5 Ways to Achieve Your Career Goals Building Your Future Now

5 Ways to Achieve Your Career Goals Building Your Future Now What are your career goals? Take a few moments to think about what your career goals are. However, if have your goals in mind achieving them might be the issue. Here are 5 ways to achieve your career goals: 1. Constantly Building Your Network This is something that can not be understated: networking is key to building a solid career. You must constantly look for opportunities to network yourself, your skills and experience to other professionals. Whether it be at network functions, parties, associations or meet-ups you must always be ready to meet others and be ready for new opportunities. Sometimes the best career opportunities are the ones that are least expected so always be aware that every encounter with a new person is another chance to bring a new perspective to your career. 2. Specialization Focusing on a specialization or a niche is a highly marketable aspect to your career. If you are excellent at sales and more specifically are knowledgeable on a certain industryyou can do very well in that niche. People will associate you with being an expert in not only that industry but in customer service and sales. 3. Helping Others No matter how far you come in your career or if you are just starting out helping others is a definite must if you want to achieve your career goals. People are always seeking some wisdom or knowledge, or simply a helping handalways find time to focus on others and do good. 4. Adaptability At the end of the day no job can guarantee security. Even if youre the best, you can be fired or let go in a blink of an eye. Thats why you must adapt to situations like when finding a new opportunity or if your company needs to take on a new or dual roles. You need to position yourself as a professional willing to succeed in tough assignments, career paths or simply new jobs. Its about being fearless and adapting to any career situation to further help you achieve your career goals. 5. Seek a Mentor Perhaps one of the most important things you must do in your career is seeking a mentor! Someone who willing to help you, teach you and keep you focused on the right direction. A mentor will provide you with guidance and an opportunity to bounce ideas off of and help build your confidence. They are your professional rocks: sound in judgement and strong in experience. If you have a good mentor they will truly help you grow professionally and even personally along your path to a great career. Image: Rob Towne

From Duties to Accomplishments

From Duties to Accomplishments If you’re still sending resumes that simply re-hash your job duties, it’s going to be hard to stand out in this economy. Your resume pages (usually one or two at the most) should be considered valuable real estate. Any words or phrases that don’t pull their weight should be eliminated so you can fill the space with accomplishments. There are three things hiring managers want to know about your past experience, and with few exceptions, your job duties aren’t one of them. After all, if you are applying for a similar job, the hiring manager has a job description that will be very close to that of your previous job. She know what you’ll be asked to do; what she doesn’t know is how good you’ll be at it. So back to the three things the hiring manager wants to know: what  volume of work you handled, how complex the work was that you performed, and how good you were at doing it. You can help by simply adding more detail. Take the job duties that you’ve listed, and start by adding quantity and quality information wherever you can. I recently reviewed a resume that simply said: “Cold called Prospective and current customers to originate first and second mortgages.” That’s a duty that’s crying out to be turned into an accomplishment. How many calls did she (not her real name) make? How many did she close? How did she rank among her sales peers? Without any information on the resume about how she did, we have to assume it wasn’t very well. Even some accomplishment-oriented resumes leave value on the table. Here’s a recent example: “Salvaged critical expense containment project that enabled faster and more accurate billing and improved cash flow.” Good, but not yet great. Adding details on how much faster and more accurate billing became or how much cash flow improved would make this accomplishment 47% more effective (results are approximate.)

Personal Branding Interview Anita Bruzzese - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Anita Bruzzese - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke with Anita Bruzzese, who is a nationally syndicated columnist on the workplace and award-winning journalist.   You might have seen her work in your local newspaper or in USA Today.   In this interview, Anita weighs in on career development versus personal brand management, how she got her role as a syndicated columnist, if print media is dead and more. Do you see career development morning into personal brand management anytime soon?   Why or why not? I think they have to go hand-in-hand. I think having one without the other has come back to bite a lot of people, big time. Too many people made the mistake of networking only within their industry, or promoting themselves only as part of a company. So, when that industry or that company got into trouble, these people were left with few options.They didnt develop a personal brand that could stand on its own. I think as part of any career someone must always be working on developing a personal brand that distinguishes them, no matter who they work for or what industry they are in. How did you become a syndicated columnist?   What were the challenges? Its one of those cases of being in the right time at the right place with the right skills. I was doing a workplace column for a Gannett-owned newspaper in Pensacola. Gannett News Service called the business editor there one day and said,Were looking for some new columns. Got anything interesting? He mentioned me, and GNS immediately picked up my column. It was one of the first in the country written by a journalist covering careers and the workplace, and immediately became one of Gannetts most popular columns. Its been running for almost 16 years. As you can imagine, the challenge has been and continues to be providing readers with the best information I can to help them on their jobs. Right now, I feel an even greater responsibility because of this bad job market. Every week I interview someone who has been laid off, and its tough. Everyone is talking about the economy and there is a lot of advice. What are we missing? While Ive interviewed a lot of people who have lost jobs, the vast majority of them say they see it as a chance to learn and grow, to start a new chapter in their lives. So, what are we missing? Were missing the chance to learn a lesson about ourselves, and our future. The lessons may be different for different people, but theyre there. Dont let the opportunity pass you by to really get something special out of this moment in your life. If someone left web 2.0 tools out of their job search, how much longer would it take them to get a job and why? I think it is one of the many tools you need in your search. Just like you shouldnt be expected to survive in the wilderness with only a shovel, you need to understand you cant job search with only one tool. So, participate in the the social media world. Check jobs online. But still go to face-to-face networking events, contact your alumni association for help, take some new classes. In this job market, its smart ot use all the tools at your disposal. I will say that most employers tell me they still give much more weight to a job applicant who has personally been recommended by another employee, or referred by someone they trust. That still appears to be the fast track to a job. What are your thoughts about the death of print?   Do you think everything will be online in 3 years? Watching great newspapers close their doors or dramatically cut their staff has been painful. These are often friends of mine, or people whose work I have respected for many years. They are responsible for not just putting out a newspaper every day, but for exposing wrongdoings and making sure that everyone gets their story told. Most of us in print did not take the job because we wanted to earn big money (newspapers dont pay well, never have), but because we felt a real calling to tell the stories of our communities. I dont think everything will be online in three years. Books continue to be popular, even in this bad economy. So, I think there will always be people who want the experience of holding that newspaper or magazine or book in their hands. But, I think many publications will go online, and be much more localized such as you now see with neighborhood blogs. But I hope for our sake as a free nation we dont ever lose newspapers. Anita Bruzzese is a nationally syndicated columnist on the workplace and award-winning journalist.   Also a highly rated speaker, she has addressed audiences on topics ranging from taking control of your career, avoiding workplace blunders and responsible business blogging.   She has appeared on The Today show, been interviewed on public radio and been quoted in many national publications such as O, The Oprah Magazine, Glamour and BusinessWeek.com.     Her first book, “Take This Job and Thrive” was critically acclaimed as “rendered with rousing spirit” and “sound, commonsense ideas, couched in encouragement.” (Booklist). She has been quoted in numerous publications, such as WashingtonPost.com, and a book on Fortune 500 hiring practices. She has been on radio shows nationwide as a workplace expert, and appears on USAToday.com, CareerBuilder.com, AOL’s Find a Job and the Boston Herald’s Jobfind.

Field Engineer Job Description - Algrim.co

Field Engineer Job Description - Algrim.co Field Engineer Job Description Template Download our job description template in Word or PDF format. Instant download. No email required. Download Template Using Your Template Follow these instructions to use your new job description template Step one: Fill out all details in your job description template using the provided sample on this page. Step two: Customize your requirements or duties to anything special to your workplace. Be sure to speak with team members and managers to gauge what's required of the position. Step three: When the census of the team has agreed on the description of the work, add in a Equal Employment Opportunity statement to the bottom of your job description. Step four: Check with your legal department, management team, and other team members to ensure the job description looks correct before creating a job advertisement. Choose a job board that's specific to your needs.

Easy Zety Writes Resume Tips

Easy Zety Writes Resume TipsWriting a zety writing resume can be very time consuming, but worth it in the end. It not only saves you time, but it also saves you the trouble of having to go out and find a job that best suits your qualifications. Zety writing resume is the fastest and easiest way to land the job that you want.There are many considerations that you should take into account when deciding what to include on your resume when you are trying to get your resume to the attention of your current employer. For example, most people assume that their resume has to be exactly the same as the one that you had just before. This simply isn't true.What your resume should have is an edge over any other resumes that you see in front of you by creating something that is different and making it stand out from the rest. What would make your resume stand out from all the others? Most people have no idea what makes a good resume. They basically go by what other people have written.However, if you spend a little time searching through your current employer's marketing materials, you will see that they tend to go for 'superb' resumes. This means the best written and most professional looking, too. What this means is that your resume has to be of a high quality, so that it not only catches the eye of the hiring manager, but it also sounds professional and is able to carry yourself like an expert.When writing resume, there are several tips that you should follow that will help you come up with the perfect resume for you. If you follow these simple steps, you will come up with a resume that stands out and will attract the attention of your current employer.First, you should never include information that is only for general information in your resume. You will always want to use information for which you have personal experience in. This means that you should include in your career history, especially if you are already in a field. Also, you should include your educational h istory and the kind of degree you are currently pursuing, and the number of students you have graduated.Next, the contents of your resume should be written in such a way that it stands out and gives off the impression that you are the person for the job. All information that you put in your resume should be relevant information will always be noticed. You should include such details in your resume such as your achievements, skills, and qualities.Lastly, the resume should be consistent throughout. You should avoid mixing all of your information and personal history in different areas. In fact, it would be better if you are a monotonous kind of person and stick to one section at a time.

Top Perks of Working at a Small Business - Sterling Career Concepts

Top Perks of Working at a Small Business Top Perks of Working at a Small Business Last week, we discussed the pros and cons of self-employment vs. working for a large company. As mentioned, for those individuals who work with large businesses, there are obvious perks that come with the job. For starters, larger companies can often offer very nice benefits, as well as larger salaries and plush offices. For many people, these are the things that intrigue and impress them the most and are often the perks that convince people to work for those larger businesses.  However, for those who are considering working for smaller businesses, there are certainly perks, albeit different ones, to this kind of employment as well. Whether you’re trying to decide between job offers or you’re just wanting to learn more about options available in the working world, consider the following top perks of working at a small business: 1. Room for Growth With large businesses, it’s often very hard to break through certain status levels if you haven’t been around for very long. In fact, even if you have been working for a large-scale business for quite a few years, it can be very difficult to make a spot for yourself unless someone else will eventually be stepping down, and that also means you’re likely competing with a lot of other employees for the spot. In comparison, it’s much easier to move up quickly within a smaller business because there is less competition and there is more opportunity to gain greater responsibilities. 2. You’re Closer to Senior Leaders Source: Shutterstock In large corporations, it’s not uncommon for some employees to never even meet the person in charge of the business. In these kinds of situations, individuals who are higher up may not even be in the office more than a few times a year, which can often be frustrating for employees further down. In small businesses, one of the huge perks is that you’re likely to know way more people that you work with, and you can get to know them on a much more personal level. This will often include individuals who are higher up, whom you’ll likely get to meet with much more often, and who might even work in the same office as you throughout the week. 3. Increased Camaraderie As mentioned above, working with a smaller team means that you’ll likely know way more people in the business, and you’ll know them on a personal level as well. This is often the key to a successful businessâ€"everyone is working together toward a common goal, and it becomes even easier to want to reach that goal when the team is connected on a more personal level. 4. A More Relaxed Atmosphere Smaller businesses often do not require their employees to show up in suits and full-blown business meeting attire on a daily basis. In fact, lots of businesses are embracing a more relaxed atmosphere to help reduce stress and increase relaxation, comfort, and creativity. Not only that but decorating a small business might also mean having a much more modern, relaxed office space that doesn’t support small, restricting cubicles. Nowadays, small business employees are more likely to enjoy open floor plans, which encourage a lot of conversation, brainstorming, and communicating with other workers. 5. Better Tools Source: stocksnap.io Businesses that are catering to 30 floors of employees often struggle with offering the best of the best when it comes to work tools. It isn’t easy trying to keep up with maintaining hundreds of printers, fax machines, internet shortages, and a handful of other daily problems. Luckily, in small businesses, one of the great perks is that there are fewer workers to provide for, which means more of the budget can go into better tools, including the fastest networks, the best laptops, and quality cartridges like the Canon Pixma mg3520. Having top-of-the-line products means that employees don’t have to spend time waiting for things to get fixed; more efficient tools means getting work done on time and in the best quality possible. 6. Learning About More Fields When there are 100 people working in sales and another 200 working in budgeting, it’s likely that you’re not going to be learning much about other fields when they aren’t your specialty (and if they’re on a totally different floor). One of the great perks of a small business is that you can easily start dipping your toes into other fields when your team is such a closely knit unit. You might notice that working in this kind of environment leads to having more hats in the company, and that you’ll be able to learn a lot more about the other departments and whether you can contribute to them as well. Instead of feeling as though you can only grow vertically in a specific field, smaller businesses often have opportunities to grow horizontally, as well, across various trades. 7. Great Training for the Future Source: Shutterstock If you’ve ever thought about beginning your own start-up, being a part of someone else’s small business first is a great way to start. This way, you can start to see exactly how a business grows from the ground up, what kinds of approaches tend to work, and what things are often more harmful than helpful. 8. You Won’t Be Forgotten Running a smaller business often makes it much easier for owners and management to take their workers into consideration for all kinds of different things. Generally, with such a small team, owners have the unique opportunity to speak with their employees and to get feedback from them on all kinds of things pertaining to the company. This is ideal since employees will often feel much more appreciated and valued when their management takes the initiative to include them in the workings of the company. Conclusion: Perks of Working at a Small Business There are different perks when it comes to working with a larger business, but, for those employees who are looking for something much more personal with greater possibilities, a smaller business venture might be the ideal place. Smaller businesses might not be working with quite as large of a budget, but it’s likely that a smaller business with a hard-working team will see success as a result of their efforts. If you have the patience to see a business grow and flourish, you might consider researching new start-ups in your area to see what kind of opportunities await you.

Top Job Search and Career Websites

Top Job Search and Career Websites In September, Forbes published a list of 75 career-related websites they believe deserved special recognition. I appreciated that the authors chose many different types of sites. Within the list, you will find job boards (general and industry-specific), blogs, career coaching websites, etc. I particularly like the authors recommendation to routinely look at industry-specific job websites (i.e. Dice.com for tech jobs, idealist.com for Non-Profit, mediabistro.com for media jobs) in addition to general sites (indeed.com, monster.com). Here is the entire list. The list is quite extensive and my clients and I use many of the sites. It’s hard to narrow it down, but a few of my favorite sites are below: Glassdoor â€" the user-written ‘inside scoop’ on interviews, company culture and salary Indeed â€" this job aggregator is easy to use and efficient for keyword-based job openings LinkedIn â€" the sheer volume of members and ways to connect with individuals makes this site extremely valuable whether you are an active job seeker or not The Wall Street Journal Careers site â€" there is an immense amount of free career content for individuals looking for a new job or looking to advance in their current career path The internet is full of websites individuals can access for career information, new jobs, tips/techniques, etc. including our online career counseling center. Forbes did a good job identifying 75 websites that can be particularly helpful. What is your favorite site from their list? Which website is missing that you find particularly helpful? Please share in the comment section below.