The One Thing Missing From Too Many Job Applications Is Effort

As the 6.3% of Americans who are still unemployed know, looking for a job can be an incredibly frustrating process, where dozens of resumes are met with rejection or, even worse, a deafening silence.
But reading a pile of poorly constructed applications can be a drag too, according to several employers who have complained about it recently. One of the biggest mistakes job-seekers make is failing to pay thoughtful attention to each application, they say. Online tools make it easy to send out a flurry of applications at once, but have a tendency to create quantity, not quality.

Jason Fried, the founder CEO of the software company Basecamp, writes that the qualities he looks for in potential employees include clear thinking and a proven ability to execute. But according to a piece he wrote at Inc, the single most important quality, and the best indicator of future success, is the amount of effort the jobseeker puts into getting the job.

The job description for a recent design opening was simply “Send relevant work samples, and anything else that will make you stand out, to jason@basecamp.com. Extra effort and personal touches will be looked upon favorably.” Despite that directive, Fried writes, only 10% of the applications showed an intriguing amount of effort. More common is a standard resume, a cover letter, or a link to a sparse LinkedIn profile.

Much better is someone who picks good work examples and can explain how each was created. Micky Drexler, the legendary CEO of J. Crew, made a similar point at an interview this week at the Milken Institute Global Conference, written up at LinkedIn. “I always look for those resumes that aren’t manufactured,” Drexler said. Particularly for entry-level applicants, he says, there’s a misconception: They think that listing trips abroad, touting volunteering, and stretching or overstating accomplishments is more likely to get them a second look. In fact, it’s more likely to get them ignored because they’re following a well-established and boring roadmap. Instead, he suggests, candidates are better off ignoring the advice of career centers to scrub waitress jobs from their CVs.
The better course is to find a way to include and explain work experiences that show honesty, directness, and evidence of drive and ambition, he says. None of this is to suggest that people try resume gimmicks or start cold-calling the company’s CEO. It can actually be as simple as demonstrating a real interest in the particular job opening. Julie Zhuo, who heads product design at Facebook, says she doesn’t find lists of skills or a fancy degree all that compelling when she’s looking for people, according to a recent interview with First Round Review. Prestige is apparently not enough.

“Sometimes, designers without traditional training possess an ingenuity that you don’t usually see,”

Zhuo said. “We’re really just looking for people who have that element of extreme proactivity. Even if they did go to a great school, they should have experience stretching themselves on projects both inside and outside of the classroom. Great candidates take the initiative to experiment, design and build on their own.” Particularly impressive are people that don’t just do jobs that are assigned to them, but also solve problems. “You want someone who sees there’s a problem and wonders why no one has come up with a hack to fix it or a tool to make it easy yet,” Zhuo said. “Then they go and design that tool. Do they include that in their professional submissions?
If they do, that’s a good sign.” Zhuo’s point is particularly important, and backed up by Google HR head Laszlo Bock, who deemphasizes GPA and school prestige when hiring.

It’s not just the work and its quality that matters, but the thought process that goes into it. Getting a great job, it turns out, requires the same qualities that top performers show once they have one. Effort, intentionality, and care.

Source:Quartz

Samsung Vs Apples Litigation Update

After three full days of deliberations, a jury in San Jose, California found that Samsung had infringed upon two Apple patents, and that it owed the Cupertino company $119,625,000 in damages. But it also found that Apple had infringed on one of Samsung's two patents, and owed $158,400 as a result.

In a decision, the jury said Samsung primarily infringed on two of Apple's five patents, the '647 and '721 patent covering features that turned addresses and phone numbers into links, and Apple's slide to unlock patent respectively. On the flip side, the jury said three models of the iPhone, and two models of the iPod touch infringed on a Samsung patent covering a photo and video gallery feature. Both numbers are minuscule Both numbers are minuscule when compared to the original amounts sought by both companies.

Apple originally wanted $2.191 billion in damages, targeting 10 Samsung devices for infringing five patents. And Samsung's counter-suit against Apple targeted nine devices, including iPhones and iPads, asking for a far smaller $6.2 million. "We are grateful to the jury and the court for their service. Today's ruling reinforces what courts around the world have already found: that Samsung willfully stole our ideas and copied our products," Apple said in a statement. "We are fighting to defend the hard work that goes into beloved products like the iPhone, which our employees devote their lives to designing and delivering for our customers." Samsung declined to comment, with a spokesperson stating that "It is inappropriate to comment while the jury is still deliberating." Google declined as well; the company was not named in the lawsuit, though it testified for Samsung in connection with the patent covering universal search.
Not a clean sweep for either company Not all Samsung products infringed all of Apple's patents. While all of the accused Samsung devices were found to infringe the '647 patent, it was a split ruling for the slide to unlock patent. Samsung's Admire, Galaxy Nexus, and Stratosphere were all found to infringe on that patent, but not the Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G Touch, or the Galaxy S2 Skyrocket. And it was no's across the board for Apple's '959 and '414 patents, which cover universal search and background data synchronization respectively.
The most expensive product for Samsung, based on the damages numbers was the Galaxy S3. The jury awarded Apple $52,444,721 for infringing on just one patent — the so-called "quick links" patent. On the other end of the spectrum was the Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, which was the only Samsung product found not to infringe.
One other product, the Galaxy S2 was found to infringe, though the jurors filled in the damages box with a zero, something that will require them to come back and recalculate that total next week. For Samsung, the jury said that the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, and fourth- and fifth-generation iPod touch infringed on its gallery patent, but found that Apple did not infringe of a Samsung patent covering video compression and transmission.
The bulk of Samsung's $6.2 million in damages relied on that patent, resulting in the wildly low number. Additionally, the jury found that Samsung willfully infringed on the slide to unlock patent, something that could increase damages associated with that patent by up to three times if district court Judge Lucy Koh allows it.
However both sides would need to write a brief on the matter first, making that a decision that could come in the days or weeks to come. Koh also chose not to grant that in 2012 trial. Much of the trial between the two companies was spent on Apple's complaint, which was broader than Samsung's, forcing the company to spend much of its time on the defensive.
Apple accused Samsung of infringing on five of its patents covering the slide-to-unlock gesture, universal search, data synchronization, keyboard autocorrect, and something called "quick links," which turns phone numbers and addresses into phone actions when you tap them.
Samsung's countersuit took aim at Apple for two patents: one covering video compression and transmission, and another for organizing photos and videos. This may not be the last trial between the two This is the second major trial between the two companies in the US, and likely not the last.
The two sparred in 2012 over Samsung's initial crop of Galaxy smartphones and tablets that Apple said looked similar to the iPhone and iPad. A jury agreed with that assessment and awarded Apple $1.05 billion, a figure that was later trimmed to $939.8 million after the judge pointed out errors in the way the jury did its math. In the backdrop of that was this second lawsuit targeting a newer group of devices.
Apple hinted at future conflict in its opening statements earlier in the month, saying casually it couldn't have gone after Samsung for 50 patents. "Samsung copied many many features, but there are limits in what we can accomplish in a trial," Apple's attorney Harold McElhinny said. Even so, most all of the devices in this trial (as well as the previous one) were long retired by the time the complaint went to trial, making the threat less about removing infringing products from store shelves, and more about Apple threatening competitors. According to Samsung, threatening competitors has been Apple's plan all along.
Throughout the trial, its lawyers have said this was really a fight between Apple and Google, with Apple indirectly going after Android. "This is what this case is really about," Samsung attorney Bill Price said in the company's closing argument. Jurors needed to answer 245 questions As part of making its decision, the group of jurors needed to fill in as many as 245 answers on the 12-page verdict form. Some of those were simple yes and no questions, while others required calculating damages figures based on the math each company's damages expert offered. During deliberations, the group requested an easel, scissors, and tape to help with that task, but little else.
A separate request by the group earlier in the week asked for more information about when the conflict originally started between the two companies, asking specifically for what was said by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and Samsung's CEO when the claims of copying were first made, but the judge presiding over the case shot that request down.
The jury of eight originally began as 10, with two members bowing out on the very first day, citing physical illness and financial hardship. Three of the eight that remained were born in foreign countries, including Mexico, Spain, and Vietnam.
Some of their professions include an accounting assistant, apartment manager, retired teacher, an executive assistant at Seagate, and an employee at the nearby Los Gatos police department.
The group's foreman was a former IBM business unit executive. Even with the verdict in, it's not final. Jurors come back next week to determine damages on the Galaxy S2, something that could change the total amount.
And even then, it could change once again. Seven months after the first trial wrapped up, Judge Koh trimmed $450.5 million off the original $1.05 billion judgment, and required a retrial for that amount. After the week-long retrial that followed, the final figure was changed to $939.8 million.
Matt Macari contributed to this report.

Source: Verge

A Disease that is Three Times More Deadly Than SARS Has Just Reach United States

A viral and often fatal respiratory disease in the Middle East has taken a turn for the worse and is spreading throughout the region, as well as to parts of Asia, Europe and now the United States.

US officials have just confirmed that a man who fell ill after returning from Saudi Arabia about a week ago has Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Earlier, Saudi officials reported 26 more infections of the disease, which first appeared in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
Cases of MERS surged last month by 89 new cases. The kingdom has seen a total of 371 cases and 107 deaths from the disease since it was identified two years ago.
 There is no cure or vaccine for MERS, which can cause pneumonia and kidney failure, but this week scientists from the US, Hong Kong and China said they discovered antibodies that can prevent the disease from infecting human cells.
What’s especially worrying about MERS is its resemblance to another viral respiratory disease that turned into an epidemic and killed almost 800 people around the world in 2002 and 2003—Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, better known as just SARS.
Although MERS appears to be spreading more slowly than SARS did, it is far more lethal. Laurie Garrett, a global health expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said about 31% of MERS patients have died from the disease, compared with 8% of SARS cases. The rate of infection may pick up still. SARS, which emerged from human contact with infected civets, eventually spread like wildfire between humans, starting with health workers.
Scientists are still studying the disease, but say MERS is likely the result of human contact with diseased animals—bats and camels, as well as their milk, urine and other fluids.
The WHO has said that three-quarters of last month’s flood of MERS infections appear to have been through human-to-human transmission, mostly in Jeddah’s healthcare facilities. So far, MERS cases have been found in about half as many countries as the 31 nations SARS reached—mostly in the Middle East, but also in parts of East Asia and Europe. The virus does not seem to have reached North or South America, but as millions of Muslim pilgrims begin descending on holy sites in Saudi Arabia between the late spring and fall to observe the hajj, health experts worry the disease could spread further. Aside from the health concerns, SARS exposed deficiencies in the official responses in China and Hong Kong. Likewise, MERS is drawing new scrutiny upon the Saudi government.
Even as doctors reported a surge in deaths at the beginning of April, officials issued a statement assuring the public that there is no worry of an epidemic and discharged the country’s health minister with little explanation. 

Some locals claim that officials are covering up cases of infection, and the reporting of infections and deaths has indeed been confusing, Garrett points out. “There needs to be clear, honest, and timely communication between the government and its health departments and the public,” the medical journal the Lancet has written in response to the crisis.

Culled from:Quartz

May Day Bomb Blast Update

Death toll from the May day bomb blast has risen to 20 deaths  and  several bodies yet to be claimed by  relatives.

Photos Of Genevieve Nnaji's Birthday

Genevieve  Nnaji, a Nollywood's star actress celebrated her birthday recently.

Photos after the cut...

U.S Offers To Help Nigeria In Hunt For Abducted Girls

The United States has offered to help Nigeria in the search for the 200+ schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram men on April 14th.

"We have been engaged with the Nigerian government in discussions on what we might do to help support their efforts to find and free these young women," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told a daily briefing. "We will continue to have those discussions and help in any way we can."

Harf did not elaborate on the kind of assistance Washington is offering, but said: "We know Boko Haram is active in the area and we have worked very closely with the Nigerian government to build their capacity to fight this threat." Continue... Separately, a group of U.S. senators introduced a resolution condemning the abduction and urging U.S. government assistance in the rescue effort. "The U.S. and the international community must work with the Nigerian government to ensure these girls are reunited with their families and deepen efforts to combat the growing threat posed by Boko Haram,"
said Senator Chris Coons of Delaware, the chairman of the Senate's African Affairs subcommittee, and one of the resolution's six sponsors.

In fiscal year 2012, the United States provided over $20 million in security assistance to Nigeria, part of that to build the country's military, boost its capacity to investigate terrorist attacks and enhance the government's forensic capabilities, she said.

News source: Reuters

Gowon Rates President Jonathan On War Against Terrorism

Gowon Rates President Jonathan On War Against Terrorism http://news.naij.com/65683.html

Photos From The May Day Blast

BBC reporter Nkem Ifejika shared photos from the scene of  May day's blast.

See more photos after the cut...  

Mexican Star Striker Ready To Join Arsenal

JUST IN: Mexican Star Striker Ready To Join Arsenal http://news.naij.com/65678.html

Senator Iyabo Obasanjo Sends Boko Haram An Open Letter

Sen. Iyabo Obasanjo Sends Boko Haram An Open Letter http://www.informationng.com/2014/05/sen-iyabo-obasanjo-sends-boko-haram-an-open-letter.html

Mob Sets Three Kidnappers Ablaze In Ogun State

There was chaos yesterday April 30th in Ijoko Ota in Ado-Odo-Ota LGA of Ogun State around 9am when a mob set 3 suspected kidnappers ablaze after their victim, one Elizerbeth Oduwole screamed for help.

  Reports say the lady's scream attracted passersby who got hold of the kidnappers, beat them to a pulp before setting them ablaze. The vehicle they rode in was also set ablaze by the angry mob.   Confirming the incident, the Police PRO in the state, Muyiwa Adejobi said the victim, 26year old Elizabeth who resides in Atan-Ota had boarded a vehicle to Ewekoro but found herself in Gas Line in Ijoko were she immediately screamed for help.

Continue... “She screamed from the vehicle in which she was being taken to their den when she observed that she was in another place and the people in the area blocked the vehicle, beat the occupants, killed them and burnt them to ashes. The victim is being interrogated; the suspects were burnt to ashes.

We are going to use multifaceted approach; we want to know if there had been an interaction between the suspects and the victim. The jungle justice affected our case.

The people alerted us at the Headquarters instead of calling the DPO in Ota, and immediately we asked the DPO to move to the scene, but, before they got there, the suspects had been killed and burnt to ashes. It was a heavy inferno; they put tyres on the suspects and set them ablaze. We have evacuated their ashes. We have taken over the matter; we are still investigating the matter.  We condemn jungle justice, people should desist from this act”, the PPRO, said.   Meanwhile  on Tuesday April 29th in Abeokuta, men of the state's Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps rescued a middle aged woman named Favor Okoye from being lynched by an angry mob for allegedly kidnapping a baby at about 2.55pm along Toroto street  in Abeokuta.  

In a statement released by the Public Relations Officer of the NSCDC in the state, Olanrewaju Kareem, they were able to rescue the woman after a taxi driver alerted his men of a woman who had been beaten to a pulp and was in the pool of her blood    According to him, “a taxi driver alerted civil defence men keeping vigil on critical infrastructures around Akin-olugbade/Pepsi/Totoro areas that a woman has been attacked around Totoro and was about to be killed.
The men quickly raced to the scene to rescue the woman but, all efforts and appeal by civil defence to allow the suspected kidnapper face the consequence through the legal process proved abortive as the mob insisted on killing the woman.

“Because of this development, the civil defence officer called office for reinforcement as a result of which armed men were deployed to the scene. “In spite of the fact that those civil defence men on ground were able to take possession of the suspect and took her towards Akin-olugbade area in order to get a vehicle to convey her to a safe place, they were still followed and were all along resisting that the woman should not be taken away. “The situation became more violent when the armed men of civil defence arrived.

They threw available objects including bottles, planks, stones among others, the mob though succeeded in breaking the windscreen of civil defence vehicle but they were able to rescue the woman from being killed. “The woman who was in a state of coma as she could not talk was immediately rushed to the Federal Medical Centre where she is receiving treatment.
She gained consciousness after one hour after the first set of treatment had been administered on her. “We therefore appeal to members of the public to always ensure justice through legal means as jungle justice will make innocent people to suffer”, he said.

Former Deputy Senate President, Wash Pam,Dies at 73

Senator Wash Pam, a former Deputy Senate President has passed on at the age of 73. Senator Pam died today May 1st at the National Hospital Abuja after a long battle with prostrate cancer. Senator Pam served as Deputy Senate President under Joseph Wayas from 1979 to 1983.

He was survived by two wives and 18 children. May his soul rest in peace Amen.

Governor Rochas Okorocha To Evacuate Street Traders Out Of Owerri Roads

Gov.RochasOkorochaof Imo has charged the Imo Civil Guards to evacuate street traders on Douglas and other roads inOwerrito maintain sanity in the state capital.
A statement from his SeniorSpecial Adviser on Media,Mr SamOnwuemeodo, said on Friday that the governor gave the order while addressing officers of the guard in Owerri.
The civil guard is a security outfit set up by the state government to maintain peace and order.        

Source:vanguard

Aftermath of May Day Bombing: GEJ Summons His Service Chiefs

President Goodluck Jonathan has summoned Service Chiefs to an extraordinary security meeting following May 1,2014 bombing in Nyanya Abuja that killed19 people and leaving several injured. The meeting according to the President's spokesperson, Reuben Abati, was held yesterday May 2,2014 .
It's unfortunate that people are being killed like animals in this country.

Building Collapse-One Feared Dead

An uncompleted 2-storey building collapsed yesterday at Ologuneru in Ido LGA of Ibadan city with one feared dead. According to those who were working at the site, they head a deafening noise at about 2pm, which made them all run out for safety but unfortunately, the tipper driver who supplies sand to the construction site didn`t run fast enough and got trapped in the building as it collapsed.

Men from the Nigerian Security & Civil Defence Corps, Federal Road Safety Corps & other agencies were involved in rescue efforts but were not able to lift the heavy debris to rescue the man on time. The site engineer reportedly fled the scene immediately the collapse happened.      

Source:Linda ikeji