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guest blogger, Job Hunting, Recruitment

Three Steps On the Path To the Job You Love

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If you are not yet on the path to the job you love, then you better begin immediately. Many people are suffering from burnout nowadays because they are stuck in jobs that pay their bills but don’t sustain their interests. Who knows, the job you love may be just beyond the walls of your office. You just have to be diligent in seeking. Once you get a job that you really love, you will feel that you won’t have to work at all. Your job will feel more like play rather than a means to pay your bills.

So how do you do it? Here are three practical tips for you to follow on the path to the job you love:

1. Look into yourself and know your passion

Many of us think that passions are for children who don’t have families yet, but that sort of thinking has gotten many employees stuck into their day jobs. Don’t do as the others usually do; think actively about the type of work that can allow you to satisfy your passions and at the same time help others. That may mean reading more books, recalling past events in your life, asking for counsel from other people you trust, and having more experiences so you can delve deeply into possible fields where you may want to work. Here are some practical tips.

2. Plan ahead.

Identifying your passion isn’t enough. You need to act so you can fulfill your dream of getting a job aligned with your passion. Set a time frame; that can be as short as you wish (spanning weeks) or as long as you wish (possibly years, if you need to go back to school and study). Then take note of specific actions you can take. Although later on, you may act differently from how your plan proceeded, as long as your actions are aligned with your passion, that is okay. Here are some moves you can make: being an intern, studying at a college or university, starting a business, and talking to other people who can help you find the job you love.

Find your pot of gold

3. Leave everything you aren’t passionate about

If you want to get a new job that suits your passion, then leave your old job. The more you persist in doing your old job, the more you will lose sight of your passion and your goal to seek out the job you love. Also, hanging on to your old job gives you a feeling of safety, which can be hard to give up when faced with the risky challenge of going on your own. Once you are out of your old job, you will have nowhere to go except to your new job. However, be prepared. Have some savings because it will take some time to think about what you really want in life and find a new job you will be passionate about.

When it comes to finding the job you love, don’t hesitate and don’t delay. At first, you may need to adjust because thinking about your passion is different from the thinking you do when working on a usual day job. Just remember that in the end, if you persist, you will reach your goal.

Danny Duric is an avid blogger from Australia. He earned a degree in Business Management. Ever since he discovered his passion about psychology, he is reading and writing actively about HR, career and marketing related topics. Lately he is researching the mining industry in NSW, Australia.

guest blogger, Observations, Presentations, Training

Want to know the secret of a great presentation?

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What’s the best way to keep people interested in your presentation?

Have you got a big presentation coming up? Are you worried that your audience will think you’re boring?

Would you like to know the one thing great presenters do all the time to keep their audience interested?

The secret is a technique used by great public speakers, performers, comedians, politicians – even top salesmen.

When you give a presentation you also give a performance.  So you need to mimic the techniques used by performers.

So what is it?

Well, it’s already been used four times in this article so far. Have you spotted it? (clue – that’s the fifth appearance)

No? (that’s six)

The trick to keeping your audience engaged is to ask questions.

You don’t have to wait for the answer. But each question makes the listener subconsciously answer it for themselves  and they want to know if your answer agrees with theirs.

Right?

You can introduce questions to the driest of subject matters.

Imagine you are presenting annual sales figures.  Instead of saying “You can see here that sales rose by 10%” why not switch it round?

Try “Can you see here that sales rose by 10%?”

Your audience will pay close attention because they want to congratulate themselves that of course, they can see the increase.

presentation

Asking a question also changes the tone of your voice. It can help add variety to your tone and your pace. Your voice will naturally rise at the end of a sentence which asks a question. (go on, try it)

It’s almost impossible to present in a monotone way if you ask a few questions.

No-one expects you to be a stand-up comedian when you present. In most cases it would be wholly inappropriate. But you can watch them and see the techniques they use to get a roomful of strangers on their side.

I’d bet my house that few of them manage more than a minute on screen without asking the audience at least one question.

Watch some of the best speech makers and presenters in action.  While heavy Churchillian rhetoric is out of fashion you’ll still see some of the greats asking questions.

Of course by asking the question you give yourself the opportunity to provide the answer – the answer you want your audience to agree with – and the one you want them to remember.

Is this a powerful way to convince someone you are right? You bet.

Another benefit to asking questions during your presentation is they give you the opportunity to breathe. Sounds obvious, but many people who are giving a presentation become so nervous they forget to do the basics – like take a breath. Nerves are natural – part of the human body’s in-built survival mechanism.

Giving a presentation can be scary and it’s only natural you should feel nervous.

But you don’t want to gallop through your presentation. If you do there’s a risk your audience won’t understand what you were trying o say.

Asking questions in your text will help introduce natural sounding pauses. While you momentarily pause after your question to allow your audience time to reach their answer, you can breathe.

If you’re still nervous about presenting or want more advice on how to improve your technique you should consider taking specialist advice. Training courses on presentation skills which provide interactive sessions that allow you to practice your skills can be worth every penny. But make sure you choose a course that’s tight for you. www.skillstudio.co.uk is a good place to start.   The skills you learn will be with you for life and, because they’re transferable skills, can be applied to more situations than just presenting.

Careers Advice, guest blogger, Interviews

How Body Language Makes or Breaks an Interview

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We may think that what we say in an interview is most important, but how we say it is what really counts. A famous study, known as the 7-38-55 rule, states that 7% of a message is conveyed through words, 38% is through tone of voice, and a whopping 55% is conveyed by body language (Wisebread.com). How you move your hands or hold your posture can therefore be deciding factors in whether you get the job. Here are three pointers to keep in mind during your next interview.

Handshake

Our first impressions really do count. According to Wisebread.com, studies show that many employers can spot the right candidate in the first 30 seconds! The way you introduce yourself is, therefore, pivotal. Everyone knows to make eye contact and not to shake hands limply, but research shows that the most important factor is, in fact, making palm-to-palm contact, not necessarily firmness. According to Patti Wood, author of SNAP: Making the Most of First Impressions, people who shake with only their fingers (not the full palm), are perceived as trying to hide something (Money.USNews.com).

Shake hands

Mind your Head

Although agreeing with what your interviewer has to say is recommended, excessive nodding is not. Studies show that over-enthusiastic head bobbing comes across as too eager to please, and even weak. What’s more, if you’re just blindly nodding the whole time, your interviewer could catch you off-guard by asking you to explain why you agree with a particular point. If you haven’t been listening, you’ll look like a moron. According to Forbes, you should only nod once or twice in agreement, while adding a smile. Remain centred and focused on what’s being said at all times.

Mirror on the Wall

According to Wood, an easy way to subliminally convince your interviewer that you’re The One is to mirror what they do. The key is not to imitate everything (that would be weird), but to just subtly copy them. For example, lean slightly in the same direction or smile when they do. Wood also suggests that you start mirroring right at the beginning of the interview, as this will put your interviewer at ease and make them feel comfortable with you. They should get to like you, right off the bat (Money.USNews.com).

When preparing for an interview, not only is it vital to think about what you’re going to say, but it’s also important to practice how you’ll come across. Sometimes it’s hard to be aware of our body language, as most of it is unconscious. So, it’s advisable to look at your actions in front of a mirror, or do a practice round with a friend. Most importantly, try to remain calm, and, hopefully, put your best foot forward.

Written by Ang Lloyd on behalf of Dynamics Careers, a niche job board that specialises in Microsoft Dynamics jobs.

guest blogger, Project Management, Project Management Communications, Project planning, Team building

Project Management Communications

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Project management encompasses a large range of skills; leadership, planning, scheduling, communicating, decision making and being a visionary. Being able to identify these vital skills and fully develop your understanding of these abilities will ensure that you not only survive, but you excel within the field of project management.

Organisational skills

The role of a project manager takes on many forms, and due to this; organisation and planning skills are listed highly as required abilities. Of course there are very few professions that do not require extensive planning, but project management demands a highly skilled approach as a skilful execution equates to outstanding results.

Project management requires the preparation of project documentation, requirement information, memos, project reports, personnel reports, vendor quotes, contracts and the supervision of the entire processes involved. An essential part of daily working includes organising meetings, developing teams and also, in some cases, organising media relations such as press releases and conferences.

Methodologies such as the PRINCE 2 (an acronym for projects in controlled environments, version 2) enables project managers to organise and control the six major variable factors of any project, these factors are cited as:

  • Cost
  • Timescale
  • Quality
  • Scope
  • Risk
  • Benefits

Much of the benefit of the PRINCE 2 methodology is its transferable and highly scalable nature. PRINCE 2 can be utilised across any project, including highly specialised and industry specific models (engineering models or developmental lifecycles).

Comms

People management skills

Strong project managers should display excellent people management skills. The human dimension bears little relation to the technical ability of an individual, but closely relates to leadership, conflict resolution and ultimately communication. Author and expert within the area of project management Steven Flannes, actually cites that, 80% of project management success comes from people skills and 20% from technical expertise.

Why are people skills so vital?

  • The cyclical and stage nature of projects
  • Increase in complexity of client remits
  • Continual outsourcing of finite and cost effective resources
  • Increased movement toward client driven project management structure
  • Challenges of leading in matrix management structures
  • Increase of virtual team coordinated efforts

Communication skills

Often, problems that project managers are faced with are completely unrelated to their technical competence, but interestingly it is the lack of interpersonal communication skills that pose the largest threat. The latter of course is an essential facet, but is vitally a core skill of a project manager.

It is argued that project managers who demonstrate a high degree of technical expertise are actually hindered within their ability to negotiate. Often great project managers take a more generalist point of view. Generalists, typically, elicit a higher degree or resourcefulness and tend to lean toward being more open to suggestions and ideas. This in turn increases the momentum of a project due to the fact that compromises have a higher degree of continuity.

Adversely to this notion, experts within a particular field tend to display a narrower mind-set that may or not be conducive to the end result.

Financial skills

An exhaustive breakdown of project activities and associated costs enable the project manager to identify trends quickly and plan pro-actively. Although, no project manager is expected to be an accountant but a thorough understanding of the “estimated cost process” clearly would be listed as integral. Cost planning is not only vital for your reputation, but also for maintaining strong and healthy relationships with clients.

Estimated costs should take into consideration for the entire lifecycle of the project. A detailed cost breakdown of resources (labour and materials) along with any regulatory implications should be undertaken. The cost analysis process should also insure against other extraneous factors. An estimated cost analysis must include all factors fixed and variable; this will essentially ensure that the entire project runs efficiently, effectively and to budget.

James King is a construction industry expert who has 20 years’ experience in the field of core cutting project management. He writes for Corecut, the UK’s leading diamond drilling and controlled demolition company.