My Little Secret Im On Twitter

My Little Secret Im On Twitter Many of you may not know that Im on Twitter. Ive been there for quite some time. And I tweet regularly. Heres my latest tweet: I havent posted about it here for the same reason I dont post my LinkedIn profile: I am not fishing for followers (in Twitter), connections (in LinkedIn), or friends (in Facebook). Not that I dont want you to follow me, I would love for you to follow me Especially if you are on Twitter (or those other networks). Interestingly enough, I share some things on Twitter that I would not share on this blog. Its such a different platform, with such a different purpose, that it seems appropriate. The funny thing is, I used to feel like I was cheating on you, my loyal blog reader, when I announced something on Twitter before I announced it on this blog :p How silly is that. But Im finally ready if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at http://www.twitter.com/jasonalba. You can click on that link to see what I tweet about. You may be surprised to find more silly, personal stuff there. Thats just the nature of Twitter. Have I found business value out of Twitter? Absolutely. Have I found people enhancing their personal brand on Twitter? Without a doubt. Is Twitter for everyone? No way. But its good for me. One more question Will there be a Im on Twitter Now What??? book? Im not saying ?? My Little Secret Im On Twitter Many of you may not know that Im on Twitter. Ive been there for quite some time. And I tweet regularly. Heres my latest tweet: I havent posted about it here for the same reason I dont post my LinkedIn profile: I am not fishing for followers (in Twitter), connections (in LinkedIn), or friends (in Facebook). Not that I dont want you to follow me, I would love for you to follow me Especially if you are on Twitter (or those other networks). Interestingly enough, I share some things on Twitter that I would not share on this blog. Its such a different platform, with such a different purpose, that it seems appropriate. The funny thing is, I used to feel like I was cheating on you, my loyal blog reader, when I announced something on Twitter before I announced it on this blog :p How silly is that. But Im finally ready if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at http://www.twitter.com/jasonalba. You can click on that link to see what I tweet about. You may be surprised to find more silly, personal stuff there. Thats just the nature of Twitter. Have I found business value out of Twitter? Absolutely. Have I found people enhancing their personal brand on Twitter? Without a doubt. Is Twitter for everyone? No way. But its good for me. One more question Will there be a Im on Twitter Now What??? book? Im not saying ?? My Little Secret Im On Twitter Many of you may not know that Im on Twitter. Ive been there for quite some time. And I tweet regularly. Heres my latest tweet: I havent posted about it here for the same reason I dont post my LinkedIn profile: I am not fishing for followers (in Twitter), connections (in LinkedIn), or friends (in Facebook). Not that I dont want you to follow me, I would love for you to follow me Especially if you are on Twitter (or those other networks). Interestingly enough, I share some things on Twitter that I would not share on this blog. Its such a different platform, with such a different purpose, that it seems appropriate. The funny thing is, I used to feel like I was cheating on you, my loyal blog reader, when I announced something on Twitter before I announced it on this blog :p How silly is that. But Im finally ready if you want to follow me on Twitter, you can find me at http://www.twitter.com/jasonalba. You can click on that link to see what I tweet about. You may be surprised to find more silly, personal stuff there. Thats just the nature of Twitter. Have I found business value out of Twitter? Absolutely. Have I found people enhancing their personal brand on Twitter? Without a doubt. Is Twitter for everyone? No way. But its good for me. One more question Will there be a Im on Twitter Now What??? book? Im not saying ??

The Journey of Job Discovery How to investigate your career options University of Manchester Careers Blog

The Journey of Job Discovery How to investigate your career options University of Manchester Careers Blog by Jenny Leung, final year, English Lit and Linguistics “Help-I have no idea what I want to do!” This article may change your mind! The journey of job discovery can often be long and treacherous, meandering through hills and valleys of uncertainty and indecision. For others, the path is very clear, uncluttered by those dull clouds of indecision. For those floundering in the hills of “What do I do after university?” there are a few steps you can take to try to ease those worries. Ultimately, no one can really tell you what to do. The answer lies within (ok, ok, I’ll stop with the cheesiness). Why should you start thinking about life after Manchester? Yes, it’s important to prioritise your degree. However, sparing a moment to think about life after graduation is also essential. It helps with things like building your CV, making the right contacts and effectively planning your time. As you can imagine, it can be tricky to know what to apply for if you have no inkling of what you want to achieve in life. Before opting for my degree in English Literature and Linguistics, I perused websites like Prospects and After English to discover all the roles directly and indirectly linked to my degree. I see my degree as a means to an ends to a career in online content creation. There are numerous options which I’m sure you’re aware of postgraduate study, graduate schemes, full time jobs, going abroad, internships, work experience, self-employment and voluntary work. With hundreds upon hundreds of careers in the world, how can you choose the right one for you? Discover yourself Reflecting on your present skill-set and personality style as well as likes and dislikes can be a good indicator of a suitable job for you. For example, I work best alone, enjoy writing and blogging and like web design so it was obvious that a career in online content creation is for me (writing for websites and blogs). Now what about you? 1) What are your hobbies and passions? Write down a list of things you enjoy to gain a sense of what makes you special; it’s possible to make a living from what you enjoy (consider self-employment, setting up a business and careers that would make use of these skills) 2) Assess your personality styles and preferred working styles via The Learning Styles Indicator and Type Dynamics Indicator 3) Try My Future Next Steps questionnaire, which is exclusive to Manchester, to help you understand the actions you could take to move your career forward. 4) Check out Prospects Planner and other similar careers questionnaires. 5) Examine all the reports garnered from these tests and write down the careers/job sectors that most stick out to you. If you’re none the wiser, why not speak to friends and relatives and visit the Careers Service in The Atrium of University Place Search wider afield Once you’ve set down the groundwork for your journey, start making a plan to road-test potential job sectors and set off on the journey. I’ve tried placements and roles in journalism, PR, marketing as well as blogging to find out what’s right for me and best appeals to my interests. You may find it useful to begin a reflective diary to jot down thoughts and ideas. 1) Book an appointment with The Careers Service to discuss your options and results of the tests 2) Apply for suitable roles, work placements and internships in potential career sectors of interest. For example, I am currently secretary of The Blog Society and previously Publicity Officer of my hall’s JCR in first year. Don’t forget to apply for the work experience bursary if you need it: http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/findjobs/workwhilestudy/bursaries/ 3) Consider work shadowing and/or finding a mentor. 4) Start building a LinkedIn profile and join career groups. 5) Search the careers’ pages of your subject for alumni profiles that can provide further inspiration. 6) Attend talks hosted by employers and alumni. Build up your supplies Working life isn’t always about finding the perfect job right away and staying in it till retirement (although if you do, congratulations!). You may have a varied career path trying out a number of roles. If you’re really stuck about what you want to do after university, you should simply concentrate on developing your skills. These will hopefully mould to most, if not all, jobs. Here are a few ways you can really make a difference to your CV and become more attractive to employers: 1) Join societies that genuinely interest you â€" or start your own 2) Enrol onto career specific modules such as those from The University College or run by the Careers Service. I took the module: Careers Project Management Skills for Arts, Languages and Cultures 2014-15 and found it very useful 3) Start building a blog in an area of interest or perhaps your subject area and learning new skills like HTML and Social Media Marketing 4) Join a competitive sports team 5) Consider volunteering and/or running for a role on The Students’ Union Committee In all, finding out what you should pursue after university is about reflecting inwards and experimenting. There’s no problem in dreaming big as long as you take the steps to get there. Even if you don’t reach the moon, you might land on a star (ok, last bit of cheesiness, I promise). For more information, please refer to The Careers Service’s brochure, ‘I don’t know what I want to do’ www.manchester.ac.uk/careers is your portal for jobs, placements, careers information…. All Make The Most of Manchester Undergraduate Undergraduate-highlighted career planning careers employability Getting started job hunting my story Options

Share a Famous Name How Do You Brand Yourself - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Share a Famous Name How Do You Brand Yourself - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Vanessa Williams needs help with personal branding. No, not that Vanessa Williams. Shes already famous. Rather, Vanessa Williams (@prpeep), a PR professional in Pennsylvania. Last week, she tweeted Dan Schawbel and said, Hey would LOVE to see a post on personal branding for those of us who share a famous persons name. So, here it is. Sharing of famous and almost-famous names is a problem for anyone. Christopher S. Penn shares a name with Chris Penn, a semi-famous movie actor and brother of Sean Penn. Douglas Karr shares his name with Doug Karr, a writer and director of independent movies. And Eric Decker, a wide receiver for the Denver Broncos, has nearly the same name as me. My name is different enough from the Broncos player that its not an issue when people search for me, if they spell my name correctly. (There are also three guys in Belgium named Erik Deckers, but I totally own them on Google.) But Christopher S. Penn and Douglas Karr have solved their own problem by the names they use online. Even though theyre known as Chris and Doug to their friends, they have decided to use their full name professionally, so as to distinguish themselves from their Hollywood counterparts. Since Vanessa is our Vanessas full name, she doesnt have the same option as Christopher and Douglas, but she does have other options. The main reason to do any of this is for search purposes. Obviously, if someone searches for Vanessas name, theyre going to find the actress and former wife of LA Laker, Rick Fox. But by defining what name people search for, our Vanessa can guarantee that her name appears at the top of the search ranking. Switch to her middle name. Assuming its not an awkward name like Prudence or Hortense, or anything equally eyebrow-raising, maybe her middle name is a little uncommon, which means almost no one else is using it. Our Vanessa actually has two â€" Brooke and Morgan â€" so she could use either or even both: Brooke Morgan Williams Switch to a first initial and middle name. While its mostly men, especially lawyers, who do this, I know a woman who goes by J. Michelle professionally, and just Michelle in conversation. Or Vanessa can even stick her middle initial in front of her first name: V. Morgan Williams Similarly, she can just use her middle initial like Christopher S. Penn. However, she should only use one of them, rather than both. Go by all three names, first, middle, and last, at least if the middle name is short. This is more important during a job search or if youre being hired by a consultant. Business cards and resumes should have all three names, because it tells hiring managers what to look for. A hiring manager who does a search for Vanessa Williams will realize the results he finds are not the ones he wanted. But a search for Vanessa Morgan Williams will turn up the person he was looking for. Use a pen name or nom de plume. Consider it a stage name rather than a real name. One of my artist friends, Wug Laku, uses Wug as a pseudonym, and absolutely refuses to tell anyone what his real name is. The only people who know are the government and the utility companies. Another friend goes by Heid, and he also wont tell anyone his real name. (I happen to know it because his dad accidentally told me.) In both cases, these men have built their personal brands around their pseudonyms, but have their real names in their wallets whenever they need them for legal reasons. Change her name. Chad Johnson (#85 for the New England Patriots) had the third most common last name in the country, so he wanted to be a little distinctive from all the other Johnsons. He changed his name to Chad Ochocinco â€" Chad Eight-Five (not eighty-five, just eight-five). While this is a terribly drastic and inconvenient step, it can be done. Other people like Penelope Trunk did it, and she has a somewhat unusual name that is unlikely to be repeated by others. She has also created a great personal brand around the name. Besides, Vanessa Ochocinco has a nice ring to it. Lets face it, Pennsylvania Vanessa Williams, youre going to fight a losing battle. Unless you save the world in a dramatic and public fashion a la Captain America, your name will always be confused with the Hollywood actress and singer. You could spend hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars trying to boost your rankings on the search engines and separate your name from hers, but theres no guarantee that would even make a difference. To avoid that whole mess, change the rules of the game, and change how people know you. Even if its something as simple as putting Vanessa M Williams, or Vanessa Morgan Williams, on your cards and resume, give people something else to search for. Youll find that youve created your personal brand around that new identity without spending a single dime, or needing to marry Rick Fox. Author: Erik Deckers is the owner of Professional Blog Service, and the co-author of Branding Yourself: How to Use Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself. His new book, No Bullshit Social Media: The All-Business, No-Hype Guide to Social Media Marketing, which he wrote with Jason Falls, will be released in October 2011.

How To Manage The Decision Making Process - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How To Manage The Decision Making Process - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Business experience has taught me that as we progress in our journey we should give due consideration to all opportunities and new ideas that come our way. I laugh upon reminiscing about the people telling me I will kill my business if I should choose to study social media. Making decisions While a particular choice may not be understood at the moment, it may be appropriate down the road. Should others be involved, ask if you may take time to consider their offer according to your time schedule. Only you know your calendar in detail and when a 100% commitment may be made. The 100% delivery is what will build your personal brand as credible and trustworthy. These two adjectives are what will deliver more frequent and larger sales. Upon receiving an opportunity that requires postponement on your end, communicate sincere appreciation for the other party thinking of you. Generally speaking, when someone offers you an opportunity, they are willing to wait for you because they believe you are the best person. In alignment with modeling being a “best person”, let them know, in your words, you feel honored by their offer. Usually, no one offer is perfect. There are always some drawbacks. It is up to you to define the positives and negatives attached with the offer at hand. If you are weighing in on multiple possibilities, line them up side by side to see which one has less of a negative effect as well as that one that offers the most positive upside. This is just the beginning of the analytic process. Your ultimate vision Consider your ultimate vision for where you wish to be headed and your priorities to get you there. Which of the offers are in alignment with your priorities and vision? Will it help you get there more quickly or will it detract from your original vision of accomplishment? If you believe by pursuing a new avenue you will be detracted from your intended goal, seriously consider whether there would be a plausible benefit to change direction. The upside and downside of any new project deserves your serious consideration. Will it be worthwhile to deviate or should you stick to a response of, “Thank you but I cannot accept at this time.” It is well-worthwhile to fully contemplate the answers to all possibilities. Do you still have a question about an opportunity where the answer will sway your decision? Replay the conversation in your head to figure out if you can find the missing piece of information. If not, follow up the next day, with the other party, by saying, “I was giving your offer considerable thought but have one remaining question…” The other party will be impressed by how much thought you are giving the possibility and will want to work with you all the more. Once you have given each new offer fair consideration, your subconscious will soon help you decide. The error many make is to ignore this phenomenon. In actuality, all of your thoughts combined go through a sieve-like process when you sleep. When you pay attention to this aspect of decision-making, the better decision most often will be awaiting you when you awake. Giving due consideration to what is offered to you and reflecting this in how you express your decision, will serve to further build your good reputation and put you on the wave of the Smooth Sale! Author: Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC, (800) 704-1499, was honored by Open View Labs with inclusion in their international list of “Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012.” Elinor authored the International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”, Sourcebooks and the best selling career book, “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews”, Career Press. She provides team sales training, private coaching and highly acclaimed inspirational keynotes for conferences. Elinor is available for consultation.

The Highest Reviewed Resume Writing Services In Your Local Area

The Highest Reviewed Resume Writing Services In Your Local AreaIf you want to be sure that your resume is the best possible tool to help you land that job, it's important to seek out the highest reviewed resume writing services in your local area. These professionals know the current and upcoming changes to the employment process and will be able to help you create a resume that will help you land the job that you've always wanted.It's true that a resume can be an effective way to get your foot in the door when applying for a job. After all, resumes have been proven to be very successful at getting you a foot in the door when you are applying for a job, but they can also be a bit more difficult to successfully use as a primary resume. And with all of the competition in the job market today, you have to be sure that your resume stands out from the crowd if you want to get noticed.However, you don't want to make your resume too unique or flashy to the point where it's not going to appe al to potential employers. You want to create a unique and useful resume that people will find interesting, and that will appeal to the types of people that you hope to work with. The types of people that you want to work with when you're searching for a job.When you look for the greatest resume writing services in your local area, you want to make sure that you ask around about the best techniques and tips to look for when creating a great resume. There are many tips and tricks that can be used to create a killer resume, but you have to make sure that you ask around for some of the most effective resume writing techniques and tips. When you ask for advice, you'll be sure to find a good understanding of how to get the best results possible from your resume.One thing that you want to consider when you're creating a resume is the fact that you want to be able to create one that is going to get you the maximum effectiveness and attention that you can get from employers. You want to mak e sure that you create a resume that has the right mix of keywords and key phrases, as well as being a great landing page for potential employers to click on in order to learn more about you and your career.You want to make sure that you put emphasis on readability factors that are present on the resume. This means that you want to look for things like: strong spellings of names, proper use of grammar, and correct spellings of common professional terms. Many people don't realize how important these aspects of the resume are and end up using a very unattractive resume that is poorly written and filled with common mistakes.Another tip that you can follow when you're looking for resume writing services in your local area is to make sure that the resume has an easy to read layout. This means that you want to look for things like properly aligned fonts, good body text, as well as simple and clean headings.These things will be easy to read and will allow your resume to stand out among the many others that you will be given as part of the marketing campaign for your resume. Make sure that you pay attention to these types of details when you're looking for the best resume writing services in your local area.

The

The 11 Flares 11 Flares Ive never asked someone to explain to me their weaknesses on an interview.  Sorry, I just wont do it.  I was trained to stay away from it, and Ive been continuously reminded to avoid that useless question when conducting interviews. Why? Well, when most people are asked, they try to think of something negative that they can turn into a positive.  A common response is, Well, Im too detailed, or I care too much about my work.  When answers like this come up, recruiters know its bullshit, but they write it down, and that question becomes completely irrelevant to the interview.  Its a waste of spacethats what it is.  Its like that one chair in your high school auditorium thats broken.  Whats it doing there? How do you answer it? I mean, you can simply go the cowardly path, and answer with one of the bum answers above.  It wont hurt, but it really doesnt help.  Or you could be creative and do the following.  Memorize the job description completely and pick something that may be a weakness of yours thats not anywhere near the description or duties of the job.  Lets say you know that this job wont lead anytime soon to a manager, and you really dont want to be a manager one day (many people have no interest in managing people).  Your answer could be, Well, Im not great at delegating..  Just keep it simple, short, and get the hell off of that broken auditorium chair. Watch this videoits exactly how I feel

10 Tips For Crafting SMART Interviewing Stories - Hire Imaging

10 Tips For Crafting SMART Interviewing Stories - Hire Imaging Smart Stories; With small businesses following Fortune 500 companies in the hot trend toward behavioral interviewing, its critical that job seekers be prepared to deliver fact-filled stories when responding to the query, Tell me about a time when you Many interviewers prefer that job seekers be prepared to deliver fact-filled stories when responding to the query, Tell me about a time when you. . . Many interviewers prefer that job seekers deliver interview responses, or stories, using the CAR or STAR method (acronyms for Challenge, Action, Result or Situation/Task, Action, and Result). See also related post: 10 Tips for Communicating Your Career Brand. SMART Stories: Defined For our purposes, well use the S.M.A.R.T. format, which stands for Situation with Metrics, Actions, Results, and Tie-in. The last item, Tie-in, is key. It neatly links the response back to the employers competency question, allows the individual to inquire further into the employers needs, and helps focus the conversation on how the candidate can DO the job instead of simply AUDITION for the job. For help with your own SMART Stories. SMART Stories: 10 Tips These 10 tips can serve as a guide for writing SMART Stories. Use the its about them, not me perspective when describing your stories. This means that, ultimately, your SMART stories must be related to them the employer and their needs. Think in terms of what will motivate the employer to buy, the return-on-investment you offer, and your benefits vs. features. Write SMART stories about your work at each of your past employers. The heaviest concentration of stories should be about your current or most recent experiences. Pen a SMART story for each recent accomplishment on your resume. Assign themes to your SMART stories that underscore competencies for the target position. For instance, competencies for a customer service rep might include customer-focused orientation, interpersonal judgment, communication skills, teamwork, problem solving, listening skills/empathy, and initiative. Write SMART stories for non-work experiences if you are just entering the work force. It is fair game to draw on volunteer work, school experiences, and general life incidents. (If you sense you need additional experience, identify and quickly act on how you can best prepare yourself through reading, attending a course, job-shadowing, volunteering, or taking a relevant part-time job.) Regardless of what point your career life is at, everyone should recollect influential or life-altering events throughout youth and adulthood. Write SMART stories about these times. Numbers speak louder than words! Load the stories with numbers, dollar amounts, productivity measurements, comparisons, and the like. (Be cautious about conveying proprietary or confidential company information.) Be specific and offer proof. Instead of saying, I learned the program quickly, make it crystal clear with language like, I studied the manual at night and, in three days, I knew all the basic functions; in two weeks I had mastered several of the advanced features; and by the end of the month, I had experienced operators coming to me to ask how to embed tables into another program. Include emotions and feelings. Yes, feelings. When describing the situation, dont be afraid to include details such as these: the tension among the team was so serious that people were resigning; the morale was at an all-time low; or the customer was irate about receiving a mis-shipment that occurred because of our transportation vendor. When writing about emotions or feelings, be mindful NOT to whine or disparage anyone, even if through a veiled reference. Avoid personal opinions. You can, however, include the opinion of a supervisor or another objective party. Instead of saying, I believe my positive outlook really helped keep the customer happy, rely on someone elses opinion: My supervisor commented in a memo how my outlook helped us save a key account that was in jeopardy of being lost. I have a copy of that memo if youd like to see it. Pace the stories so that each is approximately 2-3 minutes in length. Set up the story briefly with facts, place the greatest weight on the action portion of the story, wrap it up with numbers-driven results, and tie it back to the interviewers needs. Occasionally, vary the delivery by dropping in a result at the front end of the story. Make the stories relevant. You have a myriad of experiences in your background. Sift through them and select the stories that best substantiate your competencies, knowledge, skills, and motivation to excel in the target job. Source: Career Coach Academy