5 Career Reinvention Lessons I Learned From a Pumpkin

5 Career Reinvention Lessons I Learned From a Pumpkin Somewhat comically, it has yielded only one pumpkin thus far. Several others attempted to bud, and looked like real possibilities for a while, but like so many great ideas of the day they ultimately withered on the vine. Fortunately, the one that is growing, appears to be a keeper. Id love to claim that this plant is so impressive because we are amazing gardeners. But in truth, weve really had nothing to do with it. We didnt plant it it appeared out of nowhere. Well, okay, thats not entirely true. You see, the plant started in our compost pile after we discarded our Halloween pumpkin there last fall. So I guess we sorta did plant it in a way, even though that was never our intention. Funny, how the little seeds we scatter throughout our lives, often without even noticing, can manifest in interesting ways and surprising second acts, no? Notably, this is not the first year weve grown things without meaning to do so.  In fact, every summer something surprising grows out of our compost pile. Gourds, tomatoes, herbs and flowers have all magically appeared out of the discarded waste that was left to rot in the compost. Its fun, because we never quite know what will take when. But nature teaches us that when the right seeds hit just the right growing environment new growth flourishes. Of course, it helps to nurture the process along a bit. A little water, sunshine and fertilizer, and a sprinkling of luck, can work wonders. As the summer draws to a close, we will continue to delight in watching as our pumpkin grows, ripens, and eventually falls off the vine. Then, we will proudly display it on our front stoop until the frost hits and the cycle begins anew. And so, as we head into the fall, a time when many of you will reignite your career plans in earnest, I hope youll remember the profound lessons offered by nature.  Heres to a year filled with  prolific seeds, fertile growing conditions and an abundant, awe-inspiring and enriching harvest! Related articles that you might also enjoy: 10 Dirty and Divine Career Reinvention Lessons (#1) 10 Dirty and Divine Career Reinvention Lessons (#10) 10 Dirty and Divine Career Reinvention Lessons (#7) 4 Career Reinvention Lessons Learned From a Cat Wrangler 10 Lessons Ive Learned About Career Reinvention (In Celebration of My 15th Anniversary as a Career Coach!)

5 Alternative Ways to Motivate Yourself

5 Alternative Ways to Motivate Yourself Feeling unmotivated is something that everyone experiences at some time in their life. But if youre beginning to feel it more and more, then it may be time to make a change, that will boost your productivity, your motivation, and ultimately, your happiness. Weve all heard the typical motivating quotes or tips, but what are some more alternative methods of boosting motivation? Weve put together our top 5 tips on how to motivate yourself, each one with a slightly different twist from usual. 1) Pit yourself against the competition: Competing against others can be a great method of motivation for some, but often it ends up killing motivation in the long run. Instead of comparing yourself to a colleague, employer or peer, think of yourself as the main competition. Try and beat your personal best each time, and use yourself as a benchmark for results. Youll look back and be pleasantly surprised by your progress, and you wont be beat down with trying to compete with anyone else! 2) Start  as soon as you wake up: Motivation and positivity go hand-in-hand. Thats why you should use your morning to create the basis for a productive, motivated and positive day. As soon as you wake up in the morning, list in your head at least three things youre thankful for in your life at that point. It may sound corny but setting your day up with a positive spin will help you stay motivated and your whole day will already have got off to a good start. Try it! 3) Move like you mean it: In a recent study, it was found that standing in a certain way/ changing your body language not only effects how youre perceived by others, but also alters chemicals in your brain, meaning youll actually feel different. Stand in your power pose, no matter what that may be. It will release chemicals in your brain. A famous piece of advice for when youre feeling down is to smile, even if its a fake one. This actually releases endorphins in the brain which make you feel happier! The same can be said for power poses. So stand like you mean it! 4) Look at failure and rejection in a new light: Some of the most famous successful people were hit by a whole lot of failures before they made it. If you hit a roadblock, try not to think of it too negatively, instead look at it  as a sign post pointing you in the  right direction. Use it as a motivator by changing your mindset. 5) Physically list your goals: Making lists is useful for everyday tasks it can help visualise your day and allocate your time efficiently. Lists that are made up of your long term goals are important as well display them somewhere that you look everyday, such as a bathroom mirror or on your desk, as it will keep them at the forefront of your mind throughout the day. Let us know what you think of the tips over on Twitter, @UndercoverRec. [Main image credit: Shutterstock]

4 Essential Facets For An Upwards Career Trajectory

4 Essential Facets For An Upwards Career Trajectory We are all constantly told that our careers need to have an upward trajectory. According to this vein of thought, it’s not enough to just work in a job, earn money, and try to do your best you have to always have one eye on the future. In truth, it must be conceded that the reason this way of thinking is given so much focus is because it works. If you allow yourself to linger in your job, become comfortable, then you become vulnerable. You might find yourself struggling for options if your company goes out of business or if you’re made redundant; or find yourself five years down the line, wondering where the time went. So how can you obtain the upward trajectory that you’re meant to have? Here are a few ideas to get you on the right career path. Know Where You Want To Be Knowing where you want to be can be specific “I want to be a BSN qualified nurse” or “I want to be the CEO of a Fortune 500 company”   or somewhat vague “I want to be happy” or “I want to be earning enough money to live on comfortably”. All that matters is that you know exactly what your goals are, so you can shape all of your decisions with these goals in mind. When you know what your ultimate expectation from your working life is, you can allow this to guide your decisions. When presented with an opportunity, you can ask yourself: “is this going to help me get where I want to be?” If the answer is “yes”, then go for it if it’s “no”, then you can move on in search of something else. Know How To Get There Having a goal isn’t just about the goal in and of itself; it’s about making decisions and taking choices that will enable you to get there.   For example,   if you want to be a BSN qualified nurse, then you need to ensure you are working yourself into a position where you can undertake a RN to BSN online qualification, as well as how you’re going to fund it.   If you want to be a CEO of a Fortune 500 company, then you need to study hard to get into a good college, get the right qualifications, and obtain the appropriate experience that are going to help you reach that point.    Even if you’re not able to embark on these next steps at this point in time, knowing what the next step is will be vital for a good, upward career trajectory. Don’t Get Lost In The Minutia Distraction is everywhere in modern life; you can find yourself procrastinating away time that would have been better spent seeking out ways to accomplish your goals. Learning how to focus, be productive, avoid procrastination, and keep going even when times are tough are vital skills to ensure that your career is always moving in the right direction. Have A Backup Plan There is always a chance you will seek a goal and then find you dislike it, or that it’s not the perfect fit for you that you thought it was. Keeping a backup plan in mind ensures that you’ve always got something to default to, so any setbacks only have to be temporary, and you can pursue new avenues as soon as it becomes obvious you need to. In Conclusion If you focus on the above, then you can be confident that your approach to your career trajectory is on the right track.

Startups are still fulfilling, even though getting funding in a recession stinks

Startups are still fulfilling, even though getting funding in a recession stinks I can always tell when things are really falling apart for me by how many days in a row I wear the same outfit. Last week, I wore my Im-a-successful-CEO outfit four days in a row. In case you need a visual, it is black all over with ruffle near the neck a little bit girly and hides dirt well. You will be interested to know that four days included one plane trip, meetings with six investors, and one date (I smelled the shirt right beforehand and it seemed okay. I didnt think hed be getting that close anyway.) The last day was when I was really sure I was going to change outfits. I had an interview with Elizabeth Vargas for 20/20. I packed a huge suitcase full of everything that might look good on TV and I told myself that Id figure out what to wear the morning of the interview. But the morning of the interview I was actually crying to my attorney about how complicated our second round of funding is becoming, and I told him that I was going to quit the company and get a job writing for a local newspaper. I really said that. Forget the fact that local newspapers really are not hiring writers. Really. I think I was just saying it to him so he could understand how totally stressful it is raising money in this financial environment. Plus, its totally not cool to be admitting to such huge stress levels when you are the CEO. I mean, who wants to fund a company when the CEO is having a mental breakdown? But really, every CEO who is raising money right now is staying up all night worrying. And not telling anyone. Well, except me. I am telling my attorney. And now you. Okay. So I spent the morning crying and screaming at my attorney. In between phone calls with investors where I try to sound really, really pulled together. Like I dont really need their money. Which is how you have to sound if you are ever going to get money. And sometime during all that, I messed up time zones, and, as I was cleaning the most recent torrent of mascara down my cheek, I noticed that I was actually in the process of standing up Elizabeth Vargas. So that was day four of my successful-CEO outfit: On 20/20. Mascara streaked. But, as I said earlier, the outfit is all black, and in a happy coincidence, so is my eye makeup. I think the interview went well. We talked about salary and I went on my usual tirades: All salaries should be transparent. The only people who benefit from hidden salaries are incompetent managers who are either overpaying or underpaying and dont want to fix it. There is no gender disparity. Women earn more money than men in their 20s and when they have kids, women choose to downscale and men dont, so why dont we all shut up about the pay disparity and talk about the parenting disparity? You earn a higher salary if you are good looking. This bias runs so deep that even better looking babies get better treatment from mothers. So forget social justice and just get Botox. Then I went back to my hotel room. And, finally, I considered changing my clothes. But before I could do that, I took a look at the community at brazencareerist.com, and I was totally taken aback by what I saw. We are running a contest for people in their twenties to write about how blogging affected their life, and the winner gets a free trip to SXSW (a totally cool conference that I love going to each year.) The posts people wrote are great. They provide moving descriptions of why its important to blog and to make sure your blog is part of a community. So many days I think I am nuts to do this company. Its so hard to do a startup in a any economy, let alone a bad one the pressure to keep believing in yourself is intense, and the long hours are too. But today I am so happy to be doing a startup. Because the community at Brazen Careerist is exactly what I had hoped it would be: Meaningful conversations about things that matter to people who are earnest and honest and want to have great lives. Here are links to eight of posts that make me feel lucky to be struggling to fund my company. Because I am lucky to be able to have my career, and my heart, linked to this community. Nisha Chittal The difference between me pre-blog and me post-blog is simple: I went from an invisible, hiding lurker to a real person, and an outlier. Seems simple, but that transformation is empowering in a way youd never expect. I went from letting others define me to defining myself. Milena Thomas It would be a bit of an understatement to say that blogging has changed my life. Its been the most important element in leading an examined life, because of the conversations and reflections other bloggers and commenters provide. Andy Drish Mike: If youre graduating in a year, you need to be blogging right now. Itll help you get a job. Me: Blogging? Thats a fun word. Jarred Taylor On our resumes, though, we both proudly proclaimed ourselves as co-founders of the blog and included a link. And, though I havent independently confirmed this yet, Im pretty sure thats how I got my job at Google. Jon Bishop With little to no previous experience in this type of work environment, my application was in jeopardy. However, I was able to land the job on a trial bases because of my blog. Holly Hoffman For me, the power of my words is used to share what little Ive learned, and more often than not, to show what I havent … blogging.. reminds me each and every day that Im not alone, that my situation isnt unique. Kathleen Argonza I created my blog, Tough Girl 101, to rekindle whatever spine I had before the marriage drained it away. I remembered being a tough girl once, I figured that I could be again Blogging was the first step in getting myself back on track. Taylor Ansley Thats how Ive changed through blogging. Im less likely to deliberate quietly on an issue and instead more likely to provoke debate. Im quicker to throw my thoughts or beliefs into the (modest) spotlight and more likely to change my mind.

Resume Writing For Work Experience - Make Sure You Do This Right

Resume Writing For Work Experience - Make Sure You Do This RightThe purpose of your resume writing for work experience is to generate the proper kind of interest in a prospective employer. It is not only about how well you know someone or how many years of work experience you have under your belt. If you have relevant work experience, you should be in demand.Resume writing for work experience can be one of the hardest aspects of job hunting to conquer. It is not just about trying to convince your prospective employer that you are the right person for the job. It is also about how to come up with the kind of information that will make you stand out from the crowd. You must be able to show how you have used your skills and knowledge to grow a company.When you hire a person for a job, he or she will see if you have any kind of work experience. That is why it is so important to be sure that you are coming across as a person who has worked for your company. Your resume should consist of a great deal of your work history. It should show that you have been very efficient.We are all human and we all have some time that has been off the beaten path. One of the easiest ways to tell if someone has had time to recover is if they look tired. You should also make sure that your resume is representative of the kind of person you are. It should show a good work ethic and willingness to learn.The reason that a resume is so important is because it is the first impression of a potential employee. It can really put the nail in the coffin for your application if it is not what you would consider professional. Also, you want to be sure that you are not paying for a resume that was done poorly. You do not want a company who does not value the time that you put into creating the best resume possible.The next thing that you want to do is show your level of expertise with the experience that you have. You need to be sure that it is something that a company needs. If you are putting in t he hours to be able to accomplish the task, they will believe that you will be effective enough at the job. There are plenty of people who have no clue on how to use computers and they do not understand the responsibilities that are associated with a job as an IT specialist.By showing how much your resume writing for work experience has grown your self-esteem, you can use this fact to make your interview or your final decision easier. You can also use the skills and knowledge that you have shown through your work history to help you communicate with an employer. Remember that the more you say, the better. Be sure that you put a positive spin on the experience that you have used.A good way to go about getting that writing done is to utilize the services of a professional. They will be able to get your resume prepared in a professional manner that can only add to the value of your application. If you do not know anyone who can help you with this task, you can always turn to the intern et. There are many companies that are able to take care of this part of the resume writing for work experience for you. You should take advantage of the resources that are available to you and make sure that you know what you are doing.

5 Things You Need to Know About Applicant Tracking Systems

5 Things You Need to Know About Applicant Tracking Systems It’s fairly well known that busy recruiters and hiring managers barely glance at a resume for ten seconds before deciding which pile it lands in. However, not many job seekers understand how to get their resume into the hands of a recruiter or hiring manager in the first place. Every day, several hundred thousand resumes are submitted to online job portalsâ€"only to result in a standard rejection email, or worse, complete silence from the employer. For job seekers everywhere, this is a frustrating problem. However, it is one that can be solved with an understanding of how to navigate your resume through applicant tracking systems. Here are 5 things about applicant tracking systems that you need to understand in order to facilitate a successful job hunt and land your next opportunity. 1. What is an applicant tracking system? An applicant tracking system, or ATS, is a software application used in recruiting. Different companies use different applicant tracking systems to manage their recruiting and hiring cycles; however, all of them operate similarly. ATS parse the information from resumes submitted online and and store the content their database. When a recruiter or hiring manager has an open role that they are trying to fill, they can use the ATS to run keyword searches and find candidates with the correct skills listed within the body of their resume. Applicant tracking systems essentially do the same work as recruiters, but with higher efficiency, allowing recruiters and hiring managers to focus on the top candidates from their ATS search. Taleo ATS screenshot by Jobscan 2. Why do employers use applicant tracking systems? The biggest benefit of applicant tracking systems is their efficiency. Unlike humans, who can only realistically process one resume at a time, applicant tracking systems are able to parse hundreds of resumes a minute, categorize them based on pre-set criteria and generate automatic rejection emails. ATS also allow employers to easily monitor the hiring process and communicate directly with candidates from within the software. Because ATS are so efficient, nearly every company, big or small, has adopted one for their hiring process. 3. How do applicant tracking systems work? Applicant tracking systems work by ranking candidates based on the number of keyword matches their resume contains. Recruiters and hiring managers will typically search the keywords that are listed on their job description (because those are the skills they want their ideal candidate to possess). The ATS will then scan all the resumes in its database and rank the candidates by the number of keyword matches their resume contains. The biggest benefit for job seekers is that even if you have been rejected for a role within the company previously, your information will remain in the database for a period of time, allowing you to appear in search results for future roles within that company. This is a win-win for both the employer, who wants to find qualified candidates, and you, because you’re essentially being considered for every open role. Castone ATS by Jobscan 4. Keyword matching The searching function of Applicant tracking systems operate similarly to search engines. The more a website is optimized for search engines, the more frequently and higher in the rankings it appears when a user submits a related query. Similarly, the better a resume is tailored to a job description, the higher it will appear in the ATS rankings. While this seems simple, applicant tracking systems are incredibly precise and unable to understand minor differences in resume writing that a human would. It’s worth learning exactly how resume keywords work so that your resume has the highest chance of successfully rising to the top of the ATS results. As a general rule of thumb, always tailor your resume to the exact phrasing and wording of the job description for which you’re applying. If the job description says that an “M.B.A” is required, you’re far more likely to rank in the ATS if you have M.B.A listed on your resume, rather than Masters in Business Administration. Tools like Jobscan can help also you compare your resume against job descriptions and analyze which keywords you need to include. 5. Applicant tracking systems: friend or foe? While applicant tracking systems may seem daunting, they are a helpful tool for companiesâ€"and thus, likely to be around for a long time. Applicant tracking systems actually give you a better shot at being considered for a position than if every applicant’s resume just ended up in a pile. Due to the efficiency of ATS, they are able to scan each and every resume in their database when a search is run. A recruiter would be unlikely to make it to the bottom of every pile of resumes, disadvantaging the resumes at the bottom of the pile. With a little keyword tailoring and extra effort, you can help navigate your resume through any ATS and into the hands of a recruiter or hiring manager. Once you’ve perfected your resume, don’t forget that you also need ATS friendly cover letters to be a strong candidate. With the high volume of applicants that most positions receive, optimizing your cover letter and resume gives you the highest chance of successfully navigating the ATS and getting your resume in front of a human. Many thanks to  Satinder Haer of Jobscan for this insightful guest post. Jobscan automates the process of evaluating key words in your resume. It helps increase your resumes relevance by optimizing skills and keywords based on the  job description.

Highlights from our conference - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Highlights from our conference - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog On May 26 we had our annual conference on happiness at work here in Copenhagen and it was our best event yet. Heres a 3-minute video with some highlights from the day: Part of the video is in Danish, part of it in English. You can also find materials, slides and photos from the conference here. The day was absolutely fantastic and participant feedback has been phenomenal. The average rating for the day is 4,8 out of 5 that is almost unheard of :o) 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