Be More Productive

Are you productive enough? Productivity demands have risen and failure to meet demands will have dire consequences. The ball is no longer in your court. You have two options: speed up or ship out. 

What is posed to you is not IF you meet demands, rather HOW you meet demands. 

How do you meet the ever increasing productivity demands of your employer? 

Why You Should Use LinkedIn

In high school, you learned something. Everyone who knew and engaged the popular kids moved very far up the social ladder. In professional circles, LinkedIn IS that group of popular kids. The group is social. The group has a code. The group is known by everyone. If you want to go anywhere, in any professional circle, you better use LinkedIn. 

Wait Or Quit?

You've been with the same company for years. You were told that mobility, promotion, was not only possible, but highly probable. Your employee evaluations have never been faulty. You are the most productive employee you know. But years later, you're in the same position. No promotion. No hope. What now?

Train Your Brain

Having a successful career takes a lot of brain power. But how do you develop this strength? Is it innate or learned? 

"You Can't Run A Marathon Without Proper Training."

We can train our brain to be as strong as our body, if not stronger. It sounds like something we should all be doing, training our brain for the workforce Olympics. But many of us don't do it. It's easy to forget to do. It's a common thing to forget. 

It all starts with your mind. Think about it like this, you can't run a marathon without proper training. Your occupational lifetime is a marathon, it lasts decades. Can you think of someone who can run a several decade long marathon without proper training? I highly doubt it. Training is part of the rat race. Mind over matter will ensure that you will last on the road to career success.

So how do you train your brain?

Have a Mantra: Write it down. To make sure your mantra will live through the sweat of the daily grind, use permanent marker. Read your mantra before work, during breaks, after lunch before you go back to work, after work and any other time that you need to read it.  

Have Positive Mental Images: Keep mental images of those you love and things that make you happy. When things get difficult at work, call upon your mental images to pull you through. Give your positive mental images the ability to rid your mind of negative thoughts, so you can keep your mind on the rat race. 

Visualize: Close your eyes. Complete your day at work in your mind, before your day has even started. This will allow you to have peace of mind and confidence while you are performing your duties during working hours, because you have already mentally completed them. 

Make Things More Manageable: Instead of thinking of your day as an 8 hour day, think of it as 8 lunch breaks. We all know that lunch breaks tend to go by VERY fast. Think about making it from your current task, to the next. Don't think any further ahead than that. Stay in the moment during working hours and don't think too far ahead. 

Learn: Push your mental limits and overcome them with constant training, so that when called upon, you can execute with confidence. You will have confidence and peace of mind knowing that you have been trained to do what needs to be done. 

During your career, everyday, won't be fun. Everyday  won't be perfect. But continuous mental training will keep you fit and well prepared for the decades long marathon. 

Recommended: 

1. Meet WorkReply | Who Is WorkReply?
2. Reducing Career Stress | Ways to reduce your career stress...

Equal Pay Twitter Chat

Tomorrow, April 20, the Labor Department and National Equal Pay Task Force is hosting a Twitter Chat. Chances are, you'll be tweeting anyway, so why not join the conversation? Do you really want to miss an opportunity to talk with these VIP's about equal pay?

Writing A Resignation Letter

Thinking about resigning from your current position? To depart from your current position in a formal, formidable manner, make sure to effectively utilize a resignation letter. 

The Equal Pay App

Women make less on the dollar than men.  The Obama administration is working to crack down on equal pay violations.


Recently, the Department of Labor, in partnership with the National Equal Pay Enforcement Task Force, launched an innovation initiative to eliminate the inequality in gender pay. On average, women make less on the dollar than men.

Overall, the Obama Administration is working to crack down on equal pay violations. This all started with the first bill President Obama signed into law, the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, with assists women in recovering lost wages as the result of pay discrimination.

So what does all pf this have to do with an Equal Pay App?

The previously mentioned innovation initiative calls on developers to create an easy-to-use app the not only educates app users about equal pay, but provides them tools and resources to combat equal pay discrimination  as well.

The winner for the innovation initiative, who creates the best Equal Pay App, will be announced next month, in April. We'll be sure to keep you in the loop and update you as we get more information. In the meantime, tell us, is the Equal Pay App an app you would use?

Recommended: 

1. Are College Graduates Safe?
2. Professional Networks & The Sexes

2013 Department of Labor Budget & Your Career

The 2013 Department of Labor budget reflects fiscal responsibility, while demonstrating a willingness to invest in career training and much needed worker protection. 

Utilizing LinkedIn

Your LinkedIn profile can be significantly longer than a resume, however, it’s still important to use short substantive soundbites!

Career Stress Reductions

If you have a career, you know that stress is part of the game. You work when you're ill. You refuse to take vacations/time off. You miss family events. You've forced yourself to believe that the resulting stress is something that you must live with.

You CAN cope with stress better.

You MUST cope with stress better.

To cope with stress, you must adjust your attitude and be willing to make the tough decisions. This will lead to an easier, healthier, more fulfilling life in the long run.

Ways to reduce your career stress:

1. Take control of your career. 
2. Effectively and efficiently manage your time, on and off the clock. 
3. Prioritize- and hold yourself accountable for making things that are most important to you a priority.
4. Make an attitude adjustment.

Writing Well

Writing well is an essential part of your entire career, from start to finish. 

How to write well:

1. Proofread.
2. Treat written communication with an extreme level of professionalism. 
3. Effectively communicate by appropriately communicating with your audience. 

Writing well can get you a job.

Writing well is something that employers value. 

Continuing Education

It's no question that in today's times, many professionals are continuing their education while actively pursuing their careers. But what happens when the avenue you take to pursue your educational interests is non-traditional?

Professionals of today are utilizing flexible education methods that allow them to complete their degrees, while working full time.


When deciding to further your education with a non-traditional method, as with a traditional method, do your homework. Especially if going the distance (online/home based) learning route, verify the credentials of not only the organization but the professors as well. 

Make your educational experience exceptional!

For information on resources available to you that can assist with 

continuing your education: 

Click Here.

Career Change

Before you change careers:

• Narrow down your passion.
• Identify your dream industry and narrow that down to your dream job. 
• Create an action plan.

Professional Networks & The Sexes

Since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, sexual discrimination in this country has been banned. 


We now live in a country that encourages diversity on the workplace. 


But are we doing enough to ensure that everyone, based upon qualifications and regardless of sex, has equal opportunities for success? 


Who is really responsible for ensuring equal opportunity for success? 


Recent research shows that women are less likely to have equal opportunity for professional success because they are less likely to be knowledgeable about opportunities compared to men. 


Why is this occurring?


This is occurring because women are not making the same connections men are. 


Because of homophily and colloquially, both men and women reach out to and connect with, often times, those of the same sex. Overall, the networks of women contain more women than they do men, while the networks of men contain more men than they do women. 


Because of this, and considering the fact that men hold a majority of the senior level positions, women are less likely to not only hear about the positions, but they are also less likely to be connected with individuals who hold influence. By the time this news reached the social networks of men, given the make up of their networks, information about the opportunity is typically passed on to more men than women. 


Point blank, women need to emulate the networks of their male counterparts to assist in the assurance of their personal, professional success. Women, the simple message here, the simple thing that could be standing in the way of your success, is the addition of more men in your social networks. 

Unprofessionalism @ Work

Ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law, especially the law of being professional at work.

Besides the obvious risk of disciplinary actions being taken, if you behave unprofessionally at work, you also risk losing your employment.

Unprofessionalism won't just impact your current job, it has the potential to impact your entire career. Unprofessionalism can seriously damage your reputation. We live in a world where people talk, people network, people switch jobs and companies. Don't fool yourself into thinking that what happens at your company, stays at your company. It doesn't.

The repercussions of Unprofessionalism see no title. No matter your title and/or position, if you behave unprofessionally at work, you risk the same repercussions as everyone else, up to and including termination.

Avoid being unprofessional at work and avoid the risk of being terminated, the risk of being denied a raise/promotion, the risk of losing respect and the risk of damaging your future career prospects and progression.

Welcome To Career Randomness

I really don't know what to write for the first post in our Career Blog. Today has been an extremely long day, ESPECIALLY with working with our back end clients, employers. So, let me share something that has been on my mind all day...


At this juncture, I suppose this post is useful if you are employed in a Human Resource capacity. 

_______________________________________________

AVOID HIRING OUT OF DESPERATION 


Never, ever, ever hire out of desperation! If you are in the position to hire employee's, as a member of an HR department, if you REALLY need to fill a vacant position.... you will hire poorly. Hiring starts before you even know you need to do it. 


If you work in HR, start your recruiting efforts WELL BEFORE you know of your need. The best time to recruit is when you have no open positions.  






That's all I've got...


For now.