Make the Most out of your Career by Improving Office Politics Skills

Make the Most out of your Career by Improving Office Politics Skills Make the Most out of your Career by Improving Office Politics Skills One of the primary realizations you must make when practicing good office politics is that its all about being nice. Not only must you be nice, you need to also understand your strengths and a high emotional intelligence. This will enable so you to mora easily work to understand the struggles other people are undergoing so that you can offer them help in your most skilled areas. Getting to know people is one thing, but you must also spend even more time doing work to help that person. This may require that you perform your own job very efficiently so that you have the time to be nice in the first place. The first step is to reassess your relationship with office politics, get a better attitude towards them, and start looking for ways to be nice.There is a growing amount of research showing that managers and coworkers alike value the social skills of colleagues even more than job skills. In other words, they want you to be more likable, even at the expense of your competence. As mentioned already, office politics is about being nice, and being nice makes you more likable. The more likable you are, the more competent you are perceived to be.Being bad at office politics is an entirely internal affair. It is not about the people you work with but how you choose to absprache with those people. Being empathetic makes you want to understand people all people, not just those who are easiest to like. The challenge of becoming more empathetic and raising your emotional intelligence is teaching yourself how to get along with people you may not otherwise like, and understanding their motivations.Finally, in order to excel at office politics, you must first care about office politics. If you want to help people, learn about people, and figure out their strengths and weaknesses, you must genuinely want to do so. Otherwise you will come o ff as fake, and at the end of the day, office politics is about authenticity and making real connections with everyone around you.

How to Use Skype for Video Job Interviews

How to Use Skype for Video Job bewerberinterviewsHow to Use Skype for Video Job InterviewsTo save on interviewing costs and to streamline thejob interview process, companies are turning to their computers instead of phones and offices to conduct interviews. Skype, an online phone and video service, has become the most popular way to conduct long-distance or even international video interviews. Sometimes companies use Skype for first-round interviews (similar to a phone interview). Otzu sich times, companies will use Skype for second-round, or even third-round, interviews. For job candidates, the convenience of interviewing from home is a major bonus. It can save you both travel time and money. If you prepare for a Skype interview in advance, it can also be less stressful than interviewing in person. 106 Watch Now 7 Tips for a Professional Skype Interview Tips for Preparing for a Skype Interview There are a few steps you need to take before your Skype interview in order to be pr epared Download the software at least a few days in advance of the interview. While there are Skype platforms that cost money, it is generally free to video chat with other Skype users.Create a professional username. With Skype, people can search for you by your first and last name. Make sure you dont use any unprofessional nicknames in your Skype name.Do a test call or two with your friends or family. Make sure you can easily make and answer a call. Check to see that your microphone and camera work. Practice getting comfortable looking at the camera for long periods of time. Adjust the lighting.Be sure you have enough lighting to avoid any heavy shadows. However, make sure the lighting is notlage too bright either, because that can wash you out or even blind the interviewer. You can figure out lighting issues during your practice interview.Check the background. While you are the focus of the Skype video, remember that the interviewer will also see whatever is behind you. Before the interview, select your backdrop. Pick a bare wall to ensure there are no distractions or color clashes with your attire. If you need to be in a public space, find the quietest area and be sure to wear a headset to help block out background noises. If you live with other people (or pets) and are doing the interview in your home, tell everyone you live with not to interrupt you during the interview. Test everything again an hour or two before the interview. Make sure the microphone and camera work to ensure everything is in order.Prep in the traditional sense as well. Do the kind of preparation you would do for any interview. Review your resume and cover letter, practice answering common interview questions ahead of time, and research the company.Know who is contacting whom. Make sure that, before the interview, you know whether you are supposed to reach out to the interviewer or vice versa. If you are supposed to reach out, ask for their Skype name ahead of time. Before the intervie w, find the person on Skype, and add him or her to your list of contacts. This will make it easier to contact them if you are asked to. Tips for a Successful Skype Interview There are also things you can do during the Skype interview to make sure you look polished and professional Smile and focus. In many ways, a Skype interview is just like any other interview. For example, whether you are interviewing in person or via Skype, remember to smile Smiling will ensure that you look engaged and enthusiastic about the position you are interviewing for. Remember to focus your eyes on the camera not on the persons face to make it look like youre making direct eye contact. Scanning the room or looking away from the camera too much can make you appear untrustworthy or indifferent. The interviewer deserves your full attention, so stay focused and friendly. Smiling can also help you remain calm. Another way to focus is to exit out of any other applications on your computer. You dont want any pop-up windows distracting you during the interview. Dress to impress.Just because you are interviewing in a casual setting does not mean your attire should match your surroundings. Wear what you would wear to any in-person interview. This will help you feel more confident as well. Dress in a way that reflects both your personality and the position for which you are interviewing. Just watch out for specific colors, like red and hot colors, which can be too bright for the camera. Crazy patterns may also clash with the camera. Stick with solids. Put your best face forward.Again, treat the Skype interview as any in-person interview when it comes to your appearance. For women, it is fine to wear a bit more makeup than you would in an in-person interview, as it doesnt show up as well on camera. Wear the amount that makes you feel confident. You can spot conceal, apply highlighter under your eyes, use a brown eyeliner and mascara to make your eyes pop, and/or put on a dab of pink lip stick. You can wear jewelry, but make sure it isnt too flashy or distracting (for example, avoid jangly, noisy earrings). For both men and women, make sure your hair is well groomed. Bring notes, paper, and a pen.It is useful to have a few brief bullet points in front of you about what you want to highlight during the interview. Sometimes, conversations can go in unexpected directions, and it can be easy to forget your talking points. This way, you can scan your notes without losing direct contact with the interviewer. However, make sure to practice answering interview questions in advance, so that you dont stare down at your paper. Remember that eye contact is important. Keep a blank paper and a pen handy to jot down anything youd like to comment on later in the conversation. You might also keep a glass of water handy in case your throat gets dry. However, dont keep it too close to your computer you dont want to spill and have a technical malfunction Dont panic if technology fail s. With any technology, there is the chance for a glitch. When you start the interview, you might want to make sure the person can see and hear you. If anything goes wrong during the interview, dont panic. Remain calm and friendly. You might suggest hanging up and trying the video call again. Make sure you have the persons schmelzglas address or phone number, so you can contact them in case you completely lose each other. The right body language is key.You do not want your interviewer assuming his or her screen froze at any point during the interview. Therefore, make sure your body language expresses that you are engaged. As the other party speaks, subtly nod your head to express your understanding or agreement. And as you speak, lean forward and use subtle hand gestures to add enthusiasm to what you are saying. But dont over-do it. To avoid looking blurry on screen, dont make any dramatic hand gestures or nod your head too quickly. Also be sure to sit up straight. This will not onl y make you look more professional, but it will also help you to feel confident.

5 Alternatives to a Traditional Resume Format

5 Alternatives to a Traditional Resume Format5 Alternatives to a Traditional Resume Format8Theres no shortage of resume advice online, but what if yur work experience doesnt fit the perfect mold of a traditional resume? There are alternatives to a traditional resume that may help you.We know how hard it is when you dont havea perfectly linear and chronological work history. So weve outlined five of the most effective alternatives to a traditional resume format.Whether you are changing careers, transitioning back into the workforce, or just trying to get your foot in the door- weve got a format for you. Here are five alternatives to a traditional resume format.5 Alternatives to a Traditional Resume Format1. Resume of Relevance In many cases, what youve most recently done in your work history is not what is most relevant to the role you are targeting. The only way your resume will be effective is if you put the relevant information first. Here is one of our alternatives to a traditiona l resume that may work for you.You canseparate the typical chronological work experience section into two separate sections. The first section should only highlight your relevant work experience in chronological order. The second section will be titled Additional Experience and highlight your other roles in chronological order so the hiring manager can see what youve been up to outside of your relevant roles.2. Career Transition Resume Youve recently decided you want to target a completely new career, so youre either going back to school or taking some courses on the side to build up your skill set. However, your current resume shows your work experience at the top, and it has nothing to do with your new career. There are alternatives to a traditional resume that can help yourevamp your resume for your career transition.Place your academic and professional development before your work experience. This will show the hiring manager that you are a working professional who is targeting a new field and has taken the initiative to upgrade your skill set to qualify for the job. In your work experience, forget about your daily tasks from your former roles. Instead, place the focus on the transferable skills you gained in those roles that will relate to your new career goals.3. Achievements-Based Resume Youve held a lot of roles in the last five to ten years, and in those roles youve had some really great achievements that relate to the role that you are targeting, but they are really spread out. You need to focus your resume around those achievements to show the hiring manager exactly what you are capable of.The best method to do this is to place a Selected Achievements section before your work experience. In this section you should pick up to five of your most impressive achievements from any of your past roles that relate as closely as possible to the role you are targeting. This method offers alternatives to a traditional resume that will highlight your achievement s to the hiring manager immediately, rather than getting lost in your long list of roles in your work experience section.4. Functional Resume Though many people believe a functional resume is the best alternative when you have gaps in your work experience or during a career transition, we completely disagree. The three above listed resumes are the best options in those cases. A functional resume is most effective when you have completed identical tasks in every role youve held.This is common for medical practitioners like nurses or dental hygienists. They perform the same tasks in every role however, they have worked with different clinics or medical institutions. Therefore, their resume begins with a full list of their skills and what they are capable of, followed by a list of their employment.5. Portfolio-Style Resume If you are in the schriftart of field that requires a portfolio of what you are capable of, why not let your resume be an example of those capabilities? This is one of thegreat alternatives to a traditional resume for professionals in creative industries, such as graphic design or video production.You could choose to incorporate graphics onto the resume or develop a video resume that literally shows the hiring manager your skills in video production. This type of resume brings the saying Show, Dont Tell to a whole new reality. Check out these creative portfolio-style resumes.Your resume should never follow a traditional format it should be created around the best method to showcase your experience and skills to the hiring manager. So break free from the mold and consider alternatives to a traditional resume.Readers, what do you think about these alternatives to a traditional resume format? Have you tried any of them? Leave a comment with your thoughtsResumeTarget.com provides professional resume writing services for clients of all career levels across North America. We are the only resume writing company that offers a professionally written res ume coupled with the guidance of recruiters, to guarantee that your resume will get results. Tweet us with any resume questions you have at www.twitter.com/ResumeTarget, were here to help

Adding More Profit to Your Sales

Adding More Profit to Your SalesAdding More Profit to Your SalesGross profit is the lifeblood for those sales professionals who care about commissions. While you may feel that every sales rep cares about profit, the truth is that the growing trend in many sales companies is to not pay their sales associates commissions.Regardless of what you may feel about non-commissioned sales positions, if you arent in one of these non-commissioned based sales jobs, you are probably very interested in methods of increasing profit.Here are a few time-tested and proven profit building methods. 01Honesty You may find it hard to believe, but the most powerful and effective way to build profit into your deals is to ask your customers for mora profit. Thats right, ask your customer ifthey feel youve earned the right to build in a few more percentage points of pure profit.They may say no, but youll be surprised at how often a customer who appreciates the efforts their sales professional put forth will ag ree to pay a little bit more in order to reward their rep.And if your customer says no, you may want to review the entire sales cycle and see if there were some areas that you could have provided even better service and more value.

Is the Dream Job Real Or a Mirage

Is the Dream Job Real Or a MirageDream Job Real? Or a Mirage?Is the Dream Job Real Or a MirageWhen I think of dream job, the first thing that comes to mind is an episode of the old TV sitcom Cheers in which barfly Norm Peterson, who never drank a beer he didnt like, lands a job as a beer taster. Most of us can envision our own version of a dream job the job that would stoke our passions, motivate us to the fullest, and put a spring in our step when we get out of bed each morning. But is there such a thing?In my experience, even so-called dream jobs can lose their allure. Personal case in point I welches once a sports reporter for a daily newspaper a dream role for me, being a rabid sports fan. I was being paid and having fun. But after a while, some of the stuff I was doing became less challenging and sometimes even less invigorating. The fun wore off and the dream job became just a job. I knew it was time for a change, so I wrote a new resume and launched a job search.

The Fight Against Good Things to Put on a Resume

The Fight Against Good Things to Put on a Resume The Advantages of Good Things to Put on a Resume Hard skills are quantifiable and frequently learned from school or at work. Your skills are an overview of what you could do for the prospective employer if you were offered the work at this time. Needless to say, certain skills can assist you almost in any position. Some of your advertising skills will inevitably appear in the resume itself. How to Choose Good Things to Put on a Resume Possessing the capability to communicate in person is critical, but having the capability to communicate via technology is a developing hot commodity in the modern workplace. Making decisions which are in the very best interest of the organization, and solving aufgabes having the most efficiency and limiting damages are traits of an excellent candidate. An important soft skill is having the ability to recognize and understand an individuals emotional state. If you want to fix a complaint again st a business, the exact first thing must always be to speak about your issues with an agent of the company. The Battle Over Good Things to Put on a Resume and How to Win It Your gratitude has a beneficial effect on your future too. When you think of great communication with friends and nearest and dearest, you can imagine long talks full of laughter long into the evening. Being a great listener is a top approach to be an excellent communicator. Simply take a minute to think about all the wonderful things that you can do. The New Angle On Good Things to Put on a Resume Just Released You may find below a list of the greatest skills you may put on your resume based on the kind of job that you are applying for. The composing example is quite different. You may need to customize your resume for every type of job which youre applying to. For example, if you submit an application for a Chinese-English interpreting job, you ought to be fluent in both languages otherwise you would just not qualify for the position. Writing a letter of criticism can be challenging, however, the most important point to bear in mind is to be tasteful and direct. When youre in the middle of a work search, picking out the sections of your work history that may interest employers and land you a job interview can be hard. For instance, if youre interested in a job which revolves in the computer science industry its advised to have a better comprehension of how certain programming languages and software work. Just make certain to double-check whether adding social media to your particular resume is acceptable for the job The Good Things to Put on a Resume titelbild Up So you should be taking a look at the particular job description for keywords. If youre interested in turning in an application for a particular job, review the post carefully and observe the list of skill requirements. Review their About Us page and see whether your soft abilities or attributes are aligned w ith the organizations core values. Depending on the recommendation of our expert sources, here are a couple of broad classes of skills your resume could include, together with unique approaches to express them. The Good, the Bad and Good Things to Put on a Resume To begin with, if youre seeing a great deal of hard skills that you just dont have, it might be far better move on to the next position. Wherever you opt to place your skills on your resume, be certain to tailor your list of skills to the specific job. If you wish to showcase your organization skills, obtaining a tightly structured resume certainly helps. On the flip side, soft abilities, also called interpersonal or social abilities, are those that you have as personal qualities or you get through professional experiences. If you are in possession of a wide variety of technical abilities, however, your abilities might end up being precisely what gets you hired. Some skills might be relevant while others arent. In a ddition to the practical demand for developers in just about any company, programming skills demonstrate advanced problem solving skills that could result in a well-rounded professional. Youve got to curate the few skills which are most relevant to them. No matter where you include your skills section on your resume, you can be confident that the hiring manager will find it and definitely likely to ask about doing it. Thus when writing down your job skills take some time to strategize and find out the very best approach to organize them in your resume. Even when you arent actively searching for employment, your resume is a significant bit of your digital portfolio. If youre on the lookout for a job for a sommelier, list your understanding of wine fundamentals and food pairing, in addition to your experience with inventory administration. Finding Good Things to Put on a Resume Online The other way how to construct a resume to seem charming is by adding finished free courses online alongside free certifications which can be achieved on our BitDegree website. Each word on your resume can be a trigger for a question via an interviewer, and youll frequently be requested to provide examples of the skills you have referenced. Should you need an instance of creativity in CV, have a look at Lukas Yla story told to AdFreak. The Appeal of Good Things to Put on a Resume Fantastic people skills are a vital portion of what makes you such a standout employee whod be an asset to any company that provides you with an opportunity to shine. A great instance is Prime Minister, a completely new service which brings the matching room straight to the houses of Prime members in order they can try on the latest fashions geschiebemergel they buy. You have to strive to stay calm and cool, even if your customer isnt. If a customer has an issue with an item or service, focus on what you could do to assist her or him.

Employee Branding Who Are You, and Who Do You Aspire to Be

Employee Branding Who Are You, and Who Do You Aspire to Be When employees really focus on who they are, who they aspire to be, and the changes they need to make, they stand out because so many people dont, says Lisa Orrell, speaker, International Coach Federation-certified leadership coach, and author of Your Employee Brand Is in Your Hands. So many people dont act consistently. They dont really know wherbeie theyre going. All of a sudden, its five years later, and theyre like, Wow. Im still at this company, and Im bedrngnis really happy. ansicht employees are elend happy because their jobs are not the right fits for them. These roles dont match who the employees are or who they want to be. Stuck in jobs they dont enjoy with no plans to get out of them the employees work suffers. They are passed over for promotions because their performance is subpar.In short, they trap themselves in an unhappy role, because they have no clarity about who they are and who they want to become. Sure, these employees might have vague notions of who they are they might even have some ill-defined dreams about where theyre going to end up. What they need, though, is definitive structure they need to know exactly who they are, exactly where they want to go, and, most importantly, what they need to do to become the person they aspire to be.How do employees get this clarity? According to Orrell, they get it by consciously building and actively maintaining their personal brands. When youre mindful of your personal brand, it starts giving you more structure and a strategy and a path to conduct yourself accordingly and kind of hit the goals that you have in the back of your mind, she says.Without a solidly constructed and defined personal brand, an employee has no strategy for getting from A to B from me now to who I want to become. Their career goals, their career path even their current career st atus are all intangible and out of reach.So now the employee is wondering and, lets be honest, youre wondering, too Well, how do I build a personal brand?From Branding to Millennials and Back AgainIm tempted to call Orrell, who started her own absatzwirtschaft and advertising agency in San Francisco at the age of 25, precocious, but that would just be condescending. Its far more accurate to say that shes preternaturally enthusiastic about what she does, and this enthusiasm has translated into an encyclopedic knowledge of branding in all its forms.But before Orrell was writing guidebooks for employees, she had to make the jump from corporate branding to leadership and talent.I got kind of burnt out, working for a lot of the big high-tech companies and such, Orrell says of her days as a absatzwirtschaft/advertising consultant. The oversized offices, the vast ranks of employees after 20+ years of running her own agency, it all got to be a little tiring for Orrell, but conversations with her clients would end up leading her on a new career path.Orrell was researching Millennials as a consumer group so that she could help her clients reach them as customers. She found that her clients, trying to figure out the Millennial-as-consumer, were equally as baffled by the Millennial-as-employee. Id be in meetings with directors and V.P.s of marketing and theyd say things like, Well, its great about them as consumers, but Ive got a couple of them on my team, and theyre driving me nuts. I dont know how to manage them or train them, Orrell says.From there, Orrell watched the confusion and frustration grow. Then it started turning into, We dont know how to recruit them well and retain them, she says.So Orrell shifted her research away from Millennials-as-consumers and toward Millennials-as-employees. In 2008, she wrote her first book, Millennials Incorporated, which details how to recruit, manage, and retain Gen-Y employees. Following the books publication, Orrell stopped running her advertising and marketing agency and turned her attention to generational dynamics and leadership, with great results shes now widely known as the generations relations and leadership expert.Orrell was conducting leadership workshops and seminars at various well-known companies when she noticed that one topic in particular resonated with everybody, regardless of their age I get a lot of 30-, 40-, and 50-year-olds that come up to me after a workshop and say, Wow, I really wish people had been talking about personal branding in the career sense and the leadership sense back when I was younger, because it would have really helped my career path, and it really would have helped me make better decisions, she says.Generation Y also responded well to workshops on personal branding. I think, the sooner people can get their heads around their personal brand, the better, Orrell says. This topic plays really well to college students.Because so many people were fascinated by persona l branding, Orrell found herself fielding the same question over and over again Can you recommend a good book on personal branding for employees?I realized quickly that there werent a whole lot out there, Orrell says. Most of the books that were written on personal branding were for people that were self-employed or people that were aspiring to be self-employed.Orrell decided to take matters into her own hands. So I decided, alright, Ive been doing the workshop for over three years. Ive got over 20 years of experience in marketing and branding, she says.And thus was born Your Employee Brand is In Your Hands, Orrells fourth and most recent book.The Behavior BarometerThe employee brand of Orrells books title is a sort of modified take on the traditional notion of a personal brand. Theyre both about career success, Orrell explains. Its just that the motivation is different.Whereas personal branding is often about the self-employed worker, aiming to help them position themselves in the market and increase their revenue in the same way that a company might position a product, the employee brand is about helping employees stand out as trustworthy experts in their industries and their companies. Your objective as an employee is to have more notoriety in your company to have a higher profile, Orrell explains. Especially if theyre working for a large company, theyre trying to figure out, How can I stand out when I have 5,000 or 10,000 or 15,000 employees at the same company?Similarly, Orrell says, Some employees aspire to more notoriety in their industry they want to be known as an industry expert.But regardless of an employees aspirations, theyll need personal branding to get there. You still want to become your own publicist, Orrell says. You still want to work on your personal brand. But thats your objective its more career development.The main thing about personal branding is that it basically also becomes what I refer to as your behavior barometer, Orrell says. Every single time someone has contact with you, one of two things happens either your personal brand is strengthened, or your personal brand is weakened. Your personal brand is reflected by everything you say and dont say, by everything you do and dont do.Orrell says that many peple dont realize that their employee brand is at play in every interaction they have and, as a result, employees can end up doing themselves a lot more harm than good. Before you do or say anything, Orrell suggests you ask yourself, Is this going to build up or break down my personal brand? Because personal brands are not just about who we are now, but also about who we want to be in the future, so we always need to be working on strengthening our brands.Its not only who you are now, but more importantly, its who you aspire to be, Orrell explains. Its making the changes that you need to make so that you move towards that person you aspire to be.Employees need to take stock of their weaknesses and formulate strategies to address them, so that they can become the person they want to become. A simple example of that is do you have a temper? Are you really, really shy, and you really dont want to be shy? Orrell says. What about those weaknesses and those challenging aspects of your personality are affecting your career, and how are you going to change them? Does it mean having to go to therapy? Does it meant having to get a life coach?Its not enough to know who you are as an employee. It isnt even enough to know who you want to be. You need to build the bridge between the two. You need, Orrell says, to take solid steps in the right direction.The Three Benefits of Employee BrandingAccording to Orrell, strong employee branding brings three major benefits to the people who build itClarity A well-crafted employee brand gives an employee insight into their strengths and their weaknesses, into who they are and who they aspire to be.Job Satisfaction and High Performance When you know your perso nal brand and your professional values, you have direction in your career. This means you can answer difficult but necessary questions like, Am I in the right job? Am I in the right role? Do I even like what I do?All of those are very valid questions because knowing the answers helps to improve the odds of you being happy where you are, which ultimately impacts your overall job performance and job satisfaction, Orrell says. I know people that have turned down really good job offers because they just dont feel that theres a match with their personal brand. That takes clarity. A lot of employees are willing to just jump because theyre going to get a 20 percent pay increase or a better title. A lot of times, we put blinders on and we jump for those things, versus really going, Wow, is this a smart move for me? Am I going to be happy there?Notoriety When your personal brand is strong, people will have more consistent experiences with you. Theyll know what to expect, because youre livin g your brand according to the same values every day. When people trust and respect your personal brand, you gain company and industry notoriety as someone who is an expert and who can be counted on.Building a strong employee brand is not easy. Its a process of constant vigilance, one that requires employees to be in touch with their thoughts, values, feelings, and beliefs at all times. Though it may take effort and energy, such disciplined awareness could pay off well just ask Orrell.