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Fall/Winter, Fashion, Lifestyle, Wear to Work

5 Interview Tips

March 27, 2019March 28, 2019by Roselyn Weaver4 Comments

Hey friends! Recently I have been getting messages asking for advice and tips for people entering into the workforce right after college. Maybe it’s because graduation season is quickly approaching or maybe it’s because I have been sharing a little more about my 8-5 career! Either way I love sharing tips on this topic so today I am sharing 5 powerful interview tips that will totally prepare you to nail your next (or first) job interview!

Outfit Details: Top: Shein and similar Amazon one here | Blazer: Express | Pants: Express | Heels: DSW |Handbag: DSW

Powerful Interview Tips

Make sure you research the company you are interviewing with – you don’t have to be an expert by any means but you should know some high level facts. For example, 3 things I like to know before interviewing with a company are:
- When and how the company started- Researching information such as this will open up so much knowledge. Referencing some of these facts during your interview will really show the interviewer you did your homework.
- The company’s mission and values- knowing a company’s mission and values should be a reason you want to work for them. Becoming familiar with this will allow you to speak to your knowledge about the company as well as give you the opportunity to talk about how your personality and work ethic align with those values and mission.
- How much the company has grown in the past xxx years. Researching this could also help you talk about why you are interested in working for their company. The possibilities of your career growth for example.
Be truthful but smart when explaining why you are interviewing for a new job– This won’t apply if you are a new graduate on the hunt for your first job but if you are leaving one company for another, really think thoroughly about how you will answer the interview question, “why are you seeking another job opportunity?”. If it’s because you see the potential of more professional growth with the new company versus your current company, great. But if it’s because you are currently working in an environment where you feel like your co-workers are not “team players” or just don’t work as hard as you do and you don’t want to be around that anymore? Be careful on how you word that. Although it may be true, trust me I’ve been there, but you don’t want to come off as a complainer and you definitely don’t want to have the interviewer thinking, “what if it’s you that’s the problem?”. In all honesty, I have definitely thought that when interviewing candidates.
Study your resume- this may sound silly but I have interviewed quite a few people that when I asked about a past job it was like they didn’t totally remember what they did there. I can understand how you may have forgotten things about a position that you worked at 4 years ago but when you are stepping into an interview be prepared to talk about how you thrived and/or grew professionally in each position you have held.
Use examples to answer the obvious interview questions. – I’ve had a few off the wall interview questions like “what items are in your trunk right now?” but if you have sat through an interview or 2 in your life you will know that there is a 99.9% chance you will be asked: “What are your weaknesses?”, “Where do you see yourself 5 years from now?” and “What would you consider your greatest strength?”
- What are your weaknesses? – I feel like this question is a trap, haha but I always ask it and I have always been asked it when being interviewed. My best advice is to provide an example of when you realized your weakness (this proves self awareness) and then provide an example of how you overcame that weakness (this shows problem solving skills and the motivation to want to better yourself). For example, instead of just saying “I’m a perfectionist” you can describe a time when you took a little longer on a project because you wanted it “just right” but how that made you realize you were holding up the people who were waiting for you to complete their part of the project. Explain how you were still able to meet deadlines but realize that your “weakness” may affect other people. Talk about how you have improved this weakness by giving yourself an allotted timeline to complete the project and really utilizing your attention to detail to ensure your work is done right the first time.
- Where do you see yourself in 5 years? – This would be a great opportunity to give an example on the research you have done on the company. Maybe the department you are applying for has grown tremendously in the past 5 years and you see that as potential for your professional growth. Try to be specific as possible as to what you are wanting in each year. For example, year 1, I forsee myself training and working diligently to becoming an expert in my role. Year 2 and 3 I would like to take full advantage of working closely with my colleagues to understand what each manages and to understand the processes as a whole. Year 4 and 5 become certified in xxx and be considered for xxx role within the company. This is a generic example but you really want to show that you do have a goal for your professional career and you are telling them that even though you do want to grow and promote, that you want to do it within the company.
Follow up and thank them – most likely the interviewer is going to be interviewing other people. Making a lasting impression during your interview is important but that might not last if you are the only one who didn’t send a thank you card or email. Things to say in your follow up:
- Thank them – thank them for their time and giving you the opportunity to meet with them face to face.
- Reference something that was said during the interview – maybe it was something personal you guys talked about (bonus points!) like how you both were dog lovers or bonded over how you both have kids the same age. Giving the interviewer that feel good feeling again will score you major brownie points!
- Re-iterate – re-iterate why you think you will be a great fit for the company and the open position.

I really hope this blog post on interview tips was helpful! If there any questions, please feel free to comment below or email me! info@roselynweaver.com.

Good luck!

Fashion, Lifestyle

31 Things To Do For Yourself In January

January 1, 2019January 1, 2019by Roselyn Weaver1 Comment

Happy New Year friends! If you are like me your head is spinning with all of the things you want to do in 2019! So today I wanted to share 31 day challenge of things we can check off together!

In 2017, holy smokes! I thought I wrote this last year. In 2017, I published a post called “Random Acts of Kindness“. I totally want to do that again this year but this months 31 day challenge is a little more focused on you. Taking better care of yourself, strengthening those relationships that are sometimes hard to make time for, challenging yourself and trying new things! So let’s do this shall we?!

Outfit Details: Sweater: Forever 21 | Denim: Tobi and similar here | Handbag: DSW | Heels: DSW | Sunglasses: Quay

Unlike the Random Acts of Kindness challenge, these tasks are not given specific calendar days so you can schedule your to do’s as they fit into your schedule and then check them off of your list!

I’d love to hear if you will be joining me in this 31 day challenge!

xo, Roselyn

Photos by Banavenue Photography

Adoption, Baby

Mommy and Me Tees + Adoption Update

December 12, 2018December 12, 2018by Roselyn Weaver4 Comments

Hi friends! This mommy and me t-shirt set has been one of the top selling items from my Instagram this past week so I wanted to share here and also give you a quick adoption update!

Our full outfit details can be found here and I also found a ton of other cute mommy and me sets that I will link below. Ummm, we need all of them! 🙂

So many of you have been so sweet and continuously checking in on us so I wanted to be sure to give you all an update on our expected adoption day as I know we are all excited for it! So long story short, 2 months ago we had the court hearing where they terminated rights of baby Weaver’s birth parents. Although, I hate the way that statement sounds it is actually the outcome we were all praying for. For the 12 months prior to that date we had some scares and there was always a possibility that a blood relative was going to be able to gain custody of our sweet boy. Of course, if we felt that was the safest, most loving environment for him than that’s what we would have wanted but unfortunately that wasn’t the case. From day one we knew he was our son and had faith that God (and the state of Texas 🙂 ) would make it final in no time. So you can imagine our overwhelming tears of joy when the judge said “rights of xxx, xxx, and xxx are terminated. I order that the child not be removed from his current placement.” I was crying, Brandon was squeezing my hand so tight I knew he was crying inside. I started saying thank you and hugging everyone that was standing in front of the judge with us. I’m pretty sure I even hugged the bailiff and an attorney who wasn’t even a part of our case LOL.

Aside from the official adoption day, that was the day we had been looking forward to for 12 months. We had hoped it would come sooner but we are just so thankful it came.

So what happens now? The next step is paperwork and once all of the paperwork is processed the judge will give us a court date which will be our official adoption day. OMG, I tear up just thinking about it. Although, we had hoped it would before the end of the year, our current judge did not get re-elected so our case is getting pushed to 2019. So with that and some other circumstances we are looking at an official adoption day at the end of March or beginning of April. So bummed you won’t be able to see our sweet boys face until then but I promise I am going to spam you all with all of his life’s pictures once that time comes! 🙂

Thank you all for your sweet prayers and messages. If you are new around here I have part of our adoption story here and here but you can always feel free to email me with any questions, info@roselynweaver.com.

xo, Roselyn

Baby, Fashion, Lifestyle, Spring/Summer

Spouse Rate Card

December 3, 2018by Roselyn Weaver2 Comments

Hi beauties! The title of this post may have thrown you off today but I promise this post is so good! If you follow along on my stories, you got a sneak preview last week!

About two years ago Brandon and I were going through all the foster to adopt training classes, crazy busy with work and trying to deal with some other family/personal life situations that a few months in, we realized we needed to get our goals and priorities on the same page. Even as husband and wife, you have to take a moment in your busy lives to reconnect because let’s face it, life will grab a hold of you sometimes and you get so caught up in everyday tasks and trying to be there for everyone that you almost lose sight of things you are not doing.

how-we-marriage-post spouse-rating-card

Outfit Details: Tee: Abercrombie | Jeans: Abercrombie | Heels: DSW |Sunglasses: Quay | Purse: DSW

Brandon: Polo: Express | Jeans: Express | Shoes: DSW (limited sizes here but similar style here and here)

Baby Weaver: Button Up: Old Navy (I had my friend’s sister put the graphic on the back for me) | Joggers: Old Navy | Shoes: DSW (these exact ones are sold out but linking similar ones here and here)

casual-family-photo-outfits marriage-advice dsw-family-shoes

So I can’t take credit for this brilliant idea. Actually Brandon came up with it all on his own. One evening I came home from work and he was like I need you to fill this out. I was like “uh oh” LOL.

Okay so filling out the rate card is a 3 step process:

There are 13 “categories”: God, Family, Work, Church, Travel, Relaxing, Marriage, Dogs, Community, Health/Workout, Friends, Date/Activities and Kids.

1- On a piece of paper number them in order of how you currently would rate yourself

2- Rate your spouse/significant other on how you currently see them prioritizing these certain categories

3- Rate these 13 categories in how you think they should be prioritized. Let’s take “community” for example. Volunteering was such an important thing to me but when life got busy I quit putting aside time from doing anything for our community. When I rated myself this fell down to the bottom 3 of my rate card however when I rated how I thought it should be it ended you in one of my top categories. I hope that makes sense.

4 Things We Learned From This:

1- Man, when life got busy our priorities were all out of wack!

2- How we viewed ourselves is sometimes different from how our significant other may view us. For example, I thought I was putting so much effort into quality time with my husband but to be totally honest he rated me at 8 out of 13 which meant he felt that I was prioritizing us closer to the bottom of the list. Yikes!!

3- On the surface some of these categories seem like they are one in the same but they actually should be prioritize separately. For example, you may look at this list and think shouldn’t marriage, kids and family all be put into one category? Well, essentially yes, but you still have to make time and put effort into them as there own categories. Making time for your kids is different than quality time with your spouse which is also different than making time for your brothers, sisters, mom, dad, etc. They are all important. How do we prioritize all of them? That brings me to my next learning moment.

4- Once reality hit (LOL) we were able to put a list together of these 13 categories and how we would both prioritize them together as a unit. From here, we were on the exact same page, with the same priorities. Also, after putting that list together we brainstormed on how to actually execute them. Like, we both wanted to be more active and workout even with our busy schedules so we decided that we would both have the same workout schedule. Not that we would work out together but that if one was going to get up early in the morning to work out the other person would too. If one was going to the gym at lunch the next day, the other would plan to as well. It helped hold us accountable even if we weren’t doing it together. Also, we both wanted to do bible study but our schedules would not permit actually attending a bible study group session so we agreed we would do it at home together. Agreeing to make more time for our family meant, we would make a better effort to schedule a dinner or something of that sort with Brandon’s side of the family more often and also agreed that we would go to California more often to see my family. Just little planning things like that help because now we were on the same page and could help keep each others priorities in line now that they are the exact same.

Obviously, you can add in different categories or delete ones that you do not think are important for your own rate card but I went ahead and attached a PDF version in case you wanted to print it out and complete it with your spouse.

Click here for a copy of the Spouse Rate Card

If you do, I would love to hear your results! info@roselynweaver.com

xo, Roselyn

Adoption, Fashion, Lifestyle

Instagram vs. Reality

August 27, 2018August 28, 2018by Roselyn Weaver9 Comments

Happy Monday loves! I am so sorry I have been slacking on my blog posts lately. Life has been extremely busy. I’m like screaming inside but keeping all smiles on the outside 🙂 which is exactly what inspired me to get this post up today!

As a blogger I post things on social media daily, it’s part of my job. And as part of my brand, I like to keep things positive. That is why when you go to my social media pages you will see 99% of the things I post are all the “happy” things in life. I love sharing positive quotes, pictures and captions to make you smile and most days I am smiling on the outside and inside. But what you don’t always see are life’s not so happy and sometimes even terrifying moments.

From the outside looking in, I know it may look like a blogger is “living the life” but in reality most of us are just living our lives. And that means all the good, bad and the ugly that comes with it. Instagram is just a highlight reel of someone’s life. Instagram is a platform to help us share joy, outfits, recipes, etc. with each other. It doesn’t always show the whole truth.

I’ve seen a few of the bloggers I follow share Instagram vs. Reality posts where they show the hard work and struggle that actually goes into making that one photo perfect. One of my personal favorite Instagram vs. Reality posts are when bloggers share bloopers from their shoots LOL. But today, I’ve decided to share something a little different because personally, my family and I have gone through some scary moments in the past year and although I share bits and pieces about that every now and then I just wanted to give you all a good example of what social media can portray vs. what may really be going on behind the scenes.

Instagram vs. Reality Example One

What do you see? Probably this pretty pink Free People sweater that was trending like crazy last Fall!

What you don’t see: We got a phone call that morning for a Foster to Adopt placement. It was for a baby boy who was 2 months old and had been left at a fire station. They called me right before I walked into a meeting. I immediately said yes, called Brandon and sat down in my meeting. It was only like 5 minutes and I was already so invested in this baby. 10 minutes into my meeting Brandon called and I answered because I thought we was going to tell me details on pick up but he was actually calling me to tell me that the baby had been placed with another family.

Our agency told us that situations like this could happen but nothing prepares you for it. It took EVERYTHING in me not to breakdown crying in that meeting.

Instagram vs. Reality Example Two- literally only one week later

What do you see? Maybe a super fun travel pic and a happy care bears tee? You possibly read the first sentence of my caption talking about how it was my birthday.

What you don’t see: We got a second phone call for an adoption placement this day. This time they called Brandon. We were in Colorado for my birthday, I was relaxing at the hotel because Brandon went to go visit a customer that afternoon. He called me and said “the agency called. There are 2 little girls, sisters, under 2 that needed to be placed”. We told the agency we could hop on the next flight home and they said as long as we could get there by 6pm then we were good to go. I never packed up a hotel room so fast in my life! Brandon met me in the lobby and we didn’t even check out we were rushing out of there so fast! Brandon was flying to the airport as I was looking up flights back to Houston. There was literally one leaving in 30 minutes so we decided that I would rush to get on that one and Brandon would take the next one so he could check in our bags. We pulled up to the airport and Brandon’s phone rings…another family from a different agency was available to pick the girls up asap so…yup you guessed it. We didn’t get placed that day. It was definitely another sad moment but maybe the week prior had prepared me a little bit because I didn’t cry that time. And then when we turned back around to go back to the hotel Brandon and I laughed because we realized we never checked out and said to eachother “well I guess that worked out” lol

Instagram vs. Reality Example Three

Ahhhh!!! We were finally placed with our sweet baby boy. He had been in daycare for one whole week when I took this photo. And with daycare came a full on stomach virus. He got it. I got. I actually had blog campaign due the very next week so I couldn’t cancel this photoshoot with Yash.

So what you don’t see? I had to pull over twice on the way to this photoshoot so I could throw up. So gross I know. But again, Instagram vs. Reality my friends.

Instagram vs Reality Example Four

What do you see? A sweet photo of us on our anniversary trip with our sweet baby Weaver. Maybe you think “yay, they finally got placed with their son!”

What you don’t see: 4 days prior during one of our casual, routine CPS visits they notify us that a blood relative wanted custody and verbatim she said “once she passes the background check it could happen quickly”. Just like that. So matter of fact. “Once she passes”, basically our whole lives would have been turned upside down.

I looked back to my Instagram to see if one picture that week showed an emotion of sadness that would have even given the hint that we had a rough week that week. Nope, not one photo. That’s the “beauty” of social media.

Instagram vs Reality Example Five

What do you see? A smiling gal at a popular Houston restaurant? I was actually having lunch with my team that day.

What you don’t see: Actually I myself didn’t even see it coming. Right after lunch that day Brandon called me on my way back to the office. He had gone to court for the both of us that day. Since the court hearings were basically a day long event we took turns on who would attend.

Anyway, Brandon called to tell me that another relative showed up to court that day. He wanted to put forth a “family friend” to take custody of baby Weaver. This family member had never met baby Weaver nor had the “family friend” but according to CPS a family member will always take precedence over a non relative adoption.

Sh#t.

Excuse my language here but honestly that was the first word that came to mind. I can’t really describe it any other way.

Without getting into the details, that person clearly did not check out nor did the other family member I mentioned earlier but in all scenarios we went hours, days, weeks, honestly it wasn’t until last week (almost 10 months later you guys!!) that all of my fears were diminished of losing our son. If you have talked to me in the past ten months I probably told you “everything was good and that we weren’t worried”. Well, I’m sorry that I partially lied to you. Yes, everything was good. It is good. But with all of these surprises and unknown we were still really scared on what could have happened. As you may know, we received some really good news last week.

We (thank the good Lord) are in a position that we have been praying about. Thank you Jesus. But before I steer this blog post into another direction my point today is that life isn’t always as it seems on social media.

Some might ask “why would I even choose to post that day if I was really having a bad day?”. Well, because in most cases I signed a contract with a company agreeing that I would post my review that day. Clearly not knowing what life could throw at us that day.

Life is…truly like a box of chocolates 🙂

The comparison game is so real and I’ve heard people say that they stop following bloggers that they originally loved following because it started to make them feel bad about themselves. That breaks my heart but I totally get it. If you ever start to feel like that just try and remember that Instagram is just a highlight reel and that everyone has their own struggles even if it doesn’t seem like it because of a perfectly staged photo.

I know I’m struggling like everyday over here, haha. These are just 5 examples but trust me I could share like 100 more.

If you ever need a laugh or just want to vent I’m here girl, info@roselynweaver.com.

Love you all so, so much!

“Everyday may not be perfect but a perfect moment can be found in everyday.”

Dang..that was good. Did I just make that up?? 🙂

xo, Roselyn