Friday, February 10, 2012

Twitter/ business efficiency/ Microbusiness Training Centre

Feb. 6 Twitter: I got this article called "50 Hottest Twitter Hashtags for Job Seekers" from Florine Church. She emailed this to me through my blog. I am on Facebook and LinkedIn. On Facebook I'm usually saying on my status update on how I'm looking for a job. I emailed my college writing friends to see if they have writing jobs, and where and how they got it.

I even contacted my NAIT friends in 2010 when I was unemployed. I haven't seen them since 2005, but I got on Facebook and looked them up and asked about regular jobs. (It was before I got hired at my restaurant job that I'm currently working in.) I'm on LinkedIn, and I have a few college writing friends on my contact list. I also have two producers on it.

I guess I didn't exactly want to go on Twitter because I already use the internet so much. I'm constantly on job websites and applying to positions. I'm on two social networks already, and I have two blogs. One is personal and fun, and the other is for The Vertex Fighter.

Well might as well get on Twitter.

http://www.bachelorsdegreeonline.com/blog/2012/50-hottest-twitter-hashtags-for-job-seekers/

Feb. 8 LinkedIn: One of my Professional Writing friends has added me on Linked In. I then emailed all my friends to get on LinkedIn. A few weeks ago I put up my resume, and added my skills.

Business efficiency: I wanted to write about this earlier, but now that I met with my career counselor, it has triggered me to write it. It's kind of like a rant.

Call centres:

CC: Tell me about a time that you worked at a job that you didn't like. What did you do about it?
Me: I worked at Call Centre #5. I have worked at 3 other call centres before where I call people to do surveys. At this one, you call people to get them to donate money to a charity, which is harder. I also didn't like how they didn't run the place efficiently.

At my other call centres, you either have the computer or you dial the numbers on your own. I can make 6 phone calls in 1 min. As for Call Centre #5, you have to wait 1 or 2 min to make 1 call. If I was dialing the phone numbers, I would have made more phone calls and gotten way more completes.

CC: It sounds like your impatient. So you have to wait 1 or 2 min. to make a phone call? That doesn't seem like a big deal.

Well I guess, not to her. At the call centres I worked at, they always talk about "flow." Team leaders always say: "You have to make as many phone calls as possible. You have to get as many completes as possible. You have to always be dialing." Call Centre #5 wasn't a good environment. There were 2 TVs on in the office. That's because when you're waiting for the computer to be dialing, you are staring into space. So you stare at the TV instead.

At the 4 other call centres I worked at, there wasn't a TV. (This includes Call Centre #4 where I worked for a day.)

Fruit place: I then told CC if this was a stronger answer.

Me: I worked at temporary part-time position for the holidays. I thought the manager ran the place well, but I did have one nitpick with it. He says loudly: "Get strawberries from the fridge." Then someone will say: "Got it!" However, there were a couple of times he has said: "This is second time I said to get strawberries from the fridge!"

I then told him that he should say one of our names first, and then tell us what to get from the fridge. That way, as soon as we hear our names, we pay attention. There is a lot of noise there like the radio is on, and phones are ringing. So he should say our names. He then told me that he's not going to say our names, because he has been running the place like this all the time, and it has worked that way for years, and he's not going to change. I then dealt with it by just keeping my ears open.

CC did say that was a stronger answer.

Juice Place #2: Here's one more example. I worked at Juice Place #2 for a very short time, and I didn't like it. It was a small place, and they weren't very efficient. It was because their supplies and food were all downstairs. Say there's a long line, and usually 1 or 2 of us have to go downstairs to get the food we ran out of.

We have to wait for an elevator, go downstairs, wheel the cart to get to the fridge. That's like 2-3min. Then we get the food and wheel it back to the elevator. We wait for the elevator, and go upstairs and unload it. That takes up to 5-6min. just to get more food. They should have opened their place in a location that was big enough to have the store front, and the back front to put their food in.

In Juice Place #1, there was a store front. When someone calls to say: "Get pineapples." 1 person walks 5 steps to the back, and gets the pineapples, and puts it in the store front. That probably took 15secs. Juice Place #1 was an average place to work at. The pro was they ran it efficiently. The con was that you seem to work so hard, and you only get paid 20 cents above min. wage.

Law of attraction: Here's a random thing. I was thinking about Call Centre #5, and then a charity called me yesterday asking for money.

Microbusiness Training Centre: Do you remember how a few months ago I thought of starting my own TV production company? That's because I couldn't get my The Vertex Fighter script produced.

I went to this 1hr and a half info session at the Microbusiness Training Centre. It was informative. The presenter is nice and friendly. It's a private company and it provides a self-employment program. It's funded by the Govt. Employment and Immigration.

Microbusiness has been here for 16yrs and has helped 1,600 companies.

25 week course:

Part 1-Classroom training: 9 weeks, Mon.-Fri. It's full-time learning. (Planning.)
Part 2-Coaching program: It's coaching and mentoring for 16 weeks to get your business off the ground. (Start.)
Part 3- Mentoring for another 6 months to grow your business. (Grow.)

Cybf.ca: Canadian Youth Business Foundation helps with start-up businesses. If you are 34 yrs old and under.

The Business Link: I also got this brochure called The Business Link. It provides info sessions at affordable prices. There are sessions like "Payroll Basics" for $10. It's 1hr and half long. "Preparing a Business Plan" is 3hrs long for $40.

Here's the website:

www.canadabusiness.ab.ca

Feb. 9 Questions: You have to fill out this little booklet that asks questions about your personality and your business idea.

Personality:
"If you were a top student in school, subtract 4. If not, add 4."
"If you enjoyed group activities (clubs, team sports), subtract 1. If you didn't, add 1."

Business: "Why do you think customers will choose your business over that of your competitors?"
"Give 3 reasons why you think it is a feasible business?"

There's the scoring, and if you scored low: They tell you to work for a company or for someone else. Develop a career or technical expertise that fits you.

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