could wear this outfit all day everyday if i had to...

...and this...

...and this.

Link up with Michelle and share your Pinterest favorites!
Have a great day!

Organization on the Brain!

So lately I have been OBSESSED with organizing and finding different ways to manage my day-to-day life. In my search for some organizing tips I came across a blog called I Heart Organizing. Jen (the blogger) shows you ways to organize and redecorate your home. I also found some awesome print outs, check em out!

There are wayyyyy more free printables to choose from! If you like what you see and you want to download them for yourself, you really need to link up below and give Jen a visit! 

                                        

While I was on the I heart organizing page, another blog caught my attention. See Jane Work is another blog about how to take a space and make it decorative but useful and organized. I can not wait until I have money to make my home beautiful and have a amazing office space. For now, all I can do is live through blogs, pinterest and ikea/target... sigh. So after navigating around the blog I saw that there was a place for me to actually buy stuff! So i browsed... and browsed... added a few things to my shopping cart.. and browsed (if you havent caught on I will do anything to get distracted from my work). Needless to say, by the time I was done looking through all the categories I had almost $100 worth of stuff in my shopping cart. I obviously would never spend that much on decorating/organization things at this time, but its always nice to pretend I can afford everything I want. Here are some of the things I "pretended" I was going to purchase.

Some one please buy me all of these things. I told myself that if/when I get a better job, I will allow myself to go a little crazy with decorating. Its sad that my motivation to look for jobs is the possibility of buying new clothes and home/office accessories. If you like organizing and have about 2 hours to spare, go check out See Jane Work, you will not be disappointed!

I will leave you with a picture of my pup Lilly. I used an app called Aviary to add funny stickers to her face. I feel like this picture describes her personality. ENJOY!

P.S Hocus Pocus (my all-time favorite Halloween movie) is on!!! 

What's your favorite Halloween movie??

High Five For Friday!

 

Okay, so here is some of what has been going on in my life the past week/ descriptions of the pictures I posted yesterday. I promise I will have better posts next weeek! 

1. Brent's sisters B-day was last Friday, October 12th and Brent's b-day was October 17th so we had a joint celebration with their family on Sunday night at Fuji Hibachi. If you have not been to a Hibachi, you need to go asap! It is such a fun experience. They make the food right in front of you and everything tastes sooo good. It is a little pricey for an ordinary night but it would definitely be a cute double or triple date spot.
2. Sunday morning was the Ravens Vs. Cowboys game so I cuddled up on the couch in my sweats with my pup Lilly and Brent's parents doggie Bentley. (Yes, he is wearing a Cowboys jersey) I have grown up a Ravens fan, but Brent's whole family is Cowboys fans so I now consider myself both 
3. I needed to get somethings for work to organize my desk/ life. I picked up this awesome clipboard/folder/notepad. The top is a clipboard as you see and when you open it there is a folder and a pad of paper for notes. Its perfect. I love it! Also, this summer I had seen a huge black and white tote that I wanted so bad because it was super cute and it would be a great travel bag. It cost $20 some dollars and I said no way, I don't need it so i'm not buying it. Welllllll, I saw it there this past week and it was only $5.49!!! I had to get it, that's a steal!!! So its mine! I will post a pic soon.
4. SOOOOOOO, as I said before Brent is a Cowboys fan. A HUGE Cowboys fan. When he found out they were playing the Ravens almost a year ago, he made sure to remind me almost everyday how he wanted tickets for his birthday considering they were playing 3 days before it. I did my research and concluded that there was absolutely no way I could afford tickets for that game unless he wanted to watch from the sky-high seats. Well, my work sent out an email months ago asking if anyone wanted Ravens tickets for a pre-season game. It then clicked!! My company has Ravens tickets, they just don't normally hand them out, the CEO usually takes her family. I immediately emailed her and explained my story. BOOOM! She said i could have two tickets. After weeks of waiting to physically hold the tickets to know its real, I got them and what did I see??? The most amazing seats ever! 8th row from the field, 50 yard line AND on Visitors side! I knew he would flip. I held this secret from him for weeks. I wanted to tell him the night before the game so he would think there was no chance of him going. Also, my dad had gotten him 2 on field passes from his work so Brent was able to go on the field and watch the teams practice before the game, every guys dream. Being a good girlfriend, I let his dad have the second ticket because I knew they would be able to enjoy the game together since they both love football.
   

Sorry for the blurry pics, he couldn't stop smiling!

    5. Ill keep this one brief. There have been alot of structural changes at my

       job that I am not so happy about. Soooo I have been looking for other

        options and going on some interviews. This is what I wore! Blazer and

       top from Target, pants from TJ MAXX (I believe the brand is from Express 

       though) and shoes from DSW. (Please excuse the cheesy smile) Keep 

       your fingers crossed for me!!!

Hook up with Lauren @FMGD!

MIA!

I have been SUPER busy this past week. I have experienced a lot of emotions: happy, nervous, frustrated, angry, excited, anxious.. the list goes on. Here is a breakdown of some happy things from the past few days in pictures. I will try to find time soon to do a full week recap and fill you in with everything!! Stay tuned :)

High Five for Friday!

I have been superrrrr busy this week, I haven't gotten a chance to post anything exciting. I have been going through some up and downs with work this week but I'm hoping next week will bring some good news. Keep fingers crossed for me! Anyway, here are my five favs of the weeek....

1. My boyfriend (who's name is Brent... I will start referring to him as Brent from now on haha) went home on Monday and brought back the most delicious enchiladas ever that his mom made! She is a great cook, I am hoping to get some of her recipes one day 
2. I got a notice in the mail from my car insurance that my monthly payment has decreased $40! I am so pumpedddd. The more money I am able to save, the happier I am.
3. I love my drive to work in the morning in the Fall!
4. Brent called me and told me that his mom planned a Family photoshoot for when we come visit this weekend. WHAT?!? I have split ends and no shape to my hair! I immediately called the girl that cuts my hair and set up an appointment. Nothing special just a trim and some more layers. The trim was much needed let me just tell you. Here's the finished product.
5. Colder weather calls for long PJ's! My favorite VS pajamas that Brent bought me for Christmas last year...soo comff

How was your week?

Link up with Lauren @ FMGD and share your Friday favorites!

Weekend Breakdown

Tuesday morning, we meet again...sigh. Anyway, I have some fun stuff to share about my weekend. On Friday, I learned that I will be taking over someones position at my work. I am excited yet nervous about this news. There has been a lot of new changes at my work because the President was let go and they are working on moving forward and basically reinventing the whole company. With that being said, I believe they are trying to make me a hybrid for two different departments since I did a bunch of everything when I was an intern. So basically, new job...potentially more money??? There are no specific details yet but I will definitely be updating when I find out more information. Cross your fingers!!!! Secondly, approximately 15 min before I left work on Friday the VP came up to me and asked if I was an Orioles Fan (I live in Maryland). I proceeded to pull open my zip-up and show him the Orioles shirt I was wearing. He said "if they win tonight, you are going to the game on Sunday". WHAT?!?! My boyfriend and I are beyond excited because they haven't done this good since like 1994 and it's the playoffs. 

I called to tell my boyfriend to tell him the news and after he expressed his excitement he said my favorite 6 words... "Want to go to Red Robin???" Of course I do!! So I immediately went on the website to pick out my meal. If you eat at Red Robin and haven't been to their Calorie Counter/Nutrition page you really need to check it out. You don't realize how much calories are in everything, it's crazy.

I ended up getting the California Chicken Sandwich. As you can see from the chart above, the original sandwich with the complementary fries totaled to 1177 calories.. that's almost the amount of calories a person should eat for the whole day!! I decided I could do without the bacon and mayo, supplemented the fries for steamed broccoli, and changed my bun into a lettuce wrap. My customized meal totaled up to be only 318 calories... a huge difference! Since I had calculated such a low calorie meal, I allowed myself to split a appetizer with my boyfriend.. mmmm try not to salivate in 3...2...1...

Saturday I worked on updating my blog allllll day. I googled different tips and codes to try and spruce it up. (If anyone has any tip/pointers please let me know!!! I am still so new to thiss) I was trying to change the look of my Blog title but can not figure it out for the life of me. Sunday was game day. We heard there were going to be showers all day but it just looked cloudy  When the time came for us to leave, the forecast showed the rain was moving out so we were beyond excited. We got all suited up in Orioles gear and headed downtown. We arrived around 5pm (game started at 6) and it took us forever to find a spot to park in and the price of parking was ridiculous everywhere, but hey the tickets were free so I can complain too much. We finally made it to our seats which THANKFULLY were under the overlay because it had began to rain... and rain and rain and rain. Game didn't start until 8:40. I was sooo surprised they didn't postpone it for the next day but the skies cleared up and it was time to play ball! The game was close the whole time until the 9th inning when the Yankees smoked us. Overall it was a great game and an fun experience. Since the game was postponed almost 3 hours because of the rain, we didn't end up getting home until 1:30am. We immediately gave the pup some lovin and then went right to sleep. So there's my weekend!! Hope you all enjoyed yours :)

P.S. Walking Dead Starts this Sunday!!!! If you share my obsession, let me know!

                                                          Small Girl in a Big World