Why job seekers and employees should SPEAK!

Why job seekers and employees should SPEAKWhy job seekers and employees should SPEAKOne of the questions people often ask me about public speaking and delivering presentations is, Why?Why get up in front of an audience, sometimes filled with important people you dont know, or perhaps and maybe worse, friends and family, and possibly make a fool of yourself?Why volunteer to deliver a presentation to bosses and coworkers? That activity usually puts an extreme amount of pressure, and a huge spotlight, on youWhy accept an invitation to be on a discussion panel where you will be sitting with people where your experience and expertise may be less than theirs and risk having what you said challenged in front of an audience?Why offer to be the master of ceremonies for an event you know will be well attended and possibly have media coverage?Why walk to a public microphone, and ask a question, in front of the entire audience, to someone who just delivered a presentation?Why go to networking ev ents, social functions, and seminars where you know someone will ask everyone to, Please stand up and tell us who you are and what you do? Give us your elevator speech.Heres whyWe perceive really good speakers as experts. We like to work with experts. Experts command more money for their products, services, and expertise.The research shows speaking opportunities are business, career, and leadership opportunitiesPeople who take and make speaking opportunitiesGrow their businesses.Advance their careers.Increase their leadership roles.Lets take a closer look at that statement. Entrepreneurs who speak to civic groups, at association meetings, and other events, present themselves as experts and leaders in their industry.Being on the program and at the lectern, impresses people.Delivering great presentations increases the credibility of the presenter and their company.Not only does this lead to new business, but it reinforces in clients minds, they made a good decision to work with that c ompany.Businesses, associations, and organizations like to hire and promote people who communicate well becauseThose individuals, when speaking on behalf of their company, give audiences a favorable impression of themselves and the firm they work for.Favorable impressions lead to sales and grow revenues.Presentations are delivered internally, also.Management knows information will be presented to partienel in a professional manner thats easily understood by all.Those coworkers will be inspired and, in many cases, emulate the skills of the person who presents well.Leaders should be excellent communicators. Individuals with this skill are called upon more often than others toRepresent their employer at outside events.Speak at other meetings they attend.Lead internal gatherings.Take the platform to promote their platform.I present this hypothesis whenever I speak, and its never been challenged. Most of you are thinking, Of course not, whats to challenge?Why then, do so many avoid speak ing opportunities?If you are one who doesnt raise your hand when asked to take speaking opportunities, you have an answer. That response is probably, The fear of public speaking.This fear, often listed as one of the greatest people have, holds many back from reaching their potential.My research found it is an equal opportunity fear that doesnt care about a persons age, education, or occupation. I have coached people ranging from doctors to CEOs to a father of the bride-to-be. The thought of toasting the newlyweds started him having anxiety attacks the day his daughter got engagedPresentations are delivered all the timeInternally and externally.In front of large audiences, small ones, and one-on-one.Formal and informal. Most of them are underwhelmingThe ability to present confidently in front of an audience, even if one never does will improve their one-on-one communication. Everyone does thatThe fear of public speaking is worth facing and lessening because the rewards will outweigh the pain.Many conversations with coaching prospects begin with them saying something like I am sick and tired of people who dont work as hard as I do, who dont contribute as much to the company as I do getting recognition, bonuses, and sometimes promotions because they are Speaking Theyre usually not very good, but they are doing it and Im not. Can you help me?I vividly recall a client sitting in my office and saying, I have lost promotional opportunities because I didt take or make speaking opportunities.People having a fear of public speaking are not alone. Seventy-five percent of the population, to one degree or another, has it. There is even a word for it Glossophobia. It derives from the Greek glossa meaning tongue, phobos fear. The important thing to note is it is a Word, not a disease, and it can be managedThe first step is to acknowledge you have the fear. Find out why you have it. Then take steps to control it. Getting rid of the fear of public speaking is not the goal. The objective is to take that nervous energy and put it into your presentation A presentation without fear is b-o-r-i-n-gTake this information to heart and develop a signature presentation. Then, take and make all the speaking opportunities you canFred E. Miller is a speaker, a best selling author, and an grenzberschreitend presentation coach. His books, NO SWEAT Public Speaking and NO SWEAT Elevator Speechare availableon Amazon.com. His website,NoSweatPublicSpeaking.com, has hundreds of articles and videos to help you be a better public speaker.

5 ways your interview thank you email could cost you the job

5 ways your bewerbungsgesprch thank you emaille could cost you the job5 ways your einstellungsgesprch thank you email could cost you the jobDont let a shoddy follow-up ruin your chances of landing the job. Make sure you nail it with an interview thank you email.However, not every thank you glaubenszeugnis will help your candidacy. In fact, when done incorrectly, your interview thank you email can cause more harm than good. Below are five ways your interview follow-up could lose you the job offer.1) Its riddled with mistakes.When youre competing with a vast candidate pool for a position, the smallest error can be used to eliminate you from the pile. These days, weve grown accustomed to using short-hand for texts and tweets, and have become all too reliant on spell-check. Its very easy to overlook the little mistakes, such as using higher when you really meant to say hire. Dont let these little details derail your candidacy.Carefully proofread your interview thank you email. Then read it again. Then have a friend proofread it. Make sure everything is spelled properly (including the interviewers name and title), and correct all typos before hitting send.2) The message is generic.Sending a general thank you musiknote to all of your interviewers is just as bad as not sending any thank-you message at all. Remember, the goal of a thank-you note is to help differentiate yourself from the other candidates by demonstrating your genuine passion for the position and reminding the interviewer of your unique qualifications. Its really difficult to do that if youre not personalizing your messages.Take notes during each interview so that you can tailor every follow-up you send afterwards. Make sure your message is different for each interviewer. According to The Muses Lily Zhang, many companies request that thank-you notes get forwarded to HR so they can be attached to a candidates file. Imagine how theyd react when they realize that all of your interviewers received the exact same messageDont be afraid to jot down little details you learned about the interviewer, such as a shared passion or an upcoming trip you can use this information in your follow-up to demonstrate your attention to detail and make your message more memorable.3) It gets too personal.Theres a fine line between personalizing your message and coming off as inappropriate. No matter how comfortable you felt during the interview, its important that your note remains professional. Steer clear of using sarcasm and profanity in your note. Remember, you havent received a job offer yet. Play it safe.4) You didnt send it right away.In the job search, timing is everything. The last thing you want to do is send your note out late and damage the professional image you so carefully presented during the interview.Send your thank you messages to each interviewer within 24 hours of the meeting.Make sure to collect business cards or write down the proper spelling of interviewers names and email address es during the interview process to ensure a timely and accurate follow-up.5) The note is two pages long.Keep your interview thank you email succinct. If youre second-guessing the length of your message, ask yourself, Would this message fit in a standard thank-you card Id buy at a stationery store? If the answer is no, reevaluate your note.The goal of your note is to highlight main points from your conversation, address any concerns the interviewer expressed about your candidacy, and reiterate your interest in the role. If you forgot to mention an important detail during the interview, by all means, include it in your follow-up just dont waste precious space rehashing your entire resume again.A carefully crafted interview thank you email creates an opportunity to reconnect with employers, build a relationship with interviewers, and keep your candidacy top of mind. Avoid these mistakes when writing your next interview thank you email and youll be one step closer to the coveted job off er.

How Big Companies Recruit and Hire for IT Skills

How Big Companies Recruit and Hire for IT SkillsHow Big Companies Recruit and Hire for IT SkillsHow Big Companies Recruit and Hire for IT Skills West, PayScale.comTech-industry employees are among the best paid, most highly skilled and most sought-after workers anywhere. But employers are finding that it takes more than money to recruit and retain the best of the best.Paying for top talent is important, but it isnt the only variable, says Stacey Carroll, principal consultant at Payscale.com, which provides both workers and employers with in-depth salary and career information. After all, if it was simply about money, then every company would just write bigger checks.Theres no magic app for attracting top talentand ensuring employee satisfaction, yet a few leading technology companies have succeeded in creating a winning combination of salary, benefits, work environment and company culture. This recipe for success makes them a target for job seekers and keeps their workers happy and p roductive, according to a new report from PayScale.com.The Top Tech Employer Comparison report ranks more than 20 leading tech-industry employers, from long-established companies like Microsoft to newer companies like Facebook, on issues such as employee compensation, demographics, benefits and perks, job flexibility, work stress, job satisfaction, and the level of meaning that employees find in their work.Who Are Tech Companies Hiring?Based on the reports findings, tech-industry employees tend to be well-educatedThe majority (55 percent) have at least a bachelors degree.15 percent have only associate degrees6 percent have MBAs14 percent have other types of masters degrees3 percent have PhDsLeading the list of tech-industry hires are graduates of universities known for their outstanding technology programs, schools such as Stanford, Carnegie Mellon and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The most common majors among students who land jobs with technology companies includeComp uter engineeringSoftware engineeringSupply chain managementFinance and marketingTech Remains a Mans World The reports findings show that thetech industry is still a mans world to a large extent. At all but one of the companies studied, male employees significantly outnumber female employees.At more than half of those companies, men account for at least three-quarters of the workforce. That includes longtime tech-industry leaders such as Microsoft (79 percent male/21 percent female) and Intel (82/18) as well as younger companies such as Google (74/26) and Facebook (79/21). Most tech employees are also relatively young, ranging from a zentralwert age of 26 at Facebook to a median age of 39 at Hewlett-Packard.How Do Tech Employees Rate Salary and Benefits Versus Job Meaning and Flexibility?According to Carroll, todays tech employees, especially younger Gen Y employees, are looking for jobs that provide meaningful work, along with workplace flexibilityand good pay.Its a formula that com panies are eager to perfect. Yet comparing employee compensationat top technology companies with other leading indicators underscores the elusive connection between paycheck size and job satisfaction.Of the 21 companies covered by the report, for example, Facebook ranks 12 for median starting pay and 8 for median mid-career pay, but the company ranks 2 for overall job satisfaction with a score of 88 percent (the percentage of employees who report feeling fairly satisfied to extremely satisfied at work).Compare that to Yahoo, which pays its employees better at every stage the company places sixth for starting pay and third for mid-career pay yet is near the bottom of the list for job satisfaction.The difference may have something to do with the high marks Facebook receives for job flexibility and job meaning. Facebook exceeds all other tech companies in job flexibility with a score of 94 percent (the percentage of employees who say they are able to fully determine their own schedul es and time off, with or without advance notice.)The company places second in job meaning with a score of 81 percent (based on the number of employees who answer yes or very much so to the question, Does your job make the world a better place?). By contrast, Yahoo ranks 7 for job flexibility (88 percent) and 14 for job meaning (51 percent).Achieving High Job Satisfaction Among Tech EmployeesCompeting for tech talent never gets easier, nor is it a perfect mathematical equation, Carroll says. Instead its about understanding your market, knowing what your current and prospective employees are looking for, and doing your best to create the environment that attracts the right workers to your company.Yet companies that want to recruit IT candidatesand retain highly-skilled tech workers cant afford to overlook compensation as a key part of their strategy, according to Katie Bardaro, lead economist at Payscale.com.There is a vacuum right now for top tech talent, so if you can afford it then you need to provide employees with pay incentives, she says. This is especially true for current employees who may be wooed by competitors.Make them feel valued to drive employee motivationand provide them with a reason to stay, because it will be nearly impossible to replace them in todays tech-hungry world, where the demand for tech workers is outpacing the current supply.

Its Time to Plan Your Job Search for the New Year

Its Time to Plan Your Job Search for the New Year Its Time to Plan Your Job Search for the New Year Dont wait until January to search for jobs Get ahead of the game - and ahead of the flood of 2017 new year job applications - with a solid job search plan. Its important to be well-prepared so that you have enough time to research positions and companies, craft solid cover letters and resumes, and take any additional steps necessary to land an interview. During holiday downtime, youll have plenty of time to perfect your job search plan for the upcoming new year.Define your goals and expectations.First, figure out what schrift of job you want. Are you looking to switch to a different position, or to a different industry? Then determine a rough timeline for your job search, the application process, and when youre specifically looking to start a new position. Once you know what you want, you can begin to research companies and positions. Decide which job listings best meet your needs.Di fferent job boards tend to serve different industries. If youre looking for a creative position, check out the job listings on your local Craigslist site or on Mediabistro. If youre looking for a position in business or finance, CareerBuilder might offer you more options. Figure out which job sites work for you - and stick to them - so that you feel less overwhelmed about the job hunt.Gather measurable data from your work experience.Did you increase your companys social media presence by a certain percentage, or help your company land a new client? The job planning stage is a great time to organize this information into specific details (think dollar amounts and percentages) so that you have ready information to cite when you need it for a resume - or an interview.Optimize your resume and social profiles.Its time to polish and optimize your resume, LinkedIn profiles, and any appropriate social media profiles. Consult a professional for resume tips (like using resume keywords) and additional job search advice if necessary. You can also use a service like Jobscan to see how well your resume matches the positions youre applying for.Get your references and supplemental materials in order.Generally, you should ask colleagues and supervisors for any references a month before you plan to send out applications. However, dont let a three-week time span keep you from asking for a reference - it never hurts to ask. In addition to references, make aya to get any supplemental application materials, such as writing samples, together. This may include organizing published pieces or responding to an application-specific topical assignment.Plan your interview attire.Its crucial to have an appropriate interview outfit for the position youre applying for. Take the companys dress code into consideration. Will you be required to wear a suit every day, or will slacks and a sweater be appropriate attire? Dont wait until you schedule an interview to shop for an interview outfit. Avoid any potential stress by planning ahead.

Work-at-Home Companies to Start Your Search

Work-at-Home Companies to Start Your SearchWork-at-Home Companies to Start Your Search

The Lost Secret of Biology Resume

The Lost Secret of Biology Resume The Honest to Goodness Truth on Biology Resume If you dont understand where to start, we have a couple samples you may follow here. Resume target samples are readily available. Like DNA, RNA is created of a specific sequence of nucleotides. Very importantly, RNA is small and can readily exit the nucleus and visit the cytoplasm, where proteins are created. Using Biology Resume Based at work, you may want to mention particular software that you understand. An individual can search the thousands of federal jobs and make a resume right on the site. In the event that you want to find out more regarding creating resumes that get interviews, then visit a site such as for example Top Career Resumes at which you might locate a great verstndigung im strafverfahren of content articles and suggestions. Keep in mind, recruiters are considering digital searches to discover the candidates which match their criteria. Once your profile is completed, you ar e going to have access to the Resume Constructor. Uploading to our resume database requires you to make an account. Checkthat important information is not hard to get. One other great template on the list is known as Flux. Managers and executives should center on business skills in addition to technical expertise even should they fall into a technical industry. Employers will appear favorably upon longevity at work. You absolutely have to incorporate all work experience you may have had as its what the recruiters want to find. You might have to discuss your hard skills together with your soft skills so that recruiters locate the best things about you also. Research assistant resume templates are especially useful when you are searching to apply to get a place of research assistant at some institute. The targets department might be the very best approach to make job definite resumes. After you determine the skills you wish to concentrate on, do a bit of research and see whet her they line up with job requirements listed for the positions youre seeking. Insert policy to keep you afloat if youre injured at work. Understanding Biology Resume Adding the incorrect things or too many things to your resume will save you from getting the market job that you want. Thus, it actually is critical to cautiously publish your resume aim. Start by brainstorming everything which youve been involved in and place it in order. If so then the very first thing you will need is to create a strong resume. New Questions About Biology Resume Should you find it possible to compose an outstanding employment cover letter, it might be an immediate ticket in your job. Furthermore, you can find out more about science careers on Monster. Curriculum vitae or CV or maybe resume cover letter is currently a significant part our academics and the specialized lives. It is essential for job candidates to bear in mind that a resume is the exact first impression made on an expected e mployer. The Ideal Strategy to Biology Resume If you would like to improve your likelihood of getting the best interviews for the most prestigious positions, a good studienplan vitae is important. Be sure your cover letter doesnt have any errors. Resumes which are too long require an excessive amount of time to experience bit by bit. Biology Resume and Biology Resume - The Perfect Combination Youre able to eliminate a number of the older entries and even go to two pages when you have a lot to grow your resume. Be sure you stress on your prior projects in similar fields which youve completed successfully. It is difficult to earn an excellent visual resume. Resumes are just a page in length (if you dont own a range of years of experience in a certain field), and space is at a premium. You have the ability to also conduct work, nevertheless, youre likely to be restricted as you are not going to maintain a place to control saws. For instance, if youre interested in research, mold your statement to reflect how you intend to aid people throughout the present of medicine, or your desire to discover solutions to each problem. Fortunately, theres a good deal of those. A number of the absolute most bothersome obstacles some individuals face when looking for work is definitely to furnish a present work referee that can provide advice on your comprehension, skills and the style in which you squeeze in the workplace.

How to Hold Down 3 Jobs Without Going Insane

How to Hold Down 3 Jobs Without Going Insane Things are really chaotic in thejob market at the moment. The job-for-life is all but gone, and even the career-for-life idea is fading fast as organizations move from permanent, full-time workforces to contingent workforcescomposed of freelancers, casual staff, temps, and part-timers.For those of us who prefer the stability of traditional employment, this modern employment environment can be quite disorienting. For others, however, its a welcomedevelopment, thanks to the variety, flexibility, and freedom that come with this new model.But regardless of whether youre a willing or reluctant participant in the gig economy, you have a new employment challenge to confront In order to make enough money to support yourself, youll need to work multiple jobs. I call this the portfolio or slash career Instead of being an accountant, you now have to be a an accountant/musician/tree surgeon.The challenge is not ingetti ngthese jobs. There are plenty of gigs available in the temp and freelance marketplaces. No, the challenge is in juggling two, three, or even four jobs at once without going insane.To succeed in your portfolio career, you need to be an expert multitasker. Unfortunately,very few of us are programmed for that. That means we have to take extra steps to refine our multitasking skills and manage our careers carefully.Here are four tips to help you do just that1. Create a Portfolio out of Jobs ThatSuit All Aspects of Your PersonalityIf you have three jobs thatare pretty much in the same line of work e.g., barista, waiter, cashier thentheres a real chance that your flexible portfolio career will just turn out to be one monotonous and repetitive blur.By varying your gigs andtaking upa range ofjobsthat appeal to all aspects of your personality, you can build a much more satisfying portfolio career. For example, lets say you like to be social, but you also like some alone time, and you like working outside when the weathersnice.Your ideal portfolio career might be barista/delivery driver/gardener.2. Look for Synergies BetweenYour GigsEven if you build a portfolio of different jobs that suit your various needs, you can still find some beneficial overlap between your seemingly disparate roles.For example, if you are a barista/delivery driver/gardener, you could subtly inform some of your regular coffee customers at the coffee shop that you are a gardener. Before you know it, your customer base will be booming. Similarly, you could sell the vegetables you grow as a gardener to the coffee shop at which you work.If you look for and exploit these cross-selling opportunities,youll spend less time doing sales and marketing and your work will be more profitable.3.Favor Flexible GigsIt will be far easier to juggle multiple gigs if each one is flexible in terms of hours. That way, youll be able to ramp up and scale back according to what makes the most sense at any given time.If all your gigs are rigidly structured, youll find it much harder to strike a balance and youll be unduly stressed as a result.4. Seta Yearly Earnings TargetIf you dont have an earnings target, you may end up working more than you need to and thats a great way to mess up your work/life balance. Having an annual target gives you direction and tells you when you need to crank it up and when you have time to take a breather.If you want to have a successful portfolio career, youll need to knuckle down and become a master in managing and prioritizing your time. It may not always be easy, butifyou follow the tips set out above, you should find thatjuggling multiple careers isnt so bad after all.

John Celli Witness to Engineering History

John Celli Witness to Engineering History John Celli Witness to Engineering History John Cellis career as an engineer has spanned five decades and a full description of his many accomplishments in the field would require a separate full-length feature. His career has encompassed events from the 1969 Moon landing to the earliest days of telecommunications satellite technology to the recent development of 3D printed satellites. Here, the 2016 Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame inductee describes some of his career highlights and tells readers where he thinks the field is headed next. Q. What first made you interested in the field of aerospace in general and satellite technology specifically? A. I welches living in Rome, Italy and attending the School of Engineering in 1969. I lived at the top of an apartment building, and the apartment building welches at the top of one of the Seven Hills of Rome, so I had a beautiful view of Rome half of Rome at least. It was a hot summer. In those days there was no air conditioning, so the air conditioning, when you watch TV, if its a hot night, it would be for you to sit on the balcony or the terrace that you have and watch the TV which is inside, which I was doing. All of a sudden it was about 100 in the morning. I could hear an incredible noise coming from below me, a mix of cheers and applause and screams. Its something that I never forgot. Even to this day, I can close my eyes and live it again. What it was, was Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon. We were all watching that great picture that was sent from the United States all over Europe. It was leid actually being there and watching this incredible event, it was the reaction of the millions of people in the city watching that event. Its just something that still gives me the goosebumps, so I had no choice. I was already in engineering and at that split second, I said, Well, Im going to work in aerospace, and thats what I di d after graduation. Thats the reason. Not only did I decide to be in aerospace, but it actually made me decide to leave Europe and move to the States, where obviously the space exploration, aerospace, and satellites in particular, were at a much higher level than in Europe in those days.SSL President John Celli with the California Space Authority award. Image SSL Q. What do you think the next moment like that will be? Will it be arriving on Mars someday, or will there be another event like that? A. To be honest with you-and I express my opinion in some conference roundtables at NASA headquarters-I dont think necessarily Mars exploration is going to do it. I dont know if you know this, but the young generation seems to be very focused doing work on things that have a social content. In other words, things that help the environment, that help people, that help the poor, that help growing countries, and theyre very attracted by that. The ultimate social help that space technology can provide is, if you think about it, capturing an asteroid that is coming to the earth and threatening everybodys life. That is the ultimate social service. Q. What are some the latest technological developments in the field of satellites that might interest ASME.org readers? A. The satellite industry has been evolving continuously. We build these very complex and huge machines that are 30, 50, 100 times bigger than what I used to do in the mid-seventies or the eighties. Youve certainly heard about making complex parts in a very efficient way using 3D printing. Its a form of building components using a different type of composite material, because basically they use powder and certain specialized resin to do that. Were actually flying those kind of things, and I think that technology has to evolve and will evolve and be able to do even more complicated things or build bigger objects that can be used for all kinds of applications, but certainly for satell ite and for space. The other thing that is pushing for new technology is the need to reduce cost for satellite systems. What I mean with satellite systems, its not just the satellite itself, but its the ground infrastructure needed to provide the services, as well as the launch vehicle. It needs to be used to take the satellite all the way up to low orbit or geostationary orbit. Another area that I think for mechanical engineers would be particularly important in the next few years, is the packaging. If you think of the capability in an iPhone, in a very small environment it is very strong, it is moisture resistant, it is heat resistant, and always works, always performs, but its very small with a lot of capabilities. Thats packaging, right? Potentially theres going to be a breakthrough in the next few years. Its something that is needed, that needs to be pushed, and will certainly help in reducing the size of the satellite, the cost, and therefore the cost of launch ing it. Q. Where are things going in the future in this field? A. In the future it is going to be more and more important to have satellites that are flexible. Lets say you order a satellite today, a big one. You probably wont get it for another three years. Then you launch it and it has to provide services for at least 15, 16 years in order to provide you with enough revenues to cover the investment, which is substantial, and provide a return, so its a long time. Its very difficult for current customers and future customers of ours to predict what the market is going to be in certain region of the world, so you need something that is flexible. For example, if today its covering South America and for some reason there is a reduced demand, that you can move that capability into another area, for example, North America or Africa, the Western coast of Africa, and provide services there. Its going to require manufacturing techniques that are different, that we may n ot have today. Thats an area that I think progress has been made over the years, but I dont believe enough. Thats an area where mechanical engineering should push where we are. Its, as I said, a combination of packaging, extracting the heat from various small and complex packages containing digital equipment, for example, and reducing the mass and the cost. Robotics is going to help as well. We have programs that we want to get from NASA for assembling a satellite in orbit. The advantage of that is that you can send a satellite up and then you can send another one, park it next to it with robotic capability, and change that satellites antennas and payload. Q. What did it mean to you to be a Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame inductee? A. It was obviously a great honor, particularly for an immigrant. I came here 35 years ago, and in Silicon Valley, to be able to rise to the top of a company that I joined 35 years ago as just a young engineer, and then being inducted in the Hall of Fame, its just unbelievable. As I said in my speech at the conference, I was also surprised because in this industry, the satellite industry, individuals can seldom accomplish a lot. You need a team. Its always teamwork. The complexity and the challenges of designing and building satellites are so huge that you need a team to be able to resolve problems and be successful. For Further Discussion Even to this day, I can close my eyes and live it again Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon. We were all watching that great picture that was sent from the United States all over Europe.John Celli, president, SSL

Returning to Work How to Handle the Employment Gap

Returning to Work How to Handle the Employment GapReturning to Work How to Handle the Employment GapUtilize your volunteer experience to boost your resume and expand your network during the job search.QI havent worked outside the home except to volunteer for many years and cant even get an vorstellungsgesprch. I know I can do the job but how do you get that across? Doreen M.AIt can be so frustrating when you know you have value to add to a company but cant get your foot in the door. Your story is very common with full-time parents who left the corporate world to raise their families and now want (or need) to reenter the workforce, and with those who were laid off and were forced to take on a string of lower-paying jobs to pay the bills. In these situations, I recommend doing two thingsUpdate your brandIts so important to have a resume and online profile that showcase your relevant skill sets and accomplishments, while also showing that you havent been twiddling your thumbs since you left the corporate world. Heres the dealIf your volunteer work (or other recent work experience) can be directly tied back to your targeted job goals, then use a traditional chronological resume format. I dont care if they didnt pay you for the work I care if the experience helped you gain relevant industry experience or build skills that are important to the roles youre targeting today. Make sure you frame the job description and selected accomplishments with your job goals in mind the name of the game is relevancy.If your recent work experience doesnt support your job goals or you have an employment gap due to educational pursuits, sabbaticals, etc., then your best bet is to switch to what we call a functional (also known as hybrid or results-oriented) resume format. In a functional resume, the focus is placed on your relevant experience and the results or accomplishments of that work. You include chronological information and other roles, but those take a back seat so the atte ntion stays on the skill sets and expertise thats directly related to your targeted job.Ill be honest Im not the biggest fan of functional resumes, mostly because recruiters seem to prefer the chronological format. However, in this type of situation a functional format will do a much better job at positioning your skills and experience as they relate to your job goals. Click on the following link to learn more about different resume formats.Invest in your networkWhenever youre facing challenges in the job search due to unemployment, career changes, and so forth networking becomes even more important to your strategy.The more people you can meet within your desired line of work, the more information you will gain about the marketplace, its main players, and the potential opportunities that are out there. It will help you fine-tune your search to target companies that have the most potential and would be the best fit for you.Youll learn how the market has changed since you last work ed in it, and if there are any skill gaps you need to fill in order to be more attractive to potential employers. For instance, I worked with a client who was a senior marketing professional in the 90s. When she began looking for work again, it became apparent that shed need to gain a better understanding of online marketing and ecommerce to compete with other job seekers in her space.Your contacts can advocate on your behalf and help you by-pass any gatekeepers in the application process. The 2012 CareerXroads Source of Hire Survey found that you are 10 times more likely to land an interview if your application includes an employee referral. The more networking you do, the more likely you are to find people who are willing to pass your application along or allow you to include their name in the application process. And dont discount the people youve met while volunteering While they may not work in your targeted line of work, whos to say they dont have friends or family members who do?

Video Chapter 2 What Should We Be Teaching

Video Chapter 2 What Should We Be Teaching Video Chapter 2 What Should We Be Teaching Video Chapter 2 - What Should We Be Teaching?Decision Point Dialogues II STEM, Chapter 2 - What Should We Be Teaching?A new principal at Danicas school, Metro City, advocates for a STEM curriculum in which engineering would play a much greater role. Should the changes be made? Would they also work at Dereks middle school, West Harding, which has a much tighter budget and many more struggling students?This second episode is part of the second Decision Point Dialogues programCritical Thinking, Critical Choices What Really Matters in STEM. Here, celebrated journalistJohn Hockenberry, host of the public radio programThe Takeaway, leads 12 influential STEM thought leaders through a myriad of intricate cultural, economic, and education related conflicts based on a mock scenario.Join the conversationon the second episode.Watch Chapter 3 - How Should We Be Teaching?Stay connected to the ongoing dialogue wit h subject matter experts and access exclusive content by visitinggo.asme.org/stemdialogues. The copyright of this program is owned by ASME.