About Jenice Armstead

Dr. Jenice Armstead is a military veteran, author, motivational speaker, Professor and Academic Business Department Chair with over 17 years professional experience in the public and private sector. Jenice’s expertise covers human resources, business management, the federal hiring process and government hiring policy. She understands the significance of human capital value for organizational development. She has an exceptional aptitude for teaching difficult topics with practical approaches. Jenice has a MBA with a Concentration in Human Resources from Saint Leo University and a Doctorate of Business Administration from Jones International University.

Happy 1st Birthday Pep Talks Vol. 4

Pep Talks Vol 4 – Answering Training Questions provides the reader with an overview of different training questions an employer may ask the candidate.  The Pep Talks Book Series is an introduction to a new way of interviewing and obtaining a job in today’s competitive market. The Pep Talks Book Series is all about giving the reader an advantage over their competitors when working toward the goal of gaining more knowledge and understanding in this new job market. This new job market is all about unconventional ways of obtaining knowledge while gaining the desired employment. The Pep Talks Book Series explains how the new Job market knowledge and understanding how to better improve the chances of being “individually recognized” as a professional are vital. The Pep Talks Book Series assists with building job confidence and self-esteem along with providing detailed examples for the reader to use for interviews. The Pep Talks Book Series are designed to assist the reader in planning, executing, and managing their own career and potential growth in their field of choice. Each section has an interactive “fill in the blank” area for guiding the reader with critical thinking activity examples to assist with brainstorming, and “Confidence Boosters” provide the reader with constant motivation for obtaining their “dream career.” The Pep Talks Book Series can serve the newly looking or the long-term job seeker with methods that will assist with the career search and provide motivation for future endeavors.  The entire Pep Talks series is dedicated to the job seeker.  Whether newly looked, or experience professional Pep Talks has something for everyone.

Happy 1st Birthday to Pep Talks Vol 4 – Answering Training Questions

Pep Talks Vol 4

Excerpt from Pep Talks Vol 4 

 

Monday Morning Mindset – Creating Healthy Habits

This week focuses on creating healthy habits. Healthy habits supply us with the ability to stay focused and sustained self-ability, creativity, awareness and an understanding of self-consciousness. When you create healthy habits you allow yourself to decide to do something on purpose and walk with purpose. Purpose allows us to facilitate our own personal growth and development both professionally and with interpersonal relationships. Many times we focus on the habits that we consider bad habits. When you focus on creating, having and allowing yourself to develop healthy habits you focus on the positive abilities for your life, instead of the things that you still have to work on. It’s important to focus on past achievements in order for you to grow and develop a healthy dialogue for healthy habit achievements. A healthy habit can be learning how to talk positive to oneself, exercising for 15 minutes a day, or increasing nutritional balance. All of these examples of healthy habits allow for other parts of your life to grow and develop in a sustainable way. Instead of focusing on what you’ve done wrong or things you still have to do, start focusing on creating healthy habits within your life no matter how big or small.

Forgiveness Friday – Small Things

This weeks’ Forgiveness Friday focuses on forgiveness of the small things. Many times in relationships we allow little things to slip into the arena of unforgiveness within our minds. When your spouse forgets to make the bed up and rushes out the door without giving you a kiss goodbye, it is then you need to choose to forgive. When your friend forgets an appointment with you, it is then you need to choose to forgive. When your books don’t come in on time for the first day of class, it is then you need to choose to forgive. Way too often we think that forgiveness is solely reserved for something, which involves deceitfulness, betrayal, or any other life changing event. But, the truth is forgiveness is for everything, including the small things. When you choose to forgive the small things, you’re choosing to release the ability for small things to add up to a huge explosion of laired unforgiveness. Make a point to be consciously aware of the small things that are in need of forgiveness within your life.

2nd Annual Homegrown in Hillsborough Festival

Tampa-Hillsborough-County-Public-Libraries-Presents-the-Homegrown-in-Hillsborough-Festival-Saturday-October-26-2013_medium

Thank you to everyone who came out to the 2nd Annual Homegrown in Hillsborough Event on Saturday, Oct 18th. It was a pleasure meeting and chatting with all of you. I thoroughly enjoyed discussing my business series “Pep Talks” with you. I want to extend a special thank you to the Seminole Heights Library for hosting such a successful event. I look forward to next year’s festival.

 Jenice Armstead

Jenice Armstead

All the Best,
Saint Leo University Prof. & Author
Jenice Armstead

Monday Morning Mindset

This week focuses on “getting back on track.” Many times we are often faced with challenges in our life that may cause us to get off track of accomplishing our life goals. Understanding that the false voice within you is contradictory to getting you back on track toward your life goals. This means having to re-establish your intentions of your life goals. It is healthy for us to accept past experiences as lessons learned, rather than failures. Using this intuitive thought allows you to get back on track quickly. Use your past experiences as immediate feedback for you to reflect upon what not to do in the future. Take some time and dig into the core reason you need want to re-establish your original goals. It’s important to realize that there is no such thing as failure if you look at the experience as life learned lessons pushing you toward a successful future.

Forgiveness Friday: False Voice

This weeks’ Forgiveness Friday focuses on the forgiveness of thinking that the false voice within your thoughts has any power of your current outcomes and situation. Many of us have false voices within us that express and bring forth feelings of anxiety, burden, judgment and even blocker clarity. A key to understanding the signs of the false voice within oneself is to recognize the voice as ego expressing itself through the presence of fear in your life. This happens when you go “against the grain” and do something new or against family traditions. Habits and past experiences attribute to the false voice and may leave you feeling empty or without progress. Recognize and realize that the false voice of fear within you needs and requires your forgiveness. Pay attention to your thoughts throughout the day; discern sensations by using the feeling of how your body senses the presence of the false voice within your thoughts. Start by replacing the false voice of fear with thoughts of past accomplishments and future goals. Make a list of all the things that you have accomplished and overcome them keep this list on a small piece of paper, which you can access easily. This method will help you to manage and understand when the false voice of fear comes into your thoughts. It will allow you to instantly forgive yourself for thinking those thoughts. Allow forgiveness itself to be an encouragement for future goals and aspirations that you have for your life.

Types of Interview Questions Employers Can Ask

Interview questions are used to help the selecting official of a business or company to make a decision on whom would be the best pick for a job position. There are many varieties of questions that may be asked to include: General questions, yes or no questions, part questions, Open – ended questions, scenario questions, and general questions.

General questions consists of simple informal information. Some examples of general questions are “What is your full legal name? Do you have any other alias you go by? Where do you live? What were your previous jobs?” These are simple questions that really have nothing to do with the interview itself.

Yes or no questions are normally asked in an written application form, such as the initial application. A yes or no question example is “Are you available for morning shifts? Do you have ample transportation? Do you have a passport?” All yes or no questions have an opportunity to be explained if need be. An example of a explainable yes or no question is “Are you a convicted felon? If yes, please explain your convictions.”

Part questions are the questions that have separate parts to them and are used to establish personality or behavior. A good part question example is “What is your definition of a leader and give an example when you were in a leadership role for an organization?  This could be a trick question, in the sense of seeing if you are being factual toward the information in your resume you provide. Or it could be way for the interviewer to get a better idea of how your professional mind works.  Either way, it is important to take your time answering these questions.

Open – ended questions are questions that give you an opportunity to explain how you may or may not handle a situation or event by telling a story of events. An open – ended question may help with seeing how you will handle stressful situations. An example of an open – ended question is “What do you feel would be a good resolution to an employee conflict?” or “Why do you believe you are the best candidate for this position?” These are just a few examples, which are used for open – ended questions.

Scenario questions are the most common, these questions consist of a series of questions designed to show your responses and how you would handle a series of events happening at one time. A good example of a scenario question is “Give me an example of a time where you had to handle a conflict situation? What was the conflict? Whom did the conflict happen with? What was your involvement? What did you do to resolve the conflict and how was the conflict resolved? Most of the time the interviewer will repeat the question if the candidate needs it repeated. It is recommended that the applicant write the questions down as they are being asked of them.

Happy Interviewing

Monday Morning Mindset

This week’s topic is “Developing Your Inner Voice.” Developing your inner voice is important because it makes you aware of your thoughts. When you’re more aware of your thoughts, you’re more aware of your intentions and goals. When you’re more aware of your intentions and goals you’re more aware of the steps you must take in order to achieve those intentions and goals. When you’re more aware of the steps you must take, you then begin to develop your inner voice with a focus on positive outcomes of your thoughts. Many of us have more negative voices than positive voices, which interrupt our daily thoughts. Instead of focusing on negative things or things you don’t want to happen, this week try focusing on positive things and things you do want to happen. For an example instead of saying “I don’t want to be late for work” you can say, “I’m will leave earlier to get to work on time.” You can change your mindset, which will change your ability to act, which changes the outcome for what you believe is possible.

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Groupon-Offer

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Homegrown in Hillsborough Festival

Homegrown in Hillsborough Festival

Date: October 18, 2014

Time: 12pm – 3pm

Location: Seminole Heights Branch Library, 4711 Central Ave., Tampa, FL 33603

Join local author Professor Jenice Armstead as she shares interviewing tips and tricks on the 1st Floor Room 105 at 1:45pm

Tampa-Hillsborough-County-Public-Libraries-Presents-the-Homegrown-in-Hillsborough-Festival-Saturday-October-26-2013_medium

Come join us for the second annual Homegrown in Hillsborough Festival at Seminole Heights Branch Library!

Homegrown in Hillsborough Program 2014

Wisdom Wednesday – The Harvest Mindset

This morning my mind is on the “Harvest.” I had a conversation with my spouse that made me rethink the “Harvest.”  She explained to me that when “one” plants a seed of a tree, “one” must wait for the tree to take roots and grow.  Then once the tree is strongly rooted it will start to sprout and grow, but it still must take deeper roots in order to bear fruit for harvesting.  This whole process takes a while.  In order to have a strongly rooted tree, there must be some deep roots.  This is the same for Spirit, in order for the things in  life to take root, the seed of the Spirit must break open and go deeper.  It is in the “going deeper” that growth happens.  The “wilderness” is always dark, but the “harvest” always comes to light when the time is right.  My choice is to enjoy the fact that I am “going deeper” for my roots to be firmly planted.  The struggle comes with asking the questions of “why is this process taking so long?”  The true of the matter is, Spirit is aware of the time needed – flesh is the one struggling with impatience.  I choose to enjoy the seeding, the rooting and the growing.

Interview Questions – How to Answer The Hard Ones with Ease

How do you work under pressure?

Interview questions are used to help the selecting official of a business or company to make a decision on whom would be the best pick for a job position. There are many varieties of questions that may be asked to include: General questions, yes or no questions, behavior questions, Open – ended questions, scenario questions, and general questions. The question of “How do you work under pressure?” is sure to come up during the duration of an interview.

This is a question that causes many people to feel intimidated because they are not exactly sure what to say or what not to say. Working under pressure is a skill, not everyone is able to work under pressure. It is important to state that. By stating this fact, you are showing the interview panel or manager that you have an understanding of what working under pressure consists of. You are showing them that you understand that not everyone is able to work under pressure; this is where you show off your skills and start to talk about what working under pressure means to you. You can give examples of times where you were required to work under pressure.

While you speak about your experience with working under pressure it is important to give specific time and job positions where you worked under pressure. This shows the interview panel that you took that situation seriously and that you are more than capable of working under pressure. Even if you are not asked to do so, be sure to give the situation of when you worked under pressure, the outcome of your working under pressure and what the result was of the event, which you were working under pressure.

This is a difficult interview question to answer, but if you come mentally prepared to answer this question you are sure to impress the interview panel or manager as well as give yourself a reminder of how competent you are and reaffirming your professional ability. Happy job hunting, you can do or be anything you want with persistence.

Monday Morning Mindset

Today’s Mindful Monday focuses on living courageously. In the face of adversity and with fear slathered all over your physical body, you must come to the cross roads of “Living Courageously” and “Fear.” Living courageously takes you toward your intention and awareness. Fear pushes you away from your goals. In order to live courageously one must be able to understand that you will fail, and you will have to start over at times. But, it is in the starting over and the failing were you realize your true nature. Your true nature is searching for the ability to live more courageously than the day before. Living courageously is something you embrace, knowing that the result will be for your benefit.

Forgiveness Friday: Going Deeper

Forgiveness is something that has been given to us freely by the Higher Source. Through forgiveness we are able to freely receive the ability to be our true selves. When we begin to understand the power of forgiveness, we are able to ultimately receive from the Higher Source, all which is possible in this life experience. When you have the ability to forgive, you have the ability to receive. Within our humanistic self, forgiveness seems to be difficult and unfair at times. The humanistic experience expresses that forgiveness as something which is hard, but in the spiritual realm forgiveness is something that is ultimately easy. It is important to take a “pause” within our daily and busy lives to identify “triggers” where un-forgiveness may hide. Within our spirits are able to identify where forgiveness may sometimes be held hostage within our bodies.  Allowing un-forgiveness to dwell in ones body, causes the body to deteriorate faster than it would if truth and unconditional love dwelled in the body.  This Forgiveness Friday focuses on the ability to “go deeper” within oneself and find “pieces” of un-forgiveness within oneself.  Begin to release them in order to receive a more prosperous life experience, by choosing to forgive, one is choosing to receive.  Do yourself a favor, and forgive.

Monday Morning Mindset

Forgiveness is the key to releasing validation issues in your life. The freedom to forgive allows people to move on with their lives, and allows for goodness to flow through their life experiences and into their soul. I realized in my life that forgiveness is something that is given freely with no expectations of acknowledgment of the hurt a person has objected upon my life. Forgiveness is best experienced in the awareness of one’s own truth about self. It takes a lot of courage to forgive somebody freely for hurts unspoken of. God forgives us freely, and then graces us with the ability to forgive others freely. We are to forgive in remembrance of Him, for He has forgiven us over and over for things that we’ve done.  Forgiveness is the key.

Jenice

Understanding Strategic Management

Strategic management is a combination of external and internal environmental analysis, strategic direction, business and corporate strategy formulation, strategic control and strategic restructuring. Strategic management is the ability to analysis and organizations strengths and weakness. The resource an organization has is as important as the operating capital of the organization. It is important that the organization is aware of all business opportunities and conditions for which an opportunity can be taken. Just because a organization has analyzed and hypnotized over the possible threats does not necessarily mean the organization will not incur financial damages, this merely gives an “educated view point” to what could or could not happen in the organization.

Strategic management is vital and important to all organizations, without stratgtic management and organization would have no foundation to build upon. With the ability to analyze and learn from the business environment stratgtic management serves as a key element for organizations to establish goals, execute goals and satisfy key organizational stakeholders. Strategic management includes having a direction to the types of objectives the organization will peruse, long term goals are important for the overall mission of the organization. A well established strategic direction will give an organization the leverage needed to provide guidance to managers and employees who are in the positions to carry out and perform the duties for organizational growth.

There are many processes to stratgtic management starting with external and internal analysis. The external environment focuses on socio-cutural, economic, technological and political forces. With these of focus an organization is able to better understand the needs to their external environment as well as set logical goals to improve on services of their external enviornment. The external environment is broad and must be properly evaluated by the organization; competitive markets may include suppliers and existing organizations with similar mission statements.

Internal analysis consists of organizational resources and competitive advantages. Organization must have a healthy understanding of their sustainable competitive advantage as well as resource interconnectedness. The organizations human resources department is a fragment of top management involvement that must be included in all operational decisions. Employee recruitment, training and rewards are all facets of keeping an organization competitive.

Overall, the stratgic management process is all about the stratgic thinking focus of an organization. Although stratgic managment is a learned skill, most organizations figure it is a part of a creative professional business process needed to ensure an organization is successful. The focus is simple, to include long term growth, keeping external and internal points of communication flowing and keeping a competitive edge.

Reference: Harrison; St. John (2008) Foundations in Strategic Management. Publisher: South-Western Foundations in Strategic Management The External Environment

Jenice Armstead

Motivating & Understanding the “Online Student”

Message from Prof. Jenice Armstead

In my professional opinion, lecturing is a compilation of instructing students to understand a topic or concept and the ability to properly explain a topic with ease to students whom are less familiar with the topic. It takes practice to find what “type” of lecturing which is right for the students to receive the most out of the course. Lectures seem to have been given a “bum rap” because of the student’s perception of what a lecture is. When in fact, all topics have the potential of being exciting for all student-learning experiences. Traditional lecturing has strengths and weakness, which is one of the reasons I am always looking for ways to improve my course interaction and lecturing techniques for my students.

Motivating my students is one of the most important aspects of teaching. Positive learning environments stimulate academic growth of a student. Obtaining new online learning technologies is a way for improving lecturing techniques and developing a well-rounded academic environment for my students. As a professor, I utilized the “Learning Studio” for course interaction, discussion, electronic handouts, academic journals, class chats and assignment submissions. Learning online takes patience, dedication, motivation and constant communication. Without these key elements the success of a student is next to impossible. Professors and instructors have to be engaged and ensure that the lectures are interactive as well as informative. Implementing “interactive” learning methods and other new technology advances provide students with high opportunities for success in all courses.

After implementing the “Learning Studio” for all of my courses, my students are much more involved with the topics and are not afraid to ask questions or give an opinion during class. That was a part of my goal for implementing “interactive” lecture methods. I wanted my students to feel a sense of community and comfort with the topics being discussed. It has showed to be very effective in that student participation and communication has increased tremendously. When stimulating my students I use “blended” teaching methods. My students are heavily involved with the lectures. I make sure to have interactive questions for them to engage in the “Learning Studio.” I also make sure to have power point slides and direct “Live” Internet links to stimulate discussion among my students. The Socratic Methods are useful when teaching human resources and business management. The “Asking Instead of Telling” works especially when I want to have the class discussion on job structures and business ethics.

The four dimensions/factors for successful lecturing are: Attention (A), Relevance (R), Confidence (C), and Satisfaction (S) are attributed to learning comprehension (Guven, 2009). The attention span of a student is directly effective how the student learns. Is the student not attentive in your class? Why not? The lecture may need more “Pizzazz.” The way to give some life to a lecture is to involve you students more with their interests of the topic, or implement more of your real life professional experience into it. This is where the online relevance comes into place. How relevant is the topic to current events? Is there a way to implement current events into the topic? There is always something going on in the news or related to the Saint Leo Core Values one could use to increase the relevance of the topic. While building up the knowledge base of the student, the confidence of the student will increase. Which will increase student satisfaction of the learning experience overall (Guven, 2009). The success of the student in an online program strongly depends on the interaction, creativeness and motivation of the student as does it for the professor/instructor.

References

Guven, M. (2009). The Epistemological Beliefs of Distance Education Students. Turkish
Online Journal Of Distance Education (TOJDE), 10(3), 217-246.

Palloff, R. M., & Pratt, K. (2003). The Virtual Student : A Profile and Guide to Working
with Online Learners. Jossey-Bass.

Garlikov, R. (2012). The Socratic Method. Retrieved September 13, 2012, from
http://www.garlikov.com/Soc_Meth.html

Prof. Jenice Armstead

Prof. Jenice Armstead

Monday Morning Mindset

Do It In Fear

Fear is false evidence appearing real. Many times we don’t realize the blessing “fear” provides us. Fear can give you the ability to do anything & everything regardless of how you may feel about the situation or environment. What do you mean? You ask. The ability not to move forward is remaining in the negative thought of failing and falling on your face. Fear is an active reminder of the weakness part of you, this is a good thing. In this, you may find the worst part of yourself and recognize how to “strengthen” that part of yourself. I have come to realize that fear is one of my biggest strengths. Fear has given me the ability to push harder, go further and strive more than I ever would have if I didn’t “feel” fear in my life. Fear provides something that allows for the human spirit to feel, the ability to be more and achieve greatness. Fear is nothing more than your “strongest” attribute, pushing your “weakest” attribute to grow to a higher awareness of self. There are many times when I feel fear, the key is to recognize the feeling and know that you can “push” past it. Fear is something that resonates to your body, you can feel it and at times see it. At that moment, you can choose “strong thoughts” and learn to encourage yourself. You can teach yourself to embrace the weakness, and have the strongest part of yourself uplift it and focus on the feelings of great accomplishment. All you have to do, is trust and believe then “do it in fear” know that no matter the outcome – it is the best for you in that moment.

Inspired by Joyce Meyer “Do It In Fear” teachings

Thoughtful Tuesday – Blackness

Blackness

In the still of the night there was blackness

Blackness was and is the beginning of life

The earth and heavens were created out of blackness

The colors all migrate to blackness

A baby is conceived in blackness

The thought of a subconscious mind is pooled with blackness

Growth is in blackness

Your most informative self is derived from blackness

Your nutrition is distributed in blackness

You are all considered blackness from the original people

All good comes from blackness

All is black

All will return to being subdued blackness

Blackness is beautiful

By: Jenice Armstead

Wisdom Wednesday: Earning Veteran’s Preference

There are many factors to “earning” veteran’s preference when applying for a federal or government job.

The Office of Personnel has created a “Veteran’s Guide” to help those agencies ensure they are giving veteran’s the right preferences, this guide is the all tell all on seeing if a veteran has status or not. Yes, you read that right, just because you are a veteran doesn’t mean that you automatically are able to apply for government jobs. In order to apply you have to be a veteran and stipulations apply.

First thing is first, you must be a veteran or have some other kind of veteran status. This is just one of many criteria one must meet to become eligible for veterans status. To receive preference, a veteran must have been discharged or released from active duty in the Armed Forces under honorable conditions (i.e., with an honorable or general discharge). This is crucial because, if you have a dishonorable discharge you are disqualified from veteran status.

Note: Military retirees at the rank of major, lieutenant commander, or higher are not eligible for preference in appointment unless they are disabled veterans upon being discharged or separated from the military.

The key is know what type of Veteran’s preference you have, the following explains what Veteran’s preference actually is:

5-Point Preference (TP)
Five points are added to the passing examination score or rating of a veteran who served:
During a war; or

During the period April 28, 1952 through July 1, 1955; or

For more than 180 consecutive days, other than for training, any part of which occurred after January 31, 1955, and before October 15, 1976; or

During the Gulf War from August 2, 1990, through January 2, 1992; or

For more than 180 consecutive days, other than for training, any part of which occurred during the period beginning September 11, 2001, and ending on the date prescribed by Presidential proclamation or by law as the last day of Operation Iraqi Freedom; or

In a campaign or expedition for which a campaign medal has been authorized. Any Armed Forces Expeditionary medal or campaign badge, including El Salvador, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Southwest Asia, Somalia, and Haiti, qualifies for preference.

A campaign medal holder or Gulf War veteran who originally enlisted after September 7, 1980, (or began active duty on or after October 14, 1982, and has not previously completed 24 months of continuous active duty) must have served continuously for 24 months or the full period called or ordered to active duty. The 24-month service requirement does not apply to 10-point preference eligibles separated for disability incurred or aggravated in the line of duty, or to veterans separated for hardship or other reasons under 10 U.S.C. 1171 or 1173.

When veterans with 5 point (TP) status apply for federal positions, 5 points are automatically added to their application scores. Yes, federal applications receive scores. When you complete a federal application you receive a score from 1 – 100 percent, applicant scores are tallied up once the announcement has closed. If your application did not receive a “high enough” score you should be contacted by the human resources of the position for which you applied. If you have any additional questions about your application, contact the human resources office of the agency for which you applied.

References:
Veterans Job Information: http://www.fedshirevets.gov/job/index.aspx
Veteran’s Guide: http://www.opm.gov/staffingPortal/Vetguide.asp