Pluralsight for Project Managers and Business Analysts (Interview with Casey Ayers)

Pluralsight for Project Managers and Business Analysts (Interview with Casey Ayers) I met Casey Ayers years ago at a Pluralsight conference. He is super smart. He also has just finished his 48th(!!!) course on Pluralsight. You can see his course list here. Once upon a time I wanted to be a project manager. I also applied for business analyst jobs. And so I thought it would be fun to hear from the expert on both career paths I asked Casey some questions and he graciously shared his expertise. I hope this inspires you. Please share this with others who are interested in project management or business analysis, which are great fields for people who want to be in tech but dont want to be developers. Down below Casey talks about his PMP exam prep courses. This is a full suite of courses to prepare you to pass the PMP exam I did a quick search online and found that you can get in-person classroom training to pass the exam for around $2,000 to $3,000. I found other classes for $1,000 and on-demand course for $348 the prices are all over the place. Let me know that you get all of Caseys courses, including the PMP exam prep courses, with your Pluralsight subscription. Full retail price is $299. That is a super deal if all you want is PMP exam test prep. and you get a whole year to do it at your own pace. The bonus is you get the other 6,500ish (give or take a few hundred) courses for that price. But wait, it gets better! Click the pink image on the right and you can get all of that, including Caseys PMP exam prep courses, for only $199. Seriously, why isnt every future PMP doing this killer deal? Its like buy one exam prep series and get a year of access to the thousands and thousands of other courses. This deal ends next Friday. Tell us a little about your career why are you the authority on project management and business analysis (which are two different career paths)? In a variety of roles, including Development Director for a mobile app studio and Chief Operating Officer for a startup healthcare company, I’ve had to define missions and lead teams to accomplish objectives successfully. I find the intersection between business analysis and project management to be fascinating, where designing the solutions to challenges shifts to making those plans a reality. The relationship between these two professions is as unique as the roles analysts and project managers play in their organizations: serving as arbiters of change and creation in environments often more focused on simply maintaining or expanding on what exists today. I’ve learned enough to know that no analyst or project manager is so complete in their individual knowledge and experience as to be unable to benefit from standards and practices developed from the collective knowledge of a global array of experts in these fields. That’s why my courses tend to focus on industry-recognized certifications and frameworks. Knowing how much the experience of each viewer may vary from others, and certainly from my own, this focus on making best practices as accessible and applicable as possible helps me to connect and offer value to PMs and analysts from a variety of industries and different backgrounds. What are things that project managers do? What might a typical day (or month) look like? The specific tasks project managers (PMs) might be faced with on a daily basis will vary drastically based on an organization’s structure and norms, the scope of the project in question, whether a more agile or prescriptive methodology to accomplishing project objectives is being followed, the size of the team, and a limitless array of other factors. PMs working on a standardized sprint basis to deliver incremental value to stakeholders follow a different rhythm from PMs working toward milestones or phases in long-term projects, where most value is delivered at one or a few points in time. What doesn’t change is this: the need to balance limited resources, ensure a clear and continuous connection between work in process and underlying objectives, and a mandate to work with a wide array of stakeholders who may bring conflicting viewpoints and priorities to the project. If I want to go into software project management, what are some recommendations youd give me? Working as a member of a project team can provide valuable insight into how the work of the project is accomplished and help in better assessing the complexity and worth of potential initiatives. However, the actual work of coordinating resources and managing the project can often seem subtle to even members of the project team when it is done effectively. Taking on increasing responsibilities for administration and coordination within project teams can assist in making the transition into project management, as can studying the frameworks, methodologies, and best practices that effective project managers rely on to ensure they’re providing adequate attention to each dimension of project work. What are some key characteristics or attributes successful project managers have? Project managers must be effective communicators, first and most critically. Without expressing objectives and priorities clearly to others, without receiving and leveraging information from others, and without fostering support and a shared vision between stakeholders, the project will inevitably run into challenges or failure. Secondarily, effective project managers must develop the ability to balance limited resources while best serving their organizations’ needs. Changes to either project scope, schedule, cost, quality, or resources will always impact all other factors in a variety of expected and unexpected ways. Determining what mix of these priorities best serves the organization’s underlying goals empowers effective PMs to deliver solutions. If I want to become a business analyst, what are some recommendations youd give me? Successful business analysts come from a variety of backgrounds. Some may initially serve as financial or quality control analysts, while others may come from a sales background or have spent time delivering solutions as a member of a project team. New business analysts are typically well-served by selecting positions that place a particular emphasis on their previous background. For organizations where ensuring solutions can be delivered on time is a top priority, prior experience in project environments can prove helpful. For those where defining underlying needs and objectives are most critical, communication skills and a sales background can help the analyst to gain insight from stakeholders. Begin by building on what you know best, and never hesitate to clarify information with subject matter experts or conduct additional research if you’re not certain where the organization stands today, or what direction it should take tomorrow. What are some key characteristics or attributes successful business analysts have? A sense of curiosity can serve business analysts well, coaxing them to chase down leads, clarify information, and allow conversations to yield unexpected revelations. The ability to communicate with others effectively is perhaps even more critical than in project management, if that’s possible. Maintaining a willingness to question assumptions and biases â€" especially those the analyst themselves brings to the table â€" and vigilantly ensuring that recommended actions remain aligned with underlying needs, especially when scope creep or environmental changes might lead the analyst astray, can help to ensure successful outcomes. If I wanted to become a project manager, which of your courses should I take, and in what order, and why? Those without much prior experience managing projects or even working with project teams would be well-served by my CompTIA Project+ (PK0-004) learning path, which starts with “Beginner’s Guide to Project Management” â€" this is a great opportunity to learn the fundamentals of project management and to earn a well-respected certification not requiring formal experience or training. If you’ve been leading project teams or been managing components of projects for some time now, the PMP ® learning path   beginning with “Introduction to Project Management the PMP Exam” will help you learn and apply time-tested frameworks to your project-based work. This series will prepare you to earn the gold standard in project management, the PMP ® certification, and equip you with formal tools and methods that will greatly enhance your work as a project manager. If I wanted to become a business analyst, which of your courses should I take, and in what order, and why? The PMI-PBA learning path culminates in a certification that is particularly valuable to business analysts working in project environments, but can be useful for business analysts serving in any capacity. Introduction to Business Analysis Needs Assessment   is my most popular Pluralsight course, and provides a great overview of the value business analysts offer organizations on a day to day basis. I’m presently creating courses for Pluralsight’s ECBA, CCBA, and CBAP certification series, each of which will prepare viewers to earn industry-leading business analysis certifications offered by the International Institute of Business Analysis. Some of these courses are available now, with more on the horizon. Stay tuned for the official learning paths to be launched later this year. Pluralsight for Project Managers and Business Analysts (Interview with Casey Ayers) I met Casey Ayers years ago at a Pluralsight conference. He is super smart. He also has just finished his 48th(!!!) course on Pluralsight. You can see his course list here. Once upon a time I wanted to be a project manager. I also applied for business analyst jobs. And so I thought it would be fun to hear from the expert on both career paths I asked Casey some questions and he graciously shared his expertise. I hope this inspires you. Please share this with others who are interested in project management or business analysis, which are great fields for people who want to be in tech but dont want to be developers. Down below Casey talks about his PMP exam prep courses. This is a full suite of courses to prepare you to pass the PMP exam I did a quick search online and found that you can get in-person classroom training to pass the exam for around $2,000 to $3,000. I found other classes for $1,000 and on-demand course for $348 the prices are all over the place. Let me know that you get all of Caseys courses, including the PMP exam prep courses, with your Pluralsight subscription. Full retail price is $299. That is a super deal if all you want is PMP exam test prep. and you get a whole year to do it at your own pace. The bonus is you get the other 6,500ish (give or take a few hundred) courses for that price. But wait, it gets better! Click the pink image on the right and you can get all of that, including Caseys PMP exam prep courses, for only $199. Seriously, why isnt every future PMP doing this killer deal? Its like buy one exam prep series and get a year of access to the thousands and thousands of other courses. This deal ends next Friday. Tell us a little about your career why are you the authority on project management and business analysis (which are two different career paths)? In a variety of roles, including Development Director for a mobile app studio and Chief Operating Officer for a startup healthcare company, I’ve had to define missions and lead teams to accomplish objectives successfully. I find the intersection between business analysis and project management to be fascinating, where designing the solutions to challenges shifts to making those plans a reality. The relationship between these two professions is as unique as the roles analysts and project managers play in their organizations: serving as arbiters of change and creation in environments often more focused on simply maintaining or expanding on what exists today. I’ve learned enough to know that no analyst or project manager is so complete in their individual knowledge and experience as to be unable to benefit from standards and practices developed from the collective knowledge of a global array of experts in these fields. That’s why my courses tend to focus on industry-recognized certifications and frameworks. Knowing how much the experience of each viewer may vary from others, and certainly from my own, this focus on making best practices as accessible and applicable as possible helps me to connect and offer value to PMs and analysts from a variety of industries and different backgrounds. What are things that project managers do? What might a typical day (or month) look like? The specific tasks project managers (PMs) might be faced with on a daily basis will vary drastically based on an organization’s structure and norms, the scope of the project in question, whether a more agile or prescriptive methodology to accomplishing project objectives is being followed, the size of the team, and a limitless array of other factors. PMs working on a standardized sprint basis to deliver incremental value to stakeholders follow a different rhythm from PMs working toward milestones or phases in long-term projects, where most value is delivered at one or a few points in time. What doesn’t change is this: the need to balance limited resources, ensure a clear and continuous connection between work in process and underlying objectives, and a mandate to work with a wide array of stakeholders who may bring conflicting viewpoints and priorities to the project. If I want to go into software project management, what are some recommendations youd give me? Working as a member of a project team can provide valuable insight into how the work of the project is accomplished and help in better assessing the complexity and worth of potential initiatives. However, the actual work of coordinating resources and managing the project can often seem subtle to even members of the project team when it is done effectively. Taking on increasing responsibilities for administration and coordination within project teams can assist in making the transition into project management, as can studying the frameworks, methodologies, and best practices that effective project managers rely on to ensure they’re providing adequate attention to each dimension of project work. What are some key characteristics or attributes successful project managers have? Project managers must be effective communicators, first and most critically. Without expressing objectives and priorities clearly to others, without receiving and leveraging information from others, and without fostering support and a shared vision between stakeholders, the project will inevitably run into challenges or failure. Secondarily, effective project managers must develop the ability to balance limited resources while best serving their organizations’ needs. Changes to either project scope, schedule, cost, quality, or resources will always impact all other factors in a variety of expected and unexpected ways. Determining what mix of these priorities best serves the organization’s underlying goals empowers effective PMs to deliver solutions. If I want to become a business analyst, what are some recommendations youd give me? Successful business analysts come from a variety of backgrounds. Some may initially serve as financial or quality control analysts, while others may come from a sales background or have spent time delivering solutions as a member of a project team. New business analysts are typically well-served by selecting positions that place a particular emphasis on their previous background. For organizations where ensuring solutions can be delivered on time is a top priority, prior experience in project environments can prove helpful. For those where defining underlying needs and objectives are most critical, communication skills and a sales background can help the analyst to gain insight from stakeholders. Begin by building on what you know best, and never hesitate to clarify information with subject matter experts or conduct additional research if you’re not certain where the organization stands today, or what direction it should take tomorrow. What are some key characteristics or attributes successful business analysts have? A sense of curiosity can serve business analysts well, coaxing them to chase down leads, clarify information, and allow conversations to yield unexpected revelations. The ability to communicate with others effectively is perhaps even more critical than in project management, if that’s possible. Maintaining a willingness to question assumptions and biases â€" especially those the analyst themselves brings to the table â€" and vigilantly ensuring that recommended actions remain aligned with underlying needs, especially when scope creep or environmental changes might lead the analyst astray, can help to ensure successful outcomes. If I wanted to become a project manager, which of your courses should I take, and in what order, and why? Those without much prior experience managing projects or even working with project teams would be well-served by my CompTIA Project+ (PK0-004) learning path, which starts with “Beginner’s Guide to Project Management” â€" this is a great opportunity to learn the fundamentals of project management and to earn a well-respected certification not requiring formal experience or training. If you’ve been leading project teams or been managing components of projects for some time now, the PMP ® learning path   beginning with “Introduction to Project Management the PMP Exam” will help you learn and apply time-tested frameworks to your project-based work. This series will prepare you to earn the gold standard in project management, the PMP ® certification, and equip you with formal tools and methods that will greatly enhance your work as a project manager. If I wanted to become a business analyst, which of your courses should I take, and in what order, and why? The PMI-PBA learning path culminates in a certification that is particularly valuable to business analysts working in project environments, but can be useful for business analysts serving in any capacity. Introduction to Business Analysis Needs Assessment   is my most popular Pluralsight course, and provides a great overview of the value business analysts offer organizations on a day to day basis. I’m presently creating courses for Pluralsight’s ECBA, CCBA, and CBAP certification series, each of which will prepare viewers to earn industry-leading business analysis certifications offered by the International Institute of Business Analysis. Some of these courses are available now, with more on the horizon. Stay tuned for the official learning paths to be launched later this year.

How To Act Natural On Camera When Making Videos - Classy Career Girl

How To Act Natural On Camera When Making Videos Welcome to CCGTV! This is a daily video show where I answer your questions! Every weekday on YouTube, I’ll be answering YOUR questions and I am super excited!!  If you have a question you would like me to answer on a future episode of CCGTV, leave a comment below or email me at anna@classycareergirl.com. Question: “How do you act natural in front of the camera? What do you do if you feel bad watching your own videos?-Anonymous How to Act Natural On Camera When Making Videos 1. Repetition First, know that this isnt easy. It might appear that way but I have been doing this for 5 years. It does get easier the more you do it. I am an introvert. It is difficult to put myself out there. Theres a lot of fear associated with it. 2. Pretend You Are Talking to a Real Person I have learned to take the pressure off myself by pretending I am talking to a friend or client. We have a social media intern on our team and she was also a previous client. When I am doing video, I imagine that I am talking to her. Same with when I do webinars. I am more relaxed because shes my ideal client and my friend. So I hope I come across more friendly because I am just talking to a friend. Its so important to be yourself. I am still figuring this out. I want you to know me personally through video. 3. Record With a Friend or Family Member Another tip that has helped me lately is to have someone around like my husband is here in this video. We can talk back and forth because I am myself around him. If hes in the room, it helps me relax. 4. Focus On Helping and Your Mission Looking back at my first video makes me want to cringe too but they really do get better as you go. Sometimes you just have to upload that video, hit publish it and youll see that it actually helped someone. Someone else will comment or someone will say that it really helped them. That is all that you need. I dont need to go back and watch my first video from 5 years ago but I can go back and look in the comments 3 years ago where someone said that the video really helped.  That makes it worth it. You dont need to watch them all. But please put them out there. Share them with the world. You have a message. Thats what this thing is all about. We want to make a difference. If you dont actually upload it and put it out into the world, then you cant share your message and live that life that we all know you can. Just remember, act natural ?? Ill see you next time on CCGTV. P.S. If you want to ROCK social media and have a ton of ideas for what you can talk about on your YouTube channel, make sure you download my free one-month social media calendar  and stop stressing about what to post.

What is the Future of Recruitment Agencies

What is the Future of Recruitment Agencies I’ve written a few blogs for the Undercover Recruiter on how companies can reduce their agency spend by focusing on direct hires. From speaking to other HR types and recruitment consultants that I work with, it’s an increasing trend. Social media, especially LinkedIn, is making it easier than ever for organisations to source their own talent. Hollowing out work Direct sourcing is only one aspect of recruitment, and the world of work generally, that is changing. I recently attended the London Business School Future of Work Consortium, focusing on the future of talent. One of the other key trends that we will increasingly face over the next decade or so is the ‘hollowing out’ of work. For years now we have been outsourcing work to the developing world, and replacing lots of work previously done by people with machines and computers. As this trend continues, we will end up with a labour market with a big gap in the middle. The result will be lots of highly specialised work, for which there is predicted to be a shortage of suitable candidates, and lots of low skilled work which needs to be done by people, such as care work. Other trends Other trends will also impact recruitment: changing demography, increased globalisation and continuously increasing technology. Talent will also become more distributed as technology will mean your location is no longer a barrier to you doing certain types of work. The middle manager is apparently an endangered species. Each of these topics is a massive subject in its own right I’d highly recommend ‘The Shift’ by Lynda Gratton for a detailed overview. From a recruitment perspective, this war for talent people have talked of for years is predicted to become real in the not too distant future, but what does this mean for the future of recruitment and recruitment agencies? Recruiters are going to have to be agile. The old methods of attracting people to your organisations just won’t cut it in the future. We may well need to create our own talent by engaging those leaving education and investing significantly in their careers through learning and development. Employer brand will become increasingly important, as will taking into account as part of your EVP the needs of five generations in the workplace. Benefits offering will need to be carefully considered and improved if you want to attract and retain the best. With regard to recruitment agencies, they will also need to adapt to this changing environment. All of these factors, coupled with the rise and rise of social media and direct hiring models will significantly impact their traditional operating model. At the same time, it may also present significant opportunity for those who are looking to the future. The demand for low skill work means that there still will be a need for temporary agencies supplying short term labour. This might be sending in warehouse staff to cope with temporary demand, or sending a temp receptionist for holiday cover, but these agencies can survive the future of recruitment. The predicted demand for highly skilled workers presents a real opportunity for agencies operating at the senior end, as well as retained search. These workers will be able to demand a premium in the future and will be highly sought after. I do believe however, that those agencies who supply permanent staff ‘in the middle’ will become increasingly challenged. The in-house recruiter is in the rise, and the jobs they hire for are on the decline. What do you think the history of recruitment is? Let us know in the comments below. RELATED: How Staffing Agencies Can Survive the Future of Recruitment

A Backstage Pass to Our TRIBE Membership Site Success Story - Classy Career Girl

A Backstage Pass to Our TRIBE Membership Site Success Story A membership site is where a customer pays you a monthly or annual fee to gain access to the content you deliver on a monthly basis. The great part about membership sites is that you can build monthly recurring income, which means less launching every month. This means less stress and freedom too. Once you gain enough members, you might find it is a lot more fun to run your business because you know your expenses are covered. Membership sites are truly for people who want to make a big impact and reach a lot of people. You may not want to do as much one-on-one consulting or individual coaching, but you like teaching. For me, I wanted to do more training internationally online and less one-on-one consulting. Here are a few tips I learned while building a successful membership site. The 6 Secrets of a Successful Membership Site Running a membership site is not easy and it’s not for everyone. If you decide you’d like the benefits of having your own membership site, these tips will make sure your membership site is set up to succeed as quickly as possible. 1. Create a Content Calendar Your success depends on your content calendar. There are many different options to consider when creating your content calendar. Do you like creating content on a consistent basis or do you want to create content once? Do you enjoy setting up automation in your business so that you don’t have to continue creating content over and over? For example, one of our membership sites, Corporate Rescue Plan, has a content calendar where we deliver brand new content on a weekly basis. I am on the hook to have something new that will help our members start and grow their businesses each week. I batch this ahead of time and try to create 3 months worth of content in 2 days. This is called the Publisher membership site. Our other membership site, Love Your Career Formula, is a modular/mastery format where I deliver content on a weekly basis, but it’s all automated. There’s not much work for me because I have already created the training once and it’s automatically delivered to our members on a weekly basis. I can deliver the content out to our members over 2-3 years. I also hold a weekly FB Live in Corporate Rescue Plan because the community is our #1 priority and the reason people join and stay. This is different from our   Love Your Career Formula. Our members in Love Your Career Formula don’t utilize or need the community as much. You have to evaluate the needs of incoming members. QA is a lot more important for CRP, but no one shows up when I do QA’s in Love Your Career Formula. Our retention rate actually increased when I stopped holding QA’s in Love Your Career Formula because our members weren’t overwhelmed with content. Less work for me, and a greater retention ratesounds great to me! Note: Everything I know about membership sites I learned from Stu Mclaren, creator of the Tribe Course. This course only opens 1-2 times per year. If you are interested in membership sites, you definitely want to sign up for his course. He’ll be making it available at the beginning of August, so stay tuned to our website for more information. I have taken what he has taught me over the last 6 months and have used it to successfully grow our membership from 100 to 470 members!   Stu has a free workshop going on right now through May 9th. Register here now. 2. Hire a Team or An Assistant You need someone to help you out. I had a membership site called the Get Ahead Club that I had to close in 2014. I was a couple of months away from giving birth to my daughter and I was stressed because I didn’t have anyone to help me out. I wasn’t setting up myself to succeed. I highly recommend having someone available to help you with answering emails, questions, community engagement, monitoring your payment processor, and designing images. Figure out your strengths and what you are most excited about doing in the membership site, then fill in gaps around you to help you grow. You’ll overwhelm yourself if you try to run and grow a membership site by yourself. You’ll hit the point where you can’t get any new members because you are working so hard on keeping your current members happy. This is the point that you’ll start to plateau and you won’t be able to grow. 3. Ongoing Problem and Success Path Your membership site needs to solve an ongoing problem that your members have. Not all topics are good for membership sites. Some topics should be a short online course instead. For example, if I was learning how to make pancakes, I’d take a course because I won’t need to keep getting information about making pancakes on a monthly basis for a year, right? But, if the topic was how to cook healthier, and every month you helped me by providing new ideas and recipes, that’s something I would be interested in using for a long period of time. You’d create a success path for me to see what I needed to do to keep eating healthier and feeling better, and you’d keep me looking forward to reaching the end. In Corporate Rescue Plan, we teach you how to start and grow a business and there is always something to learn when you are growing a business, so it’s an ongoing need that never stops. In Love Your Career Formula, we teach our members how to determine their ideal career and develop leadership skills once they are in their dream job. There’s always something else about career development and leadership that people can learn. If you just need resume tips, we have that in a short online course. You can take that and be done in a week, but in our membership site, we want to help people through their entire careers. That can last for years and years and years, which is how we have designed our membership site. Think about an ongoing problem that your customer has and how you can continue to solve their problem on an ongoing basis. 4. Develop a Marketing Plan You need to have a solid marketing and launch strategy. This is a mistake I made in the beginning because I didn’t have a good plan and I was scared to launch. Now, thanks to Stu’s TRIBE course, I am no longer scared of launching. Actually, I LOVE IT! We now like to have some sort of launch every quarter of the year. At the beginning of the year, we set up our marketing and launch calendar for the whole year. You’ll also have to decide if your membership site is going to open and close the cart or if you’ll always have it open. A big launch usually does well because there’s lots of excitement and closing doors motivates people to join because they can’t join later. Depending on your topic, it may make sense to keep your membership site open so you can enroll people at any time. 5. Create a Retention Strategy You want your retention rate to be as high as possible. A high retention rate means that a lot of your members are staying month after month. When I was struggling with growing our membership sites, before getting help from Stu’s TRIBE course, our retention rate was at 60%. It’s hard to grow at that rate. It’s much easier to keep your current members happy than to have to keep launching and get new members over and over again. When we focused on improving retention and used many of the strategies I learned in TRIBE, we had a lot of success. In 6 months we have increased our retention rates from 60% to 85%. I know this will keep growing because we have a lot of great retention strategies we plan to add to our sites over the next few months. A few retention ideas: keep your members engaged in a community with a members-only Facebook group. You can conduct Facebook Lives or put together mastermind groups for your members to meet each other. The quicker they meet others in your membership, the longer they will stick around. You want others to get to know each other. In person, meetups are another great idea, as well as telling your members what is coming up in the future. You want to be them excited to stick around. These are just a few ideas, but there are a lot more ways that Stu teaches in his course, TRIBE. Stu has a free workshop going on right now through May 9th. Register here now. 6. Time and Patience Build a membership site is not quick or easy. It will take time. If you are just starting to create a business, it may not be the best first place for you to start. You might want to get used to selling something else first. When you have a membership site, you will be selling at a much lower dollar price such as $20 or $30 per month so you’ll need a lot of people to support you. If you are struggling to grow your business and have bills to pay, I don’t want you to be stressed out about making money. I recommend having some side income coming in for at least 6 months so you arent entirely relying on your membership site to pay the bills. It took a year for me to make the same amount in my membership site as I was making when I was doing individual coaching. It will happen. I know you can do it, but you can’t rush success. You need to do it right and set it up the best way possible. There was a time when I kept doing individual coaching so I could grow my members, which let me completely remove individual coaching from my calendar. Take your time and you’ll be so happy you did. It will be so worth every single late night that you put into growing your membership site. Questions to Ask Yourself: Do I have a content calendar? Do I have a team or an assistant to support me? Does my membership site solve an ongoing problem? Do I have a marketing and launch plan? Do I have a retention strategy to keep members interested and engaged? Do I have the time and patient to grow a membership site the right way? Please reach out and let me know if you have any questions about starting membership sites!! Stu has a free workshop going on right now through May 9th. Register here now. See you then! Can’t wait to help you grow your membership site!

Find a Resume Writing Service That Will Do the Job for You

Find a Resume Writing Service That Will Do the Job for YouElectrical wholesale resume writing services are the experts in the field of writing resumes. They do not only hire professional to write resumes for their clients, but they also have backup copies that can be utilized if necessary. It is easier to find a team of professionals who will handle your resume when you know where to look for them.Resume writing is not a job you do on your own. Not even the most seasoned veteran of resumes can do it by themselves. The professional companies and individuals who work with them will help you create a resume that can land you an interview.The power of an impressive resume is undeniable. Anyone, no matter how seasoned, with no experience whatsoever, can get an interview. The only thing stopping you from getting that interview is your resume, and if you are able to get that one word in the right place, you can blow away the competition.The cost of these services varies greatly depending on the nature of the work they provide. The more complex your resume is, the more it will cost. Be aware that the cost can fluctuate as well, so be sure to be aware of that.Many companies out there employ resume writers who specialize in electrical and construction-related fields. The writers will ensure that all information is properly recorded and that there is enough overlap between resumes to fill both positions. The writer will also make sure that the contents of the resume are up to date.Appellants who need a second opinion should visit websites that are dedicated to hiring resume writers. A skilled writer is able to match the needs of the individual and the company, allowing the applicant to be assessed on his or her individual merits. It is better to go through these websites rather than simply letting the directory gets you nowhere. Once the resume has been drafted, it needs to be edited to remove any errors. Electrical wholesale resume writing services can do this for you, i f need be. They will also make sure the spelling and grammar are checked and then submitted in a timely manner.In order to be considered for an interview, the standard resume format does not do you any good. In order to stand out, the most important aspect is the content of the resume. You can always add details here and there if you need to, but the key is to keep everything in perspective. You should also be mindful of what you put on the resume in terms of dates, locations, and names.

What Should You Do More Of In Your Job Search Be proactive

What Should You Do More Of In Your Job Search Be proactive Do you want to feel in control during your job search? Heres how to run a proactive job search where you drive your activities and find opportunities that will match what you are looking for in your next job. There is such a thing as burn out in job search?   Just as you overworked yourself in your job, so can you over-work yourself in job search. So Im not suggesting you work harder. Im proposing a solution to help you work smarter. You want to run a proactive job search. And you also want to apply your time and energy appropriately and focus on the activities with a higher rate of return. What does this mean you should do more of? Allow me to introduce the sales funnel. You may have heard of the sales funnel. But for those of you who havent or arent familiar with sales, this concept could be a game-changer. The Sales Funnel = Proactive Job Search Do you see how the top of the funnel is bigger than the bottom?   Thats because it takes many more hot leads to generate new customers. I realize you arent looking for new customers. Youre looking for a new job. Heres how the sales funnel applies to your job search. You start with a lot of potential customers (target companies) which ultimately leads to those who may want to become new customers (job). In order for the target companies to become aware and interested in you, youll need to define what opportunities may exist, either now or in the future, and then create a proposal (resume) to address their needs. As the process goes on, youre talking to fewer people who are more interested, until you end up with the people who hire you. Leads Leads, in this case, are NOT job postings from job boards. Leads come from referrals from your networking efforts or prospecting target companies. Thats why I recommend job seekers have at least 40-50 target companies. These are companies that you are interested in and have been known to hire the role you desire. Opportunities As you pursue these hot leads, you are assessing whether or not they are viable opportunities for you. Sometimes they are, sometimes they arent. The only way you can find this out is to have conversations with people who work in that target company and hopefully a hiring manager. When you uncover companies that sound interesting, youll need to stay in touch with them systematically. Nurture that relationship to stay top of mind and build a sense of trust. (Remember, people buy from people they know, like and trust!) Resume/Proposal Based on your assessment of the opportunities and its viability for you, you will create a proposal (resume). All of your fact-finding, research and conversations should allow you to write a compelling proposal that addresses the specific needs of the organization with the hot lead. Without information, it is going to be very difficult to write a compelling resume. How will you gather data? Networking. Another reason your job hunt may not be doing well is that you are using a generic resume. This doesnt address the unique needs of your future employer. A one-size-fits-all resume cant connect the dots of your past experience so that the company can easily see how you offer the right fit or solution. Learn more about todays modern resumes. Job Offers If your resume and presentation (job interview) meet the needs of the company, then they become your new customer.   In other words, if they think they cant live without your services, they will be tempted to extend you an offer, either for an existing job or one they create just for you. How Long Does This Take? It takes much longer than you want. Lets put it that way. But it doesnt necessarily take longer than applying to posted jobs. The good news is that using the sales funnel, you are in control of your job search. There are as many opportunities as there are target companies on your list. This proactive, targeted approach also allows you to tap into the hidden job market. Because as you know, not all jobs are posted on job boards. Especially those at senior levels. So how long will it take you to uncover the hot leads? In other words, how long will it take you to identify at least 40-50 target companies? How aggressive will you be in following up on referrals and requests for meetings with people within your target companies?   How well are you using your network? In sales, the more expensive items take longer to close. The same is true with hiring. A salary is a high-ticket item for the company. That is one reason it takes companies so long to make close the deal.   And lets not forget, people doing the hiring also have daily/weekly fires to put out and a multitude of other high priorities to address. Adding new talent generally falls down lower on the list. What should you do more of? In order to run a proactive job search, youll want to prospect hot leads. Learn about what target companies need. And be a known entity. All of this means a lot more networking. image credit to getentrepreneurial.com

Tools Every Small Business Owner Needs

Tools Every Small Business Owner Needs Website These are tools every small business owner needs to improve online visibility and productivity.   Whether you have a coaching business or just want to improve your personal brand, these are the tools I highly recommend. A large part of growing your business has to do with getting the word out and letting people know what you do. In order for that to happen, you have to have a website. You also have to use social media to expand your network and reach. I’ve played around with many tools and apps to simplify or improve my online reach. These are the go-to resources I find myself using again and again. Now Im sharing them with you! Website Genesis WordPress Theme In 2016 I finally moved over to Genesis when I updated my website. It is supposedly better for SEO and I can say that its less technical than what I was using before.  I don’t speak CSS, HTML, hooks or other fancy stuff, so this is the perfect solution for me.  There is a cost associated with owning a premium theme. But if you want to build a business online, I think youll want to pay for a solution. A special shout out to Rebecca Metz of WebpagesThatSell, for her ongoing help with my site. Plugins Plugins provide an easy way to add functionality to your site. There are hundreds of thousands of them. These are the plugins I recommend: AddThis Social Sharing:  The AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget allows any visitor to share my site with many popular services (such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter). I can see how many visitors are sharing my content and which services theyre using for sharing, which content is shared the most, and more. Contact Form 7: Its important to have a contact form so people can easily send you a message. Contextual Related Posts:  Displaying a set of related posts at the bottom of your articles can increase reader retention and reduce bounce rates. It gives visitors a reason to stay on your page longer! And all you have to do is set it and forget it. The plugin does the selection for you. Yoast SEO: SEO is too important to chance. Thats why I started using SEO by Yoast. It prompts me to use a keyword and then analyzes my post to make sure Ive used the keyword enough, that the length and readability are ok. Optin Forms: This allows me to add a call to action at the end of my posts like this one. WordPress Popular Posts:  Showcase your most popular posts to your visitors on your blogs sidebar. Use WordPress Popular Posts as a widget or place it anywhere on your theme using some code. Hosting My website is hosted on GoDaddy. Sure, there are lots of places that host, but I havent found any reason to move my site (yet). Social Media Scheduling Monitoring I need a tool that makes it easy to schedule my status updates on multiple social media platforms and the follow two tools make it easy. FYI, Im using the free versions without any complaints. HootSuite is my preferred desktop tool. I can schedule posts to LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter all at the same time, with a bit of modification of course. It also works on mobile, but its a bit more difficult to use. Hootsuite also lets me monitor all the activity going on across my social networks (especially all the lists Ive created on Twitter!) And its easy to retweet content from people I follow. Buffer:  I also use the free version of Buffer to share articles and status updates on social media. As a free user, I am limited to connecting 3 social media accounts and 10 shares on each. Thats why I also use Hootsuite. Buffer also provides a weekly summary of how well my status updates perform. It shows how many clicks, shares, mentions and likes. (This shows analytics for Twitter, but each platform has its own summary). Commun.it: This is a Twitter monitoring tool!  I get a daily update via email that tells me who has engaged with my post, new followers, people who I might want to respond to, etc. I recently started using the free version and refer to it weekly to follow people who follow me. Content Curation   I always need fresh content to share and sources of information. Most of the time I get current news from my Twitter feed. But, sometimes I need more.   I use Feedly to find articles on a particular topic and to stay current. Most importantly,   it  eliminates a lot of the email newsletters and updates in my inbox. Feed.ly:  You can tailor the Feedly reader to your tastes. Get started by adding sites you love to read. I read and reshare articles (and more) from many other experts. But just because Ive shared something on Twitter, doesnt mean everyone sees it. So creating a summary is another way to ensure people see what I share.   Sharing other peoples articles is good karma! Paper.li: I publish a  Weekly Job Search Guide. It is a compilation of tweets from some of the top career professionals I follow. The tool aggregates the articles I specify and tweets it once a week. I don’t need to touch it. I set the accounts I want to share, set a weekly time to publish and it tweets it at the scheduled day and time. FlipBoard  Flipboard gathers news and popular stories collected by news outlets and others plus lets you save articles you like to your own boards. Its good for personal branding and it another source of finding relevant news curated by others. Its a more visual reader, sort of like a magazine. Scoop.it works very much like FlipBoard. You can follow other peoples Scoops t0 see what they share plus create your own page to share your news-worthy scoops. Images Almost every image I use comes from Pixabay. Pixabay offers royalty free, attribution free images I can modify and use for any purpose! I also use Canva to create my blog post images and social media images (memes etc).  I wrote an entire post about tools to create images Free Tools For A Better Online Presence Screenshots I usually capture screenshots with Microsoft’s Snipping Tool. Sometimes I use Evernote’s Skitch. It has been discontinued and you cant upload it any longer so you may want to try the snipper that comes with Microsoft or you can use Open Screenshot which will capture any size screen. Its a Chrome plugin. The editing is limited but it will take care of the basics. This is done with Skitch This was done with Open Screenshot Infographics My go-to resource for creating infographics is  Visme! And Visme also works if you want to create cover images for your social media accounts. Depending on the infographic, I may also use Venngage or  Infogram to create quick and easy charts. Canva also has infographics and slide presentation templates. Email Newsletter MailChimp:  I use MailChimp for distributing my blog posts, sharing my Summary Sunday and newsletter.   Since Ive put more effort into growing my list, I now pay a small monthly fee. If you have under 2,000 subscribers, there is no cost. Sumo: And while were talking about growing your list, consider using a tool like Sumo to grow traffic and encourage people to sign up for your email newsletters! Other Cool Tools Grammarly: I write- a lot. And one thing Im not good at is proofreading my work. Grammarly shows me typos and grammar mistakes. It works with email, social media posts and any online messaging! Its saved my butt a bunch of times. List.ly: Create lists of your favorite posts or resources! Then share it on social media! This tool has engagement factor, meaning people can follow your list, add to it, share it, or like an item youve listed. The options are endless for how you can use this neat tool. WiseStamp:  Create a professional email signature and  promote your business with every email sent. Dlvrit This is an automated social sharing tool. The basic account is free, so thats what Im using for now. I use it to automatically tweet new articles from blogs of trusted experts. I select the source and Dlvrit will automatically tweet new articles. IFTTT is a way to get all your apps and devices talking to each other, for free.   There are applets or actions pre-programmed for you, such as Tweet your Instagrams as a native photo or Automatically share your new YouTube uploads to your professional network on LinkedIn. This automates actions that would normally take you time and effort. Staying Organized These are the extensions and apps I use to stay organized. Pocket   When I want to save an article to read later, I save it to Pocket. EverNote   Sometimes I need a place to keep articles or thoughts. Keep (by Google)   I use this to take notes, create to-do lists, and more from my phone. Slack   This is a great tool for collaborating on projects Trello   Its a visual project management tool and more! Video Calls Recording I used to use Skype and I still do sometimes. But I like Zoom better. Zoom makes it super simple to have a conference call, with or without video and share anyones screen.   You can record your Zoom calls (up to 30 minutes for free). I just learned about a new video recording tool called Loom and Ill be testing that to record screenshots on my desktop and adding them to how-to posts I write! Keeping Up With Trends I hope you have found some new tools to help you with your business or job search. Are there tools you use that you cant just live without? Please, do share!