I desperately need a new job and live by Disneyland – a perfect congregation of hotels and motels.

I have 2.5 years of receptionist/desk attendant experience in a music lesson studio.

I interviewed with one hotel already, but I didn’t feel the interview went as well as it could. What types of things can I say or do that will give potential employers the impression that I have what it takes to get the job done, and get it done thoroughly?

Thank you for your help.
Preferably short-term strategies.

I’m a non-native English speaker from outside of US, not well educated. Excuse me for my reckless English writing.

Everytime I get laid off, supervisors say "You are still young and have good talent. Someone else’s going to give you better job".

15 years ago, I was hired by a small construction company as a contruct worker for 5 years.
My job was simple, such as driling and carrying materials.
Along with the company’s bussiness grew bigger, they hired more workers and bought large construction machines (Driling & carrying much faster than human).
But few years after, their business was fading and they started laying off many workers including me.
They still had as many jobs as they did 5 years ago, but they have large construction machine and no longer needed as many workers as 5 years ago.
The supervisor described me that as what they call "restructuring".
Then he said "You are still young and have good talent. Someone else’s going to give you better job".

So, I checked classified ad on news papers to find a new job.
I found new job as a welder at a large auto-maker’s plant.
I worked as a welder for 4 years, but they bought what they call "weldering robot" (Weldering much faster than human).
So, they relocated me and others to assembly line. Of course they’ve cut the pay of us.
After a year, they bought automated assembling machine and called for voluntary retirement.
The supervisor said "You are still young and have good talent. Someone else’s going to give you better job".

Fortunately, I have commercial vehicle license and found a job as a short distance truck driver between parts making plant and assembling plant of auto-maker.
I worked as a driver for 5 years. But what they call "financial crisis" occurred and the auto-maker I work for also must close some of their plants.
Since they have to do what they call "cost cutting & restructuring", they are planning to build parts plant near the assembly plant and use automated transfer system between them.

Now, I’m ready to hear "You are still young and have good talent. Someone else’s going to give you better job" again.

Who is going to be next "Someone else" for me? Machines?

I used to buy products from whom I work for, but without job, I can not afford products they make any more…..and I don’t think I can keep paying for internet fee until I get answear….

I also used many "Someone else" myself.

I’m recently sending new year’s day cards to my friends with using my mobile phone.
"Someone else is sending their cards by post, so post-man will not loose their job"…..

I read news on the internet, so I don’t subscribe any news paper or magazine.
"Someone else subscribe news papers and magazines, so news paper company will not run out of their business."

I’m going to lose my job soon and cut my expenses.
"Someone else is going to spend money and create new job"…..

NOOOOOOOOOOO!!
I’ll be the one who create my own job this time!!
And never be the one who says "Someone else".

I’m not too good with finance or stuff like that so I need help. My mother was laid off from work about 2 weeks ago and she was confident on receiving a unemployment claim, or something like that. It’s where you get money until you get a new job, I think. So yeah, she was confident on getting that and she applied for it but that was 2 weeks ago, all she’s been getting are letters that say they can’t pay her yet. She talked on the phone with one of the workers over there, and explained the situation. The worker told her that Bi-Mart[where she worked] was trying to make it look like they didn’t fire her, and I just told her that sounded wack. She was given a notice on April that a important customer complained about her, he said she needed to improve on her English [she's mexican =o]
The company made her sign something that said that she would have to improve on that if she wanted to keep the job, and she needed to learn a system requirement or something. She took classes in order to help her improve her English and she studied the system [it's called PDX]. They were going to give her a test to see if she knows the system and to evaluate how much her English improved. Buuuut mother asked to change the date because she didn’t feel ready, and they did. They also postponed 2 more times afterward, my mom didn’t ask for those. So one day the boss of the whole place here in town came and told her that they were letting her go due to economy and such, but mom believes it’s more out of discrimination. She claims business was going well for the store, sometimes it wasn’t but most of the time it was. The worker after hearing that said that the whole thing sounded fishy and that Bi-Mart wanted it to look different [the situation]. She also said that Bi-Mart need to pay taxes and it depended on them to see if she could get the unemployment pay thingy.
Bottom line [sorry for all that shenanegans] she wants to know if she can force them to pay taxes so she can get her pay thing, she’s worried they’ll keep saying no and she might loose all her savings. I feel bad cause I don’t know what to tell her, she doesn’t want to get a job because she’s tired of working and she wants to have a break. Also, she doesn’t want to get a job until the holidays are over so she can visit the family down in cali. So yeah I need some advice to help her out of this tricky situation.
I just want a answer to question, NOT put downs. I want to help her in all this not make her feel even worse. Also, I know that everyone has to work and such but she hasn’t seen her family in awhile personally I don’t care much about that, but she does and she doesn’t want to be tied up to work again.

So I got a new job as a producer for this video game company, and would love to get a phone that has a built in calendar, and can get email and have great access to the internet, as a way to help me with my job.

I have a motorola q from verizon which I hate, and I mean I hate the phone. with the announcement of the new iPhone coming, i was thinking of jumping ship to at&t and picking up the new iPhone. ( also the data plan is a lot cheaper then verizon)

but is the iPhone a good "business" phone? will the calendar allow me to plug in meetings and times and other things like that?

I have friends that have the iPhone, but all of them just use it as a regular phone (seems like a waste to me)

any help would be great, and if you want to suggest another phone, let me know! thanks!

I started a new job and part of it is calling buisness that we have worked on and asking them to pay up. What is the proper way to ask them that they need to pay a bill but seem very professional and nice at the same time?

I just started a new job. I have to call businesses and ask them for details about their company, such as what computers they use, etc. Or, I have to call and ask the receptionist/operator things like "Who is your senior manager" and "who is the person responsible for your phone systems", etc.

It makes me nervous to call strangers like that, but I really need this job. How can I cope with this nervousness?