Golden Job

It's all about Job and Career!

Love What You do and You Will Succeed

In Barbara Sher’s, Wishcraft: How to get what you Really Want, she states one of the foundations of success is enjoying what you do. If you are not quite sure where your interests or passions are, think about the games that you played as a child. Did you play teacher, doctor, or cops and robbers? Did you enjoy directing and coordinating the activities of the group, or did you enjoy playing alone? Think back to what you enjoyed to start your career search for your future.

Career Assessment is a Valuable Tool for Career Success

If you have difficulty finding your talents and interests, career assessment tests are valuable tools to help you discover your hidden abilities. Most colleges and universities have guidance counselors that can administer and evaluate the testing for you. You can also do career assessments online. There are numerous Web sites that offer free testing. You can take several tests to see if a pattern emerges across the different evaluations on what career best suits you.

Evaluate Your Lifestyle

You should consider what your lifestyle needs are. Do you need full-time or part-time work? Do you like an 8 to 5 or prefer flexibility in your schedule? Are you most productive at an office or at home? Success in your new career can be determined by how compatible your work is with your lifestyle.

Talk to Others

Professionals doing the job are the best source of knowledge and insight into the new career you are contemplating. Ask those in the profession about their jobs and get their feedback. Setting up informational interviews is a great way to get a feel for an industry.

Walk the Talk

After twenty years as an accountant, I wanted to do something more. As a “people” person, I didn’t like the alienation of crunching numbers all day. I was also bored. However, I was nervous about giving up proficiency in a field and starting over. When I became Controller at a mortgage company, I watched the loan officers, and I liked what I saw. Loan officers helped people, controlled their own schedules, and were constantly challenged by new scenarios. So, I decided to become a loan officer and have enjoyed it ever-since.

You can make the change too. Take stock of your skills, your interests, and your dreams and move toward a more promising future. A promising career is only a “wish” and some “assessing” away.

Do you find your job dissatisfying? There are aspects of each career you will have that you don’t like. It could be the manager you must deal with, the co- worker, the changing rules, or certain tasks you are asked to perform. There are literally hundreds of reasons you might find your career is in a rut. What you need to ask yourself is if the entire career is the problem or just certain aspects? Consider for a moment that your current career is very rewarding. You are a child psychologist, but there is paperwork that you must do after seeing your patients. This is just part of the job. It may seem like you are in a rut as nothing changes, but really you’ve just lost focus. A lot of individuals who want to change careers tend to find they love their job after visiting a workshop. Sometimes it just takes a different perspective.

If this is not the case then you need to find what you want to change to. You will probably want to take an aptitude test to find out what you like most. Do you like working with numbers, ideas, around people? What are your interests or hobbies? Can these interests become the career change you want?

The next part of the agenda is actually making a move. Fear often holds individuals back when it comes to changing careers. They are too afraid that they will not excel at the new position or that it will not be enough income, etc. There are hundreds of reasons for the fear.

Once you can find the confidence to change careers little will stop you. You will need to look at various areas for the new job. Is where you live going to provide you with the right career change? Do you have to move? Can you afford to move?

Whenever you change careers you need to have the required experience. This can be obtained through volunteering, going back to school, etc. By following some of the questions above you can determine if you are really ready for a career change or just a change of pace.

The fact is it is never too late to change your career. Even if you have a family and a steady life, if you are unhappy with your career you can still change it to find happiness again.

If you answered yes to most, or all of those questions then self employment might be a good fit for you. Self employment can be scary because you won’t have the security of a regular paycheck coming in week to week and a lot of people worry that they won’t make enough money being self employed to cover their expenses. But when you’re self employed you can make a lot more money than you can working for someone else because all the money you make goes directly into your pocket instead of going to a corporation.

Still, when you leave the security of your job for home business self employment it’s a very smart idea to have enough money saved to cover at least a month’s worth of expenses. Two month’s worth is best, because then you will have the financial cushion that you need to feel safe and know that your bills will be covered. In order to really be successful at being self employed you need to be disciplined and you need to have direction with your business. After all, when you work at home or work for yourself there won’t be anyone telling you what time you need to start, or what time you can stop, or what needs to be done, or what calls need to be returned. You will need to do all of that yourself so it’s important that you are disciplined to make yourself work if you’re going to try a home business.

If you don’t have enough discipline to make yourself work without someone telling you to work then self employment might not be the best career choice for you. If you are not cut out for self employment then you should stay at your current job, because if it’s not a good fit for your personality type then you could fail miserably and burn through all your savings pretty fast. Self employment can be great for certain people. If you have always wanted to try a home business and you think you have the right temperament for it you should go for it. Take charge of your career and your life and go for it. Work for yourself!

It’s one thing to say, here’s a hot company or product – and I need to devote significant company resources to forming and shepherding a brand that builds share value. It’s another thing to proclaim, I am the brand – and I need to spend the rest of my life making sure my brand reflects who I am, what I do, and how well I do it. Quite simply, meaningful personal branding is an ongoing life activity that requires degrees of introspection, regular self-examination, and plain old hard work that’s demanding for anyone.

But, your personal brand happens whether you shape it or not. If you are out in the world at all, you are known for the qualities you project and the qualities external audiences believe are true of you. Your choice is simple: Own your brand, or let external audiences own it for you.

So, treat your brand like you would any other brand. See yourself as the asset you must nourish, the true legacy you must protect. Your personal brand is your current and future value.

Like any other brand management initiative, a well-managed personal brand follows a strategy process that completes a brand framework like the following:

1. Brand Attributes: Your brand attributes are the qualities that embody your personal brand, and should always be associated with it. To get there, distill down your core professional and personal values and the values of the key audiences you interact with, and in this intersection you’ll find your most important brand attributes.

2. Brand Promise: In its most fundamental form, your personal brand promise is what you guarantee your key audiences (think employers, clients, customers, community) will experience because of their relationship with you. So, as with any other commitment, promise only what you will deliver.

3. Brand Positioning: Your personal brand positioning statement will (1) define your key audiences – the most important audiences you interact with, are influencing, or trying to influence); (2) pinpoint what they care most about; and (3) synthesize the value your brand delivers to them.

4. Brand Driver: Your brand driver is the outcome your personal brand is dedicated to seeing achieved with the audiences you interact with. It is the essential idea the captures and integrates all brand actions.

5. Brand Personality: Your brand personality is comprised of the human elements connected to your personal brand, and are the characteristics that inspire (or not) specific feelings in your key audiences.

Personal brand management always pays off, although the process and associated actions are not always the most tangible or quantifiable. However, personal branding is a critical investment in yourself and it’s an investment that will stay with you for life.

Within the organization, are you expected to follow the group or if you move outside the group thinking will you be ostracized? Do you hide in the group or are you willing to achieve success on your own?

All are important questions to answer. Are you willing to take the risks to your career to put your ideas into action? If you are willing to take initiative, responsibility and break some rules you career will flourish and in the right environment you’ll move up to areas of more responsibility and more rewards. Don’t play it safe and take the easy route and hide behind the rules.

Here are some actions you can take to advance your career by breaking the rules within the rules:

1. Think like an entrepreneur. If you owned the company what would you do differently? Step out of your job and career and act like the CEO, fairly analyze your contributions, your departments results; what more could you be doing?

2. What rules are getting in your way? What rules are getting in your department’s way? Study how the rule came about. Is it still meeting the organization’s needs? Maybe part of it is still valid, how can the rest of the rule be modified or eliminated to help the business or customers.

3. Define the problem. Write it out. Ask for help and ideas from others in the department. Run the problem by people you know in the industry. What did another company do to solve the problem? Is it applicable to your situation? Take the best ideas (giving credit where credit is due) and work them into the solution.

4. Become known as the idea person and problem solver. Search out others to be sounding boards for your ideas and possible solutions. Think other ideas through. At meetings if an idea is presented and you don’t agree, present a different solution or a well reasoned argument why the proposed direction won’t work.

5. Strive to have a plan of implementation for every great idea you come up with. Think benefits both for the department and the company. Quantify possible results.

6. Always look for ways of improving what is being done and moving the company forward. Consider taking a different approach in dealing with a customer. How can meeting presentations be improved and streamlined?

Keep this overall approach on the forefront of your thinking every day. Being average with the group is never good enough. Raise the bar.

As you challenge the rules that don’t contribute to the bottom line, or don’t help your career growth or the company’s mission statement you’ll find your career growing.

Importantly your career will have more satisfaction, your responsibilities and rewards will increase all because you learned to break the rules with the rules.

Whether they realize it or not, most Americans have been brainwashed to believe that their value as a human being is determined by what kind of job they have, what kind of house they live in, what kind of car they drive, how they dress, and who they choose to marry. So they’ve spent their entire lives trying to live up to society’s expectations.

The harsh truth: You’ve been brainwashed to feel like a failure.

Nobody told you that this mentality based on external values could only result in disappointment; that you would be only a shadow of what you are capable of being.

The solution: This is your wake-up call , your opportunity to reevaluate your life, claim your birthright and become the person God intended for you to be. By liberating yourself from society’s expectations, you can discover what it takes for you to feel truly happy and fulfilled. Now you can be free!

You = A Robot

Most people have been trained beginning in childhood by a reward and punishment system, not unlike that used with the family dog. It creates a yearning for rewards given for being “good” and a fear of punishment or rejection if we do not comply with the desires of our authority figures.

Without intending to harm or deceive you, your parents, family members, schools, teachers, peers, organized religions, and the media trained you to be a mental slave. You were given incorrect information, and so you made wrong choices. As you attempted to meet the expectations of other people and gain their approval, you also gave up your own individuality and accepted less than what we truly wanted in life.

Still, there remains somewhere within each of us the spark of our own true desires, which cannot be extinguished. When that spark cannot ignite our true passions, we feel uninspired, unfulfilled, anxious, depressed or out of control. We lose the clear connection between God and our true selves that is called passion. We go through the motions each day like robots. Eventually we may be unaware of all the ways our lives could be different; we are unable to even see what we are missing. We feel like losers.

If you have been caught up in an endless cycle of meaningless activities on the road to nowhere, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know any better. You worked at a job you didn’t like in order to make money to buy things you didn’t need. You became a slave to financial institutions who tricked you and lied to you. Your physical and mental health suffered because of stress and pressure you felt to achieve goals set by someone else. Your relationships suffered because you focused too much on your job/career and your finances. As a result, you couldn’t find time or energy to do something worthwhile with your life, to achieve a meaningful goal or make the world a better place. You may even feel that God has deserted you.

You are not alone.

If you’re struggling in the job market or financially, you are part of the majority of Americans. These are the facts:

* There are 140 million people in the labor force of the United States.

* The official unemployment rate is around 10%–that’s 14 million people out of work.

* But the real number is double that, more like 28 million people when you count those not officially included: part-time workers, temporary workers, those no longer qualified for unemployment benefits; and the dropouts (those who gave up on finding a job or returned to school).

* Studies show that 55% of working people (77 million) fear losing their jobs and feel out of control. They are afraid that without a paycheck, they’ll also lose their cars, their homes, and won’t be able to feed their families.

* So, more than 70% of Americans are experiencing difficulties and fear in the job market.

Why are you struggling to hold onto or regain something you never really wanted in the first place?

Recent studies conclude that at least 50% of working people in the United States are actually unhappy in their jobs. That’s half. No one is polling the recently unemployed, the persistently unemployed, or those desperately trying to get back into the types of jobs they were working in before.

I contend that people are trying to secure new jobs that are similar to those they’ve done before only because they have been brainwashed to believe that’s what they must do. Certainly everyone needs to work in order to make money to support themselves and their families, but if people truly had a choice, would the jobs they’ve lost (or left behind) really be the same jobs they’d want back if they had the opportunity to make a different choice? I believe the answer is, “No.”

When reviewing the larger picture of your life, what do you see?

Certainly the ups and downs of life present us with challenges. But many of our challenges are a result of the wrong thinking indoctrination we have been programmed to believe. We believe happiness is just around the corner if only we do this thing or that thing, that happiness will be found and the respect of others gained by achieving society’s goals; that earning enough money will automatically eliminate all of our other problems. We have been programmed to believe that any sacrifices of our physical health, relationships and spiritual well being made while we seek career success are worth it. But most people are disappointed to realize after securing their respectable dream job that it does not result in the happiness they worked so hard to achieve. They realize that they were chasing goals that actually prevented them from living in the NOW-which is all there is.

If your obituary were written today, what would it say about your life? How would you want to be remembered? How would you like your accomplishments in life to be honored?

Sit down now and write the things that would be important to mention about the five key areas of life: your job/career, your financial stability, your marriage and family, your physical vitality, and the ways you give back to society.

I was at a funeral recently for a hard-working man who died in his eighties. For over an hour one person after another stood up and conveyed memories of their times spent with him. Each person presented a different observation of the man’s admirable qualities, based on their personal interactions with him. No one spoke of his career accomplishments or his financial success. Finally, a little elderly woman slowly stood up. “In the end,” she said, “the best that can be said of him is: He was a good man!” Everyone in the room nodded in agreement.

Rewrite the story of your life to be more than your job/career.

Certainly facing a job/career or financial crisis is very scary and stressful. Not knowing when you’ll get your next paycheck or if you’ll be able to hang onto your job (if you still have one) can become an all-consuming worry. But look at the positive side of your situation: If you are struggling in the job market or financially-and perhaps you have nothing to lose-this is a great opportunity to reinvent your life to be exactly what you want it to be. By seeing that trying to live up to society’s expectations did not guarantee your success, or happiness, but only resulted in disappointment and disillusionment, you are in the most powerful position of your entire life. Instead of being afraid, for one day, allow yourself to view your situation as having unlimited possibilities. Now is your chance to create the life you really want, a life that is truly meaningful. Now you can begin living your second life.

Playing the game of life to win.

Winning at the game of life requires achieving balance in all five key areas of life. This isn’t always easy, particularly when we have been indoctrinated to believe that the dictates of society’s rules are more important than honoring our life purpose by mastering our God-given gifts.

The ideal is that each of us is a sum total of all that God has given:

- Our job/career provides us the financial resources to support ourselves and loved ones materially while giving back to society.

- Our physical health is the vehicle that houses the soul and carries us through our every day endeavors.

- Our relationships (with ourselves and others) are a reflection of our values, principles and beliefs.

- Our spirituality provides the consciousness of living in Oneness with all other living things by being of service to others in our every day lives while fulfilling our own life purpose using our God-given gifts. While mastering these five key areas of life you can begin living A Second Life , being the best that you can be.

A proven system for making your job search more successful is detailed in the life manual, A Second Life, God is giving you a second chance. It contains an extensive chapter with detailed guidance on how to find a job, interview tips, winning the job and creating a job insurance policy once you’ve got the job. It also tells you how to fully develop all five key areas of life, so that if you are struggling in the job market, you won’t feel like the world is going to end. Go to the Web site: ASecondLife.com to download a free book excerpt and articles containing more job/career tips.

Resume Writing Tip 1- Make sure you have a plan. Do your research and be sure exactly what the job requirements are. Produce your resume so that it is tailored to that individual job, and shows why you are the right person, as what you have matches what they are looking for.

Resume Writing Tip 2- Have a definite goal in mind. The more you can define exactly what it is you want in applying for the role, the more clear and concise your resume will be. Just saying that you are trying to get more money is not what the employer wants to read, so you need to say something like “further your experience in a well known successful organisation”

Resume Writing Tip 3- Try to inject some force into your writing. As so many people have been taught to write routine resumes in school, yours can stand out if you take the time to be a little bit different. With every sentence that you write, you should ask “Is that how everyone will word it?” Use different words and phrases if you feel that you are just going to be too much like all the rest. Use your writing to try and sell yourself. You can make quite a large impact, just with some very small changes.

Resume Writing Tip 4- Sell the benefits of the skills you have, don’t just list the skills. Salesmanship is all about getting over to the prospect the benefits of the features of the product, not about just listing the features. With you resume, for example, if you had the skill of being a good sales closer, “Excellent sales closer” could become “Proven closing ability, over $150,000 worth of business written in the past year alone” or something like that. This is going to make a much bigger impact on your potential employer.

Resume Writing Tip 5- Try to make use of figures. Firstly, numbers do tend to look prominent on a page filled with text and words. A resume with figures on the page will be easier on the eye. Secondly, if you include numeric data in your resume, people will be more inclined to take what you are writing about at face value. Instead of “Managed my own team of people” you could write “Managed 25 up and coming trainees…” or something like this. Giving the recruiter a visual image of you that they can relate to is always a good idea

These resume writing tips should have shown you that making a resume that stands out can be a lot easier than some would have you believe, you just need to learn the ropes and do some original thinking!

In order to catch their attention, you have to make sure that your resume stands out among the rest. In fact, resume writing tips are the secret weapon of many successful job applicants!

You might think that a resume is only a piece of paper and that what matters most is the interview itself. However, know that applying resume writing tips on your own profile automatically gives you an edge over the others! Scroll down a bit more and learn how to gain a good advantage over your competition!

Do Your Research

What is the company all about? What kind of person are they looking for? If you take the time to research on your target workplace, you’ll be able to find out just what qualities you can highlight on your resume.

Keep in mind that companies aren’t necessarily looking for the highest scorer or the best speaker. They’re looking for that one person who will match and blend with the job and their company perfectly.

Use Action Words

I’m not just talking about verbs here. When describing the task you have accomplished, stick to specific descriptions and use the active voice.

After all, it’s much more pleasant and interesting to learn that you “edited and published a collection of short stories” than “served as an editor.” It shows that you’re someone who works hard.

Avoid Stereotypes

Stereotypes will kill your resume. Many articles on resume writing tips will warn you of being too ordinary. Remember that the goal here is to stand out. Start with your objective.

We all know how the typical objective goes. Try to keep yours interesting by fusing your personal point of view and the company’s direction. That will definitely help you come up with a fresher objective.

Now that you have learned a few of the standard resume writing tips, go over your resume and see which areas you can improve on. Is your objective too boring? Can you make your tasks more specific and action-oriented? Do you think your resume shows that you’re the right person the company is looking for?

After reviewing and submitting your resume, it won’t take long before the phone rings and someone asks you to schedule a job interview!

Be prepared

Unlike a planned face to face interview telephone job interviews can come at any time. Sometimes you will get a call to schedule the interview but often they call hoping to interview you straight away. Prepare an interview portfolio that you keep with you. It should include details of the job opening, a copy of your resume, background research information, some key words you have prepared for answering likely phone interview questions and a list of good questions to ask the interviewer.

Practice your phone skills

If you don’t feel confident about how you come across over the phone you can practice answering questions with a friend over the phone. Ask for honest feedback and work on any areas for improvement. Or you can record yourself and listen to how you sound. Check your voice pattern, the level of enthusiasm in your voice, the clarity and pace of your speech. It is common to talk too quickly during the phone interview. Take a conscious pause before you answer the question and between sentences.

Pay close attention to the interviewers verbal message

You have no non-verbal cues from the interviewer to help you to understand how you are coming across. Instead you need to pay close attention to their voice pattern and tone. Listen very carefully and maintain a high level of concentration throughout the call. If you sense that the interviewer’s attention is wandering bring them back with a well-timed question.

Make sure the place you take the call is free from any distractions. Preferably sit at a table where you can  lay out your portfolio documents and take notes. A relaxed but upright posture helps you to breathe properly and improves voice clarity.

Monitor your rate of talking

Speak slowly and clearly.  Avoid interrupting the interviewer and make sure they have finished their question by waiting a few seconds before you answer. Give yourself time to organize your thoughts before answering. You can rephrase or repeat the question to give yourself time to think about your answer. People fail in telephone job  interviews because they tend to dominate the conversation and speak too fast. Don’t feel you have to fill the silences. Breaks in conversation happen and are usually because the interviewer is making notes are referring to you resume. Allow time for this.

Close the call

Ask the interviewer if there is any other information they require. Restate your interest in the position and find out what happens next. Get the correct name and title of the interviewer for your thank you note. Follow up with a thank you within 24 hours of the phone interview.

The goal of the phone interview is to get the face to face interview. Be well prepared for the call and stand out from the competition.

The Telephone Interview Guide includes common phone interview questions, phone interview tips and techniques and helps you to succeed in your phone interview.

Some important job interview questions and answers

Questions can be many but always keep in mind that it is always better to format your answer beforehand so that you don’t mess up there. Also self confidence, high self esteem and boldness are always welcomed! So, whatever answer you say, your way of presentation counts strong against all odds! Let’s now discuss the obvious questions that the interviewer can ask:-

1.    Describe yourself in words.

2.    Your best qualities as per you are?

3.    Let me know about your weaknesses.

4.    Your application for this job came because?

5.    You expect your salary to be?

6.    Count upon one such success of your professional life that you are proud of.

7.    Can we know about any of your professional failures?

8.    What picture do you imagine in your mind in 5 years?

9.    Can you count yourself to be a team player?

10.    What are your favourate pastimes?

11.    Your career goals are actually?

12.    Plus points of your last position.

13.    Negative points of your last position.

14.    How was your manager, portray him/her accordingly?

15.    What drags you to a change?

Online tutors of job interview questions and answers

Many websites are developed who are working on framing job interview questions and answers for you so that you can gather relevant information and cope up the interview with flying colours! These websites provide tips and guidelines formatted by professionals. Searching the net will let you gather more information on the matter. You can get free of cost information or else have to pay nominal charges for the tutorials and related videos.