employer

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Your Job Guide in 3 Easy Parts

By Inghy Banedr

job, jobs, career

Whenever you are looking for a job, there are a few steps you need to follow, as you may not get another chance of being hired. You must not lose the golden opportunity because of any mistake committed. Below are some of the main concerns which you should keep in mind in this job guide.

Apply for the job you are interested in

This is one of the best ways to target your job. When you see an advertisement or online recruitment page about a jobs opening which you are interested in, you must start preparing for it. Go through the requirements and minimum qualifications required. If you are eligible for it, you must study the subjects which are relevant to the job. This is because of the fact that you may be asked questions from those areas and need to take written tests on the spot. If you are well-prepared though, you will not miss any chance.

It has been observed that a lot of people lose their chances because they reach the screening venue without preparation and get written off from the next round of screening. Just remember to do your homework and you will thank this job guide when you end up as the successful candidate in your job application.

Get a well organized resume

This is the first point of contact between you and your employer. This is the main reason why you must get a really well-designed resume containing true and genuine information. To achieve this, you should consider seeking help from a professional who has the experience and knowledge on how to write an impressive resume. This is the crucial portion of the job guide: you must write your qualifications, career experiences and skills in the resume, nothing but truth. If you prefer not to spend any money hiring a professional for resume writing, you can go try your luck online. Google for a bit and you will find tons of sample resumes. From the lot, you can easily find a sample resume of your areas of expertise very easily.

Prepare for Interview

The last and most important part of the job guide is preparation for interview. During the process, you will have to face your employer in person. You may feel nervous, however you must appear confident. Be attentive and listen to the questions asked by your employer very carefully. You should answer any question straight to the point and if you do not understand the question properly, you will fail to give him the correct response and may end up losing your chance of getting the job.

End of the job guide. Now start your preparation immediately!

Are you kidding me?

90% of the common and average jobseekers will never take action towards changing the way the look for jobs, despite being rejected time after time.

Your Ultimate Career Change Quick Read

By Inghy Banedr

job, jobs, career

There are a lot of people around us who are not satisfied with their careers and wish to try something different. This mainly happens due to various factors. It has been observed that people are not serious in planning out their own career paths and make wrong choices at the beginning and then realize later that they are not suitable for their current jobs. In addition, due to pressure at work, stubborn bosses and unfavorable work environments, a person may begin considering about a career change. Whatever the situation is, there are a few key points which must be kept in mind before changing your career. You must spend some time to do sufficient research to avoid failing in the new job.

Know what you want

Whenever you are going to change your career, you must know what you want. You can start by doing a self-assessment. Know your strong and weak points, your preferences, skills and expertise. The best way to do it is to record them down on a piece of paper. By doing so, you will be able to discover what you can and cannot do. You may even have to take up training courses and obtain a relevant degree before you can even make a career change.

Assess your options

After you are clear about what you want to go for, you must find out what are the options available to you. Suppose you are originally a web designer and you want to go for programming; you have to see which programming language experts are in demand. You need to undergo training to enhance your knowledge and receive certifications at the end. This is the best way to get ready for a career change, and it is always advisable to take a break for a few months and prepare yourself for the switch. You will feel refreshed and be ready to take up new challenges after a career change.

Get registered with the right kind of placement services

The best way to get the job right after you are prepared for the new career is to get registered with the placement services so that you are able to receive calls from the right recruiters. On top of that, you must be aware that you might not be able to draw the same salary as you were in your previous jobs since you will be viewed as a new hire in your new job. To make a career change, you may need to be prepared for a pay cut during the probation period.

Are you kidding me?

90% of the common and average jobseekers will never take action towards changing the way the look for jobs, despite being rejected time after time.

Tomorrow's Non-Issue - Today's Challenge

By Steve Wickham

job, jobs, career

Have you ever noticed that the thing we fear or don't have the patience for today is never generally the issue we have haranguing us tomorrow - unless we put it off until then?

All we need to do is overcome the thing that is in front of us right now and we don't have to deal with it again - for quite some time in fact.

Rather than putting something off so we can be bothered and stressed about it, we'd be best just doing it.

Take a simple thing like going to bed when we arrive at tiredness. We go and have our sleep as soon as we need it, i.e. immediately, and we don't have the tiredness to deal with beforehand. It's just a much more efficient and decisive way of living life. It's learning to respond to the body's manifest needs, as they occasion themselves on us. Why eat more when we're already full? Why put off going to the toilet when we're enduring the discomfort of a full bladder? The list goes on.

The reality is today's challenge will not always seem the same tomorrow.

Today's worry about tomorrow won't be realized as the fear manifests itself - it cannot. Fear sees things in an unreal sort of way. And, yet, if we're so determined to bring about reality regarding our fears, we may well see them come true. But who'd want that?

The key issue is this. Whatever we're bothered about now we should do something positive and proactive about; to seize it and to cease it.

Why spend out monopoly money of worry when that currency is hardly legal and never taken seriously. We cause ourselves undue concern.

Do something today about it or forget it.

Monday, November 1, 2010

11 Awesome tips to Work without Distraction

By Hilde Torbjornsen

job, jobs, career

Working from home can be a big challenge which is why I decided to share some these tips. Especially if you need to use your creativity and concentrate, it can be hard to get back into the workflow if you are constantly interrupted.

Here are 11 ways to be able to work better in an environment without too much “noise” around you.

1. Make rules

Picture by Lavinia Marin

If you work from home or as a freelancer it takes a lot of discipline to be able to work as efficient as you should. The good thing is that you can set your own work hours, but it requires a lot of discipline to work out. My hottest tip on this subject is to make yourself an hour-to-hour timetable for every day. I use the first hour of every Monday to plan the rest of the week. That way it is a lot easier to get a full overview of what needs to be done. Looking into some sort of time management application can be very beneficial as well.

2. Choose what can disturb you (and when)

Picture by Pascal Montsma

It is important to look through your routines and decide what you can allow to “disturb” you. The more unneccessary applications you have open at one time, the bigger chance it is to lose quite a lot of time to that during the day. Don’t be on Twitter, Facebook or similar services unless you have to. If you must check them during the work hours, at least make sure to do it at set time. Same with e-mails and phone calls where you can do certain adjustments too.

3. Turn off the tv and/or radio

Picture by Vince Petaccio

Unless you for some reason work better when you have the TV or radio on, you should just turn it off before you start working. It’s very easy to be distracted and during a week the this can steal a lot of valuable time away from you if you’re not careful. Some people work best with the radio on in the background, but be careful. Try radio stations that only play music, iTunes, Spotify or Antenna. Just remember that if you have anything turned on in the background, it should be something that doesn’t draw attention away from your work.

4. Answer mails and DMs to specific hours

Once you start getting a few mails directed from your website, ongoing projects and so on, you will see that it can quickly take your mind off what you were doing in the first place. If you decide to look through and answer these one or two times during the day, you will soon feel that your workflow gets a lot better real quick. Same goes for Facebook and Twitter messages, along with other kinds of social media. Decide when you can reply to these and do it that way.

5. Eat at set hours

Picture by Foxumon

Food is important to be able to work well. If you are too hungry or too full it’s harder to focus on what you are doing. The breakfast is the most important meal of the day – always take the time to eat properly in the morning. If you feel you don’t have time to eat properly before you start working, then get up 15 minutes earlier instead. Having a set time for lunch as well, is a good thing for both your body and brain. If you don’t have set hours for eating it can affect the workflow in many ways.

6. Work when you work (everything else should wait)

Keep private errands away from your work schedule. You would be surprised if you realized how quickly a little private mail, phone call or errand eats quickly of your work time. Decide that you will leave everything that is not work related until the afternoon when your day at work is over.

7. Make the best surroundings for yourself

Picture by Henk L

If you sit more or less all day in front of the computer, you have to take a look at your surroundings to make sure you get the work done the best way possible. Make sure your chair is good, that the room isn’t too hot or cold and don’t leave old coffee cups and mess all over your desktop. A little “mess” can be good for your creativity, but try to keep it at a decent level. Remember to get up off your chair for at least a few minutes every hour or so to get your blood flow going.

8. Software settings

If you write a lot, I would recommend a program like jdarkroom where the program can be used in full-screen to not let you be disturbed by other programs or system messages that may pop up. Set as many programs as possible to work in full-screen as it can really boost your workflow. If you have set your system to do timed defragging or backups/virus-scans, try to have these run either in the background (if they can) or set them to run when you are not working.

9. Upload and tag in bulks

If your work requires uploading files/art to various websites, I suggest that you do this in bigger amounts at a time. The same goes for tagging files you import from your camera or elsewhere. By doing things in bulks you get way more efficient. Instead of getting your workflow disturbed by uploading or tagging one thing at the time you will get more done in less time, and keep those tasks from interrupting other parts of your work.

10. Say STOP

Picture by Leslie Watts

When working from a home office it’s important to have the ones you live with understanding that when you’re in there, you’re at work. If you have someone else in the house while you’re working, you may need to have a conversation to them about this. Explain that you need to be undisturbed when you’re in there to be able to get things done. Even if they don’t understand it, at least make them respect it. Set up some rules for when you can be disturbed and not. Keep the door closed if possible.

11. Be consistent

When you’ve made your rules and changed all software and such to fit your plans, the hardest part comes. Now it’s time to actually follow through. Try to stick to your plans no matter what. Obviously there can be very rare situations that can be “excuses” to not follow your daily schedule, but these should be very rare.

Picture by Zsuzsanna Kilian

Those were my tips on how to be able to work undisturbed. Most of these things are very logical but easy to forget in the heat of the moment. I hope you found this useful to you in your situation and invite you to share your own tips and feedback in the comments.

In this article I aim to give you some tips on how to be able to work better, undisturbed by everything that is going on around you. Depending on what you work with it may some times be a big advance to be able to work without the interruption from Facebook, e-mail, texts, TV, radio or other things. Working from home can be a big challenge which is why I decided to share some these tips. Especially if you need to use your creativity and concentrate, it can be hard to get back into the workflow if you are constantly interrupted. Here are 11 ways to be able to work better in an environment without too much “noise” around you.

1. Make rules

Picture by Lavinia Marin

If you work from home and/or as a freelancer it takes a lot of discipline to be able to work as efficient as you should. The good thing is that you can set your own work hours, but it requires a lot of discipline to work out. My hottest tip on this subject is to make yourself an hour-to-hour timetable for every day. I use the first hour of every Monday to plan the rest of the week. That way it is a lot easier to get a full overview of what needs to be done. Looking into some sort of time management application can be very beneficial aswell.

2. Choose what can disturb you (and when)

3. Turn off the tv and/or radio

Picture by Vince Petaccio

4. Answer mails and DMs to specific hours

5. Eat at set hours

Picture by Foxumon

6. Work when you work (everything else should wait)

7. Make the best surroundings for yourself

Picture by Henk L

8. Software settings

9. Upload and tag in bulks

10. Say STOP

Picture by Leslie Watts

11. Be consistent

Picture by Zsuzsanna Kilian

Tips for being happy at work

by Gretchen Rubin

job, jobs, career

Sure, being happy at work depends mostly on how much you like your job. But there are also smaller steps that can boost your happiness, as well.

Your work space:

Check for eyestrain: put your hand to your forehead in a salute. If your eyes feel relieved, your space is too bright.
Get a good desk chair and take the time to adjust it properly. (A friend works at Goldman Sachs, where they have a person who specializes in this, zoikes!)
Sit up straight—every time I do, I instantly feel more energetic and cheerier.
Think about how your space could be more pleasant. Could you invest in some desk accessories to help stay organized? Could you replace a hideous lamp with something more attractive?
Get a phone headset. I resisted for a long time, because it looks so preposterous, but it’s really much more comfortable.
Don’t keep treats around. A handful of M&Ms each day will mean a weight gain five pounds by year’s end.
Periodically, take time to deep-clean the loose papers that have piled up. I never do this until I specifically schedule a time, but am always amazed at the wonderful calm it brings.

Your day:

Never say “yes” on the phone; instead, say, “I’ll get back to you.” When you’re actually speaking to someone, the desire to be accommodating is very strong, and can lead you to say “yes” without enough consideration.
Take care of difficult calls or emails as quickly as possible. Procrastinating just makes it harder; getting them done gives a big boost of relieved energy.
When accepting a responsibility, imagine that it’s something that you’ll have to do next week. That way you don’t agree to something just because it seems so far off that it doesn’t seem onerous.
Be honest about how you’re spending your time. You feel overwhelmed, but are you really working hard? How much time do you spend surfing the internet, chatting on the phone, looking for things you’ve misplaced, or doing a task that’s really someone else’s job?
Go outside at least once a day, and if possible, take a walk. The sunlight and activity is good for your focus, mood, and retention of information.
Even if you can’t go outside, take a ten-minute break each hour. Studies show that the break boosts your retention level.
Don’t let yourself get too hungry.
Let yourself stay ignorant of things you don’t need to know.
Try to make a lunch date with someone outside the office at least once a week.

Your colleagues:

Although some people believe it’s best to keep work life and personal life separate, and therefore avoid making friends with colleagues, for most people, having strong friendships makes work more fun. Science supports this: having close relationships is essential to happiness, strengthens the immune system, and reduces anxiety.
If you work alone, take time to mix with other people. Socializing boosts the moods of introverts, as well as extroverts.
Each week, walk around your company and introduce yourself to a few people you don’t know each week. You’ll feel more comfortable socially, plus knowing more people facilitates work flow.
If a colleague gets under your skin, figure out why. I used to work with a guy who enraged me at every meeting. When I started analyzing his techniques, I became fascinated with the brilliance of his subtle put-downs.
A friend took a job where she knew she’d have a difficult boss. From the beginning, she told herself, “There is only love.” She doesn’t allow herself to criticize her boss, even in her own mind, and won’t listen to anyone else’s criticism. She says it’s tough to do, but it has made her job far easier.
Say “Good morning” to everyone.
Periodically, have lunch with co-workers. This can be a time to talk about personal life, and so become better friends, or to talk about work, so that everyone has a bigger picture of what’s going on in the office—both good results.

10 Tips for Getting Your Work/Life in Balance

by Randall S. Hansen, Ph.D.

job, jobs, career

Here are 10 tips to help you achieve a better balance in your life. Take a moment to read and reflect on these tips -- and then get your life in balance!

Negotiate a Change with Your Current Employer. Progressive employers recognize the value of good employees, and many are willing to find ways to help current employees deal with short-term or permanent changes caused by family conditions. The changes can include flextime, job-sharing, telecommuting, or part-time employment. Your first step is to research your employer's policies and methods of handling previous requests. Then go to your boss armed with information and a plan that shows how you will be an even more valuable and productive employee if you can modify your current work situation.

Find a New Career. Some careers are simply more stressful and time-consuming than others. If you need more time for yourself or your family, now may be the time to explore careers that are less stressful and more flexible.

Find a New Job. Rather than a career change, perhaps you simply need to take a less stressful job within your chosen career. This change may involve working with your current employer to identify a new position, it may involve a full job-search, or it may involve temping or becoming a consultant or starting a freelancing or other home-based business.

Slow Down. Life is simply too short, so don't let things pass you in a blur. Take steps to stop and enjoy the things and people around you. Schedule more time between meetings; don't make plans for every evening or weekend, and find some ways to distance yourself from the things that are causing you the most stress.

Learn to Better Manage Your Time. Avoid Procrastination. For many people, most of the stress they feel comes from simply being disorganized -- and procrastinating. Learn to set more realistic goals and deadlines -- and then stick to them. You'll find that not only are you less stressed, but your work will be better.

Share the Load. Even though we may sometimes feel we're the only ones capable of doing something, it's usually not the case. Get your partner or other family members to help you with all your personal/family responsibilities. Taking care of the household, children, or parents should not be the responsibility of just one person.

Let Things Go. (Don't Sweat the Small Stuff.) It's simpler said than done, but learn to let things go once in a while. So what if the dishes don't washed everyday or that the house doesn't get vacuumed every week. Learn to recognize the things that don't really have much impact in your life and allow yourself to let them go -- and then not beat yourself up for doing so.

Explore Your Options. Get Help. If you are feeling overwhelmed with your family responsibilities, please get help if you can afford it. Find a sitter for your children, explore options for aging parents, and seek counseling for yourself. In many cases, you have options, but you need to take the time to find them.

Take Charge. Set Priorities. Sometimes it's easier for us to allow ourselves to feel overwhelmed rather than taking charge and developing a prioritized list of things that need to get done. You need to buck the trend. Develop a list. Set priorities. And then enjoy the satisfaction of crossing things off your list.

Simplify. It seems human nature for just about everyone to take on too many tasks and responsibilities, to try to do too much, and to own too much. Find a way to simplify your life. Change your lifestyle. Learn to say no to requests for help. Get rid of the clutter and baggage in your house -- and your life.

In the end, the key word is balance. You need to find the right balance that works for you. Celebrate your successes and don't dwell on your failures. Life is a process, and so is striving for balance in your life.

25 Tips to Become More Productive and Happy at Work

by www.lifelearningtoday.com

job, jobs, career

Have you gotten into a rut at work? Would you like to be more engaged, satisfied, and fulfilled in your work? Would you like to be more productive and feel a greater sense of accomplishment at the end of each day? Well you can. It just takes a desire and commitment to renew your habits and routines. Follow these amazing tips and you’ll see your work life improvement. And that improvement will trickle into the rest of your life too.

1. Planning.

Establish a routine of planning your week and your day. This will allow you to have your most productive week all the time. Start your day an extra 15 minutes early to do this planning everyday. Write down the top 1-3 important things you must do that day. And most importantly, set and reach your Goals! Use the power of intention to get there! (This is what adds jazz to your life! And focusing on your future helps you get through challenging times.)

2. Power Question.

Keep a question like this at your desk to help you stay focused: “Am I making the most of my time right now?” or “Is this the most productive use of my time?”

3. Accept That You’ll Never Finish Your Task List.

For perfectionists and overachievers this is as frustrating as a greyhound forever chasing the mechanical bunny around the track. Get off that track. Just make sure you work on your most important stuff first. Let the fluff slide, not your priorities.

4. Turn off Your Computer.

“What?!” you say. “Everything is done on my computer!” Well is it really? What percentage truly is? Plan to have your computer on only for that amount of time each day. Plan out blocks of time for different computer tasks and work from a checklist to keep you focused. Giving your eyes a rest from the screen will give you more energy for creating. Even if you just close your eyes as you think of a response to an email can help too.

5. Don’t Check Email First Thing.

Unless this is required in your job, then let it go until after you’ve completed your top priority of the day. And then process email in batches, say two or three times a day.

6. Take Breaks.

It’s a fact that taking breaks will increase productivity. It’s been proven in studies. If you need to, find someone to help ensure you take a morning and afternoon break.

7. Make the Most of Your Commute.

How do you spend your commute? Make it positive time. Use it for reading, writing, creative thinking, creative projects, listen to audio books, or, heck, write your own book! If you enjoy your commute, that happiness will spill over into how you feel at work.

8. Drop Unimportant Tasks.

Delegate or delete the non-essential items from your to-do list. The best way to do this is to always do your most important things first. Somehow, miraculously, extraneous things will fall away.

9. Transitions.

Make sure you plan in enough time between activities and appointments, and find ways to fail proof being on time.

10. Choose Happiness, Humor, Enthusiasm, Gratitude, Kindness, and a Positive Outlook.

Being productive and competitive in business doesn’t mean that you have to be serious all the time. Smiling doesn’t mean you’re not working hard. Enthusiasm doesn’t mean you’re not competitive. Being positive doesn’t mean you’re blind to challenges. Choose to enjoy your time at work. Find others who are like this and spread good cheer. It’s contagious and it grows. Try to avoid gossip and negative chat. It can be tempting, but it doesn’t serve anyone well, including yourself.

11. Cultivate Compassion for Negative Coworkers.

People who are negative are that way for a reason. They may have difficulties you don’t know about. Try to be compassionate and non-judging. If you’re a manager, people still need to meet benchmarks, but you don’t have to dislike them if they are not cutting it. When you encounter a negative person, you have the choice to either be affected by the negativity or to be the one who influences the other person. It’s a decision. Choose to stay positive. Instead of saying (in your head or out loud) “Oh, that Suzy-Q! Her negativity always ruins my day,” try thinking “Poor Suzy-Q. She must have some difficulties. I wish her peace. In spite of her negativity I will try to be a positive influence around her.”

12. Pace Yourself, Especially on Bad Days.

Go slow. Don’t be in a hurry. Just take one thing at a time and keep moving forward. If you’re having a really low day, you might even want to take care of yourself by playing hooky ! :)

13. Take Everything in Stride.

Deadlines, tough bosses, rude clients, slow computers. Don’t make them into large dramas. Don’t lament the challenges of the world. Simply accept that they are there, and just keep moving forward.

14. Conflicts with Others. Let your goal be “to make progress.”

Don’t get caught up in trying to “be right” or to “win” the argument. That will just slow you down. In your mind ask yourself, “what will move this conflict forward right now?” And then get busy doing that.

15. Take Your Vacation Time.

Try doing something different. If you always go on a trip, try taking a more local vacation, and really get some good rest time. Or if you always stay local, try visiting a new place. Variety is one of the keys to happiness.

16. Pick Your Battles.

Cliche, but true. It’s kind of like “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.” When you complain or fight on everything, then your power to ask for things is diminished. Save it up for when you really need it.

17. Share Your Results.

This is not about bragging, but about ensuring that you get credit for the hard work you do. Don’t keep quiet thinking that the right people know what you are doing. Speak up and find ways to let the right people know how you are contributing to the success of the company.

18. Ask for Help.

Don’t be afraid to collaborate with others. Don’t wait for your company to tell you what to do. Think creatively about how you can work with others to generate a greater result than if you had each worked on this alone.

19. Face the Tough Stuff Head On.

If there is something difficult that you must do, just bite the bullet and do it. Don’t put it off. Do it first thing in the day. It’s like jumping into a cold pool. Just count to three and do it!

20. Ask for More Time.

If you are asked a question that stumps you or surprises you, never feel like you have to answer it right away. (unless you absolutely must) Seek more time to think about or research your answer. Simple as this, “I’ll have to get back to you with an answer later.” This will save you from giveing an answer you will regret.

21. Breaking Negative Habits.

For one day, observe yourself. Where do you face difficulties? With people? Certain people? Certain circumstances? Take notice and then later on during some quiet time, think about one or two things you would like to work on. Set up some kind of reminder system to fail proof it, such as a simple yellow sticky note next to your computer.

22. Learn from Criticism.
Don’t immediately reject critiques from others, even if you don’t like or respect them. Sometimes people you don’t like may be giving you more honest feedback than you can get from others. Don’t take it personally. Even if it is personal, who cares? Listen, process, and then decide what positive action you might want to take.
23. Adapt. Adaptation is the number one survival skill of living organisms. Those that don’t adapt, become extinct. In the work world, the same is true for companies, whole groups, and for individuals. Be open to change. Give it a chance. Adapt to new things while using your experience to guide you, and you will have great success.

24. Learning and Improving.

Always be on the lookout for opportunities to learn and improve your skills. Look for good seminars and training. Then ask work if you can attend and will they pay for your admission. If your company pays for education, use it! Borrow books from your local library, the company library, or even from your boss. Borrow some motivational audio tapes from your local library. Keep learning to continually renew your enthusiasm.

25. Creative Thinking.

Is your job boring? If so, take some responsibility in changing that. How can you make it more fun, more creative, more varied, etc.? What can you do that no one has done before? How could you grow enthusiasm at work? What is a new way that you could do old things? What processes could you alter to save time, work and money?