The Five Stages of Job Acquisition

I recently wrote a post dealing with the psychological stages of job rejection. It was a bit dark. But in the name of balanced writing, I am now writing a post about the psychological stages of actually getting a job!

Stage 1: Getting the call/e-mail

This is the critical point. If you're reading an e-mail, you're skimming through for negative or positive words. If you're on a call, you're just hoping that the right words will come out of your mouth, whatever the decision. And then there it is. You've actually got it! Now it's about playing it cool. On the outside you're like: 'That's fantastic news. Thank you. You won't regret it. etc. etc.' On the inside you're like 'YYEEEEEEAAAAAAHHH!'.

Stage 2: The Stunned Silence

You've had the news. You've put down the phone or finally closed the e-mail after reading it twenty times. It's contemplation time. Pride bubbles up as you suddenly realise that the hard work has paid off. You've braved the numerous interviews, the dull applications and the manic preparation, and you've come out the other end with a win.

Stage 3: The Victory Dance

What... victory dances are cool. And who cares if you look lame, you've just got the job! Let your little feet express your happiness.

Stage 4: PANIC!

Easily summed up with: 'OH MY GOD! I've got a job. I need to be good at it! I need to find a place to live!! I need to go shopping for clothes!! PANIC BUTTON!!!

Stage 5: TBC

I'm not quite sure about this stage yet. I keep on moving from Stage 3 to 4 and then back again. I'm hoping something along the lines of ... serenity as you fit in and learn the ropes and generally become awesome at the job.

I will let you know!

Human-Environment Interactions: Vulnerability, Adaptation and Resilience.

I wanted an excuse to try out Prezi, so I made this presentation... as you do!

Prezi is an online presentation tool. It follows the principle that you have one 'canvas' which you can zoom in and out of (as opposed to following slides). It's an interesting idea, and in fact it works well. It's simple, easy to use, and presentations can be made to look a lot more interesting. You can find out more at prezi.com.

The presentation is based on some of the concepts which were at the heart of my first dissertation. It deals with how socio-ecological systems (e.g. society) live within their environments, how they are vulnerable from various climatic, social, political and economic issues, and how these systems can improve their adaptive capacity. It's perhaps a bit dry but there may be some interesting concepts/ideas which you may want to look into further. It's not too long anyhow. Here it is:

Human-Environment Interaction on Prezi

The idea is that you can follow the presentation 'path' which I created, taking you through each point, by clicking on the little triangle icon. You can also zoom in or out at any point (use your cursor or the icons on the side) to look closer at something or to skip a few steps.

Notes on Prezi if you want to try it yourself:

• Easy and relatively simple to get your head around.
• The fact that it zooms in out and out (sometimes quite far) can actually give the audience a sense of vertigo - something to take into consideration when you're making a prezi. Basically, try not to swivel and swish too much.
• You can present it online, or offline by downloading it. I have tried the latter, but from what I hear - the downloadable file is pretty big (and therefore difficult to e-mail to colleagues, etc.)
• Easy to integrate Youtube videos or images.
• Unless you upgrade (and pay) for a premium account, the prezis which you create will be made public (available to see for all in the Explore pages). So don't put any sensitive information in there. It is actually quite good to be able to see others' presentations (there are some interesting ones out there...)

On another note... I have just gone out of way (and actually got back into some old research and reading) to do a bloomin' presentation (for which I am not marked or paid for), all in the name of trying out some new programme. That's right. You can call me UBER-NERD!

Sexualising the Green Movement

I reckon they've got a good point there.

I also reckon they've hit on a good way to get people interested!