Friday, July 31, 2009

Ten Tips on Career Advancement

Many career experts agree that the best time to look for a new job is while you are still comfortably in your old one. If you’re starting to feel unchallenged in your present position, you may be ready for a promotion to the next level. If there aren’t many career advancement opportunities where you work, the best next job may be waiting for you elsewhere.

Nowadays, it’s up to you to take control of your professional future and make sure that you are progressing wisely down the right career path. Here are 10 proven strategies to help you get started:

  1. Talk to your boss. Sit down and have a very direct and pointed conversation with your boss about your future in the company. Stress that you want your job performance to meet the company’s goals. Share your own career goals with him or her. Your boss will respect this display of confidence and maturity.

  2. Ask for more. Volunteering to help out other departments or teams — or simply asking for more responsibilities — increases your value within the organization. Asking for additional work shows an interest and desire to help your department and company to succeed. It also puts a spotlight on your value to the business.

  3. Volunteer for boards. If you have your career set on something beyond what you are doing in your present position, seek out opportunities to volunteer or serve on advisory boards, where you can build a reputation as someone who is passionate and dedicated to your particular industry.

  4. Sharpen your people skills. Strong interpersonal skills play a crucial role in gaining the respect of your boss and coworkers; they will also attract the notice of outside influencers who might open new doors of opportunity for you. Be friendly, outgoing, and personable. Listen carefully to people, and practice being a clear and effective communicator.

  5. Be innovative. Never be afraid to think outside of the box and put your business acumen to work. Stay on the lookout for creative solutions to problems that will make you — and your boss — look good.

  6. Find a mentor. Develop mentoring relationships, either inside or outside the company. Recent studies have shown that four out of five promotions are influenced by a mentor higher up in the company. Mentors are also great sources of information and career guidance.

  7. Sell yourself. Learn the fine art of self-promotion. If you have had major accomplishments or created successful programs, make sure people know about it — especially those in influential positions who could help you advance professionally. Let it be known that you are seeking a promotion or the next step up in your career.

  8. Keep learning. A proven way to advance in your career is to be continually acquiring new knowledge. Stay on top of trends or developments in your field and make sure that your current résumé reflects those needed skills.

  9. Network. Strengthen your personal network and join professional organizations, attend industry conferences, or even volunteer. The more people who are aware of your strengths and abilities, the better your chances of hearing about any new opportunities that might arise.

  10. Build your reputation. In business, your reputation is the most valuable thing you own. Be known for being dependable, professional, and cooperative. Act and look the part by dressing professionally. Make a name for yourself by attending conferences, delivering speeches, or writing articles.

Source : allbusiness.com

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Career Planning Tips

Building a Career
The 9 most important career planning tips is listed below:

1. Never Stop Learning
  • Life-long learning is your keyword.
  • The world is constantly changing, and everybody is looking for new ways of doing business.
  • If you have decided that your current skills are good enough, you have also decided that your current job is good enough.
  • But if you want a career in the future, you should add regular updates to your skills and knowledge.

2. Ask, Listen And Learn
  • A good listener can learn a lot.
  • Listen to your co-workers, your boss, and your superiors. You can learn a lot from their experience.
  • Ask about issues that interest you, and listen to what they say. Let them tell you about how things work, and what you could have done better.
  • Most people will love to be your free tutor.

3. Fulfill Your Current Job
  • Your current job might be best place to start your career.
  • It is often very little that separates successful people from the average. But nothing comes free.
  • If you do your job well and fulfill your responsibilities, this is often the best way to start a new career.
  • Talk to your supervisor about things you can do. Suggest improvements. Offer your help when help is needed. In return ask for help to build a better career. It is often possible - right inside your own organization - especially if you have proved to be a valued employee.

4. Build Your Network
  • Your next career step might arise from your contact network.
  • Did you know that more than 50% of all jobs are obtained from contact networks?
  • If you have a good contact network, it is also a good place to discover future careers, to explore new trends, and to learn about new opportunities.
  • Spend some time building new contacts, and don't forget to maintain the ones you already have.
  • One of the best ways to get serious information from your network is to regularly ask your contacts how they are, what they do, and what is new about their careers.

5. Identify Your Current Job
  • Your current job should be identified, not assumed.
  • Make sure you don't work with tasks you assume are important. This is waste of time and talent.
  • When you start in a new job, talk to your superior about your priorities. If you're not sure about what is most important, then ask him. And ask him again. Often you will be surprised about the differences between what you assume, and what is really important.

6. Identify Your Next Job
  • Your dream job must be identified.
  • Before you start planning your future career, be sure you have identified your dream job.
  • In your dream job, you will be doing all the things you enjoy, and none of the things you don't enjoy. What kind of job would that be?
  • Do you like or dislike having responsibility for other employees. Do you like to work with technology or with people? Do you want to run your own business? Do you want to be an artist, a designer or a skilled engineer? A manager?
  • Before building your future career your goal must be identified.

7. Prepare Yourself
  • Your dream might show up tomorrow. Be prepared.
  • Don't wait a second. Update your CV now, and continue to update it regularly.
  • Tomorrow your dream job may show up right before your nose. Prepare for it with a professional CV and be ready to describe yourself as a valuable object to anyone that will try to recruit you.
  • If you don't know how to write a CV, or how to describe yourself, start learning it now.

8. Pick The Right Tools
  • Pick the tools you can handle.
  • You can build your future career using a lot of different tools. Studying at W3Schools is easy. Taking a full master degree is more complicated.
  • You can add a lot to your career by studying books and tutorials (like the one you find at W3Schools). Doing short time courses with certification tests might add valuable weight to your CV. And don't forget: Your current job is often the most valuable source of building new skills.
  • Don't pick a tool that is too heavy for you to handle!

9. Realize Your Dreams
  • Put your dreams into action.
  • Don't let a busy job kill your dreams. If you have higher goals, put them into action now.
  • If you have plans about taking more education, getting a better job, starting your own company or something else, you should not use your daily job as a "waiting station". Your daily job will get more and more busy, you will be caught up in the rat race, and you will burn up your energy.
  • If you have this energy, you should use it now, to realize your dreams.
source : w3schools.com

Friday, July 17, 2009

Career tips for professionalism

When you step out into the world with your skills, it’s important to keep a professional attitude going. What is professionalism? This term means that you have to strike that all elusive balance when things are going over the board. Keeping a distance from your peers and colleagues is a healthy sign. Keep the attitude as positive as possible, even when the going gets really tough is absolutely essential. At work we are unnecessarily surrounded by problems that we have nothing to do with. All these generally add to our distractions and instead of conserving our energy for the task at hand, we get trapped in gossip, petty politics and just a waste of time tactics. It is important to keep social contacts but you don’t necessarily have to enter the households of every person you meet.

Focus is very important. You have to deal with distracters and detractors firmly. Time management is an important tool, and so are deadlines. Everything we do is governed by time, so having an attitude that goes beyond timeliness is certainly non-productive. You can strive to excel, but remember all your actions and thoughts have to produce results in the given time frame. Gaining popularity is good, but as you scale the ladder, do not compromise your standards of ethics and productivity for a few moments of cheap fun and publicity. Some people are too harsh and others too soft, you have to fine-tune that balance between acceptable and unacceptable behavior.

You yourself are important. If you suffer from low self esteem, people are going to walk all over you. In the long run, don’t keep slaving for others and forget yourself in the bargain. When you are at the giving end of the spectrum, make it felt that you also receive some benefits. Nobody is working for charity in a corporation. If you feel sensitive to an issue mull over how you are going to voice over your concerns to your seniors. Do not allow your seniors or your juniors to get away with wrong doing. Sometimes you have to educate others that what they are up to is no good. For this you need good communication skills, you have to stand up for what you believe in and for yourself. Bring to light all issues being swept under the carpet, but do it diplomatically and with some subtlety and skill. There are some problems you can solve just by facing them squarely instead of covering them up or sweeping them under the carpet.

If you are in a position of power, you can make your subordinates feel really lowly, but give them a positive signal or two so that some hope floats. Lastly, you can be a positive influence of change, even if it means deflating an ego or two. But it’s important that you don’t kill the spirit of the defaulting person at the same time.
Source : http://blogs.mybandra.com/2009/03/05/career-tips-for-professionalism

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

Powerful Networking

One of the first things you find in situations where you are meeting new people is that they want to know about your work…what you do. They don’t want some long drawn out life history and it would obviously be rude and nonproductive to wave off their interest. Yet, you need to be able to effectively and naturally deliver the info they seek. Stuff like, what your work consists of now, what your experience (work &/or education) is, and maybe a bit about your career goals. They just need to be able to categorize you a bit. Getting categorized sounds rude but it is meant to be helpful. If an opportunity comes up that they want to share, they need to be able to quickly pull you out of their mental filing system. Many people love to make connections and help others this way especially if it is easy and they know just the right person to refer.

So, have you spent time practicing your one minute bio? The exercise feels kinda lame and unnatural but the important thing is that you give it some thought and practice putting your voice to your thoughts about your work — where you have been careerwise and where you are going.

There is an art to networking. It is quite difficult to remember to take a moment to understand who you are interacting with and how to best present yourself in various situations. But keep your mind on it and stay aware for opportunity, not just opportunity for you but opportunity to help others somehow — that is powerful networking. The person you help may not be the one to help you but you set wheels into motion by being generous with your knowledge, info, and positive energy.

Source : http://www.steviesue.com

Friday, July 03, 2009

25 Graphic Design Career Preparation Tips

The Graphic Design Career is a fast growing career that is becoming more and more competitive with every passing day. People are realizing how much money is available and how flexible the graphic and web design career really is. You can work full-time in house in a small studio or large agency. You can earn extra money on the side, you can freelance full-time from the comfort of your own home or you can even use your skills in design to you accomplish business projects.

The bottom line is its a great choice for creative people looking to express themselves and earn a decent and comfortable living at the same time.

In order to survive in such a fast growing and competitive field though it is essential you do everything you can as early on as you can. I started in college, but I know people who are freelancing and running businesses and websites at age 14 and even younger! The age aspect should not discourage you, but should rather inspire you to get your butt into gear before other graphic designers leave you in the dust!

So no matter what age you are or what stage you are in, we have created a list of things you can do to get your dream graphic design career going in the right direction.

Graphic Design Career Preparation Tips

  1. Major in Graphic Design

  2. Figure Out Your Specialization

  3. Plan Your Credits Carefully

  4. Take Advantage of Your Counselor and Teachers

  5. Take Advantage of Career Services

  6. Become Involved in School Events

  7. Develop Friendships With Your Classmates

  8. Get an Internship

  9. Get a Certificate in Graphic Design

  10. Practice Your Photography

  11. Learn HTML, XHTML and CSS

  12. Take Some Business Courses

  13. Master the Adobe Suite

  14. Stay in Touch With Your Roots

  15. Express Your Creativity

  16. Create a Portfolio Website

  17. Create a Print Portfolio

  18. Create Your Own Personal Identity System

  19. Create a Resume and Cover Letter

  20. Research Job Requirements

  21. Start Freelancing

  22. Take Advantage of Design Contests

  23. Build Up Your Vault of Free Design Resources

  24. Get the Graphic Artist Guild Handbook

  25. Start Networking
For more information : http://www.youthedesigner.com/2008/10/08/25-graphic-design-career-preparation-tips/


Wednesday, July 01, 2009

Things to remember before and after your exams.

What are the most important things to do the night before an exam?
Don’t skip meals. Food is fuel for the brain, so make sure you get enough of it. Get some sleep, so you’re not tired for the big day. Get some fresh air and exercise.

What should I do on the morning of the exam?
• Eat breakfast – it’s hard to concentrate on an empty stomach.
• Give yourself plenty of time to get to the exam.
• Read all the instructions carefully when you’re in the exam room, and make sure that you understand the question before you start to answer it.
• For essay questions, write a plan first to help make sure you don’t miss anything out. Don’t spend too long on any one question – although it makes sense to spend longer on a question with 20 marks than one with only two.

Golden rules for revision
• Keep the noise down. Find yourself a quiet place to work and take regular breaks to keep your mind fresh.
• Reminders. Write important points, facts and formulae on sheets of paper and stick them by your bed, in the bathroom, on the fridge - anywhere you’ll see them regularly so they will sink in.
• Test yourself. Sit down and test yourself with past exam papers and try them against the clock.
• Highlight. The first time you read something, highlight the most important points. Use different colours and symbols to help you remember the important facts.
• Break it down. Summarise or break down whole chapters and subjects onto cards or single sheets of A4.
• Plan it. No matter how clever you are, the odd hour slotted round the TV or sports practice isn’t enough. Before you start, draw up a revision plan and keep to it. Give each subject a decent amount of time.
• Tape it. You could try putting important information on tape – some people find this helps them remember.

Life after exams
It’s important to keep things in perspective when you’re waiting for your exam grades. Yes, it’s great if you do get the grades you want, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t. Remember, you can retake them next year. There’s always the option of taking them again later in your career.
Think positive! If you believe you’re going to succeed, you probably will.