Why and How to Help Get Your Friends Jobs

Why and How to Help Get Your Friends Jobs 96 Because giving is the best way to receive. This is a guest post by Stephan Wiedner. If you’d also like to guest post here on JobMob, follow these guest post guidelines. If you really want to get a job, consider focusing all your efforts on finding someone else a job first. I know, it sounds crazy and counter-intuitive but it works. Here's why.eval 4 Reasons Why You Should Help Your Friends Find a Job 1. Understand yourself better “By helping someone else discover their greatness, you will discover yours,” says Kathy Fleming, a Master Certified Coach and one of the most experienced career coaches on Noomii.com. “By being a skilled listener, you can reflect the greatness in the other individual and perhaps rekindle and remember your own greatness.”eval 2. Improve your own job search skills It gets you out of your own head and into the position of the employer. Trying to play the role of an employer gives you insight into what people are looking for when hiring. This is invaluable information when finding a job for yourself. 3. Grow your network “It creates a network of individuals that will want to help you find a job,” adds Doris Helge, Ph.D., author of “Joy on the Job”. “Some of my clients have also discovered entirely new careers and a wealth of contacts when they helped friends.” 4. Build your self-confidence It will make you feel good about yourself. Research in the field of positive psychology, led by Sonya Lyubomirsky, dispels the belief that good work performance leads to happiness. Instead, it is the other way around: happy people tend to have more career and job success. In other words, people with high levels of positivity tend to be the best employees and get the best jobs. What does positivity have to do with helping someone else find a job? I’m glad you asked. Eastern philosophers have known for centuries and modern day psychologists are confirming that one of the most direct ways to make you more happy is to be helpful to others. Searching for a job can be emotionally challenging, especially if you have been trying to get a job for a long time. You may be feeling overwhelmed, depressed, and even desperate. When negative feelings enter our brains, we tend to focus on them more and more and we enter a downward spiral that can be hard to get out of. One sure-fire way to hijack the perpetuating negative thoughts is to focus on other people. It shifts your thinking from “woe is me” to “we is me”. Alright, now let’s move onto the practical aspect of helping your friend find a job. How to Help a Friend Tweak their Resumé Crafting a great resumé is a tough skill to master and there is one way to get better at it- help someone else with theirs. You’re probably wondering how you are supposed to help someone else when you don’t know how to do it yourself. Well, even if you are struggling to make your resumé shine, there is always someone that can benefit from your independent perspective. Resumé writing is challenging because it requires an objective assessment of our own strengths, weaknesses, and accomplishments. We tend to be our own biggest critics. We are blind to our strengths and magnify our weaknesses. It's way easier to be objective about someone else’s work experience and career objectives. Therefore, find a friend, be their objective reviewer, and help them polish up their resumé. Here's how to do it: 1. Find out what kind of job your friend is looking for. 2. Put yourself in the position of their potential employer. The first rule of resumé writing is that you â€" and your friend â€" need to tailor the resumé for each job individually. 3. Sit down with your friend, grab their resumé, and before you do anything, try to wipe away any preconceived notions you have of this person. Pretend that you are looking at the resumé of a stranger. Now, review their resumé, top to bottom, in under 60 seconds. Then put it away. 4. Turn to your friend and describe your impression â€" based solely on the resumé â€" of who they are. Don't just recite facts. Focus on creating an image of this person. You might say things like “I can tell from your resumé that you are very organized and systematic but you like to have fun. You're a work-hard, play-hard kind of person.” 5. Now ask your friend to tell you, in their opinion, how accurate you were. Get them to list the impressions that were correct, wrong, and missing. 6. Now it's your turn. You get to make a list of impressions that you thought were correct, wrong, and missing based on your previous knowledge and experience. Remember, your friend is likely blind to their greatest strengths, the qualities their resumé aught to emphasize. 7. Brainstorm possible edits and corrections that your friend can make to improve their resumé. Be creative and have fun. When you're done, go home and take a look at your own resumé. I guarantee that you will find at least a couple tweaks that you can immediately use. And who knows, maybe your friend will return the favor and review your resumé for you. How to be an Employer and Interview a Friend After busting your butt to qualify yourself for potential jobs, the last thing you want to do is choke during the interview. Neither does anybody else. So help at least one person by interviewing them and giving them some practice. The beauty is that by helping your friend, you will be helping yourself gain valuable insight into what an employer experiences, thus better equipping yourself to ace the interview the next time you get one. Here’s how to interview your friend: 1. Make a list of appropriate interview questions. Better yet, ask your friend what kind of questions they expect to get from their prospective interviewer. If you do a Google search for interview questions, you will find hundreds of potential questions. 2. Find a venue to conduct the interview that resembles the real thing. For example, if your friend is looking for a corporate job, try to find a business office setting to conduct the interview. If your friend expects to do a phone or video chat interview, then do that. 3. Dress the part and adopt the persona of the interviewer. If you are going to interview your friend for a banking job, put on a suit and try to be the CEO or VP. 4. Now comes the hard part. Ask the tough interview questions and listen to your friend's answers from the perspective of the employer. Notice the answers that sound the most convincing, authentic, and engaging. You may want to take some notes while your friend is talking but stay in your role until the interview is done. 5. After you’re done, take a quick breather and then debrief the interview. Tell your friend the top 5 things they did well and how they were most engaging. Stay positive, focus on what your friend did well, and encourage more of the good stuff. When you’re done, go home and think about how can you be more engaging and what can you do to ace your next interview? I guarantee that you will come up with at least a couple great ideas. How to Forward Job Postings to People in Your Network If you haven’t already, you'll probably be spending a lot of time scouring the Internet for job postings and visiting local employment offices. For every job that is ideal for you, there are hundreds of jobs that are ideal for someone you know. It’s not tough to send these opportunities to your friends â€" it’s just a matter of sending an email or tweet â€" but it can be tough to maintain an “other-focused” state of mind. So why not block out a little time to help a friend. Here’s how: 1. Make a list of people you know that are looking for a job. This will help you keep them at the top of your mind. Also add people that could benefit from a new job, even if they are not looking for a job. 2. Block off some time â€" maybe 5 minutes â€" to find at least one job that you can send along to someone else. Ideally you will do this every day until it becomes a habit. 3. Look for jobs that appear to be really great but are not quite the right fit for you. You don’t want to send along crappy jobs. 4. Revisit your list of names to determine who, in your network, would be a good fit for the job opportunity. 5. Send your friend the link. As an employer, I can tell you how important it is to find good people. By sending job postings along to others, you are helping the company as well as the people in your network. Before you know it, thanks to the power of reciprocity, other people will be happily looking out for you, sending you amazing job opportunities. Not only that, they may even put in a good word for you to get your foot in the door with some of the biggest and best employers around. Helping Others Helps You It takes a little bit of time and effort to help your friend(s) find their dream job but the effort is well worth it. By helping your friend improve their resumé, practice interviewing, and learn about job postings you find, you will be helping yourself. You’ll learn what employers are looking for, gain a network of people who will help you, and feel better doing it. Question of the article Have I missed anything? How else can you help a friend find a job? What did you do that had the biggest impact on a friend's job search? Please leave your comments and suggestions below. About the Author Stephan Wiedner is the co-founder of Noomii.com, the Professional Coach Directory. The ultimate goal of Noomii is to increase global well-being. We want you to thrive and live a meaningful, engaging, and joyful life, and we think life coaching is the best tool to make that happen. Follow Noomii on Twitter and on Facebook. If you liked this article, you'll also enjoy What To Do When An Overqualified Friend Gets Laid Off.

The Bain of Obamas Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

The Bain of Obama’s Brand - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career If everything good about you was eclipsed by someone’s loud voice, if everything you believed was in the shadow of someone else who communicated better â€" you would be angry. But if anger were the cryponite of your brand â€" the one thing that if you were, you would never get where you wanted to go? You would be President Obama. Who got “bained” on the first debate. The ability to shape shift is a particular gift of Republican candidate Willard Mitt Romney. He has even given up his first name. Not in favor of something better or more endearing or more familiar â€" or even more reflective of whom his is or wants to be. Mitt is just somewhat better than Willard. And, what could be better than the caught on tape pronouncement that 48% of Americans are slackers â€" than saying that 100% of the American people are great? That Medicare is perfect the way it is, but how about vouchers, too? That social programs are great and should be fully funded, but how about doing it at the state level? Like the education budget of people who live in Mississippi is handled at the worst of 50 states, but hey, that’s Mississippi’s domain â€" isn’t it? And the only problem that we have is overfunding Big Bird’s habit of educating young children. How did the first debate debase President Obama’s brand? Why did he not anticipate that candidate Romney would do what he has always done, which is shift shape when the opportunity presented itself? Once again, we learn the great lesson of branding. If you cannot express it, you don’t possess it. The outrage, the truth telling, the saying it like it is â€" was beyond President Obama’s capacity â€" because he was constrained by his opponent who has been trying to manufacture the President’s brand. The straw man that candidate Romney is running against is angry. “Foreign.” Someone whose birth certificate is apparently forged â€" just ask Donald Trump. When you are afraid of how someone else has defined you â€" that you cannot challenge them. At least not when 60 million people are watching. Yet, it’s when it is the most difficult, it is the most crucial. President Obama may be the smartest, most decent and successful president we have ever had the good fortune to call our own. But if he cannot argue as well as he can advocate, he will lose this election. Your brand is what you make it, unless someone debates who you are â€" and you cede your reputation to them. Lies â€" as candidate Romney said on air, during the debate â€" were something his sons told him over and over.  That was an opportunity, among several during the debate, for President Obama to make the case that they had learned to lie somewhere. But, to do that would be to step into the “angry man” offense that Romney had been setting him up for months. Sometimes you simply have to choose to challenge the so-called facts and the individual who vociferously is making a case that is simply isn’t true. But when you stake your brand on being likeable, can you stand for not being liked? Be careful about what your brand means. Never let someone else define you.  Be careful of the lies you overlook and let go. You don’t always have another day to undo the damage that someone has done to you. There’s a reason we call venture capitalists, vulture capitalists. Author: Nance Rosen  is the author of  Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at  NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name:  nancerosen

Awesome Benefits Of Being A Freelancer

Awesome Benefits Of Being A Freelancer If you are about to hit the job market, you’re going to find that for a lot of careers, freelancing isn’t a choice. It’s really your only option. The reason for this is that many companies are not hiring employees on a contractual basis because they know it’s cheaper to hire a freelancer. It also limits the risk that they take on as an employer and the complications of cutting a contract. But for you, as a working professional, freelancing is not always a negative. This type of career does have some rather brilliant advantages. You’re Not Tied Down Although the disadvantage is that an employer can let you go whenever they feel like, there is another side of the coin. You can leave the job whenever you want to look for better prospects elsewhere. Most employees freelance while continuing to search for a permanent job. As soon as you find one, you can quite quickly finish your current freelancing contract and settle into your new job. So, although an employer has no obligation to you, you have no obligation to your employer. It works both ways. You’ll Get A Lot Of Experience As a freelancer, you will probably find you’re switching between jobs a lot. You often won’t find yourself staying in one place for a long period of time. The benefit of this is that you will pick up a lot of experience in different work backgrounds. This is going to dramatically improve your CV and thus improve your chances of gaining a high paid job. You will soon find that your CV is a lot more attractive to potential employers. Once you start freelancing, you’ll be getting plenty more interviews and callbacks when you apply for jobs. You Can Travel Perhaps one of the best advantages of being a freelancer is that you don’t have to stay in the same place, or even the same country. You can go anywhere while continuing to work, particularly if you are working primarily online. That means that you’ll be able to see a lot more of the world than you could if you were stuck in one permanent job and office. You will have the chance at a degree of freedom that most employees simply do not have. You Can Work As Much Or As Little As You Like One piece of advice for freelancers is to only take the jobs you want. That means you can choose how much work you do each month, or year. If you want a holiday and you have the money saved to pay for it, you can take it whenever you like. You’ll be able to control exactly how much pay you are making at the end of the year and because you’re self-employed, you’ll pay less tax too. You’ll Find Plenty Of Opportunities The job market might be scarce but the freelancer demand is anything but. There is a constant flood of employers looking to fill positions because an employee has gone off sick or gone on holiday. By taking these jobs, you will gain experience and pay regularly. Link To Pic

10 Simple Steps to Being Happy at Work

10 Simple Steps to Being Happy at Work If you dread the sound of your morning alarm and count down the days until the weekend each week, it sounds like youre a classic case of someone who is unhappy at work.   Being happy in our job is not only important for our personal wellbeing, but it  can also significantly impact our productivity and professional performance. So  what exactly can you do to ensure you are happy at work? Here are a simple steps  than can help to boost your mood, courtesy of Office Vibe. 1) Eat healthily The food that you eat can have a huge impact on your mood. Eating nutrient rich foods is proven to make you happier, so try to fit in those 5 a day! 2) Get some exercise Exercise releases endorphins that boost our mood, so try to fit some each day, even if it is just for a few minutes. 3) Give feedback to your company If theres something that you think would improve the way things are running or the work environment, talk to your boss about it. Providing feedback will help to shape the company and if something is bothering you, you may be able to resolve it. 4) Go for a walk A short walk could be what you need to help your creativity and be happy.  Getting some fresh air can also help you to feel more energised and alert. 5) Show gratitude to others By writing an email each day thanking or praising a member of your team it will increase your feeling of social support. 6) Reflect Every couple of weeks look back on things that went well and areas that you can improve or would like to focus on. 7) Meditate Meditation can help you to relax and combat stress. It has also been proven to improve your sense of self. 8) Get to know your colleagues better Go for a coffee or grab some lunch with a colleague  every now and then so you can get to know them better. Work is always more pleasant when you get along with those around you. 9) Keep a gratitude journal By writing down the things that you are grateful for, it reinforces it in our brain and can make us happier with our lives. It can also aid sleep and reduce illness. 10) Help others It has been found that if you take 10-30 minutes of your day to help someone else, it can also make you feel less time restrained. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]

Why You Need to Write an Objective For a Functional Resume

Why You Need to Write an Objective For a Functional ResumeIf you're just starting out in the world of online marketing, you'll quickly find out that one of the most important parts of writing an objective for a functional resume is writing it in the first place. Unless you can write and complete your own resume or hire a professional, then you'll have to rely on someone else to do it for you.Writing an objective for a functional resume is easy enough for a non-professional to do. You just have to get rid of all of the fluff and fancy-talk and make your resume as concise as possible. All of the information that you're going to need is right there for you.One of the biggest reasons that so many job applicants fail when they attempt to write an objective for a functional resume is that they don't know how to format their resume properly. It's such a basic part of the process that people don't take the time to learn how to format it properly. When you're preparing to write your resume, i t's so easy to get lazy and not get the job done right. You want to learn to use the proper formatting because the resume is going to be one of the first things that potential employers see.There are two very easy ways to get started with formatting your resume. The first way is to use a program that will automatically format it for you. This is something that you can do yourself, but the way the program does it can make the differences between your resume being accepted and being rejected.The second way is to get the program to automatically format it for you as you're submitting it. This means that you won't have to worry about getting formatting wrong, and you won't have to manually do it by hand. Using this method, you can make sure that your resume is formatted properly before you even get it to the internet.Of course, there are ways to make your resume more attractive without having to write an objective for a functional resume. Some of these include adding bullet points and d ata tables, changing the font, adding headers, and also adding a cover page to the resume.So, now that you understand why you need to write an objective for a functional resume, what are you waiting for? Now that you know why you need to format your resume for your resume to be accepted, it's just a matter of getting started. Get out the program that will do the formatting for you and start formatting!Writing an objective for a functional resume is pretty simple, but it's the formatting that can make or break a resume. Make sure that your resume is formatted the way that it needs to be, and you'll be on your way to getting a job.

samtalerne - May 31 - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Conversations / samtalerne - May 31 - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog The Cluetrain Manifesto reminds us that: Markets are conversations. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that were simply not possible in the era of mass media. Companies that dont realize their markets are now networked person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined in conversation are missing their best opportunity. Since the manifesto was published in 1999, we have seen the rise of weblogs, discussion groups, wiki sites, chat rooms, podcasts and social networking sites, just to mention a few technologies currently enabling conversations. But how are businesses harnessing conversations? As part of the Reboot conference, there will be an excellent 1-day event in Copenhagen on May 31st called Samtalerne (the conversations). I will most definitely be there, and so will Doc searls (co-author of the Cluetrain manifesto) Robert Scoble who blogs for Microsoft Euan Semple who introduced net conversations to the BBC Anette Hartvig, CEO of Aarstiderne who renamed their customer service department Conversations as well as many other very interesting people. Should make for some great conversations :o) 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

Summary Sunday Update Your Skills

Summary Sunday Update Your Skills You need to update your skills! Learn about SEO, how to network better, stay up-to-date on recruiting trends and even embrace the idea of being a lifelong learner! Dont let your lack of knowledge impact your job search or career success. Invest just a little bit of time every week updating your skills or broadening your thinking! These posts will help you do exactly that! NETWORKING Networking In The Internet Era: An Interview With Keith Ferrazzi by Dorie Clark | Forbes This isnt a new article, however, the information may be new to you. If you havent read Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi, this touches upon two of his rules for networking. Be intentional with your networking Be of service to people Hate Networking? This 1 Technique Will Make You Anyones Best Friend by  Jory MacKay | Inc. Spoiler- the technique is to build reciprocity into every encounter. The article lists 5 things you can do to create value and reciprocity. JOB SEARCH This Google Expert’s Top SEO Tips For Job Seekers In 2017 by Tina Arnoldi | Fast Company Learn some of these SEO  secrets/tricks so you can improve when and where you show up online! INTERVIEWING Why Post-Interview Thank You Notes Really Matter by Jaime Petkanics | The Prepary Here are two reasons: Good manners  Shows your interest in the job ALWAYS do it. It could be the one thing that tips the scales in your favor! TRENDS Five Reasons Candidate Rediscovery Is Recruiting’s Next Big Thing by Ji-A Min | Talent Culture What is candidate rediscovery?  It is the practice of mining the existing resume database to find candidates for open job requisitions. And to be clear, this doesnt happen very often, despite what you may think. The ATS search functionality isnt as good as it could be, and that frustrates recruiters. Did you know: 65% of resumes received for a high volume role are completely ignored This article is written for recruiters and employers, however, its helpful for job seekers to understand whats going on.   Pay attention to these trends and adjust your job search strategy accordingly. What Do Corporate Recruiters Want? We Asked Them by Jon Shields | JobScan Please, read this! It provides a thorough explanation of how recruiters work and what they do! 4 recruiters were interviewed for this article to help job seekers better understand the recruiting process! CAREER 8 Ways to Become a Lifelong Learner by Sharlyn Lauby | The Unretirement Project Lifelong learning takes planning and discipline! But its one thing you can do to ensure career stability! These 8 tips will absolutely help you become better at it!