Work, success, and meaning at every stage of your career
Are you a new graduate drafting your professional resume for the first time? Are you about to return to the work force after a long absence? Maybe you’ve been actively employed for many years, and it’s been so long since the last time you looked at your resume that you may as well start a new one from the beginning. No matter your circumstances, these eight simple resume tips can help you get started.
For many people, the hardest part of getting organized is deciding what’s most important. Procrastinators are sometimes paralyzed by the fact that they simply don’t know where to start on a project. It’s easier to get started on what you enjoy, or what’s in front of you, instead of working on what’s most important.
LiveCareer’s founders’ mission was to make high quality career and resume products available to everyone, online, at a fraction of the cost or at no cost.
Whether you’re currently working, or in an intense job search, being organized and feeling organized (which, by the way, are two different things) should become a priority for you.
Michael V. Pantalon, Ph.D., is the author of Instant Influence, How to Get Anyone to Do Anything Fast. The book outlines six steps to persuade people to make changes in their work, their lives, or for themselves. You may want to master the steps as outlined by the author in detail, but what was interesting to me is why they work. Pantalon spends some time talking about the science of motivation, and his conclusions may surprise you.
One of his most important premises is that everyone already has all the motivation they need to change.
The term heuristic, which Wikipedia says comes from the Greek word for ‘find’ or ‘discover,’ “refers to experience-based techniques for problem solving, learning, and discovery. Where an exhaustive search is impractical, heuristic methods are used to speed up the process of finding a satisfactory solution.” We call heuristic approaches “intuition” and “guessing” as well. We all use this part of the brain – imagine how hard it would be to have to think about every choice we make, to reason through every decision. Our brains would be overloaded. So nature allows us to use heuristics for many common tasks.
Internships can provide entry into dream jobs, adding experience and references to an inexperienced person’s résumé, but finding them can be challenging – especially in a down economy. As with all job searches, the Internet is an invaluable resource for locating the best opportunities. Whether you’re a recent graduate, embarking on a new career, or a student required to take an internship for class credit, the web can lead you to an internship that will give you the experience you need. Here are five great websites for tracking down the best internship.
If you think of your career goals as a problem to be solved, then creativity would be a wonderful asset to have. Indeed, being considered “creative” has a wonderful ring to it and beings up all kinds of positive associations. Yet only a small percentage of people would describe themselves as creative. Why?
Just as Luck was promoted to Manning’s coveted spot, many professionals find themselves faced with the intimidating responsibility of filling the shoes of an all-star employee who moved up or out. This former employee was popular, respected, and (incidentally) great at his job. Although you may have been the king (or queen) of your old department, the fact remains that you are you, not the other guy who used to do the same job. Just not being him can be a liability, no matter how good you are.
The other day, I was in a small committee meeting with people I know, I like, and with whom I’ve worked for quite a while. Halfway through the meeting, and I found myself wanting to smack them all. The meeting had degenerated into a series of one way discussions, with neither side actually listening to the other. We were driving each other crazy, and the project we were discussing was probably doomed. How could reasonable, friendly people get so far apart in such a short time?
