A Killer Tip to Get the Job You Want

I was watching How I Met Your Mother Season 4 Episode 14 (spoilers ahead) and it's mostly about Robin trying to get a job in 7 days or she will be deported out of the country. Robin had been jobless for months during that episode and she had already been to countless auditions to get a job in the news industry.

Every time she auditions, she comes home complaining about how other auditionees got more experience than her or how they come from bigger companies or higher positions in other parts of the country. Even though she was anchor at the local news channel, she found that she couldn’t compete with many others in the same field.

Lesson # 1: There’s always someone better than you. So don’t slack!

Even when you come from the Top 3 universities in the country, even if you’re president of every organization you’ve joined or even if you’re the creamiest of the crop, never ever slack off during job hunting. Don’t underestimate the power of others to be more awesome than you already are. Which brings us to:

Lesson # 2: Stand Out!

Or in Barney’s vocabulary, BE AWESOME! Don’t just be good or excellent, be awesome! You see, I’ve been an A student ever since. I got good grades and all but here’s the thing: nobody really noticed me! My teachers hardly remembered my name; and to be honest, even if I honestly knew that I was at par with the best in the batch, I wasn’t as memorable as them. And simply because… I wasn’t awesome! I didn’t join clubs or became friends with the awesome people. I didn’t like greeting my teachers or spending time with other students in my batch. I didn’t like to get the ball rolling, I watched on the sides, watching the ball roll. Yeah, I was lame. So now you know, don’t be like me - BE AWESOME!

So how exactly does one stand out in the job hunting while hundreds apply for the same job?

Killer Tip: Think out of the Box

While Robin was clearly in deep trouble in job hunting, her friends decided to review her video reel to look for something there that is not making employers hire her. It was a normal reel, started out with her name and a clip from her first reporter job. After they decided it was a bit lame, the ever awesome Barney showed his own video resume:

Of course none of that happened but you get the point: it’s way different and definitely eye-catching than hundreds more video resume put together.

Here’s another video of someone thinking out of the box to get a job in one of the biggest companies in New York:

You can go with the usual stand-out tips like being confident or investing in your soft-skills or a power suit and they’re not at all wrong! I once took a job away because of confidence even though the manager was doubtful of my skills. But thinking out of the box to stand out will definitely get employers to look your way and remember your name.

What is your Think-Out-of-the-Box Plan to Get a Job?

Read More

High Salary but Really Bad Working Conditions: To Quit or Not to Quit

Okay, here's the situation:

• You got loans for an expensive house, you have mountain-high credit card debts and some other loans to pay plus of course, daily expenses including a few luxuries like going out on dates or purchasing new clothes. 
• You got all of these financial woes when suddenly, you got offered a really high-paying job that you don't really like but you know you can tolerate. 
• You decided to accept the job because it would really help your finances and it did! You go to work then receive a lot of pay. You can easily pay for you loans and mortgage (which at your rate will be finished in 10 years) and you can also afford the luxuries that you usually have.
• However, the work load is really causing you some stress + lots of over time work including weekends which means much less time for you family or friends + your boss is like a warden from hell and screams at you and makes you feel like you've just been given the stupid-of-the-year award.
• You thought of quitting but you're already in one of the best companies in the country and it will be really, really hard to get in other companies of its caliber that can offer you the same pay plus awesome benefits.

What will you do? Go.

Read More

"I Love Living Life. I Am Happy." - Nick Vujicic

This is one the best testimonies I've seen in my life so far. He is so amazing. Nick's happiness is genuine and is I could feel that it's overflowing despite his disability. It's truly a shame for those people who have complete limbs, yet spends every single day moping around, worrying and feeling so much self-pity. Yes, of course, each of us have unique problems of our own - and FACT #1: that's life! The important thing is to continue to stand up and be strong. Be more thankful of what we have than what we don't have because FACT #2: we can't have everything. There will always and always be something that others have and you don't have. So be more thankful.

Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't have, you will never, ever have enough. - Oprah Winfrey

What are you thankful for today?

Read More

The Beginning of Oprah Winfrey

“As you can see from my first day on ‘AM Chicago’ on WLS, I had no publicist… no stylist, there was no hair and makeup team. Just a Jheri curl and a bad fur coat.”

    — OPRAH WINFREY, looking back on the days before she hit it big, during the finale of The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Read More

Never Stop Learning

Read More

Math 55

MATH 55

“At that pt. the equation of the tangent line…

Class, there are many solutions to this problem

However, there is but one answer.”

At what point does this line end?

It seems that forever have I waited

to at least be tangent

to you.

I lost you in a circle

where I’ll never know

if we’ll ever converge…

That no matter how much hard

I try

to prove a connection,

(A continuity that will bind us)

the output would always be

just an assumption.

How can I fight

a limit that

Does Not Exist?

Hoping that discontinuity

would somehow be removable

Fighting the odds of

zeroes and infinity

I shall reside

in this imaginary line.

Contenting myself in the

meantime,

with this feeling, asymptotic.

This poem was written by a friend for their Math 55 class. :)

Read More

How to Become a Math-Genius: How are the Chinese Good at Math

Many are wondering, is there a secret pill that I need to take to become an instant math-genius - even just for the day of our final exam?! I know… I wished one for myself when I was a student especially in my Trigonometry finals in high school. That was the only time in my life when I absolutely had no idea on an exam. I wished for some kind of math magic to be bestowed upon me even for just 20 minutes.

I’ve mentioned in my previous post that we should not fall into the trap of thinking that we must have a math-genius gene or divine-given talent to become good at Math. Some thinks a person needs to be Chinese! But let me tell you a secret that I’ve learned from several Chinese people on how to be a math-genius.

Lesson from the Chinese


We wonder… why is the Chinese good at Math? They invented one of the oldest calculation devices called the abacus so they really must be crazy about numbers. So many times have I heard that when someone is Chinese, people immediately think that he/she is good at Math. What is the Chinese secret to becoming Math pros?

Here is an answer that you will find on the web when you Google the question: It is because of the language.


Here is a helpful table to demonstrate the difference between English and Chinese counting systems

English	Chinese	English	Chinese
eleven	ten one	thirty	three ten
twelve	ten two	forty	four ten
thirteen	ten three	fifty	five ten
fourteen	ten four	sixty	six ten
fifteen	ten five	seventy	seven ten
sixteen	ten six	eighty	eight ten
seventeen	ten seven	ninety	nine ten
eighteen	ten eight	one hundred	one hundred
nineteen	ten nine
twenty	two ten

If you will notice, the Chinese counting system makes more sense such as -in my opinion - it sets the foundation of basic addition and multiplication. They learn how to add and multiply the moment they learn how to count.

ten one	10 + 1	eleven (11)
three ten	3 x 10	thirty (30)

Looks like genius, doesn’t it?

HOWEVER

This is not really the secret of the Chinese to becoming Math pros. Come on; let’s not blame a thousand-year old system!

I have talked to several Chinese people in my life. Not all of them were raised in China but certainly grew up in Chinese rearing by their parents. It took a long time before someone shed a bright light on “the secret”.

We learn Math by logic. Everything is about logic and common sense

And it all just came flooding to me like someone opened the roof to let sunshine in my dark, windowless room. My mom, who is an accountant, kept telling me since kindergarten, “Focus on understanding the logic behind the problem rather than just memorizing!”

That is why we all started learning Math with images and stories than pure numbers. One plus one is not just 1 + 1. It’s “You have one apple and a friend gave you another one.” That is why we always have problem solving questions in exams - and admit it, that part could be the most difficult part. It’s when you know how to answer the other questions because you memorized the formula but your mind gets all tangled when you see the problem in a paragraph. Understand, not just memorize. Logic.

Problem Understanding + Formula/ Solving Techniques = Right Answer

If you understand the problem, then finding the right solution is much easier. Understanding, I believe, is something that all of us possess.


note: for those who were waiting - no, there is no magic pill  ^_^


And isn’t that the same for all life’s problems? Everything has a solution. If you cannot solve the problem, it means that there is still something left to be understood. If you cannot solve the problem, maybe it means that there is another solution; maybe the formula is not right. Let’s think some more.

Read More

Why Students Fail at Math: The Math-is-Difficult Traps

This post is for all the students out there who hate Math and for incoming students who haven’t really studied Math but already loathe it due to the influence of popular culture.

Math is a basic subject in school that teaches how to count and make basic computations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Of course mathematics has a deeper sense, meaning and use to the world than basic computation but to avoid math anxiety here, let’s stick to that =)

I was not anywhere a math genius. Like most kids, I fell into the Math-is-difficult trap. And that is not the only trap many students and I fell into. Here are a few:

1. Being good in Math is a gift. This is the belief that being good in Math is a gift or talent and that only few are chosen to have it. Students stop trying because they’re simply not one of the “chosen ones”.
2. If you’re not good in Math, you must be good in English (languages, communications, etc.) and vice-versa.
3. I don’t need Math in my future career esp. because I dream of becoming a rockstar. Variations I hear students say, “Why do we need Math?”; “I am not going to use this in my daily life!” and so on.

Sadly, many young people fail to understand the true significance of Math - and many teachers fail to make them understand the true reason why Math is significant. Looking back, I guess there is a little bit of truth in the idea that not all things in Math can be used by everyone in the future. But studying the basics of every aspect of Mathematics sets the foundation for the future engineers, architects, economists, etc.

To tell you the truth, Math is only more difficult because students already have this grand impression that it is “difficult” before they even try to understand. The moment they see a bunch of numbers, their brains go ahead say, “Oh my God, this is what they all have been talking about *hyperventilate* I can’t do this!” The student is immediately defeated even before moving a single brain cell. That is the reason why students fail at Math. They think so, they do so.

Math, just as with every problem,  is easier when you think it is.

I had a couple of excellent Math teachers in my life that made the subject so much easier. Their common denominator: their attitude in class sets the mood that “Math is Easy.” My high school teacher’s favorite line was, “Ah, that’s easy!” “How do we solve the problem? Ah, that’s easy!” He always did that. Every single time there was a problem to solve, he would exclaim, “Ah, that’s easy!” and every time we solve math problems ourselves, we could hear him in our heads.

My Finance teacher in college was not as enthusiastic but she also always said that it’s just easy. Her explanations were simple and direct to the point.

Many agreed with me when I tell them that Math becomes easier depending on the teacher. It is the teacher’s job to set the mood and to explain the principles at the student’s level. However, before you start blaming all your Math teachers for your subject failure, you must read more of my tips on How to Become a Math - Genius.

“A Better Way To Teach Math” by David Bornstein at The New York Times, Opinionator.

Imagine if someone at a dinner party casually announced, “I’m illiterate.” It would never happen, of course; the shame would be too great. But it’s not unusual to hear a successful adult say, “I can’t do math.” That’s because we think of math ability as something we’re born with, as if there’s a “math gene” that you either inherit or you don’t.

What are your reasons for hating Math?

Read More