In a recently released Gallup poll only 17% of Americans said they were satisfied with the way things are going in the United States. Compare this with the yearly average satisfaction rate of 22% and this is the lowest rate expressed this year by the public. 24% of those polled stated that unemployment was the main problem.

On the lighter side of things an article found on fox40.com describes the story of a 74 year old man in South Carolina whom cut the California State Treasury a check for $10,000. Apparently Dennis Ferguson had collected unemployment for five months totaling no more than $1,100 while living in the state over 45 years ago. He then used that money to pay for temporary housing and to take some computer programming classes. Mr. Ferguson was able to get back on his feet and moved to South Carolina, now 46 years later he has decided to pay back the unemployment funds he collected with interest. “When contacted by the Treasurer, Ferguson simply said anyone who gets help when they are down, ought to give something back. When asked why $10,000, the man just said it seemed like a nice round number.”

What we have here is a classic good news/bad news situation. This afternoon, Friday December 17th, President Obama signed into law the bitterly contested package deal which included tax cuts and, most importantly for this blog, unemployment extensions.

Pros:

1. Covered workers from this new legislation who have up to this point been collecting one of the four tiers of benefits, ranging from 34 to 53 weeks under the Emergency Unemployment Compensation, will be able to move to the next tier.
2. Likewise, those unemployed works collecting benefits by way of the Extended benefits program, which for those living in states with especially high unemployment provides 13 to 20 weeks of additional benefits, will also continue to receive benefits.
3. Lastly those who are closing in on having collected 26 weeks of state unemployment benefits are allowed to change over to the federal unemployment benefits program once they have run out of those state benefits.

I have been reading a lot about the battle for the extension of the unemployment benefits going on between the Democrats and the Republicans in the House and Senate and I thought I would just go through some bullet points about how it affects you. I will include some of the articles on the topic at the bottom for you to take a glance at.

1. Yesterday, Monday December 13th, the Senate basically voted to pass President Obama’s tax-cut package which has included within it an extension for unemployment benefits.

2. The current proposed extension does not include a tier 5 of additional weeks of benefits for those whom have exhausted the maximum number of weeks in the state in which they live. People falling into this category have recently been termed 99ers, referring to the 99 weeks of eligibility of which they have used up.

3. After it officially passes in the Senate it will be received on the floor of the House where Democrats may try to amend certain details pertaining to the attached tax cuts for the wealthy, in particular the estate tax. What this means for those whose unemployment benefits may have run out is help may not be on its way until all of this political back and forth has been settled.

“Although this deal includes important measures I have fiercely advocated for, extending Bush tax cuts for the very wealthy will saddle our children with billions of dollars of debt,” she added. “With unemployment near 10 percent and a growing budget deficit, every dollar in this deal should be spent in a way that creates jobs and gets our economy growing, and tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires do not create jobs and will not help our economy grow.”

~ A take on the whole situation from Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat, of New York. Just goes to show you that there is no easy answer in this era of partisan politics.

Sources:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/13/senate-advances-tax-cut-package/?hp

http://www.examiner.com/unemployment-in-national/senate-votes-for-unemployment-benefits-extension-deal-without-tier-5-for-99ers

At this point it is safe to say that there is no easy fix to the economic doldrums we find ourselves mired in. Unless FDR can postmark a “Newer, Better, Deal” from the grave I am weary of any more stimulus plans coming from the White House. At the same time the other side of the aisle is not exactly providing any convincing arguments on how to fix this whole mess. The approach of cutting taxes, halting “reckless” spending, and letting the economy figure things out for itself sounds a bit scary.

To paint a mental picture, the economy is at this point a blackout drunk stuck inside a building dosed in gasoline set aflame. We all watched as he took those sub-prime mortgage shots, and we all pretended not to see when Wall Street put that lamp shade over his head, and when things got too crazy to handle we poured some flammable consumer spending all over his house, then we lit the match.

Now we were all at this party, the facebook invite was accepted by all, and it was a really, really good time. So lets not play the blame game on who  is responsible for what, cause the economy is still in the building, and its burning fast. So back to the point at hand, dumping endless piles of money on the flames seemed like a good idea at first. But now it seems like the fire may have just gotten bigger for the time being, I can’t really tell. At the same time I am pretty positive that the economy will die if we just wait for the flames to extinguish by themselves, remember the economy is super drunk, I do not think he is waking up on his own any time soon. We need to get in there and get him out before it is to late.

Now I called 911, and emergency operator Ben Bernanke assured me that the fire trucks would be there soon, then he said they took a wrong turn, and now he is pretty sure they are on the way. But lets forget about that for just a moment, what can we do right now, right at this very moment to start putting out this blaze.

The Bush Tax Cuts offer just such an opportunity. Congress is split on the issue, do we extend them for everyone forever or do we only extend them for the people below the $250,000 tax bracket? My answer, neither, what if we just dramatically increased taxes for the super rich. Now before you fall out of your chair Bill Gates (Yes Bill, I am aware you are an avid reader) let us first consider the facts.

I recently read a New York Times article written by former Clinton Secretary of Labor, Robert Reich. In it he lays the claim for my very argument. “Where have all the economic gains gone? Mostly to the top. The economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty examined tax returns from 1913 to 2008. They discovered an interesting pattern. In the late 1970s, the richest 1 percent of American families took in about 9 percent of the nation’s total income; by 2007, the top 1 percent took in 23.5 percent of total income.”

Reich goes on further to explain why this is not a great thing for our buddy the economy:

“The rich spend a much smaller proportion of their incomes than the rest of us. So when they get a disproportionate share of total income, the economy is robbed of the demand it needs to keep growing and creating jobs. What’s more, the rich don’t necessarily invest their earnings and savings in the American economy; they send them anywhere around the globe where they’ll summon the highest returns — sometimes that’s here, but often it’s the Cayman Islands, China or elsewhere. The rich also put their money into assets most likely to attract other big investors (commodities, stocks, dot-coms or real estate), which can become wildly inflated as a result.”

So while I am still a little afraid of letting Uncle Sam point the hose, I consider it a much better option then letting the top 1% of this country keep hogging all the water. So sorry to say it Bill, but I hope the government taxes the hell out of you. Maybe then we could finally get going on getting the economy out of that house and into a decent rehab center.

The popularity of on campus interviews with employers now-a-days is through the roof. Employers are dedicating large parts of their recruiting budgets to become the power house employer of certain schools. For example, for the past few years at Penn State University the Supply Chain Career Fair has been held on campus in the Business Building. Find our more here, Penn State Supply Chain Career Fair. Large companies such as Dell, ExxonMobil, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Lockheed Martin, and Unilever all pay Penn State for the opportunity to participate in the career fair each year. College students are highly sought after, period. You, the college student, need to know how to prepare and present yourself at an on campus career fair. You have one goal in mind, the on campus interview! I’ll help you get there.

The Recipe

Ingredients (in order of importance): Confidence

Add that to these steps, and hey, you will be on your way to landing the interview.

So you have the best resume possible, right? Do you? Make sure you do. Utilize the resources on campus to write your resume, have as many people possible look at it and accept their criticism with a smile. Seek out your friends who are “in the know” about these things, we all have them. Make yourself look good on paper because if you aren’t meeting them in person first, this is the first way they are meeting you.

You have to spend some time on your resume. Make sure to elaborate on everything you’ve done that you think is relevant. Flush out the boring and useless line items. You didn’t just “Worked on preparing the budget” … instead you “Reorganized the $150,000 Draft 2010 Recruiting Budget”. Use action words such as “Reorganized” at the beginning of sentences and use cold hard numbers as much as possible. A list of action words can be found here, Resume Action Words. Show initiative, responsibility, team work, time management, and dedication as much as possible.

When you do finally meet them in person, you have to know how to sell yourself. Dress well, smile often, hand shake when the time is right, and keep a positive attitude at all times. Be someone they want to be around, someone they could see themselves working with. You can be the smartest person there, but if you aren’t keeping a positive upbeat attitude, you may get passed over.

Study what you have on your resume, you should know it already, you lived it. Think about what you’ve done and relate experiences to things employers may want to hear. Have certain stories and examples ready to fire when the moment is right, you want to impress them. A really good story that everyone usually has is the story of time management. I can not stress how important time management is to employers out there. Many of you will have managed working 20+ hours a week while maintaining 18 credits of class, and still going out on the weekends. Make sure the employer realizes this. They will see that you work hard, and still maintain friendships. This speaks volumes about a person.

Use words like “love” and “very interested”. Show enthusiasm while speaking to the employers. If you know who you may be talking to at a career fair, do some research on those firms. If they just released a new product, take note of it and bring it up in conversation. Maybe they just acquired another company, note that as well and bring it up in conversation. It will open you up to a whole array of subjects to talk about with them, and they will be impressed with your preparation. You want them to know you are serious, seriously.

To summarize, make sure you spend time on your resume, know your experiences and be prepared to talk about them, sell yourself with examples of dedication, do your homework, and carry a positive attitude.

Get out there and get that interview. I’ll tell you how to nail the interview in a later post.

Just as before we are waiting for the number of registered job seekers to hit 5,000, a goal that we grow closer to attaining with each passing day. So give us a shout out on your blog, tell your family, tell your friends, tell your dog. The sooner we get to 5,000 the sooner we get to start accepting employers and thats when the real fun will begin.

At PlentyofResumes.com we aim to break down these barriers, and we think that cutting the cost down to $0 is a great way to start. So in short if you were looking for a reason to not sign up at PlentyofResumes.com, I am afraid you are just plain out of luck. We are Free, Fast, and only just getting started!

Please do not hesitate to shoot us an email or leave a comment right here on the blog, excited to hear some feedback.