Displaying All Posts in the Career category

The Best Professional Advice You Ever Received

Georgiana Cohen 3rd August Career Leave a Comment

    Throughout our careers, we accumulate a wealth of professional advice. These are the words that echo in our heads during our most challenging moments and help shape us into the professionals we want to be. They are the reminders we tack to our wall to glance at when we need inspiration or a push over the finish line. They are the signposts we turn to when faced with a tough decision about what to do or where to go next.

    This wisdom can come from unexpected sources—a mentor (like a manager or professor), a relative, a friend, maybe even a client or an employee. Maybe it’s a reminder to trust your gut, or a warning against making promises you can’t keep. Perhaps it’s a charge to always put family first, or to always hire someone smarter than you.

    What is the best professional advice you ever received? And where did it come from? Click Here to Read Article …

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    Are You Getting Paid Enough? Do a Salary Comparison

    Jason Finnerty 2nd August Career Leave a Comment

      Sure, it sounds like the start of a hokey pyramid scheme – but unless your office is very transparent about salaries, it’s hard to know if you are in the top, middle, or bottom of what you should be earning.

      Money isn’t everything, and you’ve been able to help your company through the economic downturn.  Are you curious to find out if you are being valued appropriately by your current employer?

      Here’s a list of salary comparison links that might help you get an idea of what you are, or should be, earning:
      Click Here to Read Article …

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      How to Get Promoted: Break The Rules

      Peter North 30th July Career Leave a Comment

        Being “good at what you do” is an asset to your career, and it fosters a great attitude and a solid self-esteem boost.

        But, unfortunately it’s not enough to get you a promotion. In fact, if you’re excelling at your current position, it might be a good reason to keep you where you are instead of promoting you. It’s quite the conundrum; if you’re great at your job, your company might never dream of putting you anywhere else.

        So, if it isn’t excelling at your work, then what makes someone “promotable”?

        Quite a bit of research has been done on promotability.  We’ve also discussed different strategies to move your way up.  Although it’s difficult to conduct fact-based research on it, they have come to a few general conclusions on how to get promoted:

        • An employee can develop skills for higher-level jobs if they are regularly faced with “challenging” work. “Challenging” work is defined as work where the current rules and routines won’t suffice in getting the job done, forcing the employee to innovate new routines.
        • An employee who does non-challenging work (mundane work where the current rules and routines are sufficient) never develops higher-level job skills, and thus may be less “promotable.”

        So, how do we get promoted? Ironically, it sounds like we have to break a few rules. Click Here to Read Article …

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        How Your Spouse Can Help Your Work-Life Balance

        Carl Natale 27th July Career Leave a Comment

          I don’t need to tell you how challenging it is to balance work and life. In this economy, it’s hard to say no to working more hours. You want to spend more time with your family but need to make enough money to pay the bills.

          What works for many people may not work for you. Luckily you have an extremely powerful ally – your partner. No, not the person who works with you or co-owns your business. I’m talking about your spouse/significant other/family member. Who do you share your life with?

          Your partner can play a huge part in achieving work-life balance. Here are some ways to help each other make the most of your time: Click Here to Read Article …

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          Managing Your Personal Brand Online

          Georgiana Cohen 22nd July Career Leave a Comment

            No matter your field, there are several advantages to establishing a presence online. You can connect with colleagues and customers, learn new things and help others learn, as well. But as you establish your online identity, it’s important to think about your personal branding.

            Just like Pepsi and Starbucks, we each have a brand. It represents how people perceive us—who we are, what we stand for, what we do and how and why we do it. On the web, it can be distributed across a range of platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and maybe our own website or blog. This puts the burden on you to make sure your online personal branding is up-to-date, accurate and presented to your satisfaction. Click Here to Read Article …

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            What Are You Doing to Impress Your Customers?

            Jason Finnerty 20th July Career Leave a Comment
              What do you do to show your current clients the difference between you and your competition?

              There seem to be two schools of thought on this topic:

              • Do an excellent job on exactly what the client is looking for;
              • Do a good job on the project, and provide additional value as a bonus.

              I got to thinking about this after reading about optimizing your freelance career, especially the reference to “undepromise and overdeliver.”

              Do people try and compensate for a perceived shortcoming – maybe they are concerned about their grammar or the originality of their concepts – by adding in additional value?  Does a client look at the job and think, “Well, the concept is ok, but we’ve got three pages of web copy that we weren’t expecting – hooray!” or “Wow – brilliant concept, I know we didn’t ask for more, but it would have been nice to get a few more pages of copy”?

              Have you found that it is better to deliver “excellence” to your customers and nothing else, or provide” acceptable” with bonus material?

              Click Here to Read Article …

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              How Much Vacation Time Is Necessary?

              Ana da Silva 15th July Career Leave a Comment

                When I was living in the United States, we had 2 weeks off per year as standard vacation time – although I did work somewhere where we only had 1 week off.  Not so in Europe.

                Many countries there give employees 5 or 6 weeks off per year.  The argument for more time off is usually supported by the fact that everyone needs time to:

                1. Rest
                2. Be with family
                3. Enjoy a hobby (or whatever activity makes one happy – skiing, surfing, etc.)

                Those who support less time off have argued that with too much time off, people cannot concentrate once they’re back in the office.

                So, are you for more or less time off for vacation?  How much time do you need to recharge your batteries?
                Click Here to Read Article …

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                Giving Dressing Up a Dressing Down

                Peter North 11th July Career Leave a Comment
                  WorkAwesome has offered quite a few articles about dressing professionally. Some suggest that helps you to get promoted and gain respect in the workplace. It’s certainly good advice; dressing well is a positive statement about your attitude and preparedness. But, how big of a statement is it? Should we be taking such care to “look sharp,” or have the effects been embellished?

                  There’s an obvious correlation between higher-level jobs and better dress, but perhaps it’s a classic “chicken or the egg” conundrum: Which comes first? Are people promoted or hired due – in part – to their professional appearance, or do their high-level jobs enable (or require) them to dress better? Maybe the only reason that executives dress well is because they have to. Click Here to Read Article …

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