Team-Building for Collaboration

Team-Building for Collaboration Teams are formed to accomplish a shared purpose and their success will depend on familiarity with each others work style, experience on prior teams, and their clarity of purpose and performance is hampered if team members don’t work well together. The Oxford Dictionary of English defines collaboration as “an action of working with someone to produce something” â€" a collaborative environment is vital for team success. Harnessing the potential of individuals as a team can be helped along with a few simple building blocks: Formulate or review the teams purpose Allow each team member to express commitment Use the common purpose to prioritise team actions High performing team members are co-operative rather than competitive and support one another in working towards the common goal. It’s pretty much what defines a team a group of people working together toward a common goal. Communication and trust Building an environment of trust and empowering collaboration depends on good communication and trust. Where team members can communicate freely, sharing knowledge and skills, learning from each other and sharing resources they are more likely to establish strong collaboration. A high performing team combines high-frequency communication with openness and a willingness to tackle differences. Trust is also essential as if employees don’t feel trusted and respected, they may not participate or share ideas. All employees should feel comfortable in contributing their ideas, an inclusive approach boosts ideas pool. A team needs support to discover the best ways of accomplishing goals and a level of autonomy to question and brainstorm and to learn from their mistakes and inefficiencies. Collaboration doesn’t necessarily mean lack of conflict, on the contrary, learning how to address challenges makes a team stronger and more cohesive. Collaborative teams work successfully when members pick up on each others feelings, share their concerns and have the skill to challenge inappropriate behaviour and give honest feedback. Support and feedback A team is only going to work as well as you let it and can be derailed through micromanagement or failure to provide feedback. One way to kickstart creative teams to make team member recruitment a team activity, allow staff to choose who they want to work with â€" it shows confidence in their overall abilities. Then position each team member for success by allocating tasks that play to their respective strengths and areas of expertise leveraging peoples strengths can be incredibly empowering and should inspire improved productivity. It’s also important that team members understand their roles and responsibilities and, from time to time, the team leader should review team roles, taking a personal approach with each team member to support and motivate them. Encourage team members to take on responsibility and support them in meeting challenges and overcoming barriers. Don’t forget to recognise and reward success by reflecting on what has been accomplished and call out team members for their contribution. Checklist for the collaborative team: Set realistic expectations with sensible timescales Seek commitment to the objectives Set out ground rules for the team â€" expected behaviours and standards Treat all team member’s ideas as valuable â€" they all play their part so don’t play favourites Facilitate active listening and knowledge sharing within the team Let team members have ownership of their projects with autonomy and empowerment to make decisions Build trust and support the team’s sense of purpose Try to encourage an environment where all team members feel valued and empowered as this helps team members own their work, taking responsibility for their results and accountability for their actions. Expect and encourage creativity, innovation, and different viewpoints from all team members, a really clever idea can come from the most junior team member. Good collaboration is vital for the overall success of a team, enabling increased productivity and effective use of resources.

10+ Office Assistant Interview Questions To Get Hired With - Algrim.co

10+ Office Assistant Interview Questions To Get Hired With - Algrim.co Office Assistants are becoming in higher demand. And their roles over the years has evolved dramatically. If you are searching for office assistant interview questions and answers, you’ve come to the right place. Office Assistants roles have evolved thanks to many technology startups who have created a significant amount of jobs with their innovations. As well as that creation of jobs, they are also changing their culture dynamics and how offices should essentially operate. They provide their employees with a lot more luxuries, the opportunities to have lunch, dinner, snacks, and countless other benefits which keep them happy. These exact things also become benefits for why future employees want to work in these environments. So it's important, as an office assistant, where you’ll be helping to ensure some of these high quality and luxury benefits are present, stay operational. When you are applying and interviewing to be an office assistant, I think its really important that you recognize you are the gatekeeper to the work environment. And these days, because our work is so digital, it is important that our environments are well thought through and well managed. It can be a drastic difference in the happiness of employee’s when office environments are well managed versus when they are not. And your responsibility is to lead the efforts for which encourage the overall happiness of everyone who attends each day to do their work. Office Assistant Interview Questions Table Of Contents 1. How would you describe your role as an office assistant? 2. How would you describe success of this role? 3. How would you describe failure of this role? 4. How do you handle recurring vendor relationships? 5. How would you go about ensuring the office always has drinks? 6. What would you do if you came into the office and it was dirty? 7. What are some of the requirements you have for being able to be an office assistant here? 8. Who do you think you should be reporting to? 9. Who should be at our front desk? 10. How do you handle guests at the office? 11. How would you handle a request for an entire team lunch? 12. What are some job functions that you don’t feel you should do? 1. How would you describe your role as an office assistant? The role of an office assistant is to help in the maintenance of the entire office operations. That includes our vendor relationships, like who is cleaning our bathrooms. To managing our benefits we serve to employees, like scheduling lunches or facilitating in the checking, ordering, and stocking of our office snacks or drinks. All things to related to our environment here are my first priority. 2. How would you describe success of this role? Success of the role is when our office is always in operational order and our employees are happy. If there are situations where the office is messy or there aren’t drinks to be served during lunch, our employees will be displeased. Success is when the operations of the office look and feel seamless to everyone who is coming into the office every single day to do their best quality work. 3. How would you describe failure of this role? Failure of the role is when the office feels as though it has friction to it. When our employees don’t feel comfortable to be coming into work that day. If they feel as though it would be better to stay at home to work instead of coming into the office, then we have failed. Our goal should be to provide a better experience than one they could get at home. 4. How do you handle recurring vendor relationships? All vendor relationships should be tracked in a spreadsheet. We need to understand what service they are providing, who the main source of contact is as that vendor, what days they are present and what our average costs are for their services. The main source of contact is important in case there are events which we didn’t anticipate, we can correct them quickly by making a call to that main account manager. 5. How would you go about ensuring the office always has drinks? Every day the drinks should be accounted for, meaning they should be checked. When they are low, we should place an order with someone, preferably something like postdates or maybe an instacart, for getting the drinks restocked. If we have a vendor who handles our drinks, then I could also make sure that they are contacted when we are low. 6. What would you do if you came into the office and it was dirty? The first thing I would do is contact our vendor and file a complaint immediately and request it to be resolved. Ideally, our cleaning vendors are coming into the office every evening and if something wasn’t done correctly, we need it to be fixed quickly. The second thing I would do is make an announcement, probably by email, to our staff. Letting them know of the incident, apologizing and then letting them know it is being corrected. 7. What are some of the requirements you have for being able to be an office assistant here? The first thing is that I will need the ability to pay for our services, vendors or lunches. This is usually in the form of an expense account. The autonomy to be able to manage our vendor relationships is also very important. And then the ability to have wide team communication, like through a direct messenger application. 8. Who do you think you should be reporting to? My primary report to should be our COO or anyone who is managing the operations of our business. They would technically still be overseeing the operations of the office, which includes me. Sometimes that means this person is the HR director, as well. It depends on the structure here. But technically, it is an operational leader. 9. Who should be at our front desk? We should always have someone at our front desk available to greet our guests and/or available to manage any packages that might be getting delivered. That person may sometimes be me unless the office size is large enough to facilitate the need of a full-time front-desk person. It depends on our security rules as well as the number of guests that we expect to appear on a regular basis. 10. How do you handle guests at the office? Guests should all be required to sign in at the front desk, both with their start date/time for the entry as well as when they left. Their identity should also be tracked, so we know who was in the office and why. Lastly, we should be ensuring that the employee for which they are seeing is alerted when the guest has arrived so that they can come and welcome them into the office single-handedly. 11. How would you handle a request for an entire team lunch? Entire team lunches can be quite difficult to plan for. Mostly because of the requests each person could make about their preference for lunch. Sometimes, it is easier to cater a lunch with a variety of food options for which everyone can pick from. The other option is to solicit a link through a service like Caviar, which can let each employee create their own food order. Though times of this order is important and I will have to ensure everyone knows that they need to click the link I am providing, place their food order and do so before a certain date/time in order to make sure their lunch is available. 12. What are some job functions that you don’t feel you should do? Job functions that I don’t have to do are anything related to HR. Sometimes there can be an odd blend with the fact that office assistants are handling personal matters, meaning, people who are working at the company and their needs. And sometimes that blend feels as though I need to handle matters as it relates to that persons relationship with the company, like for instance in situations where they may have been terminated. But, I would let the HR managers handle those situations and if it is something related to clearing out the office of that person or setting up a new office for the person who is replacing them, then that bodes more accurately to where my personal job description lays. Conclusion & Office Assistant Prep Those mock interview questions above should give you a really good starting point for being an office assistant. Remember that all jobs in a company are important, no matter what the title. And going into an interview, where you are prepared to show that you understand each job has a role in the holistic functions of the businesses operations which help you tremendously. Recognize that your ability to answer these questions confidently may also have a positive impact on your future employment. If you have any other questions that you’d like to see listed here, please feel free to contact me. I would urge you to sit down with a friend or family member and have them ask you these questions so you can practice your delivery. Then ask them to come up with a few random questions which you aren’t prepared for and go through that situational example of on the fly type of questions and how you would answer them. Good luck with your future job search and I hope you land your next office a ssistant job. Related Hiring Resources Office Assistant Cover Letter Sample Medical Office Assistant Job Description

Aerodynamics of Yes An Interview with Christian Capozzoli - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Aerodynamics of Yes An Interview with Christian Capozzoli - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Recently, I had the privilege of grabbing coffee with Christian Capozzoli, one of New York Citys top improvisational comedians, the author of the improv manual, Aerodynamics of Yes,  and a member of the team Bucky at the famous Upright Citizens Brigade theater. In addition to his presence at UCB, Christian is a respected teacher for both performers and students, with degrees in literature, comedy, and education. We discussed Christians complex relationship with performing, his philosophy as a teacher, and how he hopes to use improvisation to create meaningful change in the New York public school system. As a comedian, this was one of the most fascinating interviews Ive ever done, and will be especially useful to performers or anyone who enjoys discussing comedic theory. How do you define your personal brand? Well it’s interesting because I come from a number of backgrounds. I’m not a performer by trade, I wasn’t trained in performing arts, so I still have a hard time seeing myself as that. It is experiential, and now I’ve been on stage so much that when people say, “we want you as an actor,” I have to take a step back and ask myself, “is that what you’ve become?” So I inadvertently have become an actor or performer type, but I guess when you talk about branding myself, I don’t think about it in that way. Some people coming up even in high school productions, they love the spotlight, and I actually have a really tough time hosting or being myself on stage. I’d much rather be a character or lose myself on stage. There is still a lack of comfort in identifying as “performer,” because there’s an air of phoniness to it. Over the years, I’ve had some great success touring and performing, so Ive become more comfortable identifying as [a performer]. Bob Odenkirk gave me some advice one time, he said, “I was in Chicago for a while, and it’s really important that you’re touring around, because you can think that you’re somebody in one city, but if nobody knows about you outside of that city, you haven’t done anything.” He was telling me not to spend all of my time climbing the mountain only to find it is a tiny speed bump. It’s easy when you’re in a system to break it apart and overthink it, because you can find infinity in an inch. If you break it into pieces, you can get self-absorbed. He told me, not until he started touring and making sure people in Denver knew who he was and people in Portland knew who he was, was he able to build a brand. People can say your name in Austin and there’s a conversation about you because people know who you are. Of course, he was talking about a time before there was the internet, where now Picnicface and Halifax can release a bunch of videos and people know who they are. Givin g me that little piece of advice, making sure I didn’t get too caught up in trying to get a weekend slot at a particular theater, I took that to heart. I started saying “yes” more to little opportunities, like going to Sarasota to teach for a week. If they want me, it’s an opportunity for that part of the world to see me, so I say “yes” to it. Sometimes we hold true to improv principles on stage, but not in life. So I tried to say “yes,” and that led me to Berlin and Herzberg and Norway. Then I started meeting more and more people, and at that point I had the experience of going to Edmonton and seeing all of these people in an international capacity. They fly in people from Australia, Japan, all over the world, people coming and sharing. It’s a cross-polination. There were certain people from the [United] States that werent interested in learning from other cultures. They believed they were at the top, and they had an awful arrogance. There’s a great group I love from Bogota, Colombia, and they are circus performers and improvisers. They’re brilliant, and the Americans didnt want to see it, because it wasnt witty or quick or gamey. I went because I’m not a “performer” and want to learn as much as possible. I looked at it as, you know that Zen Cohen, it’s an elephant? And one person is touching the tail and saying, “I’m holding a paint-brush.” And the other person is holding the trunk and saying, “it’s a hose.” In New York we only know 5% of the elephant, but we declare it to be 0%, and you need to be open to other elements. When I saw how people interpreted the other Americans, you could hear the snootin ess, and they would say, “you’re so different than other Americans who come.” Which surprised me, maybe it’s because I grew up on the border of Canada so I’m a little bit of a nice guy, but when I heard them say that it was how I wanted them to think of me. Being open, communicative, I guess, eager and willing to welcome any new points of inspiration. Art can’t exist in a vacuum. Even here, a lot of the improv is like pigs watching pigs perform, and so you’re feeding the beast, and it’s hard to get new input. Ive wanted to brand myself as a person that seeks out different perspectives in a pursuit of art. I do think that improv is art, and a lot of people come at it in New York as purely comedy. Perhaps it’s because I don’t come at it from a theatrical background, so that is the thing that scares me. And they always say in improv, embrace the unknown. If we’re always in control of a scene, managing it, we’re comfortable. I want to challenge myself to do things that arent comfortable to me, and as a result Ive become one of the more theatrical, character-based performers. I look at scenes in a way where I don’t say my games, I play my games, and let my characters breathe, and don’t move the things around me but let them move me. Obviously those are all robbing from [Viola] Spolin, or Mick [Napier], or Del [Close], which have trickled-down, but I like to let everything that’s going on in the world around me be an influence and not just assume what I’m doing is always the best. So I want that openness to be a part of my brand. The classes Ive created for myself, Christian Capozolli Improv Classes, really the offer is to break down the head-space we get in when w e’re told a bunch of rules. We teach through negativity, “don’t do this, don’t do that, don’t say this, and don’t say that.” Then you’re asking people to have a normal reaction or reflex, when their normal reaction would be to do some of those things. I think most improv training is designed from big mug to littler mug to littler mug. And often times the big mug was a teacher who understood how to get through to people, but that trickled down to people who are just good improvisers and that trickled down to a hand-me-down version of that. So you end up with lists of how to teach something by handouts, not by people understanding how to teach in different ways. I don’t know that people have the training as teachers to do that, so my brand of teaching has been to find ways to get people to a place of reflex, so they are being their ideas instead of over-thinking and judging themselves. To avoid a place where they are crippled with fear. Largely my mission has been to offer a place where people fee l comfortable failing in a culture of “yes.” The “aerodynamics of yes” are the words that people will write to me about, people have used my book as a textbook and that’s pretty cool. Because a lot of training gets started at a place where maybe only 1 in 7 people can enter through, and I think people find with my approach that we all can do this, let’s make everyone as exceptional as possible. You studied/taught at the Annoyance Theater, founded by Mick Napier. How has he influenced your teaching style? He becomes this kind of legend. Because he’s a mentalist, I don’t know that he’s training to be one. But he can have everyone say their name, and he remembers everybody, knows every scene. He can watch 30 minutes of 5-line scenes and remember every one of them. Then he will say, “you’re always leading with your head,” or “I notice you do this.” Not only that, he can do that while shuffling cards in his hand while watching it. I remember, in talking to him, I went to a directing workshop he did, where he talked about using and maximizing time in the classroom. And it’s like, a lot of improv coaches, you’ll do a set, then you’ll get 30 minutes of notes which takes as long as the set did. Then you’re like, where’d that time go? Is it Emerson or Thoreau, I’m not sure? But the idea of being like a cleaver, and getting to the heart of things. You don’t need to recap everything, just speak to the specific of the note. He does that, he’ll make little correctio ns and there is no panic anymore. He’s really a surgeon when it comes to that. Ive been coached by a ton of people, and when they take a lot of notes, I question if they are even experiencing it as a theatrical experience. I also remember reading about the Beatles, and I’m not sure if this is true, I want to believe it is, but they said they would never write down their melodies. If it was worth remembering it, they’d remember it. And once I heard that I never took notes again, because I want to process it as live theater. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing. And then what sticks as a note, if I remember it, it should be given. If I forgot it, then I wouldve forgot it as an audience member as well. Not that I’m saying I’m Ringo or anything, but I think we have the capacity to remember what is important. If I’m writing notes the whole time and not “in it,” and my note is “you need to be more ‘in it’” then it’s probably more on me than you. I put this group together one time called “Crush,” and it really was a super-group at the Magnet. I went to the JTS Brown 20-year anniversary that was done at CIF 6 years ago and when I came back I wanted to do that, to get directing credit and work on experimental forms. I put together this incredible group and I coached them for free. We would do 3 hours of experimentation a week, then we would individualize, meaning I’d partner two people together and they had to get in a room for an hour with each other and no coach and just do scenes together. And I would randomly show up and be in the room with them and give them free notes. It’s like breaking down tape, and we would do that, we’d record the rehearsals and go back, and they were all down for it. And they were because it’s rare to get pointed notes on behavior. It’s the same as a golf swing, you arent aware of what you’re doing, but once you see it, and I can tell a person theyve entered a scene three times looki ng at the ground, it’s easier to fix. Youve worked to bring improvisation to the school system. Tell us about that. It’s been really tough. I have an education background. I have a BFA in writing literature, I have a comedy degree, and I have a Master’s degree in education. I was a teacher in the New York City school system as well as Boston. I worked at ABC University High School, which is for at-risk youth. I was one of only two people that was not military. Girls would show up with razor blades in their mouth and we had a daycare in the basement for all of the students who had kids. I worked there, felt like I was making a difference, then after I left Boston I wanted to do it here. I felt like if I could do it in at-risk schools I could do it in public schools. And I worked in Leadership and Public Service down on Wall Street. It was a decent experience at first, but the ramp-up program was in effect. So you literally had a list that said, “Minute 1-3, welcome students. Minute 3-5, encourage them to take out their books.” Then there would be a person in the back of the room taking note s and marking if you went off the schedule. So you’re being babysat on top of it. They want robots to watch these kids in that structured way. After a year I gave up on it, because I couldnt really affect change there. The school politics are such so it makes it difficult to actually teach students and roll with the class. It is organic, so you need to be able to go off the grid to give more attention to what is needed. It doesnt make sense to always head due North, so it was frustrating and I got out of teaching. Then I got into improv and did a lot of touring in Canada, and I met Alistair Cook, a great guy in Vancouver. He runs the Vancouver International Improv Festival. But for I think 15 years he was the Canadian National Improv Games head honcho, and the number might be off, but I think 3 in 5 high schools in Canada have improv teams. All the provinces will elect two groups to go to nationals, and they do it in Ottawa in this huge opera house, and it’s just a bunch of kids cheering each other on. I got invited to be a guest workshop coach and judge, and it was unbelievable. The chemistry and the level of play and wi llingness and support coming out, it was the type of change that I could see having a really profound impact. And I was like, “I want to bring this to the [United] States, specifically New York City.” Because when you look at the numbers, there are more kids in high school in New York City than there are in all of Canada. So to think they are managing to do this across an entire country, and you could do it in the 5 boroughs, I thought it would be great. I came back and he gave me permission to bring the curriculum to New York and make it the New York City Improv Games. I went to Winthrop High and all of these different schools in different socioeconomic brackets to try and be part of it. And we would get two months in, and then we’d hear, “sorry we can’t afford to have you do this free thing for us, because it involves somebody having to watch you in the classroom.” Or, “it involves another teacher’s time and they arent willing to give it anymore.” I’d start with 5 schools and end up with 1 at the end of the year. It was hard. You’re always starting over. It’s hard to prototype something that way. I worked at one point at the LCG, which is through the Media Lab at MIT, and I developed a documentary-film curriculum through them. We used a statistician, Dr. Tim Shea, through UMass Dartmouth, and it was unreal what we could do in a school t0 build a case. But here, it’s almost impossible to get that initial siphoning effect to take hold. But Ive had some great successes, at Winthrop specifically. Kids were sneaking into the school after school just to do the improv classes. And if that is happening that’s a good sign. I’m going to a school right now after we speak to volunteer some time. Ive let it fold on itself from the first wave of trying, but now with some friends who are similarly minded, trying to make a difference in the community, like Cipha Sounds, the Hot 97 DJ. The aim would be to prototype something for a year, and then invite some big celebrities to do a show at the Apollo, where we would rent it out, let the kids be shown what was possible. But you hook certain people and it all comes down to the red tape. A lot of it is structuring, fortifying, and through statistics quantifying why this is a good idea. A lot of the attention kids get in school is for being bad, and coming into the improv workshops in schools, you could see how addictive it was to get positive feedback. Just that we were listening to them made a difference. And you could see them, top of their intelligence, want to go to class, so they’d have funny things to reference. It’s so empowering, I’m hoping in the next year to get one or two schools to document it. We had one girl, who was hard as rocks. The teacher said, “don’t make eye contact with this girl.” She sat in a chair the whole time and stared us down. We were playing a very simple game of hitchhiker, where the energy that one person has everyone has to adopt. She was not told to enter or anything, and she just hopped up and yelled, “Nawwwww!” And I matched her and went, “Nawwww!” and we went back and forth and heightened it. Her energy was mean so we were mean, and then she peeled off and sat back down with a smile, but never participated again. You could see her wanting to play, it was contagious and it welled up inside of her. This hard girl who the teachers said not to make eye contact with, couldnt help but want to play with this very fluid form. That’s what I want to bring, a sense of goofy play. It’s like when we were children, there is something very pure about it. I always give the example of pea vines. When the original Pilgrims came everything was cover ed in pea vines. And they had to take their machetes and cut through it. Eventually it makes a hole, which makes a trail, which makes a road, which makes a superhighway. We’re the same way with how we think and process the world. We get stuck in a rut where we go to work, go to the same lunch place, come home, and it’s a wired sense of self. It’s easy to get in a rut, but when you improvise, you get back to when it was pea vines, and any choice can be made. It does eradicate that line of thinking. That’s why the first improv class is incredible, because you realize you can be anything. Then you realize you like the way the world is to you when you’re happier, or more assertive, or more definitive. Thank you to Christian for spending the time with me, I could have listened to him talk about comedy all day. If you want to learn more, or sign up for one of his classes, visit his website.  

5 Reasons You Should Use LinkedIn

5 Reasons You Should Use LinkedIn 5 Reasons You Should Use LinkedIn LinkedIn / https://www.edenscott.com/blog A couple of people have asked me recently, Why should I use LinkedIn? or, Do I really need a LinkedIn profile?The answer is YES even if youre not looking for a new job and Im going to share the top 5 reasons why.Heres why LinkedIn is important and why you should joinWhy Use LinkedIn?1. Hiring Managers look at your LinkedIn (even if you applied via another method)Yes even if you applied on the companys website or a job board, hiring managers are looking you up on LinkedIn.And if you have no profile or a sparse profile with no photo and not much info, its going to make them less likely to interview you.At the very least, you should have the following sections filled out to be taken seriously when applying for jobs, networking, etc:A unique LinkedIn headlineA professional-looking photoPast employmentSkills (I recommend filling out all 50 skill slots because they serve as keywords to help you get found)Now, you might be thinking, Im not job hunting, so I still dont see why I should join LinkedIn.Well, employers are always looking for people on LinkedIn so youre missing out on making new connections and maybe even job offers by not joining.That brings me to the next point for why you should join LinkedIn and set up a profile.2. The best companies recruit on LinkedInWhat do these companies have in common? Apple, Google, Disney.Along with being three of the most in-demand employers, they all recruit on LinkedIn!And thousands of other employers recruit people on LinkedIn too. So even if youre not looking actively for a job, youre still costing yourself the opportunity to hear about new things and possibly advance your career if youre not on LinkedIn.There are a lot of benefits of looking for new jobs when you already have one, and its what Id recommend doing, actually.This is how you advance your career and increase your salary fast. If you wait until youre desperate or unemployed to job search, youre going to lack confidence and stru ggle to get paid what youre worth.Employers are also more attracted to people who are currently employed usually. Its not fair, but its true.Even if youre not looking for a new job, wouldnt you accept a new job if it paid tens of thousands of dollars more and was a more exciting position for you?If so, then you should be on LinkedIn.3. LinkedIn is an easy way to keep in touch with your networkNetworking is the fastest and easiest way to find a job right now (and I explain why here), but you need to maintain connections and build relationships.Nobodys going to help you in your next job search if they havent heard from you in three years.And LinkedIn is probably the easiest place to keep your network organized. You can send direct messages, you can give colleagues recommendations, or ask for recommendations for your own profile.If you leave a job, or if a colleague leaves a job, its very easy to ask to add them on LinkedIn. So its a risk-free way of staying connected to everyone youve worked with or met.The fact is, LinkedIn is the best way to stay connected with former colleagues.LinkedIn helps you maintain a record of the last contact youve had with each person, as well as their contact info (phone numbers, email address, etc).This is so much more convenient than writing peoples phone numbers down, hoping they dont change their number, etc. Thats not a very efficient way to track your colleagues down after a few years. Even email addresses change occasionally, but most people keep their LinkedIn profile for life.4. LinkedIn is an amazing research information toolLinkedIn isnt just a networking site or job search site (although its great for both).Its also a great way to gather information. You can choose which companies, industries, and individual people to follow (like Bill Gates, Arianna Huffington, etc.)Many smart/successful people write articles on LinkedIn and you can follow them and comment/discuss their posts. Youll be better informed about whats going on in your industry which will impress your current boss if you want to ask for a promotion, or impress any future employers you talk to if you decide to job hunt.So not only is LinkedIn a way to keep all your contacts in one place, its a way to get all of your information in one place, too.Hopefully that convinces you why you should have a LinkedIn. If not, heres one more reason5. Youll never see what youre missing if you dont have a LinkedInIf you dont have a LinkedIn yet, its probably because youre not seeing everything youre missing out on.Heres what I meanNo employer emails you and says, We got your application but decided not to interview you because we couldnt find you LinkedIn.They just dont respond.Nobody notifies you when a past colleague searched for you but couldnt find you. Maybe they wanted to tell you their company has great opportunities. Maybe they wanted to ask if you could be a reference for them, and then theyd offer to provide a great reference for you in the f uture.One more exampleMaybe a recruiter searched LinkedIn yesterday for your EXACT skill set for a job that pays $20,000 more than youre making, but you werent there.Youre never going to know these things.The only solution is to go spend a few hours and create a LinkedIn profile.If youre serious about your career, theres no good excuse for not having one.Now you know the top reasons why you should use LinkedIn. To get started making a great profile, Id recommending reading my top 5 LinkedIn profile tips here.And heres an article with every section you should put on LinkedIn.Those two articles will help you set up a great LinkedIn profile that you can use for networking, job searching, following industry news, and more.

The Best Script For Resume Writing

The Best Script For Resume WritingThe best script for resume writing can be the most influential factor when it comes to a job application. You might have noticed this first hand if you've applied for a job recently. The employment services usually have a strict screening system when selecting the candidates. They always try their best to eliminate the unqualified candidates.There are different situations in which you need to be creative and come up with an excellent cover letter that can make the difference between success and failure. Writing such a letter will establish your worth in the eyes of the employer. It is also essential to tell the company something about yourself that is useful to them. Without this part, your ability to be hired would be quite limited.The best script for resume writing, if you do not know how to write one, is going to be the one that is consistent and attractive. Employers want to know that the candidate has the capacity to put together a resume and th at the resume is easy to read. The writing should also reflect the values of the company and must make it look professional.In order to get a hold of the best script for resume writing, you will have to take the time to search out the right writing style. Make sure that the resume is concise and clear. It is also very important to ensure that the writing is as concise as possible. This means that the writer must always give the reader only the essential information.The resume should be clean and clear. Never go over the required page length as you will come across as being too much. Also, avoid using spelling and grammar mistakes that will come up with these errors. These small mistakes will bring down the entire presentation of the resume.The resume must be of great value. The information that the candidate puts on his or her resume must be useful to the company. This means that the candidate must be able to present something of value that the employer needs to know. They also need to be able to convince the employer that the person in question is indeed the best candidate for the position.The resume must have a creative content. This means that the resume must be able to engage the reader. They must be able to come up with some creative ways in order to draw the attention of the reader. The applicant must be able to use these clever strategies so that the reader will still remain interested in reading the resume.The best script for resume writing is not necessarily something that is common or conventional. The resume should be different from what has been the normal practice so that the job applicant will stand out in front of the other applicants. By giving a resume that is unique, the applicant is creating a much better chance of getting a great position.

The Little Job Seeker That Could

The Little Job Seeker That Could One of the most commonly asked questions from job seekers todayis How do I stay motivated? And it is no wonder, the majority of mid level career job seekers have been at it for months. Theyve faced rejection and indifference.Some are blaming the bad economy and age discrimination as the causes of their prolonged job search. At some point, they need to look inside. Whatare they responsible for, what can they do to keep themselves on track. Happiness cannot come from without. It must come from within. It is not what we see and touch or that which others do for us which makes us happy; it is that which we think and feel and do, first for the other fellow and then for ourselves. Helen Keller I think I can, I think I can is the motto of the little engine. He has a goal and a strong motivation and mission to get those toys to the children who so desperately need them. Quitting is not an option. He cant just leave the toys on the side of a mountain. As a job seeker, starting with your mission, goal, most desperate desire, is one of the keys to staying motivated. However, lets face it, you lack survivability skills. You have never had to go through this before. You are ill-equipped to compete in this game. You probably dont remember what it was like to live pay check to pay check. Before you start with your mission and goal, what is your most desperate desire? To keep food on the table, to keep a roof over your head, you need some money coming in.That should be motivation enough, according to Maslows hierarchy of needs. Yet, that might require that you take some pretty undesirable actions. You might have to take a job below you, really below you. And perhaps youll need to work more than one. There is no shortage of service sector jobs right now. And if you were to get creative or entrepreneurial, is there a service you could provide that would generate income you earned? I hear unemployment recipients tell me that they cant afford to take a job because it pays less than unemployment. Hmmm, work, self esteem, feeling valued, or, continue to collect unemployment? Are we a lazy society? Do we feel entitled to unemployment? Maybe. Yet when you look at the long term repercussions of collecting unemployment you see a lot of depression, lack of self confidence, anger, frustration, i.e., lack of motivation. In honor of Labor Day, lets start laboringreally working, roll up your sleeves- get dirty and sweaty.

Tools and Tactics- Job Search Resources

Tools and Tactics- Job Search Resources If you are in job search, you have probably read something that Alison Doyle has written.   Her post on Career Tools this week provides some  updated/new resources for those who are exploring new career options. I have long been a fan of O*Net, because it is free and links to credible data.   There are lots of options,  and now  CareerBuilder  offers  Job Discovery Wizard  that  Doyle mentions in her post. Doyle  also mentions these other sites: WetFeet       Career Key Are you using  Career InfoNet to conduct company research?  Its available through your local public library. The Career Doctor  has written about how to begin choosing a new career and the use of assessments to help make those decisions. If you are interested in using social media tools to assist in your search, youll have to read this critique and link to Chris Brogans eBook by Meg Guiseppi . While on the topic of eBooks, Tim Tyrell-Smith recently released an eBook, 30 Ideas .   It contains ideas for successful job search spun in Tims engaging style. CareerRocketeers post on Personality and Corporate Culture, puts it all together- how to really use the assessments in developing a strategy for your search. I also want to share links to other great bloggers and thinkers on the topic of career search and management.   Each has their own unique personality and specialty! Add them to you Google reader so you dont miss a single word they have to say. Keppie Careers Career Trend Sterling Career Concepts The Write Solution, Dawns Blog Career By Choice Gayles Blog on Top Margin Sweet Careers Career Chaos Dream Big Coaching