The Dos and Donts to Writing a Rockin Resume! [INFOGRAPHIC]

The Dos and Donts to Writing a Rockin Resume! [INFOGRAPHIC] If youre applying for a job, you want your resume to be the best it can be otherwise you have no chance. You cant be lazy with it or you will never get your dream job. Here are the dos and donts of writing a rockin resume by our friends at  CollegeAtlas.org. Any other you want to add? Let us know in the comments! Takeaways: In terms of font, stick to size 9 to 12pt. Keep to traditional fonts like Times New Roman or Helvetica theyre traditional, professional or modern and clean. List your most recent jobs first, with accomplishments as bullet points. Do not use an amateur e-mail address make sure its professional. Finally keep it impersonal! RELATED: How to Craft the Perfect Modern Resume

Thinking of Becoming a Virtual Assistant Necessary Skills to Put You Ahead of the Rest

Thinking of Becoming a Virtual Assistant Necessary Skills to Put You Ahead of the Rest Do you love the idea of supporting business owners on the daily basis, but don’t like the concept of having to punch in every day from 9 to 5? Clerical support professionals are the oil that keeps the machine (company) functioning properly. Without efficient oil, the machine will ultimately begin to rust over making it difficult to carry out its responsibilities. So if you’re looking for a career choice that isn’t going out of practice anytime soon, a virtual assistant is certainly the field to enter into. It is also one of the most flexible fields to consider as it can be done in the office, or from the comfort of your own home. High Demand = Great Business Choice The great thing about being a virtual assistant these days is that many businesses are looking for ways to streamline processes and save money. Virtual assistants can carry out the day to day tasks of an in-house secretary or administrative assistant without the overhead costs. Employers don’t have to worry about paying for office equipment, employee taxes, healthcare costs, and more. They essentially hire you on a contractual or as needed basis and pay you as per your predetermined rates. What’s great about starting your own virtual assistance business is that you call the shots, set your hours, and even determine which companies you work for. This type of business is also easily flexible as it can be completed on your own, or you can expand to hire more assistance as your organization grows. However, before you simply start looking for clients, you’ll want to have a few key skills in mind to help you stand out from other virtual assistants. Skills You Should Acquire While most women who decide to be a virtual assistant have already worked in the clerical field or office setting before, there are some basic skills you’ll want to make sure you have so that you can appeal to your client’s needs. Below are a few of the most important: Customer Service â€" At the top of the list is customer service. No matter what services you intend to offer to your clients, you will need to be able to provide outstanding customer service. They’ll need to know that their needs and their customer’s needs are being met by you on the daily basis. SurveyMonkey.com points out some great methods for improving your customer service skills including the ability to practice patience, empathy, and consistency. Basic Clerical Skills â€" Having basic clerical skills will also be important to providing quality virtual assistance to your clients. While the clerical skills may vary based on your client’s needs, ideally you’ll want to know the following: phone etiquette, virtual filing, faxing, and copying, typing abilities, and the capabilities to use various databases and word processing applications. Technological Skills â€" Now because you’ll essentially be a virtual worker, you’ll need to have quite a bit more technological skills up your belt than the average administrative assistant. Again, the skills required will vary based on the clients you choose; however, some basic concepts might include: using cloud computing software, understanding of web design, how to use various hosting platforms, and more. The more technological skills you have, the more valuable you are to your clients. Even if you have the basics down packed, you may want to consider completing a graphic design degree program so you can offer web design services to your clients. Of course the more skills you have overall, the better prepared you are to market your services to your target audience. From there, it’s simply a matter of establishing your brand and waiting for the customers to come to you for assistance. Though not for everyone, many women in particular have taken the virtual assistant route. It provides them with the means to care for their family while still making a living. If this is a route you think you’re interested in, first start by investing in yourself to ensure you have all the skills to put you ahead of the competition.

Do You Have The Ego For Self-Googling - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Do You Have The Ego For Self-Googling - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Background Google is the dominant search engine, with about 70% of all search traffic. At the end of last year, the Pew Internet Research Team found that 47% of people search for information about themselves online (Self-Googling), which was more than double 5 years ago. I have written about the importance of Google before, when I mentioned that you have to be #1 in natural search because mobile devices only list the first one, unless you scroll down. Ive also spoken about the importance of securing your brand on Google by purchasing your domain name and the difference between natural and paid search. Finally, I noted that Google is a background checker. People are Googling you as we speak and you better make sure you have some internet presence if you want to exist. Employers will be searching for you or people like you. Given that everyone from potential employers to potential mates is likely to be Googling you, you should have a good idea of what they will find, said Alexander Halavais, a Professor at University of Buffalo. The Wall Street Journal even wrote a story called Youre a Nobody Unless Your Name Googles Well. The article can be summed up as Before Abigail Garvey got married in 2000, anyone could easily Google her. Then she swapped her maiden name for her husbands last name, Wilson, and dropped out of sight. Try Self-Googling Right Now If you Google Dan you get 683,000,000 results, whereas if you Google Schawbel you get 89,000 results and Dan Schawbel gets you 28,700 results total. Im not sure about Dan but Daniel (my legal name) is the 7th most popular baby name this year. There are even Baby Naming businesses that select distinct names for children and families are purchasing the childrens domain name as presents. Also, my uncle purchased Schawbel.com and has an internet presence, so if you Google Schawbel it will be 98% me and 2% him (and my aunt laughs about it). Why do you get the results you do? What Does the Dictionary Say? Self Googling: The act of using the Google search engine to look yourself up. Extreme cases of self-googling have resulted in googlitis. I was dying to know how many different ways people could find me on the Internet, so I did a little self-googling in order to count. Sadly, Im not nearly as popular as the other person out there with my exact name. Seth Godins Words of Wisdom Google yourself. If youre a salesperson, your prospects already do. If youre looking for a job, your prospective employers already do. If youve got a job, your co-workers already do. Seth William Arrudas Classification William is one of my friends and a fellow personal branding guru, more focused on executives and companies. This is part of his entry on a MarketingProfs article he wrote, based on how he categorizes your Google presence. If you want to calculate your online identity, go to his website. Im sure hes monitoring his Google presence, so he should be reading this as we speak. Digitally Disguised: There is absolutely nothing about you on the Web. Your Google search yielded no results. This is easy to remedy, but you’d better get started right away. Digitally Dissed: When you fall into this category, there is little on the Web about you, and what is there is either negative or inconsistent with what you want to be known for. Although not where you want to be, it is easy to improve your on-line profile. Digitally Disastrous: This is the most challenging situation because there is lots of information about you on the Web, but it has little relevance to what you want to express about yourself. Digitally Dabbling: There is already some on-brand information on the Web about you. Although the volume of results is not high, the material that is there is relevant and consistent with your personal brand. Digitally Distinct: This is nirvana in the world of on-line identity. There are lots of results about you and most, if not all, reinforce your unique promise of value â€"- your personal brand. Google Me A BRAND New Film [youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=nrq-xOJgSB0] For more clips, go to the YouTube channel. The full-length movie is there, which runs about an hour and a half in length. Its very interesting and if you have time, you should watch it. It is a documentary about Jim Killeen, who Googled himself and then went all over the world meeting others with his name. Google Me The Music Video by Teyana Taylor [youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=dMfy_2VLe1c]

The Sharpest Tool in the Shed - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

The Sharpest Tool in the Shed - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career I’m sure you’ve heard the statement “S/he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed” which means that you think that person’s certainly not the best and the brightest in their community, field, business, office or organization. You definitely want to be the “sharpest tool in the shed”. Do you know what it takes to be that person? What are your authentic strengths, attributes and values? How do you communicate, express or exude them? First Steps Here are some quick first steps to start not only being “perceived as the sharpest tool in the shed” yet to authentically BE the sharpest tool in the shed. Discipline: Do you have the discipline to focus on what is uniquely you? Are you building your strengths and being the greatest version of you? Too many try to be great at everything and end up being mediocre at everything. Just like Tiger Woods focuses on what makes him unique so should you. Hire others who have strength areas in where you are weak but avoid diluting your actual strength. You must be willing to “dig deep and unearth the gem inside you”. And, even when you dig deep â€" figuring out who you are â€" sometimes in that extraction we don’t always pull up a polished diamond. Often, the unearthed coal, needs discipline to polish the gem to shine. Eventually, you will place this polished gem in a setting. Yet, first find out who you are as a person and what you want in your life and want to be known for. Knowledge: To earn more you must learn more. And, earning is not always in terms of money, “richness” in life is defined many different ways. Do you have the knowledge to be the sharpest tool? It could be personal knowledge, experience, books and yes â€"even formal education but it does not necessarily mean formal education each and every time.   Knowledge can often be in the format of other peoples experience. I moderate a weekly chat on Twitter known as #brandchat. Each week we discuss everything there is to talk about in branding.   From automating social media to the impact of Facebooks 225 million users, we discuss ways to harness tools and positively engage while staying true to the corporate brand promise and even our personal brand.   Other peoples experience (OPE) and insights are as valuable as other peoples money and will develop your knowledge by giving you the opportunity to gain from their experience without having to invest the time that they did to garner that experience. Commitment: Are you committed to your purpose or what you’re doing or do you know what that is? What is your personal purpose? What is your own belief system? What’s a good match for you? What energizes you? Do you know your vision, purpose, values and passion? You might not know the answers to all of these questions right now yet to start to answer those will begin to “sharpen the saw” and soon you will develop yourself as the “sharpest tool in the shed”.

How to Minimize Your Time to Hire CareerMetis.com

How to Minimize Your Time to Hire â€" CareerMetis.com Recruiters are quite familiar with the time it takes to hire a candidate. They’re always on the lookout for different tactics that can cut down their time-to-hire. This parameter is one of the top key indicators of the efficiency of a hiring team.Around 30% of companies are able to hire candidates in 30 days and the rest require up to four months to hire. If the hiring process goes on for too long, 57% of job seekersare known to lose interest in the job. Clearly, if the time-to-hire is too long, it can result in losses for the business.However, you can minimize your time-to-hire with these awesome strategies:Build a Good ReputationevalevalJob seekers always want the best for themselves, so they prefer to work for a company that has great reviews online. They want to work with companies that have a good reputation and a great work culture.Candidates won’t apply for a job unless they are satisfied with the reviews, even if they are currently unemployed. To grab the attention of qua lity candidates, you need to showcase the benefits and perks you offer as well as snippets of your company culture.You also need to provide a great candidate experience because happy candidates are likely to write positive reviews about your company online. This way potential job seekers will want to become a part of your company.Source Candidates via Social MediaYou can source candidates for your company through social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. This will minimize your time-to-hire and maximize the chances of identifying the right candidates at no additional cost.People who are already following you on social media might be interested in your job openings. So, share your open positions on your social media accounts to attract quality candidates and hire in a shorter span of time.Use a Referral SystemA referral system is a great strategy to recruit the best candidates with the help of your existing employees. You need to encourage your employees to recommend suitable candidates for your open jobs.You can offer rewards to your employees if their referrals get hired. Such incentives can help to encourage your employees to refer to more candidates.Image courtesy: CandidateRewards

Happiness at work in Guatemala - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Happiness at work in Guatemala - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Im going to Guatemala in July to speak about happiness at work to the Guatemalan Human Resources Management Association. They are currently looking for sponsors for the speech. The director writes: To this conference we invite a lot of H.R. Managers from all over the region, and has a good attendance for brand awareness or public image, but we need sponsors to cover your fee and trip expenses. We are looking for them here, but some times our speakers helped us with that. If you know some one that could be interested in the sponsorship to cover your presence we will appreciate it a lot, and we will contact them in order to arrange everything, what we offer or if they want some special arrangement. So my question to you is: Do you know any organizations in or around Guatemala who would like to help sponsor my trip and keynote? Let me know if you do or if you know anyone who might. I did a similar thing when I spoke in India a while back. Tata (Indias biggest private company) sponsored the trip and in addition to speaking at the conference I also did two workshops for groups of managers. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related Happiness at work in Guatemala - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Ive just returned from a speaking gig in Guatemala it was a fantastic experience. I was the main keynote speaker at the 20th. annual conference of AGRH, the association of HR managers in Guatemala. In addition to the keynote I also spoke at a shorter VIP event and had a whole bunch of meetings with business people and interviews with various media. I had a great time, but here are my top 5 things about my trip: 1: A conference about happiness at work in Guatemala(!) Here I am in stage for my presentation. Notice the Danish flag in the background with all the Latin American flags: The conference was a day and a half and the theme for the whole event was happiness at work or Felicidad Laboral as you can see in the logo above. As far as we know, this was only the second conference about workplace happiness in the world and ours was the first. Thats pretty good for a Latin American country, to focus not only on having jobs but on creating happy workplaces. The conference was opened with a speech by the Guatemalan Minister of Labor, who also spoke on the importance of having a job you like. 2: The fantastic people of Guatemala Every single person I met at the conference and in Guatemala in general was friendly, open, curious and happy. Here I am with the conference arrangers at the closing party: 3: I was a rock star for 4 days :o) All the other speakers were from the region (Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras) so I was the main international speaker. That meant that everyone wanted to talk to me, have their picture taken with me or even get autographs. I could get used to that :o) Heres a poster for the event: Notice the part below my name that says Experto Mundial #1. Im having a T-shirt made with those words on it :o) 4: The Guatemala Sink hole I was fortunate enough to get a private tour of Guatemala City and when my guide asked me what I would like to see besides the usual sights, I immediately mentioned the Guatemala sink hole. Im apparently the first tourist ever to ask to see that, so he didnt even know exactly where it was. But we asked around and finally found it. Its a bizarre sight to see a big round hole in the middle of a street in the middle of a big city. 5: Guatamala gets it The 250 HR managers in attendance loved my presentation and I sold a lot of signed copies of my first book in its Spanish translation. But the best thing wa to talk to the participants afterwards and get the clear impression that they are committed to creating happy workplaces. One of the other presentations at the conference was an survey done by PriceWaterhouseCoopers of HR managers in Guatemala, and according to their report, 95% agree that happiness is good for business results and 75% already have initiatives to create happiness or will soon begin. All in all it was a fantastic trip, and were proud to be able to add Guatemala to the list of countries weve worked in. Heres the complete list: Germany, England, Ireland, USA, Sweden, Turkey, Denmark, Ireland, France, Poland, Holland, Estonia, Slovenia, India, Croatia, Bahamas, Switzerland and Guatemala. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

How to Choose the Best Resume Writing Services Near Me

How to Choose the Best Resume Writing Services Near MeLooking for the best resume writing services near me? This article will give you some pointers on what to look for in the services you are considering.First, don't fall for the scams. One of the scariest things about hiring a resume writing service is that it can be an easy way to lose a good deal of money. Scams abound everywhere, and if you can't trust the service or you don't know enough about the company, then they may not be trustworthy and won't deliver the results you expect. I've been in business for many years and have learned to avoid these kinds of scams by doing my research first.Who writes your resume? You should be looking for a company that only uses the best writers available. They should write your resume for you, not tell you what you want to hear.Proofreading and editing is very important. If you don't hire a company with good proofreading skills, you could end up with a poor resume. The companies that send you samples to read before you submit them are always prepared for mistakes and provide honest suggestions on how to fix them. They also help you out if you need anything further after you've submitted your resume.Look for more than just resume writing services near me. Make sure the company you are considering for your resume services has several other offerings as well. Many companies specialize in several aspects of the resume such as cover letters, ghostwriters, editing, or website design.Do they charge by the hour or per project? If you go with a company that charges by the hour, you may run into trouble later on when your schedule changes and you find yourself spending more money than you anticipated.Who do you communicate with on your behalf? Many companies have a direct phone line and email address to make things easier. Make sure that these options are included so you can get in touch with the service whenever you need to.Do they specialize in all types of writing or just a few ? It's also important to be clear on the kind of experience you want before you begin your search. If you're just looking for a general resume writer or someone to develop a web page, then you might be better off with a more general writing service.