“No one is coming to save you.” I disagree ! I believe many people made up of many small moments come to save pieces of you , even if just briefly. The mentor who believed in you . The friend who said they’re proud of you. The family member that makes you laugh . The random person who held the door for you out of nothing but kindness. The teacher who took extra time to help you understand. The person who smiled at you when you walked into a store. The little kid who looks up to you. The person who randomly complimented you. Being “saved” isn’t about being whisked away and all your hardships gone, it’s about the people and things that remind you life is not all hardships, it is kindness, love, gentleness, softness, care, thoughtfulness. It is many moments made up of your lifetime that keeps you going and showing you the world is still beautiful, and will always be. Despite.
You are going to laugh until your stomach hurts again. You're going to be in awe of a sunset. Watch your favorite show while you eat your favorite food. Find money on the street. Discover a great band you haven't heard of before. You will find your way back.
you can open mspaint and crudely draw the most fucked up uneven line and it'll be worth more love and support and awe than any genai piece of shit out there
a lesson i learned this year is that a person's capacity for growth is directly linked to how much truth they can face about themselves without running away
Fascinated by people who recommend Leuchtturm or Hobonichi notebooks to begin journaling like they aren't 25 to 50 dollars each ?? To buy a million stickers and expensive fountain pens ???
At this point I'm just begging you to just buy a random notebook at the dollar store and decorate it with the ballpoint pen you had for the past 4 years
Journaling ISN'T supposed to be an expensive hobby, you just have to write on a notebook, like that's level 0 of hobbies ??? Everybody can journal regardless of the amount of money they have/make, that's like the WHOLE POINT
GATEKEEP GASLIGHT GIRLBOSS GUIDE TO ENGINEERING JOB INTERVIEWS
Alrighty so I'm job hunting, helping my work friends job hunt, STRESSED and having imposter syndrome. Trying to get my thoughts in order about what's worked for me in the past as I enter this shitshow again.
Like I've interviewed people for years so I know what jobs are looking for. I've gotten most of the 8 jobs I've decided I wanted (5 yesses, 2 rejections, 1 time I ghosted a company because I realized mid-interview they'd push me to sign off on something unsafe) so I should NOT be feeling this imposter syndrome.
Preparation
If I really want to go for a job, I like to dig into a company like a fuckin journalist. Read through their company website, newsletter, LinkedIn, look for YouTube videos or podcasts with the founders, see if the leadership team is exclusively old white dudes who have frats on their LinkedIn profiles, read between the lines a bit. That way I can find out if I even want the job, and if so, how to impress them.
Insane girl tips (that work tho)
importyeti takes advantage of an obscure law about maritime shipments being public record to show companies supply chains. You can get an idea of how they're doing financially and dodge some bullets by looking at the graphs over time here.
Use this tool to search through like 30 databases of corporate records that can really tell you how that company screws over employees in court, and the details of the government contracts they have for their (conveniently not mentioned) military work. (Scroll down to the 'populate all' box and enter the company's name)
If you're in the US, use this database of every individual and corporate political campaign donation to search the name of the company, and its board and c-suite members. If they're donating to bigots, run.
Ask everyone you know if anyone knows someone who works there, who'd be willing to tell you the tea about the place
Take notes in a Google drive you share with ya girls. This especially pays off if you build it over years and have the shit on all the local companies. A lot of people in this industry are still sexist af so we gotta stick together.
Questions
Write questions based on your research in a notepad, to bring with you! You can also take notes in the interview.
You can and should ask your hardest questions, just ask them nicely. Anything concerning you found in your research, ask about it! You'll look super well informed. It helps to ask ChatGPT to code switch your actual questions. It ain't good for much, but it is a large language model.
(cotd under the readmore)
How do I get an interview?
Easiest is a referral (ew nepotism but that's how it is, you're near definitely going to get an interview if you do this)
Second easiest is to fill out your LinkedIn like a resume (bonus points if you highlight skills you know your target job needs), go look through their page's list of employees till you find a recruiter, DM them and tell them you're interested. They'll see your profile and if they think you've got a chance, they'll reply. Their job is to find people to interview, you'll cut the line if you hit them up. If they don't reply, DM another recruiter, and send in an official application after a week or two, just in case ;) If you still get nothing, take that as a no and don't take it too personal, some companies keep job listings up just to hide that they're in financial trouble, but they ain't really hiring.
How to interview
I don't think I need to tell you to prep for technical questions lol. Do that for whatever questions are likely to come up in your field, try practice ones online or have a friend interview you.
But on top of technical stuff, they're seeing if y'all could get along as coworkers. I try to be chill and friendly and make (PG-ass) jokes. Plus you can tell if employees have time to spend on hobbies or with their families if you ask about them.
As an interviewer, being funny and friendly and enthusiastic about learning shit makes such a difference when the other candidates are arrogant douchebags. This happens more than you think, the "At least they're not an asshole, we can train them"
It's also chill if you're nervous, most people are, and interviewers see it as more earnest and nice than anything. It's more common then not and won't count against you so don't worry if you stumble on anything!!
And ask questions throughout the interview trying to make it more like a conversation than an interview! (unless it's a technical section, then treat it like an exam lol). My go tos are:
What do like the most about your job, and what's the most difficult part of it?
What would my average week in the job would look like, in terms of how I spend my time? How about the busiest week?
Detailed technical questions about their work that show you understand it - you can even guide the interview out of the exclusively "you ask me technical questions and I sweat" vibe if you ask them technical questions first, and you'll still leave them knowing you're smart ;)
How would I do (Main job duties) day to day? What resources do you have to support this work? How would you recommend a person address (foreseeable challenges) in this role?
All the hard but politely put questions you prepped.
Act really positive and enthusiastic about the company. If your interviewer says something you like or that you're interested in, say so! And if they say shit you don't like, this isn't the time to argue. Maybe just go 'uh huh' with a smile and see if they tell you more :)
And this is gonna sound like some boomer bullshit, but it works. Get the names of everyone you interviewed with, and send them a thank-you email after, mentioning the most interesting thing y'all talked about!
Need to use a boy like a bong. Shotgun hits from his mouth until he's too stupid stoned to do anything but look up at me in dazed reverence. Maybe then, I'd use him like a fleshlight too <3
doing your best doesn’t mean you have to work until exhaustion. doing your best doesn’t mean you have to give it 100% all of the time. doing your best can be working until you’ve hit your limit and then respecting your limit.
even if you love being at home and you don't like going outside and you just want to spend all your time at home (which is totally ok!) it's still healthy to leave the house every once in a while if you can.
if you go outside, it means you get to do this thing called "going home" at the end of the trip, which is pretty neat. you don't get to "go home" if you're always home already.
going home is good for you and it's good for your home. it gives your home a chance to do its job, which is to welcome you back into safety and privacy after an adventure in the outside world. you get to shut out all of the other parts of your life that shouldn't be intruding on your personal time.
if your entire life happens inside your home, you're bringing all that stuff inside with you, you don't get to physically shut out stressors, and you never get to experience the relief of leaving your busy day behind as you shut the front door behind you.
this is part of why mental health walks, going to the grocery store, or sitting on your porch are good for you. it's not so much what you do when you're outside that matters, but the being away from home and then coming back to it. going outside improves your quality of life and it makes being at home much more comfortable.
I'm realizing that the question I need to be asking myself often isn't "do I feel like doing x?" but "will doing x make me feel better?" Because even if taking that shower or going for that walk or sitting down to draw or showering or eating or cleaning isn't what I'd prefer to do in the moment, it's very likely that I'll feel better afterwards. And maybe that matters more than whether I initially feel like getting started.
