How Leaders Can Communicate Organizational Change

How Leaders Can Communicate Organizational Change The future of work as we know it is changing. We operate in a world with a tsunami of data and automation, artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing and robotics. These tools have become increasingly available to organizations. With unprecedented change and continuous disruption ahead of us, organizations potentially risk losing their competitive edge in the market if they do not transform the way they operate. The right approach to change is a combination of motivating people’s willingness to change and providing stakeholders with the ability to execute their activities during and after the change. However, this depends on the organization’s desired outcome, the balance of efforts required to drive willingness and the ability to deliver. At Deloitte, we see “ability” as making sure the workforce understands ‘what to do’ and ‘how to do it’. “Willingness” is seen as building an understanding across the workforce as to ‘why’ we need to do something in a new way. How leadership communicates with their employees is an important component of driving willingness across the organization and should not be underestimated. The first step to effectively driving willingness in the organization is to identify pivotal moments in an employee’s work life. We call these critical points ‘moments that matter.’ Organizations must design specific interventions to support an employee’s own transformation journey. By informing and empowering employees, companies can help to drive willingness and ultimately buy-in to the change. Today, too many organizations communicate in a way that is too broad to be effective. When communicating change to the organization, leaders need to consider three enablers to improve people’s willingness: affinity, operational style and spectrum of support. 1. Affinity The most effective messaging is delivered by to whom we, as employees, feel we are the most closely affiliated. Affiliations can be based on the team the employee is part, the department, function or their geographical location. Understanding those affiliations and identifying the different communication leaders for each affiliation will drive more effective messaging. 2. Operational Leadership style Leaders need to ask themselves what type of operational leadership style exists in their organization. Does the organization have a team-centric environment, where decisions are made collectively or is the organization more dictatorial, with change driven from the top down? To drive change across the organization successfully, leadership needs to determine how to best drive the commitment of employees to the change. For example, as a leader do I need to get a specific department manager on board with the change to drive our people’s support? 3. Spectrum of support Deloitte has found that without at least 10-14% of employees committed to the change, organizations will struggle to undergo a true transformation successfully. Successful change programs need to identify who at the organization is holding the change back, promoting it or uncertain about it. Understanding the spectrum of support across the organization will allow change interventions to be designed to target the areas where there is a lack of commitment and ultimately drive a focused and impactful campaign. For messaging to be successful it requires a compelling vision, a clear identification of impact e.g. details on the changes to technology, roles or skills, the opportunity for two-way feedback, and finally reinforcement by leadership. However, in today’s world, organizations need to also consider that employees expect a personalized experience to change, similar to what they receive outside the office in their personal lives. Within the change management world, this is now possible. New marketing technologies and innovations have provided the tools to develop a more personalized approach. By better planning for and communicating change, organizations can accelerate adoption and improve employee engagement, helping to reach strategic objectives and stay agile in a constantly changing workplace. About the author:  Mike Bentley, Managing Director of  Deloitte  Consulting LLP’s Change Strategy and Analytics practice.

Resume Writing in BC

Resume Writing in BCProfessional resume writing BC is a new field with many opportunities and potential. Students have the advantage over the other fields of the same type because they will be studying the same curriculum. It is therefore more cost effective to enroll in a program of resume writing, rather than continuing with something less productive.In the field of professional resume writing BC is a branch of the business program. This particular section requires students to have a well thought out presentation of themselves, their backgrounds, experiences and personal attributes.There are different career paths available for B.C graduates to pursue. Some of the careers include: web design, consultant, technical writer, help desk specialist, project manager, and website designer.Students who have a background in the computer or graphic arts will also benefit from this type of learning. These graphic arts programs allow students to get first hand experience by completing assignmen ts that will give them the basic skills needed to work in the world of marketing. The students that follow will be able to move on to the next level in their education by moving onto management.Because the B.C students have a lot of leeway in their studies, they are in the virtual world in their everyday lives. Some students find it to be a way to learn at their own pace. The opportunities available for online career education can be met by working at a job.Resume writing in BC is a profitable trade that is in high demand in the industry. There are many companies and corporations that are looking for people to do resumes for them. This helps the companies to keep up with the times.B.C. students will have a lot of different career options available to them. The career programs vary in their course offerings. Career counselors will be able to assist the students in finding the career that they would like to take up in the future.There are many programs available for students intereste d in pursuing careers in B.C. These programs are designed to offer students an overview of what they will need to know in order to succeed in this particular career. Career advisors will be able to help students decide which career path they would like to pursue and where to go from there.

Three Tips For Travel To Montreal Canada

Three Tips For Travel To Montreal Canada Travellers Guide To Montreal: JustFly’s Top Three Neighbourhoods  The city of Montreal, Quebec may not be as large as New York City or Toronto, but as one of North America’s oldest and most culturally diverse cities it has a lot to offer to potential travelers looking for a European experience without the costly overseas flights. One thing about Montreal that attracts many people is the fact that, while it is a city, Montreal tends to feel like a collaboration of small, unique towns that are very diverse on a cultural and architectural level. In order to learn more about these neighbourhoods I spoke with the online travel agency JustFly. They were able to provide me with their top three boroughs in the city.  The Plateau  The hippest neighbourhood in Montreal according to JustFly’s review, The Plateau is a neighbourhood that is a maze of small parks, thrift shops, cafes, and some of the best restaurants in the city. Sitting just North of Montreal’s downtown core, the area is best travelled using either Saint Laurent or Saint Denis streets. These parallel streets are interlocked with small alleys, pedestrian and bike throughways, and hidden gems waiting to be discovered by curious travelers.  Saint Henri  A recently revitalized area of the city, Saint Henri is situated right along the Lachine Canal. Loaded with bike paths, walkways, and lookouts, the canal is an awesome place to spend a day exploring the outdoors. If shopping and eating are more your thing, you can do no worse than checking out the Atwater Market. Surrounded by unique vendors, the market has something for everyone and allows you to stock up on fresh and local food. If you prefer your food in a restaurant, Saint Henri has a myriad of new spots popping up all the time in addition to local staples like Löic, Smoking Valley, Ludger, and Satay Brothers.  The Old Port  Montreal’s historic district, JustFly says it is more than just old buildings and cobblestone streets. Located on the waterfront of the Saint Lawrence River, The Old Port features great restaurants and bars along with neat shops for both the tourist and fashion lover alike. Some extra things to see include the ever changing rotation of food trucks, skating rinks in the Winter months, and the Montreal Science Centre. This centre includes a giant IMAX theatre and rotating exhibits that range from science fiction to science fact. Image credits: Montreal.com By Chester Flickr: Centre-Ville (Montreal), CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19329183 By Quinn Dombrowski Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7553897

Do You Really Need a Coach - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Do You Really Need a Coach - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career If you are in any type of transition regarding work or life, or you are considering a transition, then you may have thought about getting someone to coach you through the process. For example, you may be seeking a new direction for your future because it’s clear what you’ve been doing isn’t working any longer. Alternatively, you might know exactly what you want to do; but you can’t see how to bridge your past experience with your aspirations for a new career. These are reasonable times to consider getting yourself some coaching, especially if you have friends or loved ones who are more than willing to give you their opinions of what you should do. Friends and loved ones are the most dangerous part of making a change. There’s a bundle of reasons, and here are some. Friends don’t like to see friends change. After all, you are friends because of who you are now, not who you could become. Loved ones have a stake in who you are now, including how you earn a paycheck, the days of the week you have free time to spend with them, and the chores you do to keep a household or relationship humming. Most of my coaching clients delay their decision to get coached, about 6 to 36 months past when they should have reached out. Why? They rely on friends and loved ones for advice! The very people who have a stake in your remaining in your present form, doing the job you do, the way you do it, and not adding any further burden of either greater status or dependency on them. Even knowing this, most people “crowdsource” the most important decisions in their lives. Recently, a client came to me because she was standing at a school with other young moms. They weren’t even people she knew well, just other parents who shared carpool, cupcake making and fundraising with each other. Their only connection was their kids attendance at the school, which of course means the birthday parties, T-ball and cascade of events that bring families together under the circumstances. “The other moms asked me what I do,” Sarah reported to me. “So, I figured I better do something, since everyone was an attorney, business owner, or had some occupation. Turns out I was the only mom who had taken some time off.” Peer pressure doesn’t stop when you graduate high school. These largely anonymous people had crowdsourced Sarah out of her decision to stay home. She’d made the decision to help her family stabilize while their first child entered school and her husband took a job that required him to travel. Whether or not Sarah was ready to return to work, is a personal and financial question. Yet, like most people, she was polling strangers â€" or at least accepting their vote â€" about her life. That’s a moment for coaching. Sarah had met me at a 2-day seminar I gave on personal branding, and she reached out to get a one-on-one session. In 90 minutes we solved her problem, got an action plan together, and set her on making decisions that were truly relevant to her situation. She’ll check back with me for a progress report in eight weeks. So, when is the right time for coaching? Whenever you find yourself polling others about your life choices, whenever you fear the criticism or lack of support from friends or loved ones, and whenever you need clear answers to questions that confound you. I know. I’ve been coached on every significant life change I’ve ever made. It’s part of my success equation. Should it be part of yours? Do you have a question you want to ask a coach? Email it to me at Nance@NanceRosen.com. Subject line: Question. I will write back to you, with some insight to move you forward.

Best Professional Resume Writing Services

Best Professional Resume Writing ServicesThere are several of these services that offer top notch professional resume writing services for the companies looking to hire from among the professionals. These services have received stellar reviews from various workers and they provide an ideal way to present oneself to prospective employers.Resume is an important tool for the employees to present themselves to the hiring managers, which is why a resume must be carefully designed. The professionals who deal with the company needs in this regard can offer useful help by ensuring that the resume will be unique and well-structured. Here are some of the best professional resume writing services that are worth getting recommendations from.While most of the professional resume writing services offer a wide variety of design options for resumes, one of the best possible formats is to get your resume into a document. This format can also help the employer to get an overview of the applicant's qua lifications and provide an overview of the candidate's skills.However, the major purpose of a resume is to get across the basics of the credentials and skills that are being offered to the potential employer, thus, it should be reviewed carefully before even being submitted to the company. The best professional resume writing services offer free trials that can be used to test the product and get a feel of what to expect.Most of the people hire these services because they get to meet with the various interviewers, job candidates and recruiters that work with them. To have the best professional resume writing services for their benefit, these people can get an estimate on the cost of the package, as well as a complete list of the tools that will be provided to them in order to get the desired results.Once the professional resume writing services can get the resume professionally formatted, the full knowledge of the job requirements should be gained to make the hiring process more eff ective. Most of the best professional resume writing services that work for companies that need to hire from among the professionals has the capability to gather all the necessary information needed to analyze the available candidate pool and assign the best-suited professional for the position.In this manner, the opportunity of having skilled professionals to join the company and succeed in the most suitable positions can be increased. Also, since the process includes some trial and error, hiring managers should be in touch with the professional resume writing services in order to give feedback on the proposals and processes that they use.The most effective approach to ensure that a prospective job seeker gets the job interview is to ensure that the job profile is customized. By hiring these professional resume writing services, the companies can ensure that the candidate is ready to join the team immediately and can get the benefits of the experience and expertise he or she has in the industry.

The Career Pivot Multi-generational Workplace Workshop Part 2 [Podcast] - Career Pivot

The Career Pivot Multi-generational Workplace Workshop Part 2 [Podcast] - Career Pivot Episode #112 â€" Marc presents Part 2 of a new short series based on the Career Pivot Multi-generational Workplace Workshop. Description In this episode, Marc covers the Greatest Generation, the Silent Generation, and the Baby Boom Generation in America, from the events and technologies that shaped them, to the life choices they made. Key Takeaways: [1:13] Marc welcomes you to Episode 112 of the Repurpose Your Career podcast. Career Pivot brings this podcast to you. CareerPivot.com is one of the very few websites dedicated to those of us in the second half of life and our careers. Please take a moment to check out the blog and the other resources delivered to you free of charge. [1:42] If you are enjoying this podcast, please share it with other like-minded souls. Subscribe on CareerPivot.com, iTunes, or any of the other apps that supply podcasts. Share it on social media or just tell your friends, neighbors, and colleagues. The more people Marc can reach, the more he can help. [2:07] In this week’s podcast, Marc will continue a short series of episodes based on his Multi-generational Workplace Workshop. Marc will deliver this workshop on March 7th at the Texas Hospital Insurance Exchange and it was suggested to him that he might want to make a podcast series of it. [2:23] Last week, Marc published a blog post, “The Ubiquitous Access to Information and a Generational Rift,” based on the idea that how people obtain information is changing rapidly. Now on to the podcast… Download Link | iTunes|Stitcher Radio|Google Podcast| Podbean | TuneIn | Overcast [2:42] When doctors are trained, memorization of medical information has decreased because it is so readily available. Marc learned this from the Dean of the University of Texas Medical School at a breakfast club. The roomful of Baby Boomers showed shocked faces. [3:09] Because things are readily available, we don’t memorize anymore and we don’t have to. That scares most Baby Boomers. [3:19] If you did not listen to Part 1 of this series, Marc suggests you go back and listen to that, first. In this episode, Marc will cover the Greatest, the Silent, and the Baby Boomer Generations in this episode. Next week, Marc will cover Gen X and Gen Y â€" why they don’t necessarily get along and why we sometimes misinterpret them. [3:43] Marc welcomes you to the second installment of “The Multi-generational Workplace â€" ‘Why can’t we all get along?’” In the workshop, March shows five flipcharts, one for each generation. Each flipchart has areas for events, technology, communications, learning, and how we research “What is the capital Madagascar?” [4:22] Each flipchart talks about our parents (of Baby Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y) and which presidents came from each generation. [4:37] The Greatest Generation are those born from 1900 to 1924. Every single male of this generation served in the military or in public service. You might pause the podcast to consider what events catalyzed this generation. [5:24] WWII and the Great Depression completely galvanized this generation. As a result, they believed in big government and they saved money ‘like crazy,’ Marc’s father graduated from college in ’42 and enlisted in the Army. Marc joked that his father wasn’t frugal, he was cheap. [6:12] You might pause the podcast and ponder what technologies affected this generation. [6:28] This generation was all about transportation. They were the first to have automobiles, and the U.S. Interstate Highway system was created after WWII. [7:01] When this generation left home, how did they communicate back with their families? You might pause the podcast and consider it. [7:25] This generation wrote letters. Written communication was the foundation of this generation. They wrote by hand in cursive. Do not hand a letter in cursive to a Millennial. They may not be able to read it! [7:59] Marc will show there has been a transformation between generations from written to audio and back to a form of written communications. [8:21] How did this generation research the question, “What is the capital of Madagascar?” How did they learn? You might pause your podcast and think about it. [8:37] The encyclopedia? World Book did not become prevalent until the 1950s. This generation very likely had to go to the library and find an atlas or a globe. They did not have information that was readily available in their homes. They had to go somewhere to go find the answer. [9:34] The Greatest Generation or G.I. Generation produced every president from JFK all the way to George Bush, Sr. The Greatest Generation has had their fingerprints on almost everything for 40 to 50 years. [10:13] The Silent Generation or Traditional Generation was born from 1925 to 1945. What events do you think affected this generation? You might pause the podcast to consider. [10:35] The events that affected this generation are WWII and the JFK assassination. The assassination was a real shocker. Marc remembers Dallas at the time of the assassination. [11:41] What technology affected and galvanized this generation? You might pause the podcast to think about it. [12:01] There were two very significant technologies. The first was the telephone and the second was “the pill.” The pill had a massive effect on this generation through birth control. Divorce rates soared among this generation, which is why so many of Generation X ended up being latchkey kids growing up in households of divorce. [13:01] This was the first generation where we had telephones. They still wrote letters, but calling was a step to auditory communications from a distance. [13:47] How did this generation research the capital of Madagascar? They still probably had to go to the library. Encyclopedias did not become prevalent until the Baby Boomers. [14:38] The Silent Generation has produced zero presidents. They’ve had some candidates, most recently, John McCain. We very likely will not have a president from the Silent Generation. [15:23] Because the Silent Generation was so small, they have not had the impact, politically, that the Greatest Generation has had, or that Baby Boomers have had. Generation X is also a small generation. [15:46] Baby Boomers were born from 1946 to 1964. What events affected this generation? You might pause the podcast to think about it? Jot down some ideas. [16:20] Two critical events galvanized Baby Boomers. One was Vietnam. Marc has seen television newscasts from that period at the U.S. History Museum. The ramp up into the Vietnam War was fast. Marc contrasts it with the Iraq War and the War in Afghanistan. [17:21] Watergate was the second event that affected the Baby Boom Generation. Both these events made us very distrustful of big government. If you were born from 1946 to 1955, you were probably affected by Vietnam. If you were born 1956 to 1964, you were affected more by Watergate. [18:01] Marc remembers in the summer of 1972 watching the Watergate Hearings daily after his work shift at the Howard Johnson’s. Early Boomers affected by Vietnam, delayed marriage and stayed in college. Some Boomers in their 60s still have kids in college. [19:12] Late Boomers, 1961 on, had children at a younger age, have little memory of Vietnam, and in their 50s, have children in college. [19:46] You might pause the podcast and think about what technology most affected the Baby Boomer Generation. [20:10] Baby Boomers were the first to have televisions. Mass marketing was first applied to the Boomer Generation. Marc remembers seeing The Flintstones in 1962, which was mainly sponsored then by Winston Cigarettes! [21:04] The next technology came in 1969. You might pause the podcast and consider what it was. [21:19] In 1969, Visa was introduced. Boomers were the first generation to have easy access to credit. Marc remembers a Barney Miller episode where a detective was telling a young drug dealer that he would never have one thing â€" credit! [21:56] Boomers were the first generation to be the targets of advertising, with ready credit to purchase new things. This is an echo effect from our parents, who saved money like crazy. We spent money. [22:24] When Boomers left home, how did we communicate? You might pause the podcast and think on this. [22:34] Boomers were the first generation to have prevalent long-distance phone calls. College students would give their parents two rings on the phone and hang up. Their parents would call them back and pay for the long distance. Also, we used collect phone calls. Boomers were a very auditory generation. [23:10] Marc tells his Millennial colleagues, “If you have a Baby Boomer boss, and you want them to listen to you, you need to go talk to them.” [23:27] How did Baby Boomers research the capital of Madagascar? You might pause the podcast and ponder this. [23:39] A lot of us had World Book or Encyclopedia Britannica at home. We could easily research at home and get new information with annual updates. It opened up the world to us. Information was rapidly becoming more accessible. [24:18] Who were our parents? To a large extent, our parents were The Greatest Generation. They saved money and believed in Big Government. They believed in “playing it safe.” We Baby Boomers spend money like crazy and we don’t trust government. [24:49] Marc did as his parents told him to. He graduated from college and went to work for IBM, a big company. Marc was raised to be an employee and work for a father-like company that would take care of him. Others did differently than their parents advised. [25:21] Marc never served in the military; most Baby Boomers did not, especially if they were college-educated. Marc did a workshop for a national staffing company and he asked 150 Boomers (110 of whom were males) how many served in Vietnam. Three hands went up. They had volunteered. [25:55] The Vietnam Draft, besides taking citizens, took Green Card holders. Minorities and the poor made up a huge percentage of Vietnam War draftees. Marc learned that those who had the highest casualty rate in Vietnam were college-educated volunteers because they went to fight. Most draftees were not sent to fight. [27:02] The U.S. presidents from Bill Clinton through Donald Trump, has been a Baby Boomer. The next president may also be a Baby Boomer. We will see. Next week, Marc will discuss Generation X Candidates. They don’t look or behave like us. [27:41] In next week’s episode, Marc will cover Gen X and spend a fair amount of time talking about Gen Y (The Millennials). How they view themselves is very different from how Boomers view them. The Millennials are the opposite of the Baby Boomers and we made them that way. [28:12] Marc hopes you enjoyed this episode. Next week, Marc will dig into Gen X and Gen Y. He will show why they likely don’t get along, and why we Baby Boomers misperceive Gen Y. They are our kids! [28:30] Susan Lahey and Marc are working on the next edition of Repurpose Your Career, and Marc is looking for your help. Marc has formed a release team of readers who will get access to pre-release chapters of the book to provide feedback. [28:43] Marc has already released the opening chapter to the release team. You can be part of this team by going to CareerPivot.com/RYCTeam where you can sign up. [28:59] When you sign up, you’ll receive the pre-release versions of the chapters when they become available. What Marc asks in return is for you to provide feedback and be prepared to write a review on Amazon.com when the book is released. [29:14] Marc and Susan are adding about eight new chapters to the book and re-writing several others. Marc will release a new pre-release chapter on this podcast and to the team every four to six weeks in the coming months. [29:33] The CareerPivot.com/Community website has become a valuable resource for the almost 50 members who are participating in the Beta phase of this project. Marc will soon be soliciting members for the next cohort. [29:51] If you are interested in the endeavor and would like to be put on the waiting list, so Marc can interview you, please go to CareerPivot.com/Community. When you sign up you’ll receive information about the community as it evolves. [30:05] Those in the initial cohorts will get to set the direction for this endeavor. This is a paid membership community with special content. More importantly, it will be a community where you can seek help. Go to CareerPivot.com/Community to learn more. [30:31] Marc invites you to connect with him on LinkedIn.com/in/mrmiller. Just include in the connection request that you heard Marc on this podcast. You can look for Career Pivot on Facebook, LinkedIn, or @CareerPivot on Twitter. [30:59] Please come back next week, when Marc will be covering Gen X and Gen Y. [31:06] Marc thanks you for listening to the Repurpose Your Career podcast. [31:10] You will find the show notes for this episode at CareerPivot.com/episode-112. [31:19] Please hop over to CareerPivot.com and subscribe to get updates on this podcast and all the other happenings at Career Pivot. You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, the Google Podcasts app, Podbean, Overcast app, or the Spotify app. Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

Job Hunting - Its Who You Know - CareerAlley

Job Hunting - Its Who You Know - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? That depends a good deal on where you want to get to, said the Cat. Lewis Carroll, Alices Adventures in Wonderland Ive never really been a big believer of networking as the main job search strategy. In fact, for whatever reason, Ive always felt that who you know plays a very small part in landing a job (despite the statistics). But just last week I helped someone I know get a job by referring them. I actually referred three people over the last few weeks (only one got the job so far), so it got me to thinking. Maybe there is something to this its who you know. For me, out of the way too many jobs Ive had over the way too many years Ive worked, only two jobs were as a result of someone I knew. But in my current job, of the six people Ive hired over the last 10 months, three have been referred in one form or other. 50%! Lower than the statistics would lead you to believe, but still an impressive number. So you know what? Ive changed my mind. There is something to this its who you know. So, what better place to start than my Job Search Marketing Toolkit and the Networking post? Business Social Networks The Usual Suspects: LinkedIn According to Wikipedia, LinkedIn is a business- social networking site founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003 mainly used for professional networking. This site has become very popular over the last year. At the end of September 2009, the site had 9 million unique visits for the month and by September of this year there were more than 50 million registered users across well over 100 industries. The site allows users to link to colleagues from current and past employers, schools and any other group that may be defined. One of the features I like best is the degrees of separation. The site will show you how you may know a third party through an existing connection. Linked has job search functions as well formats which allow you to showcase your background. Clearly the best in class from what Ive seen. Meettheboss This is a brand new site from what I can tell and seems to be focused on Financial Services (a way to differentiate from other sites). One item I do not like is that it forces you to add your company website url as part of the registration. Two issues with this. First, you may not want to advertise the company you work for and second, what happens if your company is small and does not have a website (yes, there are still companies without websites!)? Unlike LinkedIn, there does not seem to be a way to search for people you may know. The interface is nice, but the site looks thin on functionality. I will keep an eye on this site to see how it fairs, but Im not sure I get it yet. Networking Where to Start: Riley Guide on Networking This article from the Riley Guide provides an excellent review of networking. What it is, how to do it and what it isnt. The article provides a number of additional links on associated topics. Successful Job Search Networking This About.com article provides another view on networking (formal versus informal) as well as a long list of additional resources. The article mentions that 60% of all jobs are filled via networking (Ive heard as high as 80% as well). The Art of Career and Job-Search Networking Quintcareers also has a page dedicated to networking and they also stress that this is probably the most important part of your search methods. They provide detail on networking on the web, networking groups (like Diversity, Women, Military, etc.) as well as some publications on the topic. The Social Network as a Career Safety Net This NY Times article provides a real-life example of how social networking helped someone find other opportunities. While the current job market environment is likely to make it more difficult than the success of the individual in the article, it does stress the importance of networking. Other Networking Resources: ExecuNet This is an organization for senior executives which helps them leverage their networks and manage their careers. This is a member only organization, so there is a fee based on length of membership. Membership allows users to connect with c-level executives, attend regional networking meetings and meet with recruiters and companies. WEDDLEs Association Directory Not sure where to start? Weddle provides an online comprehensive list by functional job of professional associations. The site also supplies a wealth of career support such as Tips for Success and a Training Center. The Financial Executives Networking Group FENG, which is free to join but accepts donations to support their work, provides a very robust networking group for Accounting and Finance professionals. They have local chapters in many locations and offer regular meetings based on function (like Asset Management) or Tax. Their regular newsletter provides job leads and information to help in your job search. The group also provides access to Insurance and a wide range of other benefits. Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE) This organization provides an outlet for building Latino careers. The organization provides a guidance and support from High School through to the experienced Professional. There is a Job Seeker section which allows for resume posting as well as a listing of regional career conferences. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook

What Not to Do as a 50+ Job Seeker

What Not to Do as a 50+ Job Seeker Navigating today’s demanding and ever-changing job market is toughâ€"no matter what age you are. If you’re 50 or over, however, learning the ropes can be even more of a challenge. It’s highly likely that it’s been years upon years since you last searched for a job, and the market has changed tenfold since you were in this position.How do you navigate this strange new territory?How do you reach out to the people you want to hire you?Just what is the key to writing  resumes  that  get  you  hired  in today’s  world?We have a few tips on things to avoid to help make your search easier. Personal Stagnation Regardless of age, it never hurts to learn new thingsâ€"information, viewpoints and especially skills. Think about the skill set you have now. How well does it sync up with the job listings you’ve seen this decade? Are there any skills you’ve seen that have stumped you, or that you know you have no idea how to perform? Don’t let this become a detriment to you and hurt your chances of getting hired!While you’re searching for a new career, it would serve you well to start looking into expanding your skill set by taking some adult educational classes. If you aren’t good with computers and other electronic devices, now is the time to learn. If you need to be familiar with a certain kind of software to qualify for the positions you’re seeking out, consider seeing if your nearest learning center has classes for it. A Lacking LinkedIn You’ve very likely heard of LinkedIn at some point during your professional career. It’s a business-oriented social networking site and has become increasingly important in recent years. Most professionals today use it to network with other people in their industry, meaning if you don’t have a LinkedIn account of your own, you’ll want to invest some good old time and effort into putting one together and keeping it active and updated.You never know who might notice you on LinkedIn, especially since so many of today’s hiring managers use the site to find potential candidates. If you can’t make heads or tails of LinkedIn, you can even hire a  professional  LinkedIn  profile  writer  to lend you a hand. Ego Trouble Because you’ve been in the workforce for so long, especially as a senior-level professional, you’ve racked up a lot of accomplishments. While this is certainly commendable and even worth acknowledgment, you should keep in mind that by looking for new work, you’re much closer to square one than it may seem. Be humble about your skills, and don’t limit yourself as far as the positions you can acquire. Similarly, you don’t want to be too meek and cheat yourself out of a great position. Simply communicate, connect with every fellow professional you meet and don’t let your personal opinions get in the way of your search. And don’t forget you can always rely on a  professional  resume  writing  service  for help with your job search and to help you maneuver through todays job market!