Tips From the Hiring Side of the Office

Tips From the Hiring Side of the OfficeTips From the Hiring Side of the OfficeLooking for a job isnt rocket science, but there are definitely best practices youll want to employ and mistakes youll want to avoid to make koranvers you arent attracting the wrong kind of attention from the hiring managers you are trying to attract. Before launching Amplify Talent, an employer branding and recruiting optimization consultancy based in Washington D.C., Lars Schmidt spent 15 years in recruiting roles, including the last 10 years running recruiting at NPR and Ticketmaster. Hes seen firsthand how the job search process has evolved. Schmidt addresses some key answers job seekers need to know to apply for opportunities successfully.1. Whats the best way to apply to a company?Most companies mucksmuschenstill require you to apply online. Schmidt explains, Many candidates follow that step and wait ... and wait. Savvy candidates also invest their time networking to try and find contacts within their target companies. These relationships provide an edge in your job search. If someone inside the organization youre targeting passes your rsum along to the hiring team, it will be noticed. You still need the skills and experience to move forward in the process, but your chances increase substantially if youre referred.2. Whats the best rsum format?This is a subjective process you never know whos going to be reading your rsum. However, one thing is certain, as Schmidt notes, Most companies use recruiting software, so your top priority should be having a clean Word or PDF version that will be parsed properly by their systems. In some lines of work, having a more dynamic version with links and more aesthetic qualities can be valuable in situations where youre emailing or presenting your rsum directly to a reviewer. He advises you to consider maintaining two versions of your rsum one for applying online and one for more direct rsum submissions and networking. Schmidt reminds candidates to keep in mind that their LinkedIn profile is a key tool in their job arsenal, too.3. How damaging are grammatical errors?Schmidt says, In short, very. Typos demonstrate lack of attention to detail, or worse, laziness. Proof your rsum twice, then share it with a few friends for additional sets of eyeballs to help make sure youre sending a clean version.4. Do keywords matter?Since your rsum is likely to pass through an applicant tracking system, keywords do matter. Schmidt cautions that content is important, too. Some companies use keyword-matching software to rank candidates. Some candidates try to overcome this by artificially loading their rsum with keywords from the job description. I wouldnt recommend this. It may get you past the robots, but eventually a human will review your rsum, and if they encounter obvious keyword inflation they may pass, he says.5. Whats the best cover letter format?Its a controversial question Some employers read cover letters and others ignore them. S chmidt notes, The good news for job seekers is that cover letters are a dying breed. The bad news If companies request them, you may be ruled out if you dont include one. If youre asked to include a cover letter in your application, be sure to address why youre qualified, why youre interested (in the role/company/industry) and how you can solve the organizations problems. He explains, Youd be surprised how many candidates submit stock cover letters and forget to change the company name. Dont be that candidate.6. When should I follow up after an vorstellungsgesprch?Be sure one of your questions during the interview is about next steps and the hiring timeline. If the company didnt set an expectation, Schmidt recommends following up if you dont hear back within one week. Great recruiters will keep high-value candidates informed throughout the process. If you follow up and dont hear back within a few days, chances are they may not be high on your candidacy.7. Whats the best way to learn about a companys culture?Sometimes, the difference between a candidate whos competitive for the job and one who lands the opportunity is his or her ability to demonstrate an ability to fit in at the organization. Schmidt says, To really understand an organizations culture, you need to dig beyond the career site. Company or employee blogs and sites like glassdoor.com and Quora can provide interesting insights. A lesser-used, but likely more valuable resource, is social media particularly Twitter. You can follow employees and build lists of companies youre interested in to get a feel for their day-to-day.8. I was perfect for the job but didnt get it. Why?This is one of the frustrating aspects of the job search. Schmidt says, There could be a variety of reasons a more perfect candidate, the position is put on hold, negative feedback on references (formal or informal), hiring indecision, shifting business priorities, etc. You generally will never fully know why, and unfortunately mos t recruiters wont provide specifics due to potential exposure.9. Whats a personal brand, and do I need to worry about it?Hiring managers and recruiters are Googling your name. What will they find? Your personal brand is your reputation and it does matter. Schmidt explains, Your personal brand, from a digital perspective, is really the sum of information that can be found about you on the Web. If theres nothing out there about you, take action now. Blogs, social media, online portfolios and other platforms allow you to carve out your place online.Miriam Salpeter is a job search and social media consultant, career coach, author, speaker, resume writer, and owner of Keppie Careers. She is author of Social Networking for Career Success and 100 Conversations for Career Success. Miriam teaches job seekers and entrepreneurs how to incorporate social media tools along with traditional strategies to reach their goals.

Tips for Networking at Holiday Parties

Tips for Networking at Holiday PartiesTips for Networking at Holiday PartiesThe holiday season provides a perfect opportunity for job search networking. Even if youre out of work and fresh out of holiday cheer, its important not to miss out on any opportunities to meet people who can help you find a job. The holidays, contrary to what you might expect, can actually be a good time to job search. Accept all the invitations you receive and consider the networking youre going to do to be a key part of your job search. Even if you dont feel like going to a party or other holiday celebration, youll meet people there who not only can help you- inspired by the holiday spirit, they will likely be eager to offer their knowledge or assistance. You might even have much more fun than you expected Keep in mind, however, that in choosing to use holiday social events as opportunities for job networking, you will need to act as professionally as you would at a career conference or an actual interview . Tempted as you might be to let loose during a holiday party, youll need to rein in any sort of merrymaking- such as drinking too much or acting or dressing inappropriately- that would make someone question your qualifikation as a mature and responsible employee. Holiday Party Networking Tips Phil Haynes, Managing Director of AllianceQ, a group of Fortune 500 companies and many small and medium-sized companies that have collaborated to create a pool of job candidates, shares his tips for holiday networking at parties, so you can get the most out of the events you attend. Dont turn down invites to holiday parties. The more contacts you make, the better, even if contact is minimal. You never know who youll meet, and the goal is to have a contact who remembers who you are and what you do. The more contacts you meet, the greater your chances of finding someone who can help you to find promising new job opportunities.Everyone you meet could be a potential lead, so introduce yourself well. Practice and perfect the art of introducing yourself clearly and simply. Figuring out your introductory sound bite (similar to an elevator pitch) is worth it. It gets that conversational ball rolling Ask for advice. While its not really appropriate to ask for a job at a holiday party, speak the language. Use phrases such as Im interested in learning more about or I respect your opinion and would welcome your advice about this career or job. People are more receptive to being a resource than a means to an endTake notes about the people you meet. After any holiday party, jot down on theirgeschftlicher umgang cardsor on a contact info card what they do, a topic you discussed, or a common interest to jog your memory. This can be helpful for use in future contacts. Listen. Your contacts can provide valuable information and insight if you arent too busy doing all the talkingBe natural and conversational. Try to establish a sense of rapport. Mention something or someone you have in common. Ask simple questions to engage in general conversation. Above all, try to avoid sounding like you are reading from a script.Follow up. Ask for business cards from each new person you meet and then follow up with them through an email, letter, or telephone call, referencing something specific from your conversation. Other Holiday Networking Opportunities Seasonal parties are not the only venues that can provide promising opportunities for job searching. Community organizations such as local food banks, schools, arts groups, or national non-profits like the Arthritis Foundation or Toys for Tots are often desperate for volunteers to ensure that their holiday fund-raising events are successful. Not only can volunteering help to keep you busy and allow you to maintain a positive focus during a season of joblessness, but it also allows you to meet and network with new contacts who might know about a great job for you. And, while helping others is a wonderful way to raise you r own spirits, in a best-case scenario, your volunteer position might even turn into a full-time job.

Heres why someone fell asleep during your big presentation

Heres why someone fell asleep during your big presentationHeres why someone fell asleep during your big presentationBig presentations can be daunting. Even after weeks of preparation, its common to find yourself fighting off nerves, stumbling through slides, and clawing for the right words.Here are potential reasons why your words werent resonating with everyone while at the podium.You sounded too much like a salesperson - they stopped paying attentionTalk to your audience, not at them.Author, strategic advisor, and speaker Ian Altman writes in Inc. about selling too much during a presentation.You might be given the stage to address the audience at a conference. This can be a disaster. You might consider pitching the audience on your product/service. Dont do it he writes.Instead, share stories of challenges youve helped others overcome. Make the customer the hero, not your company. You want the audience to think, I have a similar challenge, and I would love to have the same outcome as that person in the story. Stories engage. Selling from the stage is a direct path to the vortex of evil, he continues.You gave them too much time to twiddle their thumbsGet prepared beforehand so you dont have to waste time - in an working world with too many meetings, youll need to make every minute count.Bernard Marr, an author, keynote speaker, business, technology and data expert, writes on LinkedIn that technical difficulties can be an issue during a presentation.Theres nothing worse than sitting around and waiting for a presenter to figure out how to make the projector work - or worse, listening to a presentation without slides because he couldnt make it work, he writes. Be prepared to connect to anything a few dollars spent up front to buy all the right connectors will save you tons of embarrassment and headache. Know beforehand the kind of projector, the size of the screen, and the layout of the room so you can be prepared for anything.Your slides were too denseLoad up on these, and your audience will be out like a light.Debbie Fay, founder of public speaking coaching, presentation development company bespeak presentation solutions, llc, writes in Forbes about how creating visuals that arent aids is a problem.You should never show slides, or overheads, or flip charts that are text intensive. Period, she writes. Your visual aids should always be something that says what you (with words) cannot. Get it? Were talking charts, graphs, pictures, cartoons, music. Any visual aid you create should act as a synergistic component it should illuminate in ways that are beyond you and your words.Think of it this way the less text, the better.Your words were going over their headAuthor Nancy Duarte writes in the Harvard Business Review that speaking in jargon is a common presentation error. This post was the last one in a series featuring information from her book the HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations.Have you ever listened to a presenter who sounded super- smart without having any idea what she really said? If so, the presentation was probably full of jargon. Each field has its own lexicon thats familiar to experts but foreign to everyone else. Unless youre speaking to a group of people who are steeped in the material themselves, youre better off avoiding highly technical or industry-specific language. Use words that will resonate with those whose helfende hand and influence you must earn. If they cant follow your ideas, they wont adopt them. Consider whether your presentation passes the grandmother test If your grandmother wouldnt understand what on earth youre talking about, rework your message, she writes.The person was actually exhaustedGetting four hours of sleep + a long presentation = zzzzzzz.Lets not forget about this one - no matter what, dont give them a reason to rest up during your presentation.

Top 10 Accounting and Finance Jobs to Watch For in 2017

Top 10 Accounting and Finance Jobs to Watch For in 2017Top 10 Accounting and Finance Jobs to Watch For in 2017 TOP 10 ACCOUNTING AND FINANCE JOBS TO WATCH FOR IN 2017*Midsize company = $25 million-$250 million in revenue**Small company = Up to $25 million in revenue***Large accounting firm = $250+ million in revenue****Large company = $250+ million in revenue*****$100 million-$250 million in company revenue+4.3%FINANCIAL ANALYST (1-3 YRS EXP)*$61,250-$78,500+4.3%BUSINESS SYSTEMS ANALYST MANAGER****$106,750-$135,500+4.2% INTERNAL AUDITOR (1-3 YRS EXP)*$63,750-$84,250+4.2%CONTROLLER*****$119,250-$159,750+4.2%AUDIT/ASSURANCE SERVICES MANAGER***$107,500-$147,250+4.1%STAFF ACCOUNTANT (1-3 YRS EXP)**$50,000-$64,250+4.1%SENIOR ACCOUNTANT**$63,250-$76,250+4.1%OPERATIONAL RISK ANALYST MANAGER$100,250-$127,500+4.0%MEDICAL COLLECTIONS SPECIALIST$41,750-$55,250+4.0%COMPLIANCE OFFICER*$108,500-$145,000Source Robert Half 2017 Salary Guide for Accounting and FinanceDownload your free copy of the Ro bert Half 2017 Salary Guide at roberthalf.com/salary-center.

The Birth of Work Resume Template

The Birth of Work Resume Template As a consequence, its sensible to have the sample letters to discover a comprehension of the way in which a terrific resignation letter ought to be written to create the process simpler and faster. You should use the sample resignation letters for receiving the idea of exactly how precisely you want to compose a resignation letter. A great resignation letter is vital for keeping up the bond with your existing employer. Before making your church resignation letter, you need to know a couple of things. You are going to be able to demonstrate a developed comprehension of the needs of the expert work atmosphere. The usage of work experiences may change depending on the work history an employee or an applicant has. Make certain that you list your relevant abilities and any certifications you might have, like your social work resume template Handlers card. There are a lot of distinct varieties of nursing and youll want to show your nursing resume fits the bill. Moreover, it may take you a bit of opportunity to think of a fantastic topic in order for it to be exciting that you write about and appropriate for your studies. Social work resumes, by way of example, need only indicate information linked to social work. Freelance work needs to be included as a boost to your resume, and is less valuable if youre doing work that doesnt relate to your field or wouldnt lead to a reference. Formal letters totenstill maintain a very important place in the industry world. It is very important to avoid writing false info, for that is only going to get you in trouble. Below it is the point where the chronological collection of work history is written. Though you might not have a work history or lengthy collection of impressive degrees, you can surely find something to include. Some people like a more elegant layout while some only need a very simple layout. If you believe you dont will need to create a resume template then you migh t want to read further to figure out why precisely you need to learn to compose a resume. Each resume format can be helpful, based on your own personal conditions. At the same time that you can format it in many of ways, elect for simplicity. But What About Work Resume Template? When you compose a paper and quote a source or simply have a number from a statistical chart, youve got to make footnote entering a lot of information. Additionally, remember tore not utilizing an unprofessional email address. Also an important point to keep in mind about resumes isnt only the content but the general length of the document when that prospective employer is sifting through multiple resumes, he fails to have the opportunity to go in the nitty-gritty of each one of the resumes hes received. This example gives you a fast start in your job application practice. Writing a resume geared towards the work experience may be an effective method to find work. You dont have to incorporate every job you have held, especially in case you have many years of expertise or have worked in unrelated fields. Even in the event youve never held an official job, its still true that you have life experience thats applicable to the work search. Your latest job ought to be written first and the jobs youve done beforehand follows. Heres What I Know About Work Resume Template Now youre networking and building contacts in the geschftlicher umgang If you do work for an assortment of clients, the company name may be your own especially if youre already incorporated. You are going to receive a list of sales books to read (so you dont need to take a class), and were going to establish a job-shadowing chance, if youd like. The online is similar to a substantial carnival. The straightforward answer is you need to consist of freelance work on your resume. You might have worked at a business for quite a while and might have a good client base, something which you will need to leave while r esigning from the provider. There are plenty of explanations for why you may be intending to stop your job. If youve reckoned that you should proceed out of your existing job then the exact first thing you will need to think about is to inform your employer that you are parting ways together. How to Get Started with Work Resume Template? By highlighting your education, youre telling a possible employer that youve got the educational requirements required for the targeted job. Locating a listing for an open dishwashing position is usually simple, but securing such a position isnt always so easy. Your work history shows potential employers what type of employee you will be. When you step from employment, its a great notion to Provide the firm with a specialist resignation letter advising your employer which you are going to be resigning.

The Birth of Short Writing Sample with Resume

The Birth of Short Writing Sample with Resume Choosing Short Writing Sample with Resume Is Simple You may keep some of your very best writing samples in UMBCworks. Get really clear regarding the impression you need to makemaybe even jot down a couple of words. You should pick a bit of writing that is relatable for the corporation. Your resume should be formatted in an easy, professional method. The Benefits of Short Writing Sample with Resume Writing a resume is part of business writing. Things such as references occupy a terrific deal of space on a resume and, sometimes, are unnecessary. Writing a strong application is a challenging procedure and we would like to make it simpler. Everything in your resume ought to be simple to read and simple to comprehend. Make certain you highlight technical wisdom and certifications. Resumes are ratherbei important since it bears a work seekers background information that would help her or him to find the job he or shes applying for . Your resume, after all, isnt an autobiography, but instead a summary of your previous experience and qualifications. Short Writing Sample with Resume at a Glance Resume introductions might vary based on the work position youre applying for in addition to the demands of the company in which you wish to be part of. Strong writing skills are important in just about all jobs and internships. Youre going to compose a resume summary which gets far more interviews. Below is a rather simple case of an example that someone could write to a headhunter. If you do list your references, make sure that youve checked and double-checked that theyll offer you a superior review and that theyll be accessible by phone or email. 1 A resume summary is a brief, snappy introduction paragraph that gives a summary of your very best work. What Short Writing Sample with Resume Is - and What it Is Not There are several kinds of cover letters for resumes. Submitting outdated samples (older than 1 y ear) is not a fantastic idea. Otherwise, its the right time to rewrite. The Hidden Gem of Short Writing Sample with Resume If you dont have a notion of how or where to begin, resume samples are available which will work as a guide toward achieving a perfect resume. The chance to send a writing sample doesnt need to strike in the core of a candidate. Understanding how to tailor your resume will obviously offer you an advantage. Writing a resume for employment in the art industry can be difficult. The Honest to Goodness Truth on Short Writing Sample with Resume Perhaps while trying to find examples you noticed poor samples throughout the internet. You dont know when you may be requested to submit a writing sample. If you would like to send a sample of a bigger document, decide on a 2-5 page section and introduce it using a paragraph that puts the selection into the suitable context. If you are picking an old writing sample, be certain to carefully review and update it to r eflect the latest ideas.

The Advantages of Uptowork Review

The Advantages of Uptowork Review Uptowork Review - Dead or Alive? Whichever resume format you pick, make certain to include examples of accomplishments that benefited your prior employers. At the end, you are in possession of a strong, basic resume prepared to go. And if you keep around till the end, you will distitelseite where you are able to find a free resume template thats verified to assist you find the interest of a hiring official in six secs or much less. In the last few years, the standard of work has gone down. Advanced search filters make it simple to get what youre searching for. It also comes with a work search feature. Out of all of the advantages you have seen now and so far will be able to help you bring out the very best in you by receiving the best design template for yourself with the assistance of uptowork. The Basic Facts of Uptowork Review Resume Builder The resume builder is extremely simple to use. Cover Letter Builder If you require a cover l etter together with your resume, Resume Genius is able to help you build one. When finished, it is simple to toggle between different templates to find out what looks best for the last product. 20 templates are readily available. The templates are for the most part popular resume formats that are commonly accepted by many businesses. All the templates are free. Several of the programs that we used have wizards that offer helpful methods or guidance on every section. After you are awarded the job, you must buy a little manual that will direct you in your day-to-day tasks. In reality, some programs ask that you start fresh from the beginning as opposed to just make simple adjustments if you dont understand the wizards initial instructions. While youre still able to download your completed resume in PDF format, the service encourages you to make a link which youll be able to share with friends and prospective employers. Uptowork Review Options Giving a sample work is a criti cal part of the recruitment procedure, because it aids the client to appraise the candidates. It isnt important if youre new to the workforce, if youre changing careers, or in case you own a whole lot of experience. Included in these are the distance of your resume and your accomplishments, along with possible shortcomings. If you own a question or concern about the service, you can get in touch with the corporations support team via email. Irrespective of the outcomes of your performance review, its a chance to learn valuable info, while it is about yourself or your boss. The program is web-based in place of downloadable, and the range of features, and the websites connectivity and convenience, are difficult to beat. Its a guarantee that out of all of the experiences that you get from uptowork, you may not find it anywhere else. You can take a look at the prices, functionality, and the amount of templates and features. There is additionally a 30-day full access program an d a 90-day package. To begin with, you complete a form with your information and experience in every one of the sections, which you are able to reorder and customize, then you choose the template. Besides its size, Upwork presents many other benefits. While Pongo has fewer editing features than other resume software, it delivers a good verstndigung im strafverfahren of support to users at each phase of the job search approach. These features are among the best because of the matter that it is possible to get rid of the unwanted content from your resume in addition to make it have the implications that you desire the resume to have. When you own a history with a trustworthy client, you dont necessarily will need to keep on using their time tracker. Theres the possibility to download the plain text, but youve got to begin again in the event you shed the formatting. The clients have the ability to run the website and do the things that they please, including harassing freelanc ers. If you opt to click the links on our website, we might get compensation. If you currently have an account withLevo, youve got aLevo resume Luckily, there are websites out there whichll do almost all of the resume-related heavy-lifting for you. It might appear counterintuitive to consider about what things to do if things dont go well, but it is going to help you respond effectively to a terrible review if needed. The site will inform you exactly how many views your resume has. Speak to people, particularly if youre young. You may find several great resume templates, but youre going to have to decide if theyre likely to help or hurt your odds of landing an interview. Offer your time, in return you might not be obtaining a bunch of money, but you are going to be learning valuable skills. Free resume builders help you to save money, but you must consider what youre giving up in return. This can be unbelievably frustrating, as well as a waste of time and money.

ASME In-Company Training Program Offers Economical, On-Site Live Courses

ASME In-Company Training Program Offers Economical, On-Site Live Courses ASME In-Company Training Program Offers Economical, On-Site Live Courses ASME In-Company Training Program Offers Economical, On-Site Live CoursesEach year, ASME Training Development presents its more than 150 public short courses, which were developed to keep engineers current with the constantly changing profession and workplace, in a variety of locations throughout the world. However, ASME also offers another training option - ASME In-Company Training - that enables corporations, universities and other organizations to save on travel expenses by offering these same live courses on-site at their facility at a time of their choosing. Every course that ASME Training Development offers to the public can be presented as an In-Company course, depending upon the availability of the instructors. Companies can work with the instructors to customize the courses to address specific workplace issues. So, in addition to being accommodating to corporate budgets and schedules, live In-Company Training courses can be tailored to meet the individual geschftsleben needs of the company hosting them. ASME In-Company Training courses are presented by ASME-approved instructors who are recognized experts within their professional disciplines. Most code courses are developed and taught by ASME Code Committee members who understand and can communicate code or standard relevance and their impact on safety, quality and integrity. Courses cover a range of topics including boilers and pressure vessels bolting design and materials elevators and escalators fluids and heat transfer geometric dimensioning and tolerancing project management nuclear power plants piping and pipelines process safety risk and reliability and welding. Employees can earn continuing education units (CEUs) or professional development hours (PDHs) upon completion of each course. To learn more about the A SME In-Company Training program, visit http//go.asme.org/corporate or contact Paul Francis, Corporate Development, (973) 244-2304 or francispasme.org.

How to Handle When a Job Interviewer Points out Your Flaws

How to Handle When a Job Interviewer Points out Your FlawsHow to Handle When a Job Interviewer Points out Your Flaws4You made great introductory small talk and aced the first three questions, but then the job interviewer hits you with a whammy about your educational background elend matching the qualifications listed in the job ad. Dont panic If a hiring manager bothered to bring you in, he must have found something attractive in your application. Handle conversations about your flaws with poise through unterstellung strategies.Here are a few tips to handle a conversation about your flaws with a job interviewer1. Remain calm.Dont blame the employer for probing. The person is not trying to anger you. Shes simply doing her job- looking for the best fit for the position.First, and most important, never disagree with yourinterviewer, says Roy Cohen, career coach and author of The Wall Street Professionals Survival Guide. When you dont match the job specs line by line, they have a respons ibility to assess whether you are qualified to perform successfully in the job. It is up to you to respectfully demonstrate that you bring a unique and alternative skill set that will offset any perceived deficits.2. Refocus the discussion.Instinct may rouse your defenses, but a better tactic is briefly acknowledging the issue and moving on. Youll demonstrate honesty and respect for their concern without dwelling on negatives.When a perceived flaw gets brought up, Cohen suggests saying something such as, Yes, I can see how someone might form that impression. With your permission, may I offer you additional background and detail to demonstrate how I am, in fact, a perfect candidate for this position?3. Shine.Finally, realize that an employer often views a job ad as the starting point for evaluating a candidate, not the be-all and end-all for a decision. Use that wiggle room to your advantage.There is an old maxim in business of the 80-20 rule. It says that 20 percent of your employee s do 80 percent of the work. While this may not be true in every situation, most managers believe it and they hope that every one of their new hires will be in that top 20 percent percent. If they are interviewing you, they are hoping you are that person, says Duncan Mathison, career coach and co-author of Unlock the Hidden Job Market 6 Steps to a Successful Job Search When Times Are Tough.Mathison urges smart job seekers to take stock of the gaps between their background and the job they are applying for, and find examples in their background to demonstrate they not only understand the gap buthow they will still be a top 20 percent performer.Some ways to show youll be a top performer includeBe direct and ask about it. Try saying, I have been told that having a degree or a certain number of years experience is no guarantee that someone will become a top performer in a job. What do you think are the most essential skills or knowledge that make someone a top performer in this job here ?If you have been a manager, take the interviewers perspective and use a story from your own background in hiring. I know as a manager it is helpful to ask for 5-6 years of experience over, say, 2-3 when making hiring decisions. But I have to tell you, one of the best hires I made welches someone who only had six months experience. She was motivated and dedicated. I think this is the right job for me. I want to be one of your best hires.Did you go to college but never got a degree? If you want to be a pilot and dont have a pilots license, this is a problem. But many times these requirements are not essential to perform a job well. Use a compelling story backed up by past job performance to diffuse the requirement. You might say, I got good grades in school, but the cost was hard on my parents. Besides, I always preferred practical on-the-job learning. In every position, my managers have found me to be a dedicated employee and a quick study who stays current in the profession. Every time I thought about going back to school, I would get promoted. I decided it was not worth the financial commitment and the time away from family.Show your potential to be that top 20 percent hire, and your flaws may be reconsidered or actually seen as unique assetsReaders, have you ever had a job interviewer point out your flaws? How did you, or would you, handle it?

10 Simple Ways to Improve Your Chances for a Raise

10 Simple Ways to Improve Your Chances for a Raise 10 Simple Ways to Improve Your Chances for a Raise All across America, it is performance review time - the annual ritual of nervousness and wincing when everyone from interns to executives gear up to receive critical feedback about their work. In addition to the evaluation of performance and success, this is the time where managers and HR pros decide on bonuses, promotions, and raises. While employees probably cannot turn the tide of a poor performance streak, there are behaviors you can practice that will improve your chances for a raise this review cycle or next. For insight, we turned to Joel Garfinkle, executive coach and author of   Get Paid What You’re Worth . “Your manager will most likely never come to you and simply give you a raise. You need to ask for the pay increase.  Don’t be afraid to ask for the raise,” Garfinkle says. Here he weighs in on the 10 simple ways to show your boss you’re ready for a raise. 1. Practice good communication early and often. “Great communication skills are critical in every aspect of your career. Whether it’s communicating with your superiors, fellow team members or those you’re directing, effective and efficient communication will help ensure you’re seen as a valuable asset.” 2. Show your ability to motivate and inspire those you work with. “Being seen as a great team motivator is typically key to moving up any company’s organizational chart. Great leaders don’t tell people what to do, they inspire them to do their best.” 3. Consistently push the boundaries of what’s possible. While you may not be able to invent the next big app or revolutionize your industry, showing that you are proactively thinking about business solutions and ways to innovate will make all the difference come review time. “Whether you’re developing innovations within your industry, your company or just within your specific job duties, showing that you can think outside the box , to help take your organization to the next level is going to really make a good impression on those who’ll be determining the fate of your promotion.” 4. Think about what contributes to the bottom line. “Hard work is always a great start to securing that raise, but definitely not all that it takes. Your value as an employee, which is determined in both qualitative and quantitative measures , are areas your manager can put a number to and are often easier to use as leverage, when talking about a raise. Remember, improving a business’s bottom line is a primary goal of for-profit businesses. For this reason, if an employee consistently is contributing effectively and efficiently to this goal, it’s going to be more likely these efforts will develop into a raise.” Timing is important for these 2 reasons: “The timing of the company’s fiscal health and future plans.  How is the company doing, financially? Are they in a position where they can afford to give you a raise? What are their future development plans and how important is the work you are doing to contribute to those plans success? This can increase your value significantly if they feel like they ‘can’t afford to lose you.'” “Secondly, the timing of your supervisor. Where your supervisor is on that oscillation of employee worth can affect whether or not he or she can get your raise approved. Even the mood they are in (both due to personal and professional reasons) can impact your effectiveness on negotiating a raise. ” 6. Get buy-in from your colleagues and mentors. “Endorsements and recommendations can be the deciding factor when it comes to getting a raise. When your peers or supervisors praise your work, definitely keep track of that as supporting material for the raise discussion.” “In order to negotiate, you must be willing to take the risks to ask for what you want.   Your fearless and courageous attitude will help you take the necessary risks to get the upper hand.” 8. Be confident in yourself and your own self-worth. “The #1 reason most people get less in a negotiation is due to lack of self-worth. People under-earn because they undervalue themselves.   Be confident in yourself so you can believe that you deserve the amount you are asking for.” 9. Have the right amount of patience. “Most concessions occur at, or even past, the deadline. Be patient in order to get your desired amount. You will be tempted to give in and accept the offer, but this is where the real negotiation begins. The more patient you are throughout the process, the greater your chances are for getting what you want.” “Employees should never wait for their periodic review to discuss their raise and/or promotion aspirations, instead they should be having these conversations with their superiors throughout the year. Oftentimes, raises require budgetary changes, and this means that it needs to be planned and budgeted for by your supervisor. Letting your supervisor know of your desires also allows them to give you more responsibility so you can take on opportunities to earn that raise. When you do take on additional responsibilities and are successful, definitely keep track of these accomplishments so you can use it as supporting evidence supporting for your raise request.”

How to be resilient 8 steps to success when life gets hard

How to be resilient 8 steps to success when life gets hard How to be resilient 8 steps to success when life gets hard “Stick with it!”“Be resilient!”“Never give up!”I see  a lot of stuff about resilience, persistence and grit. What I don’t see is a lot of legitimate info on how to actually increase those qualities.How can we be more resilient? How can we shrug off huge challenges in life, persist and - in the end - succeed?So  I looked at  the most difficult  scenarios for insight. (Who needs resilience in easy situations, right?)When life and death is on the line, what do the winners do that the losers don’t?Turns out surviving  the most dangerous situations has some good lessons  we can  use to  learn how to be  resilient in everyday life.Whether it’s dealing with unemployment, a difficult job, or  personal tragedies, here are insights that can help.1) Perceive And believe“The company  already had two rounds of layoffs this year but I never thought they would let  me  go.”“Yeah, the argument was getting a little heated but I didn’t think he was going to  hit  me.”The first thing to do when facing difficulty is to make sure you recognize it as soon as possible.Sounds obvious but we’ve all  been in denial at one point or another. What do people who survive life-threatening situations have in common?They move through those “stages of grief” from denial to acceptance  faster:Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:They immediately begin to recognize, acknowledge, and even accept the reality of their situation… They move through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance very rapidly.What’s that thing doctors say when they’re able to successfully treat a medical problem?  â€œGood thing we caught it early.”When you stay oblivious or live in denial, things get worse - often in a hurry. When you know you’re in trouble you can act.Nobody is saying paranoia is good but research shows a little  worrying is correlated with living a longer life.(For more on how a little negativity can make you happier, click  here.)Okay, like they say in AA, you admitted you have a problem. What’s the next thing the most resilient people do?2)  Manage your emotionsSometimes when scuba divers  drown  they still have air in their oxygen tanks. Seriously.How is this possible? Something goes wrong, they panic, and instinctively  pull the regulator out of their mouth.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:M. Ephimia Morphew, a psychologist and founder of the Society for Human Performance in Extreme Environments, told me of a series of accidents she’d been studying in which scuba divers were found dead with air in their tanks and perfectly functional regulators. “Only they had pulled the regulators out of their mouths and drowned. It took a long time for researchers to figure out what was going on.” It appears that certain people suffer an intense feeling of suffocation when their mouths are covered. That led to an overpowering impulse to uncover the mouth and nose. The victims had followed an emotional response that was in general a good one for the organism, to get air. But it was the wrong response under the special, non-natural, circumstances of scuba diving.When you’re having trouble breathing what’s more natural  than to clear an obstruction from your mouth?Now just a brief second of clear  thinking  tells you this is a  very  bad idea while  diving - but when you panic, you  can’t  think clearly.Rash  decision making  rarely delivers optimal results in everyday life either.Resilient people acknowledge difficult  situations, keep calm and evaluate things rationally so they can make a plan and act.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:Al Siebert, in his book  The Survivor Personality, writes that “The best survivors spend almost no time, especially in emergencies, getting upset about what has been lost, or feeling distressed about things going badly…. For this reason they don’t usually take themselves too seriously and are therefore hard to threaten.” (For methods Navy SEALS, astronauts and the samurai use  to keep calm under pressure, click  here.)So you know you’re in trouble but you’re keeping your cool. Might there be a simple way to sidestep all these problems? Yeah.3) Be a quitterMany of you might be a little confused right now:  â€œA secret to resilience is quitting? That doesn’t make any sense.”What do we see when we look at people who survive life and death situations? Many of them were smart enough to bail early.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:“…It’s a matter of looking at yourself and assessing your own abilities and where you are mentally, and then realizing that it’s better to turn back and get a chance to do it again than to go for it and not come back at all.” We are a society of high achievers, but in the wilderness, such motivation can be deadly…The best way to take a punch from a UFC fighter and to survive a hurricane are the same: “Don’t be there when it hits.”You quit baseball when you were 10 and quit playing the piano  after just 2 lessons.  Nobody sticks with  everything. You can’t.When the company starts laying people off, there’s always one guy smart enough to immediately jump ship and preemptively get  a new job.And some people are smart enough to realize, “I am never going to be a great Tango dancer and should double my efforts at playing poker.”And you know what results this type of quitting has? It makes you happier, reduces stress and increases health.Via  Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain:Wrosch found that people who quit their unattainable goals saw physical and psychological benefits. “They have, for example, less depressive symptoms, less negative affect over time,” he says. “They also have lower cortisol levels, and they have lower levels of systemic inflammation, which is a marker of immune functioning. And they develop fewer physical health problems over time.”You can do anything -  when you stop trying to do everything.(For more on how to determine what you should stick with and what you should abandon, click  here.)Okay, so maybe you can’t bail and really do need to be resilient. What does the research say you can do to have more grit? It sounds crazy…4) Be delusionalMarshall Goldsmith  did a study of incredibly  successful people. After  assembling all the data he realized the thing they all had in common.And then he shouted:  â€œThese successful people are all delusional!”Via  Supersurvivors: The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success:“This is not to be misinterpreted as a bad thing. In fact, being delusional helps us become more effective. By definition, these delusions don’t have to be accurate. If they were totally accurate, your goals would be too low.” Goldsmith noticed that although illusions of control expose people to risk of failure, they do something else that is very interesting: they motivate people to keep trying even when they’ve failed… “Successful people fail a lot, but they try a lot, too. When things don’t work, they move on until an idea does work. Survivors and great entrepreneurs have this in common.”Crazy successful people and people who survive tough situations are all overconfident.  Very overconfident.Some of you may be scratching your head:  â€œIsn’t step one all about not being in denial? About facing reality?”You need to make  a distinction between denial  about the situation  and overconfidence  in your abilities.The first one is very bad, but  the second one can be surprisingly good.  See the world accurately - but believe you are a rockstar.Via  Supersurvivors: The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success:Denying or distorting a bad situation may be comforting in the short term, but it’s potentially harmful in the long run because it will be almost impossible to solve a problem unless you first admit you have one. In contrast, having an especially str ong belief in one’s personal capabilities, even if that belief is somewhat illusory, probably helps you to solve problems… A useful, if somewhat simplistic, mathematical formula might be: a realistic view of the situation + a strong view of one’s ability to control one’s destiny through one’s efforts = grounded hope.(For more on what the most successful people have in common, click  here.)So this is how superheroes must feel: there’s definitely trouble, but you’re calm and you feel like you’re awesome enough to handle this.But we need to move past feelings. What  actions  are going to see you through this mess?5) Prepare… even if it’s too late for preparationFolks, I firmly believe there is no such thing as a “pretty good” alligator wrestler.Who survives life threatening situations? People who have done it before. People who have prepared.Now even if you can’t truly prepare for a layoff or a divorce, you can work to have  good productive habits and eliminat e wasteful ones.Good habits don’t tax your  willpower  as much as deliberate actions and will help you be more resilient.How do you survive a WW2 shipwreck  and shark attacks?  Keep preparing for the future, even when you’re in the midst of trouble.Via  Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience:As the days went by, he continued to concentrate on strategies for survival. At one point, a rubber life belt floated by and he grabbed it. He had heard that the Japanese would use aircraft to strafe shipwrecked Americans. The life belt could be blown up through a rubber tube. He cut the tube off and kept it, reasoning that if the Japanese spotted them, he could slip under water and breathe through the tube. He was planning ahead. He had a future in his mind, and good survivors always concentrate on the present but plan for the future. Thus, taking it day by day, hour by hour, and   sometimes minute by minute, did Don McCall endure.One caveat: as learning expert  Dan Coyle  r ecommends, make sure any  prep you do is as close to the real scenario as possible.Bad training can be worse than no training. When police practice  disarming criminals they often conclude by handing the gun to their partner.One officer trained this so perfectly that in the field he took a gun from a criminal -  and instinctively handed it right back.Via  Make It Stick:Johnson recounts how officers are trained to take a gun from an assailant at close quarters, a maneuver they practice by role-playing with a fellow officer. It requires speed and deftness: striking an assailant’s wrist with one hand to break his grip while simultaneously wresting the gun free with the other. It’s a move that officers had been in the habit of honing through repetition, taking the gun, handing it back, taking it again. Until one of their officers, on a call in the field, took the gun from an assailant and handed it right back again.(For more on how to develop good habits - and get rid of bad ones, click  here.)You’re  expecting the best but prepared  for the worst. Perfect. Is now the time to de-stress? Heck, no.6) Stay busy, busy, busyWhat’s the best way to survive and keep your emotions in check when things are hard? “Work, work, work.”Via  Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience:Remember the saying “Get organized or die.” In the wake of trauma, “Work, work, work,” as Richard Mollica wrote. He is a psychiatrist at Harvard who studies trauma. “This is the single most important goal of traumatized people throughout the world.” The hands force order on the mind.When things go bad, people get sad or scared, retreat and distract themselves. That can quell the emotions, but it doesn’t get you out of this mess.Resilient people know that staying busy not only gets you closer to your goals but it’s also the best way to stay calm.And believe it or not, we’re all  happier when we’re busy.(For more on what the most productive people in the wor ld do every day, click  here.)You’re hustlin’. That’s good. But it’s hard to keep that can-do attitude when things aren’t going well. What’s another secret to hanging in there?7) Make it a gameIn his book “Touching the Void,” Joe Simpson tells the harrowing story of how he broke his leg 19,000 feet up while climbing a mountain.Actually he didn’t break his leg… he shattered it. Like marbles in a sock. His calf bone driven through his knee joint.He and his climbing partner assumed  he was a dead man. But he survived.One of his secrets was making his slow, painful descent into a game.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:Simpson was learning what it means to be playful in such circumstances: “A pattern of movements developed after my initial wobbly hops and I meticulously repeated the pattern. Each pattern made up one step across the slope and I began to feel detached from everything around me. I thought of nothing but the patterns.” His struggle had become a dance, and the dance freed him from the terror of what he had to do.How does this work? It’s neuroscience. Patterned activities stimulate the same reward center cocaine does.Via  Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience:And tellingly, a structure within the basal ganglia is activated during feelings of safety, reward, and simply feeling great. It’s called the striatum and drugs such as cocaine set it off, but so does the learning of a new habit or skill and the performance of organized, patterned activities…Even boring things can be fun if you turn them into a game with stakes, challenges and little rewards.And we can use this same system for everyday problems:  How many resumes can you send out today? Can you beat yesterday?Celebrating “small wins”  is  something survivors have in common.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:Survivors take great joy from even their smallest successes. That is an important step in creating an ongoing feelin g of motivation and preventing the descent into hopelessness. It also provides relief from the unspeakable stress of a true survival situation.(For more on how to increase  gratitude and happiness, click  here.)You’re a machine. Making progress despite huge challenges. What’s the final way to take your resilience to the next level? Other people.8) Get help and give helpGetting help is good. That’s obvious. But sometimes we’re ashamed or embarrassed and fail to ask for it. Don’t let pride get in the way.What’s more fascinating is that  even in the worst of times, giving help can help  you.By taking on the role of caretaker we increase the feeling of  meaning in our lives. This helps people in the worst situations succeed.Leon Weliczker survived the Holocaust not only because of his resourcefulness - but also because he felt he had to protect his brother.Via  Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience:When his fifteen-year-old brother Aaron came in, Leon was su ddenly filled with love and a feeling of responsibility for the two boys. He was shedding the cloak of the victim in favor of the role of the rescuer. Terrence Des Pres, in his book  The Survivor, makes the point that in the journey of survival, helping someone else is as important as getting help.Sometimes being selfless is  the best way to be selfish. And the research shows that  givers are among the most successful people  and they  live longer.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:Helping someone else is the best way to ensure your own survival. It takes you out of yourself. It helps you to rise above your fears. Now you’re a rescuer, not a victim. And seeing how your leadership and skill buoy others up gives you more focus and energy to persevere. The cycle reinforces itself: You buoy them up, and their response buoys you up. Many people who survive alone report that they were doing it for someone else (a wife, boyfriend, mother, son) back home.(For more on how hel ping others can also help you, click  here.)So once the threat is passed, once the dust has settled, can we have a normal life again? Actually, sometimes, life can be even better.Sum upSo when life is daunting and we need resilience, keep in mind: Perceive And Believe Manage Your Emotions Be A Quitter Be Delusional Prepare… Even If It’s Too Late For Preparation Stay Busy, Busy, Busy Make It A Game Get Help And Give Help To live full lives some amount of difficulty is essential.Via  Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience:Richard Tedeschi, a psychologist who treats post-traumatic stress, said that “to achieve the greatest psychological health, some kind of suffering is necessary.”You can meet life’s challenges with resilience, competence and grace.And when the troubles  are over, science agrees: what does not kill you  can in fact  make you stronger.Join more than 320,000 readers and get a free weekly update via email  here.Related posts:What 10 things should you do every day to improve your life?How To Make Your Life Better By Sending Five Simple Emails4 Lifehacks From Ancient Philosophers That Will Make You Happier  This article first appeared at Barking Up the Wrong Tree. How to be resilient 8 steps to success when life gets hard “Stick with it!”“Be resilient!”“Never give up!”I see  a lot of stuff about resilience, persistence and grit. What I don’t see is a lot of legitimate info on how to actually increase those qualities.How can we be more resilient? How can we shrug off huge challenges in life, persist and - in the end - succeed?So  I looked at  the most difficult  scenarios for insight. (Who needs resilience in easy situations, right?)When life and death is on the line, what do the winners do that the losers don’t?Turns out surviving  the most dangerous situations has some good lessons  we can  use to  learn how to be  resilient in everyday life.Whether it’s dealing with unemployment, a difficult job, or  personal tragedies, here are insights that can help.1) Perceive and believe“The company  already had two rounds of layoffs this year but I never thought they would let  me  go.”“Yeah, the argument was getting a little heated but I didn’t think he was going to  hit  me.”The first thing to do when facing difficulty is to make sure you recognize it as soon as possible.Sounds obvious but we’ve all  been in denial at one point or another. What do people who survive life-threatening situations have in common?They move through those “stages of grief” from denial to acceptance  faster:Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:They immediately begin to recognize, acknowledge, and even accept the reality of their situation… They move through denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance very rapidly.What’s that thing doctors say when they’re able to successfully treat a medical problem?  â€œGood thing we caught it early.”When you stay oblivious or live in denial, things get worse - often in a hurry. When you know you’re in trouble you can act.Nobody is saying paranoia is good but research shows a little  worrying is correlated with living a longer life.(For more on how a little negativity can make you happier, click  here.)Okay, like they say in AA, you admitted you have a problem. What’s the next thing the most resilient people do?2)  Manage your emotionsSometimes when SCUBA divers  drown  they still have air in their oxygen tanks. Seriously.How is this possible? Something goes wrong, they panic, and instinctively  pull the regulator out of their mouth.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:M. Ephimia Morphew, a psychologist and founder of the Society for Human Performance in Extreme Environments, told me of a series of accidents she’d been studying in which scuba divers were found dead with air in their tanks and perfectly functional regulators. “Only they had pulled the regulators out of their mouths and drowned. It took a long time for researchers to figure out what was going on.” It appears that certain people suffer an intense feeling of suffocation when their mouths are covered. That led to an overpowering impulse to uncover the mouth and nose. The victims had followed an emotional response that was in general a good one for the organism, to get air. But it was the wrong response under the special, non-natural, circumstances of scuba diving.When you’re having trouble breathing what’s more natural  than to clear an obstruction from your mouth?Now just a brief second of clear  thinking  tells you this is a  very  bad idea while  diving - but when you panic, you  can’t  think clearly.Rash  decision making  rarely delivers optimal results in everyday life either.Resilient people acknowledge difficult  situations, keep calm and evaluate things rationally so they can make a plan and act.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:Al Siebert, in his book  The Survivor Personality, writes that “The best survivors spend almost no time, especially in emergencies, getting upset about what has been lost, or feeling distressed about things going badly…. For this reason they don’t usually take themselves too seriously and are therefore hard to threaten.” (For methods Navy SEALS, astronauts and the samurai use  to keep calm under pressure, click  here.)So you know you’re in trouble but you’re keeping your cool. Might there be a simple way to sidestep all these problems? Yeah.3) Be a quitterMany of you might be a little confused right now:  â€œA secret to resilience is quitting? That doesn’t make any sense.”What do we see when we look at people who survive life and death situations? Many of them were smart enough to bail early.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:“…It’s a matter of looking at yourself and assessing your own abilities and where you are mentally, and then realizing that it’s better to turn back and get a chance to do it again than to go for it and not come back at all.” We are a society of high achievers, but in the wilderness, such motivation can be deadly…The best way to take a punch from a UFC fighter and to survive a hurricane are the same: “Don’t be there when it hits.”You quit baseball when you were 10 and quit playing the piano  after just 2 lessons.  Nobody sticks with  everything. You can’t.When the company starts laying people off, there’s always one guy smart enough to immediately jump ship and preemptively get  a new job.And some people are smart enough to realize, “I am never going to be a great Tango dancer and should double my efforts at playing poker.”And you know what results this type of quitting has? It makes you happier, reduces stress and increases health.Via  Think Like a Freak: The Authors of Freakonomics Offer to Retrain Your Brain:Wrosch found that people who quit their unattainable goals saw physical and psychological benefits. “They have, for example, less depressive symptoms, less negative affect over time,” he says. “They also have lower cortisol levels, and they have lower levels of systemic inflammation, which is a marker of immune functioning. And they develop fewer physical health problems over time.”You can do anything -  when you stop trying to do everything.(For more on how to determine what you should stick with and what you should abandon, click  here.)Okay, so maybe you can’t bail and really do need to be resilient. What does the research say you can do to have more grit? It sounds crazy …4) Be delusionalMarshall Goldsmith  did a study of incredibly  successful people. After  assembling all the data he realized the thing they all had in common.And then he shouted:  â€œThese successful people are all delusional!”Via  Supersurvivors: The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success:“This is not to be misinterpreted as a bad thing. In fact, being delusional helps us become more effective. By definition, these delusions don’t have to be accurate. If they were totally accurate, your goals would be too low.” Goldsmith noticed that although illusions of control expose people to risk of failure, they do something else that is very interesting: they motivate people to keep tryin g even when they’ve failed… “Successful people fail a lot, but they try a lot, too. When things don’t work, they move on until an idea does work. Survivors and great entrepreneurs have this in common.”Crazy successful people and people who survive tough situations are all overconfident.  Very overconfident.Some of you may be scratching your head:  â€œIsn’t step one all about not being in denial? About facing reality?”You need to make  a distinction between denial  about the situation  and overconfidence  in your abilities.The first one is very bad, but  the second one can be surprisingly good.  See the world accurately - but believe you are a rockstar.Via  Supersurvivors: The Surprising Link Between Suffering and Success:Denying or distorting a bad situation may be comforting in the short term, but it’s potentially harmful in the long run because it will be almost impossible to solve a problem unless you first admit you have one. In contrast, having an especially st rong belief in one’s personal capabilities, even if that belief is somewhat illusory, probably helps you to solve problems… A useful, if somewhat simplistic, mathematical formula might be: a realistic view of the situation + a strong view of one’s ability to control one’s destiny through one’s efforts = grounded hope.(For more on what the most successful people have in common, click  here.)So this is how superheroes must feel: there’s definitely trouble, but you’re calm and you feel like you’re awesome enough to handle this.But we need to move past feelings. What  actions  are going to see you through this mess?5) Prepare … even if it’s too late for preparationFolks, I firmly believe there is no such thing as a “pretty good” alligator wrestler.Who survives life threatening situations? People who have done it before. People who have prepared.Now even if you can’t truly prepare for a layoff or a divorce, you can work to have  good productive habits and elimin ate wasteful ones.Good habits don’t tax your  willpower  as much as deliberate actions and will help you be more resilient.How do you survive a WW2 shipwreck  and shark attacks?  Keep preparing for the future, even when you’re in the midst of trouble.Via  Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience:As the days went by, he continued to concentrate on strategies for survival. At one point, a rubber life belt floated by and he grabbed it. He had heard that the Japanese would use aircraft to strafe shipwrecked Americans. The life belt could be blown up through a rubber tube. He cut the tube off and kept it, reasoning that if the Japanese spotted them, he could slip under water and breathe through the tube. He was planning ahead. He had a future in his mind, and good survivors always concentrate on the present but plan for the future. Thus, taking it day by day, hour by hour, and   sometimes minute by minute, did Don McCall endure.One caveat: as learning expert  Dan Coyle  recommends, make sure any  prep you do is as close to the real scenario as possible.Bad training can be worse than no training. When police practice  disarming criminals they often conclude by handing the gun to their partner.One officer trained this so perfectly that in the field he took a gun from a criminal -  and instinctively handed it right back.Via  Make It Stick:Johnson recounts how officers are trained to take a gun from an assailant at close quarters, a maneuver they practice by role-playing with a fellow officer. It requires speed and deftness: striking an assailant’s wrist with one hand to break his grip while simultaneously wresting the gun free with the other. It’s a move that officers had been in the habit of honing through repetition, taking the gun, handing it back, taking it again. Until one of their officers, on a call in the field, took the gun from an assailant and handed it right back again.(For more on how to develop good habits - and get rid of bad one s, click  here.)You’re  expecting the best but prepared  for the worst. Perfect. Is now the time to de-stress? Heck, no.6) Stay busy, busy, busyWhat’s the best way to survive and keep your emotions in check when things are hard? “Work, work, work.”Via  Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience:Remember the saying “Get organized or die.” In the wake of trauma, “Work, work, work,” as Richard Mollica wrote. He is a psychiatrist at Harvard who studies trauma. “This is the single most important goal of traumatized people throughout the world.” The hands force order on the mind.When things go bad, people get sad or scared, retreat and distract themselves. That can quell the emotions, but it doesn’t get you out of this mess.Resilient people know that staying busy not only gets you closer to your goals but it’s also the best way to stay calm.And believe it or not, we’re all  happier when we’re busy.(For more on what the most productive people in the w orld do every day, click  here.)You’re hustlin’. That’s good. But it’s hard to keep that can-do attitude when things aren’t going well. What’s another secret to hanging in there?7) Make it a gameIn his book “Touching the Void,” Joe Simpson tells the harrowing story of how he broke his leg 19,000 feet up while climbing a mountain.Actually he didn’t break his leg… he shattered it. Like marbles in a sock. His calf bone driven through his knee joint.He and his climbing partner assumed  he was a dead man. But he survived.One of his secrets was making his slow, painful descent into a game.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:Simpson was learning what it means to be playful in such circumstances: “A pattern of movements developed after my initial wobbly hops and I meticulously repeated the pattern. Each pattern made up one step across the slope and I began to feel detached from everything around me. I thought of nothing but the patterns.” His struggle ha d become a dance, and the dance freed him from the terror of what he had to do.How does this work? It’s neuroscience. Patterned activities stimulate the same reward center cocaine does.Via  Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience:And tellingly, a structure within the basal ganglia is activated during feelings of safety, reward, and simply feeling great. It’s called the striatum and drugs such as cocaine set it off, but so does the learning of a new habit or skill and the performance of organized, patterned activities…Even boring things can be fun if you turn them into a game with stakes, challenges and little rewards.And we can use this same system for everyday problems:  How many resumes can you send out today? Can you beat yesterday?Celebrating “small wins”  is  something survivors have in common.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:Survivors take great joy from even their smallest successes. That is an important step in creating an ongoing feel ing of motivation and preventing the descent into hopelessness. It also provides relief from the unspeakable stress of a true survival situation.(For more on how to increase  gratitude and happiness, click  here.)You’re a machine. Making progress despite huge challenges. What’s the final way to take your resilience to the next level? Other people.8) Get help and give helpGetting help is good. That’s obvious. But sometimes we’re ashamed or embarrassed and fail to ask for it. Don’t let pride get in the way.What’s more fascinating is that  even in the worst of times, giving help can help  you.By taking on the role of caretaker we increase the feeling of  meaning in our lives. This helps people in the worst situations succeed.Leon Weliczker survived the Holocaust not only because of his resourcefulness - but also because he felt he had to protect his brother.Via  Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience:When his fifteen-year-old brother Aaron came in, Leon was suddenly filled with love and a feeling of responsibility for the two boys. He was shedding the cloak of the victim in favor of the role of the rescuer. Terrence Des Pres, in his book  The Survivor, makes the point that in the journey of survival, helping someone else is as important as getting help.Sometimes being selfless is  the best way to be selfish. And the research shows that  givers are among the most successful people  and they  live longer.Via  Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why:Helping someone else is the best way to ensure your own survival. It takes you out of yourself. It helps you to rise above your fears. Now you’re a rescuer, not a victim. And seeing how your leadership and skill buoy others up gives you more focus and energy to persevere. The cycle reinforces itself: You buoy them up, and their response buoys you up. Many people who survive alone report that they were doing it for someone else (a wife, boyfriend, mother, son) back home.(For more on how h elping others can also help you, click  here.)So once the threat is passed, once the dust has settled, can we have a normal life again? Actually, sometimes, life can be even better.Sum upSo when life is daunting and we need resilience, keep in mind: Perceive And Believe Manage Your Emotions Be A Quitter Be Delusional Prepare… Even If It’s Too Late For Preparation Stay Busy, Busy, Busy Make It A Game Get Help And Give Help To live full lives some amount of difficulty is essential.Via  Surviving Survival: The Art and Science of Resilience:Richard Tedeschi, a psychologist who treats post-traumatic stress, said that “to achieve the greatest psychological health, some kind of suffering is necessary.”You can meet life’s challenges with resilience, competence and grace.And when the troubles  are over, science agrees: what does not kill you  can in fact  make you stronger.Join over 320,000 readers.  Get a free weekly update via email  here.This article first appeared on Barking Up The Wrong Tree.

Best Practices for the Happy Hour Interview

Best Practices for the Happy Hour Interview Best Practices for the Happy Hour Interview What to wear, what to drink and when to call it a night.Meeting for cocktails is different from meeting for coffee or over lunch. The expectation is that you will meet in the evening and the situation will be less formal than the office - but not too informal. “When you meet for cocktails, you are not going to a bar, you are not going to a club,” said actress Deidre Henry, who this year appeared on television in “Three Rivers,” “Southland” and “Lie To Me” and will soon be seen in the feature film “Beautiful Boy.” “You know what you are walking into on some level. It is a matter of what sort of image you want them to walk away with, and how do you want to be perceived.”Dressing for the OccasionDress thoughtfully. For women, choices are greater but need to be made with care. “Women do have a fine line to tread,” said Kelly Dingee, a sourcing researcher and executive trainer for AIRS, an executive search firm, “but I think there is enough women’s wear th at converts from office situations so there are plenty of selections.“Obviously you shouldn’t be dressed like you are going on a date. I wouldn’t wear anything that I would wear out with my husband or maybe with my girlfriends if we were going out for a good time at night. I would tone it down just a little bit if it were for a job meeting. Be a little more conscious of necklines and colors.” Deborah Brown-Volkman, a professional certified coach ( PCC ) and the president of a career, life and mentor coaching company, advised women to wear a dress with a jacket.Selecting a DrinkA beer? A glass of wine? A Rusty Nail? “Some would probably get whatever their host gets,” Dingee observed. “I tend to order what I am most comfortable with, so I will almost always order a glass of wine in those situations. If there is a fairly casual crowd and most are going to order a beer, I might order a beer. My boss would probably order whiskey straight. Whatever you select is part of your personality - as long as you don’t overindulge.”One-Drink Maximum“Whenever it is a business situation, I have a one-drink rule. Two drinks is the maximum,” said Dingee, who as a former recruiter once received a job-search expense report in which a candidate ordered in excess of 10 drinks at one sitting. “That sends up some red flags. You want to be sociable, but you don’t want to treat it like it’s your local frat party.”Brown-Volkman said that she, too, would nurse one drink but suggested having a club soda if you decide to move onto a second drink.Actor Douglas Dickerman (who appeared on “Numbers,” “Law Order,” and on several national commercials) recently attended a benefit for a production company that included industry colleagues and networking opportunities. “I had one drink at the end - because you really want to be yourself.”

7 Different Wildlife Conservation Internships

7 Different Wildlife Conservation Internships 7 Different Wildlife Conservation Internships There are many different internship opportunities in the field of wildlife conservation.  Here is a sampling of some currently available opportunities in this field: The American Bear Association (in Minnesota) offers summer internships at the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary, where students have the opportunity to promote the conservation of black bears.  Interns present educational programs, welcome visitors to the facility, prepare food for the bears, maintain bear activity logs, and maintain the facility, among other tasks. Extremely rustic on-site housing is provided, as well as all meals.The Conservation and Land Management program (sponsored by the Chicago Botanic Garden) offers paid five-month internships to students. Students gain experience in such areas as entomology, biology, wildlife biology, and zoology.  The CLM internship then places students at various government agency partners including the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  Interns earn approximately $13,200 ($15 per hour) and there are 75â€"100 internship placements available each year. The Montana Conservation Corps offers summer conservation internships through a network of fourteen federal agencies and nonprofit groups in Montana, Idaho, and North Dakota. The internships run from May to August and involve work in areas such as conservation, biology, and the environmental sciences. Internships are paid opportunities, with interns receiving a $504 stipend to cover their living expenses on a bi-weekly basis.  They also receive a $1,195 AmeriCorps award upon the successful completion of their internship. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) offers a paid internship program at its Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center in Hawaii. Interns are assigned to work directly with a mentor while working in an area of study such as fish ecology, coral reef ecology, fishery economics, or stock assessment. The program lasts from 8â€"12 weeks each summer. Applicants must be rising juniors or seniors in college with a major in a related area such as marine science.REEF Marine Conservation Internships  (in Key Largo, Florida) are offered to upper-level college students and recent college graduates. Interns are involved with identifying specimens, performing dissections, diving, and snorkeling, conducting educational presentations, general facility maintenance, and administrative tasks. Applicants must have basic open water scuba certification and their own set of scuba gear.  Internships run for four months and are unpaid, but there are a few $2,000 scholarships available to cover travel and living expenses. The Student Conservation Association (SCA) offers a wide variety of internship opportunities, some of which are animal-related internships. The SCA internships are continually changing. However, studying bats, tracking  white-tailed deer, performing wildlife management field work with birds, collecting field data on sea turtles, and participating in endangered species protection with several different types of animal are some of the basic offerings. Internships are expense-paid but students are encouraged to inquire about additional compensation in the form of stipends or benefits. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service offers a large variety of internship opportunities for enrolled high school and college students, as well as recent college graduates on an on-going basis, at  dozens of locations across the country. Interns can focus in the area of conservation, marine biology, wildlife management, and wildlife education. The internships are paid, and many offer free housing. More Wildlife Internship Opportunities If none of the programs above are of interest, you can explore internship possibilities related to wildlife by visiting  wildlife rehabilitation internships, zoo internships, insect internships, avian internships, and marine mammal internships.

Building Resilience Between Jobs

Building Resilience Between Jobs Building Resilience Between Jobs Here are two methods to improve your habits and your outlook when you need it most - when you’re searching for a job.It’s not so bad being out of work â€" not at first, anyway. You get to sleep a little later, see the kids off the school, play with the dog a bit, relax and recharge. How nice just to be able to breathe again!But as the days turn into weeks … and months, it’s not unusual for the inherent stress and strain of a job search to start wearing you down â€" mentally, physically and emotionally. And, for many, that emotional component is the most debilitating, according to a December New York Times/CBS News poll of the unemployed:“Nearly half of the adults surveyed admitted to feeling embarrassed or ashamed most of the time or sometimes as a result of being out of work. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the traditional image of men as breadwinners, men were significantly more likely than women to report feeling ashamed most of the time.”In other words, whether you wan t to admit it or not, it’s as likely as a coin flip that you’re feeling increasingly vulnerable from being out of work.There’s no shame in this. It simply is what it is. But if you are feeling embarrassed, you likely know what John Bradshaw, author of in “Healing the Shame that Binds You,” meant when he wrote: “Shame has a way of magnifying when we keep it to ourselves.” So if you haven’t yet, make a point of sharing your feelings with a loved one or someone you deeply trust. Doing so can be surprisingly cathartic and personally validating.So what else can a executive-level job seeker do to increase the odds of NOT feeling embarrassed or ashamed while out of work? What steps can you take to re-energize your job search, confidence and dignity?Bradshaw writes, “Our feelings are who we are at any given moment.” Therefore, it’s essential that we manage them actively. One way to do that is by attending to each of what Bradshaw calls our six Basic Dependencies: Self-Value Needs â€" Mattering, being taken seriously, being wanted for oneself and having a strong sense of self Stimulation â€" Experiencing pleasure, fun, excitement, challenge and play Sociality â€" Mirroring, being echoed and having/being in healthy relationships with others Structure â€" Having direction, boundaries, limits and predictability Security â€" Having proper food, clothing, protection and medical care Stroking â€" Being recognized, given attention, hugged, encouraged and praised Try this: Every morning, rate the level of “neediness” you feel in each of the six categories. Then identify a specific action you could take to help improve one of your weaker ratings. Make a point of doing precisely that sometime during the day. Attend to all six of your Basic Dependencies over the course of the week.Harry V. Roberts and Bernard F. Sergesketter offer another interesting approach in their book, “Quality is Personal.” Their Personal Quality Checklist is an easy-to-use structure for eliminating unwanted behaviors, like procrastination, negative thinking or whatever impedes you from being at your best. Step 1 â€" Make a list of five or six behaviors/attitudes/feelings you’d like to extinguish. (I wrote mine on an index card so I could carry it with me at all times. Using your BlackBerry or iPhone would work equally well.) Step 2 â€" Throughout a given day, keep a tally of how many times you catch yourself doing what you’re trying to stop. Step 3 â€" At the end of each day, total your tallies and strategize about your game plan and tally targets for tomorrow. Step 4 â€" Repeat Steps 2-3, replacing items on your list as you extinguish them. “One of the keys to success and fulfillment in both our personal and professional lives,” write Roberts and Sergesketter, “is a heightened sense of awareness. The power of the simple stroke tally to heighten awareness is extraordinary. Habits quickly change for the better.”I have personally found the Personal Quality Checklist to be a very effective process. Two notes, though, based on my own experience: Don’t freak out! The number of tallies you mark during the first few days can be … staggering! This is perfectly natural and the higher the count, the better. That’s because high initial tallies set the stage for dramatic tally reductions as you increase your focus on better managing your targeted behaviors/attitudes/feelings. Flip it over! While the front of my index card (Side One) tracked what I wanted to extinguish, I used the back of the card (Side Two) to track the behaviors/attitudes/feelings that I wanted to specifically nurture by doing so. Side Two provided a nice balance between more and less. But it also offered some excellent suggestions for what activities could replace the extinguished Side One activities, which turned out to be a very nice surprise. The ultimate antidote for feeling embarrassed or ashamed while out of work â€" and the instruction for re-energizing your job search, confidence and dignity â€" is this: As you become increasingly conscious and purposeful about what you choose to do (and what you choose not to do) you’ll start connecting back to that energy and resilience you felt when at the TOP of your game.I invite you to embrace that person inside you â€" the person you can be, the person you want to be â€" the person you truly are.

Hourly Rates to Charge as a Freelancer

Hourly Rates to Charge as a Freelancer Hourly Rates to Charge as a Freelancer If youre setting out to do freelance work, either part-time or as a full-time career, you will need to establish your rate. Whether its hourly, a day rate, or per project, it can be a daunting prospect. Set the rate too low, youll be working yourself into the ground for peanuts. Set the rate too high and you may not get any business at all. Its a fine balance, based on experience, skill level, and what you consider a valuable use of your time.   So, if youre ready to jump into the freelance pool, or youre already there and want advice on the rate you should charge read on. Lets start with a warning. Avoid Freebies and Introductory Rates Its an easy trap to fall into. A business wants you to do work for them, but they dont want to pay. So, they ask you to do a little something for free. If its good, youll get more work later at a decent rate. Or, you may be asked to charge a lower introductory rate, which is the companys way of saying hey, were taking a chance on you, you need to cut us a deal. Very few professions operate this way. Imagine calling a plumber and saying well, if you fix this pipe for free, Ill call you for more work later. Or, cut your price in half, and I guarantee more work down the road. In almost every other profession, the price is the price, and thats it. So, have the same kind of respect for yourself. If a business doesnt want to pay you what youre worth, find another that will. Charge The Freelance Rate You Have Earned When you first get into the business, you are green. You havent learned the hard-nosed, on the job lessons that will make you true professional. You will have college experience, but thats not a patch on the kind of experience youll get from working in a fast-paced agency for a year or two.So, when you freelance in those early days, you are not doing it for the money, your hourly rate will be fairly poor. Youre doing it to establish a client base, and to get more varied work in your portfolio. You may even decide to take on free assignments (be careful, though -  this is easily abused or sets a low bar for pay), or do a lot of pro-bono work. At this stage, its fine to charge anywhere from $20-$30 per hour, or less if you want the work. After a few years though, say 3-5, you will have gained insights that make you a better designer or advertiser, and you will have learned skills that cannot be learned in college. These all justify your newly increased freelance rate. It can be anywhere from $35-$60 per hour, and this is not taking into account the bigger markets like New York and L.A., which require additional money to cover larger expenses. In Later Years, You Have The Right To Charge Much More When you hit the 5-10 years of experience mark and have a ton of excellent work and clients in your portfolio, its time to raise your rate again. Now, the prospective clients are paying not only for the work you will deliver  but the quality of work you can do and the time it took you to gain that experience. Some will find it a tough rate to swallow; after all, why should they pay you $70-$100 per hour when they can pop online and find a $50 logo, or find a designer on Craigslist wholl charge peanuts? Remember to tell anyone who questions your rate that they get what they pay for. After 10-15 years, this rate can go up to $150-$200 per hour. And after 20 years, well the skys the limit. At this stage in your career, you have a vast wealth of experience to draw upon. You will be much quicker at your job, too. What used to take you four  hours may only take you 90 minutes now. You will come up with elegant solutions in less time, and the solutions will all be very useful. Remind Clients That Time Is Valuable, Including Their OwnPerhaps one of the greatest injustices in the freelance world is how companies view the value of a freelancer. Lets look at this in two ways to illustrate the point.   The Traditional WayAfter the client chooses a freelancer, he or she provides a quote based on the scope of work. In this case, the rate is $100 per hour, and the estimate if 40 hours to complete the rebranding task given by the client. That makes a total of $4,000, and the work will take roughly one working week to complete, although these hours will most likely spread out over several weeks. At the end of that task, there may be additional work required, a review process, and the usual back and forth until everyone is happy. After several weeks, or perhaps even months, the job is finished. The additional hours added a further $1,000 to the job, and the client got everything they needed after two months.   In short - Time spent: 2 months. Cost: $5,000 The Experienced WayAfter the client chooses a freelancer, he or she provides a quote based on the scope of work. This freelancer has over 20 years of experience under his or her belt. It will take around 4 hours to do this job, it will be everything the client needs, and the charge for this is the same as the job above - $5,000. In this scenario, the client gets cold feet. Now, the job is not $100/hr, but $1,250 per hour. Thats a staggering rate, higher than any lawyer or doctor charges. They dont want to pay it.   But in this case, the client is missing the big picture. The experienced freelancer will not get the job because they are not considered to be value for money. However, they will save the client many many weeks of time, provide the same satisfaction, and do it for the same cost.   If you asked the client, would you like this for $5,000 in four hours or 8 weeks? the answer would be blatantly obvious. Theyd want the four hours. But because of the way the system works, they think about $5,000 for 50 hours of work vs. $5,000 for 4 hours of work. Thats the wrong way to look at it, considering that time is something a client values above money. Consider this the next time you think about your hourly rate.   Remember Picasso One of the best ways to look at this is illustrated perfectly in this story about one of the great geniuses of our time, Pablo Picasso.  The legend goes that Picasso was sat on a park bench sketching when a woman, a very bold one at that, asked him to do her a sketch. It went something like this: Oh my, I cant believe it, youre the great Picasso! Please, sir, you must sketch a portrait, and I shall not leave unless you say yes! Well, being something of a gentleman, Picasso agreed. He sat for a minute or two, studying her, and then put his pencil to the paper and with a single stroke, completed the portrait. The time the pencil was touching the paper must have been a few seconds, maybe less. Its…magnificent! The woman was beaming, gushing in fact, about how Picasso had captured her very spirit and likeness in the one stroke. How much do I owe you sir? the woman asked. Ten thousand dollars replied Picasso, without missing a beat or raising an eyebrow. He was deadly serious. The woman was naturally shell-shocked and had trouble gaining her composure. Ten thousand dollars?! she said. Thats preposterous! Why it took you just a few seconds to do this! Picasso breathed deeply for a second  and then replied Madame, it took me my entire life. While the chances of you becoming the next Picasso are probably slim, the fact remains that when you charge your rate, you must take into account all the years of experience that made you the designer, copywriter, or ?art director you are. You are not charging just for your time, but the many years of blood, sweat, and tears that it took to reach your level of skill. Never back down from that.

Tips for Breaking into the Travel Business

Tips for Breaking into the Travel Business Tips for Breaking into the Travel Business The industry may be changing, but it certainly isnt dying:  employment in the travel industry hit an all-time high  in October, reaching 8.027 million jobs overall. In fact, the travel industry has been thriving since we started to climb out of  Great Recession, creating jobs 40 percent faster than the rest of the economy. Does this entice you? Do you want to know more about what it takes to succeed in the travel industry? I talked with Nick Van Gruisen, managing director of The Ultimate Travel Company, about the state of the industry, what he looks for in employees, and what he has to say to people who are looking to break into the business. (Note: Van Gruisens answers have been minimally edited for style and clarity) Recruiter.com:  Some say that travel is a dying industry, thanks to technological advances. Do you agree? Disagree?   Nick Van Gruisen:  I obviously disagree. I think that there will always be a necessity for expert advice and knowledge given personally. Especially for long-haul travelers visiting exotic and unusual places that may be out of their comfort zone, it can really help to speak to someone with experience who knows the area they are visiting well. This expert advice is essential to ensuring they have a good trip. Getting to know our clients personally is how we make sure they get what they want, know what they need to know, and are fully prepared for a successful holiday. RC:  Whats the outlook like for people who want to get into travel? Pipe dream or a good shot at employment? Why? NVG:  A lot of young people come to me, and they will tell me about their travel experiences backpacking all over South America, all over India, and their memories of living on a dollar a day in Thailand. They have seen so many beaches and so many sunsets and so many ancient ruins that often they think, The travel business must want me. However, the fact is that the skill in travel is not explaining what the Taj Mahal looks like. We all know what the Taj Mahal looks like, and we all know why we want to go to India. Crucially, we are not selling India; we are selling the best way of doing India. There is a huge variety of accommodation which compliments India, and our skill is putting round pegs in round holes. You can stay in a six-star hotel, a colonial hotel, or a minimalistic hotel, and you are all still seeing the Taj Mahal. It comes down to what individuals prefer. It’s not the cash: you just might loathe big international hotels. We talk to our clients and make the decision by asking the right questions and getting the feel for the person. It’s not what can you afford. They all have their nuances. Therefore, sometimes these young people who know South America like the back of their hand lack the experience and insight we need, and it’s not their fault. Perhaps they have been sleeping rough or camping on their adventures, and they haven’t visited a single good restaurant or smart hotel. I tell them that the best training you can get is working for a travel company in this country and learning the bare essentials of travel, ticketing, cost, and experiencing the actual day-to-day life in the industry. RC:What are the top three skills you look for in travel employees? Why these skills? NVG:  1. Sales ability In the old days you were almost more of an order-taker, but now to be successful in this industry, you’ve got to be a salesman. The competition is huge out there, both from other agencies in this country and overseas [companies] trying to break into our market. The Internet also now plays an enormous part in people looking for travel, so we have to stand out. It’s not just being an expert; you actually have  to be able to sell it well. 2. Charming and relatable Following on, to be a good salesperson, you need to have good people skills. We look for people who are charming and relatable. The person you are selling to is probably talking to three other companies, all with very similar itineraries and similar prices. You, personally, could be the deciding factor. You have got to convince them to book with you because you are the best. You may be more trustworthy, or more user-friendly, or willing to jump higher  to give them what they want. 3. Good organization skills, with attention to detail Our employees need to be excellent at organization and detail. When you organize a £10,000+  trip for a couple, you’re putting a lot at risk. People may be saving up for years or even a lifetime for that holiday. It’s a huge expense. After a car and a house, it’s probably the third biggest expense. If you mess up forget to book a hotel, book the wrong airline, or forget to tell them to get a visa you can cause big trouble. It is a big problem both emotionally for all involved and financially for the company. It just takes one little oversight, and you can really upset people and cost them a lot of money. Organization and detail are key to the role. So, the ideal travel employee needs to be a charming salesman with excellent organization skills and attention to detail. RC:  What advice do you have for someone who wants to get into travel? NVG: In the travel industry, the product is lovely, but the day-to-day work is very clerical. Creating a holiday and selling a holiday takes a lot of work. You are producing huge itineraries, working out costs, and dealing with crisis situations, such as people changing their mind or airlines canceling. The work is precise, detailed, and very repetitive. My advice would be to prepare for this. Don’t expect to be out on trips as soon as you start. We give thorough interviews, and we don’t say it is the most glamorous job. Anybody working for smaller companies like ours will be very hands on. I’d always say, work for a big company like Trail Finders or Audley which employ 200 to 250 people learn the basics, and come see us in a few years.