Post: #1

Yay new toys!
The ziplock baggy was heat-sealed so no pherocloud erupted when I opened the box! Nice touch, very practical. Pop rocks and purple bubble wrap, excellent presentation!

Of course I sniffed each one - really I couldn't smell any mones, it was more like I snorted a shot of everclear, verrry strong alkyhol in the nose. The sprayer cap on the bigger Ascend bottle is a little cockeyed, but I'm going to decant into the little glass togo sprayers from Alpha Dream anyway, my preferred kit for moning about town.

Post: #2

I wanted pepper nutmeg when I ordered this week, but the option was gone from the website, so I went with unscented.

Post: #3

I just got blue tape to go along with the Purple bubble wrap. Its going to be a technicolor dream coat when you open up your next order. I even got special bags too now and I'm including some glow sticks now too. It's like an Instant Party in a box. Glad you liked it

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(09-07-2012 12:15 AM)lostlibra74 Wrote:  I wanted pepper nutmeg when I ordered this week, but the option was gone from the website, so I went with unscented.

It will be back in just a little while. Had to pull it out as I was waiting on an essential oil delivery from overseas. It cleared customs and will be arriving tomorrow while I'm in New Orleans.

Post: #4

And just to clarify, I'm glad I did because of all the different scents I have coming from the fragrance shop...stoked to try out ascend and cohesion.

Post: #5

Yay Steve keeping it fun!

LostLibra hope you enjoy the new sniffables, my order will hopefully get here tomorrow - my mones are in and I just need the new cover scents!

Post: #6

OK so I went to a 3.5 hour interview with 11 people scheduled in four groups - 9 made it, and I shaved almost 30 minutes off the total time.
I wore a khaki blazer, blue/black/white diagonal striped tie, dark brown slacks, black shiny leather square-toes shoes with laces, black braided leather belt, white free collar shirt with vertical texture stripes, and *2 sprays of Ascend in pepper nutmeg* - one on back of hands smeared together, another spray on top of that smeared together and rubbed from behind my ears to adams apple, then the residue rubbed back of hand-to wrists. I let it dry down for about 5 minutes before getting dressed, I'd already brushed teeth and coiffed hair so I would not have to wash hands again.
About a 25 minute drive to the site. Got to the interview site and met a recruiter lady who was very friendly, direct eye contact and to-me facing body language. Went into conference room where my first three interviewers were already waiting, and got right to it.
I noticed that I did not have any elevated pulse, flushing, or butterflies in the tummy like with some higher alpha signature blends - I was confident and collected. My voice had been in danger of going out in the morning, I've been fighting a head/throat/chest cold for days, and my voice has dropped about two octaves. Niiiice! Announcer voice! I jumped right in it and used it as best I could.

Excellent rapport, I hit key topics of commonality and congruency using proper NLP style to establish my position as senior talent (experienced not old...) with leadership and accomplishments. I got good body language from everyone across all the four sets of interviews, and kept engaging with direct eye contact and facing body language. I used speech tone and pace mirroring, a little body language mirroring when appropriate. I cracked a few jokes but kept it very professional and let them digress into non-work topics. Only one lady in the interviews who would be a contemporary so I made sure to be extra attentive to her questions, her vote will count quite a bit. I used sensory language to engage the interviewers in my vignettes, and tried to answer questions with vignettes of how I'd successfully solved their questions.

After the first hour and half I put on one more spray from a minisprayer (Alpha Dream tiny glass bottle) so it should have been about 2/3 of a regular spray maybe on the backs of hands to keep the mones flowing.

Across all the groups, nobody shit-tested me at all or asked deep technical "qualifier" questions! Very unusual for a senior level technical position! Everyone was respectful but not deferential - they nodded and smiled like they got every word I said and understood completely and agreed. Mostly perspectives and approaches, the behavioral interviewing style that is all the rage these days. What are you interested in doing, etc. from each group separately. I've been reading plenty of books on how to navigate interviews and thank the sweet Cthulhu I have been, they really helped keep me grounded and focused. The Ascend had me yapping more than normal, but I stayed within the domain of the questions and "tell us about yourself" so that I gave good vignettes that demonstrated my successes across as many topics that I knew they would ask about and the ones that they did directly ask about.

The last gentleman was an older HR guy who gave me the company history, overview of benefits, etc and some small-talk. He was the "disqualifier" person to give thumbs up/down from HR perspective as to a good fit in corporate culture. I pointedly asked him about the work-life balance to determine if they were running employees into the ground like a dot-com and he gave a good answer about most of the folks in the group I would be in being family folks and how important family is, flex time arrangements, etc. He gave me unexpected compliments on my appearance and demeanor, since they want to keep out folks that would be disruptive group cohesion and productivity. He said he came from a number of Fortune 500 companies in his career, and his relaxed body language and candor showed that he was very comfortable speaking with me and he was very friendly and pleasant.

Most of the folks had very relaxed body language now that I think about it, I think there was a sense of familiarity in the air (snicker) that I have felt only occasionally in my pre-pheromone days while interviewing. I think my personality and interviewing style naturally brings that out in some people, and I brought the energy and enthusiasm and confidence today for sure.

In summary, I killed it - I expect an offer next week, I'll be baffled if one does not materialize. I think Ascend upped the ante and put a positive frame of mind in the room to see me as an experienced, reliable, engaging go-getter, and I backed it up with my body language, eye contact, and reinforcing language. All in all, one of the best interviews I think I've ever had, and I've probably interviewed over 100 people myself and been interviewed at least sixty times personally. I love the process, love meeting people, love learning about the opportunity, the company, and having the chance to sell myself and see if I like the personalities and potential.

Ascend definitely filled the bill here, two sprays was just right with a re-app single 2/3 spray 1.5 hours in. I reeally wanted to do more but I am so glad I practiced moderation... And re-app in between rooms of people avoided dumping a fresh batch of signature on them, it might have been confusing - getting ghosted in an interview would be tragically avoidable!

Excellent work Steve, I give Ascend two thumbs up for interviewing!

Post: #7

Awesome! Congratulations on what seems to be a sure thing

Post: #8

Thanks, time will tell - hard to separate the self-effects in this case, I can only hope that they felt as good about it as I did!