Who to Use as a Reference How to Go About it

Who to Use as a Reference How to Go About it Many job seekers spend a great deal of time researching prospective employers, polishing their cover letters   resumes, and preparing for job interviews; however, they often neglect one important aspect  of the job search process, and that is to ask people to be their references. Sometimes your references can make or break a job opportunity for you; therefore, you have to be careful about who you  include.   If youre a bit lost about who to use as a reference and how to go about it here are a few pointers to help you out. Who should you use? 1. Your current or  former bosses Your supervisors make good references, as they know about your reliability and professional abilities, and if they can put in a good word for you, you have a much better chance of landing a job. However, if you left a company on bad terms, then its probably best that you avoid using  your supervisors from that company as your references, as you dont want any negative words to be exchanged about you as a person or your work performance. Also, it goes without saying that if your current employer is unaware that you are looking for a new job, DO NOT use them as a reference. A call from another employer regarding your application isnt exactly the most subtle way of revealing that you are looking to jump ship and you dont want to jeopardise your current role if you have not yet made any progress in your job hunt. 2. Co-workers Your former co-workers know your strengths as a team player and are likely the have got to know you pretty well as an individual too, having worked with you on a daily basis. Have you helped out some co-workers in the past or worked on a successful project together? If so they will most likely have something positive to say about you. 3. Customers/ clients If you have a good relationship with some customers or clients during your time working in a particular role, ask them if they can be your references. This is particularly useful if you are looking for work in the service sector or a client facing role, as it puts an emphasis on your customer service and communication abilities. 4. Faculty members If you are a new graduate, you may not have much work experience. In this case, you can use faculty members such as your professors or personal tutor as your references. They know about your learning ability, time management and productivity; which are all qualities that are transferrable for  a work environment.   How  should you go about it? Now that you know who to use as your references, there are several things that you should keep in mind. Ask for permission to use someone as a reference. Before you give out someone’s contact information as your reference, get their permission first. Most people will say yes but it’s a common courtesy to ask for permission. Get the details of each reference. You need more than just their names and phone numbers. Make sure that you know their current position, company name, business phone numbers, as well as their personal contact information, including email address because some employers prefer to make contact by email. Prepare your references. Make sure that your references know what type of positions you are applying for. Give them a copy of your latest resume, and point out any skills and accomplishments that you would like to highlight. Thank you references. Whether your references were contacted by your prospective employers or not, make sure that you thank them for their help.

Transition the Right Way - Classy Career Girl

Transition the Right Way How would you respond if someone challenged you to reach higher  in your career and life transition? In our Classy Career Girl Network community, we are asking ourselves this question this week thanks to our guest expert, Linda Rosetti. Our special guest this week, Linda Rossetti, Harvard MBA, tech start-up CEO, and author of the book, Women and Transition: Reinventing Work and Life, offers a fresh and provocative view of transitions over the arc of womens lives. Heres what she has to say: In my work with women over the past several years, Ive observed that too often women are reluctant to reach when setting goals  for themselves. I heard this repeatedly as I interviewed more than 200 women in writing my book, Women Transition: Reinventing Work and Life. Anna and I decided to rock this observation in the form of a challenge. Join us to create a Belief Board by commenting on this post  with a statement of how you might reach higher in your transition. Lets see if we can together engage more of who we are and contribute our greatest potential to this world. Along with reaching higher, Linda also has some excellent tips for navigating transitions in our lives.  90% of women expect to transition again in the next five years. Transitions are widely misinterpreted as failures instead of growth opportunities. If you perceive your transition as a failure, it can have a negative effect by making you stall, disengage, or retreat from living the life that you imagined. Dont do this! Transitions require us to re-examine our assumptions about our identity and force  us to really evaluate what is important to us. Many of us realize that what we were doing no longer holds the meaning that it once did, so we need some tools to navigate the transitions in front of us. [Related: The One Thing That Could Be Ruining Your Career] So we challenge you to reach higher, determine what truly is important to you in your work, and to get comfortable with transitions in your life. Dont let it hold you back from the life you are meant to have. How would you respond if someone challenged you to reach higher?

Dont Make These 5 Common New Entrepreneur Mistakes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Dont Make These 5 Common New Entrepreneur Mistakes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, the world seems to be filled with bright, creative people who want to make a name for themselves. If you are ready to branch out as an entrepreneur to bring your great idea to light, start on the right foot by learning from those who have gone before. These five mistakes are common with entrepreneurs, and you can avoid them with a little education before you begin. Mistake 1 Going with your Gut Feeling Alone Most entrepreneurs start with a great idea and a good gut feeling about where their idea will go, but if thats all you have, you are destined to fail. You need to take that idea and seek validation. Make sure other people also agree that its a great idea. Now, when seeking validation, dont go to your friends or family. They are likely to agree with your idea and offer their support because they care about you. Instead, seek out the ideas of people in your industry. If you can get the ear of experts, ask them about your idea. Talk to start-up experts and see what they think of your idea. Take some time to test the idea. Find out who your target market is, then ask them if they like the idea, and what you could improve. If you are offering a product, make a prototype and give it to your target market. Use the responses you get to adapt and adjust your idea. This will help you launch on more than just a gut feeling. Keep in mind that your research and validation may bring you thoughts and feedback you did not anticipate. Your brilliant idea may need quite a bit of work to be marketable. Resist the effort to give up on your idea. Learn how to adjust and re-calculate as you figure out the best way to offer your idea to your market. Mistake 2 Failing to Market If you build it, they will come is a great tagline for a sports movie, but it doesnt work in the world of business. You cant simply develop your idea and assume it will sell itself, no matter how brilliant the idea is. You must pay some attention to marketing, both on- and off-line, to bring your idea to fruition. One of the reasons entrepreneurs ignore marketing is the cost, yet the Internet makes it possible to market with minimal cost. Using free or low-cost marketing tools, like search engine optimization or pay per click advertising, you can make your product visible without the huge investment of traditional advertising venues. Mistake 3 Ignoring Your Customers Do you know what you need to succeed as an entrepreneur? Your great idea is just the starting point. You also need customers who want what you have to offer and are willing to pay for it. No matter how great your idea is, if you dont treat those customer well, you will not be able to succeed. Take the time to listen to your customers, both before you launch and also after your product hits the shelves. Find out what your customers need from you, then provide it for them. Meet and exceed their expectations every single time, and your customers will start to reproduce themselves. You need your customers, so do everything in your power to keep them happy. Mistake 4 Lacking Focus Your creative mind can be one of your biggest downfalls if you cant learn to focus it. Many entrepreneurs are notorious for chasing one big idea after the next, and never actually bringing one to life. How can you achieve the right level of focus? First, know what your idea and goals are. If you have these clearly defined, then you can evaluate all other ideas that come your way in light of your primary goals. If the idea does not help you reach a goal that is on your list, then it needs to be shelved or discarded altogether. Mistake 5 Failing to Hire Help   Entrepreneurs are famously independent, but if your idea takes off, you arent going to be able to handle it all on your own. After all, you have a limited set of talents, and many of those talents are in your vision. You need to have a team on your side that you can trust to help you bring your vision to reality. How can you find this type of help? Talk about your vision wherever you go, and find people who have a similar vision. When you are considering hiring someone, make the choice carefully. First, look for people who believe in your idea. Next, look for people who have a different set of skills than you do. This will help you achieve balance as you seek to fulfill your idea and bring it to the public. Remember, for every entrepreneur who succeeds, there are dozens of others who do not. Make sure you are poised for success by avoiding these common pitfalls.

About Writing Speaking From the Heart Interview with Anna Runyan

About Writing Speaking From the Heart Interview with Anna Runyan I recently had the privilege to be interviewed by Arianna at Ariannas Random Thoughts  and both Arianna and I wanted to share it with you today. Arianna’s Random Thoughts empowers individuals in their daily lives, through personal stories, photographs, and conversations with others in a travel journal style. The posts aren’t set to focus on the details of everyday events, but on the bigger picture: the lessons learned from daily random happenings. Thanks, Arianna! Why do You Believe Self-Expression (speaking from the heart) is Important? Trust is really important. When I first started blogging in 2010, I was an anonymous blogger. It was really hard for people to get to know me and really relate to me because they didn’t even know my name. When I finally came out with my name and face in 2011, my engagement skyrocketed. People could relate to me and really get to know me better. I now try my best to be authentic and bring my personal life into my business. I want to be the same person in my business as in my personal life. I don’t believe that there should be a line between the two. If you go to a job and you feel like a different person while you are working than when  you are at home, then that might not be the right job for you. In business, sharing your personal details through your blog and social media is really important so people trust you and want to work with you more. How has writing empowered you in other areas of your life? Writing my blog helped me identify my passion. When you write about a certain topic for a year, you become more of an expert on it and you really realize what you enjoy learning about. Writing a blog helped me find a job as a Professor of Career Development at DeVry University. Writing a blog helped me start a career coaching business. Writing a blog helped me  land speaking opportunities at universities across the country, and helped me be featured in People and Forbes. Writing a blog helped me get a book publisher. So I think it is safe to say that writing has absolutely changed my life and career direction. How did you find your authentic voice through writing? I think you have to stop thinking about what people want you to write and just write from the heart. What do you want to write? Stop thinking about what the readers want, and think about what you want to write about. How did you develop the courage to stand tall (i.e., get the courage to share your writing)? It wasn’t too hard to start blogging because I was anonymous for a year. The courage really came when I decided to put my name and face out there. I just felt like it was the right thing to do, and I realized that I could help more people if I was able to come out of my shell. When you have a hard time writing, what do you do  to work through it? I have to go to a coffee shop and get away from my home office. Over the last year, I have written my book (coming out this fall!) and the only way I could focus on writing and editing was going to a coffee shop, turning off the social media, getting lots of caffeine, and focusing. You have to plan it in your schedule, otherwise writing won’t happen. You have to be inspired and in a creative mindset to do your best writing. Forced writing doesn’t really work for me. How did you find your support group? I reach out to people that I admire and ask to interview them. People want to help; but you have to ask, otherwise, they can’t help you!  My husband is my secret business coach. He listens to me and has amazing suggestions. I have also joined a women’s entrepreneur group and hired my own coach and that helps me to keep reaching my goals and dreams. Any advice for new writers/authors? I never knew three years ago that starting a blog would bring so many amazing opportunities. Just write a little every day and you never know where it might lead! How has writing changed your life?

All the career lessons Ive learnt from playing video games

All the career lessons Ive learnt from playing video games Like most born in the age of technology, I spent a significant chunk of my childhood playing video games. From Super Mario 64 to The Sims to The Simpsons Hit and Run, I wasted many an hour plugged into a games console. But were those hours really a waste of time? Recent research has shown that video games actually boost employability skills by improving communication, adaptability and resourcefulness. I mean, this was something that anyone who had played video games for any period of time could have told you, but its taken a while for society as a whole to cotton on. Now were even starting to see employers introduce gamification to their recruitment processes. Heck, students have won everything from Apple watches to internships by playing games on the Debut app. But video games actually teach you so much about the world if you think about it, and from playing them you gain a whole bunch of career lessons you can apply to life. You cant take your anger out on others Im not a driver, but if my reactions to video games are anything to go by, I will have some serious road rage. The thing is, at some point during your expletive-ridden tirade against Mario for just missing that jump, you have to stop and realise what an idiot youre being. Getting angry isnt going to solve anything. In fact its just going to make your game playing worse and youll likely lose a couple of lives in the process. So whether your colleague at work hasnt done what you asked or your favourite Sim keeps running back towards the fire (why!?), take a deep breath, stay calm and realise that anger isnt going to solve anything. Team work makes the dream work People often think playing video games is a solitary activity. But nowadays there are plenty of video games which involve real life team work and communication. Whether its Call of Duty or Halo battleground, plenty of games require you to connect with friends and users to work collectively towards a goal. This teaches you to delegate, work to your strengths, communicate effectively and (try) to stay calm when under pressure. Because at the end of the day, as much as you might like to work on your own on a project, it can be a lot more fun and effective to work with others. And when it comes to work or university youll often be forced to work in group projects, so being able to hold your own in team is essential. Sometimes the answer is right in front of you Im notorious for overthinking things in games. Ill be faced with a challenge and spend ages coming up with all these complicated ideas for how to solve it, only to realise it was something super simple, that would have taken me five minutes. You dont always have to collect six keys, defeat a boss and navigate your way through 10 mini games just to unlock the chest sometimes you can literally just unlock it. This is often true in work life as well. There are many times Ive been faced with a problem, and have spent considerable time brainstroming a range of complex solutions to it, only to realise that a really simple solution is actually way more effective. Never underestimate the power of simplicity, and always stop to consider the most obvious solution before you move on. But sometimes you have to be creative That being said, sometimes a video game will ask you to back-flip over flaming piranha-infested waters on a quest to find the elixir of moonlight and the blood of a zebra-striped unicorn just to open a door to the next room. And its not always clear thats exactly what you have to do; half the time youre just trying stuff out and hoping for the best. Were all just muddling through life and just hoping for the best. Sometimes the answer isnt right in front of you, and sometimes you do have to be a bit more creative and try things out. Sometimes youll fail, but thankfully, unlike video games, you wont actually die. Pick yourself up and head to the next level. Even your boss has weak spots I remember as kid first coming face-to-face with Bowser for the first time and I was absolutely petrified. I made Mario jump into the abyss just to avoid the impending fireball. When youre a bit older, Bowser can take many shapes and forms. He can be your actual boss, or your landlord, or something more abstract like public speaking, networking or exams. Whatever your Bowser is, just remember that every boss has their weak spots and they can all be defeated in one way or another. When little 6-year-old me finally headed for that Bowser battle, it probably took me at least 50 attempts to succeed, but I got there in the end. And no matter what it is youre up against at work or university, whether its that dissertation or promotion, stay tenacious, stay resilient and youll succeed. Remember youre just on level one How rubbish would video games be if you just raced through all the levels to the final boss battle and the end of the game? If all the hidden side quests and collectable items had big red flags above them? The fun of video games is the hard parts, slowly making your way through the levels, the thrill of satisfaction after you defeat each enemy or figure out a difficult puzzle. So youre stuck on level one; its not very exciting and youre keen to move on to the juicy bits. It will happen eventually, but you have to work for it, and probably overcome a few hurdles en route. Even if things get harder as they go along (as all good video games do) just remember all the skills youve learned along the way, theyll get you through. Connect with Debut on  Facebook,  Twitter,  and  LinkedIn  for more careers insights.

Monday tip Ask a co-worker for advice - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Monday tip Ask a co-worker for advice - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog If you have a question or a challenge at work thats been on your mind for a while, this monday tip is for you: Ask someone at work for advice. We often hold back from asking for help because were afraid to disturb or annoy others, but in reality most people like to be asked for their opinion. It makes them feel appreciated, valued and shows that they can make a difference. It can also be a great help for you. I cant count the number of times Ive had a seemingly unsolvable problem at work that Ive banged my head against for hours, but which is solved in five minutes by co-worker I bring in to ask for help. Now thats annoying :o) The Chief Happiness Officers monday tips are simple, easy, fun things you can do to make yourself and others happy at work and get the work-week off to a great start. Something everyone can do in five minutes, tops. When you try it, write a comment here to tell me how it went. Previous monday tips. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

PowerPoint Resume Writing for Your Boss

PowerPoint Resume Writing for Your BossWhen you're just getting started in your career and your boss starts looking for someone to help them build their presentation or train their staff, PowerPoint resume writing is the way to go. It's more professional, and you'll be able to write the perfect cover letter for them.A good resume, whether it's for a job opening or simply for an application, needs to tell the hiring manager about you and your skills. A great resume will focus on all of your relevant achievements and past accomplishments, as well as what you can do for the company, as well as what your future goals and dreams are. There are a lot of things to consider when you're writing a resume, but one thing that you should definitely keep in mind is that your resume will need to include some type of cover letter.One of the most effective ways to improve your chances of getting the job is to be as professional as possible during your interview and in your first meeting with the boss in the office environment. But, if your boss has asked you to help them design a presentation for a training program, or to train someone for the first time, you really don't have a lot of time to prepare. This is where PowerPoint resume writing comes in.PowerPoint is a tool that is used by people across the world to present presentations to others. Most people don't use it very often, but they know how to use it well enough to help make their resume look professional. One of the best things about PowerPoint is that it's easy to create, and if you learn how to make use of it to its full potential, you'll be amazed at the results.To make your PowerPoint resume writing extra impressive, you need to include bullet points and a strong call to action at the end of your resume. Make sure that your business goals and mission are clear to everyone who reads it. Make sure that you include everything that your interviewer needs to know about you. Don't let your resume get too long because yo u don't want it to be viewed as a lengthy document.As far as your design for your PowerPoint resume, try to focus on what your potential employer likes about you. This may seem simple, but people will skim your resume in order to get a general idea of what you could bring to the table, and what your strengths are. You should always include your hobbies and make sure that you are detailed about what skills you have, as well as what you can do for the company.The first two paragraphs of your resume should be focused on your job search and what you are looking for in a job. You don't have to include the exact details of what you are looking for, but you should at least be able to give some information about yourself so that they can begin to envision you as a potential employee.Be sure to discuss your past experience as well. Make sure that you are detail-oriented about any areas of your career that could stand the test of time, and that you are honest about anything that could hurt yo ur career.