TipsFocus.com

When you receive a face-to-face interview, make sure you had done enough homework for the job you apply. What range of your prospective job? Learn as many as possible about the company, the position or other kinds of information that could do you a favor when you get a offer from the prospective company.

Once your future employer makes you and offer you could bring up the compensation package. If you’re asked what are your requirments for the salary, tell that they are based on the position and the compensation package. Or ask the employer more about the responsiblities and the challnges will be met during working, then you could discuss the salary. (continue reading…)

With the progress of society,  more and more companies trend to make an interview through phone to cut down people to the face-to-face interview.

What make the company or recruiter turn to phone interview?
– cost is less.
–conveniet.Qestions could be standard.
–easy to control.

If you are a job hunter,  please pay more attention about how to handle a telephone interview which would help you to an interview in person.

Make sure you would prepare to interview,  such as compile you strengths and weaknesses,  also some typical question would be asked during the interview.

*Remember the item on your resume,  because recuiter would ask questions according to the resume they received. Keep in mind of you accomplishments which would discuss.  You’d better put the resume around the phone.

*Prepare a pen and paper around you can use during the interview.

*Stay in a quiet place to listen to the interview call.

*You’d better switch off you call-waiting during interview.  Some points need to pay attention during phone interview.

*Chew gum is not welcomed,neither smoke or eating.

*Keep smiling.  Smile would change your voice to let the interviewee feel you are happy to talk with him/her.Smile is useful for mostly of the time.

*Do not interrupt the interviewee. They don’t want someone who would interrupt them during the interview.

*Give the brief answer.

*Use the title(Mr./Ms)

You must keep in mind that the phone interview is try to cut down the unsatisfied person. Nobody could see you during the phone call.  So your goal during the phone interview is try your best to build up a face-to-face interview. Take note during the interview,  then after the interview you could get a feedback. Practice as more as possible before you would get a phone interview.And learn more about the companies which would call you.

Good luck!

Citigroup, widely seen as the sickest Wall Street bank, will make some of the most severe cuts in the history of U.S. business – 53,000 jobs – as it tries to slash costs and get back to basics before it’s too late.

Those figures are posted on the company’s Web site as part of a town hall presentation that CEO Vikram Pandit is giving today to employees in New York.  According to AP, the Citigroup spokesman said the cuts would be across the board. It is not known how many of those job will be in Orange County.

The cuts, which will leave Citi about 20 percent smaller, are the latest step in a stunning remaking of the American banking landscape since the financial meltdown, an upheaval that has included the demise of storied investment houses and the conversion of others into commercial banks.

Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit met with employees Monday and laid out the bank’s strategy in stark terms: “We are a bank. What does a bank do? A bank takes deposits and puts them to work by investing and making loans.”

Sun Microsystems announced today that it will cut 5,000 to 6,000 jobs to align its costs to deal with the venerable economy. It will be one of the largest tech layoffs this year.

Sun said the layoffs announced today should allow the company to reduce annual costs by $700 million to $800 million, starting in its next full quarter. But it also said it will incur one-time costs of $500 million to $600 million as a result of the layoffs over the next 12 months.

The cuts at Sun had been predicted by some analysts, who were expecting the company to announce significant moves to shore up its business, especially after a Tennessee investment firm recently disclosed that it had bought 21 percent of Sun’s stock. Representatives of Southeastern Asset Management said last month that they planned to have discussions with Sun “and/or third parties” about improving the stock value.

Sun Microsystems is one of several computing companies suffering as companies and individuals spend less on computers. Companies have been forced to cut prices to compete for business as consumers’ purse strings tighten. Earlier this year, Dell announced it would sack 8,800 people.

And Dave Douglas will head a Cloud Computing & Developer Platform division, with cloud-based services including NetBeans and StarOffice.

The number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose by an unexpectedly steep 32,000 last week to 516,000, the highest level since the weeks following the September 11, 2001 attacks, the Labour Department said.

U.S. imports fell by a record 5.6 percent in September and exports suffered their steepest drop since September 2001, narrowing the monthly trade deficit slightly more than expected, a U.S. Commerce Department report showed on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the U.S. trade deficit narrowed sharply in September as the wilting economy sent purchases of foreign oil, cars, and other goods made overseas tumbling.

In addition, the number of workers still on the benefit rolls after drawing an initial week of aid hit 3.9 million in the week to November 1, the highest since January 1983. (continue reading…)

Discount retailer National Wholesale Liquidators said on Monday that General Electric cut its credit availability by $15 million over the last few weeks, putting a “major hardship” on its ability to pay current and past bills.

“It’s really a bank-financing issue,” Robert Pidgeon, the discounter’s director of personnel, said yesterday. “We are caught in the credit crunch of the world.” (continue reading…)

With the economy crisis, the U.S. credit card industry has been affected. The increase in credit card breach of contract, and credit card issuing institutions have also taken measures to shrink the business. Americans have never been so in sync with the American economy.

Could the credit card crisis be the next big issue in this big economy crisis leading to credit card bailout?

The problems could already be affecting some consumer’s finances and is the reason for growing talk of a possible credit card bailout

That bailout wouldn’t be for the card companies, but rather for card holders.

With a slow economy, high unemployment and winter as well as the holidays coming, the possibility that banks will incur more bad debt without even welcoming any new debt, is a reality.

As we move forward, as our economy transitions into whatever it will be and as new challenges arise, for business owners and credit card holders, the ability to process monetary transactions electronically is an capability that we cannot afford to lose.

Consumer groups are now calling for a bailout of credit card customers. Proposals would change the law, making it easier for credit card companies to reduce the debt of anyone close to bankruptcy.

“What they’re going to find is they’re going to have to pony up. And the worst case, there is going to be liens and capture of property,” Strauss said.

The U.S. unemployment rate shot up to a 14-year high in October, and the economy had a net loss of 240,000 jobs for the month. The government said on Friday in a report underscoring the economy’s steep slide.

Wall Street economists had expected a loss of 200,000 nonfarm jobs in October and had looked for the jobless rate to move up to 6.3 percent from 6.1 percent in September.

September had the largest monthly job loss total since November 2001, the last month of the previous recession and just two months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

The disappointing figures follow Thursday’s International Monetary Fund report saying global economic growth will slow sharply, to just over 2 percent in 2009.

So far this year 1.2 million jobs have been lost, 651,000 in the past three months alone, showing labor markets are crumbling faster and heightening chances of a deep recession.

Thursday, the Commerce Department eatimated, the U.S. economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.3% in the third quarter.

“The capitulation of the consumer is the primary catalyst behind what is clearly the first consumer-driven recession in three decades,” wrote Joseph Brusuelas, chief economist for Merk Investments. “Just about all sectors of the economy are in the process of a serious contraction.”
The 0.3% decline in real gross domestic product was the largest since the end of the last recession in late 2001. The economy grew at a 2.8% pace in the second quarter.
The drop was close to economists’ expectations that the economy would shrink at a 0.5% annual rate. See Economic Calendar.

As a young boy growing up in a gray, rainy seaside town in England, I had a fascination for America; maybe even a love affair. America was the land of opportunity, sure. But it was also vastly different and eccentric (in a good way) from state to state. So when I came to the U.S. around seven years ago, I was somewhat disappointed. The roads were lined as far as the eye could see with signs for fast food chains, corporate-ran hotels and big, bad gas companies. Where was the other America? Had she disappeared?

Clearly I’m not the only weird Brit who feels this way, because a documentary called “America Unchained,” based on the book of the same name, explores that very theme. It stars Dave Gorman, a fellow Englishman and a guy on a mission; to cross America, coast to coast, without giving one cent of his hard-earned money to “the man.” No stays in hotel chains. No money to the chain gas stations. It had to be independent, family-owned mom & pop shops all the way. So, how did he do?

At first, I thought the premise of the movie was simplistic and perhaps a little too easy. Surely it was possible to cross America without spending any cash at a corporate-owned store or establishment. About 30 minutes into the movie, I realized it wasn’t just a difficult task…it was almost impossible.

But let’s backtrack for a second and understand why Dave had set out on this historic quest. A few years earlier he was touring the States with a comedy stage show called Googlewhack Adventure. Entailing seven to eight shows per week, over a period of four months, Dave spent night after night in a seemingly endless array of hotel chains; the Holiday Inn; Best Western; Comfort Suites. He’d eat at chain restaurants and buy gas at Shell or Texaco. And just like my good self when I first saw this new America, he was disappointed. His dreams, to a certain extent were shattered. (continue reading…)

The New York Times ran a story today that says the next consumer crisis is credit cards — a sobering fact in a nation that has racked up massive amounts of credit card debt.

Unfortunately, when times get hard, many people turn to credit cards to help them make ends meet … and only dig themselves into a deeper hole.

I’ve been through this myself, buying things on credit when I had no other way to pay for them. I’m not talking about plasma TVs, but about necessities like medical bills. As a result, I dug myself deep into debt, and one of the biggest decisions of my life was to get rid of credit cards and begin eliminating my debt.

At the beginning of this year, I finally got completely out of debt, and I celebrated. But it wasn’t easy. It took some hard decisions, some sacrifices, and a commitment to change my spending habits.

I highly recommend that people get out of debt and stay out of debt, especially as the economy hits difficult times. It’s not a good position to be in if you lose your job while burdened with lots of debt. Better: become debt-free, with a good emergency fund and a small budget. That’s recession-proof personal finances. (continue reading…)

The fate of Iceland, which has extensive interests in the UK, is seen as a warning for the rest of the world, after a long boom fuelled by debt, a dependence on its banking industry and a buoyant housing market.

In order to help UK savers who lost money in collapsed Icelandic banks to get compensation, members of the Government and Bank of England are set to travel to Iceland.

The visit by officials from the Treasury and the Bank follow talks between the UK and Icelandic governments about securing compensation for UK savers.

Around 300,000 UK customers had their accounts with Icesave, the internet arm of Iceland’s second largest bank Landsbanki, frozen when the bank was nationalised, although the Government has said it will ensure consumers receive their money back in full.

In order to retrieve savers’ money, it has since frozen all of the UK assets of Icelandic banks.

The Treasury also arranged for GBP2.5 billion of deposits and 160,000 customers from Kaupthing Edge, part of Iceland’s largest bank Kaupthing, and GBP538 million of savings held by 22,200 people with Heritable Bank, also part of Landsbanki, to be transferred to Dutch savings bank ING Direct.