THE UNIVERSITY BAHY GANSAN
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2013
PAGE 4A
I feel like having a different word for boy perfume is completely unnecessary.
Hey cowboy boot lover; we don't want that half of Kansas. That's what k-state is for.
Text your FFA submissions to 785-289-8351 or at kansan.com
opinion
Wow! What beautiful wea...okay now its freezing.
The UDK managed to shoot a volleyball photo with no butts in it. #firsttimeforeverything
NEVER trust a woman who says she doesn't like facial hair.
I wonder how many articles about student clothing lines have been published in the six years I've been here. I know how many I've read.
TEXT FREE FOR ALL
Also the FFA editor must be a HP fan cause there are 3 HP texts today.
EDITOR'S NOTE: ...
More people should appreciate how clever the weather section is in the Kansan.
I bet the tornado sires tests at the beginning of each month really scared the out of state kids.
Lady at the Watson cafe gave me a discount when I didn't bring enough cash—KU people are seriously the best people on Earth.
10RS
Kansas forecast: cold, maybe hot.
Chance of rain or not.
For the gay best friend who isn't gay... A moment of silence for our comrade in the friend zone.
Guys. Focus on what's important HotBox Cookies is from Columbia, Missouri.
10 a.m. is probably the perfect time for pizza. Also the other 23 hours of the day.
This goes without saying, but Yeezy was off the heezy.
Who's been on my computer? I keep getting ads for "breast enlargement cream." And I'm a guy. On the bright side, I can upgrade to a c cup in just a few weeks!
Oh how I loathe the ability to hear the sex monkeys in the room next to mine on the days that end in Y.
Can we please have a Chick-fil-a other than the Underground one?
Housemate made a PB&J with a tortilla.
Idea: dog rental business akin to Redbox. Sometimes I just want one for a day.
Common interview question poorly evaluates qualification
S o...what's your story?
Ugh.
I've been up for at least three hours practicing responses to the typical interview questions. "My three biggest weaknesses are."
"I want to work for this firm because..."
I'm wearing a wool suit, and I walked 20 minutes to get here. It's one of the hottest summers in recent memory. I'm sweating like a sumo wrestler in a sauna. When I arrive, we shake hands, and I sit down - ready for the barrage of standard queries. That is, until I hear, "Tell me your story."
My story, in truth, is long and complicated. It's not something I can just sit down and spit out in five minutes. So, for your benefit, I've condensed my life's highlights and achievements down to a clean and crisp one page, highly readable sheet, which I call a résumé. It's French, so you know it's
fancy. The thing's got bullets and bold letters, containing only the relevant information so you can conveniently digest my story.
Nothing has annoyed me more in the past months than going to multiple on-campus interviews to be asked only this one insipid question: What's my story? I'm 22 years old, and I'm in law school. I'm poor, and I need a job, so I'll do whatever you ask of me. Next question please.
In all honesty, how much can you really learn about me with this question? It's a waste of time for me, but more so for you, because nothing happens. I think interviewers need to reexamine their goals when using this question as the basis of an interview. "What is your story?"
What's your story?
Is it a broad generalization
meant to spark conversation?
If so, it doesn't work. Broad
questions are a good segue to
more specific lines and
developed dialogue. But you can't get a sense of who I am by asking, "What's your story?" any better than I can't get a sense of who you are by asking, "What's up?" There has to be something more.
By Preston Bukaty pbukatyl@ku.edu
Without something more, I can't mention in passing how I handle adversity in the office, or business-relationships among clients and colleagues. I can't talk about my strengths as a law student, or as an employee. I can't demonstrate how excited I am to work at this firm with a minute's worth of anecdotes. And above all, which really pisses me off, I can't explain that my only weakness is that I work too hard. Because it's a cliché, and I never got to make it a cliché.
This summer, I had an interview for a small internship that began with the stereotypical interview
questions. You know, the kind Yahoo occasionally writes an article about on what employers look for in an answer. While they were most certainly cheesy, they managed to open a dialogue that lasted nearly an hour. I got the job because of this dialogue. If I had only "told him my story," without any follow-up on his part, the interview mostly likely would have fallen flat. Instead, we discovered similarities and shared experiences that connected us. I still work for him, and our relationship is less of stiff professionals and more like close colleagues.
And look, I get it. OCIs are the interviews to determine whether or not I could make it in an actual interview. There are hundreds of people to talk to, and there are only so many hours in a day. But what's my story? If this singular question is meant to weed-out unfit candidates, how are you hoping an ideal candidate will
respond? Telling you my story hasn't worked thus far, so what would you prefer to hear? What nugget of personality, or business sense, or work ethic or whatever, are you looking for with this one question? (Seriously, what's the secret?)
There should be back-and-forth, an exchange of thoughts, feelings, and ideas. You're there to see if I'd be a good fit, right? Then get to know me. A good interview should feel more like a conversation and less like I'm pitching a script. I know I'm only in my mid-20s and I'm not entitled to anything in life, and the job market is tough so I should try to sell myself to you, but if you've only come to find out my "story," don't waste your time. Chances are, I've already emailed it to you.
Preston Bukaty is a JD candidate in the school of law.
ANIMAL TREATMENT
Chinese zoos pose ethical dilemma for animal lovers
I spent this Thanksgiving with the animals at the Nanjing Zoo. It was an odd experience, as all trips to the zoo necessarily are, but it was the closest thing I could think of to the Macy's Day Parade - so it was really my only viable option.
Although I went with other people, it was cold enough they are almost not worth mentioning. Icy temperatures do a fantastic job of stifling conversation. That said, it was not quite cold enough to persuade me to abandon my original plan. So there I looked, in cold solidarity with the animals.
The Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo could be described as a basic zoo. It is not very big, but not small either. It has all the animals everyone wants to look at: giraffes and tigers and bears. They even had an elephant from southwest China whose precarious dance - despite being in its glass-walled indoor facility - seemed to suggest it felt a good deal colder than myself. The monkeys extended their hands between bars to be shaken and the pride of the zoo, panda bears from Sichuan, slept.
Whenever I visit a zoo I feel a slight burning in my chest - a ping of injustice. There is something I find intrinsically wrong about tearing a powerful bobcat from its home and relegating it to a cage for people to look at, and I say this as no lover of animals.
I can only wonder about the mental complex that must develop inside the mind of an animal lover who enjoys visiting
a zoo. Yes, it leaves a strong impression to stand close to these wild beasts; view their muscles flex behind silky smooth skin as they pace around their cells.
At the cells that I stood by, there must have stood at least one person who tried to dismiss the knowledge that they were, like all lovers, essentially killing the object of their desire.
Would it be better for them to abstain? Well, this is hard to say. Where are we to draw the line? If a zoo is off limits, should the television programs be off as well? The cameras crews and jeeps must damage the natural environments, or even worse: spark the imaginations of others, leading to the construction of resorts in beautiful faraway lands, or more zoos.
One more question, if the animal lover is to abstain from looking at animals, are they still a lover of animals? Or is there for them some joy in looking at animals as innate of a desire as hunger or sex?
to devote massive swaths of land to nature preservation, as the United States does. Imagine how you would feel being told you have to live on the street so some animal could have thousands of acres to roam about naturally, pulling fish out of pristine streams?
The question is admittedly more complicated in China than in the United States. With its massive population, space is a much more valuable commodity, one that is not guaranteed. The Chinese do not have the luxury
Perhaps, then, the Chinese could argue that the cages are necessary for the animals. For without them, the animals might simply die out. With this perspective, the Chinese could even argue that the roughly $3.30 ticket price to enter the Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo was really a small contribution to the continued survival of the animals they loves to look at.
Yet, as I looked into the eyes of that caged bobcat, lying tiredly in its flat cement cage with a single log to serve as a distraction, I could not quite agree with this point of view. It seems like an unresolvable sort of question, one where each additional question only prompts three more. I suppose that this Thanksgiving I am thankful I do not have to fully experience the mental complex of an animal lover trying to enjoy their trip to the zoo.
Scott Rainen is a senior major in geography and East Asian language and culture from Overland Park.
Technology sustains friendships abroad
How do you maintain a friendship when you're separated by thousands of miles? How do you stay close when you're in a different continent, or a different timezone?
I've seen this from two perspectives now. One of my best friends from high school is studying in Buenos Aires, Argentina. And my sister is studying abroad in Cork, Ireland.
As I've experienced, going to college means leaving a lot of people behind. But everyone has those people they are closest to — the ones they really don't want to lose. When I found out my longtime friend Jacob was going to be attending a college in Argentina, I was ecstatic for him. It was a tremendous opportunity, one that he couldn't pass up. I've known Jacob since middle school, and he had been one of my closest friends throughout high school. Of course I didn't want him to go. I was afraid we would get caught up in other things, and slowly lose contact.
The same thing happened with my sister. I largely based my decision to go to KU on the fact that she would be here as well. While I was in the midst of that, she was going through the process of determining where she wanted to study in the upcoming year. She chose Cork, a town roughly an hour away from Dublin. It had been awhile since my sister and I had attended the same school, and I was looking forward to being around her a majority of the time. But like Jacob, this was something she couldn't turn down.
As often happens with things and people who are always there, you can easily take your friends for granted. With the summer coming to a close, I realized that I was going to be away from two people that had a much larger impact on my life than I had initially realized.
But I knew we would still be able to connect somehow. We use iMessage through email, and every now and then we get to FaceTime. These tools have been essential in making long-distance friendships last. Now more than ever, it's simple to share photos and keep track of friends even if they are thousands of miles away. Being far away from someone can make it difficult to interact and talk like normal, but technology has certainly made it easier to stay close. Having the accessibility able to talk to them on a daily basis is something I never thought day-to-day communication would be so accessible at first, but now it's narrowed the gap between us. And although I won't be seeing my sister for another month, and my friend for maybe another year, I won't be missing out on anything they are doing.
GI Melia is a freshman studying journalism from Prairie Village.
So it turns out I'm still pretty good at Guitar Hero. Consequently, I'm still a loser.
CAMPUS CHIRPS BACK
@ryanootter02
KansasQuinn sweaters on sweaters on sweaters. Big, thick, knit, warm sweaters. Love them.
@jeffiedurbin
go from faux-nude in the summer with Chubbies to foreal-it's-freezing in the winter...usually accompanied by fleece.
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