Step It Up At Work And Save Your Job!

From Step It Up At Work And Save Your Job!

With the economy in the tank, companies are still laying off employees left and right and every time you turn around, businesses that were once thriving have closed their doors for good. It’s no wonder you tread lightly at work these days; you have every right to be concerned your head may be the next on the chopping block. And unless you’ve got a trust fund the size of Texas, that is a very real possibility for millions of professional women across the country.

Granted, if a company truly can’t afford to keep you on payroll, there is nothing you can do to change that. The best thing you can do in that case is to review your severance agreement (if you are offered one), apply for unemployment and begin your quest for another job.

However, there is nothing wrong with making it extremely difficult for your boss to let you go, should a layoff become a possibility. The trick is to be suave about it. Here’s how:

Always be one step ahead of your boss. Do you get your work done without being asked? Do you get a head start on projects that aren’t due for a few weeks? Do you make sure your boss has everything she needs for a meeting and are you proactive about finding solutions to problems she may be having? How about helping with responsibilities that aren’t necessarily yours, but you offer to do them anyway?

It may sound like overkill, but it could really mean the difference between a paycheck or none at all. Your boss is stressed beyond belief right now, trying to meet goals in a down economy, so she may be less apt to shower you with praise for a job well done. However, if your boss asks you for something and you say you’ve already done it, you send the message that she can count on you when they need it most.

Focus on the job-not the clock. Sure, we’ve all got husbands, children, pets and social lives outside of the office, but one of the quickest-and easiest-ways to lose your position in the possibility of a layoff is to be out the door every day at five on the dot. Your boss can and, quite surely, will take that as a sign that you don’t like your work, that you have enough on your plate, or both.

I’m not saying to kill yourself taking on more work than you can or want to handle, but if you get to work after your boss in the morning and then leave before her at night, maybe you should rearrange your schedule, give or take ten minutes. It can’t hurt to ask her if she needs anything before you head out for the evening, either. Your effort will pay off in spades when she remembers all the times you helped her with something at the last minute, trust me.

Turn on the charm. When you’re overloaded with work and stressed out, it’s easy to forget your manners. Always say “please” and “thank you” and try to bring positive energy and good humor to the office. Even if you’re having the worst day of your life, it could be the day when your boss decides she has to let someone go and your bad mood could earn you a pink slip. The more difficult the times, the more reason you have to smile-because you still have a job. Let’s try and keep it that way-you really can’t afford your bad mood.

Show your range. It never hurts to ask to help with projects you weren’t assigned to. Not only will it earn you recognition as a team player, but your boss will see you as the valuable, well-rounded employee you truly are. After all, the employees companies are not willing to part with are those who can pick up the pieces where the others left off.

You Actually Can Earn Money by Taking Online Surveys

from MakeUseOf.com by Simon Slangen

Earning money out of your home, online. Many people play with the idea, and some  even go after it. There are various ways to pursue it. One is to write, like I do, for websites or blogs. If you've got it in you, I recommend you to do it. We've written in the past about websites to earn money writing, check it out.

But not everyone's got the feel for it. There are of course other ways. You can, in fact, earn money taking online surveys or company offers. That's right, you can get paid for giving your opinion. Before I began to work at MakeUseOf, I worked this possibility for a time. A 16 year old boy, in Belgium, gathering some extra cash. This only begins to show how 'open' this all is. Your age and nationality matter little to none, the only thing you need is an internet connection and some time to spare.

Today I'd like to show you how to tackle this line of 'work'. The various tips and tricks involving successfully engaging it, and the trustworthy places to go for your survey fix.

Step One – Get Real

Before you start trying to earn money taking online surveys, there are a few things you'll need to realize.

Do not expect to make money in truckloads. You (most probably) won't get hundreds of dollars a week, thousands a month, whatever the ads try to tell you. True, when you participate in a multitude of high-roll surveys daily you can make a fair amount, but things don't work out like that in real life.

Those high-roll surveys will be a sporadic surprise, rather than routine, and depending on how many company aims you hit or miss (do you handle the budget at home, or do you live off your parents? Are you a jock or a nerd?), the amount of surveys you receive can differ greatly. Also, when considering the hourly earnings – some surveys can take up a lot of time – you're not exactly well-paid.

However, if you enlist for a reasonable number of survey services, you can certainly score some extra bucks. Best of all, you don't need to be able to actually do things, just have an opinion – and everyone has one of those. Just keep in mind that this is a little extra money, instead of your new job.

Step Two – Get Ready

You want to be properly set up before you go. Besides cluttering your address with surveys, you'll encounter some false – spamming – services if you go venturing on your own.

I highly suggest registering a new email address for the job, to keep pleasure and business apart, so to speak. Go with Gmail (a lightweight and easy interface is advised in days to come, it'll also be needed to set up our filters) and pick an easy to remember name.

Filters

If you keep the different suppliers separated, it'll be easier to see where the occasional crap is coming from. Don't worry, you won't need to register twenty-odd different addresses, Gmail helps us with that.

1. If actual@gmail.com is your email address, use actual+service@gmail.com for the different services. (e.g. if I were to enlist myselft on GTM, I'd use the mail address simonspam+gtm@gmail.com). As Gmail completely ignores the addition mark and suffix, all emails will arrive in the same inbox, but we'll be able to separate them by using filters.
2. Creating the actual filter is a lot easier than you'd think. However, you'll have to repeat the process below for every service. First, press the Create a Filter button at the top of the page.

   

   Next, enter the actual+service@gmail.com as the receiving address, and head to the next step.

   

   You can then choose how to manage this part of your mail. Choose for it to skip your inbox and be added to the service's label. You'll be able to access it in a separate folder at any given time, located on the left portion of your screen.

   

If you ever receive spam on one of your pseudo-addresses, you can easily put a halt to all incoming traffic. Just edit the right filter, and select Delete it.

Step Three – Get Paid

The final and most simple step. Register on a multitude of (trustworthy) survey suppliers, and wait for the 'work' to come. You'll quickly notice that different sites work different ways, with different systems and paygrades. Usually you'll need to wait until you've reached a certain amount (ten to twenty dollars) until you can cash out – sometimes a wiring to your bank account, most often Paypal.

Below you'll find three of the highest recommended sites, by us and other satisfied users over the internet. All are international.

1.  SurveySavvy

If you're going for the bucks, you definitely need to enlist for SurveySavvy. Each survey gets assigned a dollar value, between 2 and 20 dollars. Even when you don't fit any of that month's surveys, you get automatically entered in the monthly sweepstakes, where they give away fifty 10 dollar prizes.

2.  American Consumer Opinion

Don't be misguided by the name, they work worldwide. They pay between 4 and 25 dollars per survey, and also automatically enlist you for their monthly sweepstakes. Don't pass on any surveys you receive.

3.  Harris Polls

One of the most respected survey sites out there – both by users and professionally. They award you relatively generous with Hlpoints, which you can redeem for gift cards, prizes, and sweepstakes. They work internationally and "are continuously investigating international laws regarding sweepstakes rules and eligibility". More information on their questions page.

4+ Other Sites

You'll want to enlist for as many survey suppliers as possible. Check out Online Paid Surveys for other websites. You can filter them on geographic availability and get more information out of the reviews.

This is where we round up this article. I hope you've learned something and will be able to put it to use. If you've got any other questions or comments, head straight to the comments section below.

http://www.surveysavvy.com/

Did you like the post? Please do share your thoughts in the comments section!

Personal Branding vs. Self-Awareness

Originally from WebWorkerDaily by Georgina Laidlaw

Recently, I've been thinking about personal branding and finding myself disagreeing with the idea that it's something with which we should all be concerned.

While I was reviewing "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Personal Branding," I read this quote in a section detailing the personal brand extensions achieved by Madonna:

"And then in 2008, when she was turning 50 and her career was perhaps waning, she thrust herself back into the headlines by having what was described as an "affair of the heart" with baseball superstar Alex Rodriquez, about 20 years her junior, which lead to both of their divorces."

The implication that a person would have an affair and divorce in order to relaunch a waning career embodies most of the reasons why I can't think of personal branding as a priority.

Don't get me wrong: I agree that as human beings, we're naturally concerned with the way others see us, particularly in a professional sense, as those perceptions affect our ability to earn an income while doing something we love. But there's a line between self-awareness and commoditizing ourselves in order to achieve "success." I think the difference between the two is probably self-respect.

What is a Brand?

A brand is a concept that's developed to simply and clearly communicate a product's benefits to a target market. Today's generally held wisdom advocates that everyone should be actively working on building their personal brand.

This premise assumes that everyone's competing in a cluttered market where prospects have little time. So we need to be known not by a complex set of attributes — versatility, dedication, the ability to turn jobs around quickly and on budget, knowledge, expertise or talent — but by a unique selling proposition. Some personal branding pundits indicate that we should distill ourselves into a few sentences that clearly identify our point of differentiation and brand values. This is so that should we meet a prospect while networking, we can deliver a killer description of ourselves that resonates with them and causes us to be "top of mind" when they next need a person with our capabilities.

What is Success?

I disagree with this view, because I see the distillation of myself into a few key sentences as a kind of commoditization. While I appreciate that it's good to be clear about your capabilities, skills and experience when you're pitching for work, I see straight-up branding — presenting myself as embodying a few crucial brand values formulated to resonate with a prospect — as a denial of the complexities that peoples' personalities naturally entail. The kinds of complexities that make people, and life, enjoyable. To me, denying or ignoring those complexities is also something of a dishonesty, or at least a disservice, to both myself and my client.

For me, success is doing something enjoyable with people I enjoy being with. I want to know more than their elevator pitch — I want to understand their complexities and paradoxes, and I want them to respect mine. My most successful client relationships have entailed a similar level of honesty on the client's part.

I see success as being appreciated for who I am and what I can do, so I balk at the idea of avoiding saying or doing certain things because they might erode the integrity of my personal brand.

What Does Personal Branding Mean?

We're not all Madonna, and not all of us take personal branding to the point that we're willing to divorce our partners in order to relaunch ourselves into the public eye. That said, it's fair to say personal branding can lead to certain kinds of behavior:

• broadcasting certain news about yourself in order to "generate interest" in your brand, or keep it "top of mind," rather than because you're excited about it and want to share that excitement with others
• having to reconcile with yourself over something you did and enjoyed, or something you want to do, that doesn't fit with your personal brand
• maintaining certain contacts and avoiding others on the basis of whether or not they support or agree with your personal brand
• trying to make your private life entirely coherent with your professional persona
• seeing each day as an opportunity to build your personal brand, your friends as potential brand evangelists, your activities and relationships as tools by which you can either support or erode your brand
• trying to alter your personality or philosophy to make your personal brand more consistent

What's the Alternative?

I'm not sold on the concept of personal branding — I prefer the less catchy idea of self-awareness. Instead of brand values, I think of basic human qualities like honesty and integrity, and being proactive. Instead of planning a personal brand extension, I like to ponder the question, "This is cool, but what will I do next?" and to follow my heart (rather than my brand strategy) in making a choice. I realize that this attitude may be seen as ignorant or homely or naive, but so far, for me, it's created the kind of success I want.

10 Boilerplate Phrases That Kill Resumes

  The Savvy Networker

by: Liz Ryan

The 2009 job market is very different from job markets of the past. If you haven't job-hunted in a while, the changes in the landscape can throw you for a loop.

One of the biggest changes is the shift in what constitutes a strong resume. Years ago, we could dig into the Resume Boilerplate grab-bag and pull out a phrase to fill out a sentence or bullet point on our resume. Everybody used the same boilerplate phrases, so we knew we couldn't go wrong choosing one of them -- or many -- to throw into your resume.

Things have changed. Stodgy boilerplate phrases in your resume today mark you as uncreative and "vocabulary challenged." You can make your resume more compelling and human-sounding by rooting out and replacing the boring corporate-speak phrases that litter it, and replacing them with human language -- things that people like you or I would actually say.

Here are the worst 10 boilerplate phrases -- the ones to seek out and destroy in your resume as soon as possible:

• Results-oriented professional
• Cross-functional teams
• More than [x] years of progressively responsible experience
• Superior (or excellent) communication skills
• Strong work ethic
• Met or exceeded expectations
• Proven track record of success
• Works well with all levels of staff
• Team player
• Bottom-line orientation

You can do better. What about adding a human voice to your resume? Here's an example:

"I'm a Marketing Researcher who's driven by curiosity about why people buy what they do. At XYZ Industries, I used consumer surveys and online-forum analysis to uncover the reasons why consumers chose our competitors over us; our sales grew twenty percent over the next six months as a result. I'm equally at home on sales calls or analyzing data in seclusion, and up to speed on traditional and new-millennium research tools and approaches. I'm fanatical about understanding our marketplace better every day, week and month -- and have helped my employers' brands grow dramatically as a result."

You don't have to write resumes that sound like robots wrote them. A human-voiced resume is the new black -- try it!

Liz Ryan is a 25-year HR veteran, former Fortune 500 VP and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the new millennium workplace. Contact Liz at liz@asklizryan.com or join the Ask Liz Ryan online community at www.asklizryan/group.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely the author's.

Guarantee a phone interview!

from getpickd

As an employer, I have a policy of conducting phone interviews with any applicant I receive a reputable recommendation for (assuming the applicant's resume is at least passable). This is the case even if I don't know the person making the recommendation (although that certainly helps). Recommendations provide instant credibility and show that the applicant is serious about the position. I know of a number of colleagues that have a similar policy.

So how can you use this policy to your advantage?

First, try finding someone in your personal network that might know somebody at the organizations where you are applying. Consider sending your contacts an email with the names of your intended places of employment and politely ask if they have any contacts there. It's a small world and you might be surprised by the results!

Second, if you can't find a connection using the strategy above, consider asking a couple of your key supporters, such as former employers, mentors, and professors (but not college roommates) to send an email to the hiring manager at the organization where you've applied and provide a recommendation. Here's an example:

Dear Hiring Manager,

I am writing in regards to Jane Smith, who recently applied for the communications associate position at Strategic Communications Limited. I was Jane's supervisor during her internship with our organization last summer. She was an exceptional talent who excelled in her position and was a pleasure to have in the office. I strongly encourage you to consider her application.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

John Doe
Director
Human Rights Organization

If you do decide to ask someone in your network to provide a recommendation, make it easy on him or her. Provide the appropriate contact information for the hiring managers and consider providing sample language for the actual recommendation (like the example above).

Don't forget, we'll be launching our new online resume service on June 23 at getpickd.com, but in the meantime, be sure to follow our blog for updates, resume ideas, and interview tips. You can also follow us on Twitter @getpickd.

Adam Sterling is the founder of getpickd

Personality and Corporate Culture - Where’s a Person to Fit?

Original Post from Brazen Careerist by careerrocketeer

We've all heard it – 'she/he/you has a great resume and seems to have a good personality for the team, but I don't see the fit with the organization'.

How is a career seeker to make sense of that statement? We're looking at three possible contexts for evaluating one person – resume/skills, personality and 'fit' criteria, and each plays a part in securing or retaining meaningful, rewarding employment.

It's arguable that personality is a key factor because it is immutable. Many self-assessment tools are available that can help us understand how our personality shapes how we present ourselves to potential employers – Myers-Briggs, DISC, Big 5, for example. While not everyone is comfortable with using these tests, they can be very useful as general guides in certain cases. Take Myers-Briggs, with its large-scale cues to what motivates or inhibits you. The results aren't all there is to know about your personality or how you might fit, but the self-assessment process itself may reveal not only personality attributes to leverage, or manage, in a job search; it can provide the information necessary to evaluate 'fit', even before the first conversation with a recruiter, HR person, or hiring executive.

In the multidimensional process of finding the right career fit, I advise clients to work beyond understanding personality type to an evaluation of their personal brand, which is then measured against a target company's corporate culture and the actual role. It may seem like a lot of variables, but here are a few points that can aid you in assessing true 'fit' for a role/company– a blend of skills, experience, personality/personal brand and corporate culture that can be crucial to success.

1. First, know who you are: If you take three different personality tests and they all come up INTP, take comfort. This may be an indicator you're intuitive, an architect of meaning, someone who thinks deeply and acts rationally. Congratulations! You may not be cut out for sales, or for a company with a corporate culture that values flash over substance – but you've got plenty to work with.
2. Second, work on establishing a personal brand. Your brand is your personality, plus the attributes that make you a good prospect for the job in this particular context. Build a personal vocabulary to describe yourself in action verbs and definitive nouns. Break out a bit here – we're not talking 'creative' or the dreaded 'seasoned', but words that speak to your unique brand. Use that vocabulary in your resume, in your interactions with friends, and in consultation with advisors. Test each word until you're comfortable with your brand. It's who you are, and what you present to others. Strive to be authentic in your presentation.
3. Third, use what you've learned from personality assessments, what you know about yourself at a gut level, and what your closest counselors tell you to determine what your next career move should be. Are you strong-willed or flexible? Argumentative or a peace-maker? Dogmatic or flexible? Assess your personality attributes through the lens of the market and you have the beginnings of organizational fit.
4. Once you've reached a comfort level with who you are, your personal brand, and identified targets that match – that offer some degree of cultural fit – it's time to test your assumptions with research. Find out:

   • What do employees think about the target company? Check blogs and message boards, and network to get the inside scoop.
   • What are the stated values of the organization? Mission statements are a start; check news coverage and press releases to see how the company presents itself to the world, investors and customers.
   • Understand where the company is going, not just where it's been. Scour the news for analyst comments to glean information about the company's intent and see where you, and your personal brand, can help the company realize its goals.
   • Use your network to set up informational interviews.
   • Prepare a narrative that blends what you've learned about the target company, what your personality strengths are, and where your personal brand can be an asset.
   • Test, test, and recalculate. Your personality won't change, but you can apply what you've learned to refine your personal brand.
   • When you find a job where you fit, record the highs - and the lows – in memory. There's ebb and flow in every job; learn to control the course.

Matching your personality to a company's culture and role may just yield a better fit. It's an interesting, challenging, and fun process, one that will teach you a lot about yourself, help you build a personal brand, and help you figure out where you want to go with your career. After all, who doesn't want to know more about what makes them tick?

What are the things you do to determine 'fit' for a potential role/company?

Guest Expert:

Meghan M. Biro is the Founder of TalentCulture, LLC based in Harvard Square, Cambridge MA- a full-service recruitment, coaching, and branding practice. An accomplished executive recruiter and career coach, Meghan has an extensive background in executive search and talent acquisition strategy for clients ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to start-ups and mid-size organizations. Her fundamental belief in the importance of corporate culture and candidate personality has earned her a national reputation for creative employer branding, personal branding and talent acquisition strategy. TC partners with clients – corporations and individuals - to ensure a match between hiring needs, brand and culture/personality. Reach her at mbiro@talentculture.com, www.talentculture.com, LinkedIn and Twitter at @MeghanMBiro @TalentCulture.

http://www. careerrocketeer.com/2009/07/personality-and-corporate-culture.html

FreelancerPro Interview: A Career in Freelance Outsourcing

FreelancerPro Interview: A Career in Freelance Outsourcing: "

There are hoards of freelancers that swear against websites that outsource freelance work, but there are just as many contractors that say these sites can yield a successful career.

At 24, Luis Lazo drew upon his experiences completing projects for RentACoder.com and leveraged that into a second career running RACSuccess.com, a mentoring service for coders and other freelancers. Luis has an interesting background and a unique take on freelancing—let’s hear what he has to say about using outsourcing sites.

Tell us about yourself, what you do, and a little on your background. Where did you go to school and for what?

I started using computers about eight years ago reading textbook after textbook of computer programming. Thanks to this knowledge I started working as a freelancer on RentACoder.com having completed more than 150 projects so far. I attended Baker College in Michigan and obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science.

You’ve mentioned having some success working on RentACoder.com. How does that work?

Well, RentACoder.com is a freelance marketplace which basically connects freelancers that have technical skills with employers or buyers who need projects done. Whether buyers need a website or a desktop application they have plenty of freelancers to choose from. Everything happens online: the process of hiring, awarding the projects, providing the deliverables, and finalizing project.

Many freelancers are leery about sites like oDesk and elance. What do you have to say to them?

Well, the truth of the matter is that working as a freelancer doesn’t impose any limits. You can work on more than one freelance website at the same time if you want and you will not get in any trouble. Everyone has their own preferences when it comes to what freelance websites they like working on. Frankly speaking, oDesk.com and elance.com are actually very good freelance websites and are good places to find projects simply because they have very nice options such as escrow services, quantity of projects available and various tools. I have heard many good comments about both freelance websites.

In addition to the technical work, you also run RACsuccess.com. How did that get started?

Well, RACsuccess.com started initially with the authorization of Ian Ippolito who is the owner of RentACoder.com as an idea I proposed to him about selling videos on our site with the purpose of teaching people how to take the most of RentACoder.com both as a freelancer and as a buyer. This product appears in the tools page inside RentACoder.com.

After that, I decided to start with a mentoring service on our site and our site became more global expanding to other freelance websites as well not just to Rent A Coder. For instance, before the letters RAC in RACsuccess meant “RentACoder” but now the letters RAC in RACsuccess mean “Running Against Competition” which clearly indicates that we dedicate to help freelancers beat their competition and to help employers successfully hire freelance workers.

You work with mentors a lot—do you have a team that you rely on to provide services for RACSuccess? Why should someone hire RAC instead of finding their own mentor?

We do work with mentors a lot but mentors are not really our representatives or employees. What we do is to hire real successful freelancers and employers to assist our members on our site. We hire these people as independent contractors and they assist our members through the mentor’s area.

It can be easy to get confused when you hear the word mentor but the truth of the matter is that things are simpler than they seem. When you hire a freelancer on a freelance website, you are actually looking for a technical job to be done. When you hire a mentor on our site, what you get is a friend that can help you start a career in freelancing or help you improve your existing freelance business. A mentor doesn’t do any technical job for you, it’s basically a guider that helps you find success as a freelancer on any freelance website or as an independent freelancer.

On our site, mentors can give you advice on any concern or situation you may have and can give you tips on how to be a successful freelancer. Mentors will even write effective proposals for you for the projects that you wish to get on any freelance website.

So, what’s your typical day like?

Wake up, grab a snack, go to my computer, check my email, and look for freelance jobs to apply for. I also like to stay in touch with my online contacts. I know so many people; especially freelancers and I like to communicate with them. Most of my day is basically spent in front of my computer but I also take some breaks in order to do some other things as well.

Finally, what’s your ultimate career goal?

I would like to continue with my education and obtain my Masters Degree and then a Ph.D. in Computer Science. I also want to continue running RACsuccess.com.