You Just Got Laid Off. When Do You Get Your Resume Together

You Just Got Laid Off. When Do You Get Your Resume Together My first week, after I lost my job, was a week of looking for my resume. After not finding it, I spent time trying to recreate it. Looking back on it now I see that week as a colossal waste of time. I recently heard of a job seeker who did the same thing I did spent the first week looking for his old resume, then recreating what he remembered to be the most amazing document. Knowing what I know now, heres how I would spend the first week (its a GIVEN that Id use JibberJobber to organize all this stuff :p): Listing my Target Companies, Looking for people on LinkedIn that work at (or have worked at) those Target Companies. Making contact with those people, as well as others in my industry and town/city, and asking for informational interviews. I would do this the very first day.  I might not get any informational interviews for a week or two or three, but I need to get that pipeline filled up. Id also learn everything I could about informational interviews.  Im guessing 98% of job seekers do them wrong. In my spare time, and only after Ive reached out to contacts for informational interviews (which I should do every day), I would work on my LinkedIn Profile, and start the resume creation process (it would be worth  the few hundred dollars to have a professional write my resume.  I learned that the wrong way). I had to get my resume done so I could apply to job openings I found on job boards. right?  Thats what I thought.  I went about it all wrong. Please dont waste the first week of your job search like I did. You Just Got Laid Off. When Do You Get Your Resume Together My first week, after I lost my job, was a week of looking for my resume. After not finding it, I spent time trying to recreate it. Looking back on it now I see that week as a colossal waste of time. I recently heard of a job seeker who did the same thing I did spent the first week looking for his old resume, then recreating what he remembered to be the most amazing document. Knowing what I know now, heres how I would spend the first week (its a GIVEN that Id use JibberJobber to organize all this stuff :p): Listing my Target Companies, Looking for people on LinkedIn that work at (or have worked at) those Target Companies. Making contact with those people, as well as others in my industry and town/city, and asking for informational interviews. I would do this the very first day.  I might not get any informational interviews for a week or two or three, but I need to get that pipeline filled up. Id also learn everything I could about informational interviews.  Im guessing 98% of job seekers do them wrong. In my spare time, and only after Ive reached out to contacts for informational interviews (which I should do every day), I would work on my LinkedIn Profile, and start the resume creation process (it would be worth  the few hundred dollars to have a professional write my resume.  I learned that the wrong way). I had to get my resume done so I could apply to job openings I found on job boards. right?  Thats what I thought.  I went about it all wrong. Please dont waste the first week of your job search like I did.

How to Change Career - The Best Way to Write a Great Resume

How to Change Career - The Best Way to Write a Great ResumeAre you trying to figure out how to change career? You are not alone. Many people are searching for the best way to make this career change and do it the right way. They want to know how to write a great resume and how to make sure that they fill out the information on the resume correctly.We are all guilty of wanting to change careers. It could be because you have found a better job or because you are having an emotional change in your career. No matter what the reason is, when you start your search you will find that many companies are not expecting you to change careers and there are a lot of myths surrounding this subject.The best way to change careers is to get a job interview. This is the best way to find out what the company thinks about your abilities and work history. You can also request an interview by using online resources. Find as many different companies as possible to send an e-mail to and ask if they have any openings in their office. If they do, then you can write down their contact information.When you have written down a list of companies that want to hire you, it is time to search for jobs that fit your skills and career goals. These careers may be online jobs or require physical work skills. You may even find that there are jobs that do not require much effort to do. Find jobs that will fit your needs and see what type of resume to write that will have you hired.Next, you need to look at how you can use your resume to make a difference. Take some time to consider which parts of your resume would show the most potential. Your resume may have your current work history but if it doesn't include hobbies or interests you may not have. It may also be your previous education that people will be looking at. Make sure that the most important parts of your resume to reflect your strengths and abilities.For example, if you have gotten a great grade in school and your education is impressive, you can use your accomplishments to your advantage by including them on your resume. There are also times when you may need to sell yourself to a company so that you can be hired. Here you can tell them why you have this skill and how you plan to use it. You can also use these accomplishments to help convince them that they need you.Always remember that every prospective employer wants to find something about you that is unique. They want to be able to find out who you are and what you have been doing since you graduated. They don't want to hire someone who has the same resume as everyone else. However, you need to be able to change the perspective of the reader by focusing on your strong points.It can be frustrating to make a great resume only to have it not get you the job. So, what is the best way to make your resume stand out from the rest? If you want to know how to change career fast and make sure that you get the job, you need to be aware of all of the resources that are avai lable to you.

4 Tips to Avoiding Unconscious Bias in the Hiring Process

4 Tips to Avoiding Unconscious Bias in the Hiring Process Have you ever met someone and thought, “there’s just something I don’t like about him,” even though you had no good reason to make such a judgement? We have all been there and many of us discovered that guy turned out to be a great person. The point is bias inevitably influences our judgement whether we like it or not, sometimes without us even realizing it. It’s something that takes a concerted effort to control and, in necessary cases, it must be avoided. This is especially important for hiring teams to grasp, which is why it is becoming more and more popular for companies to dedicate resources to overcoming bias during the hiring process. Though it’s their job to “judge” candidates, it’s their responsibility to do so on the basis of careful thought and evidence. Tip 1: Recognize your bias If hiring managers want to hire the best candidates, they first should be aware of the types of biases they may unconsciously be inflicting. These are some of the most common: Confirmation Bias looking for ways to make an initial judgement come true Effective Heuristic judgement based on superficial factors like a person’s weight Expectation Anchor adjusting expectations based off of an initial (and favored) candidate (the anchor) Gender Bias   judging a person’s capabilities on their gender Intuition gut” feeling Companies have even resorted to omitting names on resumes and applications to avoid any bias attached to a person’s name, gender, or other identifying factors in the earliest recruiting stages. Before a hiring manager meets a candidate, they should be aware of these biases so they can work to keep an objective mindset during the interview. Tip 2: Sleep on it You only get once chance to make a first impression. Yes, that’s the pesky and redundant phrase we’ve all heard throughout our entire lives that people place so much emphasis on, but is it THAT important? In a sales position or client relations it would be relevant. What’s more important, however,is the ability to make an educated decision based on facts, especially in a situation where a worthy candidate may have had a less-than-perfect introduction. Hiring managers should make a conscious effort to wait until the end of the interview to assess first impressions. Taking 30 minutes to sit, mull over the facts, and put careful thought into the final hiring decision can help avoid any first impression bias. Tip 3: Strength in numbers If a department has had problems with hiring decisions in the past, it could benefit them to have multiple people assigned to interview a candidate. It’s helpful to get other opinions, but hiring teams should collaborate only after they have taken the time to form their own opinion based off of the facts. The point is to add information to the discussion so it’s important not to allow other opinions influence what someone has already made up their mind about. After healthy discussion, the team should vote on which candidate they feel best fits the job. Tip 4: Standardize the process It’s difficult to get meaningful results if the process is constantly changing. Hiring managers can avoid bias by creating a standardized rubric that is used during each interview.They can customize the rubric to assess a combination of attributes (skills, experience, teamwork, cultural fit) that help determine whether a candidate is the appropriate fit for the company. If you’re having trouble finding a good fit for your company, examine the interview process and investigate to see if there is any bias affecting decision-making. Chances are, managers aren’t even aware that it’s happening and good candidates aren’t making the cut because of it.

Beginners Guide To Online Advertising On A Budget

Beginners Guide To Online Advertising On A Budget It is important for your businesses to advertise its products or services. Advertising fuels your company’s growth and strengthens the brand. Nevertheless, some advertising methods such as banner and print ads can be expensive. Besides, even if yours is not a small business, you want to spend your cash on advertising that will give optimum results without hurting your budget. Here are some of the ways you can exploit the potential of online advertising on a budget. Beginners Guide To Online Advertising On A Budget 1. Handle First Things First Any business that is serious about tapping into the online customer base should have a website or at least a landing page. Many people are flocking the internet to find solutions to their needs. It would help if your business is one of the possible ideas they find when they search for a service or product that matches their needs. With your website, you get to showcase what your business offers, your mission, values, and don’t forget to add some testimonials. Such information helps potential clients to connect and identify with you. This could influence their buying decision. Designing a basic website doesn’t have to cost you an arm and leg. In fact, various resources such as Shopify, WordPress, and GoDaddy give all you need to set up a basic website on your own for your business. Visit such resources to see what you can achieve before you decide to invest in a professional designer. 2. List Your Business on Search Engines Services as Yahoo Local, Bing Local, and Google Places are free. If you sign up, you can increase your chances of people within your area finding you. Do not limit your registration to only a few listings. The more search engines your business appears in the higher the number of clients you are likely to attract. Also, join local forums or social networking groups that are relevant to your business. For instance, some Facebook groups help members find services and products within an area. In those groups, members recommend businesses they have dealt with for others to consider when in need of a related service or product. There are also location-depended forums any business should consider. An example is the Quentin’s Friends, a platform designed to help members find services, jobs, and apartments. [RELATED: How to Create a Marketing Plan in 4 Easy Steps] 3. Create and Share Quality Content In internet marketing, attractive content is what is going to draw the attention of possible visitors and keep them glued to your website. This makes it necessary to identify a subject matter, preferably, related to your business and blog about it. Create quality content that your audience will find useful. When you create your content you can do two things: post it on your blog or send it to other topic-related bloggers to publish it on their blog as a  guest post. In either case, you should promote it as much possible and the best way to do that you can share it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google +, Quora, LinkedIn and other social networks. Whatever distribution channel you choose, make sure you include links that direct readers to your site. Since many social media platforms are free, open accounts for your business in most of them. This is because the kind of followers you gather in Facebook could be different from those in YouTube, LinkedIn or Instagram. You can monitor your performance on each channel for some time and figure out which ones you want to concentrate your online marketing efforts on. 4. Create Viral Infographics Consider including quality infographics that carry interesting information in your content plan. Most of the information you present in texts, like articles, can be turned into beautifully designed visuals. Did you know visuals stick longer in the mind than texts? The best part is that you do not need to be a professional designer to create amazing infographics. With online resources such as Canva, Visually, Infogram, and Piktochart, among others, you may never hire a professional designer. All you need is your content, and the platforms provide you with a template equipped with charts, maps, icons and videos, among other functions you can use to create an appealing infographic. As you share these on various social media platforms, link them to your site. Any irresistible post will be sure to generate huge traffic to your website. The catch is in keeping it simple and interesting, yet useful to your audience. Conclusion There are plenty of ways you can use to promote your business online for free. If your efforts on social media, social bookmarking, blog commenting, and guest posts are done properly and consistently, you will build traffic to your website. Then, you can nurture such visitors into buyers.

Top 10 Resume Writing Services in India

Top 10 Resume Writing Services in IndiaHave you decided to hire the top 10 resume writing services in India to write your resume? Some people find it difficult to decide on what type of resume to put up for their future job search. There are numerous resume writing services available in India, but in order to find the one that can provide you with the best and most professional resume possible, it is important to know the services available in India. Resume writers for hire in India may come from a variety of backgrounds and careers, such as software engineers, journalists, doctors, accountants, MBA students, and many more.While choosing which services to employ, it is important to remember that not all of them will be able to offer you the same quality of service, and not all of them will have the same types of services available. While doing so, there are some important things to consider before settling on any particular service. The top 10 resume writing services in India should have a good reputation and have a good track record.It is essential to find the right people to work with and in order to do so, the best means to do so is to hire someone with a good reputation. If you choose to hire a freelancer or someone who specializes in writing resumes, make sure to ask for references and contact all of them. Make sure to provide them with the necessary contact information to allow them to communicate with the resume writer. While hiring a resume writer, make sure that they have enough experience to write for individuals of all different educational levels and experience levels. It is also very important to make sure that they are licensed to do this type of work in India.Once you have chosen the service that you wish to hire, ensure that you are provided with a sample resume, if possible. This will help to give you an idea of what the resume is going to look like, and whether or not it is going to meet your needs. You should not have to pay a fee to get a sa mple; rather, you should be able to get a free copy from the service before making the final decision to hire them.Before you sign up with a service, ensure that you are aware of the rates of the service. Usually, the rates for a top 10 resume writing service in India will depend on the length of the resume, and the number of pages you want to have on the resume. You can also get a discount if you hire them for several different jobs within a month's time.Before hiring any of these services, make sure that you check out their website to make sure that they have the right tools available for you to use. For example, you may wish to request samples of portfolios for them to use, and ask for multiple sample resumes. Many companies also have digital editing capabilities that you can use to correct mistakes on your resume before sending it out.There are many benefits of hiring resume services. If you cannot afford to hire a full-time resume writer, then it is important to ensure that you do not spend money on a resume that you cannot use. There are many resume services that charge very little money for hiring a writer, which is ideal for those who are struggling to get by and are looking for a good way to make some extra money.Resume writing services are invaluable when used correctly. In order to get the most out of using them, it is important to hire the top 10 resume writing services in India.

5 Forces Driving Our Organizations Forward

5 Forces Driving Our Organizations Forward In the simplest terms, management history can be seen as a journey from engineering to marketing.Initially, management only cared about the engineering aspects of work. Planning, designing, measuring, and timing. The human being was seen in these terms. You were either Emotion had nothing to do with it. A century later and it’s everywhere. We are supposed to passionately believe in the company and its products. Employ emotional intelligence as a core part of our personal success strategy. Appeal to the emotions of employers by branding ourselves. And give them our emotional self in return.Yes. It’s Marketing 101. Appeal to a person’s emotions. Get them to internalize the values surrounding your brand. And you have them for life.What does this mean for you and your personal brand?1. Culture FitevalCulture became the thing in the 1980s. It’s “the way we do things around here.” Nowadays, it is almost impossible to find an organization that doesn’t sell its culture as being somehow special. And vital for the organization’s success. You need to fit in. So, do your research on how an organization wants you to behave. Does it fit with how you see yourself? Can you adjust to its expectations? Or is it completely wrong for you?2. Personal EngagementResearch suggests that it is vital for your ongoing wellbeing to be doing jobs that you can emotionally engage with. You have a “preferred self”, the version of you that you most want to be or become. If you can’t be that self at work, it will be stressful and psychologically harmful. Can you bring such a self to the organization? If not, work out how to brand your working self so it matches your preferred self and look for a job that enables it.3. Emotional IntelligenceThis is the degree to which you understand your own emotional reactions to things. The goal is to learn to manage your emotions so you can respond appropriately to the events that trigger them. The problem is that in emotionally charged e nvironments, it becomes psychologically tiring to continuously deliberately manage them. You burn out or snap. If you continually require cognitive effort to control your emotions in your job, it might not be the best fit for you.4. Purpose and PassionIn 2010, Simon Sinek wowed TEDx with a talk on selling the why of an organization. Using Apple as an example, he illustrated how people bought more stuff when they could identify with the purpose of the company’s existence. However, working towards a purpose can be difficult to achieve in large, complex organizations, when it is unclear how your job impacts the whole.evalAre you working for an organization because you have passion for its purpose? Or are you looking for a specific role that provides purpose and meaning for you?Very different things and you should brand yourself around the one that interests you.5. TrustevalIn the old days, you did what a manager told you to do because management was an “engineered science”. Theor etically anyway. Nowadays, with emotions, purpose and culture involved, we need to trust that our manager has our best interests at heart. And that is not easy. We often hear that people leave their managers, not the company. It is becoming increasingly important to show that you can engender trust. So find ways to do so.So, there you have it. Five forces driving our organizations forward. Hopefully, this brief blog has helped you better understand them. And given you a few ideas on how to position yourself in a market that takes them very seriously.

Monday tip Take five - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Monday tip Take five - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Work has become quite hectic for most of us. Emails, phone calls, meetings, deadlines, questions, customers all vie for our attention. If we want time for reflection and calm at work we have to create it for ourselves. Thats the point of this Monday Tip. Your mission: Take five. At some point during the day, take five uninterrupted, quiet minutes to relax. Heres how it works: 1: Find a place where you wont be interrupted No phones, no computers, no co-workers dropping by with a quick question. Some companies are creating quiet rooms for just this purpose, but in a pinch the bathroom works just fine. 2: Close your eyes Just sit there for 30 seconds or so and relax. 3: Focus on your breathing You dont have to breathe in any specific way, just notice your breathing. Is it fast or slow? Is it deep or shallow? The way you breathe says a lot about your mental state. When youre angry, stressed or afraid you breathing is typically fast and shallow. When youre happy, relaxed and calm your breathing is typically deep and slow. Do this for about a minute. 4: Make you breath deep and slow Just sit there with closed eyes and take deep slow breaths. Do this for two minutes. Your mental state affects your breath, and the link also goes the other way. Deep, slow breaths work to relax you. 5: Focus on yourself Ask yourself these three questions How is my body feeling? Is there any pain? Any tense muscles? Any good feelings? How am I feeling? Am I happy, angry, calm, sad, excited? All of the above? What am I thinking? What oocupies your thoughts? You dont need to do anything about any of this, just sit there for a minute and ask yourself these questions. Keep your breathing deep and slow. 6: Breathe some more Take another minute to just sit there with your eyes closed and breathe slowly and deeply. Then slowly open your eyes and go back to work. This simple exercise only takes five minutes out of an entire work day, but it: Reduces stress Makes you more creative Gives you more energy And most importantly, it works as an Early Warning System against many problems at work. When work gets to hectic and too busy, its easy to miss the early signs that things are not going well. Things like tense shoulders and neck, headaches, anger, disappointment, restlessness or itching can all be early symptoms of stress. This exercise will help you actually notice the symptoms before they become more serious and turn into migraines, depression, conflict or worse. Also check out this previous post: Dont fight stress, promote peace. The Chief Happiness Officers monday tips are simple, easy, fun things you can do to make yourself and others happy at work and get the work-week off to a great start. Something everyone can do in five minutes, tops. When you try it, write a comment here to tell me how it went. Previous monday tips. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Rousing Review SXSWi (the is for interactive!)

Rousing Review SXSWi (the is for interactive!) Oh youse guys, SXSW was super dreamy last week, and it was such a mistake to arrive on Sunday when Friday was the first day! But thats OK I absolutely made the most of my time there, especially since I had a 7:30a flight the same night we moved our clocks forward, and didnt stay out past 11p some nights! Im such an old lady. So starting at the beginning, I landed on time on Sunday, and had a familiar face waiting for me at the airport! Although Caitlin and I have known each other for about 2 years thanks to Blogging Your Way as well as working together in group sessions last year (she applied for my scholarship, and you can too!) that was the first time we met in person! In typical Austin style, we went to a super authentic Mexican restaurant where I had the Austin specialty, queso. I also learned that chile con queso does not mean chili with cheese its just liquified cheese with some veggies and sometimes meat in it. We both got a laugh that it was part of a light lunch along with a taco and guacamole salad, but it didnt stop up from ordering it! It was then off to the Life After College and The Personal MBA book launch party, where I kvelled over one Jenny Blake and, to my surprise, she kvelled right back! Mutual fans and fast friends, we made time for a mid-day drink at my new fave place, Frank (come to Brooklyn, Frank!), pre-presentation on Tuesday. Its a tough life. from l-r: Jenny, me, and Caitlin. Im not usually this shrimpy, but I was wearing flats! Caitlin then dropped me off at my hotel so I could check-in and drop my stuff off. I did a quick freshen-up and headed over to The Awesomest Journalism Party. Ever., where I knew nobody but didnt care I got to listen to Quiet Company, who had me dancin with myself. Seriously, take a 5 minutes dance break right now and play this song. Such funness! Quiet Company at The Awesomest Journalism Party Ever, taken with my Instagram, which automatically makes me a good photographer. Then it was off to meet my PR Rep Extraordinairre, Shennandoah Diaz of Brass Knuckles Media. We headed to another book launch party and Shennandoah let me tag along by her side, introducing me to everyone she knew and those she didnt! I mean, I thought I was outgoing, but Shennandoah put me to shame! Love her and the obvious passion she has for her company, her clients, and her contacts. When that was wrapping up, we headed over to Etsy in Austin just in time for the Fashion Show, which was amazeballs. Such talent, and so varied, too! Everyone was such a rock star. And even though I was crashing and quick, I got my second wind when The iPad DJ took the stage. I took over the dance floor with some of the Etsyans and a dude who would not stop cartwheeling. After that, it was so time to crash. Monday went by fast and furious, but some highlights were: the discussions  Stop Working Nights/Weekends and Get a Life (I tweeted my take-aways fast furious, which you can see here) and Career Transparency: Why Personal Branding is Bullshit (you can find the twitter feed for that one here) my first vegan and macrobiotic lunch (together or separate!), thank to my lovely client Joanna. It was such a nice break from all the queso! the Connection Revolution meet-up,which lived up to its name! I got to finally meet ones Pace and Kyeli, Skaja, Ali Luke, Kelly Kingman, and other amazeballs revolutioners. Cant wait to meet up with most of em at the World Domination Summit in June! Dinner with Shennandoah (she could not get rid of me!), my former clients Lisa and Bryce (who was also my co-presenter!), and some lovely #UsGuys peeps who I was introduced to (even though I still dont really know what #UsGuys is)! Of course, Bryce, Lisa, Shennandoah and I went for a drink post-dinner at Frank (yes, no apostrosphe s I got corrected by the bartender!) because we heard wait for it there was a bacon-vodka bloody mary. Oh Frank, please come to Brooklyn. The hipsters would eat you up. Literally. from l-r: Pace, me, Bryce and Kyeli at the Connection Revolution meet-up And Tuesday? Well, Tuesday was all about our presentation, DIY Online Workshops: Best Practices and Worst Mistakes. It was tough waiting the whole day for our time slot (it was in the last group of sessions before the end of the Interactive part of SXSW) Id always rather go first than last! but it was worth it. We took the morning to practice in front of our audience of one, the lovely and talented Cheryl B. Engelhardt, who gave us such great feedback and put our nerves at ease. And when we got to the green room an hour before showtime, we couldnt help but nerd out over our signs! We had a great room of people who took notes fast and furious, and gave us such positive feedback post-session. We put together some take-aways for them in terms of a Resource List and a Best Practices Punch List, and if ya head on over to our SXSW page, you can listen to the audio of the session right there! Im kinda wishin I indulged my desire to talk about Schweddy Balls into the mic. It was so tempting! And how much fun was it to spend the night celebrating with my other presenters (whose sessions ran at the same time as mine blurg!), Amanda, Jordan and Christa, jammed into a booth at Moonshine and drivin the waitress bonkers? Also, Im so glad I tagged along with em to the Nerdin Out comedy show, as Eugene Mirman always makes me wet my pants and Aziz Ansari showed up all surprise-like. He didnt talk about Harris as much as I wanted, but it was still amazeballs. And Wednesday? Well, getting to the airport was, oh, the biggest nightmare ever thanks to the devil known as Super Shuttle (never before, never again), but Id hate to tell you more and leave this on such a down note. All I can say is that I abso-freakin-lutely cant wait for SXSWi 2012. Ill be there with bacon-infused queso bells on.