Friday, May 29, 2020

4 Tips to Achieving Your Goals Building Your Future Now

4 Tips to Achieving Your Goals Building Your Future Now We all have goals we want to achieve. Here are 4 tips that you can use to make your dreams a reality. 1. Ask for help Sometimes all we need is a little help! Ask friends, family or peers for their advice or help to make your goals happen. People are always happy to help if you tell them what the project truly means to you. 2. Time and Patience Achieving you goals may just require a little time and patience. Just keep doing what you are doing and let time take care of the rest. Time provides you will experience and knowledge. You just have to look around. 3. Be Realistic We all have goals that we want to achieve but are they realistic? Take time to think about your goals and assess what it will take to make them happen. Money, experience or education may all be barriers to achieving your goals. So be realistic and do some research about what you need to do to make those dreams a reality. 4. Help Others Sometimes you need to help others achieve their goals. It may take away time from what you need to do, but its an awarding experience to help others! You will learn a lot in the process as well as build a strong reputation for making things happen. Also, if you help others you will be surprised how many people will be ready to help you! Image: Tero Vesalainen

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

How to manage a career right now

How to manage a career right now I have never been great at picking my own clothes. Im great at interior design, but I have a blind spot for clothes. So I email Melissa photos of my outfits, and she uses her photographic memory of my closet to edit my outfits. When I sent her this photo, she said: What is this? I only wanted her opinion about the color of the shirt, so I thought it was okay that it was blurry. But the more I look at the picture, the more I think that its how I feel about myself right now. I am not quite sure who I am, right now. And given the current career climate, this is actually how most people see themselves, tooblurry from constant movement, settled on the basics, but unclear on the specifics. And then I read an article in Fast Company this month titled Generation Flux. The article is about how careers are constantly moving and our identity is therefore moving as well. So I am focused on how to make myself more clear about what I look like. At least right now. And here are things I think we each need to do to pin down our moving-target, career-jumping selves. 1. Get a plan for post-35. This is a great post by Matt Heusser, from Google, that outlines why you only have fifteen years to put a plan together. By the time youre 35 you have to get out of any career space that is for young people and settle into an older person job. Want to know what young people jobs are? Making sales (as opposed to managing), writing code (as opposed to managing), working across three time zones. These are jobs that middle-aged people do not get. Mostly because no one would respect a person who has worked for 15 years and still has to take a job like this. These are not good jobs for having a life. These are jobs for working long, hard hours with the intention of laying the groundwork for a better career. Sara Horowitz, writing in the Atlantic, suggests that the new jobs will be independent, short-term and maybe even coffee-shop based. Others, like Cathy Benko at Deloitte, suggest there will be a series of lateral moves that will somehow become respectable. Anya Kamenetz, writing in Fast Company, says this will look like continuous, back-to-back career change, so that job hopping begins to look tame and totally normal. At any rate, you cant get through the second part of your career doing the work you did in the first part. So there is not time to rest in a safe spot for your career. The other reason you only get 15 years is that your salary tops out in your late 30s. (Actually, age 35 for women and 40 for men.) Statistically speaking, you are extremely unlikely to earn more than you are earning at that age. 2. Get good at setting boundaries. In the old workplace you could take one job, on an established path, and move forward in a predictable way. The average job today lasts four years. (And other research shows that people who are staying a lot longer than four years are probably getting themselves into trouble.) If you are changing jobs every four years, you are going to have to manage lots of close relationships with co-workers and bosses. This requires being very good at setting boundaries, which, in turn, requires good self-knowledge. I have a bookshelf full of boundary-building books right now, and Im blown away by how relevant they are to careers. (Examples: I Hate You Dont Leave Me and Stop Walking on Eggshells). Most of our career problems have, on some level, a boundary component. For example, many people in their 20s know what theyd like to do but they cannot separate the dreams of their parents from their own, and so they make bad choices for themselves that they spend a decade undoing. In other cases, career choices are clear and good, but a spouse has dreams that are incompatible with this choice. For example, the spouse wants a income, or more attentive child care, or a relocation that is not possible. In this case there would need to be a family talk about boundaries and how one persons dreams cannot depend on impossible career feats by the other person. The better we are at managing boundaries in our personal relationships, the better well be at managing our career decisions. And as careers become more dynamic, this equation becomes more true. 3. Get tons of coaching. I have always been a huge fan of coaching. Its not only that I have hired people for help with what to wear. In fact, I think one of my biggest strengths is to get coaching from a wide range of people. As a result of realizing this personal strength, last year I started doing a lot more coaching for other people, and I started reading more about coaching as well. For example, all high performers get a lot of coaching. And the need for coaching does not wane as you get better and better at your job. So many people told me that the coaching session I did with them changed their life that I decided I wanted to get that. I wanted a coaching session that changed my life. So I asked Christine Carter to do a coaching session with me. She wrote the book Raising Happiness: 10 Simple Steps for More Joyful Kids and Happier Parents. She coaches families on how to create systems that promote family happiness. She helps them restructure schedules and priorities, which are exactly the things Ive been having trouble with since I moved to the farm and started homeschooling. We dealt with fundamental decisions like when I will do my work each day and how the family can be more predictable. And you know what? She changed my life. Because she took questions that are difficult and complicated for me and she was able to find good answers quickly. Which, by the way, is exactly what I am able to do when I coach people about career decisions. A coach works on the same problem with hundreds of people, so the coach is great at seeing how to solve that one problem for you. For anything. Ive written about coaching for mental imaging, coaching for more optimism, coaching for gait. Each of those coaches have blown me away by teaching me something totally new about myself and helping me solve problems related to that area. So I cant stress enough how much I recommend that you get coaching this year. You cannot rely on your company to teach you what you need to know to manage your career. Because first of all, no one knows that answer except you. But also, a company cannot make that kind of investment in employees when the average tenure is four years. And one more thing about coaching: Its very hard to know what question to ask. Which may make you think that this is a reason to not get coaching. But in fact, learning to ask good questions is something you can get coached for as well.

Friday, May 22, 2020

You are the sum of the people you play with

You are the sum of the people you play with Who you hang out with has so much to do with the quality of your life. I think about this all the time, so I was happy to see that the neurobiologists finally came up with some evidence that if you hang out with positive people, your brain actually starts thinking more positively (subscription soon). I also think that friends who do cool things make your own life more exciting. My friend, Dennis, at Techdirt, sent the press releases to me about his companys new product, and he was so excited that it made me excited, too. There is no neurobiology to support this yet but I am convinced that people who love their jobs give us more energy for our own. When I played professional beach volleyball, everyone was always angling to be the worst on the court during practice, because thats the fastest way to get better. This was no small feat when youre at the top of a sport. But the day I had a match against Olympic gold medallists, I learned more about myself and my game than from 20 matches with people at my level. A blogroll, to me, is a metaphor for all of these issues. If you are the sum of who you play with, then I want to choose my list of blog playmates carefully. When it comes to blogrolls, some people have very thorough lists of everyone in their field. My list which Ive titled, What Im Reading is the blogs that make me excited and get my brain moving in new directions. The list changes all the time. A lot of the blogs arent career blogs. After all, I dream up ideas about careers all day. But you could say that your career is closely related to the people you play with, and in that sense, these are all people who have helped my career most recently. (Hat tip: Willy in Wisconsin)

Monday, May 18, 2020

11 Ways to Deal with a Difficult Boss

11 Ways to Deal with a Difficult Boss I love my job, I enjoy working with my colleagues, and I love everything about my work but theres one thing thats giving me a terrible headache almost everyday dealing with my difficult boss. I believe I am not the only person who experiences this   most working professionals have encountered the same and you will surely come across a boss like Miranda Priestly (from The Devil Wears Prada) once or twice in your entire life. Thats already too much to bare! But no matter how hard it is to handle a boss who has an unpleasant manner and is uneasy to approach, you must not give up or think of leaping out quickly and hoping to find a nicer one. Instead, I urge you to stay in your workplace, develop your managing-up skills, and try to face the problem with all your might. How should you be able to tolerate your bosss bad behaviour, I hear you ask? The solution is here: 1) Practice professionalism in your workplace: Everything that happened in the four corners of the office should be taken professionally and not personally. If your boss say something that hurts or upsets you, dont fight back. You have to respect your boss no-matter-what. Dont let it affect your work and productivity. But if the matter becomes too serious, dont hesitate to ask help from  people who are in the right position to do something about it. Even though bad things kept happening between the two of you, do not ever forget to still honor your superior! 2) Focus on your priorities but keep in mind your boss professional goals: What are your priorities? Is it to succeed in your work or to have an inner conflict with your boss? If your focus is to become successful in your career then you must work diligently and keep on producing best results. Some bosses became bad to their employees when the work is not done properly. So as an employee, you have to do your job and must do it well because your boss priorities is also your priority. Dont give your boss any reason to hate you but instead give him all the reasons why hiring you was a good decision! 3) Treat the situation as an incredible learning experience: You might be suffering a lot now because of your relationship with your boss but youll definitely learn something from it. Meeting a difficult boss is not bad after all because youre gaining knowledge and experience that you can use in your future endeavors. When you have successfully learned how to deal with such people, encountering more of them in the future wont give you a headache anymore. 4) If you have any concerns, communicate it with your boss: Communication is the key to avoid all kinds of misunderstanding and it is needed in the workplace to have a better career. Do not hesitate to approach your boss if there are things that are unclear to you. Be honest and always be polite to him. Keep your boss updated and always provide accurate information in your regular progress report. Aside from being open to your ideas and thoughts, rememeber to become an active listener too. Learn to listen and understand every word that your boss says. 5) Martyrdom is not a way to career advancement: Dont always take the blame if you know it is not your fault. Do not get too much work if you think you cannot handle it all. Being a martyr is a choice and if you want to play that role in your work then youre only being harsh to yourself. It will not help you in advancing your career. 6) Stay fascinated and not frustrated: In this bad situation, some people just slack off or lose interest in performing well because they hate working with their difficult manager or supervisor. Dont be like them, instead show your boss how better you are by performing well in your assigned job. Be fascinated with your work. Stay upbeat and get engaged with your boss professionally. Keeping a good and positive attitude will not only make you feel better but it also drives you to be the best that you can be. 7) Be careful with every word you say and every action you do: Talking less and listening more is the best thing you can do to have a good working relationship with your employer. Do not let yourself become too angry and do not be offended easily. Keep calm and do your best in your work. This is a professional trait that sometimes is undervalued but can have a real payoff in your career. 8) Be a problem-solver not a problem-maker: When problem occurs, do not just rely to your boss. You are in a team so you must help him in fixing things that gone wrong. Try to avoid complaining and just find ways on how you can contribute to the solution of the problem. 9) Make the most of what you have: You have a job, you get paid properly, and you have a good relationship with your co-workers here are just some of the things that you should be grateful of. Even though your boss is such a pain, you dont have to stress yourself out just thinking about him. You can still make the most of what you have in the company youre working for by focusing on the good things thats happening to you. 10) Avoid the art of backstabbing: Backstabbing and gossiping is an unprofessional act. This should not be practiced in the workplace because this only destroys the relationship of people in the team or department. Nobody is perfect and so is your boss. Avoid spreading bad things about him. Whatever happens between you at work or no matter how bad his attitude towards you is, you should not gossip about him to other people. 11) Last resort: Move on and find another your job! If work just becomes too unbearable because of your horrible boss, you may need to consider quitting to save yourself and your health. Too much stress level is not good to you and it also affects your self-esteem so if you still have a little respect to yourself, move out and look for another job that will give you some peace of mind. Author: Amber Stanley is a writer at edugeeksclub.com. She is a blogger, booklover, and traveler. She loves to write about education, social media, blogging, and careers. Add her on  Google+.

Friday, May 15, 2020

One of My Favorite Blogging Strategies - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

One of My Favorite Blogging Strategies I love blogging â€" running with the germ of an idea, the writing itself, the research (when necessary), recalling older posts to refer to, even the actual mechanics of loading on the content, finding a graphic and hitting the publish button. Theres more geek in me than I ever realized until I started blogging and learning about SEO. Although my ongoing blogging strategy is to focus content on my 14 blog categories (listed in the sidebar directly to your right here), I still run out of ideas that make me want to actually sit down and write. One thing that keeps blogging interesting is getting pumped by something I read  and building my own blog post around it. The inspiration can come from a news or business site, a magazine article, a book I’m reading, or many other things. Sometimes content I read on other sites prompts a nifty blog post title first, then the content all falls into place. But maybe my favorite inspirations are other bloggers’ posts, or other bloggers themselves. I like to showcase or link to their work, and I do it often. Over the past year, I designated separate posts to some of my favorite job search bloggers. You can see the list in my post about blogger Jason Alba of Jibber Jobber. Jason returned the favor with a post on his blog showcasing me, Has the Job Search Changed? Heres why I love this strategy so much: Of the millions of people actively blogging out there, there are so many people doing such a good job of posting content that is meaningful and worth reading. I typically only zero in on people writing about job search, personal branding and related topics, but I wander away from that, too. In business networking, reciprocity is critical. If you want people to support you and evangelize your brand, you first (usually) have to get on their radar, support them and evangelize their brand. Writing about another blogger or their writing builds community and encourages mutual brand evangelism. The beauty part about writing a blog post that mentions and links to another bloggers site or their content elsewhere is the satisfaction I derive from doing something nice for someone I admire and respect. It makes me happy. It makes them VERY happy to be singled out and spotlighted in this way. Many colleagues in the careers and other industries have been kind enough to mention me in their blog posts. I can tell you that it not only made my day It made my week. The goodwill you create with this simple strategy goes a long, long way. And, when I get writer’s block, this is a relatively easy kind of post to write. If youre on Twitter (and you really have to be if youre blogging), dont forget to send an @mention or direct message to that person to let them know you’ve written about them. Theyll be happy to support you with a retweet. Who knows? Your post could go viral and generate lots of traffic to your site. Make someones day, or even week. Give this strategy a try. Related posts: You’re a C-level Executive Job Seeker and You’re NOT Blogging? C-level Job Search: Blogging? What Am I Going To Write About? Blogging and Twitter: How Tweet It Is! photo by Sean MacEntee 00 0

Monday, May 11, 2020

Barb Poole Hire Imaging, LLC Nominated for 2 TORI Awards - Hire Imaging

Barb Poole Hire Imaging, LLC Nominated for 2 TORI Awards - Hire Imaging Each year, Career Directors International hosts the resume writing industrys most prestigious Toast of the Resume Industry (TORI) resume writing competition. Hire Imaging, LLC is pleased to announce nominations in 2 categories: Best Executive Résumé Best New Graduate Résumé The winners will be announced in October at CDIs annual conference in Orlando.

Friday, May 8, 2020

Top Thing Most People Forget To Include In Their Résumé - Pathfinder Careers

Top Thing Most People Forget To Include In Their Résumé - Pathfinder Careers Top Thing Most People Forget To Include In Their Résumé Every day as a résumé writer,  I work with clients and gather background materials for their projects.     People fill out a worksheet plus send me their most recent version of their résumé with an updated work history. And you know what? Ive noticed a rather startling trend. There are a whole lot of people missing the boat on one particular item that they either forget to include or stick down at the very bottom of the document almost as an after thought. Can you guess what it is? Give up? Its the notable achievements section.   Yes. Really. Im talking about the things that set you apart from your peers and please note: if you dont have any, dont sweat it. But for the folks that do, this section somehow becomes an awkward part of the résumé  that they dont quite know what to do with it. Sometimes it is left out entirely. Othertimes, it is placed at the very end of the document. Now why would you want to do that? Notable achievements (aka how you have distinguished yourself in your industry and career, as well among your peers) are the CREAM THAT RISES TO THE TOP. Im not talking about financial incentives here (i.e.: you won a bonus or financial award).   The stuff I am talking about are awards (from peers, colleagues, supervisors, and industry), speaking engagements, patents, authoring articles, being quoted or featured in the media, and any other way you have established your industry subject matter expertise. Over and over again, we are told that employers (that is, once you get a real live human being reading your résumé) give you between 6-8 seconds and the first 1/3 of your document can either make or break your candidacy. Pulling your notable achievements into that first 1/3 of your résumé is going to be critical to getting you noticed youll want to place this section after your job title headline, summary, and skills list, and before your actual work history. The idea is that your résumé is telling a story:   The job title headline connects you to the target position for which you are applying, then you tell the employer why hire you, provide the skill sets that are relevant to that position, and then you need to tell the employer what makes you special. Thats it, really notable achievements help make you stand out. Dont be shy. Dont be bashful.   This is where you take ownership of your accomplishments and let the employer know how you have distinguished yourself. Its not boasting. Quite honestly if you dont tell them, they simply wont know. So take a moment, look over your résumé, and see where you may have placed your top industry and career achievements.   If they arent there, include them. And if they are, but listed at the bottom of your document, pull them up closer to the top. Youll stand out more because of it, and it COULD make the difference on whether you are invited in for an interview.