Mistakes when applying for a job

There are many mistakes that people make when writing their résumé (CV) or completing a job application. Here are some of the most common and most serious.

 

 

The biggest problem is perhaps listing the duties for which you were responsible in a past position: all this tells your potential employers is what you were supposed to do. They do not necessarily know the specific skills you used in executing them, nor do they know what results you achieved – both of which are essential. In short, they won’t know if you were the best, the worst, or just average in your position.

The more concrete information you can include, the better. As far as possible, provide measurements of what you accomplished. If any innovations you introduced saved the organization money, how much did they save? If you found a way of increasing productivity, by what percentage did you increase it?

Writing what you are trying to achieve in life – your objective – is a waste of space. It tells the employer what you are interested in. Do you really think that employers care what you want? No, they are interested in what they want! Instead, use that space for a career summary. A good one is brief – three to four sentences long. A good one will make the person reviewing your application want to read further.

Many résumés list ‘hard’ job-specific skills, almost to the exclusion of transferable, or `soft’, skills. However, your ability to negotiate effectively, for example, can be just as important as your technical skills.

All information you give should be relevant, so carefully consider the job for which you are applying. If you are applying for a job that is somewhat different than your current job, it is up to you to draw a connection for the résumé reviewer, so that they will understand how your skills will fit in their organization. The person who reviews your paperwork will not be a mind reader.

If you are modest about the skills you can offer, or the results you have achieved, a résumé reader may take what you write literally, and be left with a low opinion of your ability: you need to say exactly how good you are. On the other hand, of course, never stretch the truth or lie.

The Essential Beauty Guide

B Vitamins	These are found in wholegrains and wheatgerm and will help to nourish your whole body. Including these vitamins in your diet will give you energy and an overall feeling of well-being, so you are less likely to get sick.
Vitamin A	It protects the skin against redness and inflammation caused by skin rashes. Try to eat plenty of dark orange (carrots, sweet potato) and dark green (broccoli and spinach) vegetables every day.
Vitamin C	This vitamin helps to build collagen, the “glue” that holds the body’s cells together. It also promotes clear, healthy eyes. Include raw fruits and vegetables especially blueberries, kiwi fruit, citrus fruits, red capsicum and broccoli in your diet.
Zinc	It is essential for wound healing and new skin growth. It is found in lean beef, liver, seafood, wholegrains, pulses, milk and eggs.
Vitamin E	It guards the skin against premature ageing. Eat lots of sunflower seeds and raw nuts such as walnuts, pecans and almonds as snacks.
Calcium	This adds moisture and lustre to hair and nails. The best sources of calcium are healthy oils including canola and olive oil. You should also try to eat lots of almonds, walnuts and seeds.
Potassium	This essential product hydrates the skin and regulates normal function of the oil glands keeping the skin moist and supple, not thin and dry. It is found mostly in bananas.

 

Asthma on the Rise

According to statistics from The Asthma Foundation, over the last twenty years, there has been a worldwide increase in childhood asthma. It dramatically affects the lives of one in four children and one in seven adolescents. It is also a major cause of hospitalisation in children.

Current medical opinion attributes modern environmental conditions to this worldwide increase. Dr. John Avent from the Childhood Diseases Society found that the homes of children who developed asthma had much lower levels of bacterial endotoxin, a substance which is found in dust – in other words, those homes were too clean. Whilst Dr. Avent doesn’t recommend poor cleaning practices, he does maintain that there is an argument for parents allowing their children to play in less sanitary conditions and be less vigilant in this way about their environment.

Martin McFarlane of the Asthma Sufferers’ Association has been involved in subsequent studies which have shown that children who had frequent respiratory infections were less likely to develop asthma as they grew older because of their early exposure to bacterial endotoxins. He maintains that this early exposure helped children to become stronger so they could avoid becoming overly sensitive to conditions that potentially trigger asthma. Dr. Leonie Bryce draws on this research and gives attention to recent studies into asthma which have suggested that the use of antibiotics may be instrumental in causing childhood asthma because early childhood infections protect children against asthma through the development of antibodies. As she says, “For this reason I am against the over-frequent use of antibiotics in treating childhood illnesses of any kind, particularly respiratory infections”.

On a more positive note, more than half of childhood asthma sufferers will not have asthma as adults. However, research has identified a sliding scale of the most important risk factors that can tell a doctor whether a child will have asthma into adulthood. Firstly, young girls are more than two times more prone to having asthma into their adult years. This is a very high risk factor. The next risk factor of less importance but still representing a danger is whether a child has allergies and allergic reactions to a variety of products. Next in importance is whether the child was older than five when asthma first occurred. The most overwhelming risk factor, however, that contributes to asthma in adulthood is if asthma is common in the family (if a child has a parent or sibling with asthma). In this case, there is an extremely high chance that the child will develop asthma into adulthood. Since asthma is a major cause of hospitalisation in children, parents should try to be aware of what triggers their child’s asthma and ensure that he or she is not exposed. For example, if house dust mites are a cause, parents should cover bed mattresses and pillows in vinyl covers. Weekly hot washing of bed linen is recommended and, if possible, blankets and quilts should be exposed to direct sunlight for several hours every week. Also parents are advised to avoid pillows and quilts made of feathers and wool. Smaller items can be put into a plastic bag in the freezer for four hours every fortnight and surfaces in the home should be dusted two or three times a week.

The National Asthma Council makes a number of recommendations for controlling asthma. Apart from parents ensuring that their child avoids the things that cause their asthma, their two most important tips are regular exercise and a healthy balanced diet. According to Dr Mary Tong, paediatric allergist and immunologist at the Royal Australian Hospital in Melbourne, there is no basis for the widely held view that dairy foods increase mucus production in the airways, making asthma worse. Dietary restrictions are not necessary unless there is a proven food allergy. Dr. Tong reiterates that dairy foods are an important source of calcium for strong teeth and bones and are particularly important for growing children.

Another recommendation is that parents should make sure that their family doctor is someone who has maintained a real interest in asthma – they should visit that doctor for regular review in order to check on their child’s correct use of asthma medication. They should aim to know their child’s symptoms and how best to treat them. To this end, the National Asthma Council recommends that parents of young children with asthma develop an Asthma Action Plan. The Plan, created in conjunction with their family doctor, should outline ways to monitor the asthma – by keeping a diary of asthma symptoms, for example. It should also outline the ways in which a parent can recognise worsening asthma, what to do when this happens and how and when to get medical help quickly.

By following the recommendations, parents are given the tools with which to manage, and even control, their child’s asthma.

THE CROWN PALACE – THE TAJ

The Crown Palace, or as we more commonly know it, the Taj Mahal, is probably one of the most recognisable buildings in the world. It has even been called the eighth wonder of the world. Everyone knows that it is in India, and most people probably know that it was built as a tomb for a dead empress, but do they know the exact history behind this amazing building?

In 1612, the Muslim Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan, married for the second time. His bride was Arjumand Banu Begam, although she is better known by her other name, Mumtaz Mahal. Despite the traditions of the time, this wedding was a real love match, the pair having fallen in love at first sight five years earlier, when they were fifteen. Mumtaz became inseparable from her husband, accompanying him on all his journeys and military campaigns. She had fourteen children by him, although bearing her fourteenth child, a girl, led to her tragic death at the age of 39.

Jahan was so overcome with grief that his hair and beard turned white in a matter of months after her death. Before her death, she had made Jahan make four promises to her: build a monument in her name; remarry; love and cherish their children; and finally, visit the tomb once a year on the anniversary of her death. Jahan only managed to fulfil two of these promises. However, luckily for the rest of the world, the monument was one of them.

How could he afford to build such a magnificent monument? Well, luckily for Jahan, the Mughals were extremely rich and very powerful. When he inherited the throne from his father in 1627, he also inherited great wealth. He used this wealth to ensure the Taj Mahal became the most incredible building of its time. He chose a site along side the River Jumna at Agra, once the capital of the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century. The white marble used in its construction was transported by one thousand elephants, from 200 miles away, and inset with turquoise, jade, sapphires and amethyst. There are inscriptions from the Koran all round the Taj Mahal. Twenty thousand workers and artisans were involved in the project, which started the year after her death, and took twenty-two years to fully complete, during which time Jahan did indeed find himself a new bride.

Rumour has it that Jahan planned to build a mirror version of the Taj Mahal, on the other side of the River Jumna, but this would be built from black marble. Foundations and outline for a garden have been discovered in that vicinity, but the events which followed put a stop to any such building. Some years after the completion of the Taj Mahal, Jahan fell ill. His four sons by Mumtaz Mahal, who he had long since fallen out with, then turned on each other. The ensuing conflict left all but one of them, Aurangzeb, dead. He then overthrew his father in about 1658, and placed him under house arrest in Fort Agra for the rest of his life, barring him from visiting the palace. However, it is believed that, from his prison room, Jahan could look out on his incredible creation. On his death, some eight years later, his body was rescued by his daughter and taken across the river to be laid next to his beloved wife.

It is an interesting story, but what is it about this tomb that makes people from all corners of the world and all religions want to visit it – to risk the three-hour stomach-in-mouth road trip from Delhi to Agra? Simply, it is a breathtakingly beautiful sight. Walking through the main gate, you suddenly see a white marble arch which frames the Taj, acting like a veil covering a woman’s face, slowly being lifted to reveal her true beauty. You can almost see visitors become awestruck as they view it for the first time. This is a strange occurrence in a time when we have seen most of the sights of the modern world in photographs and on television. It is rare for people to get a feeling of sheer amazement any more. However, this is exactly what you get when you see the Taj Mahal. Maybe it’s just the summer heat, as some cynics would have you believe!

If you stay there for any length of time, you will see the different colours of the Taj Mahal. For at different times of the day, the tomb seems to change colour. From the pink of the morning, to the creamy white of evening, and the golden hue when the moon glows on it, the colours are a marvel to behold. Hindu traditions say that these colour changes depict the different moods of a woman. It is difficult to say if that is true, but one thing that is certain, if a building can have a gender, then the Taj Mahal is certainly feminine.

The law of Karma

Fifty years ago, if you knew whether someone was a liberal or a conservative politically, you didn’t necessarily know a lot about that person’s moral values; party affiliation told you even less about someone’s preferences in restaurants or movies. There was so much diversity within each party that stereotyping was harder and cross-party alliances were much easier.

Nowadays you can make predictions about people’s values and votes from just a few seemingly unrelated things, such as whether they find exotic cuisines appealing or how messy their desks are. A research institute has survived more than five hundred thousand about their personality traits and moral values. They found very consistent differences between political beliefs in a few values.

For example, how strongly do you agree or disagree with these two statements:

1) “Compassion is the most important virtue.”

2) “The world would be a better place if we let unsuccessful people fail and suffer the consequences?”

The liberals in the sample strongly identify with the compassion statement and strongly reject the failure statement. In contrast, those with conservative political beliefs endorse both statements mildly and equally.

What’s going on here? A useful way to think about these differences, especially when discussing view-point on economic policies, is that it’s a battle between the law of karma and the principle of compassion. Conservatives generally want to live in a world governed by karma, the ancient Hindu idea that people reap the fruits of their actions, both good and bad.

Karma was usually thought of as a law of the universe, like the law of gravity. Part of the reason conservatives have historically opposed the growth of the welfare state is the belief that’ it grants people a sort of karmic exemption, allowing those who are lazy or irresponsible to draw resources from those who are more hardworking. Conservatives agree that the world would be a better place if we “let j unsuccessful people fail” whether it be an individual, company or even a country.

Liberals, by contrast, would prefer to live in a world governed by compassion. They are more likely to give people second and third chances. For example, they are more likely to endorse this statement: “It is generally better to show mercy than to take revenge.” Karma and compassion are both necessary pillars of a well-functioning society. Conservatives are right that a world in which the law of karma applies tends to work better than one in which it doesn’t. Results from studies in experimental behaviour illustrate that cooperation rates skyrocket when cheaters expect to be punished.

However, the law of karma is not real. In free-market societies, hard work does pay off much better than laziness, yet cancer, unemployment and other forms of bad luck can strike anyone. And cheaters, exploiters and law-breakers do often prosper. If we want to live in a truly just world, in which honest work is rewarded, cheaters are punished and people can bounce back from misfortune and mistakes, we’ll have to engineer it ourselves. Karma and compassion don’t balance themselves; that’s a job we must do.

 

Recipe for Delicious Apple and Honey Cake

Ingredients:

• 100g castor sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 70g honey
• 300g self-raising flour
• 80g butter
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 3-4 dessert apples: peeled, cored and diced into small cubes

Honey apple sauce

• 1 cup honey
• 1 cup apple juice or cider

Pour honey and apple juice or cider into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Stir sauce constantly until the mixture thickens to required consistency. Spoon warm sauce over the top and sides of honey-and apple cake and serve immediately.

This moist honey and apple cake is a delicious dessert alternative for any dinner party or holiday gathering and sure to become a well-loved family favourite.

Method:

• Heat oven to 180C/ 350F/ Gas mark 4 and grease a 20cm take tin.
• Add sugar, honey and eggs to mixing bowl and whisk with electric mixer for around ten minutes, until mixture is pale and fluffy in texture.
• Cut softened butter into small squares and beat into mixture.
• Sieve flour and add to mixture, along with cinnamon and apple pieces. Beat mixture until all ingredients are combined well.
• Spoon cake mixture into greased cake tin and place in hot oven for around 45 minutes. Check cake after 25 minutes. If top has browned sufficiently cover with foil to ensure it does not burn.
• Test cake with a skewer before removing from oven – there should be no uncooked mixture in the middle of the cake.
• Drizzle honey over top of cake and dust with sifted icing sugar.
• Serve with cream or thick honey and apple sauce or ice cream.

YOGA

A Yoga is the physical, mental and spiritual practices or disciplines, which originated in ancient India, with the goal of attaining permanent peace. The term yoga comes from two roots that mean to concentrate. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali refer to it as stilling the altering states of mind.

B Various traditions of yoga are found in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. By the turn of the first millennium, hatha yoga emerged from the tantra form. It is the style that many people associate with the word yoga in contemporary times. Indian monks, beginning with Swami Vivekananda, brought yoga to the world. In the 1980s, yoga became popular as a system of physical exercise across the globe.

C Many studies have tried to determine the efficacy of yoga as a complementary intervention for cancer, schizophrenia, asthma and heart disease. In a national survey, long-term yoga practitioners reported musculo—skeletal and mental health improvements. The ultimate goal of Yoga is liberation, though the exact definition of what form this takes is dependent on the philosophical or theological system in question.

D Yoga also serves as excellent training for children and adolescents, both as a form of physical exercise and for breathing, concentration and relieving stress. Many school systems have contemplated incorporating yoga into their physical education curriculum.

E The practice brings forth absolute freedom when the lucidity of material nature and spirit reach a perfect balance. In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali indicates that the ultimate goal of yoga is a state of permanent peace or KaivaIya. Apart from the spiritual goals, the physical postures of yoga are used to alleviate health problems, reduce stress and make the spine supple. Yoga is also used as a complete exercise programme and physical therapy routine.

F The origins of yoga are a matter of debate. According to Crangle, Indian researchers have generally favoured a linear theory that interprets the origin and early development of Indian contemplative practices as a sequential growth from Aryan beginnings. Some argue that yoga came from the Indus Valley Civilization. The most compelling evidence suggests that it developed in the’ same ascetic circles as the early Sramana movements approximately around the sixth and fifth centuries BC.

G Yoga came to the attention of an educated western public in the mid-19th century along with other topics of Indian philosophy. In the context of this budding interest, N.C. Paul published his Treatise on Yoga Philosophy in 1851. The first Hindu teacher to, actively advocate and disseminate aspects of yoga to a western audience, Swami Vivekananda, toured Europe and the United States in the 1890s.

H During the 1910s and 1920s, yoga suffered a period of resistance because of xenophobic and puritanical sentiments. In the 1930s and 1940s yoga began to gain more public acceptance because of the celebrity interest. By the 1960s, interest in Hindu spirituality in the West reached its peak, giving rise to a great number of Neo-Hindu schools. Since 2001, the popularity of yoga has grown rapidly. The number of people who practise yoga has increased by more than five times since then. In 2013, the American President and his administration declared that yoga had become a universal language of spiritual exercise in the United States, transcending religious and cultural lines.