Subject: CSS Today #95011, April 6, 1995

From: Yuan Wei <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 6 Apr 1995 22:34:28 PDT

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            ]]]    ]]]   ]]] ]]]   ]]] ]]]   ]]]    ]]]     No.  95011
            ]]]     ]]]]]]]  ]]]]]]]]  ]]]   ]]]    ]]]    _1995.04.06_

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CSS Today Editorial Board                             <[email-masked]>
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                     I N    T H I S   I S S U E                 No. of Lines
============================================================================
Entering the Work Place
    o  Luxury Mercedes Pile High and Deep ............................... 60
    o  How to Kick the First Three Steps ............................... 110

Eye on the Capitol Hill ----------------------------------------------------
    o  Petition on E-mail Privacy ....................................... 58
    o  Welfare Reform Update - Urgent! .................................. 53

IFCSS Watch ----------------------------------------------------------------
    o  Contents of IFCSS Chinese Newsletter Vol. 6, No. 3 ............... 38
    o  IFCSS Crisis Update (II) ......................................... 60

For Your Information -------------------------------------------------------
    o  SPECIAL Student Discount Airfare for BEIJING or SHANGHAI ......... 41

=====================<<<< Entering the Work Place >>>>======================
Luxury Mercedes Pile High and Deep ...................................... 60
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PU Dai/CSS Today                                                  CSST 95011

How to run a successful business? Easy! First of all, investigate the
market, find out what the demand is. Set up your plan. Bring in the
materials. There you go. Pick up the product at the end of the production
line. Take it back to the market and sell it. Money is made, and very
happy you are.

The key factors? Only three: right market, quality product, and good sales.
Many people have realized that. Actually, nowadays, many fellow CSS' have
thought of, or already started, doing so. It is market economy! We say.
It is a simple thing.

Believe or not, all of us, without a single exception, have been in this
business for a long time. Not all have realized that. We have been running
a production line manufacturing ourselves, since we entered the US (if not
earlier)! However, many of us have not been a good manager for the self
making production line. Aha, you say, I know what you are getting to.
That's right! I say: yes, we forgot that the market determines the sales.

Well, let me take a metaphor, if you still don't see as I see it.
Automobile, let's say. We decide to enter that business. We know we have
good materials (steel, aluminum, plastic, rubber, etc). We have them all.
What do we make with such good materials? Mercedes (Ph D in the automobile
world)! We say, like the Central Planning Committee does. We should of
course make the best car in the world. The most noble automobile in the
world. Therefore, we sharpen our tools, make our efforts, spend our years.
Finally, we pick up ourselves at the end of the production line. We are
Ph D's. I mean, we are Mercedes Benz! What a good feeling with a great
car!

It only takes a few moment for the fresh Mercedes to realize that the world
is not all rich and ready to embrace the Mercedes by bunches. Most people
still drive Tauraus, Accord, or Corrolla, or even rides bicycles.

Still, it is a market mandating world. The fresh Mercedes have to make into
the market one way or the other. Some Mercedes disintegrate themselves and
sell in parts, or reassemble themselves with a Chrysler or GM or Ford or
Jeep or Bronco outlook. That at least sells. We can also see quite a few
Mercedes serving as Taxi or utility car or limo with their good old brand.
Still, in the stock, the luxury Mercedes Pile-High-and-Deep (PHD) with a
big "For Sale" signs.

That's exactly the situation many of our fellows faced, or facing.

To this end, we all see that if one does not sell well in the market, it is
not because the product is of low quality, but there is just not a market
for it. With quality product, you make only one of the three keys. With
good sales skills like disintegration and reassembly, you barely make two.
For the lack of the right market, you can not do much.

Fortunately, we have seen that our young brothers and sisters are learning
from our experience and picking up the market information quickly. Within
just a few years, they have learned to orient themselves more and more
towards the market. Whether it is socialist market or capitalist market, it
does not matter. They will sell better.

Well, even for the old Mercedes, it is not the end of everything. A Mercedes
is a Mercedes is a Mercedes. You just can't beat it! One way or another,
when they get into the market, they still take all the glory.

=====================<<<< Entering the Work Place >>>>======================
How to Kick the First Three Steps ...................................... 110
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PU Dai/CSS Today                                                  CSST 95011

Come to the sales part of selling yourself in the market, it is helpful
to know some facts first.

1. More than 60% of positions in the US job market are filled through
personal connections. That is the general case. One should be careful in
interpreting the data. For example, in the academic fields, the percentage
would be much higher. In the white and blue collar job fields, the
percentages will be quite different. Of course, the size of companies also
play a role in the way they hire. It is your own homework to go and find
out all these.

2. Attitude and communications skills are the top two things the recruiters
look for at interviews. To understand that, one must have some basic
understanding of how a business is operated (that's one of the most
important reasons that experience in such environment is so crucial in many
cases). Therefore, it is always a good idea to do some interns or co-op or
take some summer job no matter how good or bad the pay is. You need the
experience, not the money, at this stage.

Back to the top two topic. Attitude here means your willingness to work hard
and work together with others. Communications skills are your ability to
work with others, including ability to express yourself and comprehend others.
In an industry environment, every one is a bolt or a nut for the big machine.
Therefore the compatibility among these bolts and nuts and other parts of
the machine is very important. That's one way to understand it. Of course,
there are the type of jobs which are almost solely based on communications
skills such as sales positions and some management positions. Therefore it
is not a surprise that the recruiters would look for the above mentioned two
aspects.

It will be helpful if we step further into the work place and take a poke
of the real situation. How are you going to be evaluated by your employer?
In many companies, the human resources people routinely keep track of their
assessment of your ability and performance among other things. Note that
the ability and performance are two separate parameter. Able people have
the potential to perform well, but not necessarily always so. Here the
attitude comes to play.

Most of us would think that our high GPA and high degrees are a crucial
matter. It is a big deal that one earns high GPA and higher degrees. It at
least reflects one's intellectual ability. However, it is not the only thing
that matters, not even the crucial factor in many sense. To the bottom line,
these things are easy for the recruiters to see, therefore you'd better put
your pride aside, and try to make up many other aspects to impress the
recruiters.

That brings us back to the subject title: how to kick the first three steps,
as the old Chinese Says. It becomes easier for me to introduce my idea
with the above mumble-jumble.

1. Networking

Since there are so many jobs out there to be filled via personal connections,
that is obviously the first thing you should do. Actually, networking also
means information collecting. This is an information era, what else can you
do?

It is an interesting observation that in China, "going through the back door"
is officially illegal, but nobody regards nepotism as unethical. You parents
can safely hire you into their department and put you under their direct
supervision. However, in the US, "back door" (personal connection) is totally
legal and normal, but nepotism is generally regarded as no good at all.
In either way, a little personal touch will definitely help you.

For many of us, we don't have the luxury of family connections, which I
think play a big part in our American brothers and sisters' job hunting.
Therefore, we have to use our own friend network in the "river and lake" to
build up our own little Web.

2. Be Resourceful

Learn to utilize the resources that are available to you. Since job hunting
is a big part of people's life (not limited to college fresh-outs), there
are a lot of resources you can explore. First of all, many univesities have
their own placement centers. Don't think that they are mainly for under
graduate kids. There are at least three things you can make use of: 1) their
connections with companies and institutions. They have more than enough
company profiles for you to study. 2) their job hunting materials. Almost
all such placement centers have a collection of good statistical data about
the industries and job markets. They also have good books on job hunting
skills. 3) There ARE job opportunities coming from all kinds of places
through the center, for higher degreed candidates.

Besides, you can also find books, printed materials, training vedios, and
so on, from university or public libraries.

Last, not the least, there are th on-line computer informations by the
megabytes. There are a lot of usenet newsgroups devoted to job hunting and
resume writing, such as misc.jobs.medphysics by the field.

3. Be "Cultural"

By "cultural", I mean to understand the industry culture in general
(contrast to campus culture, and to Chinese intellectual culture) and
firm-wide culture in particular (when you are to interview with a company).

Again, there are many good books out there. One example is Knock Them Down,
which teaches you many good interview skills.

A note is: when you read these books, don't be dogmatical: trying to
remember all the interview questions; Nor be too skeptical--just look down
upon them. To the least, those typical interview questions, if you try to
understand rather than to remember them, will certainly give you a good
overview of what the recruiters are up to. And, remember this: recruiters DO
ask some of the "typical" silly-sounded questions like "Tell me your
strength and weakness".

Well, that's about enough as a introductory "stone", if not too mcuh. Start
from here, do your home work, and you are on your way.

Good luck to you, my fellow!

=====================<<<< Eye on the Capitol Hill >>>>======================
Petition on E-mail Privacy .............................................. 58
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
BI Xiao-Juan/[email-masked]                                CSST 95011

Hello everybody,

I just received this over e-mail and don't know much more about it, but
thought I would hand it on to you all.

Simply put, a couple of senators have proposed a particularly heinous piece
of legislation titled the "Communications Decency Act of 1995" (Senate Bill
S. 314). Basically, the bill would subject all forms of electronic
communication -from public Internet postings to your most private email -to
government censorship. The effects of the bill onto the online industry
would be devastating -most colleges and private companies (AOL, Compuserve,
etc.) would probably have to shut down or greatly restrict access, since
they would be held criminally liable for the postings and email of private
users.

Obviously, this bill is designed to win votes for these senators among those
who are fearful of the internet and aren't big fans of freedom of speech
ie., those who are always trying to censor "pornography" and dirty books and
such. Given the political climate in this country, this bill might just pass
unless the computer community demonstrates its strength as a committed
political force to be reckoned with. This, my friends, is why I have filled
your mailbox with this very long message.

A petition, to be sent to Congress, the President, and the media, has begun
spreading through the Internet. It's easy to participate and be heard -to
sign it, you simply follow the instructions below -which boil down to
sending a quick email message to a certain address. That's all it takes to
let your voice be heard. (You know, if the Internet makes democracy this
accessible to the average citizen, is it any wonder Congress wants to censor
it?)

Finally, PLEASE forward this message to all your friends online. The more
people sign the petition, the more the government will get the message to
back off the online community. We've been doing fine without censorship
until now -let's show them we don't plan on allowing them to start now. If
you value your freedoms -from your right to publicly post a message on a
worldwide forum to your right to receive private email without the
government censoring it -you need to take action NOW. It'll take fifteen
minutes at the most, a small sacrifice considering the issues at hand.
Remember, the age of fighting for liberty with muskets and shells is most
likely over; the time has come where the keyboard and the phone line will
prove mightier than the sword -or the Senate, in this case.

Yours in liberty, -don

 Here's what you have to do to sign the petition: send an e-mail message to:
[email-masked] the message (NOT the subject heading) should read
as follows: SIGNED <your online address> <your full name> <U.S. Citizen
(y/n)> eg. SIGNED [email-masked] Laura Sewell YES

 If you are interested in signing the petition, I would highly suggest
investigating the details of the situation. You can find out more on the Web
at http://www.wookie.net/~slowdog or in the newsgroup comp.org.eff.talk

Lincoln Smith 251-4515 [email-masked]

(This message was forwarded to CSS Today from the local net in Wisconsin.)

=====================<<<< Eye on the Capitol Hill >>>>======================
Welfare Reform Update - Urgent! ......................................... 53
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vicki SHU/[email-masked]                                             CSST 95011

**OCA IS URGING EVERYONE TO HIS/HER REPRESENTATIVE TO DEFEAT HR 1214!!!!

The House of Representatives have been hotly debating HR 1214 for the past
two days. Yesterday, March 22, the House voted on whether to kill the rule
that would determine which amendments may be offered on the House floor.
The "vote to kill the rule" was narrowly lost by 217-211, with 15 pro-life
Republicans voting with most of the Democrats in favor to kill it. This is
because the pro-life Republicans are interested in additional amendment to
remove the family cap restrictions on the bill.

REP. CUNNINGHAM DID NOT OFFER HIS AMENDMENT THAT WOULD HAVE EXLUDED LEGAL
MMIGRANTS WITH APPROVED NATURALIZATION APPLICATION. Rep. Kim, at the last
minute, agreed not to vote in favor of killing the rule in exchange for
broadening Cunningham's amendment to include immigrants who merely have
applied for naturalization, which would have protected a larger number of
immigrants. HOWEVER, CUNNINGHAM DID NOT OFFER THE AMENDMENT AS HE HAD
PROMISED TO KIM.

Rep. Ros-Lehtinen's (R-FL) two amendments, which would exempt legal
immigrants who cannot take the citizenship test because of physical or
developmental disablity or mental impairment from federal, state and local
benefits. However, this exemption is very narrowly defined and probably will
not affect a large number of legal immigrants.

As many of you may know, the Democrats have submitted two "substitute"
amendments. Rep. Mink's, which does not have any immigrant restrictions, has
very low likelihood of passage. Rep. Deal's (D-GA) bill does have immigrant
restrictions by extending deeming until citizenship for legal immigrants for
SSI, AFDC, and Food Stamps. It would exempt the elderly over 75 for the
first 5 years, veterans (and their spouses and dependents), those on active
duty (and their spouses and dependents), battered spouses and children, and
those who have paid payroll taxes for at least twenty quarters (five years).
The House is expected to vote on the Deal Bill late tonight. Members can vote
for both the Mink and Deal bills.

Because the "vote to kill the rule" was so close, there is a chance that HR
1214 can be killed. THE HOUSE FLOOR VOTE FOR HR 1214 WILL TAKE PLACE
SOMETIME TOMORROW (MARCH 24) BEFORE 3PM EST.

OCA IS URGING EVERYONE TO CALL HIS/HER REPRESENTATIVE TO DEFEAT 1214!!!! THE
CAPITOL SWITCHBOARD NUMBER IS 202-224-3121. IF YOU DO NOT KNOW THE NAME OF
YOUR REPRESENTATIVE, HAVE YOUR ZIP CODE READY!!!!

VICKI SHU IMMIGRATION PROJECTS COORDINATOR

 Organization of Chinese Americans 1001 Connecticut Avenue, N.W. Suite #707
Washington, D.C. 20036

 E-Mail: [email-masked] Tel:(202)223-5500 Fax:(202)296-0540 Voice Mail:(202)223
-5523

(This message was forwarded from SCC newsgroup.)

===========================<<<< IFCSS Watch >>>>============================
Contents of IFCSS Chinese Newsletter Vol. 6, No. 3 ...................... 38
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHENG Ming/IFCSS NL                                              CSST 95011

     ****  The Contents of IFCSS Chinese Newsletter Vol.6 ,No. 3  ****
             == Co-published with the CSSA of Drexel University ==

  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------*
  *         IFCSS Chinese Newsletter Vol. 6 has been co-published with the  *
  * major Chinese students and scholars orgnizations at University of       *
  * Wisconsin,  University of Minnesota, Drexel University,  University of  *
  * Maryland, University of Iowa, etc.  We welcome more CSSA's to join  us  *
  * in publishing the only nationawide CSS Chinese journal. As a partial    *
  * reward for their excellent and creative work, more than $3,000 has been *
  * allocated to those CSSAs.                                               *
  *-------------------------------------------------------------------------*

  Front Covers:  Sculpture Series: Barrier........................Fang Zheng
                 The Inscription for <<Barrier>>..................Cheng Ming
  1. Is It Time for Sunset? ......................................The Editor
  2. A Letter to Chinese RenDa and Zhengxie Delegates .......IFCSS President
  3. Together, We Will Overcome
     -A special Report From Annual Meeting of the Committee of 100 .......
  4. Stories of '92 ............................................Zhou Fengsuo
  5. A Letter From Prof Ding Zhiling .......................................
  6. On Setting up Nationawide Organization.........................Luo Ning
  7. Famous Artist Zhang Fang ..............................................
  8. It Would Be Good for World Peace
     -IFCSS Supports Wei Jingsheng for Noble Peace Price .................
  9. Better Go Home ................................................Luo Qing
  10. The Thoughts of Music ....................................Zhang Linlin
  11. Report of the CCC Annual Meeting.................................Hu Hu
  12. The Semi-Annul Working Report of IFCSS .......................IFCSS HQ
  13. Use of the Human Rights Mechanism of the Unite Nations......Xiao Qiang
  14. Exercise Helps Us to Have a Healthy Body.................Wang Mingxian
  15. Knowledge About IRA..........................................Tang Ying
  16. Information Sharing
      Zhengzhou University Seeking Overseas Faculty Members.................
      A Note From a Girl....................................................
      Some Places to Buy Good Ginseng.......................................
      Serving for CSS in Financial Aspects (Guo Hong).......................
      Spring Service Plan...................................................

===========================<<<< IFCSS Watch >>>>============================
IFCSS Crisis Update (II) ................................................ 60
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
PU Dai/CSS Today                                                  CSST 95011

(For the Update part I, please see CSS Today #95009.)

3/18/95 IFCSS HQ released a proposal to form an Insurance Program Taskforce.

3/22/95 Mr LI Jinghong sent a memo to Dr. LUO Ning, asking him to be
available in the Council's proposed emergent conference.

3/22/95 IFCSS HQ sent out a report following up the financial report it
released earlier.

3/23/95 HQ released an update of the IFCSS Chinese Newsletter project,
calling more sponsoring local school organizations.

3/24/95 IFCSS SVC/SB announced its verdict on Mr. LIU Yuhe's appeal to
impeache IFCSS president LUO Ning. The SVC/SB passed the impeachment by
unanimous consent. This made two impeachment initiatives pending for the
IFCSS Council to decide.

3/25/95 The Council claimed it convened to discuss the impeachment of IFCSS
president LUO Ning in an emergency teleconference. Those Council members
recalled by their regions claimed their council membership and participated
in the meeting, while the other side claimed that the Council conference was
illegal with the participation of the newly apponted Council members. 11
Council members were in the meeting.

3/27/95 IFCSS HQ released a court order it had obtained earlier in an effort
to prevent the controversial conference from happening. Since the conference
has occurred, a court hearing will be held on April 18, 1995 to investigate
the legality of the Council conference, the order rules.

3/27/95 Mr. LI Jinghong, supposedly recalled by his region as council member
and claiming to remain in seat intact, released a message on behalf of the
Council, that IFCSS president had been impeached.

3/31/95 Mr LU Ping sent out a SVC/SB questionair to investigate the recall
process to delegates in the three regions that claim to have replaced their
council members.

3/31/95 Dr LUO Ning released a statement to claim the Council Conference
illegal, invalid and void due to the facts that the conference was not
properly called and not participated by the legitimate members. He claims
his presidency as unchanged.

4/01/95 IFCSS Vice-President LIU Chenyan joined CSS in a party at George
Mason University. Mr. LIU met with local CSS delegates/activists from
George Mason U., Catholic U. of American, George Town U. and U. of Maryland
LI SanChuan, CHEN Jian, HUANG Tao, et al. IFCSS HQ officer Mr. YANG Jie was
also present.

4/03/95 IFCSS president LUO Ning released a message, saying that he'd be on
leave for a minor medical operation. Mr. LIU Chengyan will be in charge of
the HQ daily operation.

4/03/95 IFCSS Vice President LIU Chengyan released a statement, announcing
his arriving at the HQ to take charge of the daily operations of IFCSS. Mr.
LIU calls for support and cooperation at this critical time.

[EDitor's note: This collection might be incomplete due to the large amount
of net traffic and the complexity of the event that is unfolding in IFCSS.
We will try our best to keep you updated.]

=======================<<<< For Your Information >>>>=======================
SPECIAL Student Discount Airfare for BEIJING or SHANGHAI ................ 41
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
LI Leping/California                                              CSST 95011

The National Student Service Center is a non-profit organization of Southern
California Chinese Students and Scholar Associations. This organization is
dedicated to providing services for Chinese Students and Scholars abroad.
Special rates are available because we are able to buy as a group and all
share in the savings.

(All fares are ROUNDTRIP.)

* Flights taken before 5/31/95
  LA to BEIJING or SHANGHAI              $718
  SEATTLE to BEIJING or SHANGHAI         $718
  CHICAGO to BEIJING or SHANGHAI         $818
  WASHINGTON, DC to BEIJING or SHANGHAI  $958
  BOSTON to BEIJING or SHANGHAI          $958
  NEW YORK to BEIJING or SHANGHAI        $958

* Flights taken after 6/1/95
  LA to BEIJING or SHANGHAI              $828
  SEATTLE to BEIJING or SHANGHAI         $828
  CHICAGO to BEIJING or SHANGHAI         $928
  WASHINGTON, DC to BEIJING or SHANGHAI  $1068
  BOSTON to BEIJING or SHANGHAI          $1068
  NEW YORK to BEIJING or SHANGHAI        $1068

* For More Information
  [email-masked]
  714-444-0820 (tel/fax/day) Bob Guo
  714-772-9691 (tel/fax/day) Larry Li
  714-898-2041 (tel/fax/eve) Ying Chan

Make check payable to : P. International
Mail to:   P.O.BOX 28628, Santa Ana, CA 92799-8628

** some restrictions may apply
** Xerox copy of student ID or student visa required (new or old)
** flights must leave on a Monday
** Roundtrips tickets must be booked 20 days in advance
** payment must be personal check or cashier's check
** student's spouse or parents can fly for an addition $50
** Flights are only available from major cities listed above

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| Editor of This Issue: YUAN Wei           Deputy Coordinator: DING Yungui |
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