Useful tips for career advancement

June 26th, 2012

Everyone wants to look ahead and boost his chances of getting promoted. No one wants to stay in just one position forever. So here are some powerful career advancement tips to increase your value to employer.

  • Always volunteer for other tasks not related to your career. This would give you the opportunity to learn new and different things and broaden your vision
  • Keep focusing on improving your soft and technical skills. Don’t miss the opportunity to take job training courses or skill enhancing courses at your own.
  • Be sincere with your organization, boss, colleagues and work.
  • If you don’t know something, simply accept it. Don’t try to fake it. Rather try to learn from other colleagues and get the answers
  • While working in a team, share the credits. This would make a better impression of yours
  • Try to avoid offensive behaviors. If u don’t like someone, it’s not necessary to expose it. But, try your level best to change others attitudes with you by your politeness and kindness
  • Make others feel comfortable and relaxed with you. Appreciate others, be gracious and diplomatic and never hold grudges for your colleagues
  • Networking is one of the keys to career success. Join other societies, groups, organizations related to your field/career. This would help you learn more and enable you to explore new opportunities
  • Be patient, firstly prove yourself of handling extra/difficult tasks, take initiatives at your own and carry out your work before being asked and show yourself capable of handling responsibilities and meeting deadlines. Don’t expect to be promoted without demonstrating your potentials and abilities over time
  • Respect everyone around you—-superiors, sub ordinates , clients
  • Never say no to extra work. Your eagerness for work which nobody else wants to do would be noticed by your employers and appreciated
  • Last but not the least Identify your weakness and holes in your career advancement that you need to fill up

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How to build successful work teams

June 26th, 2012

There are many organizations that ask their employees to work as a team. Working as a team has various advantages like the possibility of making new contacts, distribution of work related activities (responsibilities), less work stress and a sense of group accomplishment. Effective communication among the colleagues eliminates much of the anxiety and negative feelings about each other. This is the responsibility of the group leader to encourage all the team members to communicate clearly with one another while they are working together.

A team is mostly collection of people from various backgrounds. When the team members understand each other well and they are able to communicate effectively then, this cultural diversity becomes a benefit. People listen to each other’s suggestions/inputs more openly and thus give productive results.

While working as a team member we need to recognize our role. If all the persons in a team are concentrating on the same job, then little will get accomplished. So the distribution of tasks fairly among the team members matters a lot to achieve the ultimate goal.

Teams require resources, and especially, time. Teams are mostly more effective when:

People from diversified groups are involved

A proper target is set for all members to chase

Responsibilities are assigned clearly among the team members

A regular meeting schedule is set to discuss all activities carried out in certain time

Commitment toward work in a team is the most important of all. Team members need to be committed to accomplish the mission of their organization and understand the importance of their skills and services to the organization.

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7 jobs for people with a teaching background

June 8th, 2012

People belonging to teaching jobs think that they have only this job and never even try to look for new horizons. Following are some of the jobs which even teachers can pursue and can be good at;

1. An instructional coordinator: Such people are often called curriculum experts who are busy working on the strategic side of education. They have the job of assessing teaching techniques and improvising new methods for better output.

2. Corporate Trainer: As the teachers are good in teaching, many companies usually tend to hire teachers as corporate trainers in order to train their staff. They can help in keeping the staff up to date with the new approaches and developments.

3. Private Tutors: Teachers who are good at dealing can also start their own business by becoming a private tutor. They will then work directly with the student on one to one basis. There are some academies who also hire private tutors if you are not willing to work alone or don’t have contacts. They charge on per student  basis.

4. Administrator: An administrator does not work directly with the student but on the other hand has to manage and control the staff. Teachers with good managerial skills can easily apply for this job and will be good at this.

5. Test Developer: Test developers are only required to devise tests for a specific class. They make questions and improvise ways to review the accuracy of the tests.

6. Program director: Those who are working in the public sector such as museums, zoo or national parks develop educational plans as a medium of learning for the schools who bring their students to visit such places.

7. Author: Authors especially who write text books do a lot of research on the particular subject and then after verifying the information compile it in a form of a book. They can do it as a full time job or on a contract basis depending upon their preference.

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10 useless resume words and 10 eye catching ones

June 8th, 2012

If you are looking for the perfect job then the  first most important thing you need to do is to clean  your resume from the unnecessary words you have used in it. Give your resume a critical look and then you will realize how many of such useless words are written in your resume. Following are some of those useless words;

1. Outstanding

2. Effective

3. Strong

4. Exceptional

5. Good

6. Excellent

7. Driven

8. Motivated

9. Seasoned

10. Energetic

It is not right to use words of self appraisal, and the sentences that follow those words are also lame and do not give the right impression you want.

Where as on the other side, there are certain words which can make hiring managers do a double take in your favour. Try to light up their eyes by using these 10 words and phrases:

1. Created

2. Increased

3. Reduced

4. Improved

5. Developed

6. Researched

7. Accomplished

8. Won

9. on time

10. Under budget

It is always best to use words that are related to your job and to the job you are applying for. Such verbs and nouns help to convey your meaning and your intentions.

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3 questions to ask yourself about a new job offer

June 8th, 2012

Gush of happiness surrounds you when you receive your offer letter. You have your fingers crossed and think that hopefully this will be the job you always wanted. It is not easy to leave your old job. No matter how much research you have done about the new company still it is an unknown territory for you. What looks good while hearing or on paper does not necessarily be good when it comes to real life.

While you think its a good thing to get rid of your old current job, but still this decision might prove reckless for your career and you should give it a second thought. For many people, accepting the new offer is not a big deal. But following are the three questions which can help you in thinking logically and objectively into evaluating the position:

1. Will this advance my current skills and knowledge?

Sometimes, it happens that without realizing we jump into exactly a similar job and similar salary packages, because we have been so keen into leaving our current job. You have to be calm and patient when looking for a new job. Hopping from one job to the other is not a good thing to do and leaves a bad impression on your Employers.

For this, you should sit down and think that, is this job helping me grow in any way? Is it helping me in learning any new skill? If no, then sit back and think that its not always good to start from a scratch. It is better to put in a little effort in your current job where your boss and co-workers will appreciate your efforts.

You can also try exploring other departments of your current job, as this can also give you the motivation which you felt was missing.

But, if you are facing bad work environment or any other problem then don’t hesitate in grabbing the new opportunity.

2. Does this match my present lifestyle?

After having decided that you are leaving your old job, then be ready to invest a lot of time into the new job. Leaping for a higher post have its own pros and cons, you become more accountable and also more responsible. An unseen document is signed automatically with this jump.

The role of a leader is not an easy one. You have to be mentally prepared for all the responsibilities that come with this job. But keep in mind that, is the job close to your house? will you travel more? will you be able to keep a balance between your job and family

These are some things for consideration which do not seem big but become big when you fail to keep the balance.

3. Will this fit my long-term career plan?

If everything about the new job is according to your desire, then the last thing to keep in mind is that does this job fit into the larger scale of your career plan. If you want to be the manager of a company then you have to choose that job which will lead you towards that.

For this you will have to be clear in your mind first of all, only then will you be able to decide your future in a better way.

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Tips to reduce stress at work

June 7th, 2012

Majority of us have stress sometimes at workplace. Over longer periods, stress can lead to diminished health, less work efficiency, mood swings and irritations and increased susceptibility to illness. So it needs to be managed properly.

Some of the tips we can adopt to avoid stress at our workplace could be as follows:

Prioritize you work

The first and most important step to reduce stress at work is to prioritize your work. All assignments/tasks are not equally urgent. You can make a list of all the assignments/tasks assigned to you and can prioritize them based on their importance and deadlines. The work not very urgent could be pushed back to later dates. Think ahead about how you have to use your time. When you prioritize your work, you will spend your time and energy on those that are truly important and to be done on urgent basis.

Tactfully say no to additional work

Do consider your assignments/tasks before agreeing to take on additional work. Otherwise you would be over stressed and would not be able to complete any of the tasks.

Improve your Soft Skills

Soft skills can help you feel at ease and improve your working relationships and ultimately reduce your stress.

Identify negative attitudes

The very important tip to avoid stress at work is to identify the negative attitudes and knee jerk habits that enhance your burden of work and make you to take stress.

Take a time management course

Do take a time management course. It would help you a lot to manage your work load. If your employer offers any, then that is good. But if not then find out if any other organization, college, university offers such course and do get advantage of it.

Recognize warning signs of stress at work

When you are stressed while carrying out a jab, you lose your concentration and become withdrawn. This would ultimately reduce your productivity and make the work a burden for you. Other than less productivity you can also face the physical and mental disorders just because of this work stress.

So the most important step is to identify signs and symptoms of work stress and get your doctor’s advice on it to overcome the problem.

Take care of yourself

When your job stress threatens to overwhelm you, take a break from work and manage your personnel life. Take care of your physical and mental well being and carry out the activities that make you feel happy and relaxed.

The better you feel at workplace, you would be more strong and resilient to stress.

Since everyone responds to stress in a different way, so there is no single solution to managing it. But we can experiment with different techniques and strategies to cope up with stressful situations.

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Timeless job-search tactics

June 5th, 2012

If you are going to find a job then you should groom yourself rather than sitting down and fretting about it. Getting the job depends mainly upon the impression you leave on to your employer. Become well-equipped with the latest techniques and trends.

Following are some of the tactics that can help you in maintaining a positive impression;

  • Go for cover letter. According to a survey 91% said that cover letters are very important as they leave a positive image onto the employer.
  • Follow up. Do not forget after submitting the resume, try to follow it by calling and talking with the manager. A call definitely leaves behind emails or snail mails.
  • Say thanks. Try to show gratitude by writing a thank you note to the manager. Your handwritten note will do wonders which nothing else can.
  • Tailor made resume. There is no excuse for submitting the same resume to two different companies. Always alter it accordingly for proving your skill and expertise.
  • Resume relics. Be creative while writing your resume. A boring resume full of summaries and stories about the past would not be appealing, whereas a well written one would be more eye catching.
  • Manners. Good manners never go waste, they always pay. Try finding out the managers name so that you can address your resume directly to him. Be polite, formal and precise, its all that is required.

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Avoid giving these answers during the interview

May 30th, 2012

It is but natural to feel relaxed and nervous at the same time, when you are called in for the interview. An interview is the major land mark in getting a job, but instead of feeling terrible the best thing is to get ready for the interview. You can try and guess the questions and prepare their answers before hand. Doing a little bit research about the company will help in this aspect.

No matter what a little tension is understandable, but to ease it a little we have stated four most common questions and there answers for your help;

1. Just, simply tell me what you think about yourself.

If you are asked this question, don’t become too overconfident and start blabbering about yourself. Prepare before hand and try to practice out loud. You should focus on the nature of the job and answer accordingly and narrate those about your self which you think are relevant for this job. Don’t give too much information about yourself as this will confuse both of you.

2. What are the motives for leaving your current job?

It is a very tricky question as whatever you say can be taken against you. Try giving a very specific answer because if you give the impression of being over ambitious then they won’t give you the job. Just simply narrate the facts such as the company was changing management and you got afraid of losing your job. In this manner you can give more than one reason to reinforce your current scenario.


3. Narrate your biggest strengths and weaknesses?

Never say that you are a perfectionist. Just simply narrate the strength which you think will help you get the job. While narrating a weakness specify the one that is very realistic and not related to the job.
4. What are your expectations about the salary?

It is better to avoid this conversation till you feel that you are about to be hired. Try to accept the salary they offer and discuss with them about the increments, how much and at what time. After discussing these things you will form a better picture about your future and the prospects about the job.

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The challenges you can face if you return to an old job

May 30th, 2012

It is not surprising to find a man wanting to return to his old job. This could be probably because he could not get what he had expected to. No matter what ever the reasons may be, it is an accepted fact that new jobs are not easy and can be very tough. They are about starting from the scratch, new employes, new colleagues, new clients, new work environment, new rules and new responsibilities.

In such a scenario it becomes easy to remain part of the old company, where you are accustomed with everything. Same old routine and environment lets you settle back effortlessly.

Although going back will never solve your problems and at times you would want to run away. So, here are a few simple tips which will help you in making a big decision.

  • Do an honest assessment: Before making up your mind, sit back and jot down your strengths and weakness. You should be honest with yourself and be honest about the skills you have. Clearly jot down the pros and cons of the present job or any other opportunity you have in front of you.
  • Make a plan: It is easy to quit your present job in anger or frustration, but before doing this be sure that you have a back up plan. Make a plan about what you want and then pursue accordingly.
  • Be sure you don’t have “buyer’s remorse”: Sit back and pin point as to what is seriously bugging you. It can be your co-workers, your boss, your company, your products, what ever it is first identify and then think of a possible solution. Do not rush in changing the job, making a new strategy might help you in solving your problems.
  • Know that the grass is not greener on the other side: You should know that every company has its share of problems, and not every manager is a hero. Everything has its drawbacks. Thoroughly do a research about the company, before rushing and leaving your current job.
  • Never be hasty: Avoid making a hasty decision. If you are having problems at your current workplace try talking with your seniors and ask for their help in solving your problem. Think and plan before jumping.

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3 Super ways which can help you get a Job

May 16th, 2012

At certain times in life, when the present job becomes boring and stagnant one feels for the need to go on. This is the big step anyone can take, as it is not easy to leave a job. At this time some people make a mistake of over estimating their capabilities and talents and think that they deserve some thing high and mighty.

No matter what you are looking for will not help if you are not focused. There are 3 simple tips which can guide you in landing for the job you will love;

1. Going back to education

For making your self capable of what you want to do. All you need to do is to enroll in some course. This course does not necessarily be a degree program, but rather you can learn some skill which may help groom you further. This will also give your ego a boost and will make you more confident. Not only this, but this will give you an opportunity to meet with new people and make social contacts that can later help you in finding a good job.

You can take such classes in your nearby institutes or learning center which will befit you in releasing stress and become a breeze of fresh air for you.

2. Focus and target.

It is highly recommended that you invest a little time in planning for the job you are applying. With this little time you will not wait for days before the call for interview. The targeted company will also be easily motivated on seeing your well written resume. You can freely experiment with different styles of writing your resume by keeping the targeted company in focus. The in-depth study of the company will let you score high in the interview.

3. Have your hopes high.

One person who has done a full study of the company can easily charm the management about his strategies for the betterment, but on the other hand the one who is naive will not have any insight. Thus the consequences.

So simply, be focused and targeted if you really want to have a job of your dreams. Just do not loose hope and keep on trying with a little devotion and research.

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