As previously mentioned in my post on mindset needed to survive job hunting, just after I finished my study, I worked as a customer service assistant at a department store in Kuala Lumpur. Generally my task involved assisting customer’s query and complaints, help in membership registration, wedding gift registry and most importantly, wrapping present. 🙂

The work was very rewarding, and in a way had helped me greatly in my quest for job hunting. In fact it helped me a lot in my coming interview. Here’s how :

1) Interview = Communicate = English
There’s no way you can sell a product just by pointing, smile and giving a thumbs up. You need to speak comprehensible and confident English. Please notice that I didn’t use the word fluent and good English 🙂 I can testify that out of the years of learning English, these periods were the time I improved the most.

2) Know the product in and out
In my line of work (at the time), I need to know how to differentiate between red wine glass and a goblet. I need to know how to point out the reason why some bedsheet are expensive and some don’t. In general, I need to know how to sell everything there.

Let say I’m selling the expensive bedsheet, and the customer ask why is it more expensive than the other one. If all I can say is, “I’m not so sure”. Do you think the customer will buy it?

The same with interview, everyone is trying to sell themselves. They say that they are more special than the others. But when asked, they usually don’t know how to describe their strength.

Tip : Try to describe your strength with respect to what you can offer to the company, and not just by saying that you are this and that.

3) Don’t sell the wrong thing
When potential customer call me and ask for some information on a product, I was advised by my manager to avoid persuading them to buy. All I need to do is to provide all the information needed and help him in any way I can.

Most of the time, the customer will buy the product, simply because he is impressed by the attention given.

Similarly in an interview, the interviewer usually have read your resume and they were already impressed. The interview is just their way to see your attitude, confidence and passion for the job. Highlight these as often as you can. No need to worry about technical knowledge or your present perfect tense.

When they’ve already like you, the job is practically yours.

– I Wonder –
Any interesting stories on your experience undergoing interview? Please share

———- Personal Note ———
One of the thing I love the most about my job then is wrapping gift. I learnt there the actual art of wrapping gift. I really take pride of the work done.

Anybody want their gift wrapped? 🙂

Nothing is more relaxing than a good night sleep, don’t you agree? However, such sleep can be disrupted if you are constantly having nightmare. You will not be able to get enough rest and ultimately will affect your work / study.

Previously I have presented my theory on why we have nightmare. I would like to continue from that as to how to rid of nightmare and maybe deliberately dream a sweet dream 🙂

1) Respect your dream
From now on, have some respect to the dream you have. Even though it was a very ridiculous dream of you riding a dolphin to the moon. How to respect it? by trying your very best to remember each dream you have.

Have a notebook and a pen by your bed every night. I would recommend a bright color notebook so that when you wakes up, you will not be able to miss it. Always try to jot down any details of your dream, even though you may end up with only the word – “Dolphin”.

My theory is, when we have made a conscious attempt to remember the dream, our subconcious mind will follow up by producing a more meaningful and “make-sense” dream. Over time, you will notice that there are no more ridiculous dream. And the dream you have can actually be a mirror of your subconciousness

2) Ask question
Whether you want to believe it or not, there is such thing as your subconcious mind. Have you ever had a problem, and you think very hard before you go to sleep, and tomorrow out of no where you can see the solution clearly. That’s subconcious mind in action. Now let’s use that untapped resource.

Before you go to bed, ask question to yourself. Not just by reading a paragraph from a book, but really try to figure the problem out in your head. Do it about 5 minutes, set an alarm if you must, but after that 5 minutes, stop thinking about the problem. This is crucial, as we don’t want you to stay awake all night thinking. It will be very very off topic then 🙂

The problem can varies from your relationship problem, to the “how star was created” kind of problem. The answer may not be as clear as black and white, but with some practice, you will be able to use that incredible resource of yours. The answer may come in the form of dream or you will just know the answer to it naturally. Trust me on this 🙂

– I Wonder –
What’s your weirdest dream you have so far? I’m in the mood of interpreting dream now hehe (just for fun)

———- Personal Note ————
My weirdest dream so far is the one with numbers. I apparently was given a number and I must figure out the square root of it in my head. Nothing extraordinary right? But in my dream, I am not seeing the number, I can actually see millions of particles representing the number. Things will usually get more tense, and I will usually wakes up with that problem in my head.

Usually it is a sign that I will be down with fever the next day. In the case you’re wondering, I consider such dream as nightmare 🙂

Photo credit – kalandrakas

It’s Sunday.. For new readers visitting, there are usually no entries on Sunday. Today however, I wished to share with you guys these pictures.

They generally proposed that your sleep behaviour can tell a lot about your personality. I personally do not believe in such ideas and I have proven my point in an experiment done.

Still it is fun to read, so enjoy your Sunday guys! 🙂

– I Wonder –
Which sleeping behavior are you? 🙂

————- Personal Note ———–
Somehow I think I am using all the pattern describe. I supposed everyone of them will describe me right? 🙂

Have you ever tried meditation? Do you even know what is meditation? 🙂 Well there are a lot of advance meditation technique out there. They even have book on it. So when there’s a book specifically about meditation, it usually must be important.

In fact, it is important. Let me get this straight first, you will not be able to fly with meditation, and you will not be able to communicate with spiritual being. The whole meditation is actually just a way for you to restart your day, without having to go to sleep.

Imagine you are waking up early in the morning, you are supposed to be refresh then right? That’s exactly what we want to achieve by meditating, that refreshing feeling. So now you know what to expect from meditation.

Ok, so what’s the rule? is it hard to do? I can guarantee you that it is one of the easiest thing to do. Let me show you the basic of meditation. Believe me, all the advance ones are based on this.

1) Close your eyes
You need to close your eyes to meditate. About 80% of our interaction with our surrounding originates from sight. So by closing the eyes, we should have 80% more success to focus on our meditation

So please… do not meditate while you’re driving kay 🙂

2) Breathe
This is it.. the big secret. Meditation is all about breathing. You focus just on your breathing. Feel the air you inhale, try to pause for while then exhale it back and pause a while before you start the cycle

Hear the air going in and out, nothing else. It will help if you don’t speak too 🙂

3) When swayed, hear again the breathing
This step is so important, I’m putting it as step 3. Your mind will wander when you meditate. What’s to blog? How long have you been meditating? etc.

Just remember, when your mind wanders, slowly come back to hearing those in and out breathing. No need to get frustrated. That’s just how our mind works.

So how long are you supposed to do this.. Take as long as you want. You will be surprised at the effect afterward 🙂

– I wonder –
How do you practise meditation? or calm yourself? Any other tips?

———— Personal Note —————
I know that most of you may already be familiar with meditation. Well, I just started learning about meditation a few years back, and it had done wonders to me. So this article is meant specifically to those who are not familiar with it.

Care to share how it helped you?

Photo Credit – 3amfromkyoto