Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness Ive often thought about this phrase from John Locke Im not sure when it became so meaningful to me but it has become on of my ideals. I want this for myself, and for others. I hope that you feel that you can pursue happiness, that you have the liberty to do so, and that you can enjoy life. Happy birthday to the U.S. of A. Enjoy your day today! Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness Ive often thought about this phrase from John Locke Im not sure when it became so meaningful to me but it has become on of my ideals. I want this for myself, and for others. I hope that you feel that you can pursue happiness, that you have the liberty to do so, and that you can enjoy life. Happy birthday to the U.S. of A. Enjoy your day today!

How Does Your Personal Brand Sound - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How Does Your Personal Brand Sound - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Like breaking glass accompanied by nails on a chalkboard, this lovely girl at Sephora talked to me while I bought $358 of hope in a jar (actually three jars of faux lifting and smoothing bamboo sap based gunk from Amore Pacific for my face).   She was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic, and screeched like tires on dry asphalt when she opened her mouth. Her words so badly hurt my ears; I backed away like she had a gun. I ran to a register line, clutching my attempt to reduce redness and improve collagen production via what I hope is a renewable source from the rainforest so I’m not denying the flying monkeys and man-sized insects their rightful place on earth. But the aural nightmare continued in the name of excellent service by this well-trained Sephora employee. She walked to an open register, screeched some syllables that somehow indicated she would ring up my purchases. I slunk over to the register and got guillotined by the sharp blade of her shrill, piercing shriek, “Let me get you some free samples.” , in her high pitched, catfight voice, she drove me to the brink of fleeing the store without my stuff, as she went on about how everyone at the store loved the brand I was purchasing. Then, she tried to insist I trade in some of my Sephora points that I somehow collect by virtue of knowing my daughter’s name and birthday. But, I closed my eyes, shook my head and murmured/begged, “Please, I have to go.” When the air hit my face as I exited the store while clutching my black and white bag of goo, I felt liberated from the torture of being her well attended to customer. I also felt so sorry for her. I’m sure I haven’t been the first person in her life to run away from her. Yet, I couldn’t do anything more for her. How do you tell someone, “Your voice hurts my ears? No one does. So like the bad-breath person, the smelly clothes person and the guy who never washes his hair: we just endure your presence if you’re suffering from a malady you don’t detect. You never know why you don’t get ahead at work. Why no one wants to ride with you. Why you aren’t asked to join us for a drink unless we can somehow separate you from the herd, without hurting your feelings. Sights and sounds matter. Your personal brand is defined not just by the values and qualities that create meaning in our lives. Your personal brand is not just your Facebook posts or your blog. Your personal brand is not just what you’ve Pinterested or thrown onto Google+ for us to digest. Your personal brand is all of you. If you have strangled voice syndrome, there is help for you. Get to a qualified speech therapist. If you just haven’t thought about what you sound like, record yourself. Not just when you’re practicing a speech, but also when you are on the phone speaking (your side of the conversation only, please) or conversing in your office. Some self-help remedies? Listen to broadcasters, voiceovers on commercials and your favorite (non-punk) recording artist. Think Sting not Black Flag. Deborah Harry not Wendy O’Williams. Sean Connery not Fran Drescher. Find a role model, figure out what he or she is doing that you can imitate until you’ve perfected the personal brand that sounds like the one we can’t wait to hear from. Author: Nance Rosen  is the author of  Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at  NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name:  nancerosen

4 Ways To Sabotage Your Chances With A Potential Employer

4 Ways To Sabotage Your Chances With A Potential Employer Finding a job isnt easy at the best of times. With literally hundreds of people applying for the same vacancies, the chances of your job search resulting in you being picked for the post are slim. Sorry to say it, but if you have already faced numerous rejection letters, you know this to be true. And if you have been the recipient of those thanks but no thanks correspondences, its entirely possible that you have done yourself no favors in your attempts to land yourself a job within the vacancies available to you. As we will consider in this article, you can reduce your chances of being picked by a potential employer because of some very silly mistakes. Dont waste your job search efforts! Here are just some of the ways you can sabotage your chances with a potential employer. Send in a generic cover letter Do you include the same cover letter with each of your applications? If so, this shows minimal job search effort on your part. You should write a fresh cover letter for each job, including the hiring managers name (instead of Dear Sir/Madam), and tailoring it to fit the job you are applying for. You dont have to go into massive amounts of detail, as your resumé will cover most aspects of your worth for the job, but you should still briefly explain why your skills make you a valuable candidate. Use these cover letter tips to help you create something of greater impact to the employer. Make little effort with your resumé Your resumé will quickly find itself in the recycling bin if its unformatted, full of spelling and grammar mistakes, and lacking in relevant detail. As with your cover letter, you need to put the work in, but there are ways to make the process easier. You might use one of these professional-looking resume templates for a start, as not only are they nicely presented, but they clearly break up your resumé into the relevant categories, so you know what you need to include in your text. You should also use Words spell checker, or an online tool such as Grammarly, to ensure you dont send in your resumé with any blunderous errors. Research further resumé tips online to improve your chances. Turn up late for the interview Oh sure, you might have an excellent excuse for turning up late the bus didnt turn up, you were abducted by aliens but when the interview panel has a busy schedule ahead of them, they wont be interested in your rushed apologies. When you attend an interview, first impressions are everything, and turning up late is not going to go in your favor. Therefore, make every effort to turn up at least twenty minutes early, even if this means getting out of bed earlier, or catching a bus that gets you into town way ahead of time. Give a bad interview Interviews can be nerve-wracking, so a few mistakes on your part can usually be forgiven by the employer. However, some mistakes are less than forgivable. If you havent done your homework into the company, for example, your lack of research will show when you are asked to answer certain questions. And if you have no questions of your own to ask at the end of an interview, the employer might assume you arent particularly interested in the company you are applying to. Therefore, do your preparation beforehand. Research the company so you arent stuck for the relevant answers, and prepare a few interview questions of your own to further impress your potential employer. Then look for further advice online, as the better equipped you are at the interview stage, the greater your chances of securing the open position. Make Your Job Search Pay Off To improve your chances of landing the job you want then, be mindful of the blunders we have highlighted above. With a decent cover letter and resumé, and the appropriate behavior at interview, you may well stand out amongst the competition who are battling to win the jobs you have been applying for. We wish you every success in your search. Job search Image credit.

What to do in college to be successful in your career

What to do in college to be successful in your career For those of you about to start another year at school, heres a list of things to keep in mind: Twenty things to do in college to set yourself up for a great job when you graduate. 1. Get out of the library. You can have a degree and a huge GPA and not be ready for the workplace. A student should plan that college is four years of experience rather than 120 credits, says William Coplin, professor at Syracuse University and author of the book, 10 Things Employers Want You to Learn in College. Many people recommend not hiring someone with a 4.0 because that student probably has little experience beyond schoolwork. 2. Start a business in your dorm room. Its relatively easy, and Google and Yahoo are dying to buy your business early, when its cheap. Besides, running a company in your room is better than washing dishes in the cafeteria. Note to those who play poker online until 4am: Gambling isnt a business. Its an addiction. 3. Dont take on debt that is too limiting. This is not a reference to online gambling, although it could be. This is about  choosing a state school over a pricey private school.  If thats still too tough financially, then consider starting at a community college or look into  online degrees vs traditional  ones.  Almost everyone agrees you can get a great education at an inexpensive school. So in many cases the  debt  from a private school is  more career-limiting  than the lack of brand name on your diploma. 4. Get involved on campus. When it comes to career success, emotional intelligence social skills to read and lead others get you farther than knowledge or job competence, according to Tiziana Casciaro, professor at Harvard Business School. Julie Albert, a junior at Brandeis University, is the director of her a-cappella group and head of orientation this year. She hones her leadership skills outside the classroom, which is exactly the place to do it. 5. Avoid grad school in the humanities. Survival rates in this field are very close to survival rates on the Titanic. One in five English PhDs find stable university jobs, and the degree wont help outside the university: Schooling only gives you the capacity to stand behind a cash register, says Thomas Benton, a columnist at the Chronicle of Higher Education (who has a degree in American Civilization from Harvard and a tenured teaching job.) 6. Skip the law-school track. Lawyers are the most depressed of all professionals. Stress in itself does not make a job bad, says Alan Krueger, economist at Princeton University. Not having control over ones work does make a bad job, though, and lawyers are always acting on behalf of someone else. Suicide is the leading cause of premature death among lawyers. (Evan Shaeffer has a great post on this topic.) 7. Play a sport in college. People who play sports earn more money than couch potatoes, and women executives who played sports attribute much of their career success to their athletic experience, says Jennifer Cripsen, of Sweet Briar College. You dont need to be great at sports, you just need to be part of a team. 8. Separate your expectations from those of your parents. Otherwise you wake up and realize youre not living your own life, says Alexandra Robbins, author of the popular new book The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids. (Note to parents: If you cringe as you read this list then you need to read this book.) 9. Try new things that youre not good at. Ditch the superstar mentality that if you dont reach the top, president, A+, editor in chief, then the efforts were worthless. Its important to learn to enjoy things without getting recognition, says Robbins. 10. Define success for yourself. Society defines success very narrowly. Rather than defining success as financial gain or accolades, define it in terms of individual interests and personal happiness, says Robbins. 11. Make your job search a top priority. A job does not fall in your lap, you have to chase it. Especially a good one. Its a job to look for a job. Stay organized by using Excel spreadsheets or online tools to track your progress. And plan early. Goldman Sachs, for example, starts their information sessions in September. 12. Take a course in happiness. Happiness studies is revolutionizing how we think of psychology, economics, and sociology. How to be happy is a science that 150 schools in the country teach. Preview: Learn to be more optimistic. This class will show you how. 13. Take an acting course. The best actors are actually being their most authentic selves, says Lindy Amos, of communications coaching firm TAI Resources. Amos teaches executives to communicate authentically so that people will listen and feel connected. You need to learn to do this, too, and you may as well start in college. 14. Learn to give a compliment. The best compliments are specific, so good job is not good, writes Lisa Laskow Lahey, psychologist at Harvard and co-author of How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work. Practice on your professors. If you give a good compliment the recipient will think youre smarter: Big payoff in college, but bigger payoff in the work world. 15. Use the career center. These people are experts at positioning you in the workforce and their only job is to get you a job. How can you not love this place? If you find yourself thinking the people at your colleges career center are idiots, its probably a sign that you really, really dont know what youre doing. 16. Develop a strong sense of self by dissing colleges that reject you. Happy people have a more durable sense of self and arent as buffeted by outside events, writes Sonja Lyubomirsky of the University of California-Riverside. When bad things happen, dont take it personally. This is how the most successful business people bounce back quickly from setback. 17. Apply to Harvard as a transfer student. Sure people have wild success after going to an Ivy League school but this success is no more grand than that of the people who applied and got rejected. People who apply to Ivy League schools seem to have similar high-self-confidence and ambition, even if they dont get in, according to research by Krueger. 18. Get rid of your perfectionist streak. It is rewarded in college, but it leads to insane job stress, and an inability to feel satisfied with your work. And for all of you still stuck on #6 about ditching the law school applications: The Utah Bar Journal says that lawyers are disproportionately perfectionists. 19. Work your way through college. Getting involved in student organizations counts, and so does feeding children in Sierra Leone or sweeping floors in the chemistry building. Each experience you have can grow into something bigger. Albert was an orientation leader last year, and she turned that experience into a full-time summer job that morphed into a position managing 130 orientation leaders. A great bullet on the resume for a junior in college. 20. Make to do lists. You cant achieve dreams if you dont have a plan to get there.

Will regular Exercise make me more Productive CareerMetis.com

Will regular Exercise make me more Productive â€" CareerMetis.com I have always taken my health fitness seriously, and have been pretty active over the past few years. Though I cannot flaunt muscles like Arnold Schwarzenegger or show agility like Michael Phelps â€" I have personally experienced multiple benefits of regular exercise â€" reduced stress, less sick time, improved health and of course who doesn’t like looking feeling good This realization about the connection between exercise and productivity has lead me to do some reading research. What initially started as a hunch, I was able to validate by reading multiple scientific studies and experiments.Yes,exercise We know that we tend to work better when we feel good. We tend to perform well in all areas of our lives when we have a stronger self-esteem, i.e feeling good about ourselves. Exercise definitely aids in enhancing your self-esteem.No matter what type of exercise you do â€" yoga or running or martial arts â€" it is very taxing. You demand more from yourself, you push yourself out of the comfort zone , you do something that you initially thought was difficult. As you do more of that- your self-esteem sky-rockets â€" and as a result your confidence goes up.This naturally carries over to other areas of your life. And so when you go to do your work, you already have an unfair advantage over others . As a result, you get more work done and you do it faster.2. DISCIPLINE WILL-POWERLike I mentioned earlier, every exercise program is daunting, it is physically and mentally taxing. You are forced to give it your best. T. Harv Eker has a famous quote “How you do anything is how you do everything” , this means if you are disciplined with your health, the chances are higher that you are disciplined at work. If you work harder in the gym ,chances are you will work harder at work.And the more disciplined you are at work, you pay more attention to your tasks projects â€" you want to get more done â€" you tend to get more done. That definitely is an increase in produ ctivity.3. IMPROVED ENERGYevalI workout in the morning. It is hard each and every day â€" I often ask myself “Why the heck am I doing this in the morning? Can’t I just do it in the evenings like other civilized humans?” But I do it anyway. It is exhausting, and it feels great once it is all done. But when I go to work , I have a tremendous surge of energy The reason most people don’t stick to any new habit is because they try to change too many things. I suggest you keep it simple. Don’t overwhelm yourself with the details and don’t make it mentally too hard, such that you don’t even start. Just pick something as mentioned before and stick with it. Keep it simple stupid.3. CommitmentMake it a priority. You can always make time for something important- for something that will guaranteed increase your quality of life and work. Some find it useful to put in their calendars. For someone like me, I have to get it done first thing in the morning (otherwise I make excuses lat er for not doing it). If you make it an appointment type of thing â€" you are more likely to stick with it. We rarely skip our appointments with our accountants or dentists right? So why don’t you apply the same principle with yourself.I hope I have given you a small nudge or kick in the butt to make exercise a part of your career success strategy. I strongly recommend you also read these two books that provide more case studies and proof about the correlation between fitness and workplace success.The Power of Habit by Charles DuhiggBe Excellent at Anything by Tony SchwartzAs I mentioned earlier, I have actively been exercising for the past few years and have seen a direct correlation to my productivity and how I perform in the workplace.I am sure you have similar stories about how staying fit and healthy has helped you in your career. Share your thoughts here.

20 Careers Where Women Outnumber Men

20 Careers Where Women Outnumber Men I know that Tuesday was International Working Womens Day, but since I think we should celebrate working women (and men!) everyday, I decided to hold off on this post so it could get some air time on one of the other 364 days of the year when women are making meaningful contributions to the world of work.According to a recent report by Forbes, there are 20 careers dominated by women. The top 5 are:1. Registered Nurses 2. Meeting Convention Planners 3. Elementary Middle School Teachers 4. Tax Examiners, Collectors and Revenue Agents 5. PsychologistsWomen are also outnumbering men in some fields you many not have expected and more women than men are accountants, business operations specialists, and medical scientists. Heres the full list with the breakdown of the percentage of women in the field.1. Registered Nurses (92%) 2. Meeting Planners (83.3%) 3. Elementary and Middle School Teachers (81.9%) 4. Tax Examiners, Collectors and Revenue Agents (73.8%) 5. Medical and Health Services M anagers (69.5%) 6. Social and Community Service Managers (69.4%) 7. Psychologists (68.8%) 8. Business Operations Specialists (68.4%) 9. HR Managers (66.8%) 10. Financial Specialists (66.6%) 11. Tax Preparers (65.9%) 12. Education Administrators (62.6%) 13. Insurance Underwriters (62.8%) 14. Accountants/Auditors (61.8%) 15. Veterinarians (61.2%) 16. Claims Adjusters, Appraisers, Examiners and Investigators (60.6%) 17. Budget Analysts (59.3%) 18. Medical Scientists (56.9%) 19. Advertising and Promotion Managers (56.5%) 20. Financial Managers (54.7%)

Where to Find a Resume Writing Glossary

Where to Find a Resume Writing GlossaryLooking for a resume writing glossary? There are many places you can turn to when you are looking for a list of key terms and acronyms that you need to know when creating a resume.The first place that I recommend is a database where you can look up any word or phrase and find out how to spell it or what meaning the phrase has. This will be especially helpful if you are looking for the meaning of a certain term on your own, as the reference will probably be quite accurate.Another great place to go is to look at the definitions of the words you might find in a dictionary. The dictionary may include a definition for a term that you are looking for, but not everyone is able to read or understand those definitions, and so if you are looking for a definition the help of a dictionary may be able to help you out. A word like 'mistake' is really not defined very well in the dictionary, but one can find an explanation of the term in other places.Search en gines are another great place to look, and you can also find a lot of lists on job boards and resume sites. These lists may be able to give you an idea of which words to use in a resume, but you may also want to look at a more comprehensive list of all the terms used in job hunting, which can be found by searching online.For each particular aspect of the job you are applying for, there are likely to be several terms you need to learn. The job description is a phrase that will vary from one company to another, but many companies will require some level of qualifications, experience, or education before they are willing to hire someone. You may find this information in the employment requirements that a company will ask for when they are hiring, but you can also get this information from the website of the company you are interested in.If you are working for a particular company, you may want to find out the different jobs that are available. A website that offers a large amount of jo b listings will be able to tell you which jobs you may be interested in and where you will find the information you need. You can also find a lot of information from the job board, including how long it takes to become a regular employee at a certain company, and which jobs are available at what salaries.The resume writing glossary is a great resource if you are searching for a list of terms or acronyms. It is possible to get a good definition for a term by looking online, reading the dictionary, or looking in a job board or through the company itself. But if you are searching for a glossary online, you may find that it is easier to go with what you can find on your own.