Viewing Last Night, Happy Funeral Today

Viewing Last Night, Happy Funeral Today Today Im at a happy funeral. This is the funeral for my wifes grandma, who lived a rich, full life.   Its a celebration of her life. I worked at a funeral home when I was first married and did everything except embalm for a little more than a year.   I saw plenty of sad funerals. The one thing I hope to leave with you today is how valuable your relationships are. Today hug someone special. Tell the you love them. Call that long-lost friend. Figure out how to forgive a grudge and start to move on. Do something, because you dont want to sit at a funeral wishing that you would have. Viewing Last Night, Happy Funeral Today Today Im at a happy funeral. This is the funeral for my wifes grandma, who lived a rich, full life.   Its a celebration of her life. I worked at a funeral home when I was first married and did everything except embalm for a little more than a year.   I saw plenty of sad funerals. The one thing I hope to leave with you today is how valuable your relationships are. Today hug someone special. Tell the you love them. Call that long-lost friend. Figure out how to forgive a grudge and start to move on. Do something, because you dont want to sit at a funeral wishing that you would have.

By Not Having a Website You Lose Brand Equity Every Second - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

By Not Having a Website You Lose Brand Equity Every Second - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career There are a lot of great personal brands out there that are losing the opportunity to build brand equity in their eBrands (internet properties). For instance, if you write a guest blog post or an article for an online magazine and dont have a website, you miss the chance to: increase the PageRank of your website get traffic to your website convert web article readers to website readers find out whose interested in your services build a list through your blog or email newsletter sell products and services measure the effectiveness and reach of your article get other opportunities to write The list goes on! When you include your bio in a blog post or article, always include a website. If you havent started a blog or traditional website, then link to your LinkedIn profile or Twitter account. If you have no web presence, then start working on this this Thanksgiving weekend. You are at a real loss if you keep marketing your personal brand, without advancing the equity in your eBrand. Links to domains you own are more significant than links to social networking sites because they are in your complete control. When you link to a LinkedIn profile, you are helping LinkedIn, and not as much yourself. Next time you write your bio, make sure it includes a link to a site you own.

Looking for Work During the Holidays

Looking for Work During the Holidays Q:   Im unemployed right now, and I’ve heard that it’s a waste of time to conduct a job search during the holiday season.   Should I just forget about it until January? A:   Not at all!   Although the common wisdom is that the holidays are a bad time to do a job search, you can make the time very productive for yourself.   While it’s true that fewer people leave positions during the holiday season (hanging on for year end bonuses and office parties) they do tend to begin the new year by making career moves.   January is the start of the new calendar year and often the fiscal year, so many departments start filling positions that have been sitting vacant. With all that activity beginning in January, you’ll want to have your resume in place in December so you’re positioned for interviewing right away.   Because it’s a quiet time for job seekers, your resume may get more attention, being one of fewer in circulation.   In addition, many CEOs and human resources directors arent as busy this time of year;  some experts think that December may be the best time to reach decision makers. Not everyone takes time off during the holidays. In fact, the people with hiring responsibilities may be more apt to pick up their own phone because their offices are so lightly staffed at this time of year.   They may also have more time for activities such as informational interviews, as well as training new employees. The end of the year is also a hot time for hiring in certain industries.  Besides the obvious retail and seasonal entertainment opportunities, there are openings for skilled administrative and clerical staff.   Many industries have year end projects relating to closing out the fiscal year and reporting. Tax related companies gear up now too, along with accounting and auditing firms. Not sure where to begin your search?   Try the staffing firms.   Not only do about 55% of temporary workers use the positions as an entree into permanent employment, “temp to hire” is how many companies recruit their skilled staff. Even if your search isn’t producing the results you want during the holidays, you can use the time to work on skill building, researching education opportunities, and long term career planning â€" the things that get neglected while you’re working full time. You can also work on interview skills â€" practicing to answer tough questions and thinking of specific examples of how you solved problems and made a difference in your last place of work. The holiday season is a great opportunity to thank your network of contacts and supporters.   Drop them a quick note telling them how much you appreciate their advice and assistance, and let them know how excited you are about your prospects in 2011.   It’s a good way to keep in touch and remind them that you’re still looking. Happy holidays â€" WorkSource wishes you career success in 2011!

5 Millennial CV Trends to Look Out For

5 Millennial CV Trends to Look Out For In a candidate-led market, the way recruiters are attracting talent is changing. If you want to be ahead of the game you need to expand the methods you use to recruit, especially when recruiting millennial talent. Millennials are an increasingly influential generation, meaning as a recruiter you can’t ignore their impact on the job market. Just as sites like CV Library disrupted the job search market when they spotted the improvements to made in job search by switching from paper CVs to Word documents sent via email; millennials are bringing about candidate led changes which are causing employers to change the way they think about selecting talent. 1. Video CVs Video CVs are fast are growing in popularity, with recruitment firms like Inspiring Interns using them as their sole marketing tool for their graduate candidates. With candidates looking to boost their applications and stand out from the crowd, this unique way for candidates to showcase their applicable skills and experiences is becoming more popular. Use videos to gauge a candidate’s personality, allowing you to better match them to the existing team the role would be part of. Consider factoring in killer questions to your application process, getting potential candidates to answer those questions in their video CV, helping you more effectively sift applications. Videos can also be a more appealing approach to presenting candidates to your clients or stakeholders. Incorporating this trend into your recruitment process can be a win-win for both your client/ stakeholders as well as any prospective candidates. Beneficial for stakeholders as they can get more from an initial application and a more digital-friendly method to attract candidates from the millennial generation. 2. Personal blogs Personal blogs are not just reserved for hobbies and can actually be a useful tool for recruiters looking to gain more of an insight into a potential candidate. Look out for any links to blogs within a candidate’s application or LinkedIn profile, reviewing their writing style, interests, and their passion. Especially blogs relating to the field the candidate is applying to can demonstrate their commitment, knowledge, and ambition to pursue that particular industry. Looking also into how they have potentially engaged with readers through their blog writing. Search for blogs online to widen your network of available candidates and reach out to potential candidates through their contact page. Going through blogs can add authenticity to a candidates CV and help you establish whether the claims within their CV are legitimate. 3. YouTube channels With over a billion YouTube user, this is a social media channel that can give millennials a great platform to share their passion or expertise. In a similar way to video CV’s, you will be able to see how they communicate and present themselves and how they interact with their viewers. Youtubers tend to upload new content on a weekly or monthly basis, giving you an array of content to review as part of their application. More and more candidates are adding links to this type of content onto their CV, giving you easier access. YouTube channels can help you establish a candidate’s suitability much more easily than relying solely on a written CV, helping in pre-screening to decide whether to bring that candidate forward for 1st stage interviews. Consider also searching for specific users and reaching out to them directly about your new opportunities. 4. Side Hustles Full-time employment is not the only way a candidate can display their marketable skills. More millennials are stepping out on their own and starting a side hustle. Whether freelancing or setting up an online business, a side hustle shows determination and the enthusiasm to achieve. Qualities that are required in any role. Question how they started their side hustle or how they win new business as well as how they balance this with their other commitments to gain a better insight into a candidate’s appetite to accomplishing outcomes under their own management. A side hustle shows a candidate’s resilience, self-motivation and can be extremely relevant for any position that includes a degree of self-management or the need to prioritize workloads or projects. Look beyond the 9-5 traditional employment to match relevant skills or experiences to your client’s or stakeholder’s job specification. 5. Charitable Projects Beyond reviewing a candidate’s experience, qualifications, and skills you should be delving into their extra curriculum activities including any involvement within charitable projects. Key skills such as organization, communication, teamwork and even leadership can all be demonstrated through these types of extra commitments. When comparing two similar candidates, these additional components could help highlight the more applicable candidate. Review their overall contribution to the charitable event and use this experience to further discuss how they proactively worked in a team or organized certain projects. Explore particularly any achievements or accomplishments a candidate gained from these experiences, tailoring this to how they could transfer these experience/skills into your or your client’s organization.

How to Write a Clean Resume

How to Write a Clean ResumeCleaning the resume is an essential part of the job interview. This can be quite an easy task if you are following the guidelines on writing a resume properly. While it is great to have a neat resume, cleaning it can also be very helpful in making it look professional.A clean resume will look better when you have your resume written in a clean and appropriate office environment. Many employers go through a lot of resumes to get the right one for them. Therefore, they will expect a clean resume that they can see the skills and qualifications you have.Resume writing cleaning is quite similar to cleaning your kitchen. You should keep the kitchen clutter free and remove all the dishes from the sink and floor. While writing your resume, you should make sure that everything should be organized and easy to read. When you are doing this, make sure that you use both the left and right side of the paper so that it looks neat and well structured.To begin with, you sho uld organize your resume by first getting the basic information and skills required for the job you are applying for. Next, move on to the skills and experience you have acquired and then finally you should group your position and department as well as the employer. Now you are ready to list the jobs you have worked and your salary range for each of them.The next step in resume writing cleaning is to select the format of your resume and then learn how to format it properly. It is vital that your resume be formatted properly because this will help you to get it noticed by the hiring company. Remember that in this job interview, people will go through several resumes for the same job so they will be interested in seeing yours. If you use formatting incorrectly, you may lose points and you may lose the chance of being hired.Do not forget to include all the information related to your educational history on your resume. You should explain all the learning you have gained during your col lege years and during your internship. Make sure that you include the dates too and give a brief description of each of them. In this way, you will be able to tell the employer about the programs you have participated in as well as how much experience you have had in the field. If possible, it is important to include the diplomas you have received so that the employer can know how much knowledge you have gained.Finally, make sure that you use the words of you educational background. Remember that your resume should be easy to read and to understand and should also be organized. For example, you should avoid using bullet points, as they will only make your resume look confusing. Instead, try to use headings and bulleted points so that the reader can get all the information from the points at once. Keep in mind that the point must be put in such a way that it can attract the attention of the reader and you will not get a bad score on your resume.Finally, follow these steps when writin g your resume. All the basic information you need to include should be included in your resume. Make sure that you include all the necessary information in order to get the best possible score on your resume.

Making your own Opportunities - CareerAlley

Making your own Opportunities - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. After the highs and lows of University life all graduates are faced with the big question what next? (as well as the other big question how will I pay off that student loan!).If your decision is to enter the world of work it can be a daunting experience. For many students working during studies is a reality and, as such, the principle of working for a company may not be new to you but its likely that you want to find the elusive dream job for which you have been working hard towards for the past three or four years. For each generation this has been a challenge but with the current economy many reports are suggesting that Graduates face their toughest challenges yet to find work.This can be very disheartening when you have worked so hard to gain your qualifications, so what can you do to stay ahead of the rest of your fellow graduates. First things first you need to consider what type of work you want to do and in what industry.Whilst your qualification may point you in one area, consider your skills and how beneficial they are to different industries and roles and, as such, dont limit yourself at the outset. At this first stage of your career its important to not be led to believe that your dream job isnt achievable and that you should just take any job.Consider how you might make steps towards your chosen career can you work for a company that offers great prospects but perhaps in a lower role than you might have first expected, or perhaps not your ideal organisation or sector but a role that will give you great experience quickly which will allow you to move forward later on? All career paths have to start somewhere; dont lose focus, but remember that, whilst a clich, all experience is valuable and those early jobs are often the ones that help build strong foundations. In order to get any role you are going to need to submit lots of CVs and application forms.This can feel like a full time job in itself but is an essential part of the process.Employers can get as many as hundreds or even thousands of applications.They dont have time to read each one word by word and as such will skim to gain the information they need.Make sure your CV is clear, orderly, and free from spelling mistakes and details your achievements and experience.I know many people advise you to make them stand out its arguable whether printing them on pink paper or adding an interesting photo is an advantage.It may make the person shortlisting smile, but not always for the right reasons so know your sector before taking that route. Its important with CVs to talk about what you have actually done and achieved rather than using adjectives such as Im a good team player and I work hard.This does not provide the employer with any real knowledge about you you may not have lots of work experience, but provide details of those roles you have worked in and any volunteer work or sporting or university clubs.Most skills are transferrable to any role so dont hide your achievements as it is these that really make you stand out from your fellow graduates. It may be tempting but dont simply send out your CV with a generic cover letter to hundreds of employers.Far better to send fewer but to take the time to ensure each cover letter and CV relates to the role you are applying for.Highlight why you want to join their organisation and what you can offer, alongside your new degree, and link this to the role you are applying for. Another clich but your best asset will always be preparation; dont be tempted to wing it.Think ahead to what are your strengths, when have you demonstrated your organisational skills, dealt with a difficult situation, met a deadline and so on.Ensure you know all about the company too so you can link this to why you want the role and always havetwo to three planned questions to ask at the end its always odd as an interviewer when candidates dont ask anything. Most importantly prepare, relax and always be nice to the receptionist (they often get asked for feedback). If you dont get the role you can ask for feedback.Interviewers dont always like doing this and it may be generic but sometimes you will get someone (particularly if they liked you but you just werent quite right) to give you really useful feedback you can use for the future. Its a tough market out there so keep going, even after a few rejections, and take time to review previous applications and interviews to consider how you might improve for the next opportunity. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Neil McDiarmid is Managing Consultant at Workplace Law Career Network; a leading professional services firm specialising in the recruitment of personnel in facilities management, building services, health and safety, and human resources. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook

Are You Leveraging These Big Blocks of Time

Are You Leveraging These Big Blocks of Time Photo via Foter.com [Article republished from Mondays with Mike 1/15/18 email newsletter == Subscribe to get weekly newsletter in your inbox plus FREE REPORT] I get asked all the time, “How do you do it?” Balancing my day job, kids, exercise, everyone else’s to do lists, etc. Fitting a side hustle into your life, or making time for a hobby or other passion often takes time.   Sometimes lots of time. So how do you do it? I find it comes down to three things. Priorities Focus Big Blocks of Time Let’s start with Priorities What do you want to get accomplished? For me getting you this email each week is something I prioritize.   It is important.   It is something I’ve committed myself to doing.   Every week.   For at least 50 weeks a year.   Without missing. In order to make that happen I need to generate ideas.   I get these throughout the week.   Sometimes they just pop into my head.   When they do I dictate them into my “Google Keep” app on my phone.   I just started using this (used a phone post-it note app before).   I also get them from listening to business podcasts on my way to work.   Or I get them from other people’s emails I subscribe to.   Or they come from random conversations I have throughout my day. So now, when I sit down to put this ezine email together I have several ideas to choose from for the weekly core essay. Then I comes to writing.   And that is about… Focus Focus is critical in writing.   I find that when I write I need UNINTERRUPTED TIME to get an article written.   This is because when you’re in creative mode, the thoughts cue up off each other.   So you just need to really write until you’re done.   Until the words stop coming. Then you can edit later. But if you don’t knock out the piece uninterruptedly, you’ll find you lose the essence, the passion in the writing.   And it will seem like where you picked up again doesn’t match the feeling you get in the first part. I tend to be a logical person so the editing piece is easy for me.   But the writing I often struggle with.     But it is amazing when you get into that zone.   That zone of complete focus on the story.   In the moment.   How everything flows easily and you just enjoy the process.   It is freeing and fun. But getting into this zone often takes being free from distractions and being in that place where you can just get it done. And this is where… Big Blocks of Time come in. This is something I got from one of my mentors, Kevin Hogan.   He was all about finding a block of time when you won’t be interrupted by responsibilities, kids, housework, etc.   A time when you were in your “Happy Place”…okay that was a Happy Gilmore movie reference :). The thing is, if you only have an hour to do the work, it is highly unlikely you’ll make much meaningful progress on any major initiative.   For this ezine, because I’ve done the prep work I can usually knock this essay out in under an hour of writing.   May take another half hour to get the rest of the ezine put together and scheduled for the Monday  11AM  distribution. If I’m doing a bigger project.   Like revamping my website, creating a landing page for an opt in offer, or spending some serious time thinking about my business, then having 2-4 hours…or even a full day…can result in tremendous boosts in implemented ideas. It’s Not Magic…or maybe it is. Looking back at a side hustle that started out as testing the waters with a blog and website, with no paying clients nearly three years ago to now having a thriving part time business where I get to work with people who want to drive their career or business forward.   Working with doers who are making things happen in many different arenas.   It is cool.   Here’s some of the things I’ve been a part of from this experience. Resume/LinkedIn Profile Writing    Last count 45 clients.   I’ve learned from them about â€" IT, Fashion, Event Planning, TV/Radio Production, Wine Business, Sales, Staffing/Recruiting, Women Leaders, Startups, Commercial Construction, Wireless and Wireline Telecom, Comcast and Frontier TV Home Installs, Drones for Business, behind the scenes insights to the war in Afghanistan from someone who was in the main triage center there.  I’ve worked with CEO’s, Startup Founders, Board Members, Startup Incubator Leaders, Podcasters, Recruiters, a ton of people in Telecom, construction managers, project managers, Directors, VP’s, Sales and Business Development Experts, coordinators and administrative staff. Blogging  â€" Having written over 200 blog posts and with guest posters on my site doing at least one blog post a week (50+ a year).   It keeps me engaged, creative, and connected with my community (yes, that’s you).   These posts show up on my website, reposted to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook (since not everyone is a subscriber to my ezine yet). Mondays with Mike Ezine  â€" You’re either reading this because you’re on my weekly email list, or had this email forwarded to you by a friend, or saw it reposted later on my website or through LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook on those repostings.   Here, like the blog, I’ve learned to be consistent.   This is also the place I try to get a little more personal.   Sharing my thoughts and stories â€" where my blog often has more formal articles, particularly with those guest posts on my site.   My goal for the ezine is for you to learn something (often it is just triggering an idea you want to pursue that may not have anything to do with my article but just popped into your head anyway) and to have something fun and different to read to break up your Monday. Marketing  â€" Right now most of my business comes through referrals.   From people who’ve worked with me or people who’ve seen my articles or heard of me through a podcast I was a guest on or from recruiters I work with (when they have a great candidate with a bad resume, they send them my way).   Are these methods the best for getting clients?   Yes and no.   For me and the part time limited nature of my business they work well.   If I needed a full time income I would probably need to take a different approach to get enough work.   That might involve Google, Facebook or LinkedIn ads.   It might mean more work with influencers â€" podcasters, recruiters, and others who work with the people I work with but in non-competitive ways. For those of you who might be considering a job change, starting a side hustle, or jumping into a new hobby or project, consider some of the things I shared throughout this article.   I would hope that it would help you guide your efforts so you could be more successful in your efforts. I would love to hear some projects you’re working on.   Shoot me an email (or comment when this hits my blog later). And if I can help in your efforts, let me know about that as well. Now go schedule and tackle some Big Blocks of Time and make something great happen!