Nowadays, everyone has some kind of computer skills they can bring to the table when applying for a new job. So, does that mean you should still list your own skills on your resume? The answer to that question is, yes, absolutely. Everyone has experience in both hardware and software. Depending on the kind of job you’re applying for, you may not necessarily need to list the hardware you’re familiar with. The kind of computer software you’re familiar with, however, may make or break your chances of getting that job. Some software, like Microsoft Office – and, in particular, Microsoft Word – you can usually leave off your resume because an employer assumes you already have a basic understanding of Microsoft Word by now. Here, instead, are the most important computer skills you should absolutely list on your resume. Operating Systems You should list on your resume the operating system(s) with which you’re more familiar. The reason for this is because some jobs require Mac knowledge, while others use strictly PCs. If you have more experience with a PC, for example, you may find it difficult to navigate a Mac. This would require the employer to put extra time into training you if they ultimately feel you are the right candidate for the job. Therefore, it is important to be up front about the operating system with which you are most familiar. Google Drive Today, many businesses prefer operating in Google Drive, rather than Microsoft Office, when it comes to things like documents and spreadsheets. There are just so many more benefits to using Google Drive, like the ability to save your work in real time without doing anything at all, or sharing a document with multiple users, who can also edit it. However, simply listing “Google Drive” on your resume isn’t specific enough. You want to go into detail about what exactly it is you know how to do in Google Drive. For instance, you can list “Google Drive” as a main heading, and then, as subheadings, you can list the aspects with which you are most familiar, such as:
Google Docs Google Sheets Google Forms Google Slides
You can also use this nesting format for other software skills on your resume. For instance, if you chose to list Microsoft Office on your resume, you could do something like this:
Microsoft Office
Word Excel Power Point
This list is not only more pleasing to the eye and quicker to skim, but it also tells the employer exactly where your skills lie. Social Media Social media definitely falls into the category of “Most Important Computer Skills to List on a Resume.” Businesses everywhere use social media, and while they may vary up which channels in particular they frequent, they have come to understand that social media means everything when you’re in business. It’s the fastest way to spread the word about new products and services, as well as provide a sounding board for one’s customers and clients – and maybe attract new ones in the process. So, how do you tell a prospective employer that you’ve got what it takes to give their company the social media platform they deserve? Well, in addition to listing the specific channels with which you have the most experience (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, etc.), you can also talk about the achievements that social media has brought you. For instance, at your last company, did you regularly monitor the company’s post engagements on Twitter? Did you scour Google Analytics to discover what worked about the company’s social media advertising campaigns, and what didn’t? Were you able to determine the company’s reach, and how best to expand it? These are all skills you can – and should – highlight in the computer skills section of your resume. Listing Computer Skills on Your Resume Something very important to note about listing your computer skills on your resume is that you should not dedicate one section in particular to these skills. Instead, you should incorporate your computer skills throughout your resume to show how they have benefitted you throughout your career. Ideally, you want these skills to be most concentrated in three areas in particular:
Your professional summary or objective statement Your main skills section Your experience
Of course, don’t try to shoehorn your experience into areas where it feels forced. Instead, find those areas that would benefit from your inserting a skill naturally here and there, and you will ultimately create a more well-rounded resume.
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An objective statement is the first bit of information a hiring manager sees on your resume. Within it is your well-defined career objective, along with a super-short blurb about why you’re the perfect person for the job to which you are applying. This is why your objective statement should be as impressive as the skills and experience that follow it. When to Use an Objective Statement Some say that objective statements are becoming outdated. However, while your particular situation may not call for an objective statement, it is always a good idea to have one on your resume anyway. In the following circumstances, however, an objective statement may mean the difference between getting or being passed up for a job:
If you are a recent graduate who is entering the workforce for the first time If you are considering relocating, else your out-of-town address may confuse the hiring manager and he or she will disqualify you If you are changing industries, to help explain why you are making the change
Here are some tips insofar as what to do, and not to do, when crafting your objective statement to help you stand out from the crowd. Be Concise An objective statement is an appetizer of sorts, designed to “wow” the HR department enough to convince them to conduct an introductory interview with you, typically over the phone. During your interview you can talk more about your skills and experience, but you don’t want to go overboard here either. One of the reasons people dismiss objective statements is because they tend to be narcissistic. Many applicants ramble on about themselves and their accomplishments, rather than highlight how hiring them can benefit the company. This is why remaining concise throughout the entirety of the interview process, from start to finish, is crucial to improving your chances of getting the job. Here’s a good example of a concise objective statement that gives the hiring manager just enough information without becoming overly wordy: “Ambitious and experienced technical support professional with proven success managing the help desk for an international corporation. Seeking an opportunity to use my five years experience to serve a nonprofit organization.” Do Not Use the Same Objective Statement Every Time Do not use a vague “one size fits all” statement to sum up your past career and future career goals. The entire point of the objective statement is to tell the employer why you are the perfect choice for that particular job. What is it about that job that enticed you to apply? Why do you think you, above all other candidates, would be a perfect fit? Plus, this also serves a dual purpose as well. When the hiring manager inevitably asks you, “So, why did you decide to apply to ABC Company?”, you can use your objective statement to jog your memory if you’ve applied to so many jobs this week that you honestly can’t remember why you applied to that specific job. Here’s a good example of an objective statement that, while somewhat cookie-cutter insofar as relocation, can be more specifically tailored to a particular position: “Current accountant with more than fifteen years experience in the field of finance seeking a tax advisor position when I relocate to Boston in May. I am excited to apply my tax knowledge and related skills and grow my experience as part of your established institution. Remain Relevant Make sure that the career goals you note in your objective statement match those that the company can actually fulfill. Many applicants talk about how the job they’re applying for now can help them land their dream job in the future. This speaks more to the company about what you want, rather than how hiring you could benefit them as a company. Consider the following example. You’re a high school graduate, and it is your first-time ever applying for a job as a cashier at a local retail store. Do not simply put in your objective statement that you would like the job because it would give you the experience to one day become a store manager. Focus more on the give-and-take, on how you can grow within the company and what you can do for the company by growing within it. Here’s a good example of how you might want your objective statement to sound in this situation: “I am a highly driven team player and aspiring store manager with proven analytical skills seeking to grow my knowledge of the retail industry by using my communication skills as a retail associate for your department store.” List Degrees, Certifications, or Licenses You May Have A quick blurb in your objective statement regarding the certificates you have acquired over the years (and which are relevant to the position to which you’re applying) is an impressive start to your resume. An objective statement should be an outline of sorts. It tells the reader, “if you think that’s good, keep reading!” Putting your licenses, degrees, and certifications right in your objective statement gives the reader a clearer picture of what you can bring to the table.
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Have you extensive experience in the field of customer service? This is an invaluable resource, as it tells an employer that you have kept your cool in situations where customers were less than happy, and when it might otherwise be difficult to remain calm. You should therefore be sure to highlight your customer service skills on your resume so that a prospective employer can find them easily. Even if you are not applying for another customer service job, you still want to put these skills on display to show the employer exactly what you are capable of. Here are 6 tips to help you better highlight your customer service skills on your resume. 1: Use Your “Skills” Section Wisely Almost all resume templates employ a “skills” section. This is your time to shine! You should put both hard skills and soft skills on your resume. Soft customer service skills you can highlight include your effectiveness and efficiency when it comes to problem-solving. In your hard customer service skills section you can include typing, including your words per minute, as well as the software you used (proprietary or otherwise) to help you do your job effectively. Bottom line: never make a “one-size-fits-all” resume, and then send it off to every Tom, Dick and Harry with whom you want to work. Tailor your resume to each job you apply to. Yes, this takes more time and effort, but it shows the hiring manager that you truly thought about the position you’re applying for, rather than applying at random to anything with an “Apply Now” button. 2: Be Concise No matter the type of job you’re applying for, remaining concise on your resume is always preferable to letting yourself get too wordy. Don’t include a list of every little task you did at your last job, even if you’re trying to make your resume more dense. Mention only those details that are relevant to the type of job you’re applying for, and try to group similar skills under one bullet point. Many applicants find their resume goes into a second page, so they beef up the word count in an effort to make it longer. In reality, you don’t want to go onto a second page unless you have a wealth of skills and experience that justify it. 3: Make It Your Own Using a resume template you find online is fine as a guide. But do not simply copy the structure of a resume template and replace the template’s information with your own. Remember, any resume you find online can be found just as easily by a prospective employer with an internet connection. Further, when a hiring manager sees hundreds of the same style of resumes coming in on a weekly basis, it’s not difficult to see which applicants are not putting the time and effort into making their resumes truly unique. Stand out from the crowd, show you care, and make your resume your own, and you will show the hiring manager that you are willing to do what it takes to earn that job you’re eyeing. (This also hints at the dedication you’ll bring to the role, too.) 4: Use Keywords Keywords are important because for those companies who use software to evaluate resumes automatically, the software will select the resume that uses the right keywords and dump the rest. Do some research insofar as a list of the customer service skills that exist, and incorporate only those relevant to your personal experience in your resume. You can use keywords to describe everything from your skills to your credentials. Try to incorporate as many as possible without getting too wordy. The goal is to catch the hiring manager’s eye – not drown them in details. 5: Keep the Focus on Your Results Many applicants explain on their resumes what they did in a position, rather than on what they accomplished or learned during their time with that particular company. For example, an applicant may put that he or she “provided technical support for [company’s product] to approximately 150 customers each week.” A better sentence would be something like “achieved the company’s target of 95% customer satisfaction rating within the first three months of employment.” See why this is better? Not only is it less generalized and, frankly, boring, than the first statement, but it gives the company a clearer picture of who you are as an employee, what you have accomplished in your prior roles, and how their company can benefit from hiring you over all the other applicants they have left to consider. 6: Think Outside the Box If you have never held a customer service job before, read through the qualifications of the job you’re interested in and see how they measure up to your personal experience. Have you helped customers over the phone or in person, even if your title did not technically include “customer service”? Do you have experience in training others on a particular product in a prior position that would translate well to helping people more regularly in a customer service job?
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Searching for a job nowadays is a far cry from the way things used to be. Now, recruiters “ghost” you (i.e. leave you hanging without a return phone call or e-mail), and you don’t even know why. Sadly, one reason could be because your resume is making you look “too old.” It’s a tragic truth. While you may think giving your all over the last 35 years to the same company proves you are a loyal and dedicated worker, all the recruiter may be thinking as he or she looks at your resume is that you’re over 50 years old and that you’re going to want to retire soon. In that case, the recruiter thinks, it’s probably best not to choose you for a long-term position. Here are three tips to help you craft your resume in such a way so as to not let your age define your qualifications before the recruiter even agrees to meet with you. Keep Your Experience Relevant It seems logical that if you have a plethora of experience in a variety of areas that you should include that experience on your resume. After all, you never know which of the jobs you’ve held previously will be the closest match for the position you’re seeking. However, as tempting as it may be to include all your promotions over the last 30 years, don’t. Even if you don’t include dates, the hiring manager knows how much time it takes to accrue that much experience. Whittle your resume down to two pages, and include only the most relevant information from your career. Try to match your resume as best you can to the skills and qualifications listed in the job posting. Many recruiters use software that only selects the resumes that match the terms they’re looking for, so the more terms you can legitimately include on your resume, the better. Watch Your Dates While this builds on the advice in the above tip, you should be careful of any and all dates you include on your resume. This goes for graduation dates and dates on which you earned certifications. For instance, if your last Windows certification was from when Windows 95 was released, this is a dead giveaway that you’re not fresh out of school. You shouldn’t not include dates, because this too is a bad idea. So what can you do? It may seem like overkill, but if you want to freshen up your skills, you may want to consider taking a nighttime or online class. Not only will you freshen up your resume, but you may also find you’re able to apply for more positions by learning something new. Then you can leave off the older certifications (like Windows 95) entirely and replace them with newer ones (like Windows 10) that make you more employable. Switch to a Professional Summary If you’re including an objective statement on your resume, this too can make you look “old school.” Today’s candidates often use a professional summary. The difference is that, instead of one line of at the top of your resume describing your purpose in applying, you instead include a blurb of factual evidence that proves you have what it takes to succeed at the job. Consider the following: Example Objective Statement: “Seeking a position that allows me to use my strengths as a project manager to provide quality feedback to my team while helping the company achieve its organizational objectives.” Example Professional Summary: “Business graduate with proven communication, email and project management skills. Seeking a position as a project manager at Company ABC, to leverage management skills to support internal and external communication.” The differences are minor, but by staying on top of trends in job applications, you’re giving the recruiter or hiring manager one less reason to question your longevity with the company. This is also a great space to fill in a little more of your experience without attaching dates.
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Most recruiters nowadays conduct phone interviews before they meet with you in person. Initial phone interviews are typically on the shorter side. If they go well, the recruiter will call you back for a second interview, which may be either another phone interview, a video interview, or an in-person interview. While a phone interview can be an efficient way for both the candidate and the recruiter to take the temperature of the candidate’s interest in the job, a phone interview can be an unnerving experience. It’s difficult to read a situation when you can’t see the other person’s reactions to your statements. With that in mind, here are six tips to help you ace your next phone interview and move on to round two! Maintain Good Posture While the interviewer can’t see you over the phone, you still want to maintain good posture while speaking to him or her. This is similar to the idea that if you smile, the other person will hear it in your voice. Good posture encourages you to sit up straight and helps you breathe better. A confident posture will lead to confident answers. Use a Landline Phone When you’re on a phone interview, you want the process to go as smoothly as possible. Taking a phone interview on a cell phone is a bad idea for several reasons. For one, you certainly don’t want to risk dropping the call. Secondly, you want the interviewer to hear every word you say – something that is not always possible with spotty cell phone signals. Using a cell phone also encourages you to get up and move around, which changes your breath and your voice – and not for the better. If you don’t have a landline – it is 2019 afterall – consider a VOIP service. Rehearse Your Answers You should not be improvising your answers on a phone interview. Part of the research you should do before taking the call, in addition to finding out all you can about the company and the position, is finding similar responses to questions candidates have answered in the past. Some questions are unique, but many are standard fare. For instance, you should already have a situation in mind that you can speak about with confidence when questioned on the biggest challenge you have faced in your previous experience, or something you accomplished of which you are particularly proud. Pause Before Answering When you’re asked a question on a phone interview, you may feel like you need to answer immediately, lest you sound unprofessional. After all, silence can seem to last longer on a phone call. However, it’s actually in the pauses you take that you allow your confidence to shine through. Telling the interviewer “that’s a great question. Let me think about that for a moment,” demonstrates to the interviewer that you’re someone who doesn’t rush into a situation without giving it serious thought first. Don’t Be Afraid to Take Notes You may think you will be able to answer all of the interviewer’s questions with ease, but the moment you answer their call, fear may kick in and cause your mind to go blank. Don’t hesitate to make a “cheat sheet” of sorts. Write down anything you may need to refer to on the call, such as the questions you have about the company and the position, and the salary range you’re considering. Just be sure to keep your notes short, like bullet points. You certainly don’t want to sound like you’re reading from a script. That would make you sound more like a telemarketer than a candidate, which only works if you’re applying for a telemarketing position. Remain Upbeat One of the biggest mistakes candidates make in phone interviews is that they don’t sound excited or energized about the job. Unfortunately, because the interviewer can’t see your face, you have to work extra hard to infuse your voice with the enthusiasm you have for this position. However, you have to keep that delicate balance of not going so overboard as to sound phony either. Just be honest. Gesture as you would if the person was sitting right in front of you, as this helps you emote better. And don’t be afraid to laugh if the interviewer says something funny. You’re both human, after all. The job search can be difficult, but following these tips will make at least one part of the process a little bit easier.
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Drug testing. It’s a trope used as an anxiety-inducing plot device in countless stoner comedies. Perhaps it has even made its way into your real-world job search with your current or former employer. For years medical drug screening has been a tool utilized by well-meaning but cautious companies who want to ensure their newest hire is focused on their work and not under the influence or partaking in illegal activities on personal time. It’s also big business with some estimates predicting the drug testing market will have a value of $13.89 billion by 2027. While that’s all well and good, the increasing number of states that have legalized medical and even recreational marijuana use places a snag in the previously streamlined system. Can, or should, companies expect their employees to not engage in perfectly legal behaviors outside of office hours? As it turns out, many states are wrestling with exactly that question. The Push to Legalization Beginning in the 1990’s states began taking a serious look at the potential benefits to marijuana use. By the time the millennium rolled around, five states had legalized medical marijuana use via a doctor’s prescription. In 2012 Colorado and Washington were the first states to legalize recreational marijuana use. Today 11 states have laws on the books legalizing recreations weed use. Marijuana and Drug Testing Years ago, employers realized the utility in drug testing potential new hires. The logic went that anyone who engaged in illicit drug use during personal time probably wasn’t up to company standards. You could eliminate problem employees and ensure that anyone you brought on board was in line with your corporate culture and focused on their daily job duties. Marijuana was typical one of numerous substances tested for on broad screening panels performed by third-party drug testing labs. With the advent of legalized recreational marijuana use, however, many employees are rethinking screening for its use, and for drug use altogether. As of 2017, one in seven U.S. adults admitted to occasional marijuana use. With the increasing number of states taking action on the topic, it only stands to reason that the number will continue to increase. Marijuana use continues to be studied for its benefits on a range of health conditions from insomnia to pain management and is consistently touted as a useful and enjoyable tool for many adults. While the topic is hotly debated, many advocates tout marijuana as a safer drug of choice than alcohol for recreational use, a legal but regulated substance. With the increase in use and legal status, it’s not too hard to see the quandary employers are faced with when it comes to drug testing for marijuana. Companies in states that allow recreational marijuana are narrowing the potential applicant pool by eliminating otherwise talented candidates from consideration. With the increase in acceptance and mainstream use of weed employers also run the risk of alienating younger talent who tend to be more focused on company culture and inclusiveness in the workplace. Then there are the legal considerations. New York state recently passed a law prohibiting pre-employment screening for marijuana in all but a handful of professions such as construction workers, nurses, and police officers. While drug screening for marijuana use is still allowed in many states, it’s not hard to imagine similar legislation being enacted as the push towards federal legalization continues. What Can (and Should) Employers Do While the verdict is still out on marijuana’s ultimate status, there are common-sense steps employers can take now to provide guidance and clarity with their new and existing workforce. For starters, companies are well within their rights to prohibit the use of drugs or alcohol while employees are on duty. Reasonable policies that clearly spell out the ability of employers to terminate anyone who shows up to work intoxicated or high are an accepted and safe course. Likewise, it’s also a reasonable expectation for careers in industries that deal with public health and safety that employees refrain from drug use that may impact their ability to operate at a high level of attention. What companies shouldn’t do, however, is throw the baby out with the bathwater by enacting zero-tolerance policies that alienate and limit their access to quality talent. Finally, it may be worth your time and money to consult with an employment attorney to learn about the laws of your particular city or state concerning drug screening and use. Taking this holistic approach allows companies to adapt to changing the societal acceptance of marijuana while still protecting their business.
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If you’ve turned on the radio, switched on a television, or scrolled through a news app anytime in the last few weeks you’re probably aware of the U.S. economy’s recent wild swings. Chances are you’ve also heard or seen terms like “recession”, “yield curve”, “bond market”, and “trade” more times than you can count. Even if you don’t have a deep portfolio of investments or aren’t a Wall Street trader, economic performance as a whole can still have a major impact on your ability to land a decent job. One of the most relevant sets of statistics for anyone currently in the employment market is the monthly JOLTS report. Here we break down where those magical “jobs” numbers come from and how the results could influence your employment search. What is the JOLTS Report? Launched in 2000, the JOLTS, or Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, is a monthly report prepared by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The information in the report is based on voluntary reporting by certain U.S. employers. The data collected from key industries and employers is crunched and used as a base to derive wider national numbers of hirings, firings and total open positions. The report is released monthly for the time period two months earlier. The most recently released report on August 6th, for example, covers statistics gathered from June of this year. Breaking Down the Numbers The August 6th JOLTS report shows little change from the May results. The total number of job openings clocked in at 7.3 million with 5.7 million total monthly hires and 5.5 million separations. 3.4 million of those separations were “quits” or people who chose to voluntarily leave their job while 1.7 million were involuntary firings or layoffs. When comparing total job openings with the number of unemployed individuals there are around 1.4 million more jobs than people currently on the market which is slightly fewer than during the previously tracked month of May. What Does This All Mean? While the gap between open jobs and those looking for work is closing, the facts still point to an employee market in that companies will have to work harder to attract individuals given the short supply of talent. While this may not ring true for every field, it’s a good gauge of hiring prospects and your ability to potentially negotiate for a higher salary. This is further enforced by the healthy number of workers willingly leaving their jobs since this is a strong indicator that employees feel like they have other, better prospects. While total job openings didn’t quite meet analysts expectations, the consistency with the previous month speaks to the stability of the current job market and your ability to find work, if you’re looking. If you’re looking for a specific industry to target, the JOLTS report also has some useful tidbits in that area. Private versus government jobs didn’t see much of a change, but openings in real estate and rental leasing along with state and local government education were on the rise. Hirings also ticked up in foodservice, indicating restaurants may be in need of talent. While this data may be useful to your immediate employment prospects, it also provides insight into larger trends in the economy. An increase of companies interested in hiring realtors may indicate that the housing market is about to boom while the strong foodservice showing is a good sign that people are dining out and spending money. Hirings and Firings Bottom Line If you enjoyed our breakdown of the employment prognosticating, be sure to tune back next month when the July report is released on September 10th. In the meantime, if you’re looking to add to these numbers by leaving your current job, be sure to check out the Simply Hired blogs for tips on making a graceful exit.
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During an interview, the interviewer may throw a curveball your way with a tough question that you may not know how to answer. While these tougher questions may seem out of left field at best, or silly at worst, it is important to maintain your professionalism and answer them accordingly. Even if you have a stellar resume, how you answer a tough question is just as important as what you say when you give your answer. Here are some tips on how to handle some of the tough interview questions out there. “What is Your Greatest Weakness?” The key to handling this tough interview question is to give an answer that doesn’t make the interviewer’s job easy for them by giving them permission to reject your application. You always want to remain upbeat in an interview, focusing on your strengths. But how do you focus on your strengths when they’re literally asking you about your weaknesses? One thing you definitely don’t want to do is say that you “don’t have any.” Everyone has a weakness, and the interviewer, of course, knows this. The key is to pick out something positive about yourself that you might see as a negative but that employers might see as a positive. For instance, if you say “I tend to put my job over my personal life,” this tells the employer that you are a hard worker, perhaps at times to your own detriment. It’s a weakness, yes, but it’s also a strength. “Tell Me About Yourself.” This is one of those tricky questions because: a) it doesn’t even seem like a question – more like an icebreaker, and b) it’s easy to get wrapped up in this one and drone on and on forever. The interviewer is not looking to have a friendly conversation before the interview proper. He or she simply wants a two-to-three-minute summary of your experience thus far and a reason why you are the only person for the job. If you’re overwhelmed by the question and unsure how to answer it, think of it instead as “tell me something unique about yourself.” Give the interviewer a quick summary of your experience and education, as well as one strong quality that you have learned thus far to help you in your career. For instance, you can say something like “my business degree, coupled with my experience as a Hospital Director, has made me a strong leader, and I am confident my leadership skills could also carry me far in this role.” “Why are You Looking to Leave Your Current Job?” Even if you’re leaving your current job because your boss is a lot to handle, or you haven’t received a raise in five years, you never want to give these as your reasons. Remember to stay positive and upbeat with every answer you give. And also remember, how you talk about your current employer may be how you talk about your prospective employer one day – and your prospective employer knows this. The best way to answer this one is to focus on the positives of the job you’re applying for. You can never go wrong with expressing your desire to pursue a more challenging opportunity. Also, remember to keep your tone upbeat, too. If your real reason for leaving your current job is because you are desperately unhappy, the interviewer will be able to tell and may fear you’ll do the same thing to them in six months. “Do You Have Any Questions for Me?” The answer to this tough interview question is always “yes.” You must always have questions prepared for the interviewer. Else, it looks like you don’t really care about the company and that you are only interested in a paycheck. Even if this is true, you certainly don’t want to convey it to the interviewer. Ask questions that you could not have answered yourself with a quick online search. Lazy questions are just as bad as not having questions prepared at all. Ask the interviewer questions that no one but he or she could answer, such as “what do you like about working for the company?” or “can you describe the company culture?” You want to ask about two or three questions total. Three is often better, but you can usually gauge from the interviewer whether to ask that third question or stick to the two. Riddles You’ve made it to the end of your interview, and you know you aced it. Then the interviewer asks you something incredibly odd and out of left field, like “how many ping-pong balls can you fit inside of a minivan?” or “how many marshmallows can you fit inside of an airplane?” This is another one of those situations where they’re looking for how you answer as much as, or more than, what you answer. Rather than acting cute, stick to logic. Try to come up with an honest solution to this question, no matter how ridiculous it may seem to you. The interviewer is testing your ability to be a problem-solver, and snark is just not going to fly here. Have you ever been asked a tough question you weren’t sure how to answer? Tell us about it in the comments!
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You hear it all the time, how highlighting problem-solving skills on a resume or cover letter is more important than throwing together a shopping list of the tasks you performed at your previous job(s). But you may be wondering which way is best when it comes to highlighting these problem-solving skills. Examples of Problem-Solving Skills First and foremost, in order to be able to highlight problem-solving skills on your resume or cover letter, you have to be able to identify them. In fact, you may have more problem-solving skills than you give yourself credit for. Here are some examples of some of the more common problem-solving skills that candidates tend to list in their resumes and cover letters:
Research Skills – In order to fix a problem, you have to be able to understand it. And sometimes understanding a problem requires you to go deeper, to research and discover its root cause, before you can figure out how to fix it. Communication Skills – Communication is important at every level, from informing others that a problem exists in the first place to brainstorming ways to resolve it. Analytical Skills – Sharpened analytical skills can help you discover and understand a problem, as well as come up with ways to research and, ultimately, solve the problem. Dependability – It may not seem like a problem-solving skill, but dependability is crucial in that employers can depend on you to solve problems in a timely fashion. This is an invaluable skill in that it can save your employer time, money, and other finite resources.
Customization is Key It’s a lot of work, yes, but it’s important. You should tailor your resume and cover letter to each individual job you apply to. In other words, you should consider the job you’re applying to, and compare the skills they’re asking for with the skills highlighted on your resume and cover letter. Do they match? If there are skills that you have and that the job requires, but you have not listed them on your resume, then now’s the time to do so. You want to show the company that you are the best candidate for the job because you have performed and accomplished everything they’re looking for in an employee. If this causes your resume to be longer than it should be, then you should weigh which skills you could do without in favor of highlighting the more important ones. Be Short and Sweet In most situations, hiring managers don’t have the time, nor the desire, to sit and read a lengthy cover letter. If you ramble on for too long, you practically guarantee your application will end up in the “outbox” (garbage can). You want to strike that delicate balance between telling the hiring manager enough about yourself to strike up interest, and keeping your cover letter short and sweet so as not to drone on and lose the person. The best way to sum up your problem-solving skills in a cover letter is to, in one paragraph:
Briefly explain a work problem that either happened or could have happened, and whether it was resolved. Elaborate, briefly, on your role in the situation and what you did to solve the problem. Describe the positive result of your actions, and whether there were any positive, long-term effects.
You should be able to cover all these points in one paragraph. You should be able to flesh out the first bullet point in one or two sentences, and the remainder in a sentence each. Cater to Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) In today’s world, the odds of an actual human being reading your job application are less than they were ten years ago. This is largely due to the introduction of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS), which scan a candidate’s application, looking for certain keywords. If those keywords aren’t there, then the system rejects the application. Therefore, the best way to ensure that your application receives a phone call back is to try as best you can to match the problem-solving skills in your resume and cover letter to the exact qualifications listed within the job posting. The more your skills match what the company is looking for, the more likely you are to receive a phone call for an interview, rather than a bot-issued rejection. If, for example, you’re looking for a secretarial job, you may see “time management” listed among a job posting’s required skills. You should therefore include the keyword “time management” in your resume and briefly describe your experience with that skill.
The post Highlighting Problem-Solving Skills on a Resume or Cover Letter appeared first on Career Advice.
When drafting your resume, you normally include a line at the bottom stating “References: Furnished upon request.” But what happens if the hiring manager actually requests your references? Who should you list? Most places ask for two personal references and two professional references, but what if you no longer speak to any of your prior coworkers? What if you were the only employee at your former job? What if you have never even had a job before? Here are some ideas for job references you can use if you’re not quite sure who to turn to. Just be sure to always ask the person’s permission before putting them down as a reference. You don’t want to put them in a situation wherein they feel like the hiring manager is putting them on the spot. Not only do they not have enough time to craft their answers, but they could end up resenting you for not giving them the common courtesy of simply asking their permission first. A Former Professor or Teacher If you’ve never had a job before, a former professor or teacher works wonderfully as a “professional” reference of sorts. This is because a teacher is an unbiased party who will provide the hiring manager with the information he or she needs regarding your work ethic and level of enthusiasm when it comes to learning new things. In that same vein, another option is your college advisor. An advisor is a great choice because he or she can explain to the hiring manager what your career goals were when you started your college career and how you have evolved in meeting those goals. If your advisor has been with you every step of the way and has seen how hard you were willing to work during your college years, then he or she can act as an effective witness to your character. A Former Supervisor If one of the reasons you are leaving your current job is because you don’t get along with your boss, consider asking a former supervisor to act as your reference instead. Chances are, your supervisor spent enough time with you on your projects to provide a hiring manager with a clear picture insofar as who you are as a person and what you accomplished as an employee. Past and Present Colleagues Most folks choose former colleagues to act as their references. While former colleagues you still speak to are more than likely your friends, they are also valuable references because they can inform the hiring manager of the kinds of projects you worked on together. They can fill in the blanks on your achievements as part of the team that you might have forgotten to focus on in your resume and cover letter. The same goes for present colleagues. Some folks may not realize they can utilize the people they still work with as references. And who better to give the hiring manager a current snapshot of your skills as a worker than someone who is still presently working with you? A Family Member For most people, putting a family member down as a personal reference is a no-brainer. However, this packs more power if you have a family member who can also speak to your skills as a professional. For example, while you may want to list your mother as a reference, because she’s sure to give you a glowing review, why not consider instead listing the cousin you worked with at the ice cream shop over summer break every year? Your cousin is just as likely to give you a glowing review because he or she is family, but you also have the added benefit of a professional reference, having also previously worked with your cousin. An Authority Figure from Your Past While not as common, some folks don’t have much, or any, remaining family, and/or they have never held down a job. What does a person do then? You can use any authority figure from your past whom you trust and who can speak to your character as one of your references. This can be anyone from your pastor to your former Boy or Girl Scout leader – anyone who served as your leader or organizer of sorts. Just be sure to ask their permission first – especially if it’s someone you haven’t spoken to in years. And, of course, no matter who you choose as a reference, always be sure to thank your references, whether or not the hiring manager contacts them. Thanking your references is just as important as thanking those who interviewed you. And be sure to return the favor and offer to act as a reference for them too, should they ever need one.
The post Who Makes for a Good Job Reference? appeared first on Career Advice.
There are a lot of things job seekers add to their resumes that they don't actually need. In some cases, these things hurt a job seeker's chances of landing an interview.
If you're asking yourself, "Do I need these things on my resume?" take a look at the things job seekers should and should not include on their resumes.
An objective or mission statement used to be the right header for your resume. Today, it's obsolete.
Instead, utilize an experience summary. This is a list of your skills and requirements that are needed for a certain job. They're hard skills and transferrable skills, and they will help optimize your resume with keywords so it can get past the ATS.
Once it does that, it will be in the hands of the hiring manager, and they'll be impressed by your qualifications at first glance. It will also compel them to continue reading further about your successes and job history.
References should not be included on a resume. If a job posting requires you to submit a few references, create a separate document and add them in there instead. Then, attach your resume and references (saved as separate documents) to the job application or attach them to an email to the hiring manager.
In the hiring process, references are important. But how you distribute those references matters more than you think.
Having a professional image and a great personal brand isn't just about your social media accounts. Your email address should be professional as well and easy to comprehend.
Consider creating a separate email account for job-hunting purposes. You will find it easier to track the applications you've sent and any potential leads and lessen the risk of accidentally deleting emails you've misread as junk mail.
Your resume must contain quantifiable work experience and accomplishments that support the very skill sets you state you possess. Without them, you are simply providing opinions with no facts to back them up.
If you are great at driving explosive business growth or saving companies money, make sure that your resume contains monetary amounts, figures, or other numbers to display those skills. A good rule of thumb to follow is to make sure every bullet point contains at least one number. If you can't quantify it, it doesn't belong on your resume.
When crafting your resume, consider these four important tips. Remember, you have less than 10 seconds to get the hiring manager's attention. Make your resume worth those few seconds.
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Years ago, I was interviewing for a job. As many of you know, when you go through the interview process, you start with the recruiter, and then you meet with the manager, and then you meet with some of your peers—if you're lucky. Then, at the end of the interview process, you might meet with the highest-ranking executives. So in this case, I met with the CEO.
I knew I was doing okay because I was getting through each round of interviews. So, I go into the CEO's office. I don't know what to expect. It's a startup company. He's sitting there in a t-shirt and sweatpants. He's eating cereal and has his feet up on his desk. He says, "Come sit down." Then, he proceeds to interview me while he eats cereal, his feet still up on the desk.
There I am in my suit, answering all the questions, and, finally, he asks, "So do you have any questions for me?"
And I said, "Yeah. What keeps you up at night?"
The CEO stops eating his cereal, looks at me, and says, "I'm sorry. What?"
I respond, "When it comes to this business, what is keeping you up at night about its success? And how will the job that you're considering me for, how will the job that I do, impact the ability to solve for that?"
His face goes blank, he takes his feet off the desk, and he puts his cereal down. My heart starts to pound. Then, all of a sudden, he turns and looks at me. He leans in and says, "Hmm, let me think about that."
Now I'm thinking, "Oh my gosh, I just blew it."
Then, he gets really serious and starts to explain how this job impacts that ability. Then, he starts singing. Eventually, the interview ended and I went home thinking, "What did I just do?"
I got myself a job.
He told them that I should be hired because anyone who understands that their job impacts every level of the organization—and that they should be thinking about that impact—understands the value of the work that they need to do, and would do a good job. That's what he told the hiring manager. And the hiring manager told me.
So that gamble paid off. It not only taught me how important it is to ask questions in an interview but also how important it is to ask the right questions to the right people.
If you want to stand out in the interview process and land the job, try asking this question in your next job interview. It's all about understanding and relieving an employer's pain points.
The Career Decoder Quiz unlocks your professional strengths and potential. I'm going to walk you through three ways you can use your results to improve your own career happiness, success, and satisfaction.
I built the Career Decoder Quiz back in 2015 and, as of today, hundreds of thousands of people have taken the quiz. When I first shared it with our members and followers, I got a comment from someone on LinkedIn with a PhD in psychology who said their results were spot-on accurate. It truly made my day because I always knew that this information was important and accurate but it's very validating when you hear other individuals saying that as well.
The Career Decoder Quiz is all about your workplace personas. Your workplace personas explain how you like to add value and how you like to create value and results for your employer when you're doing work. And this is important to understand because you're not an employee. You're a business-of-one, and you're selling your services to the employer. You want to be able to sell services that you enjoy providing. That's how you find satisfaction in your career.
I've worked with thousands of people over the last 20 years. I've been a career coach for a long time, and I know that the number one reason people are so unhappy is that they're not internally motivated by their work. The technical term is "intrinsic motivation." It means it's work you desire to do and that's exactly what the career decoder results reveal. You're going to feel more satisfied naturally when you're doing the kind of work your results say you should do.
When we work with people inside the Work It DAILY platform, when our career coaches help our members, what we normally find is that they're doing work that is not leveraging their top two or three workplace personas. The Career Decoder Quiz is going to tell you you're top personas. When you get your results, anything that scores 20% or higher means it's a strength of yours. It's a persona that you prefer to leverage. Some people only have one. Some people have a couple of them. But you can't be all eight, so you're going to see what you prefer to do and how you prefer to deliver that value.
The first way (and probably the most important way) you should be using the results of the Career Decoder Quiz is to get very clear on the kind of work you want to do.
We had a client take the Career Decoder Quiz. He was a very successful executive. In his current role, he was known as an Optimizer. (That's one of the eight workplace personas.) He was very good at looking at problems in the company and fixing them. But he wasn't fulfilled in this work. When he took our quiz, it turned out that his top three workplace personas were Mentor, Visionary, and Educator.
What he preferred to do was coach others. He preferred to share a vision, help people connect the dots, and see things that they couldn't see on their own. He also wanted to close gaps in knowledge and information.
So what we did was work together to quantify his skills and abilities in these three areas—the ways he preferred to work—and then he went to his leadership team and expressed the fact that he really wanted to find work within the organization that allowed him to leverage these three areas. And, lo and behold, the executive team said to him, "We've been waiting for you to say this." He was shocked. They were very happy with him in the Optimizer role and he seemed to be happy in the Optimizer role, so why would they've changed things? It wasn't until he expressed his desire to do work that was in line with how he felt satisfaction that he was able to get results.
I see this every single day inside the Work It DAILY platform as we coach people on their careers, helping them better understand themselves, and this is just one of the ways that we do it.
The second way you need to leverage the results you get from the Career Decoder Quiz is to use them in all your career tools (resume, cover letter, LinkedIn profile, etc.).
As a business-of-one, you have to market yourself to employers, and the way you market yourself is with things like your resume, LinkedIn profile, cover letters, answers in your interview prep, and elevator pitch when networking. A lot of people tend to have the "everything and the kitchen sink" mentality where they put everything they've ever done in all of these career tools. They want to present themselves as a Jack or Jill of all trades. That is a fatal error. You need to brand yourself as a specialist, and, more importantly, as a specialist doing the kind of work you want to be doing. The Career Decoder results are what enable you to do that.
Now, a lot of people get their results and suddenly change their LinkedIn headline to "I'm a Builder, Mentor, Superconnector," or in their resume they write that they are an Educator or Warrior or Researcher. That's not what I want you to do. That's actually pretty hokey and that's not what this was intended for.
Instead, take a look at your top personas. You'll realize those personas are really verbs. So if you're a Builder, then you want to go through your tools and quantify your experience building things: "I've built X systems." Or if you're an Educator, "I've taught X number," or "I trained X number of people." Or if you're a Superconnector, "I've connected X number of customers/vendors."
You want to look at how you move the needle in your career. You want to quantify your accomplishments and work experience using the terms that align with your top workplace personas. Quantifying these things and branding yourself this way is how you're going to send the message that this is your specialty, this is how you like to create value, and you can prove it.
The third way you can leverage these results and improve your professional satisfaction is by understanding or getting familiar with your co-workers' personas.
It's important that you know how to leverage the strengths of other people. And let me explain why.
When you know what your strengths are, you're going to have more confidence, and when you know the strengths of others, you know how to tap into them and collaborate better. This is what companies are looking for—their top resources working well together and creating much better results.
By recognizing the talents of others and knowing to leverage them in concert with yours, you're going to gain a lot of trust, respect, and credibility within the organization.
I see a lot of people plateau in their careers because they get so focused on what they're good at and how they win that they lose sight of the fact that in order to get to the next level in their career, they need to partner with others. They need to be able to leverage the strengths of others. You can't be all eight personas. You're going to need all eight of those personas in the workplace. So if you want to get ahead in your career you need to put your ego aside. You need to leverage your own strengths, your own personas, and you need to leverage those of your teammates. Your credibility, the trust and the respect that you're going to get, is gonna skyrocket. And, of course, that's going to make you much happier on the job.
Those are the three ways you can leverage the Career Decoder results. Discovering your workplace personas is so empowering. And we don't just use the Career Decoder Quiz with job seekers and professionals. We also use it with employers. They use it with their staff to help them better understand their teammates. And if you're a leader, not only should you take this quiz, but you should also give it to all of your employees and learn their results so that you can tap into their strengths and make sure they're happy on the job.
I hope this free quiz helps you, your coworkers, and your leaders. If you want to work one-on-one with our coaches and learn more about your results, join us inside Work It DAILY today. Let us be your guide toward a happier, more satisfying career.
This article was originally published at an earlier date.
Even though it's one of the most common interview questions out there, everyone hates being asked, “What is your biggest weakness?" in a job interview. It's hard enough to show your potential during an interview. How are you supposed to sell yourself to employers when they want you to tell them what's wrong with you?
Thankfully, answering this question isn't as hard as you might think. And you can actually use it to show your potential if you respond strategically.
To successfully answer the "What is your biggest weakness?" question in a job interview, don't lie or come up with an answer you think might impress the interviewer (like "being a perfectionist" or "working too hard"). Instead, focus on a skill you're trying to develop.
For example, let's say you're interviewing for a training coordinator role at your favorite company. You love developing training materials and teaching others; however, you get very nervous when delivering your presentations because public speaking isn't your forte.
Instead of trying to sweep this under the rug, address it, but ease the interviewer's concerns by sharing what you're doing to overcome this challenge.
"I have to admit that public speaking has always been difficult for me because I'm an introvert. It makes me nervous to get up in front of people and talk. However, I've learned that this was an integral part of training others, which I love doing. So, I've been working hard to improve my public speaking skills by participating in monthly Toastmasters meetings as well as taking on volunteer training sessions for colleagues so I can get some extra practice. Since challenging myself to do this, I've noticed a big difference in my confidence level and have felt more capable than ever in my role as a trainer."
Essentially, you want to convey that you understand you're weak in one area, but to make up for it, you've been working hard to improve that area because you know it's important in your role. There's no need to give a long explanation for this question. Keep it simple and straightforward, and focus on the positives rather than dwell on the negatives.
Don't get stumped by common interview questions like, "What is your biggest weakness?" Instead, go in prepared. Be honest with yourself and tailor your answers so you can market your skills rather than detract from your potential. Remember: Every weakness is an opportunity to grow as a professional, so frame it that way in your next job interview!
Are you sick and tired of depending on other people for your career success? Good! The only person in charge of your success is you.
If you're feeling trapped by a job you hate, a bad boss, insulting pay, or all of the above, it's time you take ownership of your career. But where do you start?
Here are three things you can do to start taking control of your career today:
What are you known for? What are your best skills? What accomplishments are you most proud of? What are your best qualities?
Take some time to list your best skill sets, and how you use those skill sets to add value to a company. Think of all the quantifiable examples of the times your skills have helped previous employers and other examples of your skill sets standing out from everyone else's.
Organizing all of this information will help you build your personal brand and organize how you want to market yourself as a business-of-one to employers.
If you want to take ownership of your career, you need to stop being reactive and start being proactive. Reactive activities include but aren't limited to the following: waiting for your boss to give you a promotion, waiting for recruiters to reach out to you with new opportunities, or waiting for employers to email you back about your resume.
Notice that all of these "job search activities" started with the word "waiting." Newsflash: Waiting doesn't get results. Taking action does.
Instead, set up a meeting with your boss to discuss advancement opportunities or make a bucket list of companies that you want to work at, and then reach out to employees at those companies to connect, and maybe even set up informational interviews.
It's also important to submit your cover letter and resume to an actual person when applying for a job, and following up with that hiring staff.
The old saying, "It's who you know," has never rung more true. Get by with a little help from your career friends! Focus your efforts on building your professional network. Meet new people within your industry and bucket list companies. Start conversations and build relationships with them.
Even if you're not ready to find a new job or change careers yet, having these people in the wings as references, mentors, and professional contacts will help you tremendously. They can provide tips and insight, act as a sounding board for ideas, and even hook you up with a job. Just make sure you help them out in return!
Part of your new, proactive approach is to step out of your comfort zone. Many people hold themselves back solely because they are afraid of what people might think. But remember, nothing will change if you don't!
Make an effort to put yourself out there and meet new people. Set up informational interviews with like-minded professionals, strike up a conversation with someone at a conference, and attend in-person or virtual networking events.
If you're ready to achieve career success, take ownership of your career today by following the tips above. What is your business-of-one capable of?
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When there's a company you really want to work for and you've applied and applied and you don't get any results, the first thing I ask is how many informational interviews have you done with people who work at this company?
Informational interviews are not job interviews. They are interviews where you are asking that person for guidance or coaching by saying things like...
You're not asking them to refer you to the hiring manager or help you get the job. You're asking them to coach you on being the best version of yourself so that you can be a standout candidate to get the job yourself.
At the end of each informational interview, say, "This was really helpful. Could you introduce me or recommend one person at this company that you think I could also learn a lot from?" What happens is the person always recommends one person, and that's how you get your next informational interview. And you do that over and over and over again.
Now why is this important? Well, they are going to start to give you all the information you need to help you understand what you have to do to stand out and get hired. Also, you're building up your networking connections so that when a recruiter comes across your LinkedIn profile and sees that you're connected to all these people, it increases the chances that you'll actually get a job interview.
Plus, when you're in the job interview, you can say, "I've had the pleasure of talking with so-and-so who works at your company, and they shared (blank)," or "I talked to so-and-so and they told me (blank)." This shows that you are connected to these people and you've listened to what they've said, and this can be one of the best ways to get a job with a company you love.
Let me give you a real-life example. I actually coached a young woman on this. She was a senior in college, and she wanted to work for a very well-known sports company. And so we started this process. We got her her first informational interview, and then she got another one and another one and another one. She graduated from college, applied for jobs, and didn't get any job offers. Then, out of the blue, while she was home, she got a call and it was from a manager at the sports company she'd never met. And this person said, "Hey, I'd like to interview you over the phone. I had a candidate lined up for a job and the candidate dropped out. I need somebody to start ASAP. So I sent a message out to all the managers saying, 'I need somebody with these skills ASAP. Can you think of anyone?' And three different managers messaged me back and recommended you. You clearly made an impression when you were talking to all these people. So I want to interview you." And that's how she got a job with them.
Informational interviewing is so effective when you're trying to get into a dream employer. At Work It DAILY, we teach the framework for informational interviewing. It is an entire module that is part of our interview prep course. We take you through the interview process from the eyes of the hiring manager so that we can prepare you to do the right things before the interview, during the interview, after the interview, and throughout the whole process. And part of that is also knowing how to do informational interviewing.
If you would like access to our interview prep course, become a Work It DAILY member today. Sign up for our 7-day FREE trial and see how easy it is to get the results you want and deserve.
Good luck, and go get 'em!
Staying active at work can be a real challenge. It's easy to get sidetracked with projects and meetings and not even realize you've been sitting for a couple (or more!) hours. So, how can busy professionals be more active during the work day?
Thankfully, there are a few simple ways you can change your daily routine so that it is more active and you are less sedentary. We all know how important it is to be active throughout the day so we are expending energy, moving our joints, working our muscles, and staying flexible. With that in mind, here are four tips to be more active at work today!
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Work It Daily (@workitdailyinsta) on Nov 19, 2019 at 10:02am PST
A post shared by Work It Daily (@workitdailyinsta) on Nov 19, 2019 at 10:02am PST
Our first tip is to have something to track your steps and calorie burn throughout the day. You can use an Apple Watch, a Fitbit, or just a pedometer so that you have something monitoring your activity level and telling you that you're moving enough.
Plus, it feels like a real accomplishment when you know you've met your goal of 10,000 or 20,000 steps!
via GIPHY
It's all about squeezing more activity into what you already do. When you're running errands or going to work, for example, instead of looking for one of the closest parking spots, try to park as far from the door as possible (if it's safe!).
Just think how many more steps you'll walk if you do this all day long!
Our next tip is stairs, stairs, stairs. Wherever you are—at work or at home—always take the stairs.
It may take you a little longer, and you may be out of breath at the top, but it's worth it. Taking the stairs is so beneficial to your overall health and cardiovascular system. Make it a goal to take the stairs at least once a day, if not two, three, or four times.
Start now, and see how much easier it is to walk up the stairs in a month's time.
Lastly, try adding some type of activity to activities you already do.
For example, we all go to the bathroom. So, before or after every visit to the bathroom, do something. Whether it's squats, lunges, push-ups, or another body weight resistance exercise, you'll be sure to get moving if you make it a goal to do so!
We hope this motivates you to add a little more activity to your busy workday. If you don't have time to go to the gym, you can still incorporate physical activity into your existing daily routine.
Over time, making these small changes to your daily routine will make a big difference!
Like what you learned today? Be sure to follow Amber on Instagram @AccentuateWellness, or like her Facebook page to discover more fun workouts, healthy recipes, and helpful lifestyle tips!
Download her FREE at-home workout guide now!
Note: Individuals should always speak to their physician before making any significant dietary or lifestyle changes.
I have worked in the tour guide business in Egypt for one year and consider it to be one of the greatest memories of my life. Packing your bags and moving overseas may seem like a big step. However, things fall nicely into place once you get your boots on the ground.
I was based in Cairo and shared a spacious apartment with a French woman who worked for the Coca-Cola Company downtown. Though the tour guide business in Egypt demands long and irregular hours, life was pleasant along the river Nile and I met some fascinating and wonderful people. The tour guide trade opens the door to new people and cultures, making this a fantastic long- or short-term working abroad experience.
The best part about a tour guide career is that no two days are exactly alike. This type of work is ideal for those who thrive on the adrenaline of the unexpected and can make friends easily under pressure. My day could usurp morning, noon, and night with guided tours and often required long waits at the airport for incoming tour group clients. The first step is to meet and greet the guests, get them through customs, and assist them at the hotel for check-in.
My college undergrad was in criminal justice; however, I took 18 units of hospitality management and some tour guide classes. I also speak, read, and write fluent German and have learned basic conversational Egyptian Arabic. Bilingual skills are necessary for foreign tour guide services; however, becoming a multi-lingual guide will increase your job prospects and send you to the front of the line.
My tour groups were usually about 15 to 30 visitors, and on a few occasions, I had only one small party traveling together. My clients received a written outline of their itinerary from the main office and they could expect a three- to four-hour tour of Cairo each day. The main events were always the Egyptian Museum, the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx, the Solar Boat Museum, and a drop-off at the Khan el-Khalili souk for a self-guided tour through the shops. In addition to the standard points of interest in the city, my clients were able to book additional sightseeing with me for extended tours such as a day trip to Alexandria, an excursion to Dashur, or a special night out on the town aboard a Nile dinner cruise ship.
Although being a tour guide appears to be a very structured line of work, it has its elements of surprise that require some quick thinking on your feet. I would give my cell phone number to my clients and urge them to call me if they had any travel difficulties, would like to arrange something special, or if they needed some fast facts on adjusting to life in Egypt.
To connect well and establish an instant rapport with foreign travelers, it is essential to possess a high level of people skills. Though the pressure could be intense dealing with late drivers, combative clients, or juggling last-minute reservations, I kept going with a smile because I knew I was appreciated and applauded by the majority of my guests.
No matter how hot and bothered some of my clients would be, I always remembered that they might have had to save their money for years to take a fabulous trip to Egypt, and my pride and joy was making their Cairo experience a pleasant one.
The academic side of training in this exciting field does not communicate the hard work and energy that the tour guide business requires. It may not be brain surgery, but it does require a quick and sharp mind to problem-solve for each unique individual on the tour and spin a lot of wheels to keep the group activities interesting and entertaining.
At the end of the tour in Cairo, most of my clients would be moving on to Luxor or Aswan to board a Nile cruise ship, then perhaps spend a few days on the beaches of the Red Sea. However, this was not goodbye as they would return to Cairo for the final one or two days of their itinerary.
My clients were briefed on the proper etiquette for tipping in Egypt, which was approximately 15 Egyptian pounds per person, per day. I knew I was not going to get rich working as a tour guide in Cairo; however, the base pay was decent and the tips were excellent.
The bonus to the job was having some free time in Egypt and exploring the country from top to bottom on my own. I was given drastically reduced hotel rates, low airfare, and train tickets, and was able to see Egypt at my own pace with two five-day vacations over the year.
My best advice to someone considering a tour guide position abroad is to choose a country that interests you and let your passion for travel lead the way. In addition, get the best education you can and get busy with one or more foreign languages. I got started in this line of work from hearing a friend rave about her tour guide job in New York City and decided to make it happen for myself in my beloved Egypt.
Since I left my job in Cairo, life has become more complicated with ties to the United States. This confirms that my timing was right to chase the dream, board the plane, and create some priceless memories overseas. If you are feeling the pull to do something different with your life, I say now is the time to make it happen.
This is a true story told by LatPro.com, the worldwide leader in providing online employment resources for Hispanic and bilingual professionals since 1997. With 95 of the Fortune 100 companies using its service, LatPro is the largest diversity employment site in the U.S. and the most complete personal career advancement service for Latino and bilingual professionals. Visit to find careers in your field specifically tailored for Hispanic and bilingual professionals like yourself.
Working abroad image paul prescott / Shutterstock.com
For me, coaching is a passion. I've been an athletic coach for 18 years. My job description is to teach basketball and baseball, schedule, write game plans, attend clinics, hold camps, and general duties.
To have success according to my contract, I have to get my teams to win games. When people criticize coaches saying that we only care about winning, they need to understand that we have to win in order to keep our contract. If we don't win, our administration and our fans want us fired.
I rate my job satisfaction as a coach at 9. I have to deduct a point from a full 10 because of the outside pressure, which comes mostly from parents. Years back, I allowed myself to be concerned with their noise. Now I know every day that I walk into the gym or onto the field and impact my players, in a way, that doesn't matter to their parents. I know that I put my team together in the best way possible to win games. I know that I improved every athlete in some way.
What I can do with these kids is awesome. I teach them plays and fundamentals but I use athletic discipline to instill life lessons in them. First I teach kids to love the sport, and then I take kids who are below-average students and require them to better themselves academically to play the sport. When they want to quit, I ask them for more. I challenge them to work as a team with people they don't like in the hall at school. I require them to think smartly in an intense situation.
I do enjoy working with more mature teams, to an extent. The challenges are that bad habits have already been formed and I have to coach to win. I spend a tremendous amount of time with my line-up so that everyone who works hard gets to play, regardless of skill. It's important to me that I reward every athlete with decent game time.
Middle school teams give me the opportunity to work on solid skills and good habits. I can teach more and I have leeway to make certain that I develop every athlete by giving them game time. The pressure to win is not as intense as at the high school level.
When I entered into coaching as a volunteer in a recreation center for at-risk kids, I became hooked. I'm glad that I started the way I did. I see the big picture of what I can actually do for kids other than teach them to hit a ball. I still volunteer with young kids who eventually play for me on a school team. Sometimes I have to buy their shoes or pay for their fees. I always have to tutor them, but as I do so I see the high school diploma that they might not have gotten otherwise.
When I first became a paid coach, I was miserable. I had parents screaming at me. For a while, I tried to keep everyone happy. I wasn't having the impact on my kids that I wanted. I eventually got to the place that I am now. I know that I am here for these kids and no one else.
Without a doubt, parental interference is the most frustrating thing about coaching. Parents believe their kid is the star. I'm fortunate to coach team sports so that I can hide weaker players and get every kid in the game for a decent amount of time. It helps the athlete keep working and it keeps the parent quiet.
To me, coaching is not particularly stressful. There are definitely some intense moments, 11 seconds on the clock and we are two down, but it's not real stress when you look at the big scheme of life. Job stress in coaching comes from outside the gym.
The money is a supplemental income unless you make it to a college or professional team. I make around $2,000 for a six-week season in middle school, and $5,000 for a three-month season in high school. I only coach in small schools. Bigger suburban schools certainly pay more. I open the gym in the off-season two times a week and run two camps a year. Other than season play, my time off is up to me.
A degree in teaching or coaching is a standard requirement to coach at a school. I don't have that, but I do have the ability to put a group of athletes who are very diverse in skill, talent, and attitude together and eventually win games and titles. I would like to become a coach in a juvenile detention center or somewhere like that. I want to bring kids back to the world and I think I can.
I'm not getting rich in this job, but I am certainly enriched because of it.
Job sports coach image from Bigstock
As a former hiring manager in several consulting firms, I often wondered if candidates were cognizant of the impression they made on employers. Even small things, such as the frown displayed by an applicant upon arriving at an interview, or the worn-out jeans of an applicant in a roomful of suits, gave me pause as I worked to screen candidates.
Ironically, many of the problems I spotted could have easily been fixed by taking care of seemingly minor issues. In some cases, these corrections would have made the difference between hiring the job candidate and taking a pass on the applicant!
Here are 10 “little" things that make a big difference to hiring managers in the interview process:
Yes, recruiters and hiring managers will be checking out your LinkedIn presence and verifying that your Facebook and Instagram activity is not violating their corporate policies. But have you stopped to think about your tweets or the content you're creating on TikTok?
Even the most realistic employer will need to assess your liability as a potential new hire. Therefore, your online activity must be sufficiently toned down and presentable to a potential company—long before you enter the job market.
If you've kept up a website on your middle-of-the-night gaming habit or constantly tweet your distaste for political candidates, these items can offend hiring managers—and cause them to rethink bringing you in for an interview.
Struggling to hide employment gaps in your work history on your resume? Failing to mention that new job you just took (that isn't working out)? White lies or sins of omission on your resume and in your interviews will come back to haunt you in more than one way.
If interviewers don't catch lies during the resume screening process, there's still a chance that your background check will reveal all. Even after you're hired, your record of impeccable service won't make up for less-than-forthright stories on your resume or LinkedIn profile.
Stories abound of high-profile executives, entertainment professionals, and sports coaches who attended college but didn't graduate—and who paid the price for fudging these resume details years down the road.
Are you open enough on LinkedIn that others can contact you? Or did you forget to make your email address (and possibly mobile number) visible to other users? Here are best practices for ensuring you're more easily reached on LinkedIn:
Sent in a resume, but failed to take any action beyond pressing the "Send" button? If you didn't spend some time following up or identifying company insiders for further networking, your job search will take longer.
Doing some homework on the employer's business needs and identifying key people for personal follow-up (through LinkedIn or an online search) shows them you're truly interested in a career opportunity, and that you've given thought to solving their business problems.
Be sure to use formal channels when applying for a posted job. Then, reach out to your newly found contacts to reiterate your interest in joining the company. Better still, connect and network with employees at the companies on your interview bucket list well before you start your job search. That way, you'll already have connections at those companies when it comes time for you to apply for a job.
Cranking out LinkedIn messages or cover letters at top speed—with just a few adjustments here and there? Hiring managers can smell a "form letter" approach a mile away. Nothing says "I'm desperate and don't care about your needs" more than a disjointed cover letter or a LinkedIn message that simply asks for a job.
No matter how you're getting in touch with employers, take the time to write a brand-specific message of value to them—helping them discover who you are, what you offer, and why you're interested in a position with their company. This means customizing each LinkedIn message and writing disruptive cover letters.
You may not be able to crank them out as fast, but you'll be sacrificing quantity for quality. And, in the job search, quality is always better than quantity.
When setting up any kind of business meeting, there's a certain amount of give and take required for coordination. No matter how in-demand your skills may be, you'll be expected to acquiesce to interview timing and location parameters set by employers. That can mean dealing with less-than-helpful receptionists or HR personnel, all of whom will be taking notes on your reactions.
Your phone etiquette and email communications will be watched closely; a courteous and respectful tone will go miles in reinforcing your personal brand and potential as a job candidate.
Feeling put out by the fact that your interviewer appears younger, more inexperienced, or otherwise beneath you in the professional hierarchy? Be careful how you convey this disapproval. You may believe you're hiding these feelings, but as one of those younger-looking interviewers, I often picked up on this tone very quickly!
Even if you decide mid-interview that you're not interested in the company, remember to display a high degree of professionalism. You never know how well-connected your interviewer might be.
Polarizing, hot-button subjects such as politics or religion should make their way out of your resume, LinkedIn profile, interview discussions, and side conversations.
No matter how neutral or popular you consider your stance to be on these topics, there's bound to be someone who disagrees with you—and who votes against hiring you.
Yes, you should be sending a thank-you note to employers after your interviews! Whether a short, handwritten card, LinkedIn message, email, or even hard-copy letter, a thank-you note gives employers the impression that you're a gracious and appreciative job candidate.
A post-interview note can also be used to address lingering questions, counter potential objections ("Regarding our discussion on your new Western region, I can assure you that I'm accustomed to handling accounts in person for maximum effect—and therefore open to travel"), or mention a fond memory you have of the experience (a conversation, for example) to highlight a connection you made with the individuals at the company.
Be sure to address your notes to each person you've encountered in the interview process (or at least mention their names in the note), especially if you've met with a panel or group.
Just because social media lets you send messages faster than ever doesn't mean you should pester employers. Following up once or twice after applying for a job should suffice to let them know you're still interested in the position. The same is true of the post-interview period.
Hiring managers have companies to run and customers to serve in addition to the process of choosing you. They may also have other candidates to consider. Staying on an employer's radar is important, but so is professional discretion. Aim for somewhere in between silent and stalker in your follow-up activities.
There are numerous ways employers can be put off by your job search practices or approach. Ensure you're taking steps to satisfy their need for information and put your best professional foot forward.
Recruiters look at dozens of resumes a day. If they see something they don't like, your resume could wind up in the “no" pile in just seconds.
Here are a few tips you should follow to make your resume better than the rest, standing out from all that competition!
We know that sounds like a no-brainer, but you might be surprised by the number of resumes that have a spacing issue, a punctuation error, or even a misspelling. The problem is that you have looked at your resume so many times, your brain knows what it is supposed to say, but in reality, it says something else.
Get several people to proofread your resume, and have them read it for different purposes. One person should read for grammar, for example, and another should read for punctuation and spelling. You cannot afford to send a resume to employers with mistakes. Any superficial error can severely hurt your chances of getting a call for that job.
Too often people think that their resume is a "one-and-done" proposition. Not so! You should customize your resume for every job each time you apply.
Match up keywords from the job description with keywords in your resume. Make sure that your achievements and successes indicate that you are an excellent candidate for the job you're applying for. You need to tweak your resume for every single job posting. There are no exceptions.
Some people think the trick to a great resume is to stuff as many accomplishments into it as possible by using tiny font and stretching the margins to the limit. The result is a resume that is difficult to read and looks cluttered and clunky. Those resumes will wind up in the "no" pile because the hiring manager doesn't care enough to search the document for truly relevant information. They also don't have time to waste when there are dozens of other resumes to review.
Your resume should have a clean and contemporary look and feel. Use lots of white space and be as concise as possible. Also, use clean-looking fonts like Calibri or Arial.
Check the job description carefully for each position you're applying for. Then, use keywords in your resume that match the keywords in the job description. Also, you may find it helpful to use free word cloud tools to identify the keywords that are used most frequently in the job description. Adding those keywords to your resume will make it easier for your resume to get past the ATS.
Recruiters and hiring managers are looking for individuals who are a good match for their job openings. Don't make them guess whether or not you have the required skills or experience. Your resume should get them curious to know more about your qualifications. At the end of the day, the goal of your resume is to get the employer to call you. It won't be the thing that gets you the job, but it will be what gets you an interview.
Avoid using the word "responsible" in your resume. Instead, concentrate on specific and quantifiable accomplishments. For example, which sounds more impressive:
Demonstrate that you are a person of action. Rather than being "responsible for" something, use words like "advised," "led," "launched," "executed," "generated," "planned," "produced," etc. These powerful resume words (and others like them) demonstrate your ability to perform on the job and your specific role in previous jobs. Strong action words validate your capabilities and specific duties you have performed.
Consider which is better:
If you want to stand out from other job candidates, both your resume and LinkedIn profile need to have specific, tangible, quantifiable achievements.
We see so many resumes that are very "duty-oriented"—the candidate lists what they've done but doesn't mention anything about what they've achieved.
Here are a few tips on how to write an achievement-based LinkedIn profile...
Your resume and LinkedIn profile are your personal branding tools, and first impressions are important. Highlight your skills in your LinkedIn profile just as you would on your resume. People often say generic stuff like, "I worked in marketing," but that doesn't tell recruiters anything about what they've done.
What powerful words can you use to stand out? What specifically have you done that would be relevant to the jobs you're applying for? Think about these questions as you list your hard skills at the end of your "About" section.
Recruiters want you to tell them why you're the right fit for the job, so don't be shy about emphasizing what your skills are and how they'd help the company.
Quantify your results as best you can. Use examples that include numbers. if you've saved time or money—by how much? List your accomplishments as bullet points. If something can't be quantified (like job responsibilities), it won't impress recruiters and employers. Therefore, don't waste space on your LinkedIn profile by including them.
What is it that you've initiated in your job? Did you start any new projects or come up with new ideas? Highlighting projects you've set out to achieve on your own is a great way to show that you're someone who takes initiative, without always being told what to do.
Of course, you should quantify as much information about these projects as possible. This will catch the eye of recruiters and act as a great conversation starter with your network.
Writing an achievement-based LinkedIn profile is a great way to highlight why you're a good fit for the job. You'll stand out to recruiters as a qualified job candidate, one who could achieve great things at the company.
This may be controversial, but as a 20-year career coaching veteran, I think one of the biggest mistakes people are making post-pandemic is they are overly focused on trying to pursue career happiness when in reality you should be focused on building career resilience.
There are three reasons why career happiness is very difficult to achieve. First, career happiness is a state of mind. So if you're sitting here and wondering, "How can I just be happier in my career today?" you can't. Instead, certain things need to happen that are going to make you stronger and more resilient, feel more in control, and give you more satisfaction.
Career satisfaction will make you feel happy.
The second reason you should quit trying to pursue career happiness is that it constantly evolves. It's like a moving target. The moment that you start to feel happy, the situation will change, or your circumstances will change. So it's not a one-and-done sort of thing. Many people struggle with the concept of "happiness," and say something like, "I was happy here and now I'm not. I'll never be able to achieve this." That's not true at all. Happiness is a constantly moving state.
The third reason you don't want to focus on career happiness is that it's different for every person. I coach people every day who tell me they tried something that worked for someone else, but they didn't get the same results, and now they feel bad about it—about themselves, their situation, etc. You can't compare someone else's success, someone else's perceived happiness, with your own ideas of success and happiness.
Career happiness just isn't the right thing to pursue for all three of these reasons.
So, what do you do instead? You focus on building up your career resilience. Why do you do that? Because the stronger you get, the more in control you will feel, and the more satisfied you will be with your career—and that will make you feel happy.
There are three things you need to build career resilience. First is the environment. You need to surround yourself with a community of people who are all focusing on career resilience as well. What happens is you end up learning from these people. In fact, they show you things you didn't know you needed to know. But also, candidly, you look around the room and you go, "These people aren't any better than me. I can do this." And that's going to give you motivation, which many people lack.
The second thing you're going to need is coaching. You're going to need people who have done this, who have hacks, who have tips, who have tricks, who are keeping up with the latest techniques, who can understand your particular situation and get you the advice you need. Think about all the people in your life you use when you can't get results on your own. They're essentially coaches. That's what you need right now to get you to the next level. If you think about it, coaching isn't a sign of weakness. It's the path to greatness, especially in things like sports. And this is no different. You're playing a sport here in your career.
The third thing that you're going to need is knowledge. Knowledge is power. Knowledge is the one thing nobody can take away from you. Employers can never take away your knowledge. That's your power. That's your value. That's your worth when it comes to work.
When you gain new insights, when you learn new things, it is going to make you much smarter. You're going to make more informed decisions, and you're going to take yourself from being an employee who feels like they don't have any power to an employee who realizes they're a business-of-one, and you want to be a partner with that employer. They're not any better than you. You want to partner up, and you want the mutual trust and respect that you deserve. But that only comes when you build up that resiliency.
I like to call people who build career resiliency "Workplace Renegades" because they get off the hamster treadmill, think for themselves, and learn how to take ownership of their carer using the right environment, the right community, the right education, the right courses and knowledge, and then the right coaching, the right support.
If you would like some help building resiliency in your career, become a Work It DAILY member today. Sign up for our 7-day FREE trial and see how easy it is to get the results you want and deserve.
Interview questions are not as straightforward as they seem, and answering just one question incorrectly may put you out of the running for a job.
The takeaway? Be ready to read between the lines.
Here are seven of the most common interview questions, what the hiring manager is really asking, and how you should respond:
All of the most common interview questions require a thorough answer because they are behavioral interview questions. To answer these types of interview questions, use the "Experience + Learn = Grow" model.
Let's take a closer look at how to answer the most common interview questions below...
What the hiring manager is really asking...
"How do your education, work history, and professional aspirations relate to this position?"
How to respond: Select key work and education information that shows the hiring manager why you are a perfect fit for the job and the company.
For example, a recent grad might say something like, "I went to X University where I majored in Y and completed an internship at Z Company. During my internship, I did this and that (name achievements that match the job description), which really solidified my passion for this line of work."
"Does this position fit into your long-term career goals? Do you even have long-term career goals?"
How to respond: Do NOT say you don't know (even if you don't) and do not focus on your personal life (it's nice that you want to get married, but it's not relevant). Show the employer you've thought about your career path and that your professional goals align with the job.
"Are you self-aware? Do you know where you could stand to improve and are you proactive about getting better?"
How to respond: A good way to answer this is with real-life feedback that you received in the past. For instance, maybe a former boss told you that you needed to work on your presentation skills.
Note that fact, then tell the employer how you've been proactively improving. Avoid any deal breakers ("I don't like working with other people") or cliché answers ("I'm a perfectionist and I work too hard").
"Are you a hard worker? Am I going to have to force you to produce quality work?"
How to respond: Ideal employees are intrinsically motivated, so tell the hiring manager that you find motivation when working toward a goal, contributing to a team effort, and/or developing your skills. Provide a specific example that supports your response.
Finally, even if it's true, do not tell an employer that you're motivated by bragging rights, material things, or the fear of being disciplined.
"How do you respond to failure? Do you learn from your mistakes? Are you resilient?"
How to respond: Similar to the "greatest weakness" question, you need to demonstrate how you've turned a negative experience into a learning experience.
To do this, acknowledge one of your failures, take responsibility for it, and explain how you improved as a result. Don't say you've never failed (delusional much?), don't play the blame game, and don't bring up something that's a deal-breaker ("I failed a drug test once...").
"Are you genuinely interested in the job? Are you a good fit for the company?"
How to respond: Your goal for this response is to demonstrate why you and the company are a great match in terms of philosophy and skill. Discuss what you've learned about the company, noting how you align with its mission, company culture, and reputation.
Next, highlight how you would benefit professionally from the job and how the company would benefit professionally from you.
"Can you think on your feet? Can you handle pressure? Can you think critically?"
How to respond: When faced with a seemingly absurd question like this one, it's important you're not caught off guard.
Resist the urge to tell the interviewer the question is stupid and irrelevant, and instead walk them through your problem-solving thought process. For this particular question, you would talk about how many people are in the U.S., where couches are found (homes, hotels, furniture stores), etc.
As with other parts of the job application process, it's a good idea to solicit feedback from family, friends, and former colleagues. Try out your answers to each of these questions with at least two people, then revise based on their feedback.
The importance of preparation before an interview cannot be stressed enough. The more you practice, the more confident you'll be. If you successfully answer the most common interview questions, you'll be sure to stand out to employers as a great candidate for the position.
You dread going to work. Every morning is the same: you have to drag yourself out of bed. It's not that the body is weak. It's that the mind is not willing. Most of us know that. Many people have felt this way at least at one point in their careers. Is there a way to overcome the dread of going to work every day?
I am not sure if I have the absolute solution, but these are some of the strategies I have personally tried in my years of experience:
If you dread going to work, do these four things:
Yes, it's completely normal to dread going to work. If you wake up and can't bear the thought of working, take a mental health day. If the feeling lasts for days, weeks, or even months, that may be a sign that it's time to look for a new job.
Before you decide to quit your job and find a new one, try doing these four things...
Do not let the Monday blues or the "dread going to work" syndrome become your dominant thought. Yes, I know it is easier said than done. But you have to start somewhere, and that somewhere is your thought process.
The more you think about how much you dread work, the deeper you will dwell on that feeling. Stop thinking about it. Take that thought out and focus your thoughts on something else.
Find out the source of your dread. Otherwise, you will not be able to tackle it. Do not complain if you do not know what you are complaining about.
Why do you dread going to work? Is it because of your co-workers, your boss, your routine work, your pay, or the commute?
Write all the reasons down and see if you can tackle them. I am sure resignation has crossed your mind. But before you do that, let's see if there is a way to alleviate your feelings of dread. We cannot expect life to be perfect, or work to be perfect, for that matter.
As I stated above, life is not perfect. Why should work be? Accept that things being imperfect is how things work. If you expect perfect colleagues, perfect bosses, perfect resources, or perfect processes, then you are in for a shock.
There can never be a perfect system, perfect factory, and perfect office wherever you work. Because, trust me, no matter how high your pay is, it can always be higher; no matter how good your colleagues are, they can always be better; and no matter how understanding your boss is, he or she can always be better.
Seek not perfection if you do not want to dread going to work. Seek adaptation—adaptation from yourself. What can you do to make the work environment better?
Ever think that the process of work can also teach us something about life? Think of work as a pedagogue.
It teaches us that we do not always have things our way and that life can sometimes mean having to do things we do not like or even enjoy. But it's only temporary, and we have a choice of doing something about it.
Use this experience of dreading work as your teacher. What does it teach you? Ask and answer, and you will immediately see this experience in a different light.
There is something you can do about the feeling of dread you get when thinking about work. Do not fear it. Sit down calmly and have an action plan to tackle it. When you start working on a plan to diffuse it, you will feel better—even if the plan does not work in the long term.
Remember: Every job is temporary! You'll get through this rough patch in your career soon.
We know most people don't enjoy going to work, especially if they're feeling lost, trapped, or burned out in their career. If you're struggling to find a job that you like, we can help.
Someone accepted your request to connect on LinkedIn. Yay! Now what?
Now, you need to start a conversation.
Don't just let that new connection sit dead in the water. Here's how to start a conversation with a new LinkedIn connection:
To start a conversation with a LinkedIn connection, first write a friendly subject line. Then, introduce yourself and offer your support. Make sure not to ask for any favors just yet!
Struggling to write your initial message? Here are a few subject ideas to get you started (you would elaborate within your message).
For a basic subject line, you could start with something like:
If you enjoyed an article they wrote/shared, you could start with something like:
If you met your new LinkedIn connection in person, you could start with something like:
Shoot your new LinkedIn connection a brief message shortly after connecting. You can start by introducing yourself, and then elaborate on why you wanted to connect in the first place.
Mention things you have in common. Feel free to ask them about their goals and interests. What do they want to accomplish? What do they love doing? Highlight commonalities. It will help build a stronger personal connection.
We can't stress how important it is to offer value to your connections, especially in your first conversation. It shows that you're a valuable contact who's ready and willing to help your connections.
Offering your support can be as simple as saying something like, "If there's anything I can do to offer support or anyone in my network that I can introduce you to, please let me know. Happy to help." You don't have to go overboard with this in your first message. A brief sentence like the one above is great. Just let them know you're offering.
Do not ask for anything from your new connection unless it benefits them in some way.
For example, if you need a quote from them for an upcoming blog post you're writing, highlight the fact that you'll be promoting the heck out of it and that it will give them some exposure. You can ask for a favor after you've built your professional relationship with this person and you have a history of offering value without asking for anything in return.
A good introduction message has three parts: a subject line, a sentence or two where you introduce yourself, and a sentence where you offer your support.
Here's an example: "Thanks for connecting! I noticed you also studied at XYZ University. Go Bobcats! Please let me know if there's anything I can do to offer support or anyone in my network that I can introduce you to. Happy to help!"
When someone reaches out to you and asks to connect, make sure you message them immediately after accepting their request with a message that says something like, "Thanks for connecting. It's great to meet you." That way, if they forget to message you, you'll be sitting in their inbox, happy and ready to chat.
Starting a conversation with a new LinkedIn connection is easy once you know how to do it properly. The next time you want to connect with someone new on LinkedIn, follow these four steps. You'll grow your professional network in no time!
Your manager is not responsible for your career. You are. They are responsible for your output. So waiting until annual review time to determine your goals and accomplishments is not the best idea.
Here are 10 things you can do today to improve your career...
If you want to grow your career faster, you need to "work it daily." This means you need to work on your career a little bit every day. Make career growth and development a daily habit, and you'll grow your career faster than you ever have before.
Start growing your career today by doing the following...
When it comes to annual reviews, there is so much focus on goals for the year. A year is a long time—too long in fact to set tangible, achievable goals. Therefore, it is far wiser to set smaller goals throughout the year.
Think about your day-to-day work. What could you be doing to elevate that work? Are there skills you could learn to help you advance? Think about this for a bit and then make a list of goals that relate to these items. And then, once you've set the goals, give yourself a deadline to have learned these things.
When you've hit the deadline, give yourself a grade. Seriously. It works. Did you do it? Did you do it well? Then ask someone else how they would score or grade you on these new skills. Then rinse and repeat.
The smartest of us say that success is just outside of our comfort zone. So it goes without saying that you must stretch beyond your area of expertise.
Do something that scares you. Don't like public speaking? Start signing up for presentations at work or networking events. Does it terrify you to put your industry thoughts out there? Ask someone for the opportunity to guest post.
Whatever gives you the collywobbles, sign up for it—today.
While self-assessment is important, it is also important to get feedback. And it is important to get feedback all the time.
For example, at the end of each and every meeting I lead, I ask the following questions:
You can learn a lot from these two questions. So much about your work product and performance can be gleaned from these two questions. Give it a try and see what you learn.
Do you have any idea how many amazing things you've done this year? Probably not, because you aren't curating that great work anywhere to revisit it.
There are countless places for you to store this work in a cloud. When you've got a great portfolio of work you've produced and are proud of, it's like writing your resume as you go.
It is also easy to share with your manager at review time. You're better prepared to wow them when you've got yourself visual proof of your awesomeness.
Spend time each and every week as a student of your industry or company. Study your industry and company as if you'll be tested on them. Ask questions of people in your space. Ask your manager and colleagues questions. Ask your company's customers how they feel.
Develop thoughtful insights about the industry and your company. And don't be shy about sharing those insights.
Spend time reading blogs, big and small. Spend time reading books about your profession. Read business books that stretch your thinking.
At the end of the day: read!
Reading new things can start conversations when you're networking and can also build your own career with new ways to do things and different work and life hacks to make life flow a little more smoothly.
Never, ever, ever send a standard LinkedIn invite. Ever. We cannot stress this enough. Personalize the message and tell the recipient what you have in common, and how you'd like to help them. If you do not know someone, ask someone in your network for an introduction.
Networking brilliantly is about leaving a positive impression. And it isn't just LinkedIn. Attend industry events and local events and meet as many people as you can. This will also help in being curious about your industry.
Mentors are great resources for all of these elements. Need feedback? Ask your mentor. Need to bounce off industry or company insights? Looking for ways to stretch? Mentor!
Conversely, a good protégé can also be a tremendous resource to learn from as well. A protégé can bust some of your paradigms. They can also expose you to new thinking and present you with new ways to solve problems and look at things.
Even if you are really happy in your current role, it never hurts to listen to other opportunities and build relationships with new people in the industry. In fact, that's what you're supposed to be doing if you want to grow and improve your career.
Always be open to new opportunities and new connections with people. Plus, it feels really good when you get noticed!
Improve your career today by following the tips above! Remember: If you want to win, you've got to work it daily.
Looking for more ways to improve your career?
Recently, a list of companies that have the happiest employees was circulated online. The companies were commended on their ability to promote a healthy work environment and sustain work-life balance. Pfizer came out on top with Kaiser Permanente coming in second, followed by Texas Instruments. Looking at these lists, one wonders how these companies are able to promote such a positive productive environment for their employees.
Many would think this is due to compensation packages or other related perks. But then, is work only about earning money? Is it the most important aspect when employees join a new company? What about the other factors that play an important role in building a strong bond between the employee and the organization?
The importance of core values is illustrated by a quote from famous author and inventor Edward de Bono: "Effectiveness without values is a tool without a purpose."
This analogy really hits home. A purposeless tool is a worthless thing and so is a company without a campus—a culture that is formed on the basis of core principles.
Core values serve to constantly guide both the employee and the company in achieving their mutual goals, in a manner that is based on an ethical and ideological framework. Every business is different, and so are its core values. Having said that, there are some principles that are alike for all, even though they may be phrased differently.
Here are four such core values every organization should have:
The four core values of an organization are integrity and ethics, respect, innovation (not imitation), and drive.
Simply put, the two principles of integrity and ethics translate into doing the right thing, in an honest, fair, and responsible way. Building your entire business on the foundation of honesty and integrity goes a long way toward building a strong, trusting relationship with your employees, stakeholders, and customers.
Truthful conduct on everyone's part can create a strong, credible reputation for the company in the market, which is beneficial for everyone's interests.
Without dedicated employees, a company is nothing. Period.
Committed employees form the backbone of the entire corporation. They work together with the system in order to achieve growth and profitability.
A company has a responsibility toward its employees, and if one of its core principles is showing the utmost respect to its employees, it's likely management will have a low employee turnover rate.
Respecting all employees means respecting their individual human rights and privacy, and eliminating all kinds and forms of discrimination, whether based on religion, belief, race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, or physical disability. Moreover, ensuring a safe and healthy work environment for all employees is an important part of giving respect to them.
Many organizations across the globe adopt an attitude whereby the entire company interacts together like a close-knit family. Such an atmosphere helps boost the confidence of employees and makes them feel like an important, even indispensable, part of the organization. This inspires feelings of commitment and a drive to do even better.
Companies that focus on being ahead of their competitors and introducing new ideas in the marketplace follow the principle of "innovation, not imitation." This is crucial if a company wants to be a trendsetter and introduce new products that consumers appreciate.
Employees in such companies are encouraged to be dynamic and come up with innovative ideas that can translate into successful products for the company. Constantly imitating others won't take the business far.
The thirst to constantly improve can be achieved if one is never satisfied. Organizations that have this principle as one of their core values try to provide a dynamic platform for their employees, where they can explore their creativity and skills and further enhance themselves.
While celebrating successes is an important thing, just sitting back and getting complacent over them is unacceptable for such companies. The reason why some companies habitually do well is because they know that employees are the most valuable resource.
Nothing compares to an employee who is dedicated and willing to go the extra mile. This requires a company to cultivate an environment that promotes respect and frowns upon politics. If you want to achieve this type of work environment at your company, these four core values are a great place to start.
Want to work for a company with these four core values?
Have you ever felt like you totally rocked an interview? You had all your questions and answers prepared, the hiring manager really seemed impressed, and they even hinted at a callback. You wake up the next morning with a huge grin on your face expecting an email or a phone call, but you receive nothing. No worries, right? “They will probably get back to me tomorrow," you think to yourself.
However, tomorrow comes and goes, as does the next day and the day after that, all without a phone call or an email. Days turn into a week, and you begin to get a bit antsy. Hope starts to dwindle as the questions begin to mount.
As time goes on, you are consumed by these questions and can think of nothing else. This is a dangerous time for any job seeker. This inner state of turmoil is often referred to as job offer anxiety.
The first step to dealing with job offer anxiety is understanding what it is and why you're experiencing it. Usually, there are five reasons why a job seeker might be struggling with job offer anxiety: they're forgetting to continue their job search, they're suffering from restlessness and insomnia, they lack perspective, they're not sure when to follow up with the hiring manager, and/or they lack confidence in their resume.
You're likely to hear back about a job offer a week or two after your final job interview with the company. If you haven't heard back from the hiring manager after two weeks, you should send a follow-up email. As always, remember to continue your job search while waiting for a job offer.
Job offer anxiety is the anxiousness and stress one feels usually while waiting for an interview or a callback. This anxiousness is frequently accompanied by tense behavior and rumination. People who suffer from this are in a never-ending search to discover why they haven't received an interview/callback when everything seemed promising.
In a struggle to answer this question, job seekers start to second-guess their interview and writing skills as each day passes. They blame themselves for not getting the call and their confidence all but disappears. Job offer anxiety can even affect job seekers after they have received an offer.
For instance, a job seeker may receive a job offer that happens to be their second choice. The question of whether to accept the offer or wait for their first choice now arises. This may cause unnecessary panic in the applicant which can lead to a misguided decision. Even just waiting for a callback is extremely destructive to the job search. You end up losing focus and wasting valuable time that could be spent pursuing other job opportunities.
If you have ever suffered from job offer anxiety, have no fear. Here are some specific causes of job offer anxiety and ways to overcome them...
The solution: Apply for other jobs.
This advice seems obvious, but many people become so focused on the callback that they forget about the end goal: getting a job.
What better way to distract yourself than to continue looking for other jobs? Continuing your job search allows you to take your mind off the callback and get back to using your time wisely. Sitting around and waiting for the perfect job to get back to you isn't productive and won't get you anywhere closer to realizing your goal.
And who knows? While you are being focused and productive, time will pass a lot more quickly and you might finally get that callback you were waiting for, and if not, at least you expanded your job opportunities.
The solution: Exercise.
All that stress and anxiety can inflict heavy damage to your body and overall health. Those at WebMD.com recommend people with high anxiety to "relieve tension with vigorous exercise or massage." The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has found that "regular participation in aerobic exercise has been shown to decrease overall levels of tension, elevate and stabilize mood, improve sleep, and improve self-esteem."
When it comes to reducing stress and anxiety, exercise should not be overlooked.
The solution: Realize that HR is on a different time frame than you.
There is no doubt that when searching for a job time seems to creep by at a snail's pace. Some like to believe hiring managers sit at their desks with an evil smirk, tapping their fingers together (think Mr. Burns from The Simpsons), purposefully making candidates wait in despair.
It's easy to forget that employers may have responsibilities other than hiring candidates. Hiring managers would love nothing more than to get through all the applicants in a timely manner. But like every job, things tend to pop up unexpectedly that require immediate attention. It's important to remember this, take a deep breath, and give the hiring manager the benefit of the doubt.
The solution: Use proper follow-up etiquette.
It's important to remember that the interview doesn't end until you have sent a follow-up thank-you letter. Susan Adams of Forbes advises applicants to send a follow-up letter as soon as possible. If you wait too long, other prospective employees might beat you to it.
While sending a handwritten note is a nice thought, it takes much too long for the employer to receive it. So email is always the best choice for sending your follow-up thank-you note. It's also a nice touch if you add a high point from the interview in your message.
However, even after the follow-up thank-you letter, applicants can still find themselves without a response. In this case, it is appropriate to follow up again.
In "4 Things You Need To Do After The Interview To Get The Job," Sudy Bharadwaj believes that periodically following up every few weeks is a great way to stay on the hiring manager's mind. He recommends, "Instead of asking, 'Have you made a decision yet?' forward a recent article you've read that you believe he'll find interesting and helpful. Following up in this way demonstrates that you're a great network connection instead of a pesky wannabe employee."
The solution: Check if you made common resume mistakes and/or get your resume reviewed by trained coaches.
One last measure to reduce stress and anxiety during the job search is to make sure your resume is in tip-top shape. Knowing that your resume is up to par can be a great boost to your confidence.
An excellent way to get some tips on your resume is to pass it out to your friends and colleagues. They might be able to bring some fresh ideas to your resume and suggest edits to improve it.
We hope you found these tips for overcoming job offer anxiety to be helpful, no matter where you are in your career. And remember...only worry about the things you can control. You'll avoid a lot of stress and anxiety this way!
We know how difficult it is to overcome anxiety in your job search. If you're struggling to find a job, we're here for you.
What should you do when you and another co-worker like each other? Worse yet, what happens if you have a crush on your boss, or that most terrible of taboos, on your secretary?
Yes, given the social environment of the workplace, it's completely normal to be attracted to a co-worker, but that doesn't mean your crush feels the same way, or that you should act on your feelings for this person.
Rather than ignore the problem or act on your instincts, you should learn how to stop being attracted to someone at work. Here are 10 tips for handling the lust genie and putting her back in the bottle where she belongs:
If you're attracted to a co-worker, the first step is to acknowledge the problem. Then, talk to a friend about your dilemma and get a copy of your company's rules and regulations.
It's important to understand that you might be a target of manipulation. At the very least, realize that the "grass isn't always greener" and your brain can play tricks on you. Understand the consequences, set clear and safe boundaries for yourself, and improve your home life and/or add extracurricular activities. Whatever you do, don't try to deal with the issue with the object of your affection.
The first step in dealing with attraction at work is to acknowledge the problem. In all likelihood, you have pushed these feelings to the side of your mind. Unfortunately, they are sitting there fermenting and probably deepening.
Bringing your feelings to the top of your to-do list will help you logically deal with them. In cases of workplace attraction, you are going to need every ounce of Dr. Spock you can muster.
You should absolutely talk to a friend about your work crush, preferably to someone who is not employed by the same company, your spouse, or the target of your attraction.
Talking about your feelings is another way of acknowledging the problem. In addition, you will acquire an ally who will help you cope with the issue.
Reading the black-and-white company policy about what can happen if you act on your attraction is sometimes enough to change those feelings of amore into slight sickness whenever you see the person.
In the world of business, there are many ways to get ahead. Some people have learned that ignoring office etiquette and company rules about relationships is a quick way to gain a competitive edge.
It's very difficult, but try to realistically evaluate the skills of the other person. Have they earned their position through brilliance, dedication, and hard work? Or did they just sort of miraculously appear?
Maybe your home life isn't as blissful as it could be. This doesn't mean that acting on your instincts with the person at work is going to be the dream relationship.
That possible relationship might be better, but in all likelihood, you will be exchanging one set of problems for another.
In love with your boss? Have you ever heard of Stockholm syndrome? People in positions of power are often attractive even if they are absolutely horrible.
Romance at work (even between consenting single adults) often translates into negative repercussions. It can create sordid rumors and much worse.
If you truly have found the love of your life, get proactive about switching jobs or changing departments so you can continue your romance without worry.
Not willing to do that? Maybe this isn't the "one."
This will make coping much easier. Social decorum dictates that most intimacy doesn't occur in the presence of others. Design strategies that remove direct and private contact with the person.
Whenever possible, interact with the person only when there are other people around. This will prevent intimacy and, with luck, the workplace crush will fade.
So many of us get absolutely absorbed in work. It is our lives. When this is the case, it is perfectly natural to look for affection and intimacy at work. Make your social life outside of work a priority.
Once other people enter your life, the attraction for that colleague often disappears.
This approach rarely leads to a happy ending.
First, if the attraction is mutual, the crush will likely escalate into a full-blown affair. Second, if the attraction is not mutual, you face rejection and possibly a sexual harassment lawsuit.
We are all human and human interaction is sexual. Having a crush or being attracted to a co-worker is natural. But natural doesn't necessarily make it good for you!
Use these 10 tips to fight attraction in the workplace—because most of the time it isn't worth the risk.
Need more help navigating workplace issues?
By the age of 23, I’d written articles for the Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Los Angeles Times. By 25, I had signed my first book deal. My publisher told me I was the second person they ever contracted without an agent.
What was my secret? Connections? No—my most prestigious pieces were simply submitted to open editorial inboxes like oped@nationalnewspaper.com. My book manuscript was also picked up through cold emails… and I got not one, but two publishers interested. Simply put, my writing spoke for itself.
I had the “it” factor.
And I wasn’t writing about rainbows and butterflies. Most of my pieces were either about Middle Eastern foreign policy dilemmas or mathematical statistics and probabilities found in Texas Hold ‘Em poker (ex. The 2-3% equity changes a hand like King-Ten suited has vs. King-Ten offsuit). For the general public, it wasn’t fun stuff.
But that’s where “it” comes in—the unique beauty of making dense content relatable.
Here are my tips and tricks on how you can do it too.
1. Raise Your Voice! First order of business, we have to know that article is distinctly coming from you. No one else could’ve ever written it. No one else could’ve possibly dreamed of using your same vocabulary, pacing, and tone! Generally speaking, confidence is key. Not sure what I’m talking about here? Then don’t start with writing—start with reading. Find favorite authors and develop your taste. You don’t even have to like their opinions. Just their way of communicating things. For me, those two journalists are Derek Thompson and Jennifer Rubin. I don’t agree with half of what Jennifer says and Derek’s economic analysis is almost always beyond me, but I like their style. I’ll never forget how struck I was when Ms. Rubin started a Washington Post article with the word “bizarrely.” No matter what followed, I was already hooked. You want people to feel that same way about you too.
2. It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It. Many people have heard that when you’re talking to someone, 70% of communication is non-verbal. What you say isn’t nearly as important as how you say it. Believe it or not, this applies to writing as well. Style, flow, and finesse matter. You can’t simply rest on the content of your message; you need to deliver it with ease. Writing is like a dance. When you read it out loud, it shouldn’t have two left feet. Or two clunky syllables. Great writing is incredibly agile, nodding its head to literary grace.
3. Be Fearless. Say what needs to be said. Say what you mean. Don’t fear a controversial conclusion—people are drawn to strength. It takes bravery to express our ideas clearly, but trust me, it gets rewarded.
4. Set Limits. Whenever I write, I limit my commas. I never let consecutive sentences contain three or more of those little squiggly marks. I also try not to stuff too many big words together. People get tripped up here because they confuse accuracy with greatness. Just because what you’re saying is valid and true doesn’t make it readable. In order for your brilliance to reach wider audiences, you need to dial down the density. Information should be given as a slow drip—not a dam-breaking explosion.
5. Use Three Words. It is punchier.
6. Make ‘Em Laugh. It is funnier.
7. Encourage Critical Thinking. We’ve drilled down pretty hard on the delivery of your message. Now we need to address the substance. Obviously, hot takes generate buzz. But you don’t always need a controversial opinion in order to make your work sell. People are struck by simplicity. The bolder you can state your claim, the better. It doesn’t have to be original. You can move the masses just by being unapologetic. I don’t care if your stance is saying something as mundane as, “We need to stick to our diets!” or “Kids need to read more!” If you can articulate your ideas clearly and powerfully, you are bound to reach people. Most of us ‘overthink’ things—by taking affirmative stands, your writing will inspire people to think more deeply.
Transforming dense content into something relatable requires practice, creativity, and—dare I say it—a touch of your own personal magic. You need to be able to charm your reader. This includes when discussing tough subjects. Yet I guarantee that if you can incorporate the above strategies into your writing, your dazzling prose will breathe new life into your most meaningful findings. Sometimes the best way to convince someone of an argument is to demonstrate conversational mastery.
As a rookie manager, embarking on the journey to create your first budget can be a daunting and nerve-wracking experience. The key to success lies in knowing where to begin, understanding the starting point, and making breakthrough habits.
But fear not! In this article, we will guide you through budget creation with a focus on avoiding rookie mistakes, navigating the approval process, and effectively locking and monitoring your budget.
Rookie mistakes in budgeting often stem from the absence of a clear vision. To avoid this trap, communicate openly with your superiors to understand the department's future directions. Sometimes, you might be directed to keep the new budget flat at last year's spending.
When starting your budget, referencing the previous year's budget is a safe and valuable starting point. It provides insights into past expenditures and helps lay a foundation for the new budget. Remember that a budget is a living and breathing document that requires periodic revisiting and adjustment.
Don't hesitate to seek input from colleagues; their insights can be invaluable. Communicating with stakeholders will lend a sense of ownership of the budgeting process.
One common oversight is the failure to include new initiatives in your budget plan. As your supervisors introduce new programs or investments, it's essential to incorporate these changes into your budget. Equally important is removing outdated or one-time initiatives from the previous budget.
Understanding salary and contractual changes is crucial. In certain industries, such as sports, specific costs are predetermined due to collective bargaining agreements, making up a significant portion of the budget. Recognizing these fixed costs helps you accurately plan the remaining flexible expenses.
To create an adequate budget, it's essential to understand your business thoroughly. Dive into past financial records, departmental spending, and the profit and loss statements from previous years. Understanding the spending patterns and where the money goes is vital for effective budgeting.
Interacting with various stakeholders within your department is crucial. Gather information about their plans, changes, and needs. Creating an inclusive budget process may not incorporate all suggestions, but it fosters valuable input and enhances the decision-making process.
Once you've crafted your budget, it's time to navigate the approval process. Before you head out to show your new budget to your boss, take a step back and ensure you don’t miss anything. Make sure that your formulas are cross-checking your numbers.
Proper coding of expenses is crucial for accurate financial tracking. Assign codes to invoices and categorize them within the budget to ensure the appropriate allocation of costs to specific departments or categories. Make it a habit to utilize the budget daily to determine expense placement and maintain financial clarity.
After the finance team approves your budget, it becomes a finalized document, entering the 'lock and monitor' phase. In dynamic environments, such as the sports industry, urgent changes may arise; they might be a one-time expense or a large purchase requiring immediate budget adjustments. In such cases, you can change your financial position by updating the quarterly forecast. The budget cannot be adjusted because it is locked.
Calendarizing your budget assists in managing cash flow. Now that you have a final budget, you can distribute the expenditures when they occur during a 12-month period. This approach ensures better tracking and aligns costs with the correct quarters, providing a more transparent financial overview.
Contesting miscoded expenses to your budget line item is expected. Whenever this occurs, a simple phone call to the recording department typically settles the issue. This is why a budget to actual expense analysis is necessary periodically.
Categories like travel and entertainment expenses tend to fluctuate and be less controllable in budgeting due to unforeseen pricing and travel demands. These challenges can test the accuracy of budget projections, but adaptability and vigilance are your allies.
The critical lesson in creating a budget is establishing trust, credibility, and accountability. When stakeholders know and trust the validity of your numbers, they tend to relax and believe in your executive presence.
Creating your first budget is a transformative journey that empowers you to take control of your department's financial destiny. By avoiding rookie mistakes, mastering the approval process, and effectively locking and monitoring your budget, you pave the way for success.
Budgeting is not merely a financial task; it's a strategic tool that propels your organization to take hold of its current position and predict the future with confidence. Embrace the process, learn from your experiences, and let your budget become a beacon of financial prosperity and strategic mastering. Be that lighthouse on the hill that others look to as an example of excellence. You can do this!
If you needed to convince someone that Girl Scout Cookies are delicious or that rainbows are really beautiful, you'd have to first know what the cookies taste like and what rainbows look like—right? The same applies when it's time for you to sell yourself in an interview to strangers.
In a job interview, you need to know where you've been, what you've accomplished, and where you're headed.
On the one hand, that might sound really simple. They are your experiences, so you would be the best one to know how far you've come. Yet how many times do we easily forget by Monday what we just did on Saturday and Sunday? How often do we make the same mistakes over and over because we failed to assess our experiences and extract the lessons learned so we don't repeat those mistakes?
These things happen often, only to leave us stumped and running in circles. The same thing can happen in a job interview if we don't take the time beforehand to really understand our past and know what we have to offer in the future.
Preparing for an interview is crucial to ensuring that you come across as a competent potential employee. You need to be able to recount your previous work experiences as if they were yesterday. You need to be able to tell a future employer what you're good at; they aren't going to know yet, so you need to be able to tell them. You need to be able to show them that you think about the future and have goals and aspirations you're working towards. All of this requires you, the applicant, the interviewee, to know yourself first.
Below are some simple steps every job seeker should take before each interview to ensure they present their best self in the most confident way:
In addition to steps 1-3, know what you are good at and where you could stand to use improvement. Be confident (not cocky) when you tell the interviewers what your strengths and weaknesses are.
What current skills do you have that would easily crossover into a new role or industry? These are your transferable skills. Don't underestimate their value in your job interview.
Practice telling your stories. Which words sound good when you say them? Which words don't? What key elements do you want the employer to know and which are irrelevant? Be able to tell a story, hit all the key points, and don't bore the interviewer(s) in the process.
Have a friend conduct a mock interview with you so you get practice in front of another person. One caveat: don't memorize anything. Just know what information you'd like to share and how you'd like to share it when the opportunity arises.
Remember, in the end, you are the one who needs or wants the job. As unique as you are, the employer can easily find another person who will perform the same tasks.
By knowing who you are, you will be more readily able to express to the interviewer what you as a unique individual have to offer and why they need to hire you. By embracing all of who you are before the interview, you will have the tools you need to settle into a place of confidence. When you exude this confidence and sense of knowing who you are, you'll present the image of an articulate, focused, and self-aware individual who employers will want to have on their team.
Now, who are you?
I attended a cybersecurity conference and there were sessions about zero trust, securing generative AI, and emerging threats. And then there was a very atypical keynote session called “Understanding and Managing Neurodivergent Staff” (presented by @Rick Doten). It was one of those “you don’t know what you don’t know” presentations.
I learned that there is a wide spectrum of neurodiversity, and ADHD, autism, and dyslexia are a few of the conditions. Generally speaking, neurodivergent individuals interpret, experience, and socialize with the world differently. They typically approach problem-solving and critical thinking in innovative ways producing creative insights and solutions. You may know neurodivergent individuals and not realize that they are neurodiverse. Or individuals may be undiagnosed and not realize that they are neurodiverse.
If everyone thinks differently anyway, how do you know if someone may be neurodivergent? Some examples of the skill set neurodivergent individuals may have are:
Neurodivergent individuals aren’t limited to these skill sets. Their abilities will vary based on their interests and strengths. As part of their personal development, find out what’s important to them. You should be encouraging and having open conversations with each team member anyway.
Individuals with these skill sets are a great fit for jobs that require meticulous work or breaking down complex problems and systematically analyzing them. Depending on their interests and strengths, some roles and careers that could be a great fit are accountants, administrative assistants, graphic designers, librarians, or pharmacists.
Neurodivergent individuals have a deep passion for specialized knowledge and have a natural aptitude for technical skills such as math, programming, and scientific research. This means they may naturally gravitate towards the IT and security fields. Some roles and careers that could be a great fit are statisticians, data analysts, IT support specialists, quality assurance testers, and ethical hackers (Red Team).
Pause the next time you look at a job description (JD) either as a job seeker or as a hiring manager. A person may not be an obvious choice superficially but may be an excellent fit and a superstar! Some common job description skill sets that may align with the strengths of neurodivergent individuals are:
JD Skill Set & Strength Descriptors
Compare the job description with the specific skills and interests of the individuals. Hopefully, your application process allows individuals to highlight their relevant skills and experiences during the application and interview processes.
If you have the right role for the right person, neurodiversity could be an advantage. Offer reasonable accommodations to enable neurodivergent individuals to thrive. This could include flexibility in work hours/environment, a quiet/sensory-friendly workplace, communication preferences for expectations, as well as structured feedback.
For example, neurodivergent individuals may range from non-communicative to overly communicative. There are several tools and technologies (such as noise-canceling headphones, fidget toys, and task/time management apps) to facilitate communication, organization, and well-being for both personal and work life. If you demonstrate an inclusive work environment, research shows that neurodivergent employees may have lower turnover rates, which can reduce recruitment and training costs for the organization.
Having a diverse team with diverse perspectives makes the team stronger. Each person, whether neurodiverse or not, is unique and brings something different to the table. Appreciate those different perspectives and encourage and be supportive of each person.
For more information on understanding that neurodiversity is a superpower, follow me on LinkedIn!
When you're looking for a new job, your resume is your calling card. It's often the first time a potential employer gets to meet you. Obviously, you want to make a good first impression. This means you don't want a resume that leaves potential employers shaking their heads.
When most people think of mistakes, they think of misspelled words, poor formatting, and typos. These things are easy to avoid by proofreading your documents thoroughly. But there are other resume mistakes that you probably don't realize you're making. These mistakes can look pretty careless, but they are easy to fix if you spot them before it's too late.
Here are three of the biggest resume mistakes:
The first thing a recruiter is likely to do after receiving your resume is to check you out on LinkedIn. This is often when inconsistencies crop up because the information on your resume might not match the information on your LinkedIn profile. This is not to say that your resume and LinkedIn profile should be mirror images. But they should match when it comes to current and past employers, job titles, and dates of employment.
Unfortunately, when candidates prepare a resume they often "lump" all their work at an employer under their current (and likely most prestigious) title. This is bad for two reasons. First, it fails to show career advancement. Second, it makes employers wonder what other inaccuracies they may find.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but some people are so focused on the meat of their resume that they forget to include their contact info. When you're looking for a job, it's important to make it easy for interested parties to contact you. Some recruiters prefer to contact candidates via email. Others would rather just call.
Of course, if they really want to contact you it's not impossible to find your phone number or email address. But why would you want to make a potential employer jump through hoops? Be respectful of the preferred communication styles of others by providing complete contact information. While you're at it, put your LinkedIn URL on your resume, too.
Resumes that highlight outside activities that directly contradict a candidate's job aspirations are just a waste of valuable space! Think an accountant with a side business designing jewelry. Or resumes that include sports activities, like being on the soccer team, when the candidate graduated 15 years ago. While you're at it, unless you graduated in the last five years, there's no reason to include graduation dates or your GPA.
Besides being irrelevant, including a few lines about leading your college team to victory (unless you're a recent grad) takes up valuable space that could be used to focus on your skills and achievements—things employers actually care about!
Your resume needs to make a good first impression, one that will make a recruiter or hiring manager want to learn more and possibly contact you for an interview. Don't waste space with irrelevant information. Don't confuse them with inconsistencies or make them go into detective mode to find you. Begin your relationship with a potential employer as the candidate to beat.
The pressures of meeting deadlines, achieving goals, navigating office politics, and maintaining a healthy work-life balance can often lead to overwhelming levels of stress. However, it's crucial to remember that managing stress at work is not only essential for our mental and physical well-being but also for our overall job performance and satisfaction. So, how can we effectively manage stress at work? What stress management tips actually help?
We recently asked our leading executives for their best tips on how to manage stress at work.
Here are their responses...
In this argument, we will explore how embracing tension with a calculated risk-taking approach can not only make you a better manager of stress but also propel your career to new heights.
1. Stress as a Natural Byproduct of Ambition: Consider this: Stress often arises when we push our boundaries, take on challenging projects, or strive for ambitious goals. In such scenarios, stress is not a sign of failure but rather evidence of our commitment to growth and excellence. By accepting stress as a natural byproduct of ambition, we can shift our perspective and view it as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.
2. Stress as a Source of Motivation: Stress, when managed effectively, can serve as a powerful motivator. It can push us to think creatively, find innovative solutions, and unlock hidden reserves of resilience. By reframing stress as a motivator, individuals can channel their energy into productive endeavors, ultimately increasing their chances of achieving their goals.
3. Calculated Risk-Taking: Embracing stress involves calculated risk-taking. Rather than shying away from challenging situations, consider them as opportunities to grow. When you take calculated risks at work, you open the door to innovation and transformation. Remember, some of the greatest success stories in business were born out of taking risks in high-stress environments.
4. Stress-Resilience as a Skill: Managing stress at work is not about eliminating it but developing resilience to handle it effectively. Like any other skill, stress resilience can be cultivated through experience and learning. By approaching stressful situations as opportunities to sharpen your strength, you not only manage stress better but also build a valuable skill set that can be applied throughout your career.
5. The Competitive Advantage of Stress-Embracers: In a world where competition is fierce, those who can effectively manage stress while embracing calculated risks often stand out. They demonstrate their ability to adapt to challenging circumstances, inspire team confidence, and lead resiliently. This competitive advantage can lead to career advancements, greater responsibilities, and increased recognition.
In conclusion, stress at work should not be viewed as an enemy to be defeated but as a companion on your journey to success.
Michael Willis has 18+ years of experience working with accounting & sports organizations and has managed P&Ls of $10M - $125M+ with budgets of $3M-$50M+. He worked for the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mainly with the game officials working on the financial/accounting side of the business.
Can you relate to this? You work in a fast-paced company with tight deadlines, long hours, and multiple project setbacks. You miss deadlines, and your co-workers are constantly catching up on shared assignments. If any of this sounds familiar, you probably know what it feels like to be stressed on the job. Here are five tips for how to manage stress at work:
Self-Awareness: The first step is to recognize the signs of stress, which starts with self-awareness. Stress can manifest differently, but common symptoms include irritability, fatigue, headaches, or stomach pains. Research shows that 95% of us believe we are self-aware, yet the actual number is 10 or 15%. Most of us are oblivious to how it's affecting us and how others truly perceive us. Why is this important? Because when you become self-aware, it allows you to reshape how you present yourself to the world by aligning your self-perception with the perception of others.
Mindfulness & Meditation: Taking just a few minutes daily to focus on your breath, clear your mind, and be present can significantly reduce stress levels. As a type A person who struggles to unwind during high-stress situations, taking a moment to count slowly to 20 can be quite therapeutic. Identify tools (i.e., deep breathing exercises, guided meditation, mindfulness apps) to integrate into your day that aid in stress reduction and promote being present.
Self-Care Matters: Prioritize a well-rounded approach, including a balanced diet, regular exercise, and sufficient sleep. Your food choices can influence stress levels; avoid excessive caffeine and sugar as they can contribute to anxiety. Opt for nutrient-rich foods like fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Eating balanced meals helps stabilize mood and energy levels. Regular physical activity offers various benefits, one being stress reduction. Exercise triggers the release of endorphins, natural stress relievers. Quick walks during breaks or desk stretches can significantly improve your well-being. Strive for seven to nine hours of sleep per night, as recommended by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Sleep deficiency can impair productivity, focus, and decision-making. High-quality sleep is crucial for effective stress management.
Stay Calm: Amid conflict, maintaining composure is vital. By staying calm and removing emotion, you can take an objective step back to evaluate the situation effectively and find constructive solutions. Most importantly, it will make the people around you feel safe, secure, and confident in your leadership.
Maintain Control Over Your Reactions: There are things in life that are out of our control, like an angry co-worker reacting to your project. What you can control is your response, handling the situation, and managing your emotions, which ultimately reduces stress. When faced with someone's unhappiness or criticism, adopt a curious and empathetic approach:
By implementing these five tips, you can transform a stressful work environment into a place of balance, productivity, and well-being. If you found this helpful, I invite you to explore my book How to Develop a Brand Strategy and insightful brand marketing articles.
Lisa Perry helps companies drive revenue by using consumer trends, insights, and data analytics to innovate their approach to marketing.
If you're a recent college graduate and you're unemployed, you might have an idea of what we're about to talk about.
You've spent four years of your life hitting the books, getting good grades, participating in relevant extra-curricular activities, and maybe even juggling a part-time job in between. You've worked really hard for your degree and you've been told time and time again that a degree is essential to finding employment in today's competitive job market.
So, why are you not getting hired?
First of all, you're not alone. Though the unemployment rate has slowly declined for bachelor's degree owners, it's still lagging. For that reason, the competition is fiercer than ever. This means you really have to re-evaluate your job search strategy.
Here are some reasons why you might not be getting hired as a recent college graduate:
While it's good to have a strong resume with all of your professional skill sets, your resume can become generic when all you do is send the same resume to every open position you find.
Take the time to rewrite your resume on multiple occasions and use specific keywords that are in the job description.
According to an article on the Job Center of Wisconsin website, gathering information specific to the job you are applying for and matching it with your experience on your resume is what makes a good resume. You have to "think like an employer," the article states, and "do not give unrelated or negative information."
You have every reason to apply for every job in sight. However, it doesn't do you any favors when you apply for every single job you see and send the same resume to each one.
Apply for the jobs you want and are qualified for. After all, it's what you studied for.
Try to make a list of potential places you'd like to work for (your interview bucket list) and target those companies any way you can. Use social media sites like LinkedIn to find people you can network with, and keep an eye out for any open positions. You have a better chance of getting hired at a job where your skills are relevant than at a job you're 100% unqualified for.
According to an article on the Undercover Recruiter, a survey of 300 professionals by Reppler found that "hirers are using social networks to screen job applicants." This means you should clean up your Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok profiles to present a more positive, but more importantly, professional image of yourself.
It might be in your best interest not to post that picture of you doing a keg stand as your default, or post about how you hate looking for jobs because you'd rather be partying with your friends.
We understand how difficult it is for recent college grads and young professionals to find a job right now. By following these tips, you'll shorten your job search and get hired quicker than your peers.
Understanding one's stage of self-awareness development as an executive coach who facilitates leaders to practice conscious leadership is crucial. My own developmental journey emphasized the need to pay attention to how my beliefs and assumptions enabled my effectiveness in varied contexts and interactions.
I realized the importance of aligning my developmental stage with my role and goals. As a learning practitioner, it was clear to me that unless I became able to make sense of my own way of being and acting at a level essential for enabling others to transform, I would not be acting with a high degree of integrity. Nor would I be effective.
What provoked the realization that I was stuck in a level of mindset that was not going to serve me was my encounter with one of the leaders of consultancy that I was seeking to join.
During an interview, the company director asked me, "What are your strengths?" Proudly, I responded, "According to my StrengthsFinder, my strengths are Activator, Communication, Connectedness, Woo, and Positivity." I believed I was showcasing my expertise. However, my ego took a hit when the director responded, "I don't want you to define yourself by an instrument. I want to know your essence, who you are."
Despite the rocky start, I was hired. At the beginning of our professional relationship, the director played the bad cop, challenging my tendency to act as the subject matter expert. He aimed to unveil my authentic self, and this feedback served as a wake-up call for me to reflect on who I truly was.
At this point, I needed a framework that I could understand that would help me find my way to what many call a “later stage of meaning-making.” Enter Robert Kegan's five stages of adult development, a framework that, despite my conceptual understanding, revealed a disparity between my self-assessment and reality. Believing I was at a stage referred to as Self-Authoring Mind focused on what I could create of value according to my own standards, I discovered I was operating from the perspective of Socialized Mind, which draws self-esteem and orientation based on how others would judge me.
I engaged the support of an executive coach, driven by my eagerness to learn, enabling a breakthrough that helped me transition from a Socialized Mind to Self-Authoring Mind. I was able to free myself from always needing to know the answers, to be more comfortable with the ambiguity of not knowing, and to be more collaboratively accepting of others’ perspectives.
This experience highlighted the power of coaching that fosters self-awareness and transformation. I acknowledged that I wouldn't have progressed to higher stages without my coach's guidance. This personal evolution equipped me with the wisdom to help others grow.
Another resource, Jennifer Garvey Berger's book Changing on the Job: Developing Leaders for a Complex World, deepened my understanding of transformation. It guided me on how to assist others in identifying their level of development and fostering corresponding growth.
My journey underscored the importance of self-awareness, coaching, and aligning developmental stages with professional roles. This experience fueled my passion for enabling others to navigate their transformative journeys.
As you reflect on my journey of self-discovery and professional growth, consider your own path. What stage of development are you in, and where do you feel called to be to lead more effectively? Are you ready to embrace the transformative power of coaching, self-reflection, and continuous learning?
If you're ready to unlock your full potential, take the first step today. Seek a coach, explore relevant literature, and commit to your own evolution. Remember, the journey to self-awareness and authentic leadership is ongoing—embrace it and you will empower yourself to inspire meaningful change in both your professional and personal spheres. Your transformative journey awaits!
As a career coaching veteran for over 20 years, many professionals have sought my advice on how to ask about work-life balance in a job interview. It's a difficult question to ask without it being a red flag. Still, there's definitely a way you can find this information out in a job interview.
Asking about work-life balance in a job interview starts with using emotional intelligence to avoid being overly blunt. You also don't want this to be the first question you ask in a job interview.
When a hiring manager asks, "Do you have any questions for us?" at the end of a job interview, the very first question you ask says a lot about you.
I'll give you an example. I was hiring for my company at one point, and I had two candidates. The first candidate came in and when I said, "Do you have any questions for me?" she replied, "Yeah, what's it pay?" Meanwhile, the pay was posted in the job description. So that told me the only thing she cared about was the money.
The second candidate came in and when I said, "Do you have any questions for me?" she said, "Yes, can you tell me how this job will impact the success of the organization as a whole? How will I know that I'm doing a good job?" This was a very thoughtful question. I knew she wanted to understand how to create value so she could be successful. It was also a strategic question on her part. But I loved it.
When it's your turn to ask questions in a job interview, after you've asked a few strategic questions, you would transition to asking about the company's work-life balance. Here are some great examples of questions you could ask the hiring manager:
These are totally fair, positive questions to ask on the subject of work-life balance. By asking these questions, you're making the assumption that they support work-life balance and giving them the opportunity to elaborate.
Now, the hiring manager can say whatever they want. They could lie to you in this interview. So my advice is if you get a lot further along in the process and you're still wondering about work-life balance, ask to speak to a peer. This is especially true if you get the job offer and you haven't met any of your potential co-workers. You can say, "I'm really excited about this job and I want to accept on the spot. But I was hoping to talk to somebody who would be my peer and also just get a sense of the job from them." That way, you can talk to a potential co-worker and ask them:
That peer can be more forthcoming with you. And if they're not forthcoming, you can usually read people and tell if they're hiding something or not being honest.
So find the right spot to ask about work-life balance in the interview. Frame your questions in a way that isn't too negative. Most importantly, if you're still not getting the right vibe, ask to meet other people in the organization. Ask to meet your peers, and then ask them those same questions and pay attention to how they respond. This is how we start to look under the hood of a company to figure out what's going on.
Finally, there are websites you can go to that have anonymous reviews of companies and what it's like to work there. Make sure you visit those as well. Do your homework. Be careful. You don't want to be sucked into a bad job where it's not what you expected it to be. So make sure you research the company beforehand and ask about work-life balance in your job interview—the right way.
Is inspiration lacking this Monday morning? On the job search and feeling blue? Stuck in a career you hate? Not sure what success means to you? You're not alone. Grab a nice, warm cup of coffee, and let us help you out.
Light your inner fire with these inspirational career quotes:
Professional quotes motivate and inspire you to become the best professional you can be in your career. They remind you that you can achieve what you want to achieve. What does success look like to you? If you ever need some inspiration, read these quotes...
We hope these quotes motivate you. Please share with someone you know who needs a little inspiration right now.
If you need a little more inspiration, here are some additional inspirational career quotes you might find helpful:
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