How to Maximize Your LinkedIn Profile [9 Ways]

How to Maximize Your LinkedIn Profile [9 Ways] Most of us are on networking platforms such as LinkedIn, Xing, Ecademy, Experteer to name but a few. These networks have quickly become a directory for employers, customers, friends, foes etc to look you up. Make sure you optimize your visibility, allowing you to be next up for a promotion, pay hike or even a new job altogether. 1.  Fill in the information This is really simple but can be time consuming. Put as much details on your profile as you can, including work experience, education, relevant associations, hobbies etc. HR people and recruiters use LinkedIn for candidate searching and they do it by key words. Make sure you put buzz words and lots of industry jargon on there. The location is very important as well, as recruiters look for potential candidates close to the client’s site first. Related: Do me a Favour and Update Your LinkedIn Summary. 2. Upload a photo Stick a mug shot on there, put a face to a name. Everyone has at least one good photo of themselves, make sure it goes up. If you really don’t have one, put your company logo or something else up to make it personalized. Related:  7 LinkedIn Profile Pictures You Should Never Use. 3. Connect more Make a habit out of asking to connect with people you deal with on a daily basis, as you never know when these close contacts will come in handy. Furthermore, try to connect to as many customers as possible, in order to create more awareness and to sell yourself rather than your product or service. Related: How to Connect with People You Dont Know on LinkedIn. 4. Get Involved in groups and discussions This is essential if you want to keep a high profile. This means you will ask questions, answer questions, link up news articles and other relevant information and you could even moderate a group. If you add value to others, you will be noticed by people in your industry. Just remember that you need to keep a healthy balance between online presence and actually doing your work, you don’t want to be seen wasting work time on LinkedIn. Related: Top  10 LinkedIn Groups Job Seekers Must Join. 5.  Get Recommendations Having other professionals vouch for you is very powerful. People to ask are your counterparts (i.e. your customer or supplier), colleagues, your manager and even friends if it is relevant. Some employers who will not consider applications from individuals with anything less than 10 recommendations on LinkedIn. Getting people to do this for you is not difficult, it is all about timing â€" the time to ask is just when you have done somebody a favor. Research people. Use LinkedIn to your advantage and always check up on the recruiter you work with, hiring managers in the company and even potential future colleagues. You can bet your bottom dollar they are doing the same. Related: How To Get More LinkedIn Recommendations. 6. Check out a Company’s Stats and Trends On the company pages you can find out what a company does, how many people they employ, how many connected employees etc. For instance, you can see if they have hired or fired recently as well as where these people came from/went to. If you see a wave of professionals jumping ship, you might want to reconsider that offer. Related:  How Following Industry News Can Boost Your Career. 7. Visibility settings Be aware of these. Every time you look at a profile, this person can see that you paid a visit. It is recommended you change this setting to invisible as checking out a potential interviewer 5 times in one day may look a bit odd. 8. Personalize your LinkedIn page There is an option of making your public profile have your name in the URL. For instance, instead of www.linkedin.com/67w84rj32wef09 you can change it to www.linkedin.com/in/johnsmith. Be aware that this is also open to Google and other search engines, as it becomes your public profile which is accessible outside of LinkedIn. 9. Use Applications Applications, this is slightly more advanced but basically means plugins to your LinkedIn experience just like a app on your iPhone. You can browse through these and find the ones relevant to you. If you travel on business, there is an application called Tripit that tells your connections where you are. If you are a keen reader, there is a reading list from Amazon and if you are a blogger, there is an application allowing you to post directly to LinkedIn. Conclusion By using these tips you will become a deft online networker and this will help you in your current job as well as open you up to new ideas and opportunities. May the powers of LinkedIn reward you handsomely for your efforts! OK, now its your turn to tell me what should be number 10? Related: LinkedIn Headlines that Stand Out from the Crowd [10 Examples]

Do You Plan to Further Your Education

Do You Plan to Further Your Education Have you ever been asked if you plan to further your education? This question can bring you down a slippery slope if you don’t answer it correctly.For the most part, this question is straightforward.Your potential employer wants to know whether or not you have any goals or motivation to continue learning.Learning and Education Is Not Always CourseworkDon’t be so narrow-minded to think that furthering your education only applies to college coursework. If you have absolutely no intention of going back to school, then make that clear. That is ok. What is not ok is having no motivation to continue learning. If your goals can be achieved by working hard and learning from your managers, then make sure to let your interviewer know that. Being coachable will take you a long way in an interview.Quick Tip: I recommend saying that you are always eager to learn and grow. Mention how you love to read self-development books, watch educational YouTube videos, etc. Proving that you are not idle or dependent on someone else for your education will surely impress your interviewer.Related Article: Why Did You Choose Your Major?Coursework Is Great! Right?If you do plan to go back to school, that’s great! Many online resources recommend always being transparent with your goals to continue education. But we know better. Although this CAN help you, it is important to make it very clear that going back to school will not affect your ability to do your job. Also, you need to make sure that whatever it is you are going back to school for, is relevant to the development of your career. If you are applying for a sales position, but want to go back to school for an engineering degree, it paints a pretty clear picture that you don’t intend to work in sales long-term.Depending on the position you are applying for and how much commitment they will require, it would be wise to adjust your answer. If you secretly want to become an engineer, I would not tell your sales interviewer. Some people tell you to go into the interview and be 100% honest. Give it a try and let me know how that is working out for you.Check out the 50 Top Job Interview Questions And Answers.Keep It SimpleOverall, this should not be a very difficult question to answer. Just put yourself in the interviewer’s shoes. Do you want to hire somebody who has no aspirations to better themselves? Do you want to hire somebody who is passionate about a completely different job?Or would you rather hire someone who has long-term goals to learn and grow in the job you are hiring for?For a world-class interview training,check out Find My Profession today. We don’t tell you what you want to hear, we tell you what you need to hear to get hired. Never search for a job alone again, the professionals are here to help!

4 Situations Where a Strong Defence Team is Absolutely Necessary

4 Situations Where a Strong Defence Team is Absolutely Necessary While many people have run-ins with the law, there are certain crimes that can completely ruin your life if you don’t have a good defence team in your corner. A DUI, domestic assault, or drug charge could radically change the course of your life for the worse. Even if you bear partial responsibility for the charge, a good lawyer can find a favorable solution that is fair to everybody.    Its important to find lawyers and other specialists who are ready to help you. 1: Domestic Assault Domestic assaults represent serious accusations in which it is very important to get all the facts right. Whether the domestic assaults include accusations of physical abuse or sexual assault, the penalty for the crime increases based on the emotional and physical injuries inflicted. Domestic assaults can range from minor altercations to large-scale abuse, so it’s important for a court to have an appropriate summary of damages. Somebody without a proper defence can find themselves in jail with a criminal record that can haunt them for the rest of their lives. 2: DUI Charges  If you are charged with a DUI, you could wind up losing your licence. If you have been charged in the past, you could wind up facing anywhere from 30 to 120 days in jail in addition to being unable to operate a vehicle for a period of years. Youll want to select a lawyer who has successfully handled many hundreds of cases, such as Mass Tang.   This leads to a high success rate with even the toughest DUI charges. 3: Drug Possession  Related to DUI charges, drug possession can carry a jail sentence depending on the circumstances. The biggest danger with a drug charge is if the officer or prosecutor believes you had enough quantity on your person to build a trafficking case. This can change the punishment from a simple find to potential jail time, including a maximum sentence of life in prison. A strong defence team can make sure that you stay out of jail. 4: Theft and Fraud  If you are accused of taking something that isn’t yours, either through physical theft or financial fraud, you could wind up in jail even if your story differs from the accuser’s claims. A legal defence team can help sort out the fact from fiction and make sure that a judge hears your side of the story. From DUIs to domestic assaults, the potential criminal charges a person can face   is extensive. No matter what happened, you need a good defence attorney to help make sure your rights are properly represented. There are many times when an arresting officer is overzealous or unfairly biased, and there are just as many cases where the accuser’s account differs from reality. An experience law firm like Mass Tsang can make sure you get the representation you deserve, no matter how tough the case seems.

Why Accountability Partners Are The Secret to Success - Classy Career Girl

Why Accountability Partners Are The Secret to Success “Don’t succumb to peer pressure.” It’s what our moms told us. It’s what our friends still tell us, somewhat ironically. But what if you could harness the power of peer pressure to further your personal goals? Ambitions can be hard to achieve on your lonesome. But when you involve other people in your motivational strategies, great things can occur. Statistics from the University of Scranton show that interpersonal strategies increase the chances of keeping a New Year’s resolution for over six months. So why not apply that logic to your personal goals, and get yourself an accountability partner? Why Accountability Partners Are The Secret to Success 1. Wait… What’s an Accountability Partner? It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like: a person to whom you are, in some way, accountable. But we’re not just talking about your family or friends. An accountability partner is an individual unrelated to your job or personal life with whom you strike a simple deal: I will accomplish this and you will accomplish that, and we will spur one another on to do so. In the sense that they help you to achieve your goals, accountability partners are similar to mentors. However, unlike mentors, they do not have to be particularly versed in your field or even teach you anything. Accountability partners are there to spur you on, to support you, and to exert pressure on you to accomplish what you set out to do. And, in many cases, they expect you to do the same in return. The theory is similar to that of a sponsor for an addiction: with someone keeping track of your progress, you are much more likely to accomplish what you say you will. 2. What Makes a Good Partner? It’s best if an accountability partner is not someone you are professionally or personally associated with â€" at least, not directly. You should define your relationship mostly by your mutual pact. This makes it harder to skip sessions and take one another’s attentions for granted. It’s fine if your partner is a different personality type or even industry to yourself. The clash may even be helpful, allowing you to gain new perspectives on your proposed goals. You should, however, be capable of getting on well one-to-one. It can also help if they live near to you or inhabit a similar community  so that you can arrange regular meetings. The best accountability partners are unfailingly honest, sometimes brutally. They should be go-getters who spur you on to achieve to a similar extent. The perfect partner is one whom you admire or wish to impress on some level; this way, you’ll have a psychological spur to get your act together. If your partner is a couch potato who doesn’t give a toss about their own life, do you really want them monitoring your own career progression? [RELATED: Goal Setting: 6 Strategies For Success This Year] 3. The Arrangement How you arrange your mutual peer pressure-fest is up to you. However, many partnerships like to hold one another to ‘consequences’ should either party fail to fulfill their promises. Consequences can be financial, such as paying the other a certain sum, or merely psychological e.g. admitting failure â€" whatever adds the appropriate amount of pressure. Accountability partners will need to check in with one another frequently to ensure both parties are ‘on track’. This can mean text messaging, phone calls or actual in-person meets â€" so long as it’s regular and structured, it doesn’t matter. They should also agree upon what kind of support each party requires from the other. Are you looking for a source of support, guidance or brutal honesty? Are you counting on your partner to stick with you even if your career is blown completely off track? Ask yourself these questions before entering any kind of agreement. 4. Be Your Own Accountability Partner So what happens if your accountability partner goes AWOL or you can’t find a suitable candidate? Not to worry; you can do it yourself. That’s right: there’s a strong argument that, far from relying on others to hold you to account for your goals, you should be putting that onus squarely on yourself. This is, perhaps, the end game of the self-improvement process. The sheer dedication and self-control required to keep yourself on track is, in itself, a major achievement. As Stephanie Vozza writes for Fast Company: “It’s easy to put off tasks and responsibilities, but if you want to be successful, you need accountability. A lot has been written about the power of partners or groups, but you may be the best person to get you where you want to go.” While an accountability partner may help you stick with things in the short term, the only long-term motivator you really have is yourself. You are your own strongest weapon when it comes to achieving your goals. Use what tools you have available to you, but remember: peer pressure will never match that which comes from within.

Executive Assistant Resume Samples - Get Ready to Make a Great Resume

Executive Assistant Resume Samples - Get Ready to Make a Great ResumeThe issue with the executive assistant job is growing more complicated by the day. More companies are deciding to give these sorts of positions more importance in their company profile.It is important to understand that the person being hired to manage this kind of work is always required to possess an advanced level of skills and intellect as well as an employee's intelligence. It is very important for these types of jobs to be done well. This is the reason why you will find that there are a lot of executive assistant resume samples available on the Internet, which are very helpful in this respect.These types of sample resume are usually provided in various forms such as Microsoft Word documents. You can easily change them according to your own needs, by adjusting a few things here and there. The type of executive assistant resume samples you will be able to find include those which include the ability to attach a cover letter as well as the letter of recommendation to be included with the resume. This makes things a lot easier for the employer who is making the selection of the candidates for the executive assistant job.The executive assistant resume samples available online are ones which have been designed to be easy to read as well as being very easy to edit. They usually have forms where you can easily input all the information which is required of you in the resume. It will not only help you to make changes when necessary but also help you keep everything in one central location.The most common issue that often arises during this sort of job is the fact that it can be quite exhausting to have to constantly move from one point to another. You will find that a lot of these resumes are written in English as the people who perform the duties of this job tend to have an intermediate level of English as well. A lot of people tend to prefer writing the executive assistant resume samples in Eng lish as they tend to understand it better. However, you will also find that the written format of the executive assistant resume samples is quite easy to adapt to any language.While it may be a fact that some people prefer to learn a certain type of language over others, you will find that there are also a lot of people who prefer to learn English. There are many executive assistant resume samples which are written in English. One of the reasons for this could be that the best source of raw material for writing these kinds of executive assistant resume samples is English itself.Another major benefit that you will be able to get when looking at the various executive assistant resume samples is that you will be able to find some free samples which will help you to choose the type of resume that you want to use. In addition, you will also be able to get the chance to make a lot of changes in the resume before you finalize the type of resume that you have in mind. When you have finished reading the executive assistant resume samples, you will then be able to feel more confident in preparing a great executive assistant resume.There are many advantages that you will be able to enjoy when you have the choice of choosing among the various executive assistant resume samples. Apart from being easy to read, they will also make you feel more comfortable as well as confident. You can easily transform yourself into an executive assistant resume writer if you are already using some of the best executive assistant resume samples online.