These days, it is affordable for most families in the western world. Basically you need a personal computer, a modem which connects it to the telephone and an inexpensive piece of software that is usually supplied by the company which runs your account. Once you've joined, you can access sites all across the world for the price of a local call. You can, for example, send letters and pictures via e-mail to friends or companies in the USA or Australia. You can read a vast amount of information published on the Internet by governments and companies. You can contact supermarket chains and do your shopping in cyberspace. You can receive the news from a wide range of newspapers printed out for you in your own home and you can even choose the news you wish to receive. Some news agencies, TV companies and newspapers even allow you to 'customize' their information to suit your needs. If you're interested in sport, for example, you can arrange just to have those pages printed. I get the education news from the BBC each morning before I go to work, but that's not all! With the Internet I have access to weather forecasts around the world, recipes, on-line books, countless games and software to download, my favorite sailing magazines, writers resources such as dictionaries and thesauruses, and perhaps best of all, a means of chatting world-wide with people who have similar interests and concerns.
From a job hunter's point of view the Internet offers some very exciting possibilities. You can, for example, send an instant letter of application and your CV to almost any large company in the western world. If you've already written the CV on a word processor you won't need to write it again - just attach the file to an e-mail document. You can also deposit your CV on notice-boards which employers visit when they need to recruit staff, and you can contact just about every careers company in the UK. If you're thinking of going to university, all prospectuses are now available for you to read on line - just download and print the pages you need and if you need further information send an e-mail to the admissions tutor (it's cheaper and faster than traditional mail which on the 'net' is referred to as snail-mail!).
Some public libraries are now 'wired' and in some towns there are cyber cafes where you can get use of an Internet-linked computer quite cheaply. It won't be long before we all have an Internet address just like we have a postal address today and that's only the beginning! Already there are devices being developed which can enable your Internet- linked computer to act like a video-phone. It won't be long before an employer reads your CV on the Internet interviews you on the Internet and employs you to work for him, from home, on the Internet!
If you can get access to it, here are a few education and job-related sites which are good locations to begin your 'surfing' from:
- The British Government Website - offers you all sorts of information especially about education and employment: http://www.open.gov.uk/
- A map of Britain with all the universities marked on it. Click a university and you're taken straight to its prospectus: http://www.scitsc.wIv.ac.uk/ukinfo/uk.map.html
- Job sites: http://www.jobsite.co.uk/
- http://www.jobsite.co.uk/
- http://www.jobmart.co.uk/
- http://www.netjobs.co.uk/topframe.html
- http://www.careerworld.net/
Finally, at the end of the interview be sure to thank the interviewer for his time and interest in you, maintain your composure until you leave the building and then, once outside, analyze your thoughts and feelings before you lose touch with them.
- What questions were you asked?
- What aspects of the interview went well?
- Were there any difficult questions?
- What would you do differently next time?
- What aspects of your performance do you need to work on?
Some interviewers offer 'feedback' to unsuccessful candidates. They are willing to talk to you after the event to point out the positive and negative sides of your performance. If it's offered, take the opportunity - it can only serve to help you prepare for the next job application. Remember, too, that you may be more experienced than your interviewer. Whatever the result, you emerge from the interview richer in experience and more highly skilled. If he can't recognize talent when he sees it, he's the loser - not you!
Further information
Great Answers to Tough Interview Questions, 4th edition, Martin John Yate (Kogan Page, 1998)
Successful Interview Skills, Rebecca Corfield (Kogan Page, 1999) Interviewers See Interviews
