How To Power Statements

How To Power Statements One of the features of JibberJobber is the Interview Prep area, where you can enter your personal responses to interview questions. Power statements is one of the three things that you can enter. I learned about power statements when I went through a two day workshop here in Salt Lake City. The idea is simple yet powerful, and can be useful in various ways. So what is a power statement? A power statement is made up of three parts, and concisely communicates a specific skill you have with quantifiable evidence. When you have prepared and rehearsed your power statements you convey your skills with authority. Each of the three parts contributes to this authority. Heres an example: I am creative. For example, in my last job I was tasked with updating the SOP manual using old technology. I figured out how to use various software I found on the Internet and was able to deliver a more professional deliverable in half the time. As a result I saved over two man-months of work and was received the employee of the month award. The first part is I am _________. This is where you put a skill, such as ambitious or tenatious. You can also say I am a hard worker. You are simply stating what you are. The second part is For example, ________________________________________. This is where you tell the story that backs up your skill. It would start off like this: For example, when I was at American Express I The third part is As a result _______________________________. This tells why your example is so powerful. You want to quantify the results here, so something like a dollar change, percentage saved, time saved, etc. Obviously this will come in handy during an interview (it can also provide information to help construct a resume). When you are asked tell me about a time when you showed X skill you can deliver a power statement. As an interviewer Id really appreciate an answer like this as opposed to a rambling story about all kinds of details that are not important (and detracts from what you have to offer). Ending it with a result ties it all together and nails the point home. One quick note in the image you will see the first drop down is Category this is a premium feature which is very cool. After you categorize your interview responses you will be able to print out responses for certain interviews. For example, I will have specific interview responses for a high-tech startup which will be different than a large university. Or, different responses for a Project Manager position than a Customer Service Manager position. Create different responses for these different scenerios and then print off just the answers you need before your interviews. Dont want to pay the $9.95 to upgrade just to have categories? Heres how to get around the category thing (it aint the best, but it works): When you put your skill name, instead of putting Creative put a little code to group them. For example, HC-Creative for health care interviews and HT-Creative for high tech interviews. So do me a favor in the comments leave one of your power statements! If you dont have one then nows a good time to create one. Heres the question: What is one of your greatest strengths? How To Power Statements One of the features of JibberJobber is the Interview Prep area, where you can enter your personal responses to interview questions. Power statements is one of the three things that you can enter. I learned about power statements when I went through a two day workshop here in Salt Lake City. The idea is simple yet powerful, and can be useful in various ways. So what is a power statement? A power statement is made up of three parts, and concisely communicates a specific skill you have with quantifiable evidence. When you have prepared and rehearsed your power statements you convey your skills with authority. Each of the three parts contributes to this authority. Heres an example: I am creative. For example, in my last job I was tasked with updating the SOP manual using old technology. I figured out how to use various software I found on the Internet and was able to deliver a more professional deliverable in half the time. As a result I saved over two man-months of work and was received the employee of the month award. The first part is I am _________. This is where you put a skill, such as ambitious or tenatious. You can also say I am a hard worker. You are simply stating what you are. The second part is For example, ________________________________________. This is where you tell the story that backs up your skill. It would start off like this: For example, when I was at American Express I The third part is As a result _______________________________. This tells why your example is so powerful. You want to quantify the results here, so something like a dollar change, percentage saved, time saved, etc. Obviously this will come in handy during an interview (it can also provide information to help construct a resume). When you are asked tell me about a time when you showed X skill you can deliver a power statement. As an interviewer Id really appreciate an answer like this as opposed to a rambling story about all kinds of details that are not important (and detracts from what you have to offer). Ending it with a result ties it all together and nails the point home. One quick note in the image you will see the first drop down is Category this is a premium feature which is very cool. After you categorize your interview responses you will be able to print out responses for certain interviews. For example, I will have specific interview responses for a high-tech startup which will be different than a large university. Or, different responses for a Project Manager position than a Customer Service Manager position. Create different responses for these different scenerios and then print off just the answers you need before your interviews. Dont want to pay the $9.95 to upgrade just to have categories? Heres how to get around the category thing (it aint the best, but it works): When you put your skill name, instead of putting Creative put a little code to group them. For example, HC-Creative for health care interviews and HT-Creative for high tech interviews. So do me a favor in the comments leave one of your power statements! If you dont have one then nows a good time to create one. Heres the question: What is one of your greatest strengths? How To Power Statements One of the features of JibberJobber is the Interview Prep area, where you can enter your personal responses to interview questions. Power statements is one of the three things that you can enter. I learned about power statements when I went through a two day workshop here in Salt Lake City. The idea is simple yet powerful, and can be useful in various ways. So what is a power statement? A power statement is made up of three parts, and concisely communicates a specific skill you have with quantifiable evidence. When you have prepared and rehearsed your power statements you convey your skills with authority. Each of the three parts contributes to this authority. Heres an example: I am creative. For example, in my last job I was tasked with updating the SOP manual using old technology. I figured out how to use various software I found on the Internet and was able to deliver a more professional deliverable in half the time. As a result I saved over two man-months of work and was received the employee of the month award. The first part is I am _________. This is where you put a skill, such as ambitious or tenatious. You can also say I am a hard worker. You are simply stating what you are. The second part is For example, ________________________________________. This is where you tell the story that backs up your skill. It would start off like this: For example, when I was at American Express I The third part is As a result _______________________________. This tells why your example is so powerful. You want to quantify the results here, so something like a dollar change, percentage saved, time saved, etc. Obviously this will come in handy during an interview (it can also provide information to help construct a resume). When you are asked tell me about a time when you showed X skill you can deliver a power statement. As an interviewer Id really appreciate an answer like this as opposed to a rambling story about all kinds of details that are not important (and detracts from what you have to offer). Ending it with a result ties it all together and nails the point home. One quick note in the image you will see the first drop down is Category this is a premium feature which is very cool. After you categorize your interview responses you will be able to print out responses for certain interviews. For example, I will have specific interview responses for a high-tech startup which will be different than a large university. Or, different responses for a Project Manager position than a Customer Service Manager position. Create different responses for these different scenerios and then print off just the answers you need before your interviews. Dont want to pay the $9.95 to upgrade just to have categories? Heres how to get around the category thing (it aint the best, but it works): When you put your skill name, instead of putting Creative put a little code to group them. For example, HC-Creative for health care interviews and HT-Creative for high tech interviews. So do me a favor in the comments leave one of your power statements! If you dont have one then nows a good time to create one. Heres the question: What is one of your greatest strengths?

Lost Your Job Ask Your Employer for Career Transition Support

Lost Your Job Ask Your Employer for Career Transition Support Losing your job is never easy, particularly when it happens without notice. Not only that it affects you emotionally, but you also have to figure out how to organize your finances. Asking for your employer’s help after you have been fired is pretty tough to do. Such incidents make us feel rejected and bitter. Still, if you want to surpass this stage, you could actually fix the situation by trying the following:  Career transition support Some employers include career transition support, also known as outplacement, as part of an employee’s termination package. If an employer’s priority is risk mitigation, one will do what it takes to limit the likelihood of the employee filing a complaint. Providing career transition support helps employees through challenging times. It also demonstrates a positive corporate culture that encourages long-term professional development and employee transitions from one organization to another. Employees and organizations are continually changing and developing. Just as an organization is prone to downsize or grow, an employees performance levels can also change with time. That is the primary reason why these career transition programs exist: to redirect employees who  feel aimless after losing their job. Outplacement services can help laid off employees to adapt to change and gain new necessary skills. It also means they can explore alternative career directions by identifying fundamental competencies and capabilities.  Ask for a later date of termination If you have the possibility, you could aim at negotiating a later termination date with your employer, its always recommended to know your legal rights in this situation. You should bring to their attention some of the current projects you’re working on, and try to persuade them that youre indispensable until theyre completed. Doing so might give you more time to look for a different job, or at least prepare financially.  Request compensation for vacation days In the case in which you didn’t use all of your vacation days, an alternative could be to ask for rectification for those days. It may feel strange to ask such a request but as the old adage goes “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. This could bide you by financially while you start your job search. Severance pay Even though the law doesn’t require it, according to lawyer Alan L. Sklover, most employers provide their employees with two weeks’ severance pay. For instance, if you have been working at that company for an extended time-frame, you could try to negotiate for more. A letter of recommendation Leaving a job on good terms with your employer is highly recommended. This way, you could ask for a letter of recommendation. This is not only something you can show potential employers but also saves time in the job search process as this letter can be presented at an interview if needed. Ask for a different job Another option could be to negotiate for a different job in another department at your company. Although it’s a long shot, it doesn’t necessarily make it impossible, especially if you have proven to be a reliable employee. Whatever happens, don’t lose hope, learn techniques on how to bounce back from a job loss and make the best of your free time to pursue your career goals. As one door closes another one opens so losing a job could also mean new opportunities, embracing another career path, and surpassing your limits! . Image credits: Main.  Layoff.  

Getting nothing done at E3

Getting nothing done at E3 There were no available hotel rooms in Los Angles last weekend. Thats because E3 the Electronic Entertainment Expo is the biggest trade show that ever comes to LA, unless you count the Democratic National Convention. At E3, the rooms are dark and the budgets are high. The booths that house the large video game publishers are like amusement parks. The booths flash and moan with sex and death, and video screens are everywhere, as if MTV has taken over the world. The people who go to E3 are generally eighteen-year-old boys who do not work in the industry unless you count playing video games every night in their dorm room work. There were no available hotel rooms in Los Angeles, but I persisted. For some insane reason I forgot how incredibly stupid E3 is, and I told my company I would go. I told my company Ive been to E3 a million times (true) and Id be able to cut some deals (false). I forgot, though, that I have hated E3 every time Ive gone, and every time Ive gone I say Ill never go again. I also forgot, that I am not really a deal maker. I am great at strategy and Im great at process, but I am not a person who can sell oil to Arabs, or whatever that expression is. So I stay in a hotel an hour from the convention center and work out in their crappy gym in the morning to prepare myself for my powerfulness on the negotiating floor. I check my email but I cannot check my email because I cannot dial up. I call the front desk and they send up a technology person who says hes not allowed to touch peoples computers. I get to E3 in the early afternoon. As soon at I approach the convention center doors, I remember how intimidating E3 is. The ratio of men to women is about 100:1. Im not kidding. So you can imagine that the place is a fashion nightmare: Shorts and T-shirts rule, and Im not talking about the clean kind. I am in my DKNY negotiating clothes and I look like an adult who came to pick up her kid at a birthday party. I spend about ten minutes roaming through the multi-leveled Micorsoft booth, the beer-filled Apple booth, and the Nintendo booth that is so large and packed that I have to push a kid off his video console in order to escape. I realize the sad truth is that the people cutting deals are not on the trade show floor they are in rooms at the edge of the building where it is invitation only and I dont have one. I realize the sad truth is that my company spent $1300 for the plane ticket and $500 for the hotel and I will do nothing at E3. In fact, after ten minutes, I am ready to go home. I tell myself I will memorize pieces of the exhibitor directory so that when I get back to my office, I will sound like I got a lot of work done. Thank goodness no one in my company has ever been to E3 so no one knows how absurd it was that I came here. I am ready to leave but I cannot leave. I have come with a friend who wants to play video games, and we are not meeting up again for four hours. Cell phones do not work on the floor. I have four hours to kill. I notice a sign for a media relations room and I have an idea: I swap my software bus dev badge for an eCompany media badge, and I am a new woman. I am a reporter. The first thing I do as a reporter is go to the room filled with fast computers for filing stories and I check my email. I decide I will be the reporter doing a story about women at E3. I look for women who look cool. The first woman I talk to is an admin at Activision. The next one is not sure what she is. Talk to him, she says, and points to the guy shes with. I tell her Im doing a story on women. Im only talking to women, I say. Turns out that she is the guys secretary, but only for a couple of weeks until her vacation ends and she goes back to Amsterdam. The guy wants to talk to me about his company. I ask him if hes staying in the same hotel room as his secretary. The interview on the whole goes pretty poorly. I talk to Lana who is actually very cool. I spot her playing an Infogrammes game where you drive a truck and do truck jumps. She drives off a ramp and does a double spin and lands on her wheels. I am impressed that she can figure out how to do the game on the first try, and I am impressed that she wants to. I ask Lana what shes doing at E3. She says shes looking for a job. She just got laid off from an Internet company. She is cool because shes wearing a dress at E3 the cool kind that you wear with gym shoes and she is cool because she seems to not notice that every guy at the Infogrammes booth is eyeing her. I want to give her a job, but she is a bookkeeper, and I dont need a bookkeeper since I havent made any deals that need keeping track of. Besides, she lives in Vancouver, BC, which would be a long commute to my office. But someone should hire her. So heres her email address: lanadthomas@hotmail.com. Lana would probably be good to invite back to my hotel so we can hang out at the pool, but its very embarrassing to be a reporter who is really a bus dev person who is really going to sit a the pool for the rest of the conference. So I thank her for talking to me and start writing the report I will send to my boss to show how much work I got done.

How to Be More Persuasive at Work - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How to Be More Persuasive at Work - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Little is accomplished alone. To achieve complex goals, we often must rely upon the hard work and cooperation from those around us. Therefore, our ability to be persuasive will either further our capacity to lead a successful, lucrative career or it will greatly hinder our odds of achieving our full potential. By learning how to get others to say “yes”, we can flourish in nearly any capacity of our professional lives. Below, you’ll find three crucial tips that will aid any professional in their quest to win others to their way of thinking. 1. Stop Expecting People to Care About Your Needs. The most important lesson in persuasion is that you can’t expect others to care about what you want. If you desire to become more persuasive, get in the habit of addressing the concerns of others. When possible, avoid using the word “I” and begin substituting the word “you” in its place. Doing so will naturally guide you to talk in terms of the other partys ambitions. By focusing on their needs, we are more apt to gain compliance and avoid resentment. For instance, a sales professional who wants to sell a new product to a customer is less likely to persuade by bragging about how technically innovative the product is. Rather, it’s in their best interest to clearly define how the benefits of the product can assist the organization in cutting production costs and complexities. Ironically, the most effective way to get what you want is to be less concerned with your own needs and more in-tune to the desires of others. Then, have faith that once you address the other party’s concerns, your concerns are going to be met. 2. Appreciate Conflicting Opinions Rather Than Judge Them. Upon running into a disagreement, most people rush to judge the other party’s point of view and attempt to persuade through contradiction. As many have seen from experience, this has the opposite of the desired effect. Cooperation in conversation is achieved when you show that you consider the other person’s ideas and feelings as important as your own. Instead of condemning the other party, it’s much more effective to try to understand the reasoning behind their actions. Once you decipher a person’s motives, you can adequately show respect for their beliefs and, upon doing so have them listen to your point-of-view in a more open minded manner. Most disputes are never settled because each party fails to show sympathy for the others opinions. People are more likely to cooperate with you when they feel you respect their beliefs. Therefore, to gain agreement, it’s most effective to address that you recognize and appreciate the individual’s concerns. Once you show respect for their point of view, you can then begin to disarm and persuade that person to your way of thinking. 3. Avoid Criticism and Embrace Appreciation. One of the most effective ways to influence someone is simply to appreciate them. People do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than they do under criticism. By criticizing others, we dilute our ability to persuade. Disapproval puts a person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself. Regardless of how mistaken someone may be, using condemnation as a motivator will often result in the other party detaching from your cause or, on occasion doing the opposite of what is requested. Countless studies have shown that animals rewarded for positive behavior are much more apt to comply than those punished for bad behavior. People are no different. If you want to influence, show a sincere appreciation for the other individual and remember to avoid insincere flattery at all costs. In the End Remember that there is a difference between influencing someone and manipulating them. If you find yourself persuading an individual to behave in a manner that is less than mutually beneficial, you are in breach of ethics and leaving yourself open to a surprisingly negative outcome. How to Be More Persuasive at Work - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Little is accomplished alone. To achieve complex goals, we often must rely upon the hard work and cooperation from those around us. Therefore, our ability to be persuasive will either further our capacity to lead a successful, lucrative career or it will greatly hinder our odds of achieving our full potential. By learning how to get others to say “yes”, we can flourish in nearly any capacity of our professional lives. Below, you’ll find three crucial tips that will aid any professional in their quest to win others to their way of thinking. 1. Stop Expecting People to Care About Your Needs. The most important lesson in persuasion is that you can’t expect others to care about what you want. If you desire to become more persuasive, get in the habit of addressing the concerns of others. When possible, our recruiters suggest that you avoid using the word “I” and begin substituting the word “you” in its place. Doing so will naturally guide you to talk in terms of the other partys ambitions. By focusing on their needs, we are more apt to gain compliance and avoid resentment. For instance, a sales professional who wants to sell a new product to a customer is less likely to persuade by bragging about how technically innovative the product is. Rather, it’s in their best interest to clearly define how the benefits of the product can assist the organization in cutting production costs and complexities. Ironically, the most effective way to get what you want is to be less concerned with your own needs and more in-tune to the desires of others. Then, have faith that once you address the other party’s concerns, your concerns are going to be met. 2. Appreciate Conflicting Opinions Rather Than Judge Them People are more likely to cooperate with you when they feel you respect their beliefs. Therefore, to gain agreement, it’s most effective to address that you recognize and appreciate the individual’s concerns. Once you show respect for their point of view, you can then begin to disarm and persuade that person to your way of thinking. Upon running into a disagreement, most people rush to judge the other party’s point of view and attempt to persuade through contradiction. As many have seen from experience, this has the opposite of the desired effect. Cooperation in conversation is achieved when you show that you consider the other person’s ideas and feelings as important as your own. Instead of condemning the other party thinking, it’s much more effective to try to understand the reasoning behind their actions. Once you decipher a person’s motives, you can adequately show respect for their beliefs and, upon doing so have them listen to your point-of-view in a more open minded manner. Most disputes are never settled because each party fails to show sympathy for the others opinions. 3. Avoid Criticism and Embrace Appreciation. One of the most effective ways to influence someone is simply to appreciate them. People do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than they do under criticism. By criticizing others, we dilute our ability to persuade. Disapproval puts a person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself. Regardless of how mistaken someone may be, using condemnation as a motivator will often result in the other party detaching from your cause or, on occasion doing the opposite of what is requested. Countless studies have shown that animals rewarded for positive behavior are much more apt to comply than those punished for bad behavior. People are no different. If you want to influence, show a sincere appreciation for the other individual and remember to avoid insincere flattery at all costs. In the End Remember that there is a difference between influencing someone and manipulating them. If you find yourself persuading an individual to behave in a manner that is less than mutually beneficial, you are in breach of ethics and leaving yourself open to a surprisingly negative outcome.

9 Free Tools that Boost Your Brand and Career - Career Pivot

9 Free Tools that Boost Your Brand and Career - Career Pivot Free Tools that Boost Your Brand and Career Copyright: tele52 / 123RF Stock Photo I am often asked what tools I use to power the Career Pivot business.You will find that you can use these same free (or nearly free) tools to boost your brand and career. Rememberâ€"you are a brand and you need to promote your brand. I have used each of the tools I will recommend for at least six months. I have no affiliation with any of these companies. Let’s get started with my top free or nearly free tools. Canva The Canva about page states the following: Use Canva’s drag-and-drop feature and professionallayouts to design consistently stunning graphics. We have been using Canva to build and modify the graphics in blog posts. I am artistically challenged, but even I was able to create the image to the right using Canva and purchasing a $1 stock photo from them. Canva is a powerful web-based graphics tool, and there is no need to install software. If you use your own images, it is free for most of the functionality. If you use one of Canva’s stock images, the cost is $1 or nearly free. You no longer need Adobe Photoshop to create great graphic images. ScheduleOnce ScheduleOnce is one of the best tools I have ever used. It integrates with my Google Calendar and allows me to publish times when clients and prospects can schedule appointments. It works with a variety of calendars. Listen to the most recent episode The ScheduleOnce homepage states: ScheduleOnce is a field-proven solution for powering online scheduling with your customers and prospects. ScheduleOnce is not free, but at $50 per year for the plus plan, it pays for itself in less than a week. It is one of the top tools in my arsenal. LinkedIn Publisher LinkedIn Publisher is LinkedIn’s blogging platform. I republish successful blog posts from the Career Pivot website on LinkedIn Publisher every two weeks. There are three main advantages to LinkedIn Publisher: After you publish, all of your connections and followers are informed that you published a post. I currently have over 14,000 followers. Your posts are prominently displayed in your LinkedIn profile. You can view my posts by clicking here. If your post is selected for a LinkedIn Pulse Channel, then your exposure grows exponentially. If you want to know how to get selected for the Pulse Channel, read my post Getting Noticed â€" LinkedIn Publisher and Shareability. LinkedIn Publisher is a platform for you to demonstrate your knowledge. There is no cost to use LinkedIn Publisher. Gmail When you e-mail me at CareerPivot.com, you are actually e-mailing a Gmail account. I have a corporate account at $50 per year, but this works for free accounts, too. You can have your own domain and host your e-mail on Gmail for free. Why would you want to use Gmail? I had major problems with SPAM that went away when I started using Gmail. All of my e-mail is now in the cloud. When my hard drive on my Apple MacBook Pro decided to die, all of my e-mails were still in the cloud. I lost nothing. Plus, there are a plenty of free add-on tools that make using Gmail a no-brainer. For a $50/year corporate account and one e-mail address, I get 1 TB of space on Google Drive and access to a range of other bundled services. It is a bargain. Rapportive Rapportive is a free browser plugin for Gmail. When you display an e-mail or move your cursor to an e-mail address, Rapportive will display thesocial media accounts associated with the e-mail address in the right-hand column of the Gmail screen. As you can see in the image to the right, it displays all of the contact information from LinkedIn which, in this case, includes: Name E-Mail Address (blurred out in this example) Headline Current Positions This makes it very easy to reach out to the individual with a single click on a LinkedIn icon. MailChimp MailChimp is an e-mail automation platform that is primarily used by individuals and small business. If you subscribe to this blog, the e-mails you receive come from MailChimp. You can use MailChimp for free with a list of up to 2,000 e-mail addresses. It is very easy to use, and I did not have to pay for the first 24 months I was in business. Buffer Bufferâ€"or BufferApp is one of my favorite tools. Buffer allows you to drip feed content onto a variety of your social media platforms. You set up a schedule for each platform it supports. This includes: LinkedIn LinkedIn groups Facebook Facebook Pages Twitter You can use up to three for free. There is a free plugin for a variety of browsers that allows you to schedule content directly into one or more social media platforms. Push the button in the browser, and a dialog box will launch like the one below. When you read something interesting, it is a push of a button away to share it on multiple social media platforms. Crowdfire I use Crowdfire to grow my Twitter following. You can use Crowdfire from either your computer’s browser or a mobile app. Crowdfire allows you to: Find inactive users and your unfollowers â€" unfollow them if you wish to Find relevant users to follow using their insightful “Copy Followers” feature Keep track of how your social media updates affect your follower/unfollower stats I copy followers from contemporaries like @careersherpa, @avidcareerist, and @nextavenue. I have grown my Twitter following from 6,000 to 20,000 in the last year. It only takes me 5 minutes a day. I have a paid account, but a free account limits the number of followers you can copy and unfollow each day to 200â€"which is enough for most of my readers. RebelMouse If you traverse over to my BoomerJobTips page, you will find a beautifully constructed page of posts from around the Internet. The page is constructed using RebelMouse. The BoomerJobTips page pulls these posts from my Twitter stream, where the #boomerjobtips appears in a tweet by @careerpivot. You can pull content from RSS feeds, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google +, LinkedIn, Flickr, and other tools. I configured RebelMouse once, then leaveit alone. The BoomerJobTips page is updated regularly and I do nothing more. I believe there is still a free option, but I pay about $70 annually for the entry level service, which allows me to embed the content directly onto my web page. You can see the BoomerJobTips page in its native form here. Free or Nearly Free Tools All of these tools, with the exception of ScheduleOnce, has a free option. The free options will meet the requirements for 95% of my readers. If you need to upgrade, you will find all of these tools are quite affordable. These tools can be used to promote your personal brand. The cost to you is next to nothing. What are you waiting for? Which of these tools are you going to try? Did I miss any tools? What do you use? Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Summary Sunday Storms of Change

Summary Sunday Storms of Change My heart goes out to those along the East Coast who are battling to survive without electricity or, the greater extreme, having lost their homes. Sandy has left us scrambling and serves as a reminder that we are not as all-powerful as we think. There have been thousands of photos showing the devastation and even inspiring moments after Sandy. This photo shows the quantity of hurricanes over the past 150 years. You can view it in its larger format in the original post Eye-Catching Map Visualizes 150 Years of Hurricanes on Fast Company. Job Search Trends The Only Reason to Create a Personal Brand by Nance Rosen on Personal Branding Blog When you you look at your personal reputation through the eyes of others it puts a new perspective on the concept of networking. Nance Rosen starts of her post by saying: The purpose of personal branding is to ATTRACT what you want from others, without the stress of selling, sending out dozens of ignored resumes or begging investors to fund your venture.  Job Seekers: Like Coca-ColaGet Creative, Not Complacent by Lauren Kirkpatrick on YouTern Find new ways to reach your audience is the message here! If you are feeling discouraged by the lack of response to your resumes, switch it up! Become innovative, just like Coca-Cola does! Workplace Trends Why Companies Fear Innovation by Holly Green on Forbes Not all companies are ready to innovate nor embrace the concept of shaking it up. For those who seek an employer who values this, read this post to see what your obstacles are and why finding those employers may be like finding a needle in a haystack! Do You Hire for IQ or Klout Score by Andrew Razeghi on Fast Company Super read for everyone- HR, hiring managers and job seekers. Are you familiar with the battle between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla? One died homeless and one died wealthy. Why? Read the article! This touches upon EQ (Emotional IQ) and the power of relationships. I hope it gets you thinking. Here are some of the questions raised in the post and my feeling is that these will be important considerations as we move from a knowledge economy TO a social economy (according to Razeghi)! How do you currently evaluate and place prospective employees? Do you consider the social influence of new talent in your recruiting process? Where appropriate, how do you encourage and foster social networking across your organization? How do you encourage and foster external collaboration outside of your company and across sectors of industry? What are you doing to help your leaders understand their role in transitioning from a knowledge economy to a social economy?  Do you want to keep up with the news I share? Follow me on Twitter @careersherpa or follow me on RebelMouse. This allows you to view all my shares on Twitter without being on Twitter (plus, there is no cost involved!).

College Classroom Activities to Teach Resume Writing

College Classroom Activities to Teach Resume WritingYou are thinking about teaching your kids resume writing or for that matter, you're thinking about doing some career coaching and you want to know what college classroom activities to teach resume writing. Well, first off, congratulations on your choice of a career in coaching.That's the reason why I'm writing this article; to guide you as a career coach on which activities to teach resume writing. It would be really good if you'll incorporate these strategies and tips in your career coaching plan. Because, chances are high that you will implement these strategies and tips in your career coaching career.The first tip is that you need to understand that students are changing fast and they tend to be fickle and restless. In addition, they don't like to sit still and their minds wander. What they really need is some structure and some guidelines that can provide them some direction and help them get organized. This is where many people fall short and where the 'empty chair' phenomenon usually occurs.The second tip is that when teaching your kids resume writing, you need to make sure that you are always there to give them some guidance and support and as a career coach, you need to provide them with all the tools needed. This means that you need to set aside some time daily and dedicate it to work with your students in order to provide them with all the necessary resources. This way, you can give them some guidance in life and eventually you will be able to become a professional yourself.And finally, to make things even better, you need to have a resource box where you can send them some samples of resumes. It would be better if you have some samples of resumes that you have prepared for students in your school. However, as a coach, you don't have to spend money on sending out samples because you can simply create your own samples from your own job. Just make sure that your resource box is comprehensive enough so that your students won't find it difficult to send you samples and your students will appreciate you for giving them such an opportunity.The third tip is that you need to make use of the resource box that you have created for students. After they read your sample resumes, they will probably get curious to know how you prepare resumes. This is the perfect time for you to ask them for some more samples of resumes. By doing this, you will be able to give them some insight and allow them to use it as a reference.The fourth tip is that you need to put all your effort into your resource box and you need to do your best to keep it updated. This means that you need to constantly try to add more information in your resource box because the more you send them, the more they will click on your resource box. And the more they click on your resource box, the more they will continue to visit your resource box. This is how you can give students resume writing lessons, which they can use in their c areer coaching activities.The final tip is that as a coach, you need to make sure that you are doing some activity or project every day. While in the past this might seem like too much, now that you have a resource box you can't make a mistake in, you need to keep a discipline in order to make your resource box successful.