Today the Cheesecake Factory is selling slices of their wonderful cheesecake for only $1.50 a slice. But you have to sit down to take advantage of the offer. We’ll be sitting down in 20 minutes or so after waiting an hour and a half already. This isn’t a great use of time, but the mall is good for people watching.
A client I work for is looking to fill a position. They’re looking for someone who has certain qualifications as you might expect that just hiring anyone who has used Microsoft Office might result in a bad piece of software. The responses that have come in have consistently been bad or worse. For example, one person actually gave an answer to a question that was very short, but the second sentence was “Use a search engine.” The answer should not be use a search engine unless the question is, “What are you doing if you ask Jeeves?” And in that case, its still grammatically incorrect.
Furthermore, if you’re filling out a series of questions, please don’t make a fool out of yourself by using the search engines. Well, you can use the search engines, but I wouldn’t recommend simply copying and pasting the answers into the response. There is very little that impresses me more than a good, efficient worker, but copy and paste from Google, Wikipedia, or any other source and blatantly plagerising the answers and passing them off as your own is completely unethical, lazy and useless. A company that discovers you’re a liar, even if they’ve hired you on, will can your sorry bum rather quickly.
If you want a job as a software developer you’ll want to actually know your stuff. Actually know the languages you’re reporting you know, actually list projects you actually worked on and helped complete (I can’t believe the number of folks who fake resume work). If you want a job as a software developer, study up by learning about the company you’re trying to get hired on at. Find out what software you’ll be working on, if at all possible, and focus in on knowing what you’re getting yourself into. Don’t get surprised in the interview if you thought you were working on one project and the company discusses a different product, but at least be aware of the projects. Be knowledgable.
Be prepared to ask questions and interview the company employees as well. Be prepared to find out what sort of time restrictions exist at the company, find out what their development process is. Ask what tools they use. Make sure you know what they’re using and you’re comfortable with it.
In the end you need to be a worthy candidate, put forth the effort to be that candidate. Make sure you’ve got your ducks in a row and that you’re prepared to take the position on with passion. Lastly, make sure you’re a person who asks why a project, task or code change is done because it will help you excede the requirements, and knock out the interviewer (figuratively, of course). And don’t use the search engines to knock them out 
This week we’re checking out:
This month is the one year anniversary of Watch My Money Maker and I totally forgot. The first article I wrote was about the purpose of this blog (In the Beginning). Shortly after that the purpose was redefined simply by virtue of what was going on in my life. I’ve had ups, downs and major distractions in this one year time period. I’ve reduced my family’s over all debt, but there is more left. I have learned a great deal from the personal finance blogosphere, and I’ve tried to apply as much as possible. I’ve had paradigm shifts about credit cards, I’ve written very personal posts, and I’ve written pretty goofy stuff as well. Below is a list of a few posts that might be good for newer readers and for older readers, I thank you for over a year of reading and not running away screaming 
Most Popular Posts
Personal Favorites
I have two new posts coming up and I hope that they’ll inspire you – they’re ones I’m proud of, a good way to kick off the next year. Again, thanks for reading!
This week we’ve got three more great articles from the last week’s blog roundup:
Christian PF’s Ten Things Worth Spending More On
The Simple Dollar’s 100 Things to Do During a Money Free Weekend
Free Money Finance’s Our Real Estate Agent Has Never Met Sane People Before
You can download the MOV file here (requires Quicktime to watch)
I must be a dumb consumer. Really. Because when small appliances break my first thought is that I’ll just buy a new one. I have had a home coffee roaster at my house for several years and it broke slightly less than several years ago. I was going to buy a new one but something always prevented me from buying the new one. However, today I got to the point where I actually called to see what parts to repair it would cost. Would you believe $18.00? A new one is easily $70.00, but the repair parts are simple to repair (with a screwdriver or two) and the savings is way too big to ignore.
So, take off your dumb consumer shirts and burn them. Throw them in the trash. At least hang them up and don’t put them on very often. Look at what’s broken, and if you’re not sure, find out if anyone you know is willing to help you trouble shoot the problem, and hopefully fix it (my neighbor helped me with some of his electical tools so we could pin-point the roaster’s issue). There is no need to have the consume, destroy, replace mentality, despite what the marketers tell you.
Embrace the fixit mentality. Think about the actual costs involved, and if you don’t know, do the research. If your time is money, figure out what its worth. Some tiny appliances can be replaced cheaply, but some are a little more high-end and should be repaired if possible. Some repair places make it hard to repair for less than the cost of a new item, but sometimes you can do it yourself, in which case: do it yourself. I believe smart consumer shirts are available, but you’ll have to hunt because most retailers don’t want you to have one
I’m preparing a lesson for tomorrow night’s Bible study that I lead, we’re going through a series on the body and the believer and we’re covering Romans chapter 12 which has been a very rich passage to say the least. I’m looking at verse 12, which says:
rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,
In personal finance we often get discouraged. In personal finance the emergencies come up. In personal finance you need to submit your financial walk to the Lord through prayer and meditation on biblical principles as outlined in the scripture.
Rejoicing in hope
Knowing that 100 years from now, 1,000 years from now, or 1 minute from now your identification is with Christ (Colossians 3:1-4) gives you hope. If you’re not looking forward, then you’re not hoping. Hope is faith in things to come – whether its the rejoicing in paying off debt and no longer having the bondage of payments to others and being able to be a fuller steward of God’s money, or thinking of the things that the money can be used for to glorify His name it is a great thing to have hope. We’re often discouraged in life when trials come, but the trials are for our growth (James 1:1-4; I Thes. 3:3) so we can rejoice even in them.
Persevering in tribulation
Perseverance is diligant abiding in a place while pressure seems to come from all sides. Tribulation comes, as stated above, for our growth. The world sees pressure as a detriment, but we’re called to have a mindset that see’s God’s plan in all of these things that distract us and call us away from patience and longsuffering. When you dip into your emergency fund (and I’ve had to do that far too often in the last few months) – persevere. When your car gets a flat, your fridge goes out, or your kid breaks an arm: persevere. The reliance on God that comes during times of tribulation should leave us understanding our closeness to Him rather than feeling alone. It should show us the strength of our relationships in Christ with other believers. It should be a great blessing to see the tribulation turn into a tool instead of a valley of toil.
Devoted to prayer
Prayer is often presented as begging God for some thing, some action or some event to take place. But instead we should understand that it is powerfully deep and encouraging relationship. Who you are in Christ gives you immediate access to God the Father for immediate, constant and intimate fellowship with Him. And that’s something money can’t buy.
So, you can see that I’m excited about this passage – maybe some time you can swing by the Tuesday night study and we’ll rejoice in our hope (which is in Christ), encourage one another through our trials, and pray for one another. It’ll be great.
This week we’ll explore three more links that caught my eyes. Sorry if my eyes are tired in this one, I was up late because we’re heading out camping this weekend!
The Wiles of Walmart
The Difference Between Tax Credits and Tax Deductions
Four Benefits of not Blowing Up Your Money
Check out last week’s episode if you missed it
The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is coming to my area. This is a good thing, I’m told, because they’ll bring money to hotels, restaurants, brothels and convenience stores. Money, in an economy that is supposed to be so bad that the wealthy keep getting wealthier and the poor keep getting poorer, will help keep the poor wealthier and the wealthy hiring. I’m not much for politics any more, not since I figured out that politics is about man’s solution to man’s problems without ignoring man’s real problem. However, its nice that they’re coming to the Denver metro area as well because our roadways are designed for slightly less people than currently drive them, and the new crowds of drivers will help keep the price of gas high as gas station owners have figured out that they can pretty much charge as much as they want and we’re a captive audience. I think that’s a mixed metaphor.
There are some genuinely good reasons to have them in town and one of them is that a reader of this very blog will more than likely come into town to support her husband who will more than likely rule the world before its all said and done, and I’d like to have him in my pocket be in his pocket have the right connections. The financial impact that is suspected to come with this national convention is roughly $160,000,000.00 in currency influx. They’re expecting a huge crowd at the Bronco stadium (branded Invesco field) for B. Obama’s acceptance speech. Big money, big names, and they bring them in with enough people to populate the town I grew up in. Which, if it were to be receiving the Democratic Nation Convention, would self implode. Lets hope that the Dems bring money, but its not debt money, we don’t need that in Denver, Colorado or the US Government
A Story of Contracts
Once upon a time there was a boy, we’ll call him me. His name won’t be me, but I’m going to share a little about myself. And actually, I wasn’t a little boy. I was a grown man. Well, I guess I still am. But this story is about the idiocy of temporary pleasure verses the wisdom of thinking a little longer term, or very long term. I had wanted to save money by spening less on the luxury of non-broadcast television and switched from Cable Television (with Comcastic service) to Satelite service DirectV from the stars… or some such nonsense. I would save money and get the better programming of directive DirecTV.
Except that I had to agree to a two year contract to pay DetecTV monthly during that two years or else pay a penalty fee to infecTV for each month remaining in the contact. Being a cheerful dolt, and not ever thinking that I would ever not want to get derelicTV, I agreed to that lovely penalty. The world was grand and there were weeks of Food Network to watch with the added benefit of children’s cartoons, educational television, and news broadcasts twenty-four hours a day slevin days a week. The fun and entertainment we would have due to DefecTV was endless. Until we actually wanted to end the service.
Fast-forward a year and a half and I still have half a year left of paying more a month than I need to because we’re in a bundled package from our phone/internet/smellovision provider. Locked in for two years of promised payment even though better deals could be had (and I would actually dump my land-line phone as well, thus futher reducing my monthly outgo towards communications and entertainment). So the young boy who was me, who I am now - as an adult, made a dumb choice because what he wanted then was what he was obviously going to want for two years.
The moral of this story, other than avoid the shoddy equipment that comes with the ‘awesome’ package at insecTV, is that you shouldn’t commit to a contract unless you’re really, really, really, really sure that its what you need, its what you want, and that you’re going to want it in two years with just as much passion or excitement. There are a lot of companies that masquerade as your friend until they lock you into a contract and then you discover that you’re really bound, like so many periodicals, to servitude, slavery, and to eat pudding with cement mixed into it. And after watching enough episodes of House on satellite television, I’m confidently going to announce that I’d no longer like to eat cement, I’ve seen what it can do to your intestines, and I don’t want to undergo that kind of surgery to get it out of me.
What do you want now? What do you think you will still want in two years that you want now?
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