Beyond Networking St. Louis, MO Speaking Tomorrow!

Beyond Networking St. Louis, MO Speaking Tomorrow! Tomorrow (Tuesday) Ill be in St. Louis, speaking at the morning meeting of Beyond Networking STL.  Im excited to be in Missouri again its been a long time since Ive been in beautiful Missouri! Im excited to share the message I have with this group of professionals. This is the twelfth of thirteen presentations on this speaking tour.  One more and then Ill be home! Beyond Networking STL meets on Tuesdays,  9:00 am to 11:30 am, at the  Salem United Methodist Church (1200 S Lindbergh Blvd, St Louis, MO 63131).  See you there? Beyond Networking St. Louis, MO Speaking Tomorrow! Tomorrow (Tuesday) Ill be in St. Louis, speaking at the morning meeting of Beyond Networking STL.  Im excited to be in Missouri again its been a long time since Ive been in beautiful Missouri! Im excited to share the message I have with this group of professionals. This is the twelfth of thirteen presentations on this speaking tour.  One more and then Ill be home! Beyond Networking STL meets on Tuesdays,  9:00 am to 11:30 am, at the  Salem United Methodist Church (1200 S Lindbergh Blvd, St Louis, MO 63131).  See you there? Beyond Networking St. Louis, MO Speaking Tomorrow! Tomorrow (Tuesday) Ill be in St. Louis, speaking at the morning meeting of Beyond Networking STL.  Im excited to be in Missouri again its been a long time since Ive been in beautiful Missouri! Im excited to share the message I have with this group of professionals. This is the twelfth of thirteen presentations on this speaking tour.  One more and then Ill be home! Beyond Networking STL meets on Tuesdays,  9:00 am to 11:30 am, at the  Salem United Methodist Church (1200 S Lindbergh Blvd, St Louis, MO 63131).  See you there?

What is CV or CVs?

What is CV or CVs?When looking for a job you will need to look at what is CV or CVs? It can be very helpful when applying for your next job. It is even more beneficial if you are applying to the same job and the same employer that you are currently employed with.CV or CVs are pieces of paper, which contain all of your professional and personal information. This includes your professional education, work experience, and information about your social and community interests. Each piece of information will be put into an easily readable format. This format is often referred to as the 'CVs'.CV or CVs are available in different formats. For example, there are some companies that offer a document that can be scanned. They will print the results on regular paper. Other employers may offer a hard copy of the CV, which can be typed directly into their computer.Some employers prefer the CV to be typed up. This is good because it means that they can see exactly what your CV looks like. If the e mployer has questions, they will not have to make up an excuse about a typographical error. They can just send you a paper copy and you can print out another one and email back the answers to them.There are other options to getting your CV printed. One of these is to contact the company or business that you are interviewing with. They will ask for your CV and would be happy to have a copy printed. However, if you have some extra money you can go to the office supply store and get them printed yourself. However, make sure you do not cut corners on the paperwork.The type of paper which will be used to print out your CV should be acid free. This is because the ink used on paper can discolor it. Another important thing to remember is that the paper must be 100% full color.It is best to have the latest version of Microsoft Word in order to create a CV. This will allow you to highlight important points and be able to write the information clearly.Once you have all of the information ready for the CV, take some time to look at what is CV or CVs. This will help you choose which ones to print and which ones you want to keep to hand.

Build Your Brand By Writing A Book That Inspires Readers - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Build Your Brand By Writing A Book That Inspires Readers - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Successfully writing a book to build your personal brand involves more than communicating helpful, relevant information; you book also has to inspire your readers to act. Your book, and your brand, must encourage readers to take action and continue to take action until they have solved their problem or achieve their goal. Your book has to change their habits by inspiring them to work towards their desired change. To do this, you have to write your book in a way that makes readers feel that success is inevitable once they decide to take action. Unless your book inspires your readers to act unless you convince them that success is possible your book will fail to build your brand. Tools of inspiration Here are 6 ways you can write your book in a way that will convince skeptical readers that their problems are solvable and their goals are achievable. Empathy. The starting point is to engage your prospective readers attention by showing them you understand their needs and wants and share their concerns. Avoid writing from an experts perspective; write from intended readers and target markets perspective. Your book must be a conversation a meeting of equals not a speech from an expert to a commoner. Focused. Selectivity plays an important role in writing a book that inspires others. Focus your book on your readers needs. Instead of writing an encyclopedia, or a textbook that tells everything about your topic, focus on just the information readers need to solve their problem or achieve the goals. Practical. In order to inspire action, your book has to communicate the practicality of the solution youre offering. Readers are looking for simple and easy ways to solve their problems or achieve the goals. One of the ways your book can communicate practicality is by breaking a big goal down into a step-by-step process, and providing detailed guidance at every step. You can also inspire readers to overcome their inertia and commit to action by making the first steps as easy as possible. Tools. Reader engagement tools, like exercises, questions, resource recommendations, and tips, provide further assistance, building your readers confidence in their ability to take action. Your book and your bran will be judged by the guidance and resources you provide. Proof. Prove your claims to help your readers solve their problems and achieve their goals. Provide proof of how your book, and its problem-solving or goal-achieving ideas and tools have helped others. Case studies, comments, interviews, and quotations from individuals helped by your book will increase your books inspiration-power. Memorable. Make your book memorable by choosing an easily-understood, easy-to-remember title that clearly identifies who your book is for and how they will benefit from it. Choose a book title that resonates because of its clarity, the way it reminds readers of metaphors, culturally-significant terms like song or movie titles, or because it invents a new word. A word about style or grammar Many authors focus on the wrong things. They try to write for everybody and they often include too much information. They weaken their books by writing for a broad market, instead of a reachable market niche. Authors also often provide more information than needed, making their book longer, more expensive, and larger than it has to be. Today, readers want books that offer concise, focused information they can quickly read and put into action. Unrealistic expectations In addition, authors often set themselves up to fail by having unrealistic expectations for their writing. Few published authors get it right in the first draft. Often several revisions are needed before they submit their manuscript to their publisherfor even more editing and proofreading. Takeaway When writing a book to build your personal brand, dont obsess about the details or getting it right in the first draft. Instead, focus on your target market the individuals you want to get noticed by or build relationships with. Books that successfully build their authors brands rarely tell everything. Instead, inspire them to take action by focusing on simple, practical ways your readers solve their problems and achieve their goals. Whats your favorite example of an inspiring book? Author: Roger C. Parker shares ideas for planning, writing, promoting, profiting from brand building books in his daily writing tips blog and his latest book, #BOOK TITLE Tweet: 140 Bite-Sized Ideas for Compelling Article, Book, Event Titles.

Blog News Ms. Career Girl is Getting a Makeover!

Blog News Ms. Career Girl is Getting a Makeover! Today Im writing with some exciting news.  Ive known for a long time that Ms. Career Girl needed to get a big makeover.  She needed (symbolically  speaking) everything from a dye job to a spray tan and a personal trainer.  I just wasnt exactly sure what she needed first. In twentysomething land, four years is a long time.  I was twenty four and single when I started Ms. Career Girl and often wrote about that crucial time between college graduation and starting my career in Chicago.  My life was filled with uncertainty, dating stories, utter career confusion, tons of networking, bad apartments, bars and over-spending. 2008 the year of too many vodka sodas. Riding a mechanical bull a great metaphor for ones twenties. Today my life looks a little different In the last 4 years I broke up with my old career and fell in love with a new one, leading me to leave Corporate America  (only to be laid off by a startup)  then to self-employment and today to a digital agency.  Its been my toughest chapter yet, but totally worth the journey. And, contrary to what many twentysomethings believe, Ive learned that picking the right guy can be the best thing that ever happened to your life AND your career.   Since starting Ms. Career Girl, my mind has shifted from renting to owning, from picking a career to being promoted in my career, from over-spending to over-saving.  Not to mention that the word baby has made its way into my vocabulary and the thought of embarking on all of THAT makes it feel like starting all over again So the question is, what does Ms. Career Girls next chapter look like? Well, Im not ready to reveal all of the details yet, but heres what I will tell you: Ms. Career Girl is getting a new look (bye bye fuchsia and sky blue!) Rather than being a mostly work-focused site, well have four categories of content: Work, Home, Self and +1 Youll be hearing a lot from my closest girlfriend, Katie Marotta Dawson Katie and I at our joint bachelorette party in July of 2012. Meet Katie Marotta Dawson Ten years ago, in January of 2003, I met Katie at our Kappa Alpha Theta sorority bid day.  She was 19, I was 18.  I totally remember the first moment I met her.  She announced to our pledge class (in what I now call her happy teacher voice) that she was from Nashville, was one of 5 kids and she wanted to be a teacher.  Thats a great one-sentence summary of Katie. Nice one-piece jumpsuit Kate. Her family is everything to her and for good reason.  The Marottas are the shit.  Seriously.  And now she has a new family member her husband Bobby Dawson.  Bobby is an adorable, sweet and kind southern man who couldnt be a better fit for her.  It really is so cool when your friends end up with someone who makes them the best version of themselves.   Meet the Dawsons! Katie has always taken her career as a teacher very seriously. She earned her masters degree in education  while teaching full-time and now works as a Reading Specialist.  I am totally fascinated that she can teach kids to read, many of which are way behind or have learning  disabilities. I dont think I could do it While planning our weddings over the last year (we got married 6 weeks apart) we bonded over our love affair with Pinterest and everything DIY.  When Katie and her husband moved up to the Chicago suburbs this summer from Nashville, we started taking our Pinteresting offline.  Most of our experiments were total flops (was it the wine??).  We also started having great talks about life as a twentysomething and what life as a thirtysomething would look like. Nasty ass coffee-cake-gone-wrong that tasted like salt and play dough.  Katie was genuinely pissed about it for at least two days. Recipe compliments of Pinterest. While racking my brain about Ms. Career Girls makeover one day, I realized that Katie could be just what Ms. Career Girl (and I) needed. In many ways our differences are our strength.  For example: Educator vs. business person Suburban vs. urban Martha Stewart extraordinaire vs. Owner of a cook book called How to Boil Water Southerner vs. Northerner Loyal DIYer vs. Loyal Spend-Too-Mucher (ok, thats not a word) Knows exactly what to do at Buy Buy Baby vs. Has NO clue what anything in that store is You get the idea. The new Ms. Career Girl whether were talking about todays working woman or the newest chapter of this blog comes in all forms and is influenced by all areas of her life, not just work. Plus, who wants to come home from work and read more about only work?! Us visiting our alma mater Miami University in honor of our friends 30th birthday. So, Welcome to Ms. Career Girl, Katie!  And thanks to all of you for sticking with this blog through the years.  We hope you like whats to come! Nicole

How to Create a Web Developer Resume From Scratch

How to Create a Web Developer Resume From ScratchThe one thing that many job seekers struggle with when it comes to building a solid online resume is that they simply don't have the time or resources to create their own. While these in and out of work developers can often take some time to come up with a great resume, there are still plenty of people who do not have the time or resources to create their own. They will therefore rely on other people to create their resume for them, which will obviously not be as good.This is why it is essential to be careful about the way that you create your resume. Instead of concentrating on how easy or difficult it will be to create your own resume, concentrate on how to provide the best possible resume for your job search. Writing a resume does not have to be the time-consuming and sometimes frustrating experience that many individuals have with it.You will need to be sure that you focus on the skills that you will need to have as a developer. Cr eating a resume from scratch should be about showing what you can do rather than what you don't know. It will be a more efficient approach if you get a resume template to begin with.Using a template will make it much easier for you to create a developer resume from scratch. When you use a template, you are creating a standard format that can be followed for many other resumes. This will mean that you do not have to spend time re-designing your resume every time you want to update it.A unique way to create a resume is to ask for help from others. There are plenty of free resume help available online. There are templates that you can use which will make it much easier for you to create a good looking developer resume.You can also find tutorials on the career forum. You will find free coaching available from the recruitment experts who created the job board. These coaches will go through each section of your resume to show you how to use it the best way to highlight your qualifications .The resume is an important document, and it is worth spending the time to find a career coach who will help you create a great resume. Even those with no coding experience should be able to use a resume builder. The most important factor is to make sure that you get the best resume for your future job hunt.Using a professional resume builder will help you focus on all of the necessary information to create a resume that will stand out. You may need to spend a little time to learn the process, but it is well worth it to have the skills required to enter the online employment market. Instead of wasting time creating a resume from scratch, go for the quick fix - get a developer resume.

The Difference between Joiners and Carpenters Which Career is Right for You - CareerMetis.com

The Difference between Joiners and Carpenters â€" Which Career is Right for You Source â€" maxpixel.freegreatpicture.comSome people have a natural affinity with wood. They love the smell of freshly sawn timber, the feel of a strip of freshly hewn pine in their hands, and the sense of a job well done after they have crafted a piece of timber furniture. To the untrained eye, joinery and carpentry are one and the same trade. However, whilst there are a lot of similarities between the two, there are also some key differences. If you want a long-lasting career with plenty of job satisfaction and a decent wage, joinery and carpentry are both a smart choice. There is high demand for manual trades these days, and not just in the construction sector. Housebuilding is on the rise and people look to carpenters and joiners to carry out essential work. Here is a quick guide to the main differences between these essential trades, so you know what to expect if you want to work with wood. evalCarpentryCarpenters have been around for millennia. They are highly skilled tradesmen who work with wood to construct furniture, boats, and building structures. Just to illustrate the longevity of carpentry as a trade, remember that Jesus of Nazareth was a carpenter!In the construction industry, carpenters build roof trusses, erect timber walls and lay floors. They are involved at all stages in a construction project and without their specialist skills, houses wouldn’t be built. Attention to detail is in the carpenter job description and these guys are invaluable. Carpenters earn around $44k a year, but the top 10% earn a very respectable $34 per hour. JoineryJoiners do a very similar job, but the main difference is that they don’t use metal fastenings in their work. At its simplest, a joiner “joins” wood. He will work with wood to produce items of furniture. Unlike a carpenter, he doesn’t need metal screws, bolts, and other fastenings. Instead, he is skilled at creating joints to hold two pieces of timber together. He might use wooden pegs, but a screw gun is not in his toolbox. Skilled joiners usually work in a workshop whereas carpenters typically work on-site. Joiners are very similar to cabinet makers in terms of their skillsets, and again, there is some crossover between the two trades.Joiners earn a similar wage to carpenters, although like any profession, it is very much based on supply and demand.evalWhich Trade Do You Need?evalIf you are building a home or your existing house needs a new roof or a partition wall, call a carpenter. He or she will have the skills you need. If, on the other hand, you would like a handmade coffee table for your living room or you would like a custom-made bookcase for the bedroom, you should look for a skilled joiner in your local neighborhood. The best way to become a joiner or carpenter is by finding a skilled professional to take you on as an apprentice. This is how the older guys learned their trade. But, you can also sign up for a college course if you want to divide your time between the cl assroom and on-the-job training.

Hot Careers - Human Resource Management - What Beginners Need to Know - CareerAlley

Hot Careers - Human Resource Management - What Beginners Need to Know - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. One of the fastest developing fields in business right now is human resource management. This position focuses on planning and directing the administrative activities in a business. Responsibilities often include finding and hiring employees, implementing employee training and acting as a liaison between management and the employees of the company. It is a field that requires heavy interaction with others, and can be quite lucrative in the right circumstances. What It Takes To Work In Human Resource Management As the popularity of human resource management continues to grow, it now takes a lot more to enter into the field than it did a decade or two ago. Most companies require employees working in human resource management to have a bachelors degree in human resources or in at least a business-related program of studies. Even more important than your formal education, pursuing a career in the field requires you to be well adept at working with others and dedicated to helping develop your companys human capital. How To Land The Perfect Human Resources Position Human resource management is rarely one of the careers that you can dive into a top-paying position right out of school. In fact, landing even entry-level positions in some of the most desired companies can take a year or two of previous experience such as that obtained through internships. Planning for your career while youre still in school will allow you to get a foot up on much of the competition when it comes time to enter the workforce. Another way to help ensure a good position in human resource management is by advancing your education past a bachelors degree. Obtaining a masters degree can prepare you better for your career and give you an advantage when searching for a position, but it is a strategy that is also becoming more popular as the job market continues to remain competitive. If youre looking for an effective way to land the perfect human resources position, consider looking into obtaining certifications in the field from related professional associations and certifications organizations like K Alliance. The largest and most widespread human resource association is the Society for Human Resource Management. Their certification, Professional in Human Resources, is a trusted industry standard to elevate the best of the best. Other popular organizations include the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and the Institute of Recruiters. A Few Tips To Help You Succeed In Your Career Once you get a job in human resource management, there are a few things you need to remember in order to get ahead in your career: According to the US Department of Labor, the median pay in 2010 for a human resource manager was just under $100,000. That level of pay commonly takes years of experience to reach and you shouldnt expect that large of a salary just for setting your foot in the door. One of the biggest responsibilities you have is to help develop the skills of your companys employees. Human capital is often considered the most important asset of any business, so being in charge of developing that asset carries a lot of responsibility and requires dedication to your organization. Dont rush when making decisions that will affect your companys future, such as hiring new employees. Hastily making decisions because you feel the need to take action right now can spell disaster. Rather than implementing a program or filling a position for the sake of doing it, take time and evaluate your options. Making the wrong decision may end up costing significantly in the long-run. Entering into the field of human resources management means that you will be facing a lot of competition when it comes to landing your dream job. There are a number of ways that you can get an advantage over many of your competitors, but reaching that point will take dedication and perseverance on your part. If you have the willpower and commitment to get hired in human resource management, then you likely already possess the skills needed to handle your duties effectively. Byline:Mark Arnold has extensive experience as a HR manager. Mark likes to share his years of experience with others just starting out in the field. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Joey Trebif

Why you are not getting a job -

Why you are not getting a job - No doubt, youve seen and heard stories about how software, not people, reads your application when you apply for a job. Known as the applicant tracking system, or ATS, this software is programmed to look for keywords and phrases in your resume and to select applications belonging to presumably qualified candidates. The alternative for unsuccessful candidates is being lost in the proverbial black hole we must come up with a better term for this. For these job seekers, the software did not find the candidate qualified and a human being never saw the resume. My friend and HR pro, Laurie Ruettimann recently shared a post from The Wall Street Journal on this subject: Software Raises Bar for Hiring. In the post, the author quotes Peter Cappelli, a professor of management and human resources at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School. He challenged the oft-heard complaint from employers that they cant find good workers with the right skills and says, The real culprits are the employers themselves. Further seeking to prove how its all the employers fault, the article highlights a situation where a company received 25,000 (!) applicants for an engineering position, only to have the HR department say not one was qualified. Clearly, that is an extreme case, but the HR community does buzz about the war for talent and how hard it is to find qualified people to hire. In the meantime, qualified people sit by without landing jobs. Something is broken, but I think responsibility can be passed around. Im not going to get on a soapbox and say its great that software screens out every applicant and that HR is working so hard to screen OUT people, they are missing otherwise qualified people. That is absurd. There is nothing redeeming about it. However, what about the candidate? How is it helpful to publicize these stories to tell people about the candidate who anonymously applied for a job in his OWN company and was not selected? Let me tell you why that person was not selected his resume and materials were probably terrible. It is unlikely that he targeted his materials to explain how and why he was qualified for the job, and it very likely that, even if a human being had read his resume, he would not have appeared qualified for this own position. Sad? Yes, but I do not doubt it is true. The hiring system has problems. However, instead of highlighting these extreme scenarios and companies who simply cannot figure out how to hire one typical engineer, job seekers need to start focusing on what they are doing to help themselves get through the system. Instead of complaining that there are no jobs, or its too competitive or companies dont even know what they want, job seekers need to take a good, long look at their own materials. They need to try to understand the (albeit broken) system of keyword screening and ATSs and they need to make a point to create materials to give them the very best chance of landing an interview. Instead of spending all of their time seeking jobs to apply for via these inevitable systems, they need to create and enhance networks and communities of people who are willing to refer them for positions before those jobs are even advertised. Savvy recruiters are talking about talent communities as a way to make sure you always have a job (and as a way of helping recruit qualified people). Whats a talent community? Its just a fancy word for network. Teela Jackson, the director of talent delivery for the contract recruiting and executive search firm Talent Connections, has worked as an internal recruiting consultant for CIGNA HealthCare, Georgia-Pacific, and Turner Broadcasting. She defines an employer (or talent) community as, A group of key individuals with whom you have had personal interactions and who work in or provide services to your desired field and/or target companies; its the group of people who could potentially hire you in the future. She explains, Creating an employer community can help you when youre unemployed and actively looking for a job, but its great to focus on keeping in touch with people youve built relationships with, even after you land your job. Weve all heard stories about people who built a great network during their job search, but once they land a job, they disappear … until its time to look for a job again. Then, they have to start almost from scratch to rekindle those relationships because theyve been out of touch for years. Is that you? The one with no network? Are you the same one complaining you cant get a job because employers dont know what they want? Even if its true employers may not know what they want they do seem to know it when they see it. People are landing jobs; they are getting hired. If you are not getting hired, its time to make a change. Instead of worrying about the 25,000 people who didnt get that engineering job, you need to start thinking about how you can do things differently. Make a change You CAN create a resume to address the ATSs needs. Have you been sending the same resume to every company? You will never get those jobs. Target. Focus on keywords. (Figure out your keywords its not that difficult they are the words that describe what the employer wants. Include them in your resume and indicate how and why you are a good fit.) If you cant do it, hire someone who knows how to write a resume to get you noticed. Talk to people. Do your contacts know you are looking for a job? Do they know about what you do your expertise? If not, you are making a big mistake. Networks and referrals help people land jobs. If you arent networking, you are putting yourself much more at the mercy of an ATS, because youll always be applying in a group of similarly qualified people. Build an online profile. If you are amazing, and no one knows it, I hate to say it, but, Too bad for you. Get your social media working. Create a social resume a professional website highlighting your expertise. It can make a difference, and, at the very least, by being out there online, you are doing something for professional reputation. If you can create a community and demonstrate expertise, its very possible for jobs to come to you. It happens. These are just three things job seekers can do to grab more control of their own careers. This is not your parents job search. Things are different today, it is competitive, and you need to do what you can to compete with people who understand: Applicant tracking systems are inevitable. Referrals get people jobs. Even if companies dont know what they want, you can still land a job there if you are a little savvy and make a point to educate yourself about how to get a job today. Bottom line: you have more control of your job search than you think. You can drive your own career bus, or you can hand over the keys to the nearest person. Its totally up to you.