How to Stand Out Online by Curating Content

How to Stand Out Online by Curating Content If you are active on social networks, you probably share all types of content: videos, articles, and pictures and you want your network to see what you’ve seen. The problem with this is that the shared content has a limited shelf-life and often doesn’t reach everyone across all your social networks. Wouldn’t it be great to have one place online where everyone can see a summary of stuff you share? There’s a fix for this! Content curation tools Curation tools allow you to highlight and publish web content on your own virtual newspaper or web page. Once you have the web page with its own unique link, you can share it with all your social networks and through email as well. These tools provide you with an additional method to promote your own online content or to share a collection of industry news written by others. How to maximize your message Think about the impression you want to make: what do you want people reading your curated content to think? Do you want to be seen as someone who keeps up on current events, or become recognized as a “go-to source” of helpful information? These are just some suggestions for how you can use these tools, you may have your own ideas: Create a site that links to your social profiles and articles referencing you on the web. Maybe its called a “Brag Rag.” Curate the best industry articles you’ve read throughout the week. Share a collection of articles written about a recent conference or event you attended. Share “how-to” articles and videos you think your fellow colleagues would benefit from. And by the way, if you don’t have your own content or website, these tools create a webpage associated with your name which may help get you found by search engines. Curation tools Depending on the tool you use, the finished product can be automatically generated based on your pre-selected criteria or hand picked articles.   Here are four free tools which provide you with different options to meet your needs: Paper.li has many features you may be interested in, such as the ability for people to subscribe to your virtual newspaper via email (which is a nice option for the people in your network who aren’t on social networks). Additional features include: automatic publishing (either daily or weekly) using updated content, statistics on users to see how many people are viewing your paper, and the ability to embed the newspaper on your own site or blog if you have one. RebelMouse is relatively new and still in beta. Youll notice their website is a summary of their content and it functions like their product. RebelMouse boasts that their curation tool acts like a social website and showcases the content you want to share. Each article is visually depicted and summarized and when you click on the article, it links to the full article or page. You can set up RebelMouse to automatically find and publish the content you share on many different social networks. Scoop.it enables you to create a webpage with the content you flag (or scoop). When you find something great you want to share, hit the “Scoop.it” bookmarklet. A bookmarklet is a button which you can add to the tool bar of your web browser. There are four different ways you can source or find content to manually select for your page. Scoop.it even lets you input your own content, so if you don’t have a blog and have opinions or thoughts to share, this seems like a clever alternative. If Twitter is your social network-of-choice, then you should know about Twylah. You can create a summary of collected tweets by specifying Twitter lists, key words or your own stream as content sources. Your Twylah page automatically displays the topics you tweet about most, creating a visual summary for others to see. This is a great way to collect what you’ve shared on Twitter with people in your network who are not active on Twitter. Visual content What makes these online summary pages interesting is that they use images from the content to catch the reader’s attention. The use of images is on the rise and a trend predicted to continue due in part to the growing use of mobile devices, time strapped lives, and because there is just so much stuff out there to read. Do you use any of these tools? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

3 Technology Skills All Women Need to be Future-Proof - Classy Career Girl

3 Technology Skills All Women Need to be Future-Proof The working landscape is changing for everyone. Technology is growing at the fastest pace we’ve ever seen. Five million jobs will be lost to automation by 2020. Occupations which once seemed relatively secure, such as customer service, retail, and administration, no longer hold the security they once did. To stay ahead of the curve and excel in your career, be that tech-oriented or not, you should start to think about building a bank of skills which are future-proof and put you in good stead to keep your skill set current. So, what are some of the newest occupations with the highest demand? What do they tell you about the skills you need to stay future-proof and employable? 3 Technology Skills All Women Need to be Future-Proof 1. Programming If we’re going to be taken over by robots, someone has to help build and program these impending killing machines. Programmers and developers are in high demand but low supply. This results in high salaries and plenty of opportunities. As businesses increasingly become more and more digitalized, the range of industries and organizations you could work for are incredibly vast. From website to software to machine programming, there’s just so much scope. Furthermore, programming is a useful skill in other professions. For instance, a marketer who can work on a website has the skills to save a business time and money. Blended skill sets like this will increase with new generations. It’s important to keep up. The growth of technology will have a huge effect on the job market. Yesterday’s manual labor could become tomorrow’s programmer. Could coders become the blue-collar workers of tomorrow? The lack of skill in this field means there are ample retraining opportunities. Companies all over the world, funded privately and by governments, work to train and retrain people into coding careers. From Skillcrush, who offer affordable courses which prepare you for employment, to Code Academy who helps you learn for free at your own pace, there are many options to learn to code. Beyond this, subscription sites such as Lynda and Treehouse can help top up skills or get a basic understanding of many coding concepts. [RELATED: Why Women Excel in Business and STEM] 2. Data Science We’ve never been more impacted by data than we are today. Every two days, we create more data than we have throughout history up until 2003. Needless to say, data management, analysis, security, and storage occupations are growing and will continue to do so. Many argue we currently suffer from a skills shortage in this field. Whilst this is a concern, it’s also a huge opportunity for young women to break into careers which are high paying, available at a surplus, and demonstrate opportunities for growth. There are many ways you can train to begin a career in this sector. A technology, computer science, or business administration degree is a good start, but isn’t necessary. If you clearly demonstrate analytical and problem-solving skills, you’ve formed a good base for a career with data. Due to the lack of professionals in the field, companies such as Salesforce are encouraging retraining by offering a free learning platform called Trailhead. This CRM (customer relationship management) software company not only presents opportunities internally but the nature of their offering means there is ample opportunity to work with the software across a range of sectors. This is how they’re able to boast a job growth rise of 48% year on year, with a predicted two million jobs by 2020. Salesforce also ranks highly for its pay and employee satisfaction rates and is often praised for its ethical stance, pioneering for change for women in technology. 3. Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence, in the way we know it today, is a relatively new concept, and an even newer occupation. It’s a job which blurs the lines between data science and coding. As this occupation is so new, a career in this field is high level. You’ll need an undergrad degree, perhaps even further education, to break into the research development side of AI. You need maths, physics, and computing skills. Much like the aforementioned tech jobs, there is a higher requirement than there is demand. The Institute states: The need for AI specialists exists in just about every field as companies seek to give computers the ability to think, learn, and adapt. This really highlights just how important AI growth will be for businesses over the coming years. AI is increasingly creeping its way into every aspect of our lives. As a marketer, demonstrating an understanding of AI and how it can be utilized is a great skill. You can use your knowledge of AI to understand how new technologies will reach consumers. Women are the answer to the tech skills gap! Women comprise 47% of the workforce but represent roughly 20% of tech workers. More women learning technology skills and entering tech-oriented careers will help resolve the immediate need as well as improve representation. As technology becomes an increasing part of our life, related skills become an expectation. Getting ahead of the curb and equipping yourself with knowledge and practice of these sought-after jobs makes you more likely to stand out from the crowd and land the jobs you want.

7 Ways Public Speaking Can Help Your Career

7 Ways Public Speaking Can Help Your Career Guess what? The world’s number one fear is not spiders, global warming, nuclear war, space invaders or even death. It it is in fact public speaking. Surveys keep confirming that presentation skills are vital to success in business and life, yet the idea of it somehow fills us with terror. If you can become that person that gladly steps up to talk, you will earn more, build your business or get promoted quicker and your personal brand will be boosted to new and greater heights. How to improve your speaking skills How does one go about to conquer this fear? I am sure there are lots of ways but one that is working for over 250,000 member is Toastmasters International. You may have heard the name before, in a nutshell it’s a public speaking club that was founded in California back in the 1920s and there are now 12,500 clubs around the world, each comprising of about 30 members. This may sound rather dull and like a support group where a bunch introverts hold hands and try to overcome their fears of public speaking. Au contraire, the members at Toastmasters are anything but shy. I believe most folks that join Toastmasters already have a showman streak in them and their club provides the perfect outlet for this. 7 reasons you should consider Toastmasters: 1. Presenting and speaking before an audience Presentation skills are crucial in the business world and if you are aspiring to climb the corporate ladder you have to be confident speaker. The speaking and presenting part is what most people expect to learn from Toastmasters so let’s move on. 2. Writing and structuring a speech What are you actually going to speak about? Whatever you like, but you have to put it together yourself. The content of your speeches has to be researched, structured, written, re-written, proofread to have the maximum impact. These activities take time and effort but you pick up a knack for it over time. 3. Listening and evaluating other speakers Some people are born good speakers. They do not tend to be born good listeners as well. If you work in sales, you will know that your ability to listen and understand your client is perhaps the most important aspect to your success. Toastmasters requires you to evaluate other speakers and giving constructive feedback before the group. After you have done your evaluation, prepare to be evaluated yourself, there is no hiding here! 4. Picking up leadership skills Once you are a regular member you will be asked to get involved in organizing and running meetings and other events. These activities take more effort than you would expect but make for excellent training. The sweat equity you put in will be returned to you as invaluable leadership skills that transfer over nicely to the corporate world. 5. Getting to know your local community You club will be made up of people like you, ambitious, curious and keen to improve their lives and careers. You will expand your professional network exponentially by simply showing up to meetings and talking to fellow members. Toastmasters is not an old boys club intended to further each others’ careers but it is one very useful side to it. 6. Giving you a perfect failure platform At Toastmasters, you can fail as much as you like. Mess up a speech, show up late, forget to print the program, whatever it is you have not done any damage to your career. And perhaps more importantly, it won’t cost you anything to fail. You can basically regard Toastmasters as a sheltered environment where you can expose others to you shortcomings without fear of repercussions. Over time you will learn from any mistakes you make and you will be stronger as a result, trust me I have done quite a few myself (and keep doing them to a lesser extent). 7. Staying very affordable Got you attention now? You are looking at a fee of about $100 for 6 months which is not bad considering a corporate speaking course could cost that per hour. The lion’s share of your membership dues will go towards the room hire, the rest to the global HQ which provides you with course manuals and other handy things. Toastmasters International is a non-profit organization and your meeting is run by functionaries who are basically unpaid volunteers (and before long, you will become one as well). My experience I found Toastmasters through a Google search, looked up a club near to me (The Grosvenor Square Speakers in London) and went down to check it out. Guests are always welcome and there is no obligation to join up. After a few meetings I made my mind up to join. When I announced it at the club, this elderly Irish fellow came over to where I was sat, firmly shook my hand and said “son, this is the best decision you have ever made”. That to me was a very powerful endorsement that has stuck in my mind ever since. Once I started speaking and getting in to the swing of things, I somehow ended on the club committee and I have realized that the many facets to Toastmastering have been very conducive to my business and career. I never did see that Irishman again, perhaps he was a guest, perhaps he was the resident ghost of Toastmasters â€" whatever the case I am very happy I joined. Call to action Joining Toastmasters is my best business and career tip and I recommend it to everyone. The one thing you have to bear in mind is that it is not a quick fix and it will take time and effort to get through the manuals in order to becoming the confident speaker and leader you aspire to be. So with that in mind, there is certainly no time like the present to visit a club near you to find out whether it’s the thing for you. Here is a link to the Toastmasters club finder. Is public speaking something you fear? Did you think Toastmasters was related to sliced bread? Please feel free to leave a comment!

Basic Home Security

Basic Home Security We live in a world where our well-being is threatened at every angle, its as common as the flu virus, and the moment we step out of our house we are in danger of it. Being a single woman and living alone, I have no one else to look after me. so I tend to be watchful of my surroundings. However, there is no sure way to keep yourself out of harms way especially when we are in public places. According to thecrimepreventionwebsite.com people between age 16 to 24 are most at risk.  We can only take precautionary measures like taking self-defense classes, or keeping away from large crowds and making sure you carry a taser or a pepper spray when you leave home. Our homes,  comfort zone and safe haven for most of us,  unfortunately, arent spared from this. Our homes can be threatened by environmental factors like rain and natural calamities as well as threats from intruders or worse a burglary and if you look at recent statistics, it doesnt seem to be getting better. I have listed a couple of things to review, home security systems and locks.  These will help to ensure your homes are safe whether you are in or out. Locks The most basic of security measures. Making sure you have double locks or deadlocks as well as window locks is the first layer of security that you can provide yourself and your family. According to the Office for National Statistics, households without basic security measures are twice more likely to be burglarized. You also have to make sure that the front door is secured by using a multi-line latching system as 67 percent of burglaries happen through our front doors. It starts with making sure your locks work and are not old and easily broken, install a deadlock and a security chain and if possible install another latch or lock on top or at the bottom of your front door, however, you should not leave any weak points, you might l so want to make upgrades on your backdoor as well. Security Alarm System Security Systems  are another layers of protection that you can add at home, this may include a pin code door alarms, window alarms, motion detectors, most common of which are motion activated lamps/lighting systems which can help deter would-be thieves. Security Cameras or CCTV cameras may also be added to help watch your homes even when you are not physically around and especially when you are fast asleep. Home Security is an important matter all year long and is something that should be taken very seriously, especially during nighttime and vacations. Fortunately, there are measures we can take so that we can help protect ourselves and our loved ones at home.

Late Bloomers, The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement [Book Review] - Career Pivot

Late Bloomers, The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement [Book Review] - Career Pivot The Power of Patience Late Bloomers, The Power of Patience in a World Obsessed with Early Achievement by Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard caught my attention after reading an April 2019 Next Avenue blog post called3 Cheers for Late Bloomers. I think of myself as a bloomer (not sure what kind!), so I jumped on the request to read and write a review. It is very timely on many levels. The Introduction sets the stage about the competitiveness and obsession for achievement prevalent today to attend the most prestigious schools, be the best athlete, and work for the best companies, all to obtain early success and status. The current college admissions scandal, where celebrities with fame and fortune gamed the system for their children, certainly illustrates this. Late Bloomers Karlgaard proceeds to offer additional sobering facts about the impacts on our society â€" increasing levels of emotional distress, depression, and suicide. In contrast, he defines a late bloomer “…as a person who fulfills their potential later than expected; they often have talents that aren’t visible to others initially. The key word here is expected. Late bloomers are those who find their supreme destiny on their own schedule, in their own way.” (p. 14) In the chapters that follow, Karlgaard presents many examples of the challenges and advantages of being a late bloomer, along with specific tools for finding a path to success later in life. The book validates my continued interest and research to find my own hidden talents and passions (a pivot) and why I am a member of the Career Pivot (CP) community. Finding Success Following are specific examples, relevant to not only my work journey but which underscore CP community content and discussion. Karlgaard’s good narrative, with data, demonstrates that age discrimination is alive and well. He counters with numerous real-life stories about late bloomers who have overcome this, and the qualities that led to their success. It reinforces an important fact in our work journey: “The critical thing to remember is â€" we cannot give up on ourselves, or others, even (and especially) if society has made it harder to catch up.” (p. 42) Listen to the most recent episode Others have amplified this viewpoint as well, notably in Career Pivot podcasts This Chair Rocks! with Author Ashton Applewhite (Episode # 118), and Patti Temple Rocks, author of I’m Not Done: It’s Time to Talk About Ageism in the Workplace (Episode #124). The Germine-Hartshorne study chart in the chapter “A Kinder Clock for Human Development” (p. 92), clearly shows we get better as we age. As we seek to pivot to our next job, passion or community service, this is good news. The key “…is that we have to be willing participants. We have to invest in our health, in our curiosity about the world around us, and in our learning. When we do, we can enjoy multiple brain peaks in our lives and multiple personal bloomings.” (p. 93) I see this firsthand in the CP community! However, this notion flies in the face of the traditional career path of up-and-out â€" you reach a certain age and you “retire.” What a waste of human capital, knowledge, and experience! Society and companies need to leverage this resource â€" “A kinder career arc would acknowledge that nearly all employees peak at some point, but even “past peak” senior employees can make valuable contributions.” (p. 100) Tools to Help Of all the specific advice and tools provided in the book, three are particularly important: First, quitting â€" the path we’re on, the lousy job, the class we hate, the friends and associates that hurt rather than help, and the life we regret (p. 149). This is again contrary wisdom that quitting is a sign of weakness, that one will never succeed or that we run at the first hint of adversity. However, a deeper analysis reveals a maturity and self-knowledge seeking to know who we are and what we really want to do. “… quitting is the process of growing, the process of living.” (p. 163). This supports the perspective and discussion in another work I have found helpful,Necessary Endings by Henry Cloud. Second is the power of self-doubt. As we mature, there are many life and work challenges that shake our confidence and self-worth. We can then set ourselves up for failure by using self-defeating actions such as procrastination or making stuff up (aka MSU!), but the author provides critical tools â€" self-talk, framing/reframing, and self-compassion â€" that are needed as we navigate the ever-changing work environment. “These techniques are foundational to late bloomer success, leveraging many of the traits â€" curiosity, compassion, resilience, equanimity â€" that make us exceptional.” (pp. 187-188). Again, this echoes important Career Pivot community advice (i.e., “poking”!). Finally, there is repotting â€" personal reinvention. This is not an easy and short-term process. It comes with risks (personal and financial). This is really about change, never easy or straightforward. We need to ask, “Am I in the best possible pot to bloom?” (p. 195) Joining peer groups like the Career Pivot communityprovides a low risk, high reward place to seek advice and counsel for change while giving back to the community. This starts with a commitment to change, to take that first step, not worrying if it’s not perfect. The key is to start.“We genuinely want to see what’s around the corner or over the hill. These late bloomer strengths enable â€" even propel â€" the change we need to find the right people and the right place to help us thrive.” (p. 203) Despite an initial concern that the book would be more theory or science-based, it is an easy read and I recommend it highly. It supports and underscores many of the issues and trends from my own reading and research, as well as the discussions, mastermind groups, and support from the Career Pivot community. This post was written by David Jenkins. David holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (Management) from Loyola University (Baltimore) and a Master’s in City and Regional Planning from Catholic University (Washington, DC). He has extensive experience in management in a variety of for-profit and non-profit positions in Southern Maryland. This also included a partner/owner of a small consulting firm. His community involvement includes Past President, Charles County Chamber of Commerce, a former member of La Plata’s Design Review Board and member of La Plata’s Vision Team. He remains active with the Chamber as member of their Economic Development and Transportation Committee. David is a veteran, with over 30 years of service in the US Army and Maryland/Virginia Army National Guard, culminating with completion of the US Army ‘s Sergeant’s Major Academy and then a year-long deployment for a peacekeeping mission to Bosnia in 2000. Note from Marc Miller, David is a charter member of the Career Pivot Membership community. Click here to learn more about the community here and put yourself on the waiting list. 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 ...

Funky government - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Funky government - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Karen H?eg, a good friend of mine, works for the Danish Commerce and Companies Agency and if you think thats a mouthful you should see it in Danish: Erhvervs- og Selskabsstyrelsen. They are: the official place of registration for Danish Businesses. In parallel the DCCA administers legislations regulating Businesses, amongst others the Companies Act and the Company Accounts Act. Before you get too many images of a dusty, boring government agency rubberstamping it old-skool, Ill have you know that theyre actually pretty with-it. How can we know that? Because they made we are funky one of their core values. Yep, thats right, a government agency that wants to be funky. This is great news, and a good sign that public work places can actually be very modern and fun to work at. However, the funky value did result in one hilarious misunderstanding. During a parliament debate, a politician from the opposition asked the The Minister of Economic and Business Affairs a lot of pointed questions about this choice of values. He simply couldnt understand why they would want to call themselves funky. Turns out he didnt know what funky meant, and had looked it up in a dictionary, which said: Funky 1. Having a moldy or musty smell: funky cheese; funky cellars. 2. Having a strong, offensive, unwashed odor. 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

Tips to Prepare Your Resume Writing Services For Data Entry

Tips to Prepare Your Resume Writing Services For Data EntryWhile many people consider data entry work to be a very easy job, this is definitely not the case. There are still many other skills required in order to successfully write a resume and land the job you want. Here are some tips to help you prepare your resume so that it is easier to understand.Keep your resume organized. Try to place all your experiences and skills that you possess on one page. You do not need to list every single skill that you possess but instead simply list the skills you have. This will help you to find what exactly you have to do in order to land the job you have applied for.For instance, if you have worked in a specific company, keep your employment history on one page. Put your job titles, dates of employment, and other details that you have done. Keep this section limited to the most important aspects of your work history. If you have multiple jobs, simply list them on separate pages.There are also re sume writing services for data entry that offer to do the writing for you. If you are not an expert in any particular field of endeavor, this is definitely the right option for you. These experts can give you a written resume that you will be proud to read when you read it and get the interview.There are some people who are afraid of working with a professional writing service as it may be their first time to work for a job in the career field. Be careful about using these services and make sure you are going with a good company that has a solid reputation in the industry.Another way to ensure that you are going with a professional resume writing service is to look at their reviews. Make sure that you read and compare the testimonials from past clients. Remember that in these days when information is so easily available, you will definitely need to hire the services of a company that knows what they are doing and are trustworthy.In conclusion, resume writing services for data entry are not to be taken lightly. Do your research on the companies that you are interested in and ensure that you are hiring the best resume writing services for data entry.