Guest post by Jacelyn Thomas - Staying motivated to get up and go to work every morning at 9 am (or, god forbid, earlier) can be a real challenge. Even the most motivated of individuals have those days where they just don’t want to work. However, it is essential in today’s competitive job market that we stay active, alert, and motivated with our work. Employees who put in their full effort all the time are the ones that move on to bigger and brighter futures. We can likely all admit it—there are days that we are under motivated and fairly in active at work. Rather than waste your employers’ and your own time, find ways to stay motivated throughout your work day and before you go in.
Guest post by Sasha Gibbs - Humans are gifted with an innate ability to produce innovative ideas. The only thing that makes a difference is the way of perceiving things.
Basically, there are two kinds of people. The first kind possesses what is called the “drawing room psychology”, which is another way of saying that their ideas are lost or forgotten as soon as they leave the room. The second type of people are generally successful in their lives and keep ideas in their mind, breed them and later when time comes, transform those ideas into reality.
In our daily lives, we think a lot and come up with some great ideas but unfortunately though, we hardly ever find the time or the guts to implement those ideas.
Guest post by Angelita Williams - Years ago when I first graduated from college, I had a difficult time finding my dream job. Too clumsy to wait tables and no patience for retail, I decided to look in the classifieds for a quiet office job to fill the void.
All of the postings seemed boring—until I ran across one that caught my eye: “First Impressions Officer for Hire, Bachelor’s Degree Preferred But Not Mandatory.” I remember immediately thinking, “I have a bachelor’s degree! And this sounds fun and important.” A phone and in-person interview later, I finally realized that First Impressions Officer was just a fancy way of saying receptionist, but I took that job and proudly presented myself as a First Impressions Officer to family and friends.
Guest Post by Brittany Lyons - Earning a college degree today is not the same as it was a decade ago. At one time, degrees that were obtained outside of a college classroom were the brunt of jokes and were scoffed at when they appeared on resumes. However, with an increasing number of reputable institutions offering online courses, students often find themselves wondering if online degrees are considered to be as credible as those obtained the traditional way.
Guest Post by Katheryn Rivas - Part of becoming an adult in the working world means learning to manage and respond to constructive criticism in a productive manner. This is something that parents, instructors, and schools have been training their pupils for since the start of their schooling.
Criticism is an inevitable in life. And, although it is negative in some ways, it is rarely intended to be hurtful. In the working world, you are going to receive negative feedback on things that you do from your authority figures. Just as you received negative marks in school to indicate that you needed to change something or put in more effort, your boss will also provide negative feedback on things you could improve on.
How you deal with this negative feedback is one of the things that may determine how successful of an employee you will be.
Follow these three steps to better manage and react to negative feedback from your boss or supervisor.
Guest post by Lindsey Webster - The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment is psychometric questionnaire designed to measure how people perceive the world and make decisions.
It is often used in the areas of career counseling, team building, group dynamics, professional development, marketing, leadership training, executive coaching, life coaching, personal development, and workers’ compensation claims.
The test uses four indicators that, when viewed together, create 16 different personality types. It is said that individual personality types prefer or exceed at specific careers. For this reason, the Myers-Briggs Test is often used in career counseling as a way to narrow down what type of work or career a person may find interesting or fulfilling.
Just like any other test, there are a few tips for taking the Myers-Briggs test. Although there are no “wrong answers” on this test, there is a “right” and a “wrong” way to approach it. Listed below are five tips for taking the Myers-Briggs Test.
We usually focus our branding efforts on the internet: social networks, websites or blogs. But what we often forget, is to put energy in “real life” promotion. At best, we limit ourselves to giving away business cards.
Surely, business cards are a nice and easy way of staying in people’s wallets and being easily reached.
The one problem with business cards is that they are intended solely for the person you give it to. It has virtually no use for someone you haven’t met or someone who stumbled upon your card on a table. Unless the receiver of your business card carries his or her Rolodex everywhere they go in case they run into someone that may be in need of your services, your card becomes a dead end.
So, what could work as a business card and get people to visit your site or business? Good old pens.
Even on a low budget, you can get a couple dozen Amsterdam Printing cheap promotional pens to give away with your business card or leave them in visible places. Keeping a lonely pen you found laying on a table does not qualify as stealing, does it?
The advantage of having a branded pen is that even if the person loses it -or someone pouches it… admit it, who hasn’t pouched a pen?- the finder or offender will have your brand’s name in front of them every time they need to jot something.
So there you go, one extra way of expanding your reach for just a few bucks.
Guest post by Amanda Clark - We all have those moments when we want to just quit our jobs. You have a bad week, nothing seems to go right, and you just think that quitting will make your life better. However, you know that there would be consequences for these hasty actions. Before you make a rash decision and quit your job, you need to consider a few things. There’s no reason to stay somewhere that makes you unhappy, but you may need some time to think it over.
Guest Post by Kimberly Wilson - You got a call back. You prepared. You even arrived on time. But in the end, your irrelevant answers and inability to think on your feet causes you to blow your interview. Do not worry. Caving under the pressure of having to impress a potential employer has happened to the best of us. But if you really want the job as badly as you say, instead of walking away home defeated there may just be a chance for you to recover from your bad interview. To learn how, continue reading below.
Guest post by Melanie Slaugh - Confidence is important in business and in life. But what is it? What does it do? How do you get it? Is it something that you’re born with, or do you learn confidence?
Confidence is trust or faith in something or someone. Confidence is knowing that you’ve made the right choice, or at least the best possible choice. Confidence is security.
As Donna Flagg says,
In the absence of confidence (and I mean real, true, authentic confidence, not ego-induced bravado and swagger) we have deep-seated insecurity driving people to find ways they can convince themselves they are not exactly what they fear. Weak.Powerless.Vulnerable.In a word, insecure. In the workplace we see insecurity take the form of defensiveness, irresponsibility and deception. In personal relationships it rears its ugly head through paranoia, distortion and fear.
Guest post by Barry Magennis - With over three quarters of corporations now utilizing some aspect of social media, media jobs are as multitudinous as clouds in the sky. Indeed, you may have noticed that media positions are as commonplace as admin jobs as you browse jobs sites in search of your next career move. The mere sight of this ubiquitous term begets the question: what exactly counts as a media job these days?
After setting up your jobs site profile to receive alerts when ‘media jobs’ become available, you may find that you’re inundated with related roles. A good number of them will be sales-oriented.
Muddied as the waters may be in the media jobs market, there are many creative jobs, writing, editing or working even in television which are available; you just need to wade through the voluminous number of jobs to find them. But if you’re planning on throwing as many resumes at the wall and seeing what sticks, you’re likely to apply for a raft of jobs including social media vacancies.
Guest post by Erinn Stam - Many women and some men would like to work less after having children so that they can spend more time with their families. More companies are offering family friendly policies so that employees can achieve more work-life balance. Some will offer different scheduling arrangements, such as a condensed work week (working longer hours on fewer days), job sharing, telecommuting, and working part time. However, not all companies readily offer flexible schedules, and some employees may have to prepare themselves to petition for and negotiate a new schedule. If you are thinking of asking your boss for a new working schedule after you return from maternity leave (or paternity leave), here are some things to keep in mind:
Guest post by Lindsey Webber - We all hear about the benefits of consulting a career counselor if we’re looking for a job change. But have you ever thought about becoming a career counselor? Here are 10 benefits of a job in career counseling that just might make you consider being one instead of seeing one.
Guest post by Sam Turner - According to a recent survey, 43% of Londoners use social media when looking for a job. But what are the implications of these findings for employers?
The survey in question, along with accompanying infographic (see below) was undertaken by LondonLovesJobs.com, a website advertising jobs in London, who surveyed 500 business leaders and 500 other adults in Greater London. As well as the high proportion of people using social media to search for a job, the data also tells us that business leaders, 30% of who said they would search for a job on LinkedIn, are especially likely to use social media when searching for a job. Meanwhile men are more likely to search on social media than women, with 52% of men indicating they search for jobs this way as opposed to just 33% of women.
Guest Post by Danielle Riggs- When applying for jobs your resume is your first impression; it’s your handshake, your sultry look across a crowded room. If your first interaction isn’t up to snuff then it will be your last. A lot of people are unemployed. With a more competitive market it becomes even more difficult to find a job. You want your resume to stand out from the mass of other applicants. It should show you in the best light and be blemish free. Here are some tips to improve your resume and detail your technical expertise.
Guest Post by Greg Buckskin - In 2010, an online study by Adecco Group found that 53 percent of American employees did not trust their bosses and up to 28 percent would get rid of or fire their boss if they had a chance, (NewsRoanoke.com). It’s hard to find a soft spot in your heart for the one person on earth who really holds the future of your paycheck/livelihood and your career in their hands every day. However, we all have ideas of traits the world’s greatest boss should have. As we prepare to celebrate International Boss Day, it’s time to give voice to all the traits our dream boss would have.
Guest post by Stella Walker - If you are about to embark on a career after finishing school, or if you’ve been entrenched in a job that you feel does not employ your full potential, then you are not alone. The 21st century, in which the nature of jobs has changed drastically as compared to the workforce of the last fifty years, is a world that has so many choices to pick from. Especially if you are smart, hard-working, and did well in school, the sky is virtually the limit. But perhaps you have no idea what you really want to do. That’s where career counseling might come in handy. Here are a few reasons you might want to look into hiring someone to guide you to your dreams:
