A New Career for Christmas Please!

A New Career for Christmas Please! It’s that time of year again, how did that happen? The year is drawing to a close, advent calendars at the ready, it’s time to evaluate how you stack up against your career plan, and start thinking about plans for next year. The long December break is the perfect time to do some serious reflection and evaluation. Take time out from the rough and tumble of the daily treadmill to mull over what you want from an ideal and fulfilling career. Focus on the steps you need to take to achieve your goals. Ensure that you are moving in a direction aligned with your values and strengths. Time for a career MOT. Use a learning perspective and think of yourself as a “skills and knowledge investor” and start by mulling over your values and strengths. Work values are important Workplaces are becoming ever more collaborative, and increasingly we look not just for jobs, but for work environments which display values and culture that align with our own. Establishing and evaluating work values may help you focus and choose the environment and role that are the best fit for you. Work values are similar to the theory of career anchors propounded by Dr Edgar Schein, one of the founders of modern organisational psychology. He suggests that every one of us approaches our work with a certain set of priority and values that he calls Career Anchors. Strengths are part of your personal brand At 10Eighty we favour a focus on strengths because it enables a person to feel well equipped and confident about their abilities. Strengths are underlying qualities that energise us, contribute to our personal growth and lead to peak performance” (Brewerton Brook, Strengths Partnership 2010). We advocate working on your strengths as it can have a significant impact on your career and personal growth. Use your strengths to optimise performance and increase your engagement and productivity at work, career fulfilment and job satisfaction. Research shows that using our strengths at work is more likely to lead to positive performance outcomes. In career terms it is your knowledge, awareness and acceptance of strengths (and skills) and how to make effective and appropriate use of them that is important for success at work rather than being a particular ‘match’ for skills or qualifications for a given role. Positivity and productivity Happy people tend to be successful at work, but it seems its not because your success causes you to be happy, in fact its your being happy which tends to cause success. Large scale research by the University of California found that being happy leads to higher income, greater productivity and quality of work, more satisfying and longer marriages, more friends, stronger social support, and richer social interactions, more activity, energy and better physical health. Strengths are what energise us, we enjoy using them and learn quickly where and when we can put them into action. Studies show that people who felt they were using their strengths have more positive emotion, greater vitality and self-esteem, compared with people who did not feel they used theirs. Father Christmas won’t be bringing a new career for you but you can take positive and determined steps to move your career in the right direction. In other words, make the most of the networking opportunities presented by the holiday season. Don’t under-estimate the positivity and goodwill engendered by the festive celebrations, take advantage of the holiday spirit when and schedule some interviews, your networking contacts may well be more willing to meet up as work slows down for the festive break.

4 Ways to Ask For a Flexible Work Schedule - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

4 Ways to Ask For a Flexible Work Schedule - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career A decade ago flexible working was considered something of a perk. Nowadays, with smartphones, tablets and laptops, more and more of us manage to carve out arrangements that allow us to work flexibly in some shape or form. This might mean working one day per week from home, staggering the commute or doing longer hours four days to knock off earlier on the fifth. A lot of these will be ad-hoc, informal arrangements. But if you want to put your flexible working arrangement on a more permanent footing, it’s going to be a question of making a formal request to your employer. The good news is that, in the UK at least, as of the end of June 2014 new rules are being introduced that give all workers with at least 26 weeks’ continuous service in their job a “right to request” to work flexibly. This will extend the previous regulations, which only covered those with children aged under 17 (or under 18 if disabled) or those who had caring responsibilities. It will mean employees will able to request a change to their working hours, working time or work location. However, before everyone dashes to the boss’ office, it’s worth pausing for a moment. First, you need to recognise this is only a right to “request.” Your employer will still be able to say “no” if they can argue there is a legitimate business reason for doing. Second, be aware what you’re asking for is a permanent change to your terms and conditions, which may affect your take-home pay and pension contributions, so you need to be absolutely sure it’s what you want. Thirdly, you can only make one application in a 12-month period. So, here are four ways to maximise your chances. 1. Understand what it is you are asking for Flexible working is defined as: Part-time working or staggered hours Flexi-time Job sharing Working from home or remotely Compressed hours (for example fitting a five-day week into four) Term-time or annualised working (in other words, taking paid or unpaid leave during school holidays or just working a certain number of hours a year) So you need to think through what you are requesting, and why. 2. Put yourself in their shoes Employers can give a number of grounds for refusing requests, including: Additional costs or inability to reorganise work Inability to recruit additional staff or detrimental impact on quality Detrimental impact on performance or customer demand Insufficient work for those periods An upcoming planned structural change to the business If it’s likely your employer is going to cite one of these you need to pre-empt them and working out a viable (possibly even costed) solution. 3. Make it formal Both the government and the conciliation service Acas recommend you put your request in writing. This is to ensure you have a proper “paper trail” in the event of any dispute, plus it means all sides should be clear as to what is actually being requested. Your employer should request a meeting within 28 days to discuss the application and a decision should be made within 14 days of this meeting. 4. Be specific It is sensible to detail as specifically as possibly how it is you want to work flexibly. So outline what you’d like your proposed hours to be, and how this will be a change. Show you recognise how this change will affect not only your role but those of your colleagues and the wider business. Ideally you should be showing how this will predominantly be beneficial, but you should also highlight how you intend to mitigate any negatives. If your request is refused consider whether the decision was fair, whether you could have presented your case differently and, if you’re still keen, how you’ll approach it next time. You may well be able to appeal, but you’ll need to think carefully about how that might affect your wider workplace relationship. Author Bio Nic Paton  writes for Glassdoor.com. 4 Ways to Ask For a Flexible Work Schedule - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career A decade ago,  flexible working was considered something of a perk. Nowadays, with smartphones, tablets and laptops, more and more of us manage to carve out arrangements that allow us to work flexibly in some shape or form. This might mean working one day per week from home, staggering the commute or doing longer hours four days to knock off earlier on the fifth. A lot of these will be ad-hoc, informal arrangements. But if you want to put your flexible working arrangement on a more permanent footing, it’s going to be a question of making a formal request to your employer. The good news is that, in the UK at least, as of the end of June 2014 new rules are being introduced that give all workers with at least 26 weeks’ continuous service in their job a “right to request” to work flexibly. This will extend the previous regulations, which only covered those with children aged under 17 (or under 18 if disabled) or those who had caring responsibilities. It will mean employees will able to request a change to their working hours, working time or work location. However, before everyone dashes to the boss’ office, it’s worth pausing for a moment. First, you need to recognise this is only a right to “request.” Your employer will still be able to say “no” if they can argue there is a legitimate business reason for doing. Second, be aware what you’re asking for is a permanent change to your terms and conditions, which may affect your take-home pay and pension contributions, so you need to be absolutely sure it’s what you want. Thirdly, you can only make one application in a 12-month period. So, here are four ways to maximise your chances. 1. Understand what it is you are asking for Flexible working is defined as: Part-time working or staggered hours Flexi-time Job sharing Working from home or remotely Compressed hours (for example fitting a five-day week into four) Term-time or annualised working (in other words, taking paid or unpaid leave during school holidays or just working a certain number of hours a year) So you need to think through what you are requesting, and why. 2. Put yourself in their shoes Employers can give a number of grounds for refusing requests, including: Additional costs or inability to reorganise work Inability to recruit additional staff or detrimental impact on quality Detrimental impact on performance or customer demand Insufficient work for those periods An upcoming planned structural change to the business If it’s likely your employer is going to cite one of these you need to pre-empt them and working out a viable (possibly even costed) solution. 3. Make it formal Both the government and the conciliation service Acas recommend you put your request in writing. This is to ensure you have a proper “paper trail” in the event of any dispute, plus it means all sides should be clear as to what is actually being requested. Your employer should request a meeting within 28 days to discuss the application and a decision should be made within 14 days of this meeting. 4. Be specific It is sensible to detail as specifically as possibly how it is you want to work flexibly. So outline what you’d like your proposed hours to be, and how this will be a change. Show you recognise how this change will affect not only your role but those of your colleagues and the wider business. Ideally you should be showing how this will predominantly be beneficial, but you should also highlight how you intend to mitigate any negatives. If your request is refused consider whether the decision was fair, whether you could have presented your case differently and, if you’re still keen, how you’ll approach it next time. You may well be able to appeal, but you’ll need to think carefully about how that might affect your wider workplace relationship. Author Bio Nic Paton  writes for Glassdoor.com.

No Degree No Problem!

No Degree No Problem! Most of us know the drill you finish school, you stay out of trouble, you get a college degree and you land that top job because none of the worlds biggest firms will ever consider a candidate without a degree, right? Wrong!! Tech giants  Google and Apple have joined a growing list of companies who are offering jobs at their firm without needing a college degree. While it sounds like a completely mad and risky thing to do, it turns out there are some great benefits to doing this. Where it was strongly-believed that not having a college degree or any kind of formal qualifications  would greatly hinder a persons chance of getting a good job, now there are more chances for people to bag a top job without them. Recently Glassdoor  named 15 more companies which didnt require college degrees to work there. Among them were IBM, Ernst Young, and Hilton. Its thought by opening this pathway into the company, it will help  to improve diversity and they can also target those who attend coding boot camps or other non-traditional college  ways  to be hired. Ananth Kasturiraman, Co-Founder and CEO of Skillist, says: For entry-level roles, many employers have relied on the credentials within a resume, like a college degree or a high-profile company, as a proxy for skill. However, this practice significantly narrows the pool of talent that an employer might consider. It also leaves millions of jobs unfilled  the highest number of openings in U.S. history. This habit, known as “degree inflation,” has real consequences for businesses. When companies require a college degree for jobs that were previously filled by non-college graduates, it can  increase the salary by as much as 30% and the length of time-to-fill by an average of twelve days. Simply put, employers are spending more time and money than they need to fill these open, entry-level roles. At the same time, tens of millions of workers are being overlooked for entry-level professional jobs because they lack the right credential, even though they have the experience to do the job. Whats more, non-college graduates who have been hired into these positions are likely to be more engaged and stay in the role longer  than those with degrees. Degree inflation has been a significant contributor to our country’s continued income inequality. Now you might think the job options are limited for those without a college degree and would most likely to be offered menial and low-level roles but thats not the case. Some of the jobs on offer at Google for non-degree applicants include recruiters, software engineers, and product marketing managers. Apple is hiring design verification engineers, project managers, and iPhone buyers, and IBM can offer roles such as financial blockchain engineers, and contract and negotiation professionals. So what do talent acquisition experts think about this? Phil Strazzulla  is the Founder of NextWave Hire. He says: Companies are realizing that a bachelors degree is merely a proxy for skills that a candidate will have.   However, candidates can acquire and hone skills through actual work experience even if they dont necessarily have a degree.   The employers who understand this are opening up entirely new talent pools, many times full of typically underrepresented groups of people. Will  Staney  is the  Founder Principal Consultant at Proactive Talent Strategies. He says: With the current economy humming and a low unemployment rate, the demand for talent is high and the “qualified” supply of talent is low. Adding another barrier, like a college degree requirement makes that small pool of talent even smaller. Not to mention, the skillsets that entry-level employees need for the business world change so quickly, by the time a college graduate starts their first job or internship, many of the knowledge and skillsets they learned are already outdated. Employers should look past an educational requirement and assess talent based on the ability to perform the job. And if you want even more proof that you dont need a college degree to be successful then you may be surprised to learn that none of these people have one either and they didnt do too badly: Jan Koum â€" Co-founder of WhatsApp  At the age of 21, Jan  dropped out of San Jose State University where he was studying math and computer science and went on to co-found WhatsApp. Richard Branson â€" Founder of the Virgin Group  Branson dropped out of high school at the young age of 16 and went on to create Virgin Media, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Mobile among many others. Bill Gates â€" Microsoft  He quit Harvard  University to follow his passion for computers, he founded Microsoft which is the now the successful software company in the 21st  century. Steves Jobs â€" Apple  He  dropped out of Reed College and went to co-found Apple, which is now the most valuable public company ever according to the New York Times. Mark Zuckerberg â€" Facebook Dropped out of Harvard University in his sophomore year in order to complete his project Thefacebook. He did return in 2017 to pick up an honorary degree.

Self-Communication Is The Foundation of Success - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Self-Communication Is The Foundation of Success - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career There is only one person with whom we communicate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year, every year of our life. Ourselves. Mastering communication with ourselves determines our quality of life as it determines our ability to experience life as we would like. Few people truly understand that how we experience life is a choice, and that we are not at the affect of what happens to us. It took me 38 years to come to grips with this concept and to truly understand it to a level where it could change my life. Our self-communication drives three primary and vital aspects of our mindset: Emotions Self-Confidence Self-Esteem Human beings are emotional creatures. Emotions drive our decisions and behaviors. Therefore if we can master our emotions we can master our decisions and behaviors that drive our level of success. To do so we must first master our self-communication, which is how we talk to ourselves in our own mind. What is your internal dialogue like? Is it positive? Do you continually reinforce the positive things you do and your successes telling yourself you are a good person with talents the world reaps value from? Or, do you deflect those successes telling yourself you were lucky or you had a lot of help or focuses only on things you did wrong and need to improve, regardless of how successful the situation turned out? If it’s the former, you have high levels of self-confidence and self-esteem, which builds with the positive self-talk. If it’s the latter, you have low levels of self-confidence and self-esteem, which, too, builds with the negative self-talk. Either way, its always your choice, driven by what we choose to focus on. The most powerful lesson I’ve ever learned in my life was during a weekend seminar with Anthony Robbins in 1998. It began my personal and professional transformation. It was a simple statement that packed a powerful punch for me, Robbins said, “no experience in life has any meaning except the meaning you choose to give to it.” In that moment, I was given the power to choose. Then, I was taught powerful self-communication strategies to build new habits of communicating with myself. These were put to the test early after my decision to become self-employed in 2002. A few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, living and working just 65 miles north of ground zero, launching a business was challenging, at best. Prospective client meeting after prospective client meeting generated few coaching and consulting clients. My wife, trying to console my disappointment would remind me that times were tough for businesses during the post 9/11 economy, and I should adjust my expectations. Doing so would have drastically impacted my self-communication, which was driving my motivation and ability to build my business. My wife placed a meaning on my lack of early success on the perceived economic realities of the post 9/11 environment. I placed the meaning on my lack of early success on my marketing and sales approach. This caused me to focus on working harder and learning better ways to articulate my value to the business leaders I would interact with. It was my self-communication, my internal dialogue and self-talk that allowed me to build a successful coaching and consulting business over the last 12 years through two serious economic downturns. There are specific self-communication strategies I practice regularly that have helped me that I’ll be sharing over the next few weeks in this space. Stay tuned.

5 Best Career Choices for Empaths - CareerMetis.com

5 Best Career Choices for Empaths If you’re a naturally very empathetic person, then choosing the right career path is especially important. Empaths naturally seek jobs that are fulfilling and allow them to reach and help their fellow men and women.Empaths also tend to be affected more deeply by stressful environments that don’t speak to their strengths.evalFortunately, there are tons of great career choices where the qualities of an empath can be best employed. Here are a few examples of great career choices where any highly empathetic person can thrive.1. HealthcareevalFor empaths, being caregivers is like second nature to them. They naturally want to help people that are in need of help and care.Nursing is one of the best career paths for people who exhibit empathetic traits for a variety of reasons. As a part of their functions, nurses often have to comfort patients receiving treatment and make them at ease.Nurses can work in many fields and areas that can make use of their strengths. However, you have to be prepared to be mentally tough enough to not get too attached to patients. You also have to be prepared for unpleasant patients that may take out their stress and frustrations on you.On the other hand, nursing is a job that allows you to work in many settings and as a companion to people who need it the most.In addition to nursing, there are plenty of other health care fields where being an empath is a plus.Mental health, for instance, is a great career field for empaths, as long as they can make a separation between their work and regular lives and don’t take on the pain of their patients too personally.evalThe field of psychology is great for people who are great listeners and can help people go through emotional suffering.Mental health illness is just as serious as any other health-related issues and this field needs people who can identify deep-seated issues that might be at the root of the problem. This is a job that demands a lot of sensitivity and attentiveness and an abilit y to give out meaningful advice.As a psychologist, you may also be called to work in a wide variety of settings. You might be called to work in private hospitals, your own private practice, or in therapy or rehab centers.This allows you more flexibility and the opportunity to work with all kinds of patients and use your strengths to the best of your abilities.2. LawyerevalWhen people think of the most empathetic professional, few of them have the image of a lawyer in mind. But empaths can be great lawyers and there are areas of law where being a natural empath can be a great strength.Whether you’re representing people dealing with abuse, or have to be a mediator in divorce hearings, the attentiveness, and passion of empaths can give you a great advantage.Lawyers may also be called to work pro bono or work with various non-profit organizations for instance. However, not all branches of law are the best for empaths.Corporate and trial law, for instance, might not be the best suited as they can be cold, impersonal, and too stressful for many empaths to handle.3. Social WorkThere aren’t that many fields where the characteristics of the empath are more needed than in the field of social work. As a social worker, you may be askedto work with charitable organizations, schools, the government or corporations.Your job will consist of helping people dealing with difficult situations. These people are often caught in the system. You’ll also have to learn to work with people who are dealing with behavioral issues and bad life habits.Empaths usually thrive in social work as it allows them to make a direct impact on people’s lives while allowing them to use their sensitivity, natural caring nature, and attentiveness to provide comfort and counsel to those who need it.But as a social worker, you also have to be strong enough to deal with the adversities that come with the job. You have to be able to make a clear demarcation between your job and your regular life and have a thick enough skin to deal with unruly and unwilling people.You also have to be able to deal with dark personality types and the worst aspects of human suffering.evalHowever, working as a social worker can be an extremely fulfilling line of work, and seeing that you were able to lend a helping hand and help someone completely turn their lives around or escape the cycle of abuse can be extremely rewarding.Social work degrees are a great qualification, so if you feel like social work is something you could do, you can review social work degrees on educations.comto see which field fits your personality type the best.4. Hospice WorkHospice work is a bit different from traditional healthcare work in the sense that you’ll have to deal with people who often have life-limiting illnesses. It takes a special type of person to be able to deal with debilitating conditions and terminal illnesses on a daily basis.You’ll have to not only be able to provide care to people when they’re a t their most vulnerable but be able to offer support and comfort to patients and families.Also, hospice workers have to deal with much more than physical issues; they also have to work as psychologists and sometimes even spiritual counselors as well. They need to be able to guide the families and help them deal with their loved one’s situations.evalYou could also work as a volunteer and work as a sort of assistant to families by sometimes providing companionship or running errands for them or the patients. Working in a hospice environment is a great opportunity to work with people who are in need of help; people who sometimes have nobody else to care for them.5. Guidance CounselorevalWorking as a guidance counselor can be a very attractive career path for empaths for a variety of reasons. For one, this is the opportunity to make a direct impact on someone else’s life.You get to be a mentor to a child or young adult in need of direction. You’ll be able to help them pursue caree r paths that would suit them, meet deadlines, prepare for engagements and stay on track with their studies.Empaths are often great judges of character and great at reading people’s aptitudes and interests. This often gives them a knack at guiding students towards the right path.You could also decide to work as a life coach as well. Life coaches also have to be great judges of character and be able to identify roadblocks that might get in the way of people’s goals and aspirations.Life coaches always have to have their clients’ best interest in mind and be good listeners. They also have to be great leaders and know how to be stern enough to correct behavioral traits that might hinder someone from reaching their full potential.ConclusionAll of these career choices are perfect for people who are naturally empathetic and want to make a change. If you feel like any of these fields fit you, we suggest you talk with your counselor and see what the next step towards your desired career path should be.

Job Search Tips What You Dont Know about Twitter

Job Search Tips What You Dont Know about Twitter What is Twitter?  Who is on Twitter?  What can Twitter do for your career?  Given the increasing role of social media in our lives/careers, I recently did a radio show on Social Media 101. The response was tremendous.  One area people struggled was Twitter.  They werent sure how to use it or what for.  So my focus for the next month is Twitter 101.  Learn what you dont know about Twitter For Your Career:  MaggieMistal1,748  tweets559following1,003followers52listedSign up for a month of career tips quotes starting Wednesday   If youre not on Twitter yet or havent gotten around to it, sign up at www.Twitter.com and follow me at @MaggieMistal.  Starting this Wed, Aug 18th, 2010 and for the next month, Ill be sharing a career tip and quote every weekday to support and inspire you to make a great living!  You can find them on Twitter by searching for #MaggieTips.Tune into my radio show Friday   Friday Aug 20th 4-5p ET SIRIUS 112/XM 157 Im doing a special radio show on Twitter for Job Search with Chandlee Bryan, co-author The Twitter Job Search Guide.  Tune in with this FREE trial of SIRIUS radio. Has Twitter helped your career or job search?  Submit questions and comments below and Ill share them on air.  Friday 4-5p ET call in live and join the conversation on my SIRIUSXM show to learn what Twitter can do for you!

Finding your ideal career should be exciting - Hallie Crawford

Finding your ideal career should be exciting When youre doing something big and out of the ordinary like changing your career, sometimes it seems there are naysayers at every turn, thwarting your efforts and tossing a wet blanket over your plans. This is exactly what you want to avoid if youre serious about leaving your old job behind and starting fresh doing something you love. Yes, you CAN do it, and yes there is money to be made in almost any profession. It takes time and effort to get there, but trust me when I say that millions have manifested their own career destiny, and you can too. The idea is to keep the Negative Nellies and other defeating influences at bay. If there are certain people who seem to react unfavorably when you discuss your plans and dreams, stop sharing with those people. Instead, focus on friends and colleagues who lift your spirits and help further your cause these are the ones who will help you get where you want to be, faster and with the least amount of effort. Other negative forces are bad habits, addictive and destructive behaviors. Youre on a plan for self-improvement right now anyway, so make it a goal to quit any harmful habits you may currently engage in like smoking, excessive drinking, binge eating, unhappy relationships, or other activities that distract you from achieving happiness. There are so many things you can do to keep your mind, body and spirit functioning at peak performance during this exciting time of change. Remember that, even though your current focus is on your career, deciding what you want to be when you grow up, and how to best navigate the transition, you are still a human being who deserves a balanced life of learning, new experiences, solitary time, activity and spiritual growth. Remember to give yourself these gifts and you will feel whole, at peace, and ready for whatever comes your way. Are you on the right career path? Find out with our complimentary career quiz. This is your first step to finding your ideal job. Use the results to help you Create Your Career Path. Here’s to having a career you love! Ideal Career Coach