Posted by: Alena | August 21, 2010

Your FedEx package is delayed. What can you do?

The FedEx Van
(Photo credit)

Sometimes little things like a delayed FedEx package can ruin your day and make you feel powerless, as you watch your package being sent back and forth between different cities, feeling unable to do anything to speed up the process.

Take a deep breath, relax.
There’s nothing you can do to make your package arrive faster (yelling at customer service won’t help – it’s not their fault anyway), but there is something you can do to make you feel more empowered.
You can claim your money back.
Do you know that FedEx has a money-back guarantee which entitles you to a full refund of the shipping charges if your package is delivered even 1 minute after the delivery commitment time?
Many people are not aware of that. I used to think that you can get a refund only if your package is damaged or lost. But that’s not true.

Quote:
17.1  FedEx offers a Money Back Guarantee for the following services or service options (if and where available): FedEx Europe First, FedEx International First, FedEx International Next Flight, FedEx International Priority, FedEx International Priority Freight, FedEx International Economy (intercontinental Shipments only), FedEx International Economy Freight, FedEx International Priority Plus, FedEx International Broker Select, FedEx International Priority DirectDistribution, FedEx Standard Overnight, FedEx 1Day Freight, FedEx Priority Overnight. For the avoidance of doubt, Money Back Guarantee does not apply to Intra-European Shipments using the FedEx International Economy service. FedEx will upon request either refund or at its option (to be exercised in FedEx’s sole discretion) credit to the applicable invoice the Transportation Charges incurred by the Sender if the first attempted delivery of a Shipment occurs 60 seconds or more after the applicable Delivery Commitment Time (“Service Failure”).

FEDERAL EXPRESS CONDITIONS OF CARRIAGE FOR EUROPE, THE MIDDLE EAST, THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT AND AFRICA

There is the list of limitations, so check the T&C for your country to see if you qualify for a refund. If the delay was their fault, you probably do.

Most likely, customer service won’t even mention this to you. Perhaps, they’ve been trained not to be “pro-active”, to save their company money.
So you need to ask for it yourself.
Of course, if you miss an important deadline because of the delay, just getting your money back won’t seem like an adequate “compensation”.
But in any case, don’t let them screw you over and get away with it.
Get you money back and spend it on something nice to cheer you up a bit!:)

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Posted by: Alena | April 5, 2010

How to prepare a monologue for an audition or a drama class

Here is a (long) list of things that need to be covered when analyzing a monologue. I put it together to help me prepare for my drama class.

Feel free to use it for your acting class or audition.

A printable PDF table is also available (see below).

CHARACTER PROFILE

  • Name
  • Age
  • Ancestry (roots, ethnicity)
  • Parents
  • Environment he/she was raised in
  • Childhood memory
  • Education
  • Religion/philosophy
  • Environment that he/she currently lives and works in.
  • Time period/era: what is happening historically?
  • Social status
  • Occupation
  • Work history
  • Financial status
  • Friends
  • Romantic interest
  • Marital status
  • Spouse/ideal spouse
  • Children
  • Life goals
  • Deepest fears
  • Best qualities
  • Worst qualities

    • More… + printable PDF table!

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Posted by: Alena | March 21, 2010

An “easy” job vs doing what you love

My sister told me today, that she decided to switch careers from Software Development to Software Testing. She feels she is not good enough as a programmer, and she doesn’t think she will ever become a great one. So she decided to become a tester instead.
My sister has never tried working as a tester, but she thinks testing is much easier than the job of a developer: you don’t need to come up with innovative ways to solve complex problems, you just test what someone else has written – an easy and safe job (so she thinks).

I’m not going to argue whether testing is really easier than programming or not.
That’s not the point.
The point is that the entire idea of looking for an “easy” job is wrong.
If you love what you’re currently doing, but you feel that you are not great at it, then keep doing it and eventually you’ll become great! Everyone starts with little knowledge and then grows into an expert.
If you feel that you don’t have enough skills, or knowledge, or experience – you can get them! Read books, tutorials, articles. Practice. Ask for help.
And eventually you’ll get there!

But if you feel that you’ve chosen the wrong career – you should start looking for something you’d really love to do, something that excites you, something you feel drawn to. Not for something that just seems easy.
What would you like to do, if you were a millionaire and didn’t have to work? What would you do for free?
An “easy” job will never be easy, if it doesn’t excite you, doesn’t challenge you, and doesn’t help you grow. It will be a boring routine, and you’ll hate it.
And our world doesn’t need any more people who hate what they do :)

And as a bonus, a great video by Gary Vaynerchuk: Do what you love (no excuses!).
“There is way too many people … that are doing stuff they hate. Please stop doing that!”

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Posted in Career | Tags: , , ,

Posted by: Alena | February 19, 2010

How to give a presentation and not to bore people to death

A Presentation

Boring presentations waste everybody’s time, and rob people of a chance to learn something new and potentially useful from the presenter.
In the last couple of years I’ve put a lot of effort into developing my presentation skills, and I’ve recently received an award for the best presentation, so I’d like to share a few tips with you.

Don’t speak like a zombie.
Even my GPS device has a more expressive voice than some speakers I’ve seen. Monotonous mumbling will lull your audience to sleep in no time. Put some life and energy into your voice. Talk to your audience like you talk to your friends. Vary the tone, the volume, emphasize important concepts. Be enthusiastic.

Slow down.
If you are nervous, you’ll tend to speak faster than usual. So you’ll need to deliberately make yourself slow down. Your audience needs time to process new information. Don’t rush, take your time, make pauses.

Make eye contact.
Don’t stare at your notes all the time. People want to feel like you are speaking directly to them. Speak to one person at a time, maintain eye contact for a few seconds, then move to another person.

Why so serious?
Smile! It will help build connection with the audience and will help you relax as well.
Make them smile too – use humor, if you are naturally good at it. It doesn’t have to be the rolling-on-the-floor-laughing type of humor. Something subtle, just enough to lift their mood, will be perfect. But it shouldn’t look like you’ve tried too hard to be funny; and your humor must be appropriate.

Tell stories.
People will forget the facts and numbers you give them, but they will remember your stories.  Make your presentation alive with interesting examples. A good story that is relevant to your audience can replace tons of dry data.

Appeal to their emotions.
“Logic is not enough. If all it took was logic, no one would smoke cigarettes. No one would be afraid to fly on airplanes. And every smart proposal would be adopted.”¹
Instead of overloading your slides with charts and tables and a lot of text, show a picture to illustrate what you are saying.

Don’t overwhelm people with too much information.
Think about the key message you want to deliver. Get rid of anything that doesn’t support this message. People won’t be able to remember everything anyway. If you can deliver your message in 10 minutes, don’t make it a 30-minutes speech. Your audience will be grateful. I have never heard anyone complaining about a presentation being too short.

Interact.
Involve the audience, ask them questions, make them think (“Wouldn’t it be nice if…?”, “Have you ever thought about…?”, etc). Presentation is not a monologue, it’s a dialogue. Even if you are talking all the time, people still respond in their thoughts. If you managed to hold their attention, of course:)

References:

¹“Why bad presentations happen to good causes”

(photo credit)

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Posted in Career, Public speaking | Tags: ,

Posted by: Alena | September 27, 2009

Computer Science students: how to stand out from the crowd and secure yourself a job before you graduate.

So you a Computer Science student, you still have a several months (or even years) till graduation, but you already thinking about how you’re going to find a job.
You were probably wondering, why is that, that some graduates manage to find a great job straight out of college, while their not-so-lucky classmates send out dozens of CVs/resumes and get no response. Don’t they all have the same degree, the same amount (i.e. not so much of) work experience, didn’t they attend the same classes?
Well, not all graduates are created equal:-)
A degree and a good GPA is, as the mathematicians say, a necessary but insufficient condition for making the prospective employers want to hire you, and not somebody else.
You need more than that. Something that will instantly raise you above everybody else.

So what can you do to stand out from the crowd?

One thing that proved to be highly effective for me and for some people I know is programming competitions.
There are different kinds of them. Some require solving a couple of algorithmic problems and implementing solutions within a short period of time, like an hour or two. Others require working on a big task for a long period of time (days, months).

Here are a few links to the most popular and well-known competitions:

  • Microsoft Imagine Cup http://imaginecup.com/

    This is a student technology competition, organized by – you guessed it! – Microsoft.Quote from their web-site: “Open to students around the world, the Imagine Cup is a serious challenge that draws serious talent, and the competition is intense. The contest spans a year, beginning with local, regional and online contests whose winners go on to attend the global finals held in a different location every year.” There a number of different categories – Software Design, Game Design, Digital Media, IT Challenge, etc (they may change year to year) – so you can choose the one you prefer. You can participate alone or in a team of 2 – 4 students.

  • The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC), sponsored by IBM.  http://cm.baylor.edu/welcome.icpc

    “The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) is a multitier, team-based, programming competition operating under the auspices of ACM and headquartered at Baylor University. The contest involves a global network of universities hosting regional competitions that advance teams to the ACM-ICPC World Finals. The contest fosters creativity, teamwork, and innovation in building new software programs, and enables students to test their ability to perform under pressure. Quite simply, it is the oldest, largest, and most prestigious programming contest in the world. “

  • TopCoder http://www.topcoder.com/tc

    Hosts a number of different competitions: Algorithm Competitions, Software Conceptualization Contests, Software Specification Contests, Software Architecture Competitions, Component Design Competitions, Component Development Competitions, Software Assembly Competitions, Testing Competitions, UI Prototype Competitions, Rich Internet Application (RIA) Build Competitions, Bug Races™ Competitions, etcThere are monetary prizes for the winners (you must be at least 18 years of age to receive them).

  • Google Code Jam http://code.google.com/codejam/

    “Google Code Jam is a coding competition in which professional and student programmers are asked to solve complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. The contest is all-inclusive: Google Code Jam lets you program in the coding language and development environment of your choice.”

  • Another link worth mentioning, although strictly speaking it’s not a competition, is Google Summer of Code http://code.google.com/soc/

    “Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects.”“Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits.”

You probably don’t even realize what a huge advantage you’ll get once you add a line about having participated (let alone winning) in one or two of these competitions. To any smart employer this line is like a huge banner which says: “Hire him/her fast! He/She is a star!”.
I’ll explain why.
To the employer the fact that you participated in a programming competition (and got some good results) literally translates into the following set of statements:

  • You are smart
  • You really like programming (that’s important – a person who hates his profession won’t do his job well)
  • You have good problem-solving skills
  • You take initiative
  • You are ambitious and competitive
  • You are creative (not all competitions give a chance to demonstrate your creativity, but some do)
  • You can work in a team (if you participated as a part of a team)

That’s what all good employers are looking for in their hires.
And you may repeat as many times as you like the mantra “I’m-creative-I’m-hardworking-I’m-ambitious, etc” on an interview, but your words will not have any weight until you have something to support them.

You don’t even have to win or be in the “top 3″ or “top 10″. Finishing as one of the top 300 out of 20 000 or one of the top 120 out of 10 000 will be more than enough.
And it’s actually easier than it sounds. In these competitions there are always a lot of people who register but don’t participate, or participate, but don’t take it seriously, so if you put at least some effort into it, you’ll have a good chance of getting into the top 1.5 – 3% of high performers. Which looks really great on your CV, doesn’t it?

(photo credit)

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Posted in Career | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Posted by: Alena | August 8, 2009

What can life simulation video games teach us about real life?

Sims 3 screenshot

I recently purchased a copy of The Sims 3 video game. I’m not a huge fan of computer games now, but I used to enjoy the first version of The Sims some 6 or 7 years ago, so I decided to give it a try.

For those of you who don’t know, The Sims is a strategic life simulation video game – you create a sim (your game avatar), move him or her into a house, get the sim find a job, learn different skills, make friends, etc. Sims also need to eat, sleep, go to the toilet, etc.

So, I had a quick look through the manual and started playing. What I usually do first when starting a new game is finding a job for my sim to establish a stream of income, and buying some basic furniture – a bed, a fridge, a bath, etc.
The thing is, the cheaper and the more basic, say, the stove is, the more time it takes to cook a meal. So the sim spends half of their day at work, and the other half satisfying their basic needs and restoring their “state” to the normal level (they get tired, hungry and bored after work:) ).

Once you start earning more money, you can afford buying more fancy furniture, which will allow you (=your avatar) to spend less time on washing, cooking and sleeping, and more time on having fun, socializing, making friends, starting a family, etc.

So the first couple of days (real days, not the Sims-world days. And no, I wasn’t playing all day long, just an hour or two in the evenings) I was doing just that – sending my sim to work, getting her acquire new skills, completing the tasks her boss assigned to her, making sure she gets promoted and gets a raise. When she wasn’t working, she was either sleeping, or taking a shower, or cooking. As soon as all the needs had been met, it was time to go to work again! I was thinking: “Ok, a little more time, a few more days (Sims’ days this time) and I’ll send her to the town center to meet some people. Perhaps she should find a boyfriend and start a family. I’ll wait till the weekend when she doesn’t work, and then let her have fun.
But suddenly a message pops up:  “Ashley (my avatar’s name) is an elder now!”. And my young and lovely sim turns into an elderly woman!

What happened? I haven’t started to have fun yet! I was only waiting till I have enough money to start enjoying life! How come she’s an elder already??

Doesn’t it remind you of the real life stories, when people are living in the dreams of the happy future, when they are going to have enough money to start doing what they really want?
Their days consist of work they don’t really love and restoring their energy after work. They feel like they can’t afford to enjoy their life just yet, and when they’ll be earning X amount per year, then they’ll start living for themselves. But there’s a danger this time will never come or it will come too late, and they will have spent their best years pursuing the goals which turn out to be not that important.

In the game I eventually found the option to increase the life span of a sim, so that they don’t age that fast. You can even turn off aging completely! But, unfortunately, it real life it’s not possible. So start enjoying your life now! If there’s something you really would like to do, do it now, while you have energy and health! If you are not enjoying your life right now – you are not living a full life.

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Posted in Enjoying life | Tags: , ,

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