Have a Safe Memorial Day Weekend!

It is important to remember that Memorial Day was not declared a holiday so that we can have a long weekend off from work, go to the lake, or take a vacation.  It was set aside as a day to honor those who gave their lives that we might live in freedom.

Memorial day this year will be observed on Monday May 28th.  Take the time to go to a Memorial Day service, fly the American flag, teach your children and grandchildren the true meaning of Memorial Day, and don’t forget to remember.

Talk Your Story

By Lisa Adams, Career Management Coach

I hear from job seekers all the time about “how do I answer the question ‘tell me about yourself’ in an interview”? A previous post did a quick answer to this as compared to “what is my brand” and “what is an elevator pitch.”

For today, let’s dig deeper into the specific interview question “tell me about yourself”.

This question really brings up the whole area of interviewing and interview preparation. This week has been filled with this topic from friends to clients.

The key to any interview is preparation. As part of that preparation is the ability to talk your story. Tell the interviewer why you bring value to this role and company and who you are. In a nutshell you are telling them what makes you unique.

We are all unique. We all have a story… and it needs to be told.

I hold this principal to be true, we each bring our gifts, personalities, and life experiences to every situation and decision we make. The fun part is expressing this uniqueness in our stories.

In his book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, Donald Miller examines story and specifically his life story. In the book he describes the process by which his life story is about to become a major motion picture. He begins to discover and feel that his life story, thus far, was boring and lacked purpose and meaning. Through out the book Miller learns and shares the elements of story.

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7 Entrepreneurial Lessons From "Shark Tank"

By Amber Mac

Shark Tank—the prime-time feeding frenzy where successful entrepreneurs fight over promising startups, and ruthlessly chew up the unprepared—is stirring up much buzz in its third season. To date, the Sharks have invested more than $6.2 million of their own money in a number of companies. With billionaire Mark Cuban, real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran, venture capitalist Kevin O’Leary (aka Mr. Wonderful), and other business magnates sitting in as the Sharks, the show offers a glimpse of pitching sessions gone totally right—or deliciously wrong.

An example: When three ice cream makers first lined up in front of the Sharks to pitch their product, they generated some friendly conversation. After all, the concept of morphing together beer and America’s favorite frozen treat is bound to appeal to our inner glutton. However, when the investors started asking the entrepreneurs tough questions about their finances, the men from The Brewer’s Cow had a minor meltdown. Whether the Connecticut-based founders were the victims of calculated editing or simply unprepared, their presentation lacked a certain professionalism. The final verdict? A flurry of “I’m outs” from the Sharks.

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5 Reasons Why You Should Have a Personal Brand

By Erin Kennedy

Social Media has dramatically changed the job landscape. Today’s job seekers must remake themselves as a brand. Think of McDonald’s golden arches or Ford’s iconic script logo. People remember these brands because they set themselves apart from the rest. People don’t settle for any old hamburger when they know what they will get at McDonald’s. Brands build trust with people and that trust translates to increased business and a reliable customer base, which is exactly what you want your online brand to do for you.

Your personal brand builds trust in prospective employers and opens the doors for you to find new positions. Unfortunately, most people don’t think that they need a personal brand, and they are so wrong in assuming this.

Below are 5 reasons why you should establish a personal brand on your resume and online:

1. A personal brand differentiates yourself…

When an HR Manager scans the pile of resumes on their desk, they look for someone who stands out. But, they don’t just focus on the resume, they also look for your online presence because the internet contains much more information about you as a worker. Do you have an industry specific blog or website that you regularly update? Is your personal brand listed on your LinkedIn profile, along with your best career achievements? Listing a successful work history and any extracurricular activities that you’re involved in helps to build your online brand.

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How to Complain About a Co-worker Without Getting Them in Trouble

By Thorin Klosowsk

Chances are you have a few co-workers who you really like, but who also get on your nerves. While it’s easy to head straight to human resources when it’s someone you don’t like who’s slacking off, choosing how you approach the same situation with a friend is a lot more difficult. Here are a few ideas for how to approach a situation where you need to complain, but don’t want to get someone in trouble.

Depending on the type of business you’re in, a complaint can lead to a slap on the wrist, a written note, or even a firing. Because of this, you need to be very careful with how you handle the co-workers you actually like. Heading straight to a manager is a good way to blow things out of proportion. If you can, it’s best to start with a direct conversation before escalating it. I polled a few former bosses and human resources managers to find their solutions. Here are a few ideas for dealing with issues in ways that won’t get your co-workers permanently canned.

Approach The Co-Worker Yourself

If it’s a relatively minor complaint, say, your co-worker is always ten minutes late and that means you take your break ten minutes late every day, then it’s usually best to approach them yourself if you’re comfortable doing so. Doing it tactfully can be hard, but here are a few ideas.

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Temperatures Aren’t the Only Things Rising This Summer

By Mary Lorenz

There’s more to look forward to this summer than just beach trips, baseball games and US Weekly’s annual “Best and Worst Celebrity Beach Bods” issue…

In a positive sign for the economy, seasonal hiring is expected to increase over the summer months, according to CareerBuilder’s annual Summer Job Forecast .

Of the more than 2,000 hiring managers and human resource professionals who participated in the survey, three in ten (29 percent) plan to hire workers for the summer, up from 21 percent in 2011 and an average of 22 percent over the past four years.

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5 Ways Leaders Botch Communication – Without Saying a Word

Leaders who focus only on what they say to employees—through speeches and written words—overlook one of the most powerful ways they communicate: their actions. Without saying a word they can hinder productivity and kill morale.

Check whether you are guilty of any of these five mistakes:

1. Failing to communicate. When is the last time you had a conversation with an employee? How often do you talk with employees who are two rungs or more down on the organizational chart? Often leaders talk with everyone except their own team members. They give orders, but they don’t engage in dialogue.

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Top 10 Resume Tips

How many times have you picked up a magazine while waiting for an appointment and flipped through the hundreds of pages of articles? How long did it take you to decide whether or not to turn the page? Studies show that most people make this decision in less than five seconds.

This is the exact same scenario with your resume—it can be discarded within a matter of seconds. Your resume is a marketing document, a convincing reason to want to meet with you for an interview. Without an appealing and marketable resume that contains information employers require, you will not get the job you want. Of course, never forget the complementary role a cover letter plays. A cover letter goes hand in hand with the resume. A good resume but a bad cover letter will ultimately end up in the same place—the trash bin.

Remember, your resume is the greatest asset you have—don’t forget this!

Top 10 resume tips:

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10 Tips For A Successful Job Interview

You have the perfect resume including all the right catch phrases, key words and experience listed. You found the perfect job and secured an interview with the employer. But no matter how great your resume and experience are, equally important is how you behave during the interview process. Employers are not only looking at the skill set you possess, but at how you will present yourself as a representative of the company. In today’s business world, employees are an extension of the company’s brand. Here are ten tips on how you can make an impeccable impression during your interview:

1. Be punctual. Arrive on time, or even better, arrive five to ten minutes early. Employers take notice of when you arrive for your interview. Arriving early is an indication of good organization; it shows that the individual plans ahead and allows extra time for preparation or unforeseeable events, such as traffic jams.

2. Be well groomed. Make sure hair is neat and nails are cut and clean. Business attire should be pressed and conservative. Avoid excessive jewelry, make-up, perfumes or colognes. Do not wear flamboyant colors or patterns and certainly do not show too much skin. The interview is not about your fashion sense (unless you are interviewing in the fashion industry!) but about how you will fit in with the corporate culture.

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The Best Celebrity Commencement Speech Wisdom And Why You Should Heed It

By J. Maureen Henderson, Forbes Contributor

It’s that time of year again. Another class of seniors receive their diplomas and launch themselves into the labor market with little more than youthful optimism and a resume loaded with unpaid internships to aid them. But before they’re set free to join the rat race, they’re usually subjected to a pep talk from a notable commencement speaker, the profile of whom depends on how highly regarded the school is and how accomplished their alumni base – some grads will be listening to President Obama, others will get the guy who owns the biggest network of Ford dealerships in the state. Regardless of the speaker, however, the speeches tend to follow the same cliché-stuffed mold about seizing the day and leading the nation into a new era. But given the grim prospects they’re facing, the class of 2012 needs a little more bolstering (and a little less sugarcoating) than their predecessors. To that end, I’ve compiled the best advice from recent celebrity commencement speeches – advice actually worth heeding. Whether you’re about to walk across the stage this month, or you’re coming up on your 20-year reunion, here’s some graduation wisdom actually worth paying attention to:

Don’t be a determinist

“My point is that the world is more malleable than you think and it’s waiting for you to hammer it into shape. Now if I were a folksinger I’d immediately launch into ‘If I Had a Hammer’ right now get you all singing and swaying. But as I say I come from punk rock, so I’d rather have the bloody hammer right here in my fist.” Bono, University of Pennsylvania (2004)

“I will hazard a prediction. When you are 80 years old, and in a quiet moment of reflection narrating for only yourself the most personal version of your life story, the telling that will be most compact and meaningful will be the series of choices you have made. In the end, we are our choices.” Jeff Bezos, Princeton (2010)

You have agency in your career, your relationships, your life. Both the front man of U2 and the brains behind Amazon urge you to believe this. Not only are your choices critical in shaping the course of your future, you are the product of the sum total of these choices. Therefore, one bad choice or circumstance – the wrong major, a non-career track job, taking your cousin to the prom – doesn’t define you in the long term.

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