General Careers Articles

Article / Updated 10-19-2023

Personal branding is about deciding to take an active role in the direction of your life. You benefit from creating a personal brand because it allows you to self-manage your life and stop depending on others to do it for you. Your personal brand helps you make the most of what you’ve got to offer. Permission to be yourself The personal branding process assures you that it’s okay to be yourself. If you’ve built your life on pretenses — on attempts to be someone you are not — this assurance is a huge relief. Personal branding is about expressing your authentic self by allowing you to be the person you are meant to be. The strategic process of personal branding makes you an active partner in creating the direction of your life. You get to decide what your unique promise of value is and who you want to share it with. Gains in confidence You develop confidence as you develop your personal brand. That confidence comes from looking at your strengths and knowing that you have many positive qualities to share. When you know that you have something of value to offer, your self-esteem soars. Your personal brand done well highlights your strengths and gives you a direction in which to use them. As an added bonus, personal branding also minimizes your weaknesses. It’s human nature to want to improve your weaknesses, but by crafting your brand, you can determine whether you really need to use your weakest skills at all. Building credibility Your target audience wants to know that you can do what you say you’re going to do. You build credibility not through your words but through your actions. If you live your personal brand and keep your brand promise to your target market, you are automatically on the path to credibility. Your actions, which align with your brand, validate that you can be trusted and show that you are credible. Showcasing your specialty You need to specialize and have an area of expertise. When asked what you do best, your answer can’t be “everything.” No one knows what that means. To develop a specialty, the best place to start is with what you know. What can you do that few others know how to do? What segment of the population do you understand better than most people in your field do? You have a unique combination of work experience, life experience, and personal characteristics that create the foundation for determining your niche. To be known in a certain niche, you are wise to choose an area of expertise or market segment that you know well and that you enjoy. Leaving your mark Part of the branding process is becoming known for something. Your first step is to identify your best characteristics so that you know what to build on. In a way, developing a personal brand is a means of ensuring that you leave a legacy. People will remember you through your actions, your expertise, and the emotional connections that you make. But keep in mind that strong brands often repel as much as they attract; not everyone belongs in your target audience. Defining who you are means that you need to be brave enough to let your true self be visible. Connection to your target audience Personal branding success requires communicating your message to the right people — not necessarily to the entire world. And it requires communicating in a way that creates emotional connections with your target audience. You simply cannot build a solid brand without building relationships, which are based on emotional connections. Building a strong personal brand helps you interact with your target audience in a clear, consistent way that quickly becomes familiar. That consistency builds trust in your target audience, which allows those emotional connections to form. Distinguishing yourself from the competition You are hardwired to notice what is different. You notice the person dressed in red in a sea of black clothing. Differentiation is crucial to your personal branding success. If you are like everyone else in the market, you are a commodity, and you look the same to the customer as all the other options. If your target market discerns nothing special about you, it’s easy for the customer to pass you by. The support you need People genuinely want to help you. The problem is that if you are vague about what you need, no one is going to jump in and try to figure your life out for you (except perhaps your mother). You need to be clear about who you are and what you need so that you can ask for support with clarity. If you know what you need, you know what to ask for. Defining your personal brand helps you determine your needs and identify who is most likely able to fulfill them. Focusing your energy You are probably as crazy busy as everyone else is. A benefit of having a personal brand is that when you have a clear understanding of who you are, what you do best, who you want to work with, and how you want to use your talents, you also know what you don’t want in your life. Using your personal brand like a filter allows you to more easily say yes to the right opportunities and say no to the wrong opportunities. You know what is “on brand” and what is “off brand” for you. Branding gives you clarity so that you can focus your energy on what’s truly important to you. Letting yourself be lazy A personal brand helps you avoid the need to reinvent yourself and the tools you use in your professional life. After you pinpoint your expertise, your goal is to use it over and over so that you reap maximum benefits from it. (Perhaps you write an article that is then broken down into blog posts and later becomes the subject of a presentation to a professional association.) The beauty of personal branding is that while it’s never static (you always want to learn and grow), it thrives on consistency. And consistency requires you to use key pieces of your branding puzzle again and again even as your personal brand evolves. So do your tough work up front and reap the rewards down the road. And remind yourself that it’s sometimes good to be lazy!

Article / Updated 10-19-2023

To reach the right target market, you need to identify who its members are. Visualize yourself working with your ideal client, company, service, or scenario. For example, here are possible characteristics of an ideal client: Appreciates the work that I do Pays me well and pays in advance Loves the service that I provide Trusts my expertise and lets me serve him or her using my best judgment Refers other dream clients to me Promotes my work to everyone he or she talks to Dreaming about the perfect situation gets you thinking about who would actually be the right target audience for you to put your time, energy, and effort into pursuing. You then conduct thorough research to locate the people you've envisioned. Developing a positioning statement A positioning statement is a tool used in business to identify how a brand will be positioned in the market. It puts into words what makes a brand important and differentiated so that it is noticed by those who need to know about it. Here's how to develop your own statement: Define your target audience. Who do you want to serve? Figure out your frame of reference. What is your point of view? What category do you want to participate in? Identify points of difference. What distinctive benefits do you bring to your target audience? How do you stand out from the competition? Offer support. Support is the evidence that your positioning statement is true. You need credible proof that you are what you say you are. State your promise or core benefit. Here, you pull the four previous pieces together to let your target audience know what the net benefit is to them.

Article / Updated 10-19-2023

The first step in the personal branding process is to spend time figuring out who you really are and what you want from your life. Often, this self-analysis is the hardest part. Here are the building blocks of your brand that you need to identify: Needs: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a helpful tool that shows layers of needs from the most basic (physiological needs, such as food) all the way up to self-actualization — becoming everything that you are capable of becoming. Values: These are core principles that give meaning to your life — a set of standards that determine your attitudes, choices, and actions. Interests/passions: The things that intrigue and motivate you determine how you want to spend your time. Mission: Everyone should have a mission statement — an expression that clarifies what you are all about and what you want to do in life. Vision: Your ideal version of how you will use your mission is your vision. Strengths: Certain abilities and patterns of interest consistently produce a positive outcome in your life, and these are your strengths. Freak factor: This term refers to a unique quality that makes you different and unusual. Personality attributes: Describing the face that you show to the world helps you define your personality. Education and work experience: These attributes are easy to identify because they're based on fact. 360º feedback: The people who know you best (such as friends and coworkers) can provide key information about your character. Goals: Getting specific about what you want to achieve greatly increases your chances of success. Target market positioning statement: This tool identifies how your brand will be positioned in your target market. It puts into words what makes your brand important and unique so that the people who need to know about you can clearly understand what you represent.

Article / Updated 10-19-2023

Personal branding is about making connections, and the logo you choose should connect with your audience. A logo creates awareness. It can be a symbol, text, a graphic, or a combination of these things. (Keep in mind that people recognize images more often than they remember text.) It symbolizes your brand and provides an image that gives you a memorable identity. Many people associate logos only with company brands, but you can have a logo made just for you as an individual. You want to keep your logo simple and clean. Here are some other tips for creating a great logo: Shape or symbol: Symbols are powerful. Create your logo so that it’s easy to understand and see without glasses. Color: Use the color(s) that you consistently employ to represent your personal brand. Use colors that attract the people you want to attract. Most logos use vibrant colors in order to have the greatest impact. Size: When you place your logo into your materials, it should be large enough to see clearly and small enough that it doesn’t dominate. (Make sure that you have your logo in a file format that allows you to resize it for various projects.) Brand connection: Think about how you want people to emotionally connect with you. Find a symbol that you care about and use it to connect with others. If you love your logo and feel good about it, you’ll feel great about putting it on display, so take your time and design something wonderful. And don’t be a copycat; you want your logo to be unique. If you struggle to create a logo yourself, spend the money to get professional help. A great logo pays dividends by attracting business, and (ideally) you want a logo that you can use for years. If you don’t know any designers, you can find one online at a design sites like Upwork, Deluxe Logo Design, or ZillionDesigns.

Article / Updated 10-19-2023

You don't just communicate your personal brand in person; you should communicate your brand online as well. A profile hub can serve as a central point for all your online activity (your blog or website, Twitter account, photo gallery, and so on). Content for your profile may include A brief bio about who you are Links to your social media sites (such as LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, and business fan pages) The name, products, and/or services of your business If appropriate, your key clients Your education Special features that enhance your personal brand, such as a favorite quote or testimonial Videos highlighting who you are and what you do Your photo Links to — or PDF versions of — articles you've written, slides, or other visuals you've produced Popular profile hubs include: LinkedIn: This site helps you build effective business relationships based on nurturing the "know, like, and trust" factor. If you are just beginning to think about using online tools to showcase your personal brand to your business and social networks, begin with LinkedIn. Facebook: Facebook helps you tell your story in ways that connect, inform, and entertain. This allows you to navigate the gentle balance of being social while also sharing enough of your personal brand to offer a satisfying taste of what others experience when they meet you in person. But, as your mother always told you, be careful who you hang out with! Your community of choice makes an impression. About.me: Create a personal home page that's free and easy to set up. There's no need to create a website when you can use About.me as your hub. Visitors can view your site without logging on, and you can use it as your central point of contact.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 10-06-2023

Taking a career break can be a transformative experience that paves the way to a happier and more fulfilling life. This Cheat Sheet provides guidance on designing a plan for your break and exploring the potential benefits of this time off. If you’re unsure about taking the leap, you’ll also find considerations that will help you decide if a break is the right path for you.

Article / Updated 09-07-2023

Through the 1970s, most people landed their job by answering ads. Then, the dominant approach became networking: informational interviews, pitching friends, even cold-contacting target employers that were not advertising a job. But today, networking has a competitor: an online presence that’s attractive enough that recruiters pluck you out and invite you to apply for jobs. Here are three keys to becoming pluckable: A compelling LinkedIn profile. Your headline should contain keywords that recruiters search on, for example, Fundraising Infrastructure Specialist: Donor management |Raisers Edge|Planned Giving. Your employment history should also be rich with keywords. Make your photo head-and-shoulders, no shadows, yes smile. Have at least three stellar references. Everyone has good ones. See if you can get three great ones. Impressive posts on Groups. LinkedIn, Yahoo!, and perhaps your professional association probably have one or more forums on which you can post ideas, links to others’ articles or your own, and where you can answer group members’ questions. Recruiters often invite solid participants to apply to jobs. Priming LinkedIn hirers. Many job seekers ask their LinkedIn connections for a job lead prematurely. That’s like asking someone to marry you before you know each other. When you’ve identified a Recruiter or hiring manager whom you’d like to consider you for a possible job or refer you to someone, read their LinkedIn updates, make an intelligent and/or kind comment or question, and then write a personalized request to connect with them on LinkedIn. If accepted, write a personalized inMail or email that explains why you’d appreciate the opportunity to chat about a possible job or for some counsel. Careers for Dummies includes such specifics as sample reach-outs to potential employers.

Article / Updated 09-07-2023

In finding a career, many people take career “tests,” struggle to get informational interviews, and even take career workshops. And despite all that, they end up far from sure they’ve made a wise choice of career. These steps can help you pick a career wisely: What career type are you? Which one or two of these are you: a word person, people person, Science-Technology-Engineering-Math (STEM) person, hands-on person, or entrepreneurial? Scan the options. Most people consider only a small fraction of worthy careers. A fast way to broaden your options is to scan books that profile lots of careers. Careers for Dummies provides a scoop on 340 good careers plus self-employment ideas. Also, the federal government publishes the Occupational Outlook Handbook, which offers more detailed (if drier) introductions to 250 careers. Embrace Google Search. Because Google Search is free, it’s easy to underestimate its potency. But it’s a remarkable curator of incomprehensibly large amounts of information. So do use Google Search to find articles and video introductions to careers that pique your interest. Particularly look for those that focus on a day in the life. These articles and videos are often more valid than an informational interview or three because each article or video may distill the experiences of multiple people in the field. Use a pros-and-cons list with a twist. Make pros- and-cons lists of two or three careers you’re now considering. Pick the one that feels best. How are you feeling about that? Now imagine that you picked the other career. Feeling better or worse? Now pick. Even if your top-choice career doesn’t feel perfect, it’s usually wiser to start preparing for that career. Most people who end up happy in their career feel that way after only they’ve become competent at it and have tailored and accessorized it to fit their preferences and strengths. If you wait on the sidelines for the perfect career to hit you upside your head, you may be waiting a long time. It’s wiser to pick a career sooner than later and then tweak as you go. Of course, the devil is the details. Careers for Dummies gives you all the details you need to wisely choose your career.

Article / Updated 08-02-2023

To reduce debt, you first must eliminate your consumer debt by paying off your credit cards. From there, your path to financial success depends on smart wealth management through a “wealth plan.” Start your path to financial freedom by eliminating any existing consumer debt with a debt payoff plan. Reduce consumer debt Consumer debt must be avoided if you want to achieve wealth, financial success, and ultimately financial freedom. Consumer debt includes credit card debt, consumer loan debt, retail store or gas credit cards, revolving accounts, and even car payments. It's any debt you would take on for consumption purposes. Any debt entered into on a non-appreciation asset should be questioned. So, what about a car loan? A car is a depreciating asset. The car loses value the minute you drive it off the lot and continues to depreciates in value over time. But the use of loans to buy cars today is commonplace. In fact, 43 percent of the adult population has a car loan to pay. In the 1960s and 1970s, it was rare for people to have car loans. If you want to join the ranks of the wealthy, avoid bad debt and consumer loan debt. Now the use of debt on appreciating assets is a valid tool to create and increase wealth. An appreciating asset could be the home you live in, an investment property you purchase, or business that you acquire. By and large, an appreciating asset with reasonable debt amounts will help you create more wealth. The desired wealth needed to achieve financial independence influences the need to use debt as a tool. The type of debt that more than 65 percent of all Americans have is consumer debt: bad debt, and much of it is credit card debt. Most people, no matter their background or knowledge, have at one time or another had problems with consumer debt. Successful people don't avoid mistakes; they make the mistake only once and learn from it. You can use some strategies to create efficiency and value in using credit cards sparingly and well. And there are ways to get out of credit card debt efficiently and permanently. Reduce credit card debt to build wealth If you presently have credit card debt, you need to work out of that situation. This non-deductible debt, in my view, is the worst form of debt. When you combine that with the high interest rate that credit cards usually charge, it really is an explosive problem. Putting the credit card down and not using it is certainly the best strategy. Maybe you have some ongoing business needs or personal needs that require a credit card. Most business service providers will take an EFT charge direct from your account. If you have a credit card with a balance that you cannot pay off, and you need the use of your credit card for some reason, here are a few steps you must take: Step 1: Resolve to pay all new charges off in full on time If you carry a loan balance on a credit card, when you charge something to that specific card, large or small, from the moment of the charge processing, you will accrue interest charges. The interest rate is obviously incredibly high. No one ever got wealthy paying 17-percent interest to someone else. The normal 25-day grace period to pay with no interest charged is gone. Because of the balance on the card, you will be paying interest from the moment you bite into that hamburger you just charged. It means that $15 lunch will cost you 17 percent more! Step 2: Establish a going-forward credit card What you need to do is pay off one card that will be used as your going-forward credit card for emergencies and necessities. Reread that sentence: The key words are emergencies and necessities, not discretionary spending. You want any balance moved to a very low-interest card or credit line. Frequently, if you have good credit, you will receive offers with a 2- to 5-percent one-time fee on the balance you are transferring. You then can receive 12 months with no interest to pay it off. It’s not no interest, because you paid the 2- to 5-percent fee upfront, but it’s a lot better than 17 percent interest ongoing month to month. The key is that you must use a credit card with zero balance as your emergency need card. And you won't ever use that emergency need card unless you have the ability to pay the full balance each month. Your goal is to only spend at all times what you can comfortably pay off each month. And if you have to transfer a balance to a spare credit card and pay the one-time fee of 2 to 5 percent, do it. Then budget out paying off that card in the timeframe of the zero-interest year. The worst thing you can do in this strategy is run up debt that you can’t pay off monthly. You will be in even more debt than before. Do the math of figuring out how much you need to pay each month to erase your debt in the specified time. Then pay that specific amount, or just a little bit more. That way you are only paying 2- to 5-percent interest on the transferred borrowed amount. Again, do not charge a thing on this card. The credit card companies apply payments to the lower interest rate balance owed first. The only thing that you will pay for is the annual fee charge if any. That will be charged at your normal interest rate charge. Get yourself out of credit card debt as quickly as possible by paying the lowest rate possible. Then never go back into credit card debt. Develop a successful debt payoff strategy There are a number of systems to help you control and get rid of credit card debt. The key is getting out of high-interest, non-deductible consumer debt. If you are in debt you must create an organized strategy to retire that debt. I have created and included a tool, shown in this figure, from our Champions of Wealth course for your use. This Debt Management tool looks at your number of credit cards. It helps you organize your debts and set a strategy to become bad-debt free. The tool provides you a place to simply organize and list all your debts completely. You will want to just brainstorm and fill out the form. List everything on the document rather than organize as you go. Don’t evaluate based on an amount or interest rate. The purpose is to just create a complete accounting in one spot of all debts you owe. The debts you have will become easier to organize a plan for once you have identified and collected them all in one document. List all bad debt first. Picking your debt payoff plan Now that you have your list of debt, you need to craft a debt payoff plan to get rid of it. It will be hard to invest and save at the level you need to without getting out of debt. There are two schools of thought in the strategy of paying off debt. One school is the financial strategy for debt reduction and one is more of an emotional strategy to pay off debt. There is not a quantifiable best option here, so choose what's best for you. The financial strategy goes back and organizes your credit card debt cost based on interest rate. You list your highest interest rate debts at the top, pay the minimum payment on all other debt, and power excess funds in paying the highest interest rate one first. That strategy makes greater financial sense, but it might not be right for you. In fact, it might not be correct for most people depending on whether you can create momentum and feel good about the progress you’re making in getting out of debt. Maybe your highest interest rate debt is also the largest amount. It takes a greater discipline to pay debt off through this method. The emotional strategy that has the highest likelihood of success is tackling the credit card or debt based on amounts. You organize your debt based on smallest amounts at the top. This way you start to see progress sooner. The strategy of ranking which to pay off is based on the principle of momentum and positive progression. This way creates emotional excitement and rewards sooner and more consistently. The goal is paying off the card and then cancelling it forever. This is especially true for store credit cards. Store credit cards carry the highest interest rates. They also have the enticing money-saving offers. We shop at Old Navy for my kids. Every time, they offer a credit card where I can save 15 percent off our total purchase. If we are spending a few hundred dollars, it’s $30 to $50 in savings. Let’s be honest, a good deal is enticing to any of us, but I always turn it down because my time of having to deal with another credit card is just not worth the one-time savings. The goal is to reduce debt, reduce expenses, and hassle. Every card you carry has an expense, usually an annual fee, and the hassle of dealing with more bills and tracking. It’s just not worth the one-time offer in savings. Laying out your GALP (Gone After the Last Payment) plan What you want to do is base your strategy on the Gone After Last Payment system, or GALP. Pull together your statements and balances and then calculate your GALP number. Take the outstanding balance and divide by the minimum payment to determine how many months it would take to pay off the credit card or debt. The goal is to pay more than the minimum so that you do it faster. You also have to recognize that if you only pay the minimum you won’t have it paid off in the GALP number because you are not factoring the interest charged each month you will pay, but you will be close. Take a look at the following table, which shows a sample debt scenario. A Sample Strategy for Debt Payoff Account Outstanding Balance Monthly Minimum Payment GALP Number GALP Ranking VISA $550 $50 11 1 MASTERCARD $720 $60 12 2 AMEX $1,400 $40 35 3 At a minimum, to hit your GALP number, you have to pay the minimum payment plus the accrued interest that the bank is charging you. Only then can you pay off and close the account out of your GALP number. Then you add the snowball concept: After you pay off a card, you then add what that payment would have been to your next debt plus the minimum payment and accrued interest. You then start paying that card down and just continue repeating the process until all debt is gone. Laying it out on paper (see the following figure) and tracking your progress is a powerful way to create excitement and momentum. It’s a way for you to save the money you need to create the wealth you desire, and fund your present and future lifestyle.

Video / Updated 07-13-2023

There comes a time when you need a change. If that involves a career change, you will need to know how to write a resignation letter. Your letter of resignation plays an important role in transitioning you to a new place of employment. See a resignation letter sample and find out how to write your own resignation letter in this video. These simple instructions will help pave the way for a smooth shift in careers.