Computer & Internet

Archive for September, 2010

Today is a day when I find myself thinking a lot about role modeling due to some campus incidents with a few good students making poor choices.

I don’t know how many of you have experienced this phenomenon, but I want to talk about the realization that our fantastic “Golden Children” of campus activities sometimes screw up.  What do you do when you hear things about your programming board chair drinking her face off on weekends and narrowly escaping serious trouble with her RA?  How do you react when a group of your orientation leaders violate alcohol policies when you aren’t looking?  Tell me what to do with the student organization that has no “conduct code” but decides to elect a known “frequent flyer” in the campus judicial office to the position of parliamentarian? How about the group who appoints a student you know has been fired at a previous job for stealing money to the position of student government treasurer?

We need campus codes of conduct to assure that our campuses are safe, positive and open environments for students to learn and I know that all of us would agree that these codes represent some of our most fundamental community building frameworks.  When these issues spill over into some “grey” areas in the campus activities world, I think it’s a bit tougher. If the president of the Caribbean Culture Club gets caught drinking underage, how does that impact her work with the campus activities office?  Does it impact it at all?  These questions are challenging.  Add to that challenge the fact that most of us are advisors to these students and not supervisors and then there’s another layer of difficulty where holding students accountable is not as cut and dry.

In campus activities, we build capacities in our students for heroic achievements like role modeling, positive decision making, ethical leadership and so much more.  If we teach it, we also need to help them learn it as well and approach this process knowing that some of these mistakes are part of the learning process.  To me, asserting the importance of role modeling as a leadership concept is thrown out the window if we do not act when we believe a student leader’s ability to role model has been comprimised.

On the flip side, there is no clear cut “policy” that says that a student’s employment history off campus should prevent them from running for SGA.  Some also wonder if a student leader’s less-than-stellar “weekend choices” should influence our relationship as advisor and student as long as it doesn’t impact her work with the organization.

I’d love to start some discussion about this.  Have your student leaders ever screwed up, or am I working at the only campus where student leaders are sometimes not perfect?

Source: Cindy Kane

1. Embellishing details like your title, or changing your title altogether.
   It’s fine to describe your experiences in ways that match the job
   listing, but only if you do so in ways that are accurate. For some
   positions (like part-time/temporary assignments, special projects,
   etc.) you may not have an actual title. If you did good things, you’ll
   want them on your resume, so it’s understandable to relate the work to
   a title. I’ve seen several resumes from resident director-level
   candidates that listed their position as “Director” when it’s clear
   that they were in entry-level positions. If that is the official title,
   go ahead and put it down, but if the official title is “Resident
   Director,” there is a very different context to that, and the likely
   result is that the reviewer will either catch it, and not be impressed
   by the clear embellishment, or the mistake will catch up to you by the
   time you get an interview for something you clearly are not qualified
   for, or when they check references, and ask your immediate supervisor
   to describe the scope of your duties. Instead: If you
   have a position or project that doesn’t have a clear title, but you
   want to put it on your resume, ask your supervisor how to describe your
   position, or what working title they would give it, and go with that.
   Then clearly explain the duties and scope of the position. For example: one
   summer, between regular positions, I wrote my department’s annual
   report. That is basically all I did, but it was a pretty good thing to
   have done, so the director and I talked, and agreed that it was a
   special project and that I was assisting the director with it. So we
   called it “Special Assistant to the Director.” Sounds impressive, but
   the description gave context about the duties, scope and the fact it
   was a temporary position.

2. Putting in too many details.  Okay, so this
   is academia, and many of us are working up to having a “Curriculum
   Vitae” rather than just a simple resume. Even though the term literally
   means “The course of one’s life,” you shouldn’t try to put everything you have ever done in there. Instead: Make
   sure you are listing the most relevant skills and experiences
   applicable to the job, and then select others that are important to you
   and create a positive impression. And when you assemble the application
   packet, only send what is being asked for. Usually this is a resume and
   cover letter, and sometimes a reference sheet, application form, or a
   transcript. A writing sample might be requested as well, depending on
   the position and institution. But don’t pack a bunch of nonsense in
   there and hope for the best. Don’t include your portfolio, pictures of
   yourself, or really anything that isn’t asked for. Once, I had an
   applicant for a community assistant position submit a 30-something page
   packet for the job. It wasn’t just his resume that was long and
   meandering. He included many miscellaneous pages of things, including
   letters from past advisers, maybe some position descriptions, really
   everything but the size and color of his favorite underwear. It was
   just too much, and had nothing to do with this part- time position.

3. Putting in too few details. Oddly enough,
   nowhere in the previously mentioned application packet was his current
   phone number, e-mail address, or any other way to contact him. And
   there were 2 or 3 students with the same name and middle initial at
   Penn State at the time. So I sent an e-mail to all of them, and shortly
   thereafter, gave up looking for him. Three months later, a guy showed
   up at my office door, asking if the position was still open. He had
   just learned to use his e-mail and wanted to know if the position was
   still available. I told him it wasn’t. Also, details of your positions
   shouldn’t just read like job postings. Instead: Your
   descriptions should imply scope of responsibility (breadth of
   supervision, size of office or area, budget), unique accomplishments,
   and programs, presentations or trainings you have done, among other
   things. One of which should be your contact information.

4. Not vetting and prepping your references correctly.  First,
   ask someone who can talk intelligently about your skills and
   experiences, as well as your weaknesses, not just someone who thinks
   you are a nice person. Most people are nice at least some of the time,
   but that doesn’t mean they are qualified for just any position out
   there. Second, be sure you have actually asked that person to be a
   reference. Third, meet with the person or speak with them over the
   phone or e-mail, and tell them why you are asking them, and what areas
   they could probably comment on. Give each reference a copy of your
   resume and whenever possible, send along job postings for positions to
   which you are applying, or at least let them know titles and
   institutions they might hear from. If a position is outside your
   current field or specialty, this is especially important. If you are
   able, talk over your reasons for applying with each reference, so they
   will be able to connect your interests to what they already know about
   your skills and experience. Also, realize that many employers strongly
   prefer to talk with a current or recent supervisor, so it’s best in
   most cases to let your supervisor know you are interviewing for
   positions.

5. Bad design choices.  I’ve seen a couple
   thousand resumes over my career, and can therefore tell you that there
   are many bad ways to design and format your resume. It needs to be
   readable, and have a logical flow. One of the most common formats is a
   reverse chronological style, where you begin with your current position
   and work backwards, highlighting your unique skills and experiences
   along the way. You also want to use white space to balance out the
   document, and allow visual flow from one section or topic to another. 
   Serif fonts (fonts with little curly-cue elements incorporated into
   each letter) are softer on the eye. You will want to use fonts and
   highlighting elements (CAPITALS, bold letters, italics, underlining) sparingly. Using too many fonts, font sizes or highlighting elements makes your document look busy. Using too few will hinder visual flow from one part to another. And colors,
   clip art, and extraneous design elements are distracting. I will never
   forget the overly stylized resume from an artistic applicant that we
   received years back. There was a somewhat abstract ink sketch in the
   left margin of a naked man. Now, it was artistic, and in a museum, it
   wouldn’t have really raised many eyebrows. But it didn’t belong on a
   resume!

6. Dismissing the skills acquired in part-time, temporary, volunteer and student positions.
   If you are just graduating, you probably don’t have a lengthy list of
   jobs to expand upon, and the screening committee will probably notice.
   It’s okay, especially if you are pretty much still at the entry-level.
   No matter what your job history, the important thing is that you are
   able to place your skills in context. Once, I helped a student with her
   resume, so she could apply for internships, and she didn’t have any
   work experience on her resume, only clubs. When I asked her if she ever
   had a job, she replied that she “only” worked in the family business, a
   hardware store, but that she didn’t really do anything. I asked
   her what she did day-to-day, and she talked about ringing up sales,
   counting the cash drawer and reconciling the cash, checks and credit
   with receipts, and that once a year, she helped with inventory, by
   leading a team of several people in counting every single item in the
   store. It wasn’t until then that she realized that she was experienced
   with customer service, basic bookkeeping, inventory management, and
   supervising project teams, not to mention the fact that she was trusted
   with some very critical tasks, and managed them well. We wrote this
   into her resume.

7. Not spell-checking or grammar checking. This
   is especially embarrassing for candidates who misspell their names,
   titles, or universities, or who mangle descriptions of their key
   accomplishments. You may know what you meant, but the resume reviewer
   may set aside your resume just for the poor grammar. When I have 75 or
   more resumes to look through for a position (a made-up number for
   illustrative purposes, but pretty typical), I work quickly by screening
   into categories and then re-screening the top category into the
   must-haves, maybes, probably-nots and no way, mans. It takes less than
   a minute (usually 30 to 45 seconds) for me to get an initial idea. Bad
   grammar and spelling will automatically put someone in a lower category.

8. Not getting advice from someone in your field.  Your
   business writing instructor may tell you to do a one-page resume, but
   for education positions especially, feel free to ignore that advice.
   For recent bachelor-level candidates, a two page resume is fine, if you
   have done enough to justify it. One page isn’t enough to elaborate on
   your student organization experiences. The general rule of thumb I
   recommend is to only go to another page if you can at least half-fill
   it. If you can only half-fill it, include your references. For
   relatively new professionals, 3 to 4 pages is a good limit. Experienced
   professionals, 5. Don’t go more than 5 pages unless you are the most
   spectacularly accomplished person or don’t care if people call you an
   egomaniac. Going over 5 pages means that you are already sought-after
   as an authority on something, the upcoming “franchise quarterback” of
   your specialty, or that you are incredibly arrogant. Or it may be just that you are a
   member of the faculty, in which case it is just allowed.

9. Not getting advice from someone outside your field. While
   your English instructor might not understand the student affairs field,
   it’s likely that he or she will have good ideas about how to tighten
   your descriptions, and not overuse words and phrases. If you have a
   friend that has a good eye for design, that person can critique your resume’s readability, use of white space, and design choices. If you know an 8th
   grader, have him or her read your resume, and tell you if they
   understand what you do, what you did, and why they should care. Resumes
   should be as readable as the newspaper, and the general rule for
   newspapers is to shoot for an 8th grade reading level.

10. Not knowing how to use job boards/upload files in the correct format. Today’s
    job searches often require the use of web technology, and the ability
    to upload and download files. Be sure that you have uploaded your files
    correctly, and if you are able to preview what the reviewer will see,
    do so. If a web-based or e-mail based option is available, use it! We
    strive to be as paperless as possible in our processes, so only resumes
    of candidates that make it to the final pool get printed. The others
    just get screened, rated, and ranked. Faxing is the ultimate
    21st-century faux pas, unless you have been asked specifically to submit
    materials this way, and sending by snail mail is only slightly better,
    and here is why. Electronic documents like word and  pdf files usually
    just open up and look like they should. Faxed and mailed materials get
    scanned at HR and then uploaded as image files. Large image files.
    Files that crash the reviewer’s computer, take forever to load, or require extra effort to read will irritate the reviewer. If
    you don’t know how to upload a basic file or save documents in
    acceptable formats, then you lack one of the most important basic work
    skills of this millennium.  This will put you in one of the lower categories mentioned before. Computer skills are basic skills in today’s workforce.

Take care to avoid these mistakes, and you will have a better resume and application. Good luck with your job search!

Source: Sean Cook

The November statistics are out for the Austin real estate market. There are two major topics this month. First sales are way way down. Second mortgage rates are at 40 year lows. Here are the sales stats for the last few years.

We had 990 sales in November 2008. Compared to last year we are seeing a 40% decline. But I think we need a little more perspective to understand how low that 990 number is. In June of 2008 we saw a 20% year over year decline. But we were comparing the weak market of June 2008 to the strong market of June 2008. So a 20% decline was not really that bad. By November 2007 the market had slowed down. So now when we talk about a 40% decline from last year, we are talking about a 40% decline from last year when the market was already pretty weak. We are seeing a two year decline of 49% (Nov 2008 – 990 sales, Nov 2006 1939 sales). So when was the last time we saw less sales than this? It actually took a little digging. Most of the stats only go back to 2004. But after looking through the archives I found 931 sales all the way back in January 2000. So this is the lowest number of sales we have had in over 8 years.

So in summary the sales market is very very slow.

This is also the first time we have seen a decent drop in prices from the official stats. Average prices are down 3 percent. As we have talked about over the last few months even through the official stats showed median prices up they were actually down. This was because less expensive houses were not selling. In a similar way I think prices are down more than 3 percent compared to last year. The 3 percent decline is significant for 2 reasons. First people that believed the stats are now going to feel prices are declining which is important. Second I think it shows prices are coming down a little more.

Ok now that their is no doubt sales and prices are down lets look at different market segments

Condo and Townhouses are down 39%. If you are worried about resale I would avoid the condo market. And in addition, I would especially avoid the high end condo market (500k+). That market is way overbuilt. The multifamily market is down 41% compared to last year. While this is comparable to the 40% drop in single family sales the multifamily market was much weaker this time last year. To illustrate this lets look at multifamily sales for the last 3 years.

Nov 2006 – 94 Sales
Nov 2007 – 49 Sales
Nov 2008 – 29 Sales

This kind of illustrates what people in the industry have been saying about the multifamily market. It’s not just weak. It’s dead. Compared to 2 years ago we are seeing a 69% decline.

Last month I talked about how of all the markets I liked the multifamily market. I am beginning to swing toward the single family market more for 2 main reasons. Prices have come down more in the single family market over the last few months. Second mortgage rates are extremely low. We have not seen mortgage rates this low by some measurements since 1959. And yes that is not a typo. Mortgage rates are incredibly low. But they are only low for single family homes not for investment properties. So with low prices and low mortgage rates the payments one would make on a single family house are much lower than they were a year ago. We are going to come back to rates in a little bit because it’s a complicated mortgage market. Mortgage rates are low but only for certain situations.

Now let’s look at areas.

Also here are detailed stats on all the different mls areas along with a map of Austin MLS areas

So besides East Austin moving pretty slowly this isn’t that interesting. (Months of inventory is the amount of months it would take to sell everything currently on the market. It’s basically inventory/sales. Low numbers indicate a strong market).

And it doesn’t paint a good picture of what is going in. Central Austin is 8.40 and the suburbs have a months of inventory of 9.29. But if we look at the different mls areas in the central market we see a wide discrepancy. 10N is 5.78 and 1B is 37.00. So what is going on? Here is a chart showing the market broken down by price range.

In general more expensive houses take longer to sell. But in the current market that trend is accelerating. Basically the Austin market for homes over 300k has really slowed down. That is why 10N, with an average price of 194,500, has a pretty low months of inventory at 5.78. It also helps explain why 1B with an average house price of 790,000 has a much higher months of inventory at 37.00.

So earlier we touched on mortgage rates. Mortgage rates are very low. In 2002/2003 rates were low for pretty much everything. Today rates are low but banks are pretty selective. This is what they are looking for.

1) Single Family
2) Owner Occupant (basically not buying a house and renting it)
3) 20% Down
4) Stable Job

I want to touch on these a little more. The first one is obvious. They like single family homes over duplexes and fourplexes. A lot of investors that owned 3 and 4 properties are getting foreclosed on. Basically banks really don’t want to loan to investors. We are seeing rates for investors in the high 6s. For down payments you can get a house with 3 percent down. The rate is going to be high. The days of No Doc loans where you state your income and expect the bank to believe you are dead. But if you are self employed and can prove your income for the last 2 years banks are still willing to give loans they just require a lot of documentation.

As always if you have a question about a specific house or neighborhood feel free to contact us. Also if you are interested in looking at what is currently on the market you can look at our Austin Property Search.

Source: escapeso

So we have all heard some different solutions to the current mortgage crisis. At a campaign rally yesterday in Orange County California McCain came up with something that is pretty unique. 0 percent mortgages. You didn’t misread that. If that is what McCain is really thinking we can be sure he is not talking to people in the mortgage industry. Here is a link to his speech

http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/News/Speeches/bea72b48-35ba-48cb-8cea-b3b68b9be7ee.htm

Here is the relevant part of his speech.

We should also convene a meeting of the nation’s top mortgage lenders. Working together, they should pledge to provide maximum support and help to their cash-strapped, but credit worthy customers. They should pledge to do everything possible to keep families in their homes and businesses growing. Recall that immediately after September 11, 2001 General Motors stepped in to provide 0 percent financing as part of keeping the economy growing. We need a similar response by the mortgage lenders. They’ve been asking the government to help them out. I’m now calling upon them to help their customers, and their nation out. It’s time to help American families.

The difference between General Motors and Mortgage Lenders is that General Motors is selling cars. So if they offer 0 percent interest they still make money on the car. Lenders on the other hand do not generally build the homes they are giving out loans for. So while 0 percent mortgages sounds pretty appealing to most potential borrowers (heck it sounds pretty appealing to me), I assume the lenders are not in love with the concept since they would quickly go out of business. Or I guess more accurately, taking away their primary source of income would cause lenders to go out of business faster than they currently are.

We can only assume that after this speech that his advisors pulled McCain aside and told him that 0 percent mortgages are not actually possible.

Source: escapeso

Date 30 YR 15 YR 5 YR ARM 1 YR Arm March 13 6.13 5.6 5.58 5.14 March 20 5.87 5.27 5.56 5.15 March 27 5.85 5.34 5.67 5.24

Mortgage rates for 30 Year loans came down again this week. Last week they fell from 6.13 to 5.87. This week they moved down slightly from 5.87 to 5.85. These drops were probably due to the Fed cutting interest rates 2 weeks ago. What is interesting is that rates on 5 and 1 year ARMs went up. This is probably due to the fact that lenders see 30 year loans as safer and are viewing 5 and 1 year ARMs with more caution. In the past 2 weeks 5 year Arms’s have gone up from 5.58 to 5.67 and 1 year Arms have gone from 5.14 to 5.24.

So in the context of the last few years what are mortgage rates doing. Here is a graph of the 30 year mortgage graphed since 2005. With the exception of a sharp dip in mortgage rates last month, the 30 year rate is the lowest it has been since 2005.

If you want to look at more mortgage rate trends we have a tool over here that graphs mortgage interest rates.

Source: escapeso

So I have posted a few maps of the US here over the last few months showing where subprime loans where given out. This is my favorite map to date. It is packed with a lot more information on where subprime loans, ARMs, and no doc loans are being give out. It also details where foreclosures and late payments are occurring. It basically is 12 maps rolled into one. You can toggle the view to see things like “Subprime Loans per 1000 housing units” and “In foreclosure per 1000 units”. If you look up at the top, you can toggle between Subprime and Alt-A Loans. The default map color codes by state. If you click on the state you can see the exact number for the state. You can also zoom and see what is going on at a county or zip code level.


*update*
The map requires flash and doens’t render on all browsers. So instead of having a flash window pop up every time someone comes to the blog I moved the map to another page. If you click on the below image the interactive map should pop up in a new window.

Source: escapeso

Click To Enlarge Foreclosure Map

So anyone that follows my blog knows I like graphics. This one is pretty interesting. To start off with the top image shows where the highest percent of subprime loans were give out and what percentage of those loans are now in foreclosure. First the map is color coded with darker colors indicating the areas where subprime loans accounted for a high percentage of all mortgages given out. Second height shows the percent of subprime mortgages that are now in foreclosure.

So for instance Dallas, Texas is dark because a high percent of the loans give out where subprime loans. But the height is low because few of these loans (6.1%) went into foreclosure. On the other hand in Sacramento, California a high percent (17.2) of the subprime loans ended up in foreclosure.

The two smaller maps below help explain some of the difference. The first map shows the construction boom from 2004-2007. Basically areas that experienced a lot of overbuilding also saw a lot of out of state investors. And as we have been seeing in the subprime mess areas with lots of investors have seen a lot of foreclosures. The other piece of the picture is job loss. Areas with high rates of job loss see a high level of foreclosure. This is why although areas like Minneapolis-St Paul didn’t see a lot of subprime mortgages we still see a high rate of foreclosures (17.1) with the subprime mortgage that were given out.

Source: escapeso

Plans have been leaked over a proposed government bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. While there have been rumors of this for the last few months, apparently it is quasi official, although the official announcement is going to come out tomorrow. So what are the details of the bailout?

First all the top executives and the board are going to be dismissed. I have mixed feelings on this. On the one had I am sick of CEO’s walking away with millions after running their companies into the ground. But on the other hand I don’t know if dismissing all the top executives and the board at the same time is a wise move. Once the Fed moves in, if they have questions it will be a little harder to get answers with basically the entire executive level of the corporation out of the picture. I would have preferred to see a few people stay around at base pay.

The stock has plummeting in the last month over fears that there would be a government takeover and it might possibly wipe out shareholders. The inside sources are saying that the shares will be diluted but not entirely wiped out. So basically the fears of investors were more or less well founded. The implications of this are probably why the plans were leaked today after the close of the stock market. [Full Disclosure : My investment firm has been selling Fannie and Freddie Mae short over the last month. I thought it was risky to short a company after it had already lost 90% of its value but I guess they were right.]

Now to the bigger question what does all this mean? First of all it means that as of today we are in the midst of a huge financial crisis. Taking over companies the size of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is a big deal. It’s going to cost tens of billions of dollars o taxpayers and is the largest government takeover in US history. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae provide insurance for half of loans issued in the US. Currently they own or provide insurance for 5 trillion in loans. Now the federal government provides insurance for 5 trillion in loans. This means if someone decides to not pay their mortgage instead of a bank coming after them the federal government could be knocking on their door.

What does it mean for the future? Oddly enough I have been waiting for this to happen and I think it could have a positive effect on the real estate market. Why? During the financing crisis Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae have added tons of loan restrictions which have hurt the real estate market. While some of these rules have simply gotten rid of the free wheeling money lending of the boom, others seem bizarrely restrictive. For instance there is a rule that individuals can only get 4 property loans regardless of income or credit score. So if someone has a few million dollars in the bank they could for instance only get 4 150k rental houses unless they wanted to pay cash. As you can guess these restrictions have hurt the real estate market. It’s assumed that with the US Government (which has been attempting to help the real estate market pull out of this mess) taking over Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae that they will remove some of the recent loan restrictions.

Are we likely to see more government bailouts? I don’t think so. The Fed has made it clear that they are not going to let Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae fail but have basically said the same is not true of the smaller banks. So I think for small banks that run into problems they are going to fall instead of be taken over.

Source: escapeso