Ask James How do I network

Ask James How do I network by James Reed Not sure how to network effectively? In his monthly column, career coach and Chairman of  reed.co.uk, James Reed, shares his expert advice to help you tackle your biggest career concerns.In this month’s column, James gives his top tips on how to networkThe Question:Dear James,I’m naturally a chatty person, but when it comes to networking events I completely freeze up. I feel like an imposter. I worry that we’ll start talking about industry specific topics and I won’t know what to say. I’m only at the start of my career so it worries me to strike up a conversation with senior people in highly influential companies. What do I say? Where do I start? Sometimes I’m tempted to pretend I’m more senior than I actually am.Please help!Sincerely,Yusif  The Answer:  Dear Yusif,Networking events are a great way to meet new people and build up a set of contacts in your industry. We’ve all heard the phrase, ‘It’s not always what you know, but who you know t hat counts’ and when it comes to job hunting, this often rings true.However, ‘networking’ can be easier said than done. It’s easy enough to turn up to an event, but when you’re faced with a room full of strangers, even the most outgoing people can retreat into their shell, so it’s important that you make the most out of your time at the event.If you can, find out who will be attending the event and make a mental note of people you want to speak to. You can even look people up on social media before the event. That way you’ll feel more prepared on the day.When you send out your CV, rather than sending it into the void it’s best to find out who to address it to, and the same applies with networking.   Knowing who’s who before you turn up will give you the preparedness you need to be confident in your introductions.It’s also a good idea to read up on the latest industry news before you attend these events so that when people chat about the recent merger of X company and Y, or a brand new technology that’s set to revolutionise the way we work, you’ll be able to have informed conversations, rather than simply nodding along in agreement.You don’t have to read an anthology, but having a top line understanding will give you the confidence to strike up a conversation.Also, don’t be afraid of the fact that youre new to the industry and don’t have as much experience as other people at the event. Everyone had to start somewhere, and people are understanding. Tell them that you’re new to the industry and want to learn more about a particular topic. It’s likely they’ll be able to offer valuable advice.Finally, be confident in yourself. People are people, regardless of how senior they are or how much knowledge they have. Remind yourself of this fact whenever you feel nervous talking to someone you think may be out of your ‘career league’, so to speak.Be yourself and be honest. People will like and respect you more for it.JamesWhat is n etworking?If you’d like James to answer your career query, tweet your question to  @James_A_ReedLooking for more CV advice?  Download ‘The 7 Second CV’ nowFind a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the terms and conditions applicable to our service and acknowledge that your personal data will be used in accordance with our privacy policy and you will receive emails and communications about jobs and career related topics. Ask James

3 Reasons to Partner with the Competition - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

3 Reasons to Partner with the Competition - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Doing business as usual includes observing the competition from a distance in order to remain undetected. We don’t want anyone to steal our ideas or copy our unique delivery. Fear gets in the way only to hold us back and delay impending success. But the word, “unique” stands out. No two individuals are exactly alike. We each have a personal brand defining who we are and how we deliver business. With this in mind, and, as you move forward, you open the door to more opportunity allowing possibilities to grow infinitely. Consider the following reasoning for partnering with the competition designed to give your business a jumpstart: 1. Learn new strategies that are working well Due to the fact we each have varied backgrounds and beliefs, our deliveries on goods and services differ. By communicating and possibly partnering with one another, you learn ideas that previously never occurred to you. In the course of conversation, you may decide the other person’s style just isn’t for you. The better scenario is finding you enjoy one another and explore possibilities for doing projects together. The trial run allows you to see if you are a good fit for further partnering. A simple conversation with the competition may easily open many doors of opportunity. 2. Share the stage As you begin your test of doing a joint project, you automatically become more powerful in your delivery. Why? Social media is a gift to every entrepreneur desiring to become known. By promoting your event with partners to each of your communities, the activity will put you on the world stage. As you are seen partnering with another, more of your competition or peers complementing your service will also ask to partner with you. 3. Become a powerful brand Just as you kept an eye on your competition, others are keenly watching you. They see you pushing fear aside to step into the limelight. They see you partnering with many well-known players in your field. Your competition begins to think, “Wow, she is a powerhouse” and they will then pursue you to partner on new projects. And, more and more people will find and follow you. New partners will add new ideas to mix of how to further gain exposure. The possibilities once again expand. It becomes a very nice turn of events from once upon a time being the unknown to now taking center stage. And by incorporating new ideas of others, you will be attempting new strategies. Additional social media and public venue exposure will push your reputation further. The interesting thing about all this is, because you have learned to develop a powerful personal brand, news media and sites monitoring activity will begin to list you as a top achiever in your field. As a footnote, I owe it to good friends who taught me there is no true competition because of our genetic and environmental makeup. This emphasizes the importance of partnering with your perceived competition. You complement one another to deliver a more encompassing service by combining your perspectives. Both you and your clients win by delivery and receipt of a heartier program. Capitalize on your differences and similarities, and you will enjoy the Smooth Sale! Author: Elinor Stutz, CEO of Smooth Sale, LLC, (800) 704-1499, was honored by Open View Labs with inclusion in their international list of “Top 25 Sales Influencers for 2012.” Elinor authored the International Best-Selling book, “Nice Girls DO Get the Sale: Relationship Building That Gets Results”, Sourcebooks and the best selling career book, “HIRED! How to Use Sales Techniques to Sell Yourself On Interviews”, Career Press. She provides team sales training, private coaching and highly acclaimed inspirational keynotes for conferences. Elinor is available for consultation.

Moving On From a Negative Narrative That Just Isnt You Marla Gottschalk

Moving On From a Negative Narrative That Just Isn’t You Marla Gottschalk “Letting go means to come to the realization that some people are part of your history, but not your destiny.”   â€" Steve Maraboli The people that surround us affect our lives. Our managers, colleagues and clients â€" all help to create the supporting stage in which we find ourselves. When we face tense workplace situations, such as a misstep or differences in opinion, the eventual outcome can become an important inflection point. When a narrative emerges that doesn’t accurately reflect the real you or situation, things can quickly become troubling. But, What should happen next? If possible discuss the situation openly. Explore what might have led to that point and if the situation can be saved. Be clear that what is happening is not acceptable, that it is uncomfortable and possibly destructive. Provide information to counter the confusion. Stay calm, yet steadfast. But if you suspect that the poorly deemed decision or opinion has begun to negatively define you and that definition cannot be revised â€" it may be time to seriously reconsider your surroundings. When a narrative appears set in stone, it can become an unhealthy place. Ultimately, you should be surrounded by those who see the best in you (and you in them). If necessary, explore a new stage that fits. A narrative shouldn’t define you â€" unless it is your own. Dr. Marla Gottschalk is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist. She is a charter member of the LinkedIn Influencer Program. Her thoughts on work life have appeared in various outlets including Talent Zoo, Forbes, Quartz and The Huffington Post.

Has the Word Humble Changed From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Has the Word Humble Changed From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career A lot of people confuse personal branding with shameless self-promotion and for good reason. Personal branding involves letting your audience know that you exist, including your achievements, what you stand for and what you can provide to them.   Branding would be ineffective if you just did it for a single day, which is why our marketing plans last for our entire lives.   Companies dont just hire PR firms for a day or even week.   Its usually over four to six months or more. Its like a rock band that only comes out with one album or single; its harder for them to become more successful because there is no new content to get people engaged again.   To be a very successful brand, you have to be an aggressive self-promoter. All major successful brands are constantly promoting themselves for awareness, for repetition and for pushing people to buy their products and/or services.   This happens in companies like Ford or IBM, as well as with personal brands, where self-promotion is looked down upon by some.   Research has shown that a person will likely remember a product or brand after seeing a branded advertisement 3 times. If the three times are in close proximity, there is a very good chance people will remember it.   If you appear everywhere, from the New York Times, to Lifehacker to CNN, within a given period of time, it will have more of an impact then if they appeared in intervals of ten days, for instance. Today, as self-promoting online becomes habitual and routine, everyone in some form or another is participating in this negative activity, almost every day and sometimes without even knowing.   That is why I would like to examine a word that is the antonym of self-promotion: humble.   I, for one, could never consider myself humble, although I dont promote myself in a malicious way.   I think if I were humble, I wouldnt have been even close to as successful as I am today.   In this web 2.0 world, were constantly publishing content, from a Facebook status update, to a tweet, to a YouTube video and more.   It was much easier to stay humble in a web 1.0 world, where most of our interactions were through email, on the phone and in person.   When conversations are put online, it becomes harder to remain humble because people are less careful, they want to be known (egos) and most of the content produced online is text, so it lacks the ability to analyze if the person is humble or not. What does it mean to be humble? Humble: Not proud or arrogant; modest: to be humble although successful. Having a feeling of insignificance, inferiority, subservience, etc.: In the presence of so many world-famous writers I felt very humble. Dictionary.com So the case I want to make is two-fold: When youre sharing and publishing content everyday, which is mostly in text form, how can you remain humble? When you want to differentiate yourself from other people and appease hiring mangers, how can you remain humble? A lot of decisions are made by information that is found online, both in the hiring sense and when it comes to purchasing products.   If you are very humble and dont brag about what youve done or intend to do, then you miss major career opportunities.   I dont believe theres anyway to come off as humble online if youre building a strong personal brand. I dont think the word humble is empowering either. If you look at the second part of the definition above, youll see that it breeds inferiority and insignificance.   To me, thats quite negative, especially when I try teach people how to live a fulfilling life and become the #1 person in their niche! To be completely humble in this web 2.0 environment means to be hidden, and walked over by your competitors, who arent humble and will steal the opportunities that you deserve.   Im not saying to be mean or out-of-character, but I am saying to self-promote, in a way that strategically positions you as the best person to do business with. Self-promotion is here to stay, but it will only get you so far I always that you have to strike balance between promoting yourself and promoting others. Its easy easy and free to promote other peoples work, whether its a simple retweet, a link in a blog post, an interview, etc.   If all you do is self-promote, you will be blocked, unfriended and ignored.   You only make money when you can serve (provide value) to others and you cant network if all you do is talk about yourself.   Keep this all in mind because we cant ignore this simple fact. Is this a Gen-Y thing? Now youre thinking it must be a Gen-Y thing. You may be right.   A recent study out of SDSU confirms that 57% of young people believe their generation   uses social networking sites for self-promotion, narcissism and attention seeking.   As much as this may prove your current hypothesis, a survey of other generations wasnt taken.   As more and more Gen-Xers (Twitters main user base) and baby boomers use social media to connect, I think youll see this is more of a widespread epidemic rather than just a concentration of a specific demographic.   Its pretty obvious that entire families are on Facebook now and that will be more commonplace after the next few years. What do you think? Do you consider yourself humble?   Has online branding impacted how you come across?

What Are Praxis Tests and Why Should You Take Them CareerMetis.com

What Are Praxis Tests and Why Should You Take Themâ€" CareerMetis.com Have you heard of the Praxis exams? How much do you know about them?The Praxis exams are for teachers in training who want to get state teaching certification. To prepare you for the important test, you can take Praxis practice tests. The tests consist of more than 100 different exams. Below is a simple breakdown. General categories of Praxis testsevalevalWhile there are many categories of the tests, there are three general categories. The first is the Praxis core which consists of three tests.These are the Praxis Core Math Test, Reading Test, and Writing Test. These tests evaluate your knowledge on general topics in math and language. You have to take all the three core tests together.Secondly, there is the Praxis II or the Praxis Subject Assessments. These tests allow you to be licensed in specific content areas.For example, you can take tests in Chinese, Braille, Biology, elementary education, and other particular subjects. The Praxis II tests also include exams in non-teaching su bjects such as guidance and counseling.This general category consists of a series of tests known as the Principles of Learning and Teaching You can expect two types of questions on your test. One is the multiple-choice or multiple entry questions.The evaluator marks these questions either right or wrong.The second type is the constructed response questions where you provide answers in the form of essays or short answers. In this case, you will be graded based on the quality of your answers and not whether they are right or wrong.You will receive immediate results for your selected responses because the computer can score them automatically. For constructed responses, you will wait until you receive your Praxis results as human scorers have to evaluate them carefully before assigning scores.evalTest grading is on a scale of 100-200 for all tests except the ParaPro assessments which evaluators scale on a grade of 420-480. There is no universal benchmark for passing or failing the test s as the state sets all benchmarks.Your pass or fail will depend on the state you are in.What happens when you fail a Praxis test?The good news is that failing a Praxis test is a minor setback and you can schedule a retake. You can retake a test every 21 days, excluding the date of the last test. The bad news is that it will delay your job hunt.You, therefore, need to be more prepared for the tests to ensure you do not fail. An excellent way to do this is to take practice tests before you sit the actual test. Practice tests help you get an idea of what to expect and to take note of your strengths and weaknesses.Score review If you feel that you were not well-graded, you can ask for a score review service, but the service is limited. You can only get a review for constructed answer questions and not short review questions. The review costs about $65.f scorers find errors in the score, they can modify it. Score reviews may put you at a disadvantage if the scorer decides to lower the s core instead of increasing it. They may also retain your original grades if they find that they were right. The process takes three to four weeks.All in all, Praxis tests are crucial as they are the benchmark against which academic institutions measure your proficiency as a teacher. Passing a Praxis test can make you stand out as a highly qualified teacher.

Your Career As A Public Defender - CareerAlley

Your Career As A Public Defender - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Hearing about the release of inmates previously found guilty of crimes they did not commit is very unsettling. This makes the public defenders position even more important. We have come to respect and depend on our justice system, but to discover its imperfections creates a growing sense of doubt. It is important that our public defenders be given enough tools to do their very best job for each accused person. Beginning with their education and on the job training, they need to be able to present excellent defense for each and every one of their clients. Then groups like the Innocence Project in California would bring a needed opposing view that brings balance to the so-called justice system. Public defenders and all civic minded attorneys should be working in concert to insure the innocent go free and the guilty are the only ones occupying out prisons. Defender or Prosecutor or Innocence Project Lawyer A career pursuing the freeing of innocent convicts is a new option for those who wish to desire a career in criminal law. Potential lawyers will not be limited to the choices of being a public defender, a private defending lawyer or a prosecuting lawyer. Today, they can continue to seek out justice after the gavel has fallen and the sentence given by seeking true justice for those who have been wrongfully convicted. The Facts Support the Finding of Innocence The law clinic is called the California Innocence Project and is closely associated with the California Western School of Law. Its student volunteers are instrumental is gaining justice for previously convicted persons. Working in concert with experienced criminal lawyers, these students examine every detail of each case until they reveal some substantial piece of factual evidence. There are Innocence Projects around the country being spearheaded by many different law schools in all 50 states. A few of those schools are listed below The Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in NY, NY University of Washington in Seattle WA University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, MI Duke University in Durham, NC University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, VA California Western School of Law, CA A Career as a Public Defender The public defender is a licensed lawyer who may or may not have more experience than a private practice lawyer. The public defender is provided for the accused free of charge. Their fees are paid by the state. The benefits of having a public defender are their familiarity with the court system in which they are participating and great experiential opportunities the position affords. The negatives are the position is often underpaid and lawyers generally have a heavy work load. The excellent experience gained in this position will prepare a lawyer for work in the private sector where they are sure to command a much higher salary. It also encourages many attorneys to pursue an improved justice system and thus, the public defender may decide to become a staff lawyer for an Innocence Project. Public Defenders duties The duties of the defense lawyer are to provide good representation. He or she must examine evidence, conduct investigations, interview witnesses and engage experts for collaboration of evidence and court room testimony. He or she must prepare for evidentiary hearings and file motions on the defendants behalf. They must insure the validity of all evidence, especially factual evidence such as fingerprints, DNA evidence and eye witness reports. By checking and double checking each piece of evidence presented, the public defender can give his client the very best representation. This thorough public defender is not likely to have represented a client who will later need the help of an Innocence Project. Unfortunately, most of the nations overturned convictions are for persons who were represented by underpaid and overworked public defenders. The public defender that pursues justice will find his calling as a private attorney or maybe even an Innocence Project staff attorney. Whatever his long term career choices, a public defender plays an important role in the justice system. His responsibility is great; hes responsible for a life. Because of the public defenders education, experience and efforts the accused will be freed or incarcerated for years or for life. Author BioAndrew Deen is a writer who creates informative articles in relation to the field of law. In this article he describes a career as a public defender and aims to encourage further support such as the work of the innocence project. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Joey Trebif

Examples of a Cover Letter For a Resume - How to Write a Great Example

Examples of a Cover Letter For a Resume - How to Write a Great ExampleThere are several examples of a cover letter for a resume that can be found on the internet. Some of these samples are filled with errors. These mistakes in the sample cover letters are common and not always easy to spot.There are many general errors made when writing an example of a cover letter for a resume. Common mistakes include leaving out all the important information about yourself and leaving in too much information. Not only do these mistakes show the applicant that the writer is sloppy, but they also show that the writer doesn't understand what they are writing.Examples of a cover letter for a resume may use the term 'obviously' to describe something. They should use the word clearly, as this shows the reader that the writer has done his or her homework. Here are some other examples of errors found in examples of a cover letter for a resume. If you spot any other errors, then you should consider taking t he example of a cover letter for a resume down.The example should have accurate grammar. It's crucial that the grammar is correct, as it will be noticed by the reader. Use grammatically correct English. A poorly written example of a cover letter for a resume will stand out more than a well written one.The examples should have clear ideas. It's important that the examples clearly state the point that the letter is trying to make. A well-written example of a cover letter for a resume should clearly point out the writer's purpose in writing the letter.Examples of a cover letter for a resume should be brief and precise. No section of the letter should be longer than three sentences. No page of the letter should be longer than one page.An example of a cover letter for a resume should use good spelling and grammar. You want to be sure that your letter is easily read by the reader. In a badly written example of a cover letter for a resume, the writer will not catch some of the mistakes mad e in the letter. Correct spelling and grammar will keep your letter from being rejected.If you are going to write an example of a cover letter for a resume, make sure to check it thoroughly. Try to make the letter as accurate as possible. Write with proper grammar and punctuation. You don't want the letter to appear as if it was written by someone who doesn't know what they are doing.