The Optimistic vs Pessimistic Job Applicant - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

The Optimistic vs Pessimistic Job Applicant - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career There are two ways to look at life, ones job search and the inevitable interviewing rejection each job seeker incurs. The first is to imagine the worst and be prone to depression when we encounter each roadblock. The second is to look at interviewing rejection as a temporary setback and to leverage that disappointment into action rather than stagnation. It should come to no surprise as to which thought processes is more beneficial. Job seekers who think positively will interview more effectively, receive higher salaries and enjoy more career options. During their job search, optimists know that rejection will happen, though they also believe that rejection is one step closer to a successful outcome. Conversely, pessimists can crumble at even the most minor setback. They expect the worse; worry in their life is rampant. Their stress is consistently high and their pay is much less robust. At the same time, their expectations, self-confidence and, subsequent performance remain low. Luckily, your thought process and fortunes can change. It just takes some practice. Changing the way you think, changing the way you interview The first route to finding a better job with higher pay and surviving an arduous job search is to change your frame of mind. Begin to think more positively. While its easier said than done, heres how to do so. 1. Check your worrying Pessimists often worry about everything and anything they can. When they have a productive interview, they feel that it is a fluke. When they receive a job offer, they worry that the position will be given to someone else. Though, for any job seeker, worrying does absolutely no good. It lowers interviewing focus, it erodes ones ability to negotiate salary and makes the overall job search unpleasant. One of the best exercises to stop worrying and begin to think positively about ones job search is to do the following: Catch yourself worrying and ask as to whether your time could be spent productively somewhere else. Write down all the times youve worried about this particular outcome and determine when, if ever the outcome youre  concerned about has ever come true. Have contingency plans. Write down a list of solutions and actions you could take if what youre worrying about becomes  reality. Naturally, this will mitigate your concerns. Ex: If I dont get the job offer from company x, I will apply to _______, _________ and ________ firms. 2. Learn to be self-reliant-  Emotional dependency comes out of our need to be right and our need to get approval. Often, interviewers look to interviewees and recruiters to validate their worth which is a very poor habit. Instead, its important for the job seeker to begin to learn that only they are in charge of their feelings and actions. Its imperative that anybody on the job market begins to trust their intuition and stops fearing fault or being incorrect. Risk rejection. If a job seeker is self-reliant, they are willing to take chances and speak their mind. Conversely, if they are dependent on others thoughts and actions, their performance and career will be a fraction of what it could be. There are certain ways a job seeker can train himself or herself to be more self-reliant. Know where you want to go in life. When you begin to achieve goals on your own, your confidence rises and, subsequently you learn to trust yourself. Take a few minutes and reflect upon the successes youve had as a job seeker. Often, we think about our failures and overlook all of the positives weve achieved. Expect to obtain your goal. Visualize your success and have faith that if you do the work youre supposed to, things will fall into place. 3. Begin to view rejection in a different light  We are emotional creatures and rejection is never easy. Though, when a job seeker is rejected by a company, they tend to think the worst. Negative thinking drains a job seekers energy, creativity and focus. Running an executive search firm, I can tell you that there are a myriad of reasons as to why a firm would postpone a hire. Often, its not personal. Here is how our recruiters recommend that a job seeker begin to view job search rejection: Realize that the person who did not hire you isnt necessarily correct in their judgement. Bad hires happen every day. Make corrections. Life is about making corrections and learning from our mistakes. Take action and keep busy. When you begin to get down, its imperative that you begin an activity that will put your focus elsewhere. Its not too late Regardless of how many rejections, poor interviews or failures you may have had, begin to adjust your mental picture during the interview process. There is no job seeker too senior or too junior to change their thought process. Running an executive recruiting firm, I can vouch that its a lot more lucrative to think glass half full. Therefore, you might as well learn how to do so. Author: Ken Sundheim  is the CEO of  KAS Placement Recruiting  a sales and marketing executive search firm based out of New York City. He is also a writer for Forbes.

Webinar. How to be a millionaire from your blog. Really.

Webinar. How to be a millionaire from your blog. Really. You would not know from my blog that I actually make money from it. The first reason you wouldnt know is that there are no ads on the blog. The second reason you wouldnt know is that I havent posted in a week. In fact, though, blogging has made me tons of money. I could say millions. Its sort of semantic though, the millions part, because even being the Big Mac guy at McDonalds makes you millions if you add up salary from a forty-year career of burger flipping. I tell you guys all the time to forget about making money from your blog. But I also tell you to post at least three times a week to have a blog that is useful. And look, Im violating that rule. So I think Ill just go ahead and violate my other rule, too: Im going to do a webinar about how to make money from blogging without running ads. (Its Wednesday, March 31 at 8 pm eastern. Sign up here. ) I guess that another thing about my webinar about making money from a blog will be that it takes a lot of self-discipline. I think I have self-discipline, but honestly, Im not sure. Because right now the only thing Im doing on a daily basis is obsessing about what color to paint the dining room of the farmhouse that I want to treat as the historical building that it is, but Im drawn to geographically inappropriate color schemes from French provincial life. For an example of someone who is not messing up her blog via semi-systematic neglect, check out Maria Killams blog Colour Me Happy. I first started noticing her when she linked to me a bunch of times. Heres a tidbit: I always check out people who link to me; blogging is not only a tool for gauging ones self-discipline, but also gauging ones self-absorption. So anyway, late at night, when I ?m trying to procrastinate without stooping to watching Britains Got Talent reruns on You Tube. (Heres one of my favorites.) I go to Marias blog and look at the photos. Shes so weird about the photos because they are beautiful but generally unrelated to the post, and somehow she makes that work. I went there so many times that every time I found myself with a color problem â€" like being obsessed with pink for the bedroom even though the farmer has said no, definitely no I think to myself, What would Maria do? So I hired her as my color consultant. Well, she actually said shed do it for free. But I would have paid her. And this will be part of my webinar: Its not really blogging that makes you millions. Its doing work for free that makes you millions. And Ill tell how to decide what to do. There. That was catchy and enticing. Great. Sign up here for the webinar.

How Your Career is Like a Startup

How Your Career is Like a Startup There’s a lot you can learn about your own career by comparing the journey to that of a  technology startup. Most of the principles and practices associated with startup success can be  applied directly to your own work and pattern at your job. Consider that a startup, much like you, is attempting to prove a level of competency and  advance forward amongst their peers. They start from a base of knowledge or an idea and must  execute on project after project to earn the trust of customers, investors, and partners. Over  time, their level of execution grants them more customers, investors, and partners. A career is  no different. The better you equip and continuously train yourself, the more you earn in the form  of salary, equity, prestige, title, flexibility, and responsibility. Bootstrapping When founders first get together to start a startup, they go through a long bootstrapping process  where they spend their time quietly building a product or prototype, testing a business model,  and validating their idea. This step is crucial to a successful startup: without a product, a proven  method of how to sell it, and a clear need for that product, a startup provides nothing of value.  They’ll find it difficult to raise money or earn revenue, and will end up as one of the 90% of  startup failures. Along that same train of thought, your own career goes through a lengthy bootstrapping  process. Whether you’re a recent grad, a career transitioner, or you just received a promotion,  you need to go through a proving process when beginning a new leg in your professional  journey. That involves taking the skills and knowledge you do have, putting them into practice, and  developing a portfolio of work (your resume) over time â€" all for the sake of proving to others that  you’re valuable and earning you the ability to move forward in your career. Whether that’s in the  form of increased compensation or a new job at an awesome company, going through a  successful bootstrap phase is the first step to anyone’s eventual success. So when you’re in the bootstrapping phase of your career, diligently work on your own product  (skills), your business model (prove value and build a network), and validation of your work  (projects, internships, portfolios). Then, develop a marketing plan to sell your skills to companies  you want to work for. Accountability In a startup, there’s a very short chain of accountability. Every employee, manager, and founder  has more direct responsibility than in any traditional company. There is a very muddled chain of  command, and everyone answers for their own work. Further, startups adopt metrics and  methods of evaluation that make it extremely clear who is doing their work and who is slacking. After all, a small team is only as strong as its weakest member, and can’t afford to keep unproductive team members on board. Your career should run along the same lines. You are only truly accountable to yourself, and the  buck stops with you. You need to have metrics and evaluations upon which you can determine  your own successes and failures. What did you do for the last organization you worked for? Were there tangible results? Can you measure the impact? Knowing your own output also lets  you set new goals and push beyond your limits. Flexibility A startup lives and dies on its flexibility. Do the founders recognize when something is going  wrong? Do they recognize opportunity and capture it at the right time? Are they willing to pivot  when they see things aren’t going well? Is the team willing to scrap parts or all of something  they’ve been working on if they can’t prove value? Your career can also live or die on your flexibility. Are you constantly learning something new? If  you see that your skills are lacking in particular areas, are you working on developing them? If  you’re unhappy with your career path, are you willing to pivot? The tools are there for you to do  any of this. Coursera, General Assembly, Khan Academy, Duolingo, Wikipedia… the list goes  on and on. Strive to place yourself in a position where you are always learning, whether within  your field or outside of it. The most valuable talent is the most adaptable, so rest assured that  your efforts will be noticed. No It’s a word that startup founders hear all the time as they build their business. Will you invest in  the company? No. Will you buy our product? No. Have we done enough? No. This will also happen many times in your career. Will you give me an interview? No. Do you  consider me qualified for this job? No. Will you hire me? No. Can I have a promotion? No. What doesn’t matter is the no. What matters is how the startup responds. The best startups  aren’t content with just hearing no and moving forward without making any changes. They strive  to change that answer from a no to a yes, no matter how much effort it takes. They know how to  judge valid criticism from worthless negativity, and they know how to synthesize criticism into a  positive plan of action. The same applies for your career. No can be a devastating answer to hear, but you have to  move past it. Look to learn from the people who say no to you. Ask them for feedback or  consider for yourself what might have led to their decision. And keep trucking! Sometimes, in an effort to do something great, you’ll hear no a lot. Life can  often be a numbers game. Don’t stop after talking to one company in your area of interest, or  two, or five â€" you never know who might recognize the value you can offer or be willing to give  you a chance. Author: Stefan Mancevski is co-founder of JobHero, a free all-in-one job search dashboard enabling you  to organize, optimize, and upgrade your hunt for a new gig.  You can follow Stefan on Twitter at  @smancevski.

Job Search Resources The Whole World Is At Your Fingertips

Job Search Resources The Whole World Is At Your Fingertips Job Search Resources: The Whole World Is At Your Fingertips Job search resources are more plentiful than you know.   Actually the whole world is at your fingertips if you can train yourself to think like a library operates. Many moons ago (we won’t discuss how many), I worked in my university’s library as part of my work-study program while in school. At the time, it was a somewhat interesting job working in the periodicals department, but I was at that age where I would have much rather spent my time lounging in the sun doing nothing.   C’est la vie. It wasn’t until many years later that I realized that this experience actually helped shape my critical thinking skills. Because of all the resources I was using, if I didn’t know the answer personally, I knew which ones would. But what this time taught me the most was that I needed to be resourceful and think things through. Using a process of elimination that exerted critical thinking skills enabled me to able to zero in on what I needed. It’s not magic.   Nor is it luck. Mostly, it is about hard work and sheer persistence… that’s the magic sauce that will give you what you want. Everyone needs to put some elbow grease into the search, and not throw up their hands in frustration if they don’t immediately get the information they want. Let’s play this scenario out: You are looking for a job in a specific field, but are starting from scratch. You don’t know anyone, and you don’t know what jobs are out there. Here are some steps demonstrating how you can think like a library: 1)           Do a Google search of “industry field name” â€" see what companies come up. 2)           Go back and do another Google search under “News” to search for that target company in the news. 3)           Go to their website to learn more about what they do. 4)           Using the company website, follow them on social media.   Note: larger companies on Twitter may have a separate HR or recruiter account so you could be interacting with them directly. 5)           Follow the company on LinkedIn to get any news updates. 6)           Start using LinkedIn to find people who work at that company. 7)           Look at each person’s profile to see the types of professional memberships they hold, and make note of them so you can join them too. Still stuck? There are tons of ways to dig up business information tools using Boolean searches.   Don’t know how to build a Boolean search string? There are a lot of tools on the web, but borrowing a page from recruiters’ playbook used to search for top-tier talent, you can set up a search for a particular company’s HR manager by typing into Google: (“Human Resources Manager” OR “HR Director”) AND (Company Name) You’d be surprised how much info pops up using these tools! If you want to learn more about Boolean search strings to uncover hidden data about target companies, you can Google the term to look for online tutorials and instructions. The information and job search resources you desire are right in your reach.

What You Should Include On Your Resume

What You Should Include On Your ResumeBefore you use any of the resume writing software to help you, you need to understand the basics of getting a job in the tech sector. In recent years, more people are choosing to work in the IT sector for their career advancement. Now that a lot of companies in the technology industry are on a business expansion mode, they are needing more skilled professionals to do the job. This is exactly what you will need to accomplish when you start to write your resume.Before you write a resume, it is a good idea to do some online research. There are many places on the internet where you can get advice and tips from experienced professionals who can help you with your career and employment requirements. But do not think that just because the person has been in the field of job training for quite some time, he or she can also teach you anything about how to write a resume. When you are trying to learn the proper resume writing, remember that you should make sure that you have a good idea about the goal that you are trying to achieve while writing your resume. This will not only make you able to write the resume efficiently but also give you the chance to express yourself in the best possible way.After you decide on your career goals, you must first find out how much experience you have to demonstrate. If you are not very confident about the level of expertise in the field you want to work in, you can always consult a professional resume writer who can analyze your skills and experience in writing a resume. In order to get an accurate opinion about how competent you are, you can always get in touch with the same to help you improve your skills.In resume writing, it is one of the most important things that you need to include your experience as it will help you stand out among the others who are applying for the same position. If you make sure that you include all the relevant experience in the form of a letter that will be attached to your resume, it will surely give you an edge over the other applicants.Also, it is very important that you list the requirements you have in terms of education and the kind of job you are looking for. Although having this information down on paper is not the only requirement, it is always a good thing to list all the necessary requirements especially if you do not know what to put down.After you have read the job description and the position that you are applying for, you must make sure that your resume is both readable and attractive. A well-written resume will help you stand out among the rest of the applicants so it is very important that you go in for a professional resume writing software to make sure that you don't waste time.The resume writing software will make the entire job a lot easier for you. These days, you can get all kinds of software to help you with your resume writing including resume templates and sample resumes that will make your job of writing the resume a lot easier.