Making The Most Of Your Time Off For The Holidays - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Making The Most Of Your Time Off For The Holidays - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career For most workers, the novelty of the holiday season includes not only gifts, food, and family, it also means some much needed time off from work. But with this time off comes the logistics of finishing work on time, planning ahead, and requesting additional leave. Statistics show that us work hounds dont always take all of our available time off, including vacation time or sick leave. Here are four tips to make the most of your time off from work during a holiday: Refresh yourself on company holiday policies to see if you can use any remaining vacation or sick leave. Vacation, holiday, and sick leave policies vary from employer to employer. But in general, every employer does give a particular set of days off for holidays. Whether you can maximize this time off by piggybacking up on unused sick leave or vacation time is also dependent on your employer’s policies. Some employers require you to request vacation time far in advance, while other policies are more lax. Either way, you might have an opportunity to gain an additional few days off after a holiday if you do your research ahead of time. Give advance notice if you plan to be out of office for more than the set holiday time off. I can’t say it enough give your employer advance notice of planned time off, especially if it varies from the typical holiday. Think ahead when requesting your time off. Will you be travelling long distances via car or plane to and from a family member’s house? Try to think ahead to possible delays, issues, or last minute changes in your plans. That way, if your employer needs you back by a certain time, you will both know in advance. Prepare your work agenda for when you return. A huge chunk of getting the most out of your holidays is preparing your work agenda now for when you return later. Make a to-do list of high priority items that need to be completed when you return to the office. But be aware your email inbox and voicemail will both likely be full if you don’t plan to check it during your time off. So try to dedicate the first 30 minutes of your day back to sifting through these messages. Plan your personal time ahead of time. Dedicating time with your family and friends during the holiday is the most important part of your time off. So, do it right by setting a vacation message on your email and voicemail if you don’t plan on checking in. And then do just that don’t check in! Take your time off to recharge, enjoy yourself, and come back to work a little brighter. What tips do you have for making the most of your time off during a holiday? Author: Heather R. Huhman  is a career expert, experienced hiring manager, and founder president of  Come Recommended, a content marketing and digital PR consultancy for job search and human resources technologies. She is also the instructor of  Find Me A Job: How To Score A Job Before Your Friends, author of  Lies, Damned Lies Internships  (2011) and  #ENTRYLEVELtweet: Taking Your Career from Classroom to Cubicle  (2010), and writes career and recruiting advice for  numerous outlets.

Career Resume Writing Services - Tips To Get The Best Result From Professional Resume Writing Services

Career Resume Writing Services - Tips To Get The Best Result From Professional Resume Writing ServicesIf you're hiring a professional resume writer, it's crucial that you find the best company and choose the most qualified individual for the job. You need someone who can deliver results and make your life a lot easier. However, in order to avoid costly mistakes and to get the best result possible, it's important that you learn some basic resume writing services etiquette.A good resume service will understand how important the content of your resume is. This will help them create a detailed outline that they can use to help you with your career search. It's essential that they understand what type of candidate you are. What kind of experience do you have? Do you have a lot of certifications or degrees?This information can be incorporated into your resume, along with your career history. It's important that your experience matches up with what you're applying for, because there's no po int in having the skills that you don't have, in order to get an interview. If you're not sure how much experience you have, consider a free resume writer to give you a head start. You should also keep in mind that some employers want more specialized resumes, so you may want to look at a specialist if you're applying for a position that doesn't necessarily fit your level of experience.Remember that any skill that you can offer to a resume is valuable. You may not think so now, but it can end up making a big difference in the decision process of the employer when you bring an edge to the table. The content of your resume is a strong statement about your motivation and skills that you can be proud of.Keep in mind that writing services are often asked to do a number of other things as well. When writing a resume, it's essential that you're able to gather references and personal information as efficiently as possible. The layout of your resume is important aswell. It's essential that i t's easy to read and concise.Resume writing services know what works and what doesn't work. So make sure that you're clear on what they want from you. It's also important that you take advantage of any free sample that they send to you.When you work with a professional resume writing services, you should be very careful what you send out. Any information that is personal, such as medical or criminal history should be kept confidential. And if you have a history of fraud, such information may not be appropriate.Having to create a resume is stressful enough for most people. You need to work with professionals who know what they're doing. So it's vital that you follow all of the tips above. You'll be surprised at the results and a lot less stressed as a result.

A Resume Writing Guide For Kids

A Resume Writing Guide For KidsDo you know how to use a resume writing guide for kids? Maybe you've always had a pretty good writing style, but you're a bit confused about what to do. Here's a resume writing guide for kids that'll help you get started right away.Start with a well-written cover letter for your child's name. This letter is what you want to send to any employer that might be interested in hiring your kid. Include details about your job experience and accomplishments along with your child's name. You should list a few projects or assignments that you accomplished.Next, use bullet points to highlight the key points of your resume. In your bullet points, you can start with a list of what you've done. For example, 'Documented three classes of volunteer involvement (Volunteer Assistant, Mentor, and Team Member).' Next, you can give details about what you learned, skills that you gained, and other pertinent details.This next part of the children's resume writing guide for kid s is the section that will include your objectives and your skill sets. Give a brief description of your interests and activities as a kid. Don't forget to mention any accomplishments that you had in school or as a volunteer. This will help you focus your resume and stand out from other applicants.The last part of the resume will be the career objective. You'll need to address this section of your resume. This section is also called your 'job statement.' You should put down some specific details about what you hope to accomplish as a professional and how you plan to achieve it.The very last step to writing a resume for kids is to review it carefully and take the time to revise it as needed. When you come up with something new, write it down. You can either write it all down or you can keep it with the rest of your documents in your desk or file cabinet. Review your resume often and tweak it according to what is required of you.To make sure your resume is accurate, do research on wha t your resume needs to look like. Check out the online resources that have tips on creating a resume that will best attract the attention of an employer. By reviewing these websites, you'll be able to find tips and tricks to ensure that your resume stands out above the others in your mailbox. You'll also be able to get your resume noticed by the many job seekers who are applying for the same position.Once you've finished writing your resume, it is important to make sure that you always pass it around or hand it out to others when you visit job fairs and workshops. A resume for kids will help you set yourself apart from the rest of the applicants. It is an important tool in your resume writing guide for kids.

Now THATS happiness at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Now THATS happiness at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Tuesday I was doing a presentation for one of my clients, an insurance company outside of Copenhagen. As the participants arrived, I noticed that one lady was carrying a bouquet of flowers so of course I had to ask what that was about. Was it her birthday, or..? Turns out the flowers were from a coworker, who had just given them to her along with a hand-written card that said: Not everything that counts can be counted Not everything that can be counted, counts To the best co-worker in the world! Hugs, Tinna Needless to say, she was VERY happy about this kind of recognition from a coworker. And this is a fine example of how we can make others happy at work through recognition, building good relationships, random acts of workplace kindness and just plain taking the time to appreciate the nice people around you. That is happiness at work, right there. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

The Magic Formula to Better Results Its Your Response that Counts

The Magic Formula to Better Results Its Your Response that Counts Editors Note:   Here is another fantastic article from Jack Canfield, author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and Americas leading Success Coach. I love this article. It aligns with my own personal belief that we CHOOSE our lives. We CHOOSE our responses to things. We CHOOSE the outcome. Sort of like is the glass half full or half empty?. Its a matter of choice. Mine is half full. We can choose to change our thoughts and that will change the outcome of any situation. Dont sit idly by and say, my life takes control of me, I have no choice.. no, YOU get to choose to take control of your life or any situation. Make YOURSELF happy. Align your thoughts with how you want the situation to turn out. Watch your life go smoothly and exactly how you want it to. Its not rocket science. Its just a matter of choice. by Jack Canfield                 In todays economic times, when everywhere you look there’s a rumbling of great uncertainty, I think we should all take a pause (and a deep breath) to think about our lives. Are we moving in the direction we want to be? When things happen in the world that seem so far beyond our individual control, it can feel unsettling. And even though we think we are the masters of our own success, watching the news these days can chip away at our beliefs. Even in tough economic times, you get to decide how to respond to certain conditions, opportunities, and outcomesâ€"both good and bad. While I don’t claim to be an economist, I do know one important fact. The economy is the same for everyone, it’s how you respond to it that determines how you feel about it. It’s yet another example of what I’ve been teaching for years. . . E + R = O (Events + Responses = Outcome) The basic idea is that every outcome you experience in life (whether its success or failure, wealth or poverty, wellness or illness, intimacy or estrangement, joy or frustration) is the result of how you have responded to an earlier event (or events) in your life. If you dont like the outcomes you are currently experiencing, there are two basic choices you can make: Choice #1: You can blame the event (E) for your lack of results (O). In other words, you can blame the economy, the weather, the lack of money, lack of education, racism, gender bias, the current administration in Washington, your wife or husband, your bosss attitude, the lack of support, and so on. No doubt all these factors exist, but if they were the deciding factor, nobody would ever succeed. For every reason its not possible, there are hundreds of people who have faced the same circumstances and have succeeded. Its not the external conditions and circumstances that stop us its us! We think limiting thoughts and engage in self-defeating behaviors. We defend our self-destructive habits (such as drinking and smoking) with indefensible logic. We ignore useful feedback, fail to continuously educate ourselves and learn new skills, waste time on the trivial aspects of our lives, engage in idle gossip, eat unhealthy food, fail to exercise, spend more than we make, fail to tell the truth, dont ask for what we want, and then wonder why our lives arent working. Choice #2: You can instead simply change your responses (R) to the events (E) until you get the outcomes (O) you want. You can change your thinking, change your communication, change the pictures you hold in your head (your images of the world) and you can change your behavior (the things you do.) Thats all you really have any control over anyway. Unfortunately, most of us are so engrained in our habits that we never change our behavior. We get stuck in our conditioned responses-to our spouses and children, to our colleagues at work, to our customers and our clients, to our students, and to the world at large. You have to gain control of your thoughts, your images, your dreams and daydreams, and your behavior. Everything you think, say, and do needs to become intentional and aligned with your purpose, your values, and your goals. If you dont like your outcomes, change your responses! Heres an example of how this works Do you remember the Northridge earthquake in 1994? I do! I lived through it in Los Angeles. Two days later I watched as CNN interviewed people commuting to work. The earthquake had damaged one of the main freeways leading into the city. Traffic was at a standstill, and what was normally a 1-hour drive had become a 2-3 hour drive. The CNN reporter knocked on the window of one of the cars stuck in traffic and asked the driver how he was doing. He responded, angrily, I hate California. First there were fires, then floods, and now an earthquake! No matter what time I leave in the morning, Im late for work. I cant believe it! Then the Reporter knocked on the window of the car behind him and asked the driver the same question. This driver was all smiles. He replied Its no problem. I left my house at five am. I dont think under the circumstances my boss can ask for more than that. I have lots of music and Spanish-language tapes with me. Ive got my cell phone. Coffee in a thermos, my lunch-I even have a book to read. Im fine. Now, if the earthquake or the traffic were really the deciding variables, then everyone should have been angry. But everyone wasnt. It was their individual response to the traffic that gave them their particular outcome. It was thinking negative thoughts or positive thoughts, leaving the house prepared or leaving the house unprepared that made the difference. It was all a matter of attitude and behavior that created their completely different experiences. If we all experience the same EVENT, the OUTCOME you get will be totally dependent upon your RESPONSE to the situation. If you want to take control of how you respond to life, you’ll start noticing that your outcomes will be more along the lines of what you have always hoped. Remember, you control your destiny so make it a fantastic one! © 2009 Jack Canfield * * * Jack Canfield, Americas #1 Success Coach, is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul © and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If youre ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun and joy in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

Skills on a Resume - Which Skills Are Important to Include?

Skills on a Resume - Which Skills Are Important to Include?There are many skill categories on a resume that you can highlight, but if you're not sure what to include, a good resource to use is your mother, who has years of experience in the field. She may have some insights into the proper use of keywords, and tips on how to approach a resume, all while pointing out the positives, the negatives, and the benefits.Keywords are one of the most important skills you can have on a resume. If you find yourself being bombarded with keywords as you go through the resume and cover letter process, the likelihood is you may have missed some important skills and knowledge related to the industry you are seeking. Your mom knows exactly how much of a negative impact it can have on your resume. If you happen to be in this situation right now, the best thing to do is simply to think about your mother and ask her some questions.Also, you might want to talk to your mom about the different resume writin g samples she has seen and used in the past. If your mom is qualified for the job you're applying for, then chances are she's seen a lot of resumes before. For example, maybe she's seen all the resumes with tons of ' +' and ' -' after the job title. These may not even be professional resumes, but they do show how serious employers are about hiring new employees.You can also ask your mom about the best ways to write skills on a resume, and what not to include. Even if you don't like to hire moms, you should at least know that there are ways to make a resume easier to read.Interviewing your mom will only take a couple minutes, and you can be sure she'll give you her honest opinion. It will tell you whether or not you are heading in the right direction with the skills section of your resume.There is no way to know if she is right, and at the same time, you can't verify what she says unless you talk to her. However, the fact remains that by finding the skill you need on a resume, you wi ll be eliminating the negatives from the resume. In essence, you will have been able to remove the drawbacks from the resume that may have bothered you before.At the end of the day, you need to go back to your mom for the final step, and that is your mother will give you advice on what you should or shouldn't include in your resume. Your mom knows all about the skills, jobs, and industries you are interested in, so she'll be able to help you get to where you need to be.

A Christmas Prince Meet Karen Schaler, Screenwriter

A Christmas Prince Meet Karen Schaler, Screenwriter Karen Schaler loves all of your jokes about that infamous Netflix Christmas movie she wrote. The screenwriter behind Netflix’s A Christmas Prince says she purposefully wrote the movie in a formulaic, instant-classic, made-for-TV way that viewers can watch with their friends and family â€" and wine, if preferred. “If you’re doing a drinking game to it,” Schaler tells MONEY, “I want to be invited.” While Netflix declined to reveal streaming numbers, the network recently told Reuters the movie “wildly exceeded our expectations.” Now, the Christmas Prince and his betrothed have returned in a Netflix sequel, A Christmas Prince: Royal Wedding. But Schaler, the mind behind the original story, didn’t write it. She was instead working on two other Christmas movie scripts and two Christmas-themed books â€" all of which were spurred by the Netflix film’s success and completed over 10 months in 2018. A Christmas Prince Courtesy of Netflix It’s been a busy year for the screenwriter â€" and it required decades of financial, emotional, and professional sacrifice to get here. For the majority of her career, Schaler was an Emmy-award-winning broadcast journalist who bounced around markets in Montana, Idaho, South Dakota, Arizona, Boston, and Washington, D.C., and embedded with troops in Afghanistan and Bosnia to produce documentaries. But, in late 2007, she realized she wanted to tell uplifting stories rather than the devastating ones she had grown accustomed to â€" and she quit. She moved to New York City at age 40 on a whim â€" “like a student fresh out of college,” she says â€" and cashed out a portion of her 401(k) to make ends meet. Three weeks later, the market crashed, and over the course of the next several years, she cashed out the rest of her 401(k) and picked up various jobs, started her own travel brand, and freelanced, working seven days a week regularly. “I didn’t come from money. I had little savings. I can’t just put a toe in and hope it works,” Schaler says. “Some think I’m crazy. But that’s the only way I can live.” Still, her newfound success hasn’t been incredibly lucrative so far. She could not share details of her earnings from the popular A Christmas Prince due to various contracts she signed, but it’s safe to say it wasn’t much. She’s still figuring out the business of Christmas â€" and has found more agency (and more cash) in her latest movie on Lifetime, Every Day is Christmas, which stars Toni Braxton, and through her various book deals. For Schaler, creating these fantastical holiday stories comes naturally. Her birthday lands on Dec. 19, and, when appropriate, her friends refer to her as “Christmas Karen.” She has seen every Hallmark Christmas movie, using them as an escape during particularly challenging times in her life. Her writing, she hopes, could provide a similar escape for others â€" particularly at such a tumultuous time in American politics. “In our world, we don’t know the ending. Things are scary,” Schaler says. “Watching formulaic movies and reading formulaic books â€" we need that right now. They bring people together. That’s why I’m writing them.” ‘It’s expensive to follow your dream’ Growing up outside of Seattle, Schaler says she didn’t come from money â€" and she did not acquire much of it over her career. Both of her parents were school teachers, and her mom worked shifts at a local grocery store to help earn extra cash. Schaler earned $9,600 a year in her first job as a broadcast journalist in Billings, Mont., and only received a couple thousand more with each new job she got, with the hope that she would make at least $30,000 by age 30. She did work her way up the ladder in various markets and won three Emmy awards, which honored documentary specials on troops in Afghanistan and missions in Bosnia that she pitched and produced. When she returned from Afghanistan in 2007, she felt ready for a lifestyle change. “I’m a 1 or a 10. No middle gear,” Schaler says of her sudden move to New York City. “I’m all in or completely not.” But, when she moved, “plans B, C, and D exploded with the economy,” she says. She sold her car to pay for her apartment. By 2010, she had cashed out her entire 401(k) savings â€" an amount she declined to detail and a move that jeopardized her future retirement security. “It’s expensive to follow your dream,” Schaler says. By then she had already launched Travel Therapy, a brand she conceived that resulted in a book, trips to 68 countries, and numerous television segments. But that wasn’t enough to sustain her full-time. She took a gig with Fox News â€" a network she says she frequently competed with throughout the years â€" and wrote in the basement of their Manhattan building for correspondents. “It was a moment of embarrassment â€" but I needed a paycheck,” she says. “I was ready to pay the price. I’ll do whatever it takes.” Breaking into a new industry mid-career Schaler considered Hallmark the mecca for romantic comedies when she wished to start writing them herself. She watched the network spill Christmas TV movie after Christmas TV movie, happy ending after happy ending, love story after love story â€" and thought her work should suit the network’s preferences. “I studied it like a formula and really went after it like an investigative reporter,” Schaler says. “What producers are making them? What producers do I like? How do you handle a lower budget? Whose message did I like?” She wrote a spec script â€" a non-commissioned screenplay â€" on her own and sent it around to countless agents to no avail. She eventually found a producer who thought the script was Hallmark-esque. But he wanted a royal storyline, so she wrote the script to A Christmas Prince over the holidays in 2014 and found an agent. She thought the film would end up at Hallmark and was stunned when Netflix snapped it from the production company instead. (Motion Picture Corporation of America, the production company, did not respond to a request for comment.) Schaler had little to do with the film’s production beyond her screenplay. “Being new to Hollywood, you create the party but you’re not invited to it,” she says. The film went on to become one of Netflix’s first original Christmas movies when it premiered in November 2017. A year later, Netflix has released four more original Christmas movies ahead of the holidays, including the Christmas Prince sequel. A Christmas Prince 2: The Royal Wedding Courtesy of Netflix Despite A Christmas Prince’s massive popularity on social media, it’s unclear exactly how many people have watched it and how much Schaler earned. (Schaler declined to detail her earnings due to a confidentiality clause.) To be clear, nowadays, a spec script for a television movie doesn’t go for much â€" especially if you’re not a part of the Writers Guild of America, which guarantees a minimum for screenwriters along with numerous other benefits. Schaler isn’t a member of the union but says she hopes to join to secure better pay and benefits moving forward. On top of this, about a quarter of her earnings from her screenplays go to her entertainment lawyer and agent who play crucial roles in her success in the industry, she says. “It’s a tough business,” Schaler says. “Standing up for yourself costs a lot of money.” But the movie did give her a bigger following and ample opportunity. When Lifetime secured Toni Braxton for a holiday film, Schaler threw her hat in the ring and scored: Her interpretation of A Christmas Carol titled Every Day Is Christmas premiered on Lifetime on Nov. 24. She also landed two book deals and an internationally released movie for one idea: Christmas Camp. This week, Schaler traveled to The Phoenician hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz., to host a week-long, real-life “Christmas Camp,” filled with activities like baking and décor classes for participants. She is already chatting with other resorts around the country about developing their own week-long programs ahead of Christmas each year â€" further monetizing the concept. Ultimately, this year has been a “crash course” in the industry. “You either give up,” Schaler says, “or you get stronger.” Now, it’s time to pay herself back With her emergence over the last year, Schaler is now paying herself back after taking such a financial risk. “I need to stop saying it’s not about the money,” Schaler says of her career. “Money is power and money could help me do the things I want.” Moving forward, she hopes to only do projects in the entertainment industry as part of the union â€" which would ensure compensation minimums, benefits, and a better safety net in such a precarious line of work. She only wants to “work with people who I can have at my Thanksgiving table.” And each Christmas moving forward, she wants to produce a new book and a new movie. “Everything I’ve worked for I’ve struggled for financially,” Schaler says. “It’s now my moment â€" and I’m running hard. I have a short chance to make it up and make what I need to do.”