HAPPY GENERAL CONFERENCE WEEKEND!

Hi all! Hope you are all prepped and excited for General Conference. What a great time to hear from our leaders and gain that added spiritual strength that helps us to carry on for the next six months.

Amanda and I are going to put up our favorite quotes and talks so we can all share and blog with everyone and learn from each other. We want you all to do the same.

Amanda and I have been working tirelessly the last few months to look for employment. We looked long we looked hard the last few months. Amanda started as a long term Substitute for a kindergarten class at Madison Elementary. She wanted the full teaching position. The principal told her she couldn't be hired on as a full teacher because she was not yet in the Teaching pool for the district yet.

This put a damper on acquiring a full time position. Time passed Amanda kept substituting for this class and occasionally she would get a carrot dangled in front of her face. Rumors, hope, whispers that she would be interviewed. Well that interview happened at the end of September she got THE JOB!!!!

We were all so excited. she had worked so hard and was unsure what the out come would be. We celebrated by going to Lana Thai. The interview went great and now she is in the Everett district in full teacher status and the teacher for this Kindegarten class room!

Around the same time I had received a call from a recruiter, at a top marketing company connect with a Bellevue based chemical distribution company, who had seen my réaumé on Monster, as had happend a few times in the past. She wanted to know about my interests, my leadership experiences and my exposure to marketing and communication.

Actually looking for someone with communication and marketing background made my ears perk up a bit. The skepticism melted and dripped away, like Dougie eating an ice cream cone next to the pool. Then the recruiterd said our marketing team and I have looked over your résumé and we really think you have the qualities of clear communication, leadership, business and interpersonal background we are looking for as member of marketing customer solutions team. After she said this, she started to tell me she had already sent me an e-mail giving a volume of information about the company. Chempoint is an E-distributor of fine and specialty chemicals based in Bellevue WA. It's parent company Univar Based in the Netherlands is the largest independently owned chemical distribution company in the world.

Feeling I should pursue this opportunity I told her I would read over the information and powerpoints she sent me and I would call her back.

Long story short two weeks later I went to 3 hour interview on the 22nd floor of a 22 story highrise in Bellevue. I was slightly overwhelmed by the offices size and the three floors Chempoint occupied. I went through six half-hour mini-interviews. I told the interviewers of my experience at BYU-I, my Eagle project, my Senior capstone project's at BYU-I and at Cascade. Each interview had 2 team supervisors from the various departments I'd be working with.

Some duo's were similar in characteristics and demeanor making it easy to answer questions. Some duo's were complete opposites. One would give a look of acknowledgement and agreement and the other looked at me like... what did you just say? ... Are you speaking English? This difference of reaction threw me off once or twice but I did my best to stay focused.

After the interviews I went through a job shadow... here are some of the thing's I'd be doing if I got the position....

• You will follow and/or implement special instructions for various accounts and maintain accurate and up-to-date notation on all service incidents.
• You will create new ideas and effectively present useful suggestions for improvement of existing processes, and be ready to implement them.
• You will train and coach new team members as they are hired.
• You will answer incoming phone calls, place customer orders, and consistently provide excellent service to our customers.

After it was all said and done, I thought I had been hurled into a whirl wind. Or like I had lost at a game of underwater battle fish in our pool.

Days passed. The recruiter called back ... I wasn't sure what she would say... It was a toss up whether or not I had the position. She asked for examples of how the interview could be improved. I gave some suggestions. she then told me that the interviewers liked me. That I talked elloquently, I was inclusive, creative and I took the time to convey and understand messages instead of blabbing and making up what I think they want to hear. She then shocked me saying, I got THE JOB!!!!

After the call I yelped! I did a few bronco-busters, like a bull kicking it's back legs up in the air. This got everyone's attention. After telling Amanda mom and dad, that night Amanda and I celebrated the new position at Olive Garden. I start Monday Nov 20th.


Happy conference weekend!

Love,
Mark and Amanda