Ask the Chief Happiness Officer - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Ask the Chief Happiness Officer - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Im introducing a new feature on the blog: Im now taking questions. Seriously, ask me anything related to happiness at work. Just call me the Miss Manners or Dear Abby of the workplace. The way it works is you ask a question (either in a comment to this post or in an email) and I answer it in a post on the blog. If you want me to, Ill anonymize your question so you wont get caught asking for outside advice. Go ahead and ask, Id love to help! Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

How to Get Started on Your Strategic Career Plan for the New Year - Hallie Crawford

How to Get Started on Your Strategic Career Plan for the New Year At HallieCrawford.com, we understand the importance of having a clear career path. I’m clear on my path now, but it wasn’t always that way. 16 years ago when I founded my business, I was clueless about what I was going to do long-term. I had jumped around from job to job- I had 5 different jobs before age 28- and I knew I wanted to coach but I had no idea how to run a business, much less create a strategic career and business plan. I learned by trying and failing often, which put me behind schedule in reaching my goals. A recent study showed that the average professional will change jobs 10 to 15 times in their career. I want to help you understand what I have learned in order to determine and define your strategic career plan. There are three main keys to a strategic career plan: Define your career aspirations. Build your personal brand. Develop your plan. For more information about creating your strategic career plan, download our free presentation, 3 Keys to Unlock YOUR Strategic Career Plan. To define your career aspirations, you need to determine who you are, where you are going, and how you will get there. This will allow you to create a better vision for your career future. For example, think about your interests, your values, and your strengths. Next, ask yourself about your career goals. This can include the lifestyle, work environment, and position that you want. Then, think about what you may need to do to reach those goals, perhaps additional schooling, training, or sharpening a skill set. (Not sure if your career is the right fit for you long-term? Take our free Ideal Career quiz!) Having a personal brand is important, but underutilized. In fact, less than 15% of professionals have a defined brand. Your personal brand is related to your career aspirations in the sense that it involves knowing your values, your strengths, and your soft skills. However, a personal brand goes a little further. It includes the results you achieve because of those three things. Your branding statement should include the following elements: who you serve, what unique value you provide, and how you deliver (your results). With these elements, you are in a better place to create your strategic career plan. To do this, think about where you want to be in one, three, and five years from now. However, start about thinking about five years from now first, because this allows you to create more of a long-term vision for yourself. Then determine where you need to be in three years and in one year to make that happen. This is something that you should write down and check quarterly. We hope that you have a wonderful holiday season! We wish you and your family the best for the holidays, and a peaceful, prosperous, happy new year. Certified Career Coach and Founder of HallieCrawford.com

A Guide to Writing Resume and Cover Letter

A Guide to Writing Resume and Cover LetterThe purpose of this article is to provide a guide to writing resume and cover letter correctly. You have to be prepared if you are interested in landing a job. You do not have to read this article to realize that having an impressive resume is important. This is a vital first step in being considered for any position.The reason why a strong applicant needs a good cover letter, resume, and interview is because it makes the difference between whether or not the employer will hire you. The interviewer may assume that a weak resume means that the job seeker does not want to work for the company. The employer's evaluation takes into account the skills, experience, and background of the applicant.It is vital that the employer's mind is on the job, and not his or her thoughts of what a good description of the job requires. A few mistakes in the resume and cover letter can make a huge difference in how much the hiring manager looks at the details of the job. The employer may want to move on from the candidate with poor information, and will be less likely to select another candidate.The company and the individual to request that the resume and cover letter to be completed and sent out to the appropriate people before the actual interview. The hiring manager has the advantage of doing extensive research and examination before making a decision. An applicant may not be as prepared as a hiring manager is, and may lose the job if the hiring manager makes a negative evaluation of the resume.Many prospective employers will not ask for the details of the resume unless the person provides them. The hiring manager's first responsibility is to ensure that the applicant has all of the relevant skills needed for the job. Otherwise, the hiring manager is much more likely to say no to an applicant who is unprepared.Sometimes an applicant may not submit all of the information requested by the interviewer. This is the time when the interviewer makes a judgment call as to whether or not the applicant is worth the effort. If the applicant is qualified, the interviewer is just as likely to accept the candidate as the candidate who submitted the necessary information. This often happens to people who had their resumes finished in a hurry and did not write it in the manner the interviewer expected.Before going to a job interview, have a few extra copies of your resume and cover letter ready. Give the interviewer your resume and cover letter before the interview. This will give you a chance to explain your points in detail and convince the hiring manager to hire you. Then, leave your resume, cover letter, and resume folder with the interviewing manager.

Donald Lau, Americas Top Fortune Cookie Writer, Is Quitting

Donald Lau, America's Top Fortune Cookie Writer, Is Quitting The man who’s been delivering us inspiring fortunes for 30 years is nearly out of ideas. For 30 years, Donald Lau has served as “Chief Fortune Writer” at Wonton Foods, which bills itself as the largest manufacturer of fortune cookies, noodles, and other Chinese staples. Now, he’s stepping down. Why? He’s got writer’s block. “I used to write 100 a year, but I’ve only written two or three a month over the past year,” Lau recently told Time. In the ’80s, when Lau first landed the role at the Queens and Brooklyn-based company, cookie fortunes were, well, fortuitous (think: “A dream you have will come true”). But today, he says, the premium is on new, inspirational sayings that promote Yogi tea bag-style well-being. The pressure has led Lau to hand his soothsaying responsibilities to another employee: James Wong, a nephew of the company’s founder. Lau will continue to serve as Wonton Food’s Chief Financial Officer. Time writes: The company has explored fortune-writing contests and soliciting fortunes online, and they also keep track of diner reactions. A run of brutally honest fortunes about a decade ago didn’t go over well, and authorities briefly investigated the company in 2005, after 110 Powerball lottery players won about $19 million after using the “lucky numbers” on the back of fortunes. Once a jilted wife wrote in to complain that her husband had gotten a fortune promising him romance on his next business trip, and a satisfied customer wrote to say he got a new job after reading a fortune about a new opportunity coming his way. “When they eat their fortune cookie, I want the customers to open the fortune, read it, maybe laugh, and leave the restaurant happy,” [Lau] says, “so that they come back again next week.”

5 tips to ignite your personal brand on social media

5 tips to ignite your personal brand on social media677TweetShare25702 SharesBe fearless in the pursuit of what sets your soul on fire.Five years ago, social media helped jump-start my career. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in History from East Carolina University in May 2011, I was struggling to find a full-time job. I had come to the realization that the industry that I was pursuing would not provide me with a full-time job unless I returned to school to complete my Masters degree immediately. I was not interested in going through two more years of school and I did not want to continue down the path of dead-end sales jobs.In between working part time jobs, I started managing social media for small businesses in Philadelphia. I absolutely loved consulting. I felt renewed. I believed that I had found my calling and real passion in life. Starting a new career has its challenges. However, my passion for social media outweighed the struggles that I thought I would have to go t hrough in order to establish myself in this industry. Here are my 5 tips to help you ignite your personal brand on social media1. Establish Your ChannelsFirst and foremost, I believe that it is very important to establish your social media channels. These channels will be the windows into your personal brand. Regardless of the channels that you select, make them professional. Add a headshot, update your bio, and share relevant content. I have established my personal brand on Twitter and LinkedIn. While most people struggle to be present on every social media channel, consider my rule of thumb less is more. Find your audience and establish on one to two channels. You can always add more to your arsenal down the road.2. Build Your AudienceOnce your channels are established, its time to build your audience. Start by researching like-minded individuals in your niche. For example, I used relevant s on Twitter to build my network. I researched socialmedia, digitalmarketing, and personalbr anding to find people who shared my interest and passion in social media. Once you start to follow those like-minded people, engage and build that personal connection with them. 9 times out 10, youll get a follow back if you create that human engagement with them.Related articlesThe 11 tools you should use to create your personal brandThe ultimate guide to building professional reputation3. Participation Is KeyI cannot stress this enough. You have to participate in conversations if you want to build your personal brand on social media. Luckily, there is no shortage of ways to participate. For example, I participate in 5 Twitter chats per week. I also participate in at least 1 webinar per week. Participation is going to help you build your audience and establish your influence.4. Share Your PassionI consider myself very lucky to be where I am today in the social media industry. If you find your passion, youll never have to work a day in your life. My passion for social media has igni ted my career. When I engage with like-minded people in conversations that I participate in, their passion fuels my passion. Find your passion and share it with your audience. Odds are theyll share the same passion and your brand will become remarkable.5. Establish Your InfluenceFinally, it is very important to establish your influence. Credibility is everything when building your personal brand. Look for experiences that will help you expand your resume. Your passions will fuel your desire to establish your industry influence. This takes time. It does not happen overnight, so be patient.Looking back, I am so proud of myself for working through those challenges and following my passion in life. I have discovered how to build my personal brand from scratch. All of my knowledge of social media can be attributed to my hard work diligence and research five years go. Along the way, I figured out how to use social media to build my personal brand. It has been an amazing journey so far, an d I cannot wait to see where my passion for social media takes me.First posted on May 22, 2016 by Sarah K. Walters Tags career development, personal branding, social media, tips

Student Loans Are a Womens Issue Heres Why

Student Loans Are a Womens Issue Heres Why More Americans are burdened with student loan debt than ever before, with millennials, in particular, owing a staggering sum over $1.48 trillion spread out among about 44 million borrowers, according to 2018 estimates. Theres no denying that this type of debt is hitting young people, regardless of gender, hard. But is there a chance student loan debt also carries gendered implications, with women being impacted more negatively than men?The short answer? Yes. Thegender pay gap, coupled with the fact that families save and spend more on sons educations than daughters educations, means that women with student loans tend to pay back their debts slower than their male counterparts. Student loans are then, in a nutshell, a womens issue.A study byT. Rowe Price examined households with all boys and those with all girls and found that 50 percent of the boy-only families had money saved for college, whereas just 39 percent of girl-only families had money saved. In fact, 17 percent of parents of all boys said they would be able to cover the entire cost of college, compared with just eight percent of parents of all girls. Twenty-three percent of parents of all boys also said that they were willing to personally take on $75,000 or more in student loans compared to only 12 percent of parents of all girls, perhaps because 68 eprcent of parents of all boys said that saving for their kids education was a greater priority than saving for retirement, compared to 50 percent of parents of all girls.Likewise, aleidher study by LendEDU found that 10 percent of men had their higher education paid for by their parents, while just six percent of women could say that their parents had paid for a majority of college. In fact, half of the women studied said that their parents didnt pay for any of their education at all.It makes sense, then, that the American Association of University Womenfound that women typically have larger student loans than men. But burgeoning student loans set women in the workplace back even further, since they already make less than their male counterparts and have to pay off even more debt.In 2016, women working full time in the United States were typically paid just 80 percent of what men were paid thatsa pay gap of 20 percent, according to The American Association of University Women. While the gap has gotten smaller since the 1970s as more women obtain higher educations and enter the workforce, the rate of change between 1960 and 2016 means that women are still not expected to reach pay equity with men until 2059. The progress even started slowing down in 2001 and has somewhat stalled over the years if it continues to stall, women might not actually reach pay equity until 2119.Moreover, the pay gapamong men and women who have just recently graduated college is widening, according to a recent report by the Economic Policy Institute. The study found that women earn $17.88 on average during thei r first four years post-college, while their male counterparts make $20.87 that represents a divide thats larger than it was more than a decade ago.So, parents are saving and spending more on sons college educations than on daughters, and then women go into the workforce making less money than their male peers right out the gate, and their futures arent too promising with regards toeventually earning equal pay either.I dont think parents are going to admit to their 18-year-old daughter that they dont want to pay as much for her education because they are thinking 10 years down the road to her wedding, Shereem Herndon-Brown, a former college admissions director and founder of Strategic Admissions Advice LLC, told The Wall Street Journal.We live in a world where women are still expected to get married and be wives, but yet more women than men enter college in the first place. In fact, over the past half-century, women have consistently dominated men at school. Starting with people bo rn in the 1950s, American women have beenmore likely to graduatefrom high school and, starting with people born in the 1960s, women have also graduated at higher rates than men. Today, women earn the majority of college degrees in this country, and that goes for associates, bachelors, masters and doctoral degrees.So, why do families continue to anticipate their daughters weddings instead of their daughters futures? And why do companies continue to anticipate womens family plans instead of their promotion plans?Unconscious biases plague women in the workplace, but research has brought these biases to the forefront of the news agenda. We are collectively conscious of them, and its about time both families and companies realize them and act to avoid perpetuating them.--AnnaMarie Houlis is a multimedia journalist and an adventure aficionado with a keen cultural curiosity and an affinity for solotravel. Shes an editor by day and a travel blogger at HerReport.org by night.

How to Find Resume Writing Valdosta Ga Online

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