As you can see, the Flying Hammer is undergoing a facelift. We decided to make the newsletter a better tool for you. It is going to be more user friendly with stories of real people, current job information and better resources. We have also updated our website to make it more useful to you. Please feel free to let us know what you would like to see in the newsletter or on the website. Your input is important to us.

Women Unlimited will be hiring more staff members in order to better serve your needs. We have grown in the past couple of years to a place where we need to adjust our way of doing business. We want to serve our clients by being at the top of our game.

The Tradeswomen’s Conference and the Career Options Fair were excellent this year. We went to a two-day format, which worked very well. The Career Fair was excellent, and we plan to have even more employers present next year. The employers raved about the quality of the applicants at this fair. Several said it was the best Career Fair they go to. The Conference had great workshops and most of the speakers were women who have succeeded in the trades. If you missed it this year, plan on coming for next year. It will be the last weekend in March - check here for details as they come available. Many of the pictures in this issue are from the Conference.

Keep your eyes open for upcoming training opportunities (check the link at the bottom of the page). We will be offering at least two training events a month throughout Maine in order to reach as many people as possible.

Have a great construction season, and remember to slow down in the construction zones. The safety and lives of the highway workers depends on your safe driving. Be kind to the flaggers; give them a wave that includes all of your fingers.

My day started when the alarm went off at 4:30 am . At least the sun was shining so I’ll get a full day’s work. Yesterday it rained so we only got 8 hours instead of the usual 12 hour day.

I was told last night to be at the hottop plant for 6:00 am ready to ‘load out’. This means my time will start 15 minutes sooner so I can get the pre-trip on the truck done. Everything checked out ok, so I moved to the hottop plant. Yesterday, I had to haul gravel first and when I finished with that I went to the truck wash to clean the truck out. You cannot haul hot top in a truck that has sand, gravel, etc. in it because it will contaminate the mix.
While at the hot top plant I sprayed the body of the truck with a soap mixture that helps to keep the mix from sticking to the truck. This is done with every load I get throughout the day. From there I got in line to be loaded out. The first load of the day will be under the silos instead of the plant. The silos are loaded the night before with 250 tons
of mix in order to the trucks loaded faster in the morning.

After getting loaded, I went to the scale shack where I got the slip for the load to be taken out to the paving crew. I received my instructions from the truck foreman and knew which crew I was going to and where they are located.
Today, we did a parking lot up in Lewiston. There were four trucks that hauled to that site. When we got there, the crew was set up and waiting for the mix. When it was my turn, I backed into the paver, handed the load slip out the window to one of the crew, and waited for instructions from the paver operator. He gives me hand signals for raising and lowering the body of the truck and when it's empty.

After completing this part of the operation, I returned back to the plant to get another load. This job lasts all day. Sometimes the jobs are small and I’m able to go to more than one site. I hauled six loads to this site today and was been put on hold at the plant, in case they needed a little more than anticipated to finish the job; which means a late night. My truck holds nine tons, but they only needed 4 tons to finish the job. It was 7:30 when I got back to the plant.

Before parking the truck, I needed to go out to the reclaim pile and make sure that there was no mix stuck in my truck or in the gates of my tailgate. Tomorrow we’ll do it all over again.

During the summer, these are typical hours, depending on the weather and the job.

We have so many new and excited trainings coming up this summer and fall! Some people have called to let us know that they haven’t received any updates for these classes. Please, please, please let us know if you have moved or even if you have a new telephone number. As soon as we get your information, we can update the JobBank and make sure that you receive the latest mailings.

You can give us a call, or e-mail me at dmosher@womenunlimited.org. Also, if you know of any one else that might like to get our newsletter or who has moved, please have them contact us.

Well, it is the season to get back to work. Those of you who are currently looking for work might appreciate some tips on how to fill out those Job Applications. This will be an ongoing series of best practices and tips for how to successfully get through the hiring process. Some of them might apply to you and your situation, some of them may not. Keep in mind that you have the decision making authority over how you proceed through any situation in life. The following is meant to be helpful but certainly nothing that is set in stone or that supersedes any personal beliefs that anyone may have.
Let’s get started on the application process:

· When calling a contractor for an application to be mailed to you, remember that the front office person is very important at the company. Be very pleasant and polite. The company would have a hard time operating without that person. Never take that person for granted or think that because they are in an office position that they might mean less to the company’s success that the field workers. Without the office personnel to handle the administrative part of construction, the rest of us wouldn’t be working either.

· When stopping by a contractor’s office to pick up an application, be sure, as I said earlier, to be polite and courteous to the front office person. They will probably be asked what their first impression of you was.

· When picking up the job application, dress as if you are ready for an interview at that moment. Dress as if you are the supervisor for the position you are applying for (I mean the direct supervisor, not the company owner). If you are applying for a laborer's position, dress as if you are the foreman for that crew.

· If possible take the application home with you. This will allow you time to be very accurate in filling it out. You might even ask for two applications so you can fill one out to your satisfaction and then make a final copy on the second application.

· When filling out the application, leave no spaces empty. If there is a question that does not apply, fill in that space with N/A. This tells the person reading your application that you did not just forget to fill in that area or choose not to answer that question, but that it id not apply to you.

· Double check your spelling.

· Make sure you are completely honest with every question that is asked. If there is an answer that makes you a bit nervous, answer the question and make a notation that you would appreciate an opportunity to discuss the answer to said question. Honesty is very important. Most likely at the end of the application there is a fine print section that says signing the application is your promise that every statement is true to the best of your knowledge and that you agree to
let the potential employer check your facts. Make sure you read this part of the application so you know what you are signing.

We will go over the next step in the next newsletter. There is a lot to this whole process. We will cover it beginning to end.

Can you tell what the violation is in this picture?
If you think you know, send us a note either via regular mail or email and submit your entry.

A drawing will be done and the chosen winner will receive a prize!!

You’ve done it. You’ve made it through a very snowy winter and even longer layoff season. Soon you will be experiencing fulltime paychecks and even overtime pay. Before you go out and spend your entire paycheck, take a moment and contemplate this idea: You have gone so many months without, your first instinct is to spend, but I would suggest that you take a minute and think about how you could best spend your hard earned money. If you saved your money now, your winters could be a lot less weary. Most people shudder at the mere mention of creating a budget. Budgeting is an important process in order to grab control of your own money.

An interesting and eye opening experience can be found in keeping a money diary (see below) – do it for a week or a day at least. I promise you that you will be flabbergasted once you see how you blow money.

Congratulations! You have already spent 10% of your weekly paycheck! I know that it looks and seem tedious, well, guess what? It is, but in a very short amount of time you will realize where you can cut back and save for the winter. Seasonal employees need to stretch their money over long periods of time. I would also suggest creating a calendar that records income and expenses by the month. For example:

When you are making your calendar don’t forget about those annual items, for instance: back-to-school expenses, Christmas gifts, yard sale income, and so on. When utilizing direct deposit to receive your paycheck, you can normally send your money into up to three separate accounts. If you deposited $40 each week into a separate saving account during the peak 20 weeks of the season, you would have $800 to help during the winter doldrums!