Blog for Professionals
10 Resume Writing Tips For 2024: Improve Your Jobsearch Game.
As a job seeker, think of your resume as your marketing tool. It needs to consist of relevant selling points (accomplishments, milestones, and skills) to keep recruiters attracted to you as a candidate. Your resume provides a window for impressing employers and standing out from the competition. This article will present the 10 essential tips for crafting a compelling resume that stands out in 2024.
Crafting a Killer Elevator Pitch: Your Gateway to Success
This month, we explore how to develop an elevator pitch. We delve into the significance of a compelling pitch and provide you with meticulous strategies for creating a catchy elevator pitch. As our primary focus is to assist you in enhancing your networking skills, we also share some valuable insights on delivering an outstanding and memorable elevator pitch.
5 Ways to Write More Effective Emails
Time is of the essence … as learned from Tems hit song. Coupled with the number of emails that the average person gets daily, many people don’t have the attention span to read long, extensive emails. Therefore, we must embody the concept that less is more by learning to communicate succinctly and clearly.
On average, 121 business emails are sent to Americans on any given day, and while 60% are typically spam, at least 50 have relevant and essential information.
Conquering the Elevator Pitch in 60 Seconds or Less
An elevator pitch is someone’s monologue that shares what and why someone else should be interested in what you are selling or have to offer. When it comes to the job search, you present your elevator pitch on your resume, phone screen, and interview. Whether you are delivering your elevator pitch in writing or verbally, it should be impactful and straight to the point. Think of your elevator pitch as persuading the other person to understand how you can help them make money, save time, or solve their problem.
5 Steps to Set Work Boundaries Without Compromising Performance or Professionalism
This short sentence alone speaks to why more than 50% of Americans feel job burnout and abandon their careers. While burnout can be considered a buzzword during recent times, the World Health Organization defines it as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. In layman's terms, this means simply that folks are quitting their jobs because they can't take it anymore. Although it varies from person to person, many reasons stem from the lack of workplace boundaries. This month we will explore how to create healthy work boundaries without tarnishing your professional career and relationships.
Building Your Professional Network with Informational Interviews
How often have you started a job and realized that they require far more than what was listed in the job description? While it can appear that a company is being deceitful during recruitment, many positions across all sectors are “catch-all.” A catch-all position has a core set of duties and responsibilities and additional tasks that sometimes feel unrelated or cumbersome. While most professionals understand that it is a part of many positions, these extra tasks can lead to workplace frustration and resentment depending on the type and frequency. Although we might not avoid the catch-all, it helps to know what we are getting ourselves into at the beginning. Speaking with current or former employees during an informational interview allows you to ask questions and learn about a typical day in their role. While an extra step, conducting these interviews can reassure you when taking a leap of faith and considering your transition into a new position and company.
Time Task Management: 5 Strategies to Organize and Get Stuff Done
With 2021 quickly coming to an end, many of us are scurrying to finish last-minute goals before the clock strikes midnight on December 31st. With less than a month remaining, now is as great as any time to start learning new time management strategies to embark your new year on a smooth start. So keep reading to learn 5 of my most valuable systems of staying organized and ensuring that I make the most use of my time every day!
Using the Great Resignation to Elevate Your Current Position and Get What You Want
The Great Resignation has resulted in more than 4.9 million people quitting their jobs because of COVID-19. While workers are transitioning for several reasons, many of their reasons are rooted in recent reflections about working hours, demand, and frequency. As a result, many sectors are plagued by continuous staff shortages, particularly fields that faced increased pressure throughout the pandemic, such as hospital staff and educators. This high influx of departing team members directly correlates to remaining workers feeling overworked and burned out. And while many decide to leave their career fields or companies entirely, others try their best to stick it out. Sticking it out allows you to leverage the great resignation to get what you want: increased benefits & flexibility.
10 Red Flags During the Interview Process that Warrants a Side-Eye
Have you ever gotten hired on the spot? It’s one of the greatest feelings ever. There are times when an employer can recognize a quality candidate and want to take them off the market immediately. However, other companies are so understaffed that they seem overly eager to offer titles and positions to anyone who needs one. While there’s no sure-fire way to tell if an on-the-spot offer or another occurrence is a red flag, before giving your verbal acceptance, do your due diligence. Then, continue reading to learn of additional red flags that might present themselves during the interview and hiring process.
Using Your Professional Brand to Propel Your Career
Most frequently, when people talk about branding, they are talking about their company or business. However, establishing your professional brand as an individual is equally important. Branding goes beyond colors and aesthetics; it speaks to one's vision, values, missions, and goals, all of which can be attributed to a business ora person. Continue reading to learn how to establish a solid professional brand that creates access and opportunities for you.
3 Steps to Identify Your Next Career Move When You Want to Transition
Taking the leap of faith as it relates to career change is easier said than done. Despite wanting more for themselves, professionals are often hindered by fear that derives from many reasons. While fear commonly stems from the anticipated effect on one’s family and lifestyle, other worries are rooted in uncertainty. Uncertainty about where to start, what you like, what you want to do, and the effect transitioning might have on your overall career trajectory. Don’t worry though, this month’s blog dives into how fostering your curiosity can reveal your interests, passions, and ultimately your next dream position.
5 Steps to Break Up with Your Job
You have planned your exit strategy, and you've succeeded. Now that you have your new job offer (I hope!), it is time to start thinking about your transition from your current role. It is easy to think, "well, it's their problem," but the truth is that you want to ensure that you are transitioning out gracefully. Read below to learn six ways to sustain your reputation as a reliable and professional employee without burning any bridges.
8 Benefits You Should Consider Negotiating to Increase Your Salary at Your Current Job and at a New One
But this does not mean that you should not fight for what you are deserved based on your work ethic, performance, accomplishments, education, and tenure. In a post-COVID world (possibly, maybe), employers and employees alike have begun to reimagine what work looks like for them. More than ever before, employees can verbalize what they need to be successful in the workplace and sustain the work-life balance that many of us could not even imagine before. As a result, people are re-negotiating their benefits packages and demands to return to work. So as we begin our transition into a post-pandemic world, continue reading to learn about benefits you should be considering beyond your salary that will benefit you in the long run.
4 Reflection Activities to Uncover Your Transferrable Skills
If transferable skills were a snake, it would have bit you. Do you follow? It’s okay, let me explain. Although we all know that we should identify and sell our transferable skills when changing sectors or looking for a new career, we often are unsure of the steps to take. Below we share 4 tips that you can implement to uncover the skills you often overlook but are staring right in your face.
Balancing Work and Business:Tales of a 9-to-5preneur
I've got news for you…you do not have to quit your 9 to 5 to launch your own business. Yes, some people do it, but you certainly do not have to. You might be someone who can put in the work both at your day job and on your own hustle, thus becoming a 9-to-5preneur. It’s actually about using your circumstances to work for what you need it to do. Continue reading to discover how you can capitalize on your 9-to-5 to advance your own business and personal endeavors.
Handling Toxic Work Environments & the Difficult Conversations That Need to Happen
There's a consensus that difficult conversations suck … even if you think you are good at them. It requires you to lean into problems and seek understanding of the other person’s point of view. However, in the end, the objective of difficult conversations should always be to improve working relationships and understanding between different people. More than 70% of people avoid difficult conversations in the workplace altogether. Imagine the emotional toll that it takes on your health, wellness, and overall job performance. Don’t let it be you!
Man, F*** This Job -- 3 Ways to Revive a Job that You’re Over
Having feelings of discontent and annoyance with your job is something that most people experience at one point or another, even when you are doing something you are passionate about. But when the moments where we don't want to attend another meeting or read another email arise, we recognize that we depend on this job to pay the upcoming electricity bill (whew, those winter storm electricity bills have been ASTRONOMICAL!) So, what do you do when these moments of annoyance turn into a slump that lasts weeks or even months? Read below to learn how to recognize if you are in a work slump, and more importantly, how to get out of it!
Using Informational Interviews to Kick-Start Your Career Transition
At the start of a new year or significant change, professionals often reflect on their career and happiness. Often this career reflection may lead to a realization of dissatisfaction in your career trajectory. However, even with this realization, "pulling the trigger" to find a career more fulfilling might prove problematic when considering the significant risk of lost income, lack of direction, or just plain fear. Shifting your career trajectory or starting anew does not have to be scary, though. But before you leap, consider the following to ease your transition.
Virtual Leadership: 3 Considerations to Adopt When Shifting Virtual Team Culture
The Water Cooler is traditionally symbolic as it serves as a place where co-workers mingle and talk. The water cooler has transformed into the work kitchen, copy room, or other variation depending on your field in modern times. Regardless of where the ultimate purpose is to allow team members on all levels to engage with one another on more personal levels. Studies show that 60% of professionals perform at peak performance when they have a good relationship with someone at work. So, in a COVID world, how does one re-create the water cooler virtually?