Hasta La Gadget!

Thanks to a recent post by @evleaks, it seems that we could be looking at both the LG G3 and the LG G Vista in the image above, both of which appear to be headed for Verizon, judging by the carrier logo on either device. While both devices appear to be similar upon first glance in terms of design and software interface, the device on the right is slightly bigger.

According to @evleaks, the device on the right is the rumored LG G Vista. While it is unconfirmed as to what kind of device the LG G Vista is, some have speculated that the handset could be referring to the LG G Pro 2 Lite which has made its way past the FCC back in May. The handset is said to pack a 5.7-inch display which might explain why it looks bigger than the LG G3 whose display is at 5.5-inches.

While the handset is expected to eventually make its rounds and arrive on other carriers such as AT&T and Sprint, the Verizon version could be using a different name in the form of the LG G Vista. In any case we have no idea on when the LG G Vista could be released on Verizon, but if the rumors are to be believed, the LG G3 has been pegged for a release on the 17th of July, so maybe the the LG G Vista could be launched around that time as well.

LG G Vista For Verizon Pictured Next To LG G3 , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

Contrary to popular belief, your resume doesn’t get you a job offer. Your resume is the sales brochure that gets you a job interview. Your job interview is usually a key determinant in whether or not you will get a job offer, assuming you have good references, pass any tests, and show that you would be a great employee/co-worker.

Many employers view a job interview as something akin to an audition. This opportunity calls for your “A Game” and nothing less! So, dazzle them! Here’s how:

1. Know the job requirements and the situation.

If you don’t have a copy of the job description, ask for it when the interview is scheduled. Then, read it very carefully! Sentence by sentence. Any questions or concerns raised for you in what you have read? Make notes so you can get clarifications or answers in the interview. Or, do your own independent research to see what you can discover.

Also ask for the names of the people who will be interviewing you. Ask how many other people will be interviewed and if they will be interviewed the same day you will be interviewed or over several days or weeks. If everyone will be interviewed on the same day, know that you will need to stand out to be remembered in the crowd of interviewees.

2. Prepare and practice your answers to the standard interview questions.

In addition to the usual greatest strength, greatest weakness, and “where-do-you-see-yourself-in-five-years” questions, prepare for the other typical interview questions, like:

• So what do you know about us?
• Why are you interested in working here?
• Why should we hire you?
• Why did you leave your last job? (Or, why are you planning to leave?)
• Tell us about yourself.
• Give us an example of where you have succeeded at…
• Give us an example of where you have failed at …

In particular, know what you will say when asked about anything that looks a little weak on your resume — perhaps a gap in employment, the reason you left your last job (if you are currently unemployed), or any other career setback you might have experienced.

Few people are perfect, and if you have good answers prepared, you can usually give your answer and move on. Don’t dwell on long explanations. Move on.

Often it helps to write, and re-write, the answers to these questions, particularly the ones that are most uncomfortable for you, and then read them out loud a few times. You don’t want to memorize your answers, but you want to feel comfortable answering difficult questions.

3. Have your own questions ready.

Don’t be so focused on impressing them that you forget the interview is a two-way conversation, and you need information to decide if you want to work there. Maybe it’s not the right place or the right job for you. Observe the environment and the other workers there. Does it look — to you — like a good place to work.

Ask questions like:

• Is this a new job or a replacement for someone who has left? If it’s a replacement, where is that previous employee? (Hopefully, they’ve been promoted!)
• What is a typical day, week, year in the organization? Crazy-busy times?
• What is a typical career path for the person in this job?
• How does the person in this job fit into the organization? Reporting to whom? Responsible for what and whom?
• How does this team work? Who are the members? How is success determined or measured?
• What is necessary for the person in this job to be successful? How will you determine if the person is successful?
• Who writes the performance review for this job? Who provides input? How often are reviews made?

Don’t be afraid to ask for clarifications if an answer isn’t clear.

But, do NOT ask about vacation time, salary, drug tests, or benefits in the first interview! Those questions are best asked later in the process, when you are negotiating the job offer.

For more ideas, read “How to Ask the Right Questions in Job Interviews.”

4. Build your confidence with your “power pose” before the interview.

Yes. Seriously. “Power poses” are scientifically proven to help raise your level of confidence by changing the levels of specific hormones in your bloodstream.

You do your power poses in private before the interview.

The research was done by Harvard Business School Professor Dr. Amy J.C. Cuddy and her colleagues. Power poses do sound somewhat wacky, but you don’t get much more pragmatic (or knowledgeable about power) than Harvard Business School.

5. Walk in on time, bright-eyed and alert, well-prepared, dressed appropriately, and focused on the interview.

Be sure to bring:

• Several copies of your resume, hopefully customized for this opportunity.
• Several copies of your list of references with their contact information.

If you have enough notice for the interview, be very well-prepared. Don’t stop with checking the employer’s website, also scan the LinkedIn Company Profile. If you know a current or former employee and you have some time, contact them to see what you can learn about the organization, the hiring process, and the people interviewing you.

Google the organization’s name, including a search of Google News (news.google.com) and Google Scholar (scholar.google.com). Hopefully you know the names of the people who will be interviewing you, so scan their LinkedIn Profiles, the groups they belong to, where they went to school and worked before this employer. Perhaps you have something in common with them, and can mention it in the interview.

[Yes, put your cell phone on silent, or turn it off when you enter the interview area. Do NOT answer your cell — or text anyone — during an interview!]

6. Hand over your business card, and collect a business card from each person who interviews you.

Have your own business cards with your personal (or job search only) email address, non-work phone number (hopefully with good voicemail), and target location (city/state or regional name, like East Bay or Brooklyn). You don’t need to have a job title on the card, but it should clearly indicate your name and basic contact information. Including your home address is not required. A generic title like “Sales Professional” or “Administrative Assistant” (or whatever is appropriate for you) can suffice.

Writing the interview date and the title of the job you are interviewing for on the back of your card, before you go into the interview, will help people remember when and why they met you. It also shows how professional and prepared you are.

Collecting business cards from the people interviewing you will make it much easier to send those post-interview thank you notes, and also to contact them later. In addition, it will also help you to address people appropriately during the interview.

7. Take notes.

Don’t expect to remember everything that is said. Some recruiters I’ve spoken with are offended if job seekers don’t come with questions or take notes. It is polite to ask first, before you start writing down what is said — a simple, “Do you mind if I take notes” should suffice. Unless you are in a vault, discussing highly classified subjects in the interview, note-taking should be fine. If it is not OK, I would ask why.

8. Answer the questions you are asked.

You have prepared answers to many of the standard job interview questions. Right?

But, listen carefully to the questions you are asked. Answer those questions.

Answers should be on topic, clear and brief. Don’t tell your life story or ramble endlessly, and, of course, do NOT trash a former boss, a former employer or co-worker, or anyone else.

9. Ask for “the sale.”

At the end of each interview, ask if they have any questions or concerns about your ability to do the job and to fit into the organization.

If it’s a sales job, they may expect you to be more aggressive, in “sales mode.” If you are feeling bold, you could ask, “When do you want me to start?” In some cases, that will work very well. In other cases, it may be too bold and be off-putting.

For a sales job, you might be more successful with a slightly less aggressive question like this, “Based on my research and what I’ve learned here today, I am very interested in this job, working for you. What do you think of me? Am I your top prospect?”

Your mileage may vary! It depends on you and your level of comfort with asking. It also depends on the interviewer(s), and on the organization. Follow your own best judgement.

10. Ask what the next steps are in the process, when the decision will be made, and who will be your contact person.

Assuming the answer was positive when you asked for the sale, ask them how their hiring process works, and what the next steps in their process are. Find out when you should expect to hear from their contact person. Don’t leave without the contact information for your contact person.

Then, ask for permission to contact them if you haven’t been contacted by the decision date or the date of the next step in the process (another round of interviews, perhaps).

After the Interview: Follow Up!

Be sure to follow up Immediately with a “thank you” unique to each person who interviewed you. Using email is apparently OK with the vast majority of people, according to a recent survey, but if you feel that someone you interviewed with is more formal or traditional, send a hand-written note.

If you haven’t heard from them by the decision date/deadline they gave you, wait a couple of days, and call your contact (see number 10). Ask if a decision has been made yet.

Do NOT assume that you didn’t get the job! When you call, be polite, gently remind them of your name, the job you interviewed for, the date you interviewed, and the people who interviewed you. Ask if a decision has been made. If it hasn’t been made, ask them when you should be back in touch with them.

For more on successful job interviews:

• How to Knock Their Socks Off in a Job Interview
• 3 Bad Job Interview Assumptions
• What 80% of Employers Do Before Inviting You in for an Interview
• Pre-Interview Research You Can’t Afford to Ignore
• Beware! A Majority of Job References Don’t Say Good Things!
• Job Interviews: Are You Listening?
• How to Ask the Right Questions
• How to Answer the Top 10 Job Interview Questions
• Guide to Successful Job Interviewing

Follow me on Google Plus and Twitter (@JobHuntOrg) for more job search tips!

Susan P. Joyce is president of NETability, Inc. and the editor and chief technology writer for Job-Hunt.org and WorkCoachCafe.com. This article was first published on WorkCoachCafe.

This is a unique innovation that I wish I had thought of when I worked
in a school kitchen and had to peel enough potatoes to feed 350 kids. 
I’m not sure if this device would pass a health inspection…

Schools these days are starting to incorporate the use of tablets in the classroom. This is because kids these days are more familiar with tablets as their parents probably own them back at home as well. That and the fact that tablets allow for more interactive learning and also cuts down on the need to lug around heavy textbooks.

Well it looks like Panasonic is getting into the education game as they have recently unveiled their new Panasonic 3E hybrid Windows tablet designed for education in mind. This means that the tablet will come with educational features, such as a magnifying lens that will turn the tablet into a microscope, a temperature sensor, along with education apps and lesson plans bundled by Intel.

It has also been designed to withstand daily use by kids who might drop the device every now and then. According to Panasonic, the tablet will feature both dust and water resistance, and will also be able to withstand a drop from as high up as 70cm, so it should be able to withstand some level of abuse from children.

As far as its specs are concerned, the Panasonic 3E will feature a 10-inch display with a resolution of 1366×768. It will be powered by an Intel Atom AZ3740D quad-core processor clocked at 1.3GHz, accompanied by 2GB of RAM, and will come in either 32GB or 64GB storage options. The tablet will be run Windows 8.1 Pro and will also come with a tethered stylus and will be priced at $499.

Panasonic 3E Windows Tablet Is Aimed At The Education Sector , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.

WASHINGTON — On Sunday night, the leaders of America’s public-sector labor unions will sleep fitfully, if they manage to sleep at all.

The source of their anxiety — brewing now for months — is the Supreme Court’s impending decision in Harris v. Quinn, expected to be handed down Monday morning alongside Hobby Lobby, the more high-profile birth control case. In a worst-case scenario for labor and the left, Harris v. Quinn has the potential to cripple public-sector unions.

On its surface, the case deals with home care workers in Illinois who care for the disabled. The plaintiff, Pamela Harris, serves as the caretaker to her son Josh, who suffers from a rare genetic syndrome. The elder Harris receives Medicaid funds to do so and essentially functions as a state employee.

Many state-supported home care workers in Illinois are represented by the union SEIU Healthcare Illinois-Indiana. Under the contract between the union and the state, all home care workers covered under the contract are required to pay a fee to SEIU to cover the expenses associated with bargaining, whether or not they want to be union members.

This arrangement avoids what unions commonly refer to as freeloading — that is, benefiting from the union’s work without helping to underwrite it. Since unions have no choice but to bargain for all the employees in a particular bargaining unit, they commonly seek requirements in their contracts that all workers pay such “fair share” fees.

The Supreme Court has already affirmed that workers can be required to pay fees to public-sector unions to cover bargaining costs, though not political activities, in its 1977 Abood case.

But with Harris v. Quinn, Abood could be turned on its head.

In suing the state, Harris and her co-plaintiffs argue that the required payment to SEIU amounts to a forced association that violates their First Amendment rights. The plaintiffs are represented by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, an anti-union group that funds lawsuits aimed at diminishing organized labor’s clout.

As Harvard law professor Benjamin Sachs has explained, there are several possible outcomes in Harris v. Quinn. The court could simply affirm the lower court’s ruling, in which case labor’s lost sleep would be all for naught. Or, in a blow to unions that represent home care workers like Harris, the court could rule that such workers are employed by individuals and aren’t really state employees. In that case, they wouldn’t be covered by Abood and could no longer be required to pay union fees.

But another outcome — albeit one that appeared unlikely during oral arguments — is that the justices could embrace the plaintiffs’ broad First Amendment argument, in what would be a disastrous case for organized labor at large. Such a decision could give public-sector workers throughout the U.S. the ability to opt out of paying fees to the unions that bargain for them, thereby instituting a kind of right-to-work on the public sector.

There’s a reason labor unions combat right-to-work laws so doggedly in states across the country: When given the choice to stop supporting the union, many workers do so.

Although the unionization rate has steadily tumbled to just 6.7 percent of the U.S. private sector, union density in the public sector has held strong for decades. Today, more than one-third of such workers are still unionized, and public-sector unions remain a major force in U.S. policy and politics.

The Supreme Court — to the fear of union leaders, and to the glee of those on the right who loathe public-sector unionism — has the potential to change all that on Monday.