Organize Your Job Search Needs This is your week!

Organize Your Job Search Needs This is your week! Its been quite hectic around here lately I announced the JibberJobber anniversary upgrade options a month ago but never really let too many people (like, my users!) know.  This week we emailed all of the people who have signed up (and have chosen to get those types of emails) letting them know that the special is good through this week. There are two bundle options, both of which include the buy-on-year-get-one-free.  That is, for $99 you get 24 months of JibberJobber, which comes out to about $4/month.  That is a sweet deal, right? For this anniversary special you can also get (at no additional cost) either: The new, awesome, 3 hour LinkedIn DVD, ($50 value) or 3 premium streaming videos, including Blogging for Job Seekers, Twitter for Job Seekers and Social Networks for Job Seekers. ($150 value) To take advantage just login to your JibberJobber account and go to the Upgrade page (located at the bottom of any page), upgrade for one year and let us know which bundle you want. Let your buddies know, buy this as a graduation gift, or get it for that friend who is struggling in their job search. More details on JibberJobber specials here. Organize Your Job Search Needs This is your week! Its been quite hectic around here lately I announced the JibberJobber anniversary upgrade options a month ago but never really let too many people (like, my users!) know.  This week we emailed all of the people who have signed up (and have chosen to get those types of emails) letting them know that the special is good through this week. There are two bundle options, both of which include the buy-on-year-get-one-free.  That is, for $99 you get 24 months of JibberJobber, which comes out to about $4/month.  That is a sweet deal, right? For this anniversary special you can also get (at no additional cost) either: The new, awesome, 3 hour LinkedIn DVD, ($50 value) or 3 premium streaming videos, including Blogging for Job Seekers, Twitter for Job Seekers and Social Networks for Job Seekers. ($150 value) To take advantage just login to your JibberJobber account and go to the Upgrade page (located at the bottom of any page), upgrade for one year and let us know which bundle you want. Let your buddies know, buy this as a graduation gift, or get it for that friend who is struggling in their job search. More details on JibberJobber specials here. Organize Your Job Search Needs This is your week! Its been quite hectic around here lately I announced the JibberJobber anniversary upgrade options a month ago but never really let too many people (like, my users!) know.  This week we emailed all of the people who have signed up (and have chosen to get those types of emails) letting them know that the special is good through this week. There are two bundle options, both of which include the buy-on-year-get-one-free.  That is, for $99 you get 24 months of JibberJobber, which comes out to about $4/month.  That is a sweet deal, right? For this anniversary special you can also get (at no additional cost) either: The new, awesome, 3 hour LinkedIn DVD, ($50 value) or 3 premium streaming videos, including Blogging for Job Seekers, Twitter for Job Seekers and Social Networks for Job Seekers. ($150 value) To take advantage just login to your JibberJobber account and go to the Upgrade page (located at the bottom of any page), upgrade for one year and let us know which bundle you want. Let your buddies know, buy this as a graduation gift, or get it for that friend who is struggling in their job search. More details on JibberJobber specials here.

How to Make Your Next Business Trip a Million Times More Fun - Classy Career Girl

How to Make Your Next Business Trip a Million Times More Fun You don’t always have a lot of free time on your international business trip (despite what people may think), but every so often, you may be lucky enough to have a meeting on a Friday and a meeting on a Monday and no plans in-between. This can be a wonderful opportunity to explore a different part of the world and to gain priceless memories. But sometimes after planning the work portion of your business trip, you may have forgotten to plan for the weekend. Here are my key pieces of advice for researching what to do, even at the last minute. How to Make Your Business Trip a Million Times More Fun 1. Read hotel reviews I find that reading a few pages of the reviews on TripAdvisor about the hotel, even while I’m already staying there, often gleans some very useful information such as “They have a free shuttle to this tourist destination” or “The concierge desk was able to recommend a day-tour company that was affordable,” or “A really good restaurant is within walking distance.” Reading other reviewers’ experiences can help give you ideas. 2. Use your human resources Hotel employees are generally a great resource (except if they are not from the local area) â€" if there is something you want to do, go and ask if your guidebook has it right.  You might find after talking to the hotel employee that the market you wished to visit is actually only open on Sundays or that tomorrow is a holiday and you should just go this evening instead.  Likewise, at the end of a business meeting, if you feel comfortable with your international colleagues, say: “I actually have a day off tomorrow. Is there anything special you recommend I do?” You’ll definitely get different insights from your foreign counterparts than an outdated guidebook, and you may get a more authentic experience as well! 3. Use Social media Get on Twitter and Instagram and search for the city that you’re in or follow local tourist offices’ accounts. Looking at others’ photos or posts can give you great ideas about what to expect. I often also ‘like’ the hotels’ Facebook pages ahead of time so that I can see when they post local events. You also might want to make a post such as “Here for a long weekend! Any suggestions for a first time visitor?” and tag the Twitter handle of a tourist office or your hotel, and often they will retweet to their followers and garner suggestions.  (Hint: I also tweet the hotel and let them know I’m excited to stay with them!) 4. Get your Google on Although it’s a little cheesy, looking up “top things to do in_____” can actually give you a great starting point to start to see what consistently comes up and what is a reasonable amount of things you can get done in a day. I also find the search term “24 hours in _____” to be useful, although sometimes those types of articles focus a lot on food and drink. Looking at the “Activities” page of a TripAdvisor destination quite useful â€" I just scroll through all the activities until I see one that looks interesting. This is how I found out about the beautiful Parque Lage in Rio de Janeiro â€" a beautiful peaceful park with little caves and winding paths and monkeys hiding behind palm trees, but not a spot that’s often mentioned in standard travel articles. 5. Choose a starting point and then wander In metropolitan areas, just ask your hotel if it’s safe and/or recommended to walk around your hotel, and they will point you in the right direction. During a prior business trip, I stumbled upon wonderful little souvenir shops, artisan storefronts, and delicious coffee houses this way. Alternatively, take a taxi or public transportation to a starting point (for instance: the town square or a shopping district) and then just explore on foot. You may stumble across some wonderful surprises. 6. Follow your heart My first time in Hong Kong, I didn’t actually spend that much time in the typical Hong Kong areas â€" instead, I took a cable car to Lantau Island to see the huge Buddha statue there. It was an incredible experience, but it’s not the first on the list of things to do in Hong Kong if you look it up online â€" many sites assume you want to stay super close to your hotel. But I really wanted to see it, and after doing some research, I found out it was perfectly possibly to get there and back in a half-day excursion, and quite easy.     I’m really glad I followed my heart as I had no regrets about visiting beautiful Lantau Island and I highly recommend it to any Hong Kong visitor. So if there’s something you really want to do or that speaks to you, don’t feel guilty for not rushing around to see other touristic stuff that you’re really not interested in. 7. Check out some guided tours There are some experiences that it may be more cost efficient or safer to pay for a guided tour. Viator is a great website I use to check out the options, as well as inquiring at the hotel desk. You can pay for a cooking class, go on a boat tour of a seaside city, hire a private driver, or perhaps have a wine tasting tour. The options are limitless and sometimes the guided tours are great options to reach destinations that are a little further away and hard to get to without your own car. It can also be nice to have someone else take care of the transportation and make sure you see as much as possible in 8 hours if you’re short of time. I’ve had great experiences doing independent sightseeing as well as small group sightseeing. 8. Listen to your body If you’ve been going non-stop for a week and are feeling unwell, consider if you are really and truly interested in exploring, or whether you just feel you “have” to. At some point, your health is more important than that photo-op.  If all you want to do is take decongestant and snuggle in your comfy hotel bed, give yourself permission to spend a weekend morning doing so.  I promise you it’s okay! A good rest can do wonders to reinvigorate yourself â€" and don’t forget you need to hit the ground running on Monday morning. Don’t overtire yourself out so much on the weekend that you’re a poor business traveler for the next week. I hope you have a wonderful weekend on your next global business trip adventure, and let me know what fantastic sites you visit!

Why You Should Be Writing Just For The Health Of It

Why You Should Be Writing Just For The Health Of It For many of us,  writing is a practical tool. We use it to communicate our thoughts, ideas, and experiences with other people, usually through email and social media. However, considerable scientific research is showing that writing has exciting health and wellness benefits too. In the infographic below, Global English Editing outlines 11 science-backed ways writing improves your mind, body and spirit. Writing: Its Good For You! Writing not only helps you become a better communicator, but studies have found that reflective journaling is an effective way to develop critical thinking skills and clinical reasoning skills too. In addition, writing can also help you have a better memory. Do you know that writing regularly can help benefit your immune system, reduce blood pressure, and improve lung function? Research has also shown that participants who journaled about what they were grateful for every week, compared to those who wrote about daily hassles or neutral events in their journals, were more physically active, reported fewer physical ailments, were more content with their lives, and were more optimistic about the week ahead. As you can see, writing not only helps you become smarter and achieve your goals, but can ease what ails you too, whether physical, emotional, psychological or spiritual. Check out the infographic for a full explanation of the 11 science-backed ways writing can improve your mind, body and spirit. Here are the 11 science-backed ways in more detail, including links to original studies 1. Communicate Better Writing well helps you become a better communicator. By being able to write well, you’re also able to express yourself verbally to communicate well with others. This leads to better relationships with people and having your needs met more easily. And just as importantly, you can understand yourself better too. 2. Become Smarter Studies have found that reflective journaling is an effective way to develop critical thinking skills and clinical reasoning skills. Writing in a reflective journal can help you evaluate information better, and increase your ability to conceptualize and apply what you’ve experienced or learned. A reflective journal can include positive or negative experiences, thoughts, ideas, feelings, class notes, and anything that can help you inspect your own thoughts and feelings. 3. Increase Your Memory Capacity Having a better memory will help you become smarter as well. As it turns out, writing can help you have a better memory. A study found that when 35 freshmen students were assigned to write about their thoughts and feelings regarding upcoming college life, these students displayed a greater increase in working memory 7 weeks later, in comparison to the 36 students who were assigned to write on a trivial topic. Researchers theorize that by expressing oneself through writing about things that are bothersome, stress and worries can decrease, enabling more space and resources to be freed up for memory capacity. 4. Achieve Your Goals Would you like to learn how to play the piano? Or get an A in your Physical Chemistry class? Research showed that when participants kept a journal of what they were grateful for, they were more likely to have strived closer towards the attainment of personal goals over a two-month period, whether these goals be academic, interpersonal, or health-related. In contrast, participants who journaled about daily hassles in their life, or even neutral life events, did not progress towards their goals. Another study found that expressive writing can help boost students’ grade point averages. Write your heart out, young academics! 5. Boost Job Prospects For those who have recently lost their job, and don’t know what to do, writing can help people become reemployed faster after job loss. In a study with 63 recently unemployed professionals, the ones who wrote about their thoughts and feelings regarding their job loss got another job faster than those who wrote about neutral topics or those that did not write anything. Another study showed that expressive writing has also shown to help people miss fewer days of work. University employees who utilized expressive writing to write about traumatic experiences had a 28.6% decrease in absentee rates that month from work, compared to the 48.5% increase in absentee rates among employees who wrote about non-traumatic topics. 6. A Healthier Immune System In a study involving 50 healthy undergraduate students, those who wrote about trauma reported more positive emotions, fewer illnesses, and showed evidence of a higher functioning cellular immune system. In another study, 40 medical students who tested negative for hepatitis B antibodies were randomly assigned to write about either their traumatic experiences or a neutral topic, and then were given a hepatitis B vaccine. Those assigned to write about traumatic experiences mounted a greater vaccine response by producing more antibodies. In a study of HIV positive patients, those who wrote about their emotions experienced a reduction in HIV viral load and an increase in immune function. 7. Reduce Blood Pressure When university employees in a  study were asked to write either about traumatic experiences, or a superficial topic, those who wrote about trauma had significantly reduced blood pressure measures. See a pattern emerging? 8. Improve Lung Function Not only does expressive writing enhance your immune system and reduce blood pressure, but it can also raise lung function. A study found that patients with asthma or rheumatoid arthritis experienced better lung function and reduction of symptoms after writing about stressful life experiences. 9. Boost Athletic Performance Athletes often use training logs and journals to help themselves excel. Writing can keep track of goals,help an athlete learn about experiences, assist in managing emotions, and can be a key to athletic self-development. So if you want to write down how you felt during your last run, or keep a record of the amount of weight that you last dead-lifted, etc., your performance will likely benefit. 10. Heal Trauma Let’s face it. Dealing with your emotions and venting past hurtful experiences and traumas is hard. Expressive writing, which involves personal and emotional expression and the articulation of trauma, has been found to help deal with traumatic and upsetting experiences. Research has shown that participants who wrote about their personal traumatic experiences benefitted from improved health, fewer stress-related trips to the doctor, reduced stress levels, and improved mood. Study participants were able to vent negative emotions and organize their anxious feelings associated with trauma. Thus, writing expressively has a healing quality. 11. Gratitude Life is better when you are grateful. Especially when you write down what you are grateful for. Research showed that participants who journaled about what they were grateful for every week, compared to those who wrote about daily hassles or neutral events in their journals, were more physically active, reported fewer physical ailments, were more content with their lives, and were more optimistic about the week ahead. . Main image via pixabay.

5 Ways to Keep Your Staff Motivated This Holiday Season

5 Ways to Keep Your Staff Motivated This Holiday Season Keeping employees focused as the holidays approach can be a challenge. As the festive spirit spreads, distractions from work pile up. But there are simple things you can do to make workers feel appreciated and motivated at this time of year. A recent survey by the online print company, instantprint, has revealed that 94% of employees want some form of reward from their employers at Christmas this year â€" and it doesn’t have to be strenuous or expensive either. There are a wide variety of things you can do for your staff this holiday period to keep them focused and motivated. 1. Give them Gift Cards Instantprint’s research quizzed 1,500 workers about what they would like their festive reward from their employer to be. Gift cards were the top choice with 29% of the vote. Gift cards are a great option if you want your employees to have some form of a physical gift from your company. You can now purchase a variety of cards, valid in stores for all tastes. Providing these for your staff during the festive period will allow them to choose a gift that means something to them. 2. Arrange Early Finishes Being able to leave work early is a great benefit as Christmas approaches. A shorter working day lets employees complete that last bit of Christmas shopping, spend more time with their loved ones and get into the festive spirit. 28.9% of workers said that an early finish would be the best thing their employer could give them this festive season. If it’s workable for your business, try to provide this for your staff. You could create a schedule throughout December, allowing you to plan for a few employees taking early finishes each day. Or, you could close-up early on the 24th so that everyone can get home and prepared for Santa’s visit. 3. Splash out on an Open Bar for the Christmas Function Most companies will have some sort of festive outing, whether organized by staff or management. These events can help make and cement strong bonds between your teams, creating a positive work environment. One way to encourage Christmas parties and make sure attendance is good is to provide an open bar for your employees. One in five workers lists this as their most desired reward from their employer this festive season. Your open bar does not have to last the whole night, even just the first one or two drinks will be appreciated. If you want to make sure everyone benefits from the bar equally, you can issue drinks tokens to staff, which they can use to purchase drinks throughout the evening. 4. Give your Staff Physical Gifts One in ten employees would like a physical gift, chosen by their employers. This could be food, drink or a practical gift, like a travel cup. If you choose something that will last, like a travel cup, it can have a dual purpose. Not only will it be a show of appreciation to your staff, but you could feature company branding on it, creating a new avenue for increasing brand awareness. 5. Make a Charitable Donation At this time of year, it’s always good to think about those less fortunate than ourselves and try to help them out. Giving a donation to a local charity in the name of your employees can help them feel good about the company they work for and the good they are doing in the world. 7% of staff would like their employer to choose this option as their festive gift. If you’re looking to keep employees motivated this holiday period, these ideas should set you on the right track, but you don’t have to limit yourself to just one. If possible, try combining a few to get the most from your staff this Christmas. About the author: Hannah Rogers is a Content Specialist with Search Laboratory. She has expertise in HR, regularly writing about employee motivation, company cultures, and other related topics.

Childhood Dream of Driving Trains Comes True Case Study - Career Pivot

Childhood Dream of Driving Trains Comes True â€" Case Study - Career Pivot Childhood Dream of Driving Trains Click to Enlarge We all remember growing up with our childhood dreams. Maybe it was to be a policeman or fireman or cowboy. For most of us, we let each childhood dream fade away. We went about our lives growing up, getting an education, getting married, having kids, and pursuing a career that put food on the table and paid the mortgage. Sound familiar? The Story of Mike Martin. Mike was born in the mid-1950s and grew up in New York State. He will tell you he liked anything with wings, wheels, or keels. He was fascinated by anything that moved. After graduating from high school, he attended SUNY Farmington where he received an Associates Degree in Aerospace Technology. He then moved to Texas and started rebuilding airplane engines. When that company went bankrupt, he ended up working in machine shops. That was okay, but that was not going to get him ahead in his career. Career Start At the time, people told him that he was a really good with people and should go into sales. Mike said okay! Sound familiar? Mike did not follow his passion. Mike did what many of us do in that positionâ€"he did what he was told to do. He spent the next 20 years as an outside sales guy…driving a truck and selling various maintenance supplies like cables and wiring. He liked being out and about. As years passed, margins on his commissions got leaner and leaner. It became very hard to make money. Sound familiar? Many of us have seen our chosen profession whither in the new economy. Now in his early fifties, he returned to college to get a Bachelors Degree in Pilot Science. Over the years, he had achieved his pilot’s certification and loved to fly planes. Remember that, as a kid, he loved anything that had wings, wheels or keels. After graduating, he worked at an executive airport for awhile but found the work environment less than inviting. So what did he do? He returned to sales! Listen to the most recent episode Sound familiar? When things do not initially work out, many of us revert back to what we know. He looked at becoming a school teacher. That was a tough transition. That is when Mike found Career Pivot. Birkman Assessment He took the Birkman Assessment and it told him the following: His core interest is music. As most of you know, it is tough to make a buck in the music industry. He was well-suited to piloting, driving, operating, or navigating transport vehicles or material-moving machinery (e.g., aircraft, automobiles, water vessels, construction cranes, locomotives, tractors) Sound familiar? It was his childhood dream! We talked about what motivated him. We talked about what made him happy. He had to be playing music and he got to do that through his church. He now realized how important it was to him. Now he just needed to get to driving something, being outdoors, and helping people. Following His Dream Mike looked at the Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) but they had no positions. He then looked at Houston Metro Rail and saw that they were expanding. He applied to be a Light Rail Vehicle Operator. They replied back and asked him to take an assessment. He passed. He did not think they would want him. They asked him to come in for an interview. He studied up for the interview by reading an article on how a gentleman had become a driver for the London Underground. He prepared cards with all of the questions he thought they would ask him and studied those cards right before the interview. It was a panel interview where they asked him to open and close a special driver’s seat. The secret was there was a special pin that had to be removed to get the seat to close. He did it flawlessly. In fact, it was fun. They were watching to see if he would get frustrated. After the interview, they took him out into the rail yard to see if he could physically do the job; throwing some switches, climbing in and out of the train, and walking the yard. This is when Mike started to get excited. This was his childhood dream. He was going to get to drive a train. Getting Hired Several weeks later, he was told to report for a 10-week training program. Mike moved his RV to Houston and started the class. Mike was being careful. He did not want to rent a place if he did not make it through the training. He made it with flying colors! Mike drove trains for a few months but was moved to the team testing the new red line. He gets to spot problems and propose solutions. The money is decent. With overtime, he does okay. More importantly, he loves what he is doing! His family is still in Austin and he goes home on the weekends. He wants to move up to be a supervisor and a trainer and believes he can work there for as long as he wants. This was all triggered by a simple assessment pointing him back to his childhood dream. His childhood dream came true in his 50s. Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Long Live the Office Romance

Long Live the Office Romance CareerBuilder recently surveyed close to 4,000 workers for their annual Valentines Day Survey and The Vault conducted an office romance survey recently as well. The bottom line is that theres a lot of office romance going on from hook ups to steady dating to marriage proposals. Here are some of the stats from the surveys.CareerBuilder SurveyClose to 40 percent of workers say they have dated someone they have worked with over the course of their career and 10% have done so over the past year.65 percent of workers say they arent keeping their workplace romance a secret.12 percent reported that their relationships started when they ran into each other outside of work.Vault Survey33 percent reported having a tryst in the office; 4 percent report being caught.37 percent said they would participate in an office romance again.65 percent reported that the shaky economy has no effect on whether they would pursue an office romance or not.Office romances happen for all sorts of reasons. Sometim es its about getting ahead or seeking revenge on another person or adding some excitement to life. Other times its simply a distraction or a way to avoid problems in an existing relationship. Romance can bloom simply because being with someone from the office is just plain convenient. It happens.a lot.Over the years, Ive conducted my own random surveys about office romances (asking friends if they have every dated someone they worked with) and I even wrote a research paper about office romances in graduate school ( how could I pass up that opportunity?) The statistics then were pretty much the same. Office romances arent going away.   Can they cause problems? Certainly. But sometimes they work out. And Im a sucker for those stories, especially on Valentines Day. Have a great office romance story? Would love to hear about it here.

Im Pursuing My Passion on The Chi Passionistas!

Im Pursuing My Passion on The Chi Passionistas! The very first seminar I went to at BlogHer was giving by The Chi Passionistas, two young ladies (dont I sound like an old lady saying that?!) and friends who left their jobs to pursue their passions. I, being me, stood up to ask a question/make a comment and I guess they mustve remembered me because they asked to interview me for their blog just a week or so ago! Click here to read the sweet things they said about me, my advice on turning your passion into a career, my favorite and least favorite thing about being an entrepreneur (spoiler alert: its the same thing!) and what I wish I knew before I started my coaching business. Enjoy!