Make the Most of Your Summer Internship

Make the Most of Your Summer Internship Which college student has not heard that an internship or cooperative education opportunity is essential to a full-time offer after college? For the most part, summer hiring for internships is slowing down and I am listening to stories from young folks who are starting their internships. Stories about the relief of getting something for summer, complaints about how employers don’t “get” it and excitement around finally doing something practical with “my college degree.” As I listen, laugh, wonder aloud and sometimes, roll my eyes at these individual stories, I am struck by the fact that these folks are making a conscious career choice today: the essence of career development and progression lies in how we open ourselves to opportunities of risk, failure and growth. To all the Twenty-Something’s out there, including my own, I offer you the gift of three practices that I believe will help you turn your internship experience into one filled with grace, fulfilment and abundance: 1) Practice generosity: Show up: This is more than being on time and managing your time efficiently: What excites you most about your internship? Let that excitement show! How will you harness this excitement to create results? Light up collective goals! What will you excel in naturally? Say yes to what aligns directly with your strengths! What will NOT come as easy? Ask questions, commit to learning and build skills! Your work style and preference “shows up” in each and every interaction and can create long-lasting impressions of credibility, trustworthiness and capability. Make the most of this incredible opportunity to learn and build congruence between how you see yourself and how others experience you. 2) Build capacity: Here and now: These are the only two coordinates that matter. Inconsequential, everyday things add up to create a life of substance: What questions will you ask to understand expectations? Create accountability steps! What might get in your way of creating success? Check your mindset! What does hitting an idea out of the ballpark mean? Let your geek quality shine! What is outside your comfort zone?  Take that shot! The theme around building capacity is openness and vulnerability.   Over time, this is a life and career truth Cultivate a practice to remain open to ideas, seek out new ways of doing things and embrace what is not a preferred style. Combine this practice with a willingness to fail, to challenge assumptions and to admit not knowing. A Chinese proverb reminds us: “To open a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art.”   Make most of this incredible opportunity to build capacity and career resiliency! 3) Nurture relationships: Build a life, not just a career: Legendary work happens only with and through people. When we build relationships, we build a life of giving and receiving. How will you build trust, accountability and likeability? Be the brand people talk about! What impresses you about the leadership/colleagues? Learn from their career stories! What helps you engage people in conversations? Recognize what creates curiosity! What will help you take care of yourself? Stop your behavior from managing you! Everyday practice matters. From the outside, what other people do or how well they come across usually looks effortless. It is an unfortunate myth that is easy to believe, especially when faced with new opportunities, new tasks and new people. It is here that listening to experience matters â€" build in small moments of practice each day and see the brilliance of your talent shine through. Your talent matters that is why you were hired by your employer.   Make most of this incredible opportunity so that your employer can breathe a sigh of relief! I wish you joy as you intentionally create this life of purpose and abundance.   Would you come back and tell me your stories after these summer opportunities end and you head back to school?

Personal Branding Interview Chuck Martin - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Chuck Martin - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke to Chuck Martin, who is a New York Times business best-selling author, noted researcher, speaker and business strategist. He is the author of seven business books, including most recently, Work Your Strengths. In this interview, Chuck talks about working your strengths, what executives skills are and how they can make you more successful, and more. Would you tell us a bit about the groundbreaking research and original survey at the foundation of WORK YOUR STRENGTHS? We spent two years contacting organizations of all types and sizes to participate in our study to determine the cognitive characteristics of high performing people in business. We wanted to see if there were any common characteristics of high performers based on the types of jobs they held and departments and industries in which they worked. We used an instrument, called the Executive Skills Profile, which is a series of questions that determines the cognitive strengths and weaknesses of individuals. The instrument has now been used by thousands of high performers in hundreds of companies globally. More than 0 researchers worked on the project over the course of the two years, contacting executives and managers who identified their high performers and sending, tabulating and analyzing the research results. Would you clarify the meaning of the term “Executive Skills”? How can Executive Skills profiling help any individual not only choose the right career path, but also fulfill his or her potential for success? Executive Skills, a term that dates back decades in neuropsychology, are cognitive functions hardwired into the brain from birth. They are how the frontal lobes and associated brain areas manage information and behavior. There is no connection between Executive Skills and skills of executives and they are not skills that can be learned. (Psychologists refer to the brain as the central executive, hence the name.) There are 12 Executive Skills and they are developed by early adulthood. People typically have two or three of these skills that are their strongest and two or three that are their weakest. These are the 12 Executive Skills: Response Inhibition, the ability to think before you act; Working Memory, the ability to hold information in memory while performing complex tasks; Emotional Control, the ability to manage emotions to achieve a goal or complete tasks; Sustained Attention, the capacity to maintain attention to a task in spite of distractibility; Task Initiation, the ability to start projects with undue procrastination; Planning/Prioritization, the capacity to develop a roadmap to arrive at a destination or goal; Organization, the ability to arrange or place according to a system; Time Management, the capacity to estimate how much time one has and allocate it well; Goal-Directed Persistence, the capacity to have a goal and follow through to completion; Flexibility, ability to revise plans in face of setbacks; Metacognition, capacity to stand back and take a bird’s-eye view of yourself to make changes in how you solve problems; and Stress Tolerance, the ability to thrive in stressful situations. Once a person recognizes their Executive Skills strengths, it becomes much easier to strive to get into positions that play to those inherent strengths, which makes the job or task much more natural for how the person’s brain is ‘wired.’ Based on what you learned from business leaders, what characteristics set high-performing people in all fields apart? It really depends on the area in which people work, since we found similarities in strengths across each industry as well as by job function. For example, the most commonly found strengths of high performers in financial services were Metacognition, Goal-Directed Persistence and Working Memory. People with those strengths would tend to step back to see how to do things better, remain focused on long-term goal and remember critical details even when extremely busy. In healthcare, the most commonly found strengths were Working Memory, Organization and Planning/Prioritization. And in Information Technology, Planning/Prioritization is key. By title, we found that CEOs commonly were strong in Goal-Directed Persistence while managers were strong in Planning/Prioritization. In Sales, the most commonly found strength by employee, manager and executive was Working Memory. Interestingly, a commonly found Executive Skills weakness is Task Initiation, which can mean either that the cognitive function is not needed to be a high performer or that someone else around that high performer either takes the initiative or has the responsibility to get things started right away. Why is it important for aspiring high performers to identify their weaknesses as well as their strengths? There is an advantage to being aware of weaknesses since those are areas that can cause issues and present situations a person should try to avoid. Also, when a situation that requires a person’s weakness is required, at least the person will know that the task will be more challenging for them than those that play to their strengths. For example, if a person is weak in Planning/Prioritization, it will be difficult for them to easily sequence events in a complex project. It is not that they can’t do it, it just will be difficult since it is not natural for them. The solution is to allow more time for the task and do it while fresh. An alternative solution is to ask someone strong in that Executive Skill to give a hand, since it will be much easier for them. Under stress, a person’s weakest Executive Skills fail first, which often is noticeable to those around the person. Would you shed light on how certain strengths work together and how certain strengths balance certain weaknesses? What are the practical workplace applications of these insights? Some strengths and weaknesses can balance out each other. For example, one person may be strong in Goal-Directed Persistence and weak in Task Initiation. In a situation that requires execution, that person is likely to start a project late but finish it on time. This is because their Executive Skills strength of Goal-Directed Persistence keeps them focused on doing whatever it takes to get the job done. This does not necessarily mean starting it on time, just finishing on time. A person with the exact opposite combination of strengths and weaknesses would likely start the project right away but not finish when due. While there is great value for a person to understand their own strengths and weaknesses so they can leverage their strengths, there is perhaps even greater benefit in seeing these skills in action in interactions with others. The ultimate benefit in recognizing Executive Skills is in interactions with others, especially in the workplace. If a manager is weak in Sustained Attention, you know that when meeting with that person you should make your key points right away. If you are dealing with someone strong in Flexibility and Metacognition, you can expect that they would be more open to new and innovative ways of doing something. Another benefit of understanding Executive Skills strengths and weaknesses in others in the workplace is it helps eliminate conflict because a specific action or behavior can be better understood. - Chuck Martin is a New York Times business best-selling author, noted researcher, speaker and business strategist. He is the author of seven business books, including most recently, Work Your Strengths. As the Chairman and CEO of NFI Research, Martin is at the nexus of a global idea exchange and the leader of a research engine that regularly samples the mood and intentions of 2,000 senior executives and managers from more than 1,000 organizations in multiple countries, including many of the Fortune 500. Martin was a former Vice President with IBM. Martin writes a nationally syndicated newspaper column on management and business issues and regularly appears on television business shows. He also teaches Marketing Research and Consumer Buying Behavior at the Whittemore School of Business and Economics at the University of New Hampshire.

How to Land a Job You will Love

How to Land a Job You will Love A lot of people hate their jobs â€" that’s no secret. There are many reasons why people hate their work: They never really went in the right direction and now in a position that’s unfulfilling They achieved their goals (in college or expertise) but find the position stagnant They have excelled at their work but there is little to no chance of going further They are restricted and confined by their work because they don’t have other options Some jobs simply suck while others are enough to get you by but when you spend the majority of your life working (whether for someone else or for yourself) you have to begin to wonder if there are any real drawbacks to pursuing what you love. Sure, there are some hurdles: You may not know all the required skills to obtain a new position You may not know where to begin to create a shift in your career You may not have the financial stability to drop and go There has to be a fire building up inside you. You have to be the one willing to make the sacrifices. A few hurdles and moments of pain today are forgotten tomorrow when you land a job you love. The thing is that a job you love may not even be your dream job. In fact â€" some would say that it’s a bad idea to chase your dream job. When you finally find yourself in the position you may realize it’s not really your thing. It may pay well and come with many benefits as you have imagined but you’re just as likely to feel the same regret and aggravation as you would holding onto a position you current loathe. In my personal opinion there needs to be balance. Something that’s going to challenge you Something you love that won’t eventually just become “work” Something that’s difficult to achieve and makes you a better person by trying The question that is obviously on your mind is “how do I go about landing a job I love?” It isn’t rocket science and actually quite easy once you’re willing to put in the time and effort, and leverage your contacts, access to information, and trust in your gut feeling. Consider the following: Think of signing up for some online IT classes. It will be a good investment in your future.  Online IT courses are in demand and will continue to be so for the forseeable future  which is why it’s a viable choice for those interested in technology and want out of their current position they dread. An individual could use services in IT staffing, which will work with you in identifying and landing opportunities with businesses. These types of services can expedite the job hunt and land you in the position you desire. Telling yourself you’re just another peon at a company really restricts your ability to see that you have built a very valuable network of professionals. Networking is one of the best ways to find jobs, actually, because you have closer connections to those in those industries and positions you seek. Knowing people in the field gets your foot in that door and you can hear real accounts of what to expect so you land a job you love rather than chasing a dream. Times that you are crafty are times when you can make the right connections. There is a growing demand for business-to-business bartering because owners understand they can exchange products or services without the need for cash. This type of work could lead to an opportunity which allows you to try many different industries. During that time you could make the right connections, just as you would via professional networking, which could lead to a job you love after you’ve entertained the idea and played the role. So as you can see … There really is no reason to be consumed by a job that you hate. Yes, it may be frightening knowing the job market may spit you back out but it’s worth the effort considering how many years of your life you will devote to work … and you don’t want it to be fraught with loathing and aggravation. Tap into those networks. Utilize staffing services. Experiment with your services and skills. You never know what you may find but it’s always worth the shot!

My Next Move

My Next Move My Next Move (www.mynextmove.gov) is an easy-to-use electronic tool that enables users to explore occupations and find related information, including job openings, job outlook information, salaries, apprenticeships, and other related education and training programs. It was developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, and uses information developed as part of the Occupational Information Network (O*NET) system. O*NET is a comprehensive career information resource which collects data including the knowledge, skills, and abilities required by more than 900 occupations in the U.S. economy. Users can search for careers using key words, industries, or their work-related interests. When you type in key words, like “care for animals,” the site brings up a list of occupations that use that skill. The tool is written at a reading level that makes it accessible to everyone and is great for those who may be unfamiliar with computers and Internet sites or young people exploring careers or deciding on college majors. My Next Move includes an online interest assessment with 60 questions about what you like do. Based on your interests and responses, the site suggests potentially suitable occupations and careers.  When you start the profile, the site advises you to focus only on what you like or dislike doing; it strongly advises you NOT to think about whether you have the education or training to do a job or how much money you’d make.   The questions are based on the Holland Self-directed Search, which is one of the most respected and validated career assessment tools in the world.   According to the Holland Self-directed Search site, “Dr. Holland’s theory states that most people can be loosely categorized into six typesâ€"Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, and Conventionalâ€"and that occupations and work environments also can be classified by these categories. People who choose careers that match their own type are most likely to be both satisfied and successful.”   The site charges $4.95 for taking the survey.

Tips For Writing Usajobs Resume

Tips For Writing Usajobs ResumeIt is a good idea to get tips for writing usajobs resume if you have not done so already. It is also a good idea to get these tips if you have already written the resume. There are many reasons why this would be necessary. Let's examine some of those reasons.First, many employers are not used to searching for resumes on the internet. Not many know how to find them, or even that they exist. A resume is only one piece of the puzzle. In order to be considered for an interview, a resume should also contain a cover letter, an academic or other career history, and then a personal statement. There are many great websites that allow you to customize your resume for specific fields, but many employers prefer to use a generic format to save themselves time.A second good reason to get this information is that it can make a big difference in how well you are received for an interview. A really good tip for writing a resume would be to try to remember everything you learned as a student. What kinds of tasks did you complete?Another common resume tip is to remember that the hiring manager has probably been doing this sort of thing for years. If you have an experience that is related to their company's needs, be sure to include it. Remembering what went wrong and what went right is very important when writing a resume.A third great tip is to try to consider how your skills and experiences would fit with the company. Do not just list your qualifications, as there may be a need for something which you do not know about. If you have worked for the bank before, list it as a potential position.Finally, keep in mind that information from previous employers is available, and is often more up to date than things you put on your resume. Companies like to see that you are able to work with people and are willing to learn new things. The last thing they want is to take someone that has little experience and turn them into a reliable employee. Instead, they are looking for someone who has relevant experience.It is also important to understand that when it comes to resumes, not all jobs are posted online, or advertised in job postings. Many are simply posted in company bulletin boards. The reason for this is that these are the types of positions that require employees to spend their free time preparing their resumes. This includes information such as education, experience, etc.A final great tip for writing a resume is to make it as easy as possible for someone to be able to access it. It should be easy to see and not take up much space. The resume is not the place to be to sell the company on you, but it is the place to sell yourself.

Every Growing Business Needs to Make These Vital Changes

Every Growing Business Needs to Make These Vital Changes Its exciting when your business starts to grow in a noticeable way. Youre starting to pick up speed and have perhaps moved into a larger office and hired some staff. As your business continues to get bigger, you need to make sure that youre keeping up with its requirements. Growing businesses should have the right support, so they dont grow too quickly and collapse. They can start trying out new things and testing the waters to see what might come next. If your business is one the up, you should start thinking about the changes you need to make to match its growing demands. Get Your Technical Requirements Sorted As your business grows, the technological support you rely on gets bigger too. You need to have good access to the internet, secure networks, useful software and lots more to help your business achieve its best. Every business today needs some sort of technology and IT infrastructure to survive and thrive. Support services such as Qoverage can help you meet your tech needs as your company grows. You dont want to have to worry about things like cybersecurity or backing up data while youre trying to nurture your business. Professional help means you can let someone else deal with it, and outsourcing will save you money. Get to Know Your Customers Better How well do you know your customers? When your business is small, it can be difficult to get close enough to them to really understand them. But as your company gets bigger, it becomes more important than ever to get further insight into who your audience is and what makes them tick. If you dont already use one, a customer relationship management (CRM) system is ideal for helping you understand your audience better. Connecting with your customers and developing relationships with them is important, and you need to use a variety of tools to do that. Reorganize Management and Chain of Command As your company grows, more people start to come into the fold. You might be used to being in charge, but you cant spend your time micromanaging people as your business gets bigger. Youre going to need to rethink how everything and everyone is organized. You need some people to take on managerial and decision-making roles, and you need employees who are able to get on with their work without constant supervision. Make it clear whos in charge and who can give orders, so everyone knows who to turn to. Examining Company Culture Nurturing the right company culture for your business is essential. Company culture makes a big difference to your business, influencing how your employees work and even who wants to join the company. You need to create the right culture if you want to attract the best talent and motivate your employees to do their best work. If youve begun to create a company culture as you want it, you need to maintain it as it grows by promoting your values and work ethos. Your growing business needs lots of attention to make sure it grows properly. Give it the things it needs to support it as it gets bigger.

Results-Driven Résumés Profiles Win Jobs Promotions - CareerEnlightenment.com

Results-Driven Résumés Profiles Win Jobs Promotions FACT: Employers hire people to achieve results.   Why not give yourself an edge in your career search by building a Results-Driven Résumé and Profile that tells employers you are a candidate they must consider?   Whether a for-profit (or a non-profit i.e., “not-for-loss”) employer, businesses and institutions are looking for people who can deliver results that positively impact the bottom line.1. Financial Acumen.Regardless of your experience, what specifically do you know and understand about financial matters?   A solid understanding of how an organization operates as reflected in its PL (profit and loss statement) is a starting place.   You don’t need to be an accountant to understand a basic PL, although a course or two in accounting is a definite plus for any job seeker.   In its simplest form (at the right), a PL consists of:Revenue, which includes all the sources of income,Expenses, which includes all types of expenditures, andProfit is what is left over. “Loss” i s a negative profit.Employers make most of their decisions based on anticipated financial outcomes that either yield a profit or at worst, no profit but no loss either.You’ll want to learn the important financial terms of your field of career interest and determine how you can use these terms to accurately describe your accomplishments.   Which of your accomplishments can you quantify in terms of revenues and/or profits, and how you positively impacted either or both?2. Saving Expenses.Much of what we do as part of everyday living have to do with saving expenses.   We choose the less expensive generic brand over the brand name after comparing ingredients and noting no differences, or we stick with the old one a bit longer rather than buy the new one.   Employers are heavily focused on ways to save money, so they will gravitate towards candidates who have a history of disciplined expense savings.   Consider how your actions for past employers, volunteer organizations, or personal u ses have resulted in the savings of expenses.   Here are a few examples:There were actual dollar savings by comparison shopping for the same items.You increased the life of a purchase, resulting in more usefulness over the life of the item, which saved expenses.You found ways to subsidize the cost of an item, resulting in saved expenses. Want to Read More Articles Like This One?Sign up here to receive weekly updates from Career Enlightenment, and never miss another powerful job searching tip! SUBSCRIBE! You have Successfully Subscribed!We hate spam too. Unsubscribe any time. 3. Managing a Budget. You’ve likely been doing this ever since you made decisions about what to do with the $20 you received as a gift on your birthday.   Figuring out which decisions are good ones and bad ones, then having the discipline to make sure your income always exceeded your expenses means that you’ve managed a budget.   Someone who earns $30,000 per year will manage a million-dollar budget over their lifetime.   Employers want to see what type of budget you managed for current and past employers, volunteer organizations and for personal use (if applicable…think of a stay-at-home parent managing a household).   What specific accomplishments can you point to that would tell an employer that you have managed a budget?Compare the Résumé Impact: On the left are five accomplishments that are not in a Results-Driven format, and on the right are the same results but in a Results-Driven format.   If you were an employer, which candidate would you hire?Just Accomplishments JanetResults-Driven Roger §   Oversaw annual budget for printing and promotions and found areas to save on expenses. §   Delivered a 14% savings on $48,000 printing and promotions budget that supported a revenue increase from $445,000 to $502,000. §   Negotiate and manage vendor contracts. §   Negotiated and renegotiated 4 vendor contracts that resulted in a net savings of $19,200. §   Provide month-end repor ting. §   Produced a total of nine different monthly, quarterly and annual financial / productivity reports used to direct the sales and gross margin efforts of staff of three people. §   Manage various projects to track pricing. §   Evaluated current gross margin performance and identified pricing opportunities that delivered $16,000 in additional profits. §   Research and provide account data on customers. §   Performed research used to direct sales and support efforts for a customer base of 1,200 active accounts.Bottom line: You’ve worked hard so far to deliver key accomplishments.   May your résumé and online profiles scream, Hire Me!” by communicating those accomplishments in Results-Driven terms.This blog is excerpted from the book Get a Better Job Faster? now available on Amazon.com.