New Years Resolutions Dreams Vs. Reality

New Years Resolutions Dreams Vs. Reality New Years Resolutions A lot of us make them, but how many of us actually stick to them? It always seems like a good idea to approach the new year with a big optimistic career plan about how were going to use it as a fresh start, to become better, more successful people; whether it be by landing your dream job, getting a promotion or getting a degree. But nearly a year on, I wonder how these ground breaking goals have really panned out. Here are a few examples of some of the most common new years resolutions that people make about their careers each year vs. a more realistic take on them! DREAM: I will land my dream job this year! REALITY: Do a better job of pretending to look for a job. #RealisticResolutions @midnight Rick G. Rosner (@dumbassgenius) December 10, 2015 DREAM: I will approach each day with a positive attitude and a spring in my step! REALITY: My New Years Resolution Is To Make It To Work The Next Day After #TrippyNYE pic.twitter.com/lJIeBmP8yE ???? (@_RobertMayfield) November 30, 2015 DREAM: I will put extra hours in at work this year to get that promotion!   REALITY: Follow my dreams by sleeping more.#RealisticResolutions @midnight Jessica Lynn Verdi (@jessicaverdi) December 10, 2015 DREAM: I will improve my relationships with colleagues!   REALITY: Remember peoples names and their proper titles. #RealisticResolutions @midnight pic.twitter.com/10UQFxl14z Carlos Marquez (@Dr_C_LOS) December 10, 2015 DREAM: I will reduce stress levels this year! REALITY: I need to reduce my level of stress soooo, Ill stop replying to work emails. #RealisticResolutions @midnight I??NR (@bubbleboo17) December 10, 2015 DREAM: I will stop procrastinating at work! REALITY: https://twitter.com/miggystardust/status/674812363955023872 DREAM: I will achieve a great work-life-balance! REALITY: Improve my work/life balance by getting myself fired.#RealisticResolutions @midnight Misophonic Spree (@MisophonicSpree) December 10, 2015 DREAM: I will maintain a healthy lifestyle! REALITY: Stop drowning my sorrows in beer. Ive got a good job now. I can afford Scotch. #RealisticResolutions #PointsMe @midnight Richard Jeter (@MilesToGo13) December 10, 2015 DREAM: I will take pride in my appearance in professional situations! REALITY: https://twitter.com/NotSpiral/status/674869532780068864 DREAM: https://twitter.com/TheeAWalt/status/671436543165337600/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw REALITY:  I guess I could get a job in recruitment. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]

Resume Writing Services - Why Some Mistakes Are Made

Resume Writing Services - Why Some Mistakes Are MadeMost people never think about using resume writing services. The reason why is due to the fact that they know all the ins and outs of doing this themselves. However, there are a few mistakes that people make when they begin the process.One of the biggest mistakes that people make when they are first beginning to use resume writing services is that they only have limited information on hand. When you are starting to use services, you should have all of your information ready for when they contact you. If you don't, then you will not be able to help them with their resume writing needs.The second mistake that people make is that they either do not have their own data ready or that they do not have all of the information that they need. These two problems are problems that almost every service has to deal with. You will be amazed at the amount of time that they have spent researching potential candidates. If you do not have your own da ta, then you will need to hire someone who does.The third problem that many people have is that they do not have the correct information when they begin to use a service. When you are seeking out a service to help you, you will need to know who you are looking for. By the time you finish researching, you may be wondering if you have the right service for the job.The fourth mistake that most people make when they are using resume writing services is that they do not do it right. This is an extremely important point. Do not start to use services without doing your research first. If you get a resume, do not let the person turn it in to the company.Last but not least, make sure that you write your resume correctly. If you do not understand what the company expects from you, then you will find yourself in a big problem. The first thing that a resume should do is explain what you can do for them. If you can not give a particular example of work that you have done, then you will need to l eave this out.The last mistake that many people make is that they do not know how to format their resume properly. When you start to look at how to format a resume, you will quickly learn the ins and outs of it. Once you have learned the ins and outs, you can easily start to understand what a specific service requires. A lot of these companies will have software that will help you with this.These are some of the mistakes people often make when they are first beginning to use resume writing services. Make sure that you do your research first before you begin. When you are done with the research, you will have the information you need to get the job you want.

Why Being Curious Can Change Your Life

Why Being Curious Can Change Your Life In case you haven’t figured it out, each of us knows far less than what we don’t know.   Maybe there’s too much to know I don’t know.  Somewhere between being a child and now, we let go of our natural curiosity.  We stopped asking questions. We’ve learned to cope with the bit of knowledge we do have by some mental slight of hand.   We essentially ignore what we don’t know and do life with exclusive reference to what we do know.   The problem comes when we forget that our rules, judgments, and opinions are based on what we know, which means they’re potentially on pretty shaky ground. As an example, take a look at the picture below.   Can you describe it?   You’d probably say they are books.   Duh.   And they are on shelves, and those shelves are quite full.   From that, at least subconsciously, you might presume to think the library in which these books are located is extensive and full of much knowledge.     Now, scroll down and look at the picture at the bottom of this page and then come back here. You were probably surprised to find that in reality there are few books on the shelf.   And that’s exactly how we’ve learned to do life.   We not only don’t know what we don’t know, we readily accept that what we do know is enough to make good decisions. What if we took a step back and acknowledged that we have neither all nor even good enough information?   Could it make a difference in how life unfolds each day?   What if we invited curiosity into our life and gave it priority over judgment, self-doubt, shame, embarrassment, and criticism (of self or others)?   What if we asked, what’s in the part of the picture I cannot see? Consider these examples: There’s an elderly person in the line ahead of you. You’re late, and you’ve already spent too much time in line to check out.   Now, this old fart is fumbling around trying to figure out the credit card machine.   What if you became curious what it’s like to be older and realizing you’re losing your mental sharpness ? There’s a job opening you’d love to apply for, but you already know there’s no way you could even get an interview, let alone a job offer. So you don’t apply.     What if you became curious and approached the employer,   admitting your shortcomings, and asking what it would take to be the ideal candidate? There’s a hot topic in the news, one that you’re interested in but haven’t formed an opinion. You read an article by a known author with a website you most often get your news from. What if you became curious enough to check out the insights on a website that usually leans opposite of your norm? Clearly, curiosity opens us to insights we would normally miss in going through life on auto-pilot.   When we stop running scripts in our heads based on incomplete information, we give ourselves the opportunity to make better decisions, see previously unnoticed opportunities, and make new connections we never thought possible.     All of which leads to a more fulfilling and adventurous life. Reclaim Your Curiosity I’d always considered myself a fairly curious person.   In terms of the bookshelf, I probably had a view of the aisle the shelf was located on.   But I hadn’t zoomed out far enough to get the full view.   I just finished   Living Curiously by Becki Saltzman, and got jolted into a whole new level of awareness.     Always the questioner,   her insights made me realize there were many more questions I wasn’t asking. If you’re curious to learn more about how being more curious can radically alter your life, I highly recommend you pick up a copy of Becki’s   book.         Maybe you’ll get the same little curious and innocent smile on your face that I now have. Image: Curiosity  Aftab Uzzaman

Why I Quit My Job Before I Had a New One

Why I Quit My Job Before I Had a New One I’m sure youve heard tell that it’s a bad idea to leave your job before you have a new one, that prospective employers are suspect of any gaps in employment â€" even voluntary ones. However, this is not always true. I’m sure youve heard tell that it’s a bad idea to leave your job before you have a new one, that prospective employers are suspect of any gaps in employment â€" even voluntary ones. However, this is not always true. Less than two months ago I made a decision to leave my job. It was a great job, a fantastic teaching position at one of the premier preschools in the country. Truly, one of the best positions any early childhood educator could want. The problem? I never dreamed I’d be a teacher. I went to school for many years, earning two masters degrees in the health profession, but using neither, as I transitioned straight from grad school into a magnificent job with a startup company and then into teaching. As parents do, my mom asked time and again if I was ever going to put my degrees to use. When I really stopped to think about it, I did want to use my degrees, but wasnt sure how or when I would be able to look for a position in my desired field while spending my days in a full-time job. I want to share with you the steps I’m taking. Know your goals. What job do you want? Begin to do some targeted searching on job sites. Are there enough interesting positions open? Are you applying for a career that hires more at certain times of the year (e.g., teaching)? Are you changing fields completely or just looking to make a lateral move? If you are not confident in your direction and what is available, maybe leaving your job before you have a new one isnt the right move for you. Make a plan and understand the risks. Lay out a calendar with a hard timeline. How many months can you afford to take off to find your ideal position? How many positions will you apply to each week? By what date would you like to schedule your first interview? I’m not rich, nor do I have months of savings squirreled away (even though I know I should), but I’Ive tightened my budget and set sequential goals for myself. Have a backup plan. If you resign from your job, you may not be eligible for unemployment benefits. Can you focus on your #sidehustle or fall back on waiting tables for a while? If you near the end of your timeline and you don’t have a new position lined up, figure out what else you can do to cover your bills, and don’t be embarrassed because you took a part-time job at a local boutique to do so. Update your résumé. If you are shifting career fields completely, like I am, update your résumé to highlight the strengths applicable to your new venture. Stress these assets in cover letters and interviews, and let prospective employers know up front why you are looking to make a change at this time. I am currently in the interview process with several organizations and have been able to clearly and concisely explain my desire to get my career on track, siting one and ten year plan benchmarks as supports. Use your network! Reach out to friends and family who work in the field where you are seeking employment. Send some targeted emails and browse your friends’ LinkedIn connections. Make sure your career website profiles are up to date and protect your social media profiles from prying eyes. Lastly  â€" remember that this isnt a risk you should take unless you are truly prepared for it. But if you are? Get your plan in place and go for it!

Clipart Images For Resume Writing and Interviewing

Clipart Images For Resume Writing and InterviewingClipart images are essential when you need to create impressive resume writing and interviewing images for your job hunting campaign. In the same way, clipart images are not just for use in resumes. They can be used by any professional who is conducting an interview in order to add punch to his presentation and make it more impressive.Clipart images make a great deal of difference when you are ready to present your skills and qualifications. This is because in most cases, using the right images can make the difference between your resume being received as positively as possible or being a dead letter in the first few pages of your potential employer's inbox. Resumes are filled with lots of keywords, which is quite useful for many people but if the key phrases and information contained therein is lost in the presentation, then your chances of being selected for an interview diminishes significantly. And when you are not selected for an interview, then you know that it is possible that your career prospects are on the decline.For example, let us take a professional resume that features a lot of jargon and terms like 'sales rep', 'professional'accounting specialist' among others. If the person who receives your resume is to be found to be more comfortable with these terms and terminologies, then he will naturally not want to be viewed as an expert. Clipart images can help you present yourself in a much better light so that you can land the job that you desire.So, why do you have to use clipart images for your professional resume? Well, the image that you end up using when you create your resume will tell the readers about the value you possess. However, not all images work well in this context.A professional resume that displays great skill and knowledge would not be served by any words. When you see a resume that does not display any significance, then this would be regarded as a sure sign that the resume has not been written very well. If you want to be seen as an expert, then you need to present your expertise and value in a very clear manner. Clipping images for your professional resume is the best way to do this.Using clipart images for your professional resume can also be a great help when you are conducting an interview. With a little thought, you can end up crafting your CV in such a way that you end up attracting a lot of attention. Clipart images can be used to add a personal touch to your resume, and this can prove to be very useful when you are being interviewed for a position.When you create your professional resume, remember that you should try to avoid using jargon. Using too much jargon on your resume is probably not the right approach, because your interviewer would come across it as being unprofessional. Clipping images for your professional resume helps you to keep this issue at bay because they do not speak or look professional enough to be seen as one.Always remember that when you are creating your professional resume, you should be guided by logic and common sense. Clipart images can be a great aid for you if you feel that the words that you use are not appropriate and the graphics that you choose are of poor quality.

What is Your Plan for the 2nd Half of Life [Survey] - Career Pivot

What is Your Plan for the 2nd Half of Life [Survey] - Career Pivot What is Your Plan? Copyright: pedrosek / 123RF Stock Photo Do you have a plan for the 2nd half of life? According to a study on retirement confidence by the Employee Benefit Research Institute published last week, most of us are not prepared and probably have no plan for the 2nd half of life. According to an article by Yahoo Finance, When retiring isn’t an option: ‘I couldn’t retire if I wanted to’, The author wrote: Last month the New York Federal Reserve released a report that found that people over 50 are carrying more debt than they had in the past. It found that the debt held by younger borrowers dropped slightly from 2003 to 2015, whereas debt held by people between ages 50 and 80 spiked by 60% over the same period. What types of borrowing play the largest role in the observed surge in debt at older ages? The average 65-year-old had $27,259 in mortgage debt (including a home equity line of credit, or HELOC) in 2003. By 2015, that figure climbed 47% to $40,000, according to NY Fed data. The same age group carried $2,973 in auto loan debt in 2003, and $3,830 in 2015 â€" a 29% increase. Credit card debt levels remained around the same for 60- and 65-year-olds â€" and even dropped moderately â€" between 2003 and 2015. Student loan debt increased among 65-year-olds over the same period. I have written before on this blog that going back for a college degree after 50 years of age makes no monetary sense most of the time. It does make sense if you just want to learn but do not take on any new debt. Well… Have You Run a Retirement Calculator Even if you are like me and have no intention of ever retiring, have you run a retirement calculator? In late 2010, when I was put in a highly unethical position at work, I went to my financial advisor and had him run a retirement calculator. His calculator ran a Monte Carlo simulationâ€"and the result was that there was a 95% probability that, if both my wife and I lived to 95 years of age, we would not run out of money. Listen to the most recent episode Remember I said I have no intention of retiring. But doing this gave me reassurance that it was okay to take a risk and start Career Pivot. If you are not sure what to do next, I highly recommend you listen to the Retirement Answer Man Podcast. I have been interviewed by Roger Whitney, Mr. Retirement Answer Man, multiple times. It is a great podcast. Your Plan Will Differ from Your Parents’ As I get ready to turn 60 years old this year, I have reflected back on how different I am from my father at the same age. My father was an economist for the New York Stock Exchange for over 25 years when he was forced into early retirement at the age of 58. I feel much younger and fitter than he was at the same age. I am in a much better mental state, too (long story there!). My plan is very different from my parents’. I never plan to stop working. I just do not want to do what I did for 30+ years, which was being a technology guy who inhaled complicated technologies and spit them back out in a variety of formats, both online and offline in a culturally neutral way that anyone could understand. I am not doing that anymore! I want to continue to work at something I love. I want to be able to choose to work a lot or a little. I want to work from anywhere. I want flexibility. Do any of these “wants” sound familiar? What is Your Plan? Do you plan to retire? Can you retire? For most of our generation, the answer is NO. By the way, I think retirement for most of us is a stupid idea. You need a planâ€"and it will take quite awhile to execute. The idea for Career Pivot started in 2008 in the depth of the great recession. Today, I am 8 years in from the day the idea sparked in my head. Career Pivot as a brand, website, and company has been around for just over 4 years. Start that plan today! Survey The survey associated with this post is closed. Check out the results in the postWhat is Your Plan for the 2nd Half of Life [Infographic] Pleasecheck out the results from previous surveys. Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Exiting a Job with Class

Exiting a Job… with Class Exiting a Job… with Class As most people know, your career reputation follows you everywhere. How you conduct yourself on and off the job matters, but one area that is especially tricky is when you are leaving the company. Whether you are moving on to your dream job, or if you suddenly got handed a pink slip, you need to conduct yourself by leaving on a high note, no matter what the reason is for exiting a job. Why? Well, if you always do right, then you never have to worry about explaining a potentially awkward or uncomfortable situation in future career discussions. You also don’t have to worry about how word-of-mouth can damage your reputation. (i.e.: “Can you believe that Susie just up and quit, and trashed all the files in her office? It was a disaster!”) Tempting as it may be to walk out on a bad job situation, if you can leave on the best possible note, you rise above the situation and reinforce your integrity. So when exiting a job, consider these tips to do your best as you prepare for your next career step forward: Make a recommendation for a replacement. When you give notice that you are exiting a job, the very first thing that occurs to your boss is, “Oh my gosh, now how am I going to fill this position?!” By being prepared with a solid recommendation of a competent candidate, you are already filling that need and fixing the problem that you are creating. This scores big with supervisors. Put everything in order. Susie in the example above didn’t put things in order, and pretty much left a poop sandwich waiting for co-workers, the boss, and the next person they hire to handle. Do you really want to do that when exiting a job?  Do the right thing. Put things in order so resources, files, data, and any other pertinent information that is critical to doing the job is easily findable. Your co-workers will thank you. Make a priority list of coming up deadlines / irons in the fire with details. This is putting everything in order on steroids. If you really want to enhance your professional polish, create a list of immediate things that need to be dealt with including deadlines, contact names, status updates, etc. Classy move when exiting a job! Offer to be a resource after you leave. Exiting a job doesn’t mean you are cutting the umbilical cord to your now former employer. And it isn’t a requirement that you stick around after you’ve already started the new position. But being available and helpful eases the boss’ mind greatly. One thing to watch: Don’t let the previous company becoming a psychic vampire, sucking your time and energy away from the new job. Train someone to cover for you after your final day. On the very last week of your job, before you exit, take the time to orient one of your colleagues about where things are, how to find files, etc. Plan an out-of-office reply. When exiting a job, create auto-responders that direct callers or people emailing to the appropriate staff member who can handle their request. This will alleviate frustration for everyone. Trust me on this one. Thank everyone. If co-workers have helped you or contributed to your success, take a moment to thank them personally via a conversation or thank you note. They will remember your kindness for recalling their assistance. Why do all of this? I can tell you from personal experience as well as hearing client stories this nugget of truth: You never know when or where you may run into former colleagues / co-workers / bosses again. You may even stay in the same network. Or, you may return to the company again… but in a completely different role. If you are exiting a job with class, then your reputation is sterling. And that’s something you can bank on.

Motivation Monday Look Back

Motivation Monday Look Back Yesterday was my babehs 33rd birthday, we spent it with BBQ, beer, buddies. Even though it wasnt a big birthday, I threw Luke a small surprise party because I could tell he was bummed by the number. Whenever someone complains about their age or getting old, I always steal my Moms quip by responding, Its better than the alternative! The artwork below offers a great new perspective on growing older, every time I read it I get a wispy smile on my face. Don’t Look Back (How Else Are You Supposed To Know How Far You’ve Come)on wordboner, found via design is mine Luke, I hope you look back know how very far youve come. I am always will be honored proud to be your wife, cant wait to put many more years together behind us.