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Hello, everyone! For our new subscribers, my name is Anna Tulchinsky and I am the editor of this newsletter as well as all other stuff that gets published on the PulseHR website. If you find this newsletter interesting and helpful, feel free to forward it to your friends and colleagues who are looking for a job and encourage them to subscribe.
Issue 13
March 11, 2003
C O N T E N T S:
1. Health related goodies
2. Canadian labour force survey: February 2003
3. Job interview: dealing with difficult questions
4. Interesting links
5. Conference
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Health related goodies
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· Smoking linked to cavities in kids
ROCHESTER, N.Y., March 11 (UPI) -- Young children exposed to secondhand smoke appear to have a greater risk of developing cavities and tooth decay, a study released Tuesday suggests.
Researchers led by Dr. C. Andrew Aligne, a pediatrician formerly with the University of Rochester and now the founder of Pediathink, a research consulting firm in Rochester, N.Y., examined the connection between secondhand smoke and oral health problems.
The team used data collected from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which was collected from 1988 to 1994. Information on 3,531 children, ages 4 to 11, were analyzed, including blood level measurements of cotinine, a byproduct of nicotine that serves as a marker for environmental tobacco smoke exposure.
· Short thighs carry higher diabetes risk
Women with short thighs are more likely to suffer diabetes than their longer-legged peers, reveals a new study.For every centimeter below average thigh length, a white American woman was 19 per cent more likely to have diabetes. They are also more likely to have glucose intolerance, the precursor to diabetes. "We found an inverse relationship between upper leg length and the two metabolic conditions," Keiko Asao, at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, told an American Heart Association conference on Friday.
· Hope for People with Deadly Peanut Allergy
BOSTON (Reuters) - Life-threatening reactions to peanuts may soon be a thing of the past for millions of people around the world who are allergic to the legume, researchers said on Monday in a finding that may also help prevent allergic reactions to other foods.
An experimental treatment that involved monthly injections successfully muted the severe reactions of people who risk death if they ingest the slightest amount of peanut protein, according to a study this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
"This is a huge advance for patients. Now they have something they can do in advance to protect themselves from accidental exposure," Hugh Sampson, one of the study's authors, told Reuters. "It allows them to go around and not be scared of their food. It really lifts a cloud."
Approximately 1.5 million Americans are allergic to peanuts, and 50 to 100 people in the United States die each year from anaphylactic shock after being exposed to the legume.
· Coffee, hormones affect Parkinson's risk
BOSTON, Mar 11, 2003 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Women who are heavy coffee drinkers and take hormone replacement therapy could be at a higher risk for developing Parkinson's disease, research released Tuesday suggested.
For women who take HRT and drink beverages with little or no caffeine, the risk was reduced, according to the study published in the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
Although previous studies have associated caffeine with a low risk for Parkinson's in men, data on women have been inconclusive. Dr. Alberto Ascherio's research suggests the ambiguity could be due to a previously unknown hormone factor.
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Canadian Labour Force Survey: February 2003
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After a pause in January, employment resumed its upward trend with an increase of 55,000 in February. Since the start of 2002, when employment began to pick up steam, job gains total 613,000 (+4.1%). Even with the increase in employment, the unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.4% in February, the result of more labour force participation.
In February, employment among youth aged 15 to 24 rose by 30,000, mostly in full-time. This increase more than offset the decline in January and pushed the youth unemployment rate down to 13.2% (-0.5 percentage points). A large share of the youth employment gains in February was among 15- to 19-year-old students in Ontario.
There was also added employment in February among adults. For adult women, the increase was 15,000, all in part-time jobs; among adult men, there was a slight gain of 10,000, nearly all in full-time. The unemployment rate among adult women was unchanged at 6.1%, but for adult men, the rate edged up 0.1 to 6.4%, as more men aged 25 and over joined the labour force in search of work.
Source: Statistics Canada
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Job interview: dealing with difficult questions
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Today we will talk about how to deal with *difficult* questions. But before I begin, I’d like to thank those of you who sent me your feedback. I am glad that what I am doing is useful, and I also hope that it will help you find the job you want! Once I collect enough of these emails, I will post them on the website for our clients to see (I only have 7 so far…I am not asking!)
If you were going to read just one book to prepare for the job interview and those *difficult* questions, I recommend the already famous What Color is Your Parachute (the latest edition). This book is the best I've read thus far on the subject. It will give you great advice whether you are a novice or experienced job seekers. It will be particularly useful if you are thinking of making a change in your career or have not been in the position of a job seeker for a long time.
The parachute book cleverly summarizes all numerous possible questions that you may be asked during the job interview into five (5) themes. And it's true, there will be nothing but these five themes at your next job interview.
This is what your employers will want to *find out* from you during the interview. Although the way job interview questions are formulated varies greatly, all of them would fall within one of these themes:
1. Why are you here? Why do you want this job?
your knowledge about their company/organization and work culture: do your research and express enthusiasm about working particularly for them, we talked about it before.
2. What can you do for us?
your qualifications as they relate to the job in question: see the job description and provide evidence to all of the points. Volunteer and provide those details and specifics that increase your chances of getting the job. Answer all questions in 4-5 sentences, not just *yes* or *no* or a few words (repeat what you wrote in your resume). Prepare to talk, but talk sense, and do not ramble.
3. What is it going to cost me to get you?
your salary expectations: do not discuss it even if you are pressed to do so. Not until you've gotten a job offer from them. If you are pressed really really hard (which is a good sign, since the employers do this only when they have very serious intentions), make a pause, smile, look them straight in the eye and say "can I take it that you are making me an offer now?” another pause, the smile is still on. “If yes, I am very delighted and prepared to discuss the salary topic...otherwise, I'd rather talk about the responsibilities I will be expected to carry out if you hire me for this job". Now, do not worry that you will make them angry. You won't. If your statement is gentle and supported by a friendly smile, your employers will not get angry. They will only respect you more, as they know the negotiating rules by heart and probably better than you! However, I recommend this approach for people at the intermediate or higher stage of their career. Recent grads probably shouldn’t use it as much.
4. How long before you become profitable for the company?
those desirable skills that you may not have or have very little of them. Here expect to be asked a lot of technical/professional questions. You should prepare for these questions in advance and have a proactive strategy of how to approach the skills that you don't have, see previous issue of this newsletter.
5. Are we going to get along? Will there be any social problems with you?
this is the topic I am going to talk about today
Let me start by saying that "social" or what I hypocritically call "difficult" questions are those questions that people call "annoying", "stupid" or "irrelevant" when they talk frankly with friends or family. While I quite agree with this opinion in general, I want to tell you why these questions are still in use and why they are important.
When employers ask you questions like "What are your weaknesses?", "Where do you see yourself five years from now?”, "what was the most challenging encounter with your colleagues in your previous experience" and "what did you do to fix it?" - they do not *really* expect you to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. No, what they are looking for is to see how you will handle this situation, what kind of answers you will give them, etc. They want to observe you and determine your psychological profile, plus in reality the majority of people prefer to tell the truth, if they don't see any immediate danger coming out of it, so in the end employers get a lot of useful *information* about you from the answers you give them to those stupid questions.
Instead of giving you a list of various *stupid* questions, I'll tell you what's behind them and how to answer them ALWAYS right.
When trying to evaluate your psychological profile during an interview (what a challenge in just one hour or so!!), employers follow certain guidelines communicated to them by the HR authorities or professional psychologists. These days, employers are advised to test the following:
· honesty
· integrity
· consciousness/reliability
· team work, and
· leadership/management potential.
· Sometimes, they may also test for violence (this is the most recent trend).
Employers are advised to throw those questions in together with the technical questions, so that the job seeker is caught off guard and replies in the most natural way.
- Now, how do they test honesty? - they ask questions such as "have you even been late for work?", "have you ever had a problem with your colleagues at work?". If you say no, you are either lying or taking them for a fool - both of which is bad for you! So watch out for those "always", "ever or never" questions.
- If they ask you whether you have ever witnessed anything criminal at work (someone getting drunk or using drugs or stealing) and if yes, what have you done about it, they are testing your integrity. In this case, it is safe to say no, never, because in regular office life crimes occur very seldom (thankfully) and it is very natural not to witness a crime ever at work. But if they ask you what would you do, if you have seen it, you should say that you would have definitely reported it to the proper authorities.
- When they ask you anything related to your colleagues, they want to see if you are going to be a good team player or not. They want to see if you are tactful and patient enough to deal with people on a regular basis (some jobs require more of these skills than others, of course!).
- When they ask you "where do you see yourself five years from now", they want to see if you have a clear plan for your future, because successful people with good managerial/leadership potential supposedly always know what they want from the future. They are testing your leadership skills. So you need to come up with some kind of a plan for your life (this would be useful anyway).
- So when they ask you if you think it's all right to get angry if you have good reasons to do so. What should you answer? Keeping in mind that they are testing you for potential violence here, you should probably tell them something like "while I do acknowledge that anger in some cases can be justifiable, in no way should people get angry or express their anger at work".
Your answers should be realistic and they should also reflect your genuine opinion. It often happens that job seekers get alarmed by hearing one of those questions, thinking that employers are setting some kind of a trap, and give answers they would not normally give under different circumstances, and as a result they unwittingly make bad impression. If you know what the "trap" is, you don't need to worry.
In the end, you need to remember that no company will hire you, if you demonstrate poor or inadequate social skills. During the interview, the representatives of the company responsible for hiring you want to find out (as much as it can be possible), if you would communicate effectively with your peers, respond to criticism in a calm and constructive manner, support your team members, etc. Nobody wants to spend 8 hours a day with an anti-social nihilist who criticizes everyone and makes everybody's life difficult, who doesn't shower or asks direct personal questions.
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Interesting links
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· British Medical Journal
Free information service - they e-mail you with information requested by you from a very detailed subject index when it appears in the journal. An excellent service. Good search facilities.
· NeLH (National Electronic Library for Health)
This is a U.K.-based organization. The NeLH pulls together over 70 electronic resources. The organization carries no advertising; it won't pass on your details to anyone else. The role of the NeLH will be to provide healthcare professionals and the public (through NHS Direct Online and the New Library Network) with knowledge and know-how to support decisions related to healthcare.
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Conference
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· Bio-ITWorld Conference & Expo
Hynes Convention Center, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. March 23 - 25, 2003
Bio-ITWorld Conference & Expo is the most comprehensive event in the life sciences industry to focus exclusively on the integration and utilization of information technologies across all life sciences discovery and development processes.
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- The End -
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To give me your feedback or ask a question, write to me at anna@pulsehr.com. I personally reply to all questions in the hope that my information and advice will be of help to people seeking employment, i.e. means to advance in life while supporting themselves and their loved ones. If you send me an email and do not receive a reply from me within two business days, there might have been a communication error or our server may have rejected your email, in which case please re-send your message.
Anna Tulchinsky
PulseHR Co-founder
+1 (613) 231-6308
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