Letter to Michelle Singletary, Personal Finance Columnist

From: JRMadDog@aol.com
Date: Sat, 8 May 2010 15:51:04 EDT
Subject: One would think ...
To: singletarym@washpost.com

Ms. Singletary,

Your column Book shares tips on how to prepare for a job interview, Sunday, May 2, 2010 appeared in our local paper The Advocate, Baton Rouge, LA on Friday, 07 May 2010 under the Title Job-Seeker Interview Tip: Show Up.

I wish to address one paragraph: "One would think that after several years in college, people would have been taught how to prepare a résumé and cover letter, what to do for an interview (like show up), what not to do during an interview, what to wear, what to say or not say."

While some engineering and business schools may help their soon-to-be-graduates with guidance in the area of job-hunting and even provide space for corporate recruiters to visit and interview candidates, there are no courses to my knowledge at any schools such as you seem to think would exist. The colleges and universities in general do not have workshops about job-hunting, resumes, interviews, networking, and so on.

Most institutions of higher learning are preparing their undergraduates to become graduate students, their graduate students to become doctoral candidates, and their PhD graduates to become professors in institutions of higher learning. Colleges and universities are not in the business of preparing students for the workforce.

A number of progressive high school have realized the need for the skills you cite and have developed programs to help their students acquire them. But, to my knowledge, that is not the case at the college and university level.

Regards,
J. R. Madden

7515 Sheringham Ave
Baton Rouge, LA 70808
225.769.0361 office-at-home
225.266.6196 mobile

Working with the US Census Bureau ...

I attended training for the position of Census Enumerator 27-30 May 2010. On the first day, I was sworn in and therefore can not discuss any Confidential Information as covered by Title 13 of the US Code which deals with the Census.

During training, I was offered a 'promotion' to Crew Leader Assistant (CLA) and accepted. A CLA assists the Crew Leader (CL) in administrative tasks and may also perform Enumerations.

And just what, you may ask, is the authority under which we operate? Well, ...

Constitution of the United States Article 1. Section 2. "... The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. ..."

One of the many definitions of "enumeration" is "list of people, eg in a census." A simple count is not an enumeration.