Five Ways to Improve Your Job Search

By Camilla Patten

Let's face it, while sure it's exciting, looking for a new job is hard work. The job market is flooded and resources when trying to find hidden job vacancies are few and far between. Refining and improving job search is vital when looking to land a great position.

We need to continuously improve on the way we search for jobs. By utlising online job websites to look for jobs you are extending your reach to all possibilities. By improving your job searches, you effectively find scarcer job vacancies and increase your chances of being placed in your dream job.

Here are five ways to improve your job searches.

1. KNOW YOUR RECRUITMENT RESOURCES:

There are vast recruitment resources available to job seekers. Consider the number of recruitment agencies as well as online job portals available for job seekers to make use of. The numbers are astounding. Before blasting your CV all over the Net, first research the job that you are interested in to make sure that it is what you are looking for. Both online recruitment websites and recruitment agencies need to be carefully selected in order to run better job searches. Remember that these are the companies you are selecting to represent you in your job search. Commission your skill to only those agents who promise measurable results.

2. REFINE YOUR JOB SEARCHES:

After registering with a reputable job portal, and have run your first job search, learn how to refine your job search. Job seekers new to online job searching should use a refined job search to improve their search results. Quick job searches are great when looking for broad search results. When looking for refined results uniquely filtered, advanced job searches will closely pinpoint less common vacancies.

3. MAKE USE OF JOB ALERTS:

A job alert (also known as an automated job search agent) is a terrific way to use job portal resources to their greatest potential. Job notification alerts are scheduled notices received in various formats such as email or RSS feeds to inform Job Seekers of related jobs that have been posted to a job portal. By pre-defining job criteria, a job alert (search agent) will monitor activity on the job website. Based on the job criteria and keywords detailed in your job alert, the system will automatically update and notify you accordingly of matching jobs. By receiving job alerts, job seekers are savvy to positions specifically relevant to them, as they are loaded to the job site. The early bird catches the worms and that's why you want to be a prompt as possible when applying to important employment opportunities. Improve your job searches by making use of relevant job alerts.

4. DON'T NEGLECT ANY MEANS OF JOB SEARCH:

As discussed, there are various resources that a job seeker can utilise when hunting for a job. Be sure to make use of the job search resources that are most relevant to the success of your job search. Manage a healthy balance of utilising each available resource until you can identify with those that specifically assist your career. By making use of all the resources available to you, your job searches are bound to improve.

5. MAKE YOURSELF SEARCHABLE:

Job searching isn't all just about you searching for employment opportunities. Recruiters and employers are also searching for job seekers. By registering with reputable online job portals you are allowing yourself to be found. Head hunters run searches on online job portals and recruitment databases, hunting for candidates. If you don't play you can't win, so be sure to advertise your CV where people know to look. While this is not a direct way to search for a job this will enhance the results of your job hunt significantly.

There are always new and innovative ways of improving any job search. All that job seekers need do, is tap into these advanced methods of job search and brace themselves for an influx of job interview requests.

10 Cognitive Distortions to Strictly Avoid in Your Job Search

By Eric Weir

Here are ten cognitive distortions - habitual negative or "twisted" thinking habits that can plague our job search, career development and professional relationships.

I've modified these from author and cognitive behavioral training expert David Burn's book, "Feeling Good." It's important to be aware of these, and to realize if you get trapped in one of them as you continue your job search. So as I describe each of the ten cognitive distortions, I also provide specific examples of how they can negatively impact your job search. It's even more important to learn how to break free of them. So I also explain how to get yourself back on track and stay motivated toward both your job search and longer-term career goals.

Ten Cognitive Distortions - #1 - All-or-Nothing Thinking

The first of our ten cognitive distortions is all-or-nothing thinking. When we mistakenly adopt all-or-nothing thinking, we look at things in absolute, black or white categories. For instance, if we don't find a job right away or within a certain arbitrary period of time we feel like complete failures. A middle manager who's been out of work for a few months and "down on her luck" might think often to herself, "Either I find a job that pays $50,000 or my whole job search is a waste of time!"

A friend or family member who learns about this would be able to see that she's putting way too much pressure on herself. Perhaps it's due to impatience or severe financial stress but either way, it's creating a "mental trap" within her job search. The solution is for her to realize that job searching takes time - often more time than we hope or expect. In fact, it can take up to 6 months or more to find well-suited professional positions such as middle management, and that's if we're doing everything right and treating the job search like a full-time job.

No job search is a waste of time, and there's no shame in taking a job that pays less than we're used to for a while if that's what it takes to make ends meet - so long as we continue our job search and stay motivated until we ultimately succeed in finding a better job within our chosen career. I've worked many "transitional jobs" over the years and it's not unusual for people of all occupations and walks of life to have to do this from time to time - quite often at least once in their long career.

Ten Cognitive Distortions - #2 - Overgeneralization

The 2nd or our ten cognitive distortions is overgeneralization. When we over-generalize, we view a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of failure. An example is, "I performed poorly in my last job interview. I'll never find a suitable job!"

Of course, this isn't true. There are so many reasons why we might perform poorly in an interview on any particular day with any particular employer. Just because it's happened once doesn't mean that it will happen the same way the second and third times. Some factors are outside our control, like the mood and "energy" of the interviewers, our physical and emotional health on that particular day - even the weather and how that sometimes affects all of us.

However, many more factors are within our control - the greatest being our ability and willingness to review and learn from what happened in the interview so that we can improve our performance and come back stronger when our next opportunity comes along.

Job interviewing skills are not innate. They require practice, and if we haven't attended a job interview for a while then the first one is likely to be a little rusty or unpolished. We may feel like "a fish out of water." But with practice, we get better. The more we prepare and practice in advance, the better the end result for our job search.

Ten Cognitive Distortions - #3 - Mental Filter

The third or our ten cognitive distortions is the mental filter. When we use a "mental filter," we tend to dwell on one negative detail, so that our vision of the entire situation becomes dark and cloudy like the drop of ink that discolours the entire beaker of water.

Interviews are also a good example of this type of twisted thinking. We might come out of an interview dwelling on one or two things that we did wrong, but fail to remember and give ourselves credit for all the other things that we did right! Many times in my career, a client has predicted that they failed an interview because he couldn't answer one or two questions well - only to find out a few days later that the employer decided that he was the best candidate and offered him the job. It's important to remember that we don't have to be letter-perfect in the interview. No interview is perfect in that sense - it's always a little uncomfortable, a little awkward at the best of times.

When I'm coaching clients on their interview skills, I always start by asking them what they did well in their last interview. And I continue asking them about these strengths until they run out of compliments for themselves. I do this to help them change their "mental filter" about their interview skills and performance.

Ten Cognitive Distortions - #4 - Discounting the Positive

When we discount the positive, we insist that our positive qualities or accomplishments don't count. But we can't afford to do this in our job search. Job searching is different from daily life because it requires that we speak highly of ourselves in a consistent, balanced and gently assertive way. Because many of us aren't used to doing this, we can struggle with accepting compliments and remembering what our strongest skills, most helpful knowledge and greatest career accomplishments are. With more job search practice and experience, we can learn to make this important adjustment to accepting, celebrating and accurately describing our many strengths.

Ten Cognitive Distortions - #5 - Jumping to Conclusions

There are two common ways that we can jump to conclusions during our job search: Mind reading and "fortune telling."

Mind Reading

When we engage in mind reading, we assume that people are reacting negatively to us even though there's no definite evidence to support this thought. This can easily happen during many stages of your job search, especially in interviews and during networking events such as nerve-wracking job fairs.:-)

Or perhaps you don't hear back right away after sending your resume and cover letter, or after completing your interview and you automatically assume the worst. My best personal examples of this come from when I attended panel interviews. I've attended three panel interviews over the years, and in two of them I found it tough not to engage in "mind reading" because all of the interviewers refused to be friendly or even to crack a smile.

In one of these panel interviews I answered questions in front of more than 20 people! In the other one, I was interviewed by a group of co-workers who I'd been working with for the better part of a year. In retrospect I knew that the interviewers' seeming coldness was really just their way of trying to remain objective and fair to all candidates, but at the time I felt isolated and a little intimidated by their responses.

Fortune Telling"

When we engage in fortune telling, we arbitrarily predict that things either can't change or will turn out badly.

This is common even before we start our job search. Perhaps this kind of negative thinking prevents us from even starting to look for new work, keeping us trapped in a job that is actually below our level of ability or expertise. Uggh! The whole job search process takes on a negative tone, and we detest it.

Again, I think that a large part of the answer is to increase confidence through building stronger job search skills. How to write a better cover letter, resume and thank you letter. How to build and maintain a strong reference list. How to ace a job interview. Rather than "fortune telling," we can get on with our job searches and careers by developing job search skill expertise.

Ten Cognitive Distortions - #6 - Magnification/"Catastrophizing" and Minimization

When we magnify or "catostrophize" a situation we blow it out of proportion, whereas when we minimize it we shrink its importance inappropriately.

Magnification/Catastrophizing

An example of magnification or "catastrophizing" is lamenting about not winning a job that we put too much of our focus on to the detriment of other valid opportunities. We pine over the loss, all the while missing out on other job possibilities that are "staring us in the face." The way to avoid this trouble is to always keep our options open and not focus on only one alternative, regardless of how superior it seems to us at the time.

Minimization

Obviously, minimization is the exact opposite of magnification. It's common for people to "minimize" when they're applying for jobs that are above their current level of experience, education, knowledge, skill level or expertise. I remember doing this as soon as I finished grad school. I spent hours and hours at the university computer lab pouring over my resume, trying to make it just right so that employers would consider me for jobs that I really didn't qualify for yet.

The way to avoid this is to read the job posting carefully and ask yourself if you really have at least most of the qualifications the employer is asking for - especially ones that are highlighted. If not, it's best to acquire those qualifications before spending significant amounts of time on your resume and seriously applying for those positions. There are always exceptions of course, and networking helps a lot. But if we don't offer most of the qualifications listed, it's likely that the employer will choose someone else who's more qualified.

Ten Cognitive Distortions - #7 - Emotional Reasoning

Emotional reasoning is the trap we all experience from time to time of reasoning from how we feel. The job search process can become very stressful and emotional at times, and it's easy to start feeling horrible about it and then subjectively select "reasons" why our feelings are valid and accurate. But then what happens if we get a call from an employer the next day offering us the job we've always wanted? This could happen anytime, despite how we're feeling about things on any particular day.

The fact is that both emotions and reason are important, and we can't afford to let either one get the upper hand. If we're feeling down in the dumps about our job search and lousy personal financial situation, we need to build some objectivity in by writing down what's working for us and what's not working for us right now.

In the left-hand column we write our successes thus far in our job searching, no matter how small they may seem to us. Have we attended any interviews or made any new networking contacts? Do we have any leads? Have we sent out a lot of applications? Have we persevered? All of these count.

In the right-hand column we write the key areas we haven't been doing as well as we'd hoped. Perhaps we don't think we performed as well as we could've in our last interview - so we acknowledge these "current results" and then make plans for how we going to take corrective action to improve them, such as by practising with a friend, family member or employment counsellor/coach. Once we motivate ourselves to take such positive action - even just to seek or reach out for it - we'll start to feel a lot better.

Ten Cognitive Distortions - #8 - "Should" Statements

When we get into the bad habit of using "should" statements, we criticize ourselves or other people with "should"s, "must"s, "ought"s and "have to's." Whether we criticize ourselves or others, it indicates that we're unhappy with ourselves and our current job or unpopular social status of "unemployed."

The solution is to become aware of when we use such words or take such a critical approach to our job search, and seek to take a more balanced approach such as the one I outlined in #7 above.

Ten Cognitive Distortions - #9 - Labelling

In labelling, we identify with our shortcomings and mistakes and label ourselves instead of pinpointing the cause of the problems so that we can correct them. Examples within the job search are "I'm a bad interviewer" or "I'm a terrible cover letter writer." Such job search skill labels often arise out of some general negative beliefs we hold about ourselves - typically "I'm inadequate," "I'm worthless," I'm unlovable" or "I'm a loser."

Of course, none of these are true. We all have areas of great strength and skill, and areas of vulnerability and weakness but it never makes sense either emotionally or logically to label ourselves according to our weaknesses. It's better to take an honest and balanced view of ourselves as I've suggested above.

Ten Cognitive Distortions - #10 - Personalization and Blame

Finishing off our ten cognitive distortions is a "doozie":-) - personalization and blame.

Personalization is blaming yourself for something that you weren't entirely responsible for whereas blame involves blaming other people, external events or fate and overlooking the way your own attitudes and behaviour may have contributed to a problem.

A great example where personalization and blame arise is the fallout from a previous job gone wrong. Sometimes it has more to do with your supervisor, sometimes yourself, and often some combination of the two of you together that is at the heart of a bad workplace conflict. And, of course, getting fired or resigning in a "huff" can have a huge negative impact on building new professional relationships.

New prospective employers can sense during interviews if we've still angry at our last employer, and are unlikely to hire us until we've sufficiently resolved what happened in the past and moved on from it.

So it's important to do whatever is necessary to work these things through before we embark on our new job search. This could include a few longer talks with a close friend or older mentor. It could also include personal counseling with a trained and well-qualified professional if necessary - whatever it takes to get you back on the road to success!

Marketing in Good Resume Writing

By Landon Long

When we talk about a resume, we would be thinking like a sale being sent through an email or fax. I know you would agree if I would say that it is better to sell yourself on paper than on a face to face conversation, right? Good resume writing starts in formatting or writing a resume that can sell your suitability to the company's ultimate decision maker, the gatekeeper. Think of it as trying to hit your quota for the month by faxing your best offers to the client.

Resume writing is not easy. It is not like another day in the office that comes naturally to people and even to professional writers of resume. A lot of qualified applicants miss job opportunities because they do not understand the realities of resume writing and formatting. If you want to save a lot of time and effort, here
are some tips listed below for good resume writing.

1. Write a reader-friendly resume. Recruitment officers and HR managers often receive 50 - 100 resumes a day for each open position. They are often overworked and do not spend more than 10 - 15 seconds scanning each resume. If you do not format your resume to a much more reader friendly type of format then you will not get interviews.

2. Your resume must be hitting two birds with 1 stone. You must write your resume that would appeal to two audiences; to resume screeners and recruitment managers. These two have different views in looking into resumes. Resume screeners may recommend as many resumes because of security of filling up the vacant positions but recruitment managers look into substantial resumes and the one that would really fit to the particular position.

3. Doubt means you're out. Do not create doubts in the minds of your employer. Make sure you have a specific and concrete content in your resume. Recruitment Officers usually pass by to resumes they see any doubt with. They do not give time trying to answer the questions they encounter in some of the resumes.

4. Strong Candidate + Weak Resume = No Interview. Even if you are a strong candidate, it does not matter if your resume is weak. Recruitment officers do not recognize strong candidates with weak resumes. If they see you have a good content and format including reliable references then that would give you a chance for an interview and eventually a chance to show hiring managers how a strong candidate you are.

A resume is vital to a job application, but a good resume is vital to a successful job search. A resume that is truthful, but attractive account of an applicant's experience, education and skills can help show recruitment managers why the applicant is a suitable candidate for the position. I hope that this good resume writing tips will be of good help in your search for better job opportunities.

Top Career Advice - More Choices and A Better Way of Life

By Roger Clarke

Why Career Advice Is So Important

Choosing a career presents a nerve-racking decision, as it can have a life-long impact on you. Do not fret, as you can gain a clearer outlook into your future by thorough career planning.

Having a clear vision of the future can guide you by helping you set career goals and helping you on your way towards attaining them. Whether you are starting out on a new career or looking to change your current career, you will benefit enormously from taking sound advice.

Don't Spend Most of Your Life Doing ...

Chances are that you will be spending a great deal of time at your job, about 40 hours a week. Career advice and career profiling can guide you to a job that is enjoyable for you and matches your interests.

There are many reasons people change their careers and career advice can help them along the way. Some frequently cited reasons are:

· Stuck in a dead end job.

· Lost interest in current line of work.

· Gained a new interest in a different career option.

A Job For Life ... Not Anymore

In today's world, there is increased job rotation ... also with the down turns in the economy, many people can be laid-off.
Good career advice for unemployed persons would be to consider a career change. Some of the fastest growing occupations are Medical Assistant, Network Systems Analyst, Physician Assistant, etc. Occupations that are struggling to gain workers can be a suitable option for currently unemployed individuals.

People often back off from changing careers if they are unsure of the effort it might take to start a new career and learn a new trade. If you are one of these people, career advice from professionals can help you make a knowledgeable decision.

How To Identify Your Career Choices

When choosing a new career field, career advice and career planning can help you figure out your career choices. When embarking on a new career, you need to take into account your previous education and work experience.

You should start thinking about the skills you currently possess and how they can be beneficial in each of the new career options available to you.

Have You Considered a Career Test?

Valuable career advice can come from career tests as they can help in identifying suitable job options. Career tests include tests such as personality profiling, leadership skills, motivation, management style, etc.

The results of such tests can give you the career advice that can direct you to a suitable career, by matching your interests with career options.

Many career tests are offered online. They may be free or available for a small fee. Many experts provide the career advice to employment seekers to take some time to plan their career and set their goals. Knowing your career goals can provide you with valuable guidance.

Remember that career planning and goal setting is an on-going process, changing as you continue on your career.

The web can be a great source to find valuable career advice. It can provide you with many resources to research new career choices and find out information on a particular career field such as average salary, work environment, job responsibilities, etc.

Use Resumes That Give You an Advantage

Whether you are starting a career, changing careers or looking for a different job in your present career, the best career advice is to have a great, eye-catching resume.

You may be thinking about using your old resume, maybe the one you made after graduating from college. However, you will have to make changes to that resume to make it relevant to your present situation.

Upgrade your resume with the additional skills and experiences you have acquired. People going through a career change, need to present the skills they have acquired through the years in a way that makes it relevant to the new career jobs for which they are applying.

You may not have all the standard education for that career, so you need to convince potential employers that your previous education and work experience have given you the skills that make you a suitable candidate to transition into that job.

Career planning involves gaining information that can ease your transition to a new career. This information can help get you out of your current dreary jobs and into a dynamic and interesting career.

Act Now... and Take Control of Your Career

It's never too late to think of making a career change... seek professional career advice and give yourself the best chance of achieving your career goals.

Career Move - A Step By Step Guide

By Keji Giwa

Most people die from the neck up at age 25 because they stop dreaming, some people are managing their dreams after age 25 because they have been busy making their dreams their reality.

A step at a time is progress

Today I will give you a quick summary of the 5 key steps you need to take in order to make a career move that will change your life for the best. You can get the full content from our website. Each step has been carefully thought out, tried and tested with phenomenal results. Take your time and digest it.

Step 1: For get your past mistakes. Forgive yourself because if you don't, you will always be tied to your past and it will hinder you from making bold and life changing decisions for fear of repeating the same mistakes again. Learn from it and move on.

Step 2: Start with the end in mind. Discover what you want to achieve at each stage of your life and then work backwards from each stage. You can do this by mentally and spiritually seeing yourself achieving the things you want and then putting the puzzles together in reality through planning. Make sure it is a SMART- V Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Time Bound and directly related to your Vision. Without vision, momentum becomes an aimless energy that eventually runs out.

Step 3: Run your own race & on your own track. Most people tend to measure their progress based on the progress of others. Our five fingers are not equal and they have different unique functions. One finger is not better than the other and the same applies to you and the next person. You have a better chance winning your own race and on your own track, compared to running someone else's race and on someone else's track.

Step 4: Celebrate your small and big wins. Encouraging yourself propels you forward. When you fail to celebrate you small wins, you fail to measure your progress. A progress report tells you where you are, what you have achieved and how far you have to go. It can be an amazing comfort and reassure when things get really difficult.

Step 5: Remember that you are in the people business. What's in it for them? If you fail to understand the bigger picture, you will never find a your place in it. The world is made up of many other billions of people and if you what you have to offer does not involve meeting their needs, you cannot place a value on your service.

Dream Interviewing - A Guide to Landing Your Dream Job

By Keith Krzywiecki

Are you looking to land your dream job? Is this your first interview or have you been interviewing for awhile? Do you wish you had an easy guide to help you improve your interviewing skills? Whatever your answers are to these questions the bottom line is that most people need help with their interviewing skills. If you put a little bit of effort in to each of the major parts of the interview process you will come out of the interview as the top candidate and land your dream job.

Stand out in the crowd
The key throughout the entire Dream Interviewing® process is to differentiate yourself vs. all the other candidates you are going against for your dream job. One of the easiest ways to differentiate yourself is to get over prepared for the Dream Interview® and you need to do this in multiple areas. Focus on what you will wear, where the interview is, how long it will take you to get there, and what route you will take in order to get there at least 15 minutes ahead of time. The other key preparation you will need to do is around understanding the industry you are interviewing in, the company you are interviewing with, and the job you are interviewing for. Be prepared with multiple examples around your strengths, areas of development, leadership, teamwork, influence, problem solving, and conflict management.

Selling yourself
The Dream Interview® is one of those key times in life where you need to come in ready to sell the interviewer on why you are the best candidate for the job. You certainly do not want to cross the line into arrogance or cockiness but you do want them to know you are the best fit for their job. Believe me, if you don't sell yourself no one else interviewing is ever going to say they should hire you first. Start believing you are the best and go into that Dream Interview ready to prove it to them. Your cover letter and resume are basically your selling tools designed to land you that dream job, therefore, they need to be professional, accurate, and specific to the job you are interviewing for. Find excellent examples such as those found in the Dream Interviewing Certification Program that can make this much easier for you and once again will differentiate you from the crowd.

Your Brag Book
The jury is basically split on putting together and using a brag book. I believe they are great if you use them correctly to help convince the interviewer how exceptional you are. The problem is most candidates come in and pronounce they have a brag book but never pull it out in the interview to sell themselves. If you put all that effort into getting the brag book put together than by all means have the top 2-3 key examples of why you are the best candidate for this job up front in the book and get the interviewing interested in seeing your book.

Those Wonderful Questions
Just think if you knew the questions the interviewer was going to ask prior to doing your Dream Interview and you could get prepared with the very best answers to knock their socks off. There are many similar questions that all interviewers ask as we are all looking for the same types of things in every candidate we interview so do your homework on what questions will be asked and practice answering them before you go in to the interview. You will be amazed at how much more relaxed you are, how much more fun the interview is, and how much more connected you are to the interviewer. Also put together your list of key questions you want to ask in the interviewer as you should be interviewing them as much as they are interviewing you if this is truly your dream job.

Sell Me Something
This situation is coming up more often in the interviewing process as the interviewer wants to see how you react to a little pressure, what type of social skills you have, and if you can think on your feet. The key here is not to sweat, take your time, listen, and ask for the business. All of this can be done easily again if you have a simple repeatable selling process that you can use with anything they ask you to sell, including yourself. Start with a plan, seek to understand, satisfy their needs, and make action is a full proof way to sell anything and set you up for success in this scenario.

Get That Job- Close the Interview
Well it's all come down to this one moment. You have prepared better than any other candidate, you have practiced the interview questions/answers, you have a great cover letter/resume, you closed them in the sell me something scenario, you asked great questions to the interviewer, and you have just one thing left to do. Tell them you want this job and that you are the best candidate for this job. Don't hold back, now is the time to make sure they have every example of why you rock, they don't have any concerns left about you, and they want you to ask, so do it. Every interviewer wants to see, hear, and feel the close yet I find only about 10% of candidates close us. Can you believe that? You want your dream job that much yet you don't simply ask for it and a lot of times that is the difference between one candidate and the next. So on the next Dream Interview you have, please, by all means, ask for your dream job-if you don't someone else will.

Career Change Tips and Advice

By Charles Buckman

In most cases people pick a career from a number of alternatives when their in their twenty's.  That's a time when their unsure of what career to follow.  Interests change as you move through life.  You may be at that stage now or you may have lost your interest, or even become very bored at your present job.  If you feel it's time for a career change, follow this plan to guide you in setting a course of action. 
  
There are signs that tell you it's time for a career change: 
  
'Can't wait until 5PM' 
'I'm bored out of my head' 
'I out-grew this job' 
'The same work-load day in and day out' 
  
Before you change careers, you should do a lot of contemplation and homework.  You should be aware of your strengths and weaknesses.  What are your interests?  Do you feel that your skills can be applied to a career change? 
  
Most career changers already have the answers to these questions, but don't realize it.  If the career changer takes the time to assess their goals, what they enjoy, what will keep them motivated, they probably will have all the answers.  Some do this by just getting into a new career.  Some need training for a new career.  There are employers that offer training if the interviewer is impressed with the job seeker.  Alternatively, the career changer may get the training through programs offered at local colleges and vocational institutions.   
  
Most people look at the earning capacity while ignoring what they enjoy doing best.  That's a tragic mistake.  Don't misunderstand me, money is important, however enjoying what you do is also crucial to your career.  So make sure whatever new career you enter into is a career that you enjoy and will keep you motivated.  
  
Some people actually enjoy their present career, but dislike the department they are working in.  If that is your situation, speak to your supervisor and try to get placed in a department that is more suitable for your needs. 
  
Another similar example; to make a transition a little easier, the career changer's present job is in sales of medical equipment.  In this situation, the salesperson should consider selling a different piece of medical equipment that will keep the salesperson motivated while enjoying the sales of the new product.  If you're in a situation where you can sell more than one product why not go for it!  You may find that even more interesting and more beneficial to your earnings. 
  
Have self-confidence, believe in what you are doing, work hard at it,  be honest, and you will be successful.

Finally, A Career Guide For Freelancers

By Mylene Kasilag

There are no magic bullets, no magic formula. Those of us who have been there through sun and storm, can only smile at the fact that everything starts with a burning desire to succeed. The craft of freelancing takes years to shape and a lifetime to perfect. We are very fortunate - the Internet has redefined the word "freelance" and has made it a lucrative career for almost everybody with specialized information. Now, with a little guide and a lot of practice, success at freelance is more of a reality today than it ever was before the Internet was mainstream. It may take a lot of hard work with long hours, but in the end, it really is possible to have comfortable income through online freelance work.

To help you remember the Quick Guide, I came up with the perfect acronyms - SKIN, GOAL and LEVEL. Please do your best to memorize the acronyms because they definitely will come in handy and create milestones for you. After all, it is your life's career on the plate.

Phase 1 - Identify your S-K-I-N
• Skill
• Knowledge
• Interest
• Network

Phase 2 - Set your G-O-A-L
• Generate your product/ service
• Organize a business system
• Accelerate your sales
• Leapfrog your way to the top

Phase 3 - Bring yourself to the next L-E-V-E-L
• Leverage on joint projects
• Enrich others to enrich yourself
• Volunteer for visibility
• Earn sponsorships and favours
• Live a simple life

Let us start with Phase 1 - Identify your S-K-I-N

The objective of Phase 1 is to establish the foundation of your career. By identifying your skill, knowledge, and interest, you will also be able to recognize existing conditions, concerns, constraints, or even weaknesses. Through some exercises, you will be able to formulate decisions that will dictate the future intensity and consistency of the rate of your progress. After finding out your skill, knowledge, and interest, we will proceed to explore ways to build your network.

Follow these steps:

1) Make 3 columns on your paper and mark each column with the headings - SKILL, KNOWLEDGE, and INTEREST. Make your lists following the criteria below.

2) Study the lists and weigh the possibilities when you have to choose only one item from each column.

3) Finalize and make your conclusion as shown from the examples below.

4) Generate a random idea of the kind of freelance business you can pursue.

• SKILL

The skills we refer to are the "God-given skill". These are the skills that were given to you when you were born. If you were stripped naked from all resources - money, friends, education, etc., what is it that you can do on your own without help?

Is it the ability to sketch people in detail?
Can you make up fascinating stories?
Can you write travel journals?
Are you a born salesman?
Born teacher?
Can you make children laugh?
Are you a math wizard?
Can you compose songs?
Do you easily grow flowers?

• KNOWLEDGE

By knowledge, we mean "specialized knowledge". These are special information that a niche market may find valuable. Specialized knowledge can be about sunset photography, furniture designing, copywriting, wood varnishing, basket making, animal breeding, interior decorating, flower arranging, bread making, software programming, web designing, business plan writing, video making, online marketing, SEO writing, and many others.

Oftentimes, we do not recognize the specialized knowledge that we already have for so long. Specialized knowledge may be as simple as knowing so much about caring for the elderly or preparing everyday meals for a diabetic child.

• INTEREST

In a lifetime, there could be a range of interests that keep us occupied. The interest we are looking for is the one that you are so passionate about that you do not notice the time spent in the task. In fact, you may not be producing great results but you keep on it because "passionate interest" is therapeutic and stimulating.

Now, study your lists and whenever you are certain about your personal evaluation, identify the following aspects for building your career. Take your time...

GOD-GIVEN SKILLL _______________________________
SPECIALIZED KNOWLEDGE _______________________________
PASSIONATE INTEREST _______________________________

Sample conclusion No. 1

God-given skill is "writing"
Specialized knowledge is "preparing salad recipes"
Passionate interest is "growing vegetables from the backyard"

Random idea: You can blog about your day to day experience on growing vegetables from the backyard. Talk about preparing the soil, which crops grow under the shade or sunlight, etc. Describe the tools you use. Excite the readers by showing videos. Solicit sponsorship from possible advertisers. Make an eBook on "Salad Recipes - Fresh from the Garden". Place brand ads of olive oil, vinegar, mayonnaise, etc. On the eBook and distribute for free when they subscribe to your blog.

Sample conclusion No. 2

God-given skill is "selling"
Specialized knowledge is "computer repair"
Passionate interest is "computer games"

Random idea: Possible online business is to write your reviews about different computer games and get advertising sponsorships. Make recommendations suitable for each age group. You can also write about ways to upgrade the hardware specifications to optimize the performance of the desired software game. Tie up with computer dealers as your supplier. Create your own bundling promo package for software games and sell online.

Sample conclusion No. 3

God-given skill is "teaching"
Specialized knowledge is "publishing books"
Passionate interest is "playing with children"

Random idea: Obviously, you can teach illustrators and writers how to create entertaining educational books that children would respond to. Get samples of books from various publishers and offer to conduct random survey to see which book a child will choose to pick up based on the front cover, etc. Document the process on video. You can write reviews of children's books and make recommendations on how to improve them. Publishers will happily pay you for the survey results before they send the prototype to the press.

Generating a random idea of what your freelance business is a great way to visualize yourself in action. Do not worry about the details because a lot of these will change over time as you become more confident about your goal and vision. As you dedicate more energy and focus to your God-given skills, specialized knowledge, and passionate interest, the more you can propel your career to success.
Lesson 2 of our Freelance Career Guide is all about identifying your NETWORK. Network is also known as our "Market" or "Prospective Client".

You can not even begin to think about "building your network" if you have not clearly identified the S-K-I-N as a whole. If this is the case, you need to review:

• Skill - God-given
• Knowledge - Specialized
• Interest - Passionate
• Network - Money-making

Your network is the list of people you can sell to (and if you are looking at multi-level network, then your network can be defined as the tiers of people you sell to).

The quality of your network reflects who you are. If you sell "get-rich-no-work" business scheme then the network you will attract are those who want fast money without having to work. If you sell online casino membership, then you would attract the network who would rather invest their time on "luck" rather than "hard work". There is no"right" and "wrong" network. It is just a matter of choice.

You can build your N by first announcing and advertising your S-K-I. The fastest way to do this is by starting a blog. It may sound weird at this point but a well-visited blog is the easiest strategy and most economical venue to showcase your skill, knowledge, and interest worldwide. Only then, you can attract like-minded people, build relationship and trust over a short period of time, and eventually convert your S-K-I-N to a sales machine. In the following lessons of Phase 2, we will discuss in detail the ways to build your network based on your business plan. For now, let us focus on finalizing Phase 1.

Let us pick-up our sample scenario from Lesson 1 to give you an idea:

• God-given SKILL is "writing"
• Specialized KNOWLEDGE is "preparing salad recipes"
• Passionate INTEREST is "growing vegetables from the backyard"
• Money-making NETWORK is a list of buyers interested in salad recipes, salad dressing concoctions, spices, organic fertilizers, gardening tools, and other products related to your knowledge and passionate interest.

Random idea for the business plan:

You can blog about your daily thoughts on growing vegetables from the backyard. Talk about preparing the soil, which crops grow under the shade or sunlight, etc. Describe the tools you use. Excite the readers by showing videos. Solicit sponsorship from possible advertisers. Make an eBook on "Salad Recipes - Fresh from the Garden". Place brand ads of olive oil, vinegar, mayonnaise, concoctions, etc. On the eBook and distribute for free when they subscribe to your blog. Look for other products to sell. Create an e-commerce catalogue.

Now, you may say, "but where will I get the products to sell?" Do not worry, we will go through all the important aspects, step-by-step in Phase 2 of our Freelance Career Guide.
Take a moment to study your S-K-I-N conclusion. Are you happy with it? Can you visualize the big picture and feel the excitement of the random business idea? If you feel inspired by your S-K-I-N, then you must be gearing for the right direction.

You need to be very certain about your S-K-I-N because all your future undertakings will depend on them. Any slight changes can affect the total business perspective. As much as we are leveraging on your strengths and assets, you also need to keep in mind the personal weakness that you need to work on or work around with. Working on your own can lead to crazy, lazy work habits that you would never get away with if you are employed. Remember, you need to be making money every single day.

Take your time to assess yourself before proceeding to Phase 2. Take your time - as much as your personal resources can accommodate. Take up short courses, accept freelance jobs, join hobby clubs, forums, workshops, and seminars.

Continue to maintain a blog to get used to writing down your thoughts. You will also get comments that may inspire you to write more. By the time you are ready to work on your own plan, you would have improved your communication skills - an essential tool for success.

Close your eyes. Imagine that the current date is five years from now. Where do you want to be? Will you be running a job or business that hasn't increased significantly in size? Will you command a rapidly growing network? Will you continue to expand the opportunities or would you have already cashed out and be relaxing and enjoying your hard-won gains?

Answering these questions is the first step in building a successful career plan. In fact, without knowing where you are going, it's not really possible to plan at all.

Why should you freelance on God-given skill?

My answer is simple: God-given skill is something that you possess no matter what happens. More importantly, it is yours freely without having to ask for it. There must be a very good reason why YOU and not everyone else in this world were given the privilege of having this particular gift. It is entirely up to you to figure out how to make good use of it.

It is both logical and practical to plan any career with that in mind. Doing freelance can get lonely at one point. Work buddies can come and go, projects can go wrong, release of fees can get delayed, your business can collapse overnight - a lot can happen that could discourage and confuse you. And when you do not have friends, money, or anything else to hold on to, you can always pick up on your God-given skill because it is truly yours free. A career charted by God-given skill can reward you a profession built on solid ground - no matter how many times you fall.

Career Choices - 4 Steps to a Fulfilling Career

By Lisa McGrimmon


Understanding how to make smart career choices is a life skill that everyone needs. The decisions you make about your career have a profound effect on every aspect of your life. The more good knowledge and resources you have to make informed decisions, the more control you'll have over your career and your future.

Unfortunately, plenty of people believe that career choice is a one time event that happens naturally, without a lot of thought, some time in early adulthood when you're about to leave high school or apply to post secondary programs. Smart career management actually happens across your lifetime, and we continue to make consequential career choices over the years.

Whether you are looking for a new job, aiming to take the next step in your current job, completely changing your career or planning your retirement options, you are making career choices, and using good resources and the guidance of a career counselor can help you to make those decisions well.

So often when people find themselves at a career crossroads, the first thing they do is jump right in and create a new resume without putting any thought into what their next steps should be. Smart career management and job search is about so much more than writing a great resume. If you take the time to learn about, think though and act on the four main areas of career management, you will be rewarded throughout your career.

1. Understand Yourself

Your interests, abilities, values and personal needs and realities should all be taken into account in any career decision making process. You spend hours at work, and it impacts your life in many ways. It makes sense that you should be fully informed and aware of your personal needs, strengths and possible challenges before making such profound decisions.

2. Understand Your Options

Do you know how many different career choices are available to you? Both The Dictionary of Occupational Titles (American) and The National Occupational Classification (Canadian) list well over 20,000 different job titles. Unless you have actively explored a variety of career choices, there is a very good chance that there are great career options available to you, and you don't even realize they exist.

3. Connect Your Information

Match your self knowledge with your understanding of the labor market and possible career options. Once you have developed a good understanding of yourself, you will be able to combine that self knowledge with your career and labor market research to determine potential career choices that are a great fit for your strengths, preferences and personal needs and goals.

4. Make it Happen

Finally, now is the time to start applying all of your job search strategies. You actually don't get to the resume writing stage until step four. When you have made a well informed career choice, then you're ready to make it happen. Making use of good career guidance and resources will help you to acquire the education, skills and experience needed to get the job and learn and implement effective job search strategies.

Avoid taking the "ready, fire, aim" approach to making career choices and job searching. Time spent understanding your needs, researching your career options and developing outstanding job search skills, guided by great career resources, is a powerful investment in your future.

Career Choices - How to Choose Your Ideal Career

By Lisa McGrimmon

A big part of making smart career choices and gaining control over your career lies in understanding yourself. That means having a good sense of how your personality, abilities, and values work together to impact the type of career that is ideal for you.

Career and Personality Match

Ensuring a good career and personality match is an important step in building a satisfying and fruitful career, while a poor career and personality match can hold you back in your career success and happiness.

Imagine the difference between a sales professional who is extroverted and agreeable and one who is introverted and indifferent. Sales jobs tend to require an extroverted, agreeable personality profile, so that person would be more inclined to be a top performer on his or her team and truly enjoy the work. On the other hand, the introverted and indifferent individual would more likely struggle with inferior job performance, job dissatisfaction and possibly even career burnout.

A simple and effective strategy for understanding the ways your career choices and personality interact is through a valid personality assessment. Unlike simplistic, just-for-fun tests you may see in popular magazines, valid personality assessments are developed through vast amounts of objective scientific testing and volumes of psychological research to ensure they are a truly accurate measure of your personality and career options.

Match Your Career Choices with Your Natural Talents

An aptitude test can be used to assess your capacity to learn a variety of different skills. It can help you to understand the types of skills that you will likely learn easily and those that will be more challenging for you to learn.

Depending on the test that is used, aptitude tests can be used to assess everything from spatial perception to verbal ability to finger and manual dexterity. Most commonly, aptitude tests are used to assess general learning ability (your overall ability to learn and understand), verbal ability (language) and numerical ability (math).

A career aptitude test does not rely on skills that you have learned in the past. Although skills and aptitudes are related, your skills are things you have learned to do in the past. Your aptitudes are things that you have the ability to learn. So, even if you have not studied math at an advanced level, an aptitude test could still predict that you have the ability to learn math without undue difficulty.

Like interest tests, good aptitude assessments are developed using extensive objective scientific testing and research. A valid career assessment can provide useful information if you are considering training for a new career. The test will help to show areas of strength and forewarn you of areas where learning new skills may be more challenging.

If you do decide to take a career assessment test, it can help you to build a career around your strengths. You will understand yourself better, and be able to work with, promote and feel confident about your strengths.

Match Your Career Choices with Your Values

Matching values and career choices is an often overlooked aspect of career planning. Considering that the leading cause of job burnout is a mismatch between your personal values and the realities of your job, it's important to assess your values and the ways they will be expressed in your career decisions.

It can be easy to slip into pursuing career rewards that do not fit with your own value system. Society tells us to value prestige, power and a high income. If those career accomplishments are within your own personal set of values, then pursuing those things will likely contribute to your happiness and career satisfaction.

However, if you value family friendly flexibility in your work schedule, creativity and helping others, then you'll find more career satisfaction in pursuing those career goals. That doesn't mean that you're destined to be unhappy in a high paying job if high income is not one of your core values. However, it does mean that if earning a high income is not one of your primary values, that income will not make up for the shortcomings a job that goes against your own personal values.

If you decide you use a values inventory test to help you think through your important work values, keep in mind that, unlike interest and aptitude assessments, a values inventory is not a formal tool that has been validated through objective research. However, a values inventory is a great brainstorming tool to help you to assess things that motivate you and your needs as they are related to your career choices.

Often people struggle to state what they want out of their work (beyond an income), so a values inventory can help by prompting you to think through many possible work related values.

As you make your career decisions, keep in mind that some factors affect career choice in ways that are profound, but not immediately obvious. Matching your career choices and your personality, aptitudes and values is a smart step towards your career success and satisfaction.

A Positive Approach to Redundancy

The current economic environment is a tough one to navigate through, with cuts seen in public funding, the double dip of recession affecting many private companies across the sectors, and a high level of unemployment hanging over the country. For many, this means having to face the prospects of redundancy. Everyone is affected differently by redundancy. For many people it can be highly traumatic, but as with most things in life; there are two ways to try and look at redundancy if the situation arises for you; see it as a case of victimisation or take it as an opportunity to re-evaluate your career.
Even the most positive individual will feel some form of denial, anger and loss of confidence if they find themselves facing redundancy. This is perfectly naturally. But after a period of feeling low, try to regain some focus and work towards seeing this as 'an opportunity to re-evaluate your career path'. Here are some top tips:
- Treat your new job search as a project - it will require that much full time dedication anyway!
- Draw up a plan of action; include important actions that need to take place, review dates, and an anticipated 'end date' for the project.
- Take stock of the resources that are available to you, and use them as much as you can. Do you have access to an outplacement scheme? Fantastic! Engage with it early. Is it worth investing in a career coach? Think about each of the resource options available to you, even if you just dismiss them all at least they have been considered.
- Review your finances. Think about what you 'need' to earn as oppose to what you were earning. This can make you re-assess your priorities, values and even your preferred career path.
- Try not to just take up the first role that you are offered, 'just because' you are happy to have been offered something, to feel valued and to have a sense of security again. As Steve Preston says, "if you plan your campaign right, you will get offers of jobs you really want or you may decide to set up your own business or develop a portfolio career."
- Think outside the box when it comes to sourcing job vacancies. Don't just use publications, job websites and agencies; also try online and offline networking.
- Think about the individuals you have around you, and use them to as a support network; after all they will only want the best for you so surround yourself with their positive vibes, knowledge and experiences.
Above all, keep focused and motivated and learn to overcome knock backs. Good luck.
By Josie Kehoe

Five Career Decision Making Secrets

We live in a black and white, yes or no society. Often when faced with a big career decision, that built-in bias causes us to stop at two either or options. That's a mistake.
Hindsight proves that there are often multiple options available to us and just by looking at your career change in different ways and from different approaches you'll see more of those options.
Here are five decision-making secrets that will help you to see your optimum choices in foresight rather than until it's too late.
1). You know far more than you think you do.
You've been recording observations subconsciously for your entire life. You've taken in and retained much more than you think you have. You're also connected to all the wisdom in the universe. So, you often don't need more analysis or research. You do need to pull everything together that you already know and make your best decision possible from where you are with what you have.
2). Readiness to act on a new direction is more based on the existence of confident feelings than on any group of facts.
Where does confidence come from? It comes from remembering your competent experiences. Let go of your career change mistakes and look at your accomplishments. They will put you in a much more confident and hopeful frame of mind. Examine all of your options from that frame of mind.
3). Engagement clarifies. Action intensifies clarity.
By choosing your best bet and getting into action you can't go wrong. Perspective is enhanced via movement. Often you won't see your best career options until you take a couple of small steps forward. Look for ways to do that without fully committing to a new direction.
4). Write down multiple options and sleep on them.
When we live with a good question even for 24 hours our n mind seeks a solution. Often by coming back the next days and asking these questions you'll see what you couldn't see the day before. What am I missing? What else? How would a genius arrive at the optimum choice?

5). Decide on the day and time that you will commit to one option.
It's not decision- making that bothers you and causes distress but the lack of making decisions. All unmade decisions eat away at your sense of self-respect and drain your energy. By setting a firm decision date and following through, you will make the decisions and increase your feeling of competency.
ANY decision that you can see in hindsight was there and available for you to see in foresight and you'll increase the probability of seeing it by expanding your options to at least five viable options before you make the decision.
Actively use these secrets to increase the probability of making the right decision for you, the first time.
But also know this. Making decision-making mistakes is a normal part of the self-actualization process, the business building process and yes of the career decision process.
It's actually valuable to recognize our mistakes. Without mistakes we would have nothing from which to adjust and make follow-up decisions. It really is all good and by deciding and acting frequently you'll get better and better at doing what's right for you.
By Tom Volkar