Category: work

Attributed to investor excitement in a possible extention on the deadline for Iraq, the Dow jumped 269 points today (3.6 percent). To put that in perspective to those who don't regularly follow the Dow, an average day may see a change in the range of 6-to-8 tenths of a percent, while a good day might move by 1 - 1.5 percent. So, as you can imagine, a jump of 3.6 percent is huge.

Without doubt, I’m happy about this blip-in-the-right-direction. But, I have a feeling that it’s just going to be short-lived. The investment community, especially on a day-by-day basis, can be notoriosly fickle. So, if we move closer to war (which I expect may happen), I wouldn’t be surprised to see these gains trickle away.

Analysts noted that many investors may not want to be exposed ahead of the weekend, so Thursday’s rally may at least partially unwind Friday.

Investors will also weigh reports on producer prices, industrial production and consumer confidence. Much smaller gains are forecast for wholesale prices and industrial output, while confidence probably fell, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com. […]

The Dow dropped 165 points today to 7945, hitting a three-month low (again).

Wall Street took no comfort from news that gross domestic product in the fourth quarter grew at a measly 0.7 percent rate, a number that was lower than the market’s modest expectations of a 0.9 percent advance. Separately, some 397,000 people filed for the first time last week to get unemployment benefits, 12,000 more than economists had expected and dangerously close to the 400,000 level that indicates a weakening labor market. […]

At first, I was a bit confused about the 400,000 threshold for “a weakening labor market”. However, I suppose that’s just an indicator with a generally accepted crossing-point.

I’ve discovered that my regular unemployment benefits have just ended (receiving a check for just $13 was my first clue). However I can now apply for Federal Extended Unemployment Benefits (TEUC).

The paragraph on my statement about benefits-ending directed me to call my local unemployment tele-center to apply. I’ve been trying to get through to them, but so far I’ve either encountered busy signals or wait-times of around 45 minutes.

Anyhow, to anyone that’s applied for Extended Benefits before, is there a lot of paperwork involved? And, do I have to qualify for this level of benefits, or is it just a matter of sending in the forms?

Update 01/29: I called them today and applied right over the phone — the process was pleasantly straightforward.

A friend of mine suggested that I include skill & skill-level pairs on my resume (as opposed to just the skills themselves). Something like this, I suppose:

XHTML/HTML, Expert
CSS, Expert
JavaScript, Advanced
Python, Novice
[…]

It seems like a sensible idea on the outset, but are there any disadvantages to this approach? And, if not, what type of separators and layout would you recommend? For instance, I used commas in the example above, but I suppose colons or hyphens could also be used.

And, the skills-section of my resume is currently in three columns, but would that be too crowded with the skill/skill-level pairs? (So, maybe two columns or just one column?)

HotJobs used to be a mild-mannered job board, back in the day (where “the day” is October or so). <-- aka, "the last time I was unemployed and had to update my resume on HotJobs --> I could paste in a fully HTML-formatted resume and it would accept it without problems.

However, HotJobs is now owned by Yahoo and it’s picked up some bad habits. No longer can I paste in a full-blown HTML-formatted resume. Well, it still accepts HTML (or doesn’t explicitely reject it, at any rate), but the new system adds <br> tags to the beginning of every line (and not even <br />, natch), which really fubars my layout.

Does anyone have any insight as to how I can make the most of this? Sure, I still can make selective use of <strong> and <em>, but does anything else come to mind in terms of formatting within the restrictions that Yahoo has applied?