7 Examples Of Fresh New Ways To Start Your Cover Letter

It’s time to dump the old line: “Please accept this application in response to…”

If you’re still starting your cover letter with this overused one-liner, then I implore you to stop what you’re doing, delete the line, and spend a few minutes reading this article to discover seven new examples of how you can catch the hiring manager’s attention with an attention-grabbing opening line.

Entice them with the job title and some of your standout accomplishments…

1. As an IT Director for ABC Company, I manage IT operations for a 500+-employee organization. Recruited in 2005, my goal has been to modernize and scale the technology landscape and drive forward initiatives to expand the capabilities, systems, and performance across the organization. To date, the results have been impressive, including transition to a new Storage Area Network (SAN), Microsoft desktop environment, data warehouse, and Internet technology tools. Further, I have captured more than $2.5 million in development and operating cost reductions.

Keyword-rich opening lines that demonstrate fit…

2. I am a veteran Construction Manager with extensive experience in the designing, planning, budgeting, staffing, and on-site supervision of new construction and renovation projects. With 15+ years in construction and project management, I bring to ABC Company value-added expertise in:

3. As an accomplished Chief Financial Officer, I possess broad cross-functional experience in emerging, high-growth, and well-established corporations. Unlike other finance executives, my focus has not been limited to just finance but includes strategic planning, change management, system implementations, and business operations, as well as the performance improvement of teams. Highlights of my career include:

4. Designing, developing, and leading physical fitness training programs are my passions and my expertise. My 11+ years of progressive leadership experience in the U.S. Air Force, together with my upcoming ACE certification and my achievements in fitness instruction and coaching, make me an excellent candidate for your Personal Trainer position.

Highlight the fact you can meet their needs to keep them reading…

5. Cultivating relationships to deliver exceptional results is what I do best. Whether in a start-up situation or a high-growth organization, I have consistently increased sales and customer satisfaction through my ability to develop first-class sales solutions and drive professional excellence. Highlights of my career that may be of interest to you include:

6. Cross-cultural communication, multi-departmental collaboration, and producing highly detailed and dependable administrative and marketing support are what I do best.

7. Delivering massive value to my clients has been the focus of my career for the past 13 years. In my role as ___________ for ABC Company, I have unfailingly provided my clients with strategies, action plans, and the leadership necessary to enhance people, processes, and technologies. In addition, I have established a solid reputation for assessing challenges, creating solutions, and responding quickly to changing business requirements. This is the value I offer to XYZ Corporation.

Words to remember…

It’s important to remember your cover letter should be a brief introduction that demonstrates fit and motivates the employer to read your resume. If you’re narrating your whole life story or using the same old line that’s been written a million times before, then you’re not really captivating the reader or communicating the most vital information necessary to win the interview.

Using these simple points as guidelines and the cover letter samples provided above as a starting point, create your own unique and captivating opening line that draws the reader in and keeps them interested.

Don’t Get Caught With These Resume Mistakes

Here are a few mistakes you should not make on your resume:

Trying To Fool Employers

One recent college graduate wanted to make his resume seem more impressive. He turned a one-page resume into a two-page resume by leaving two-inch margins on every side of the paper. He wasn’t fooling anyone.

I write two-page resumes for recent college graduates but I include information that most recent college graduates do not consider putting in their resumes. This information may make the difference in getting you hired, or having your resume stall in the Applicant Tracking Systems or on a hiring manager’s desk.

Spelling Company Names Incorrectly

A job applicant assumed she correctly remembered the names of all the companies she worked for. But she didn’t; she misspelled two of them. Mistakes like that make recruiters and hiring managers wonder if the resume is truthful.

Being Inconsistent

A sales executive described his success at landing multi-million dollar contracts for various companies. But each time he listed a dollar amount, he changed the form: $1 million; $2M; $3,000,000. That mistake shows a disregard for detail.

Not Fulfilling The Requirements

An applicant for a government job saw the requirement for a social security number but ignored it. When you apply for government jobs, you cannot ignore any requirement. (Note that your social security number should never appear on your resume for jobs in the private sector.)

Impressive! How To Wow An Interviewer

Want to really “wow” the interviewer? Use competitive intelligence.

The term refers to pre-information. How does this apply to job seekers? Competitive intelligence is valuable information you can demonstrate to potential employers you have foresight about their product, service, and company.

Let’s suppose you’re applying for a position at a top retailer. You find yourself on an interview panel, and the inevitable question is posed by the interviewer, “WHY do you want to work for OUR company?” In your mind, you compose yourself in the heat of fire and formulate a response that represents competitive intelligence.

Whether you are crafting a “sales letter,” cover letter, or are promoting your USP (unique sales points) during an interview, find out essential points about your desirable company or business 

company or business such as:

• Competitors’ distinguishing features, products, and services.
• Competitors’ strengths and weaknesses.
  • Example: If you’re preparing for an interview, be a sleuth and visit the employer to evaluate what they’re doing and not so well. This is not unlike a “mystery shopper.” In military terms, it’s doing a “recce,” by paying a visit to the site. If a visit is not possible, visit an employer’s web site/Facebook page and go to the competitor’s web pages and see what they are lacking.
• After doing preliminary research on the competitor, tell your desirable employer what YOU can offer and how you would improve upon what the competitor is doing.
• Present these findings briefly during an interview and then discuss what you would propose to do in the first 90 days of your hire.
  • Peggy McKee refers to this as the “30/60/90 day” sales technique. Use your competitive intelligence information to apply the ABC (always be closing) tactic to get yourself hired.

If you take this approach, employers will take you seriously as a candidate. Even better, you will hold enough sway for employers to evaluate you or advance to the second round of interviews.

Use competitive intelligence to your advantage and slay your competitors!

Creating Your Professional Development Plan: 3 Surprising Truths

Creating Your Professional Development Plan: 

3 Surprising Truths

1. It’s Up To YOU

Your professional development is not the responsibility of anyone but you. Not your company, not your boss, not even your coach. Just you.

Some companies try to help with the process by helping employees create professional development plans (PDP) as part of the performance review process. While it’s a nice gesture, it simply isn’t very useful for the vast majority of employees.

In my experience, I’ve found that a PDP created at the behest of an employer is often an exercise for management, not the employee. In fact, if the employee will later be judged on that criteria, he or she actually feels encouraged to aim low so as not to be set up for future failure. For those who happen to have bigger goals that don’t involve working for the company, the PDP is pretty meaningless. The employee ends up playing a game, telling the manager what he wants to hear and not using the plan to facilitate real, desired professional growth.

Even if your company helps you develop a plan, it’s always a smart idea to create one of your own in private. This will help you identify and take action on growing the skills needed to achieve your true long-term career goals, whether or not they involve your current company.

2. It’s Never “Final”

A PDP is not written in stone. It can—and should—be revised on regular basis. Goals shift, people change, circumstances present new challenges and opportunities. As a growing professional, you have to remain nimble.

One of the things I like to tell people is that the further out you go in goal setting and planning, the more it becomes just a guess. You can’t predict the future, and there are all kinds of outside influences that will shape your reality. A downturn in the economy, a new technology, a sick family member…all of these things can impact your goals and your ability to follow through on a planned course of action.

The important thing is to simply start the process. Once you have a plan, it can be revised. Regular review is an essential component of any PDP so, as things change, you can make adjustments. Even better—as you see change on the horizon, you can proactively plan for it.

3. It’s Never Done

A professional development plan is never complete. If you want to continue moving forward in your career, you must continue growing your skills. Learning is a lifelong process, and your PDP is a career-long tool. As long as you’re a professional, your PDP will be a big component of your Career Success Toolkit.

Don’t Let A Good Message Get Lost In Poor Delivery

Is your message getting lost in your presentation? I was in a meeting recently with a young woman who wasn’t getting her way. She was pushing for an idea she strongly believed in… but the others were less convinced.

As the meeting wore on, she became increasingly aggressive. As she continued to state her case, her voice got higher and more hostile. When forced to listen to opposing views, she sunk low in her seat with her arms folded until, eventually, the meeting chairman tabled the issue altogether.

As I witnessed the exchange, I couldn’t help but think if this woman were aware of how she was coming across to everyone else, she would be embarrassed. In fact, up until the point she allowed her raw passion take over, I had viewed her as smart, savvy… even poised.

In the end, she never did get her way but, more than that, she alienated a few colleagues, causing rifts that have not entirely subsided many weeks later.

This exchange underscores the 60/30/10 rule ofcommunication. In other words…

60% of communication is body language. I’m sure this woman thought she was doing the “proper” thing in listening to others voice their concerns, but her crossed arms and eye rolling spoke volumes about how she really felt.

30% is how clearly you speak. In the meeting above, as everyone became more impassioned about their own points of view, the less those points actually made sense. Accordingly, because people eventually just started reacting to each other with no advance thought, nothing was accomplished.

10% is the message. To be honest, I can no longer remember what my colleague was originally so fired up about, but I do remember how she lost her cool in a professional environment.

Assuming you’re reading this because you want to become a leader within your organization, it’s important for you to be highly aware of your own body language when communicating with others. Because when it comes to communicating effectively, how you say it is always as important as what you say.

Want To Change Jobs After The Recession? 12 Proactive Tips

Want To Change Jobs After The Recession? 

12 Proactive Tips

Want to change jobs? Prepare for your transition the best way possible.

A little while back, I had lunch with a senior HR Manager who was contemplating leaving her job after more than 20 years with a large corporation. “I’m having trouble living with the disconnect between what the company claims are its core values, and how it is handling staff relations during this recession.” She went on to describe a litany of incidents, from a service agent who was terminated after revealing she had cancer, to an entire team that was being laid off so that the division director could meet his cost-cutting targets for his performance bonus.

Employees have seen a drastic attitude change from their managers. This attitude of ‘Well, be happy you have a job’ is wearing thin. There is going to be a tsunami of job searching once the economy picks up, and some of the most active job hoppers are likely to be HR personnel who are disgusted with how companies have chosen to treat their staff.

More than a few people, from both HR and non-HR backgrounds, contacted me directly to applaud my answer and reiterate my observations. In one contact’s words, “a huge changeover in staff is coming, and I don’t think management understands exactly how deep into the organization this discontent has spread.”

If you are considering making a career change once the economy picks up, be proactive. Don’t wait for a “tipping point” incident. Take control now by mapping out your career plans for the next six months to two years and equipping your job search arsenal. Here are some tips:

1. Take some time to think about your personal and professional values. I can’t emphasize the importance of this enough. It is much easier to figure out whether a new company or position is going to be a good fit for you if you are really clear about what is important to you.
2. Go through your files and start collecting the material for your resume: projects, positive feedback, performance reviews, KPI reports, anything that you can use to support your success stories.
3. Define your value proposition – what are the key strengths, expertise and experience that you have to offer.
4. Investigate companies that you would like to work for. Go beyond the financials. Listen to what current employees are saying. A good source for getting the inside scoop on how employees feel about their company is the anonymous reviews in the www.glassdoor.com.
5. Look at who is hiring in your target job market, and what qualifications they are looking for. Determine whether you need training or credential upgrades in order to be more marketable.
6. Create at least two versions of your resume. I recommend having a detailed resume that can be easily customized to apply for specific job openings, as well as a one-page high-impact synopsis that is better suited for networking.
7. Get a non-business e-mail account, if you don’t already have one.
8. Bring your LinkedIn profile up to date, and claim your web identity on Naymz and ZoomInfo.
9. Identify and join the LinkedIn groups and industry associations that will best support you in your career transition. Start following the discussions. Stay current on the key issues, news, and trends in the industry. Find out who the “people to know” are.
10. Make networking a priority. Find time in your calendar to make at least one new contact per week. Focus not on what they can do for you, but what you can do for them.
11. Reconnect with colleagues from the past. It is much easier to network and reconnect when you don’t have the pressure of “need a job right now” hanging over you like an invisible sign.
12. Not comfortable with networking? Learn how. Consider seminars such as Breaking Down Silos, where you can get some practical tools and strategies for successful networking without feeling like a snake oil salesman.

Taking control of your career plans has two positive benefits. One, it can help to minimize the sense of powerlessness that comes with being stuck in an unfulfilling job. Two, it will ensure that, when the right opportunity comes along, you have the tools in your arsenal to land your next great job.

How To Use LinkedIn For Your Executive Job Search

Ramping up your executive job search? You’ll need a well-planned LinkedIn strategy, in addition to the customary tools such as your resume and networking plan.

Unfortunately, most of the advice you’ll find on using LinkedIn for job search is targeted to mid-level professionals, who can be much more open in using the site for job hunting.

As an executive, however, you’ll need to consider methods to get the word out and research new opportunities – all without tipping off your CEO, Board of Directors, or team – but while cultivating new networking or recruiter connections.

In this article, I’ve covered several need-to-know strategies you’ll find useful for launching your executive job search on LinkedIn, maintaining your social media identity, and opening up your network, including:

• Summarizing your executive qualifications with the right tone and brand message
• Personal branding strategies that can help show your qualifications and draw more traffic to your LinkedIn Profile
• Ideas for maintaining your confidentiality – especially if you plan to research leadership opportunities or contacts within prospective employers on LinkedIn
• Tips for positioning yourself as a leader by using an appropriate Headline
• A key reason to consider upgrading your free LinkedIn account to the paid version
• Ways to control the messages broadcast to other users – ensuring that others are not tipped off by your actions and updates
• Why populating the relevant sections of your Profile and increasing your Connections are important tasks in your executive job search.

Careers In Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The website Investopedia defines Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as: “Corporate initiative to assess and take responsibility for the company’s effects on the environment and impact on social welfare.” Therefore, if your idea of a great business achievement is laying off 10,000 people so your company’s EPS (earnings per share) jumps one-eighth of one cent, then a career in Corporate Social Responsibility is not for you.

The same can be said if you feel that gorging on fossil fuels is no problem because you won’t be around long enough to feel the adverse effects of the polar ice caps melting. While maximizing profits and driving share prices represent the traditional values of business, a new wave is sweeping through the culture of enterprise – that of Corporate Social Responsibility.

It’s not just a state of mind anymore. Corporate Social Responsibility represents a legitimate career path. This is because more and more companies are realizing that their positions on issues like sustainability and diversity can be good for society, as well as business.

As public awareness of these issues rises, public approval becomes compulsory. In other words, if the consumers find out that you’re dumping toxic waste into the river, burning dirty coal, or hiring only white males for management positions, they are likely to shun your products.

So, where does the career path in Corporate Social Responsibility start? Education certainly is essential. For example, the following degrees are all great options for pursing a career in corporate social responsibility:

• M.P.A. (Master of Public Administration): Those who earn this degree have been thoroughly trained in the administration of both government and non-government (mostly non-profit) entities.
• M.P.P. (Master of Public Policy): The M.P.P. degree prepares students for a life devoted to public service.
• Juris Doctor (Law Degree): A legal background, especially one that includes a specialization in a topic related to CSR (Environmental Law, for example,) can be a great entry into a CSR career.

Where can a career path in Corporate Social Responsibility lead? The possibilities are numerous and varied, but here are a few:

• Public Service, government or otherwise: While you’re not in a corporation as such, you will likely play a role in determining policies and regulations that promote Corporate Social Responsibility.
• The Corporate World: As stated earlier, today’s corporations are increasingly seeing good corporate citizenship as a way to promote themselves with consumers. A simple Internet search will reveal several companies actively seeking to fill positions in their C.S.R. departments or programs.
• Consultant: Not all enterprises employ C.S.R. staff, and even those who do sometimes rely on outside consultants (as do public entities). Acquiring the credentials to provide consulting services to those in need can be just as rewarding as making policy.

The era of Corporate Social Responsibility is upon us, and it’s going to expand as the world shrinks. The interdependence of nations, peoples and enterprises means that what we do affects more and more of the world’s population, and those dedicated to acting in a socially beneficial manner will be the ones who reap the greatest and most long-lasting rewards. Qualified leaders in the field of Corporate Social Responsibility will continue to see increasing demand, responsibilities and opportunity.

Futuring Skills For Career Success

To succeed in today’s complex, information overloaded, constantly changing world, career success (including job seeking) depends on multiple skills – communications and problem-solving, for example. But there’s another skill set, less discussed, that can become a critical factor in a person’s career success – FUTURING.

The importance of futuring skills as a key competency has been recognized by professional organizations like the World Future Society and the Society for Human Resources Management. The goal of this article is to focus on three specific examples of futuring skills that can be developed and used for career success.

Monitoring

“All the available information means people have to work harder to consume it, categorizing information, sorting facts from opinion, and putting everything into context. Unless we take the time to do that, and have the skills to do it well, we could actually be less knowledgeable.”

 (Ron Ashkenas, Harvard Business Review)

Multiple skills are called for here but the “futuring” component involves the need for a process to become aware and monitor the “things you should be looking for…”

Futurist Joel Barker developed a process, called T.I.P.S. Tracking (Trends, Innovations, Paradigm Shifts). The process enables individuals to focus, organize, and interrogate important information. The organizing component is driven by software (Scoop.It) that any job seeker can access for free to organize – and share – information relevant to their career field of interest.

I use the T.I.P.S. Tracking process to organize, share, and evaluate key information for career work. This empowers me to monitor several sources of career information, with automated searching for keywords like resumes, interviewing, and then select (and comment if desired) only those items that I think meet the criteria I’ve created for more hard-hitting career advice.

Scouting The Future

It’s pretty standard advice for job seekers to have support, from someone reviewing resumes to coaching for interviews. But a futuring skill takes it further and involves learning the value of scouting – a time honored skill that recognizes the importance of looking over the horizon.

Learning guru Elliott Masie called on his followers to draft five scouts – and meet with each them once a month. He suggested scouts from a generation older, a generation younger, technology, global, and faith. Good career advice would suggest that every person seeking career success, identify at least five different areas where having someone scouting and reporting on important topics from different perspectives would be valuable.

Using T.I.P.S. Tracking, particularly the Scoop.It platform mentioned above, allows me to “follow” the information begin generated from key people I know, my scouts, professionals in particular fields, or specific topics.  Focused, important information is directly tied to my needs.

A Formal Scouting Process

Think for a moment of the value of having better information about the future based on the characteristics of scouting. The scouts who worked with the wagon trains in the old west:

• Were fast. Slow scouts provide information too late to be useful.
• Sought quality, not quantity. Surveyors went later to get the detail on selected areas
• Sampled. In today’s world, if you try and cover everything, you’ll never act.
• Mapped. Scouts present information in an organized way.

Futurist Joel Barker takes the scouting metaphor to a powerful new level with a strategic exploration tool, The Implications Wheel®, that can help any job seeker better explore the short and long term consequences of any change. It can be used to explore questions like: “What are the possible implications of pursuing this career field, or accepting a particular job offer?”

It is a process for “finding the future faster,” scouting over the horizon of time. It asks a participant to examine both the positive and negative implications by asking a question that explores possibilities: “What might happen next?”

Then ask the question again for these possibilities identified: “What might happen next?” And ask the question again. The Implications Wheel process includes scoring for desirability and likelihood. A recent job seeker I coached reported that “understanding this process made every decision clearer.”

The first questions I get when introducing these techniques are how to determine topics to “scout,” and which sources to follow. This is exactly why futuring is a skill to be developed.

“Scout” the topics that are most important to you. For a job seeker, look for specific information on resumes and interviewing. Look for information on a particular field or industry. The least effective ways to find good information are search engines like Google or Bing. They reveal the universe – you want more focused information. Look for sources of information you trust.

A closing point, perhaps the most important characteristic for career success, the futuring techniques discussed here provide information to enhance decision-making. They do not – and should not for job seekers – provide answers. That’s your decision, your job choice, your career, and your future!

4 Things Your Resume Should Not Say About You

Even though it is not literally a person, your resume speaks. Loudly. It tells people everything they need to know about potentially hiring you. Say one of these four things and the answer is likely to be “no:”

“I’m Boring”

Longtime YII readers will recognize this oft-repeated refrain coming from me. It is the cardinal sin of resumes. No personality, no pizzazz. ZZZZZ… “Next, please!”

“I’m Careless”

One typo can be ignored. A bunch of them says something about the quality of your work. Not formatting your resume so it is pleasing to the eye is also a no-no. Put some TLC into this vital document, people!

“I Don’t Know Where I’m Going”

Regurgitating your entire career history without editing or shaping the document leaves it to the reader to interpret your career path. Don’t make the reader work that hard! If you want to be a Story Editor, write your resume so that it highlights the relevant jobs and relevant duties from those jobs you have had in the past that qualify you for the Story Editor position. Use the job description for the position you want to help you identify what to include from your career history.

“I Don’t Know When To Stop Talking”

Ten bullet points for each position and over-long resumes overall are also no-nos. And don’t think widening the margins all the way to the edges of the page makes it all better. Have the appropriate-length resume for your career length and edit, edit, edit.

In summary, especially in a competitive job market in an always-competitive field, you want to give yourself the best advantage on paper to get you the interview that will get you the job. The last thing you want is a recruiter or hiring executive looking at your resume and deciding to set it aside for later, not to mention dropping it into the “no” pile.

Make it compelling, carefully-crafted, directed, and as short as it can be while still properly promoting you for the position you seek. You want your resume to sing your praises, not stick its foot in its mouth.

What To Do On A Phone Interview

Recently, I received more than a normal level of questions from my clients about what to do on a telephone interview.

How is a phone interview similar or different to an in-person interview?

How should I prepare?

What’s The Purpose Of A Phone Interview?

If you have asked the same questions, here are the basics to a successful telephone interview.

The Basics

What is the purpose of a telephone interview?

A recruiter or HR manager schedules telephone interviews for the sole purpose of deciding who will come in for an in person interview or who will be cut from the hiring process. This is an initial screening of the candidates whose resumemade the cut thus far.

What is my goal in a telephone interview?

Your goal is to build a relationship with the interviewer which brings them to the point of wanting you to come in for a full interview. You will build a relationship and explain why you bring value to the company and position. Find something in common you both have. Explain what excites you about the opportunity at XYZ company. Sell the interviewer. Tell them what strengths you bring to the table that will help XYZ company grow their business. See my article on buying motivators.

What is similar in a telephone interview versus an in-person interview?

Preparation for the interview, selling yourself, and building connection are the three areas that are similar between the two forms of interviews.

How should I prepare?

Your preparation is similar to that of an in-person interview. You should still research the company on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, their website, and company press releases. You should know about their business and the challenges or opportunities they are facing in the market.

Have key interview questions prepared and ready to answer just as you would for an in-person interview. Be prepared to explain why you are interested in this company, and position, and what sparks you about their company. Have your questions ready to ask as well. Find out what the next steps are in the process to hire for this position.

Finally, ask for the in-person meeting! Make a statement such as, “I would love to discuss the XXX (topic you just went over) in person. When can we set up a meeting?”

There Are 5 Stages Of Job Loss Grief

I recently came across an excellent article by a recruiter on the five stages of grief as they relate to job loss.

You can read it here.

My favorite part of the article is the very end when the author says:

“I’ve seen people get stuck in Anger for years and not understand why they never get a job offer. I’ve seen others go straight to the Acceptance stage the day after they’ve been laid off. Everyone is different. Don’t be too hard on yourself!”

Are You Faking Acceptance?

I agree everyone navigates grief differently and that we shouldn’t be too hard on ourselves.

However, I also see lots of cases where people think they are at the “acceptance” phase when they really aren’t.

Here’s an example…

A couple of years ago, a women joined CareerHMO to help her stalled job search.

She had moved to a new city after having spent several months caring for a sick relative. She was upbeat and excited about finding a new position, but couldn’t seem to get past the first round of interviews. On paper, she was clearly talented, so I decided to dig a bit deeper to see if something was happening in the interview stage that was causing the problem.

I found it when I inquired, “Why did you leave your last position?” I assumed the answer was around the care of the relative. However, instead she began sharing a long-winded somewhat confusing explanation of her former employer, a project she had been working on, and an ultimate lay-off of 200 employees. I said, “So, you got laid-off?” To which she again started in on a long explanation which lead me to say, “So, were you fired?” At which point, she started to cry.

Yes. She had been fired. But even worse… she had never really accepted it.

We worked for over two months together. Each week, I would challenge her to get through yet another stage of job loss grief. It took a lot of effort, but eventually I got her to truly accept what happened.

Two Signs You’re Really There

The best way to know if you are truly over your job loss and in the stage of acceptance is if you can talk about the experience with:

• Objectivity: You can state the facts without adding emotional commentary.
• Accountability: You can take ownership of your role in what lead to your job loss.

Trust me when I say hiring managers (and everyone else you talk to about your job search) can tell if you aren’t at the acceptance stage of job loss grief.

So, I hope you will consider having an honest conversation with someone to see if this could be what’s holding you back.

Your Next Step

School teaches you everything except how to get the job. You must invest time in learning the right way to job search.

How To Get Your Network To Work For You

Virtually every career coach, outplacement advisor, and college career service officer will agree: the best way to get a job is to network your way into it. But that can be a tall order if you’ve been out of work for some time, or if you think of yourself as a shy or introverted person. And, it is doubly hard if you think of networking as just telling everyone in real or virtual earshot, “Help me! What should I do?”

Networking is fundamentally about building relationships, whether online though social sites like LinkedIn, or in-person at all kinds of meetings and informational interviews. Chances are, if you step back and think about it, you already have a good network to begin with: family members, current and former co-workers, members of professional organizations, alumni groups, church or synagogue, and so forth. And then the question becomes: how do you go about the task of getting your network to work for you effectively?

11 Ways To Enjoy Summer When You’re Working A Full-Time Job

There you are: sitting on the beach, covered in sunscreen, reading your favorite book, drinking your favorite drink under the cool shade of an umbrella. Life doesn’t get any better than this…

Suddenly, a door slams, a phone rings, a printer turns on.

You jolt back into consciousness. You’re at work, sitting in your cubicle, without even a hint of sunshine streaming in from outside. The days of sleeping in until 12 then spending the day at the beach on a random Tuesday are gone.

When you’re working a full-time job, finding time to enjoy the warm, bright summer weather can be a challenge. This is especially true for young professionals, as many of them are used to having summers off (or, at the very least, having a flexible summer schedule).

But there’s no need to feel trapped behind your cubicle walls. Go out and enjoy summer. As an insightful hip-hopper once said, YOLO!

Here are a few tips for making the most out of your summer while working full-time:

1. Grab Some Foldable Chairs

Keep a couple foldable camping chairs at the office so you an a co-worker can catch some rays during lunch – whether it’s in the park, or in the parking lot.

2. Keep A Beach Bag In Your Car

Keep a bag full of summer supplies for your favorite summer activities. Having a bag (or, in my case, a backseat) full of towels, sunscreen, and swimwear keeps you prepared for anything. Friends hitting up the pool after work? You’re covered. Once the clock strikes five, you can head to your destination of choice immediately.

3. Plan An Office Outing

Plan an office field trip to the beach, the park, or the pool – Just do something fun so your brains can recharge and refresh!

4. Organize Group Walks

Get a bunch of co-workers together and go on regular walks around town during lunch. (Or, you could suggest a quick jaunt over to the ice cream shop…) This is a great way to get some of that summer air, sunshine, and exercise.

5. Eat Lunch At The Park

When you find yourself eating out, hit up places with a deck, porch, or patio of some sort. Obviously, eating out every day isn’t really a feasible option for most of us, so look into alternative ideas as well. Pack a lunch and hit the park for your own little picnic.

6. Organize Office Sports

Whether it’s setting up an official office sports team or just messing around with your colleagues a few times a week, playing sports is a great way to get out and enjoy the weather. Have a field nearby? Try setting up some slow-pitch softball games. Or, see if you can get a basketball net for the office so you and a few co-workers can shoot some hoops at lunch.

7. Join A Professional Group

During the summer, these professional networking groups often have fun events like harbor cruises, pub crawls, and outdoor mixers. Find a professional group in your area make networking fun this summer.

8. Have An Office BBQ

Get your grill on! Talk to your boss about setting up an office BBQ. Ask everyone to contribute their favorite dish, side, or drink. Fire up the grill and relax! Hey, it’s summer after all.

9. Wake Up Early

Yes, yes, I know… Waking  up early is an incredibly painful and unbearable experience for some of us (me), but waking up even an hour earlier has its benefits – especially in the summer. Go for a morning run, putter around in the garden, or watch the sunrise with a loved one. Talk about starting the day off right!

10. Strategically Use Your Time Off

Strategically use your vacation days around holidays. This way, you can make a potentially long weekend longer without having to use too much of your precious vaca time. Half days are also pretty awesome. It’s amazing how much you can do with four extra hours! If you want an early weekend but don’t want to burn up your vacation days too quickly, try taking a half day on a Friday instead of using a full day off.

11. Bike To Work

If you’re one of the lucky few that live within walking or biking distance from work, take advantage of it! Not only will you get plenty of that good, ol’ fashion fresh air, but you’ll save money on gas – Always a plus!

How do you take advantage of summer while working a full-time job? Share your suggestions in the comment section below!

Negotiating Salary: Tips For Professional Women

Although negotiating salary should come naturally to women, it’s not usually the case. We are good at handling all sorts of negotiations at home —the contractor we hire for the bathroom renovation, the amount of screen time allowed to our teenager if grades improve, the next vacation spot — but when it comes to negotiating salary, we’re not that great.

I would contend, however, that women in particular have all the critical skills necessary for successful negotiations in the workplace, top among which is negotiating salary. We’re consensus builders, emphatic, good listeners, and we have a collaborative style. The problem is that, too often, we don’t manage our careers as closely as we should and in not doing so we leave money on the table.

Why Does This Happen?

According to research, there are several key reasons why we stay away from negotiation situations:

• Women perceive their circumstances as being fixed, out of their control —unlike men, who believe that everything is negotiable—therefore, they don’t attempt to negotiate for themselves. (Too often, women don’t even try to negotiate a salary offer, they just take it.)
• Women’s sense of entitlement is weaker than men’s. For example, a well-known study conducted by two psychologists showed that women would pay themselves 19% less than males would for the same task.
• Women don’t lobby for pay rises as much and as often as men do. When rises occur, bosses tend to give money to those who asked for it —usually men— and give a smaller share (if any at all!) to the women who didn’t ask.

How To Change Things Around

If you are committed to your career and you are serious about being recognized for your work, you will have to engage in negotiations along the way. Nobody will do it for you, so you might as well give it all you’ve got.

Here are a few things you can start doing right now:

• Establish clear career goals for yourself and ask for what you need and what you want. This is harder to do if you are not sure of where you wish to take your career.
• Check how much people in your industry and in similar positions with equivalent knowledge and experience are making. If you want to negotiate from a position of strength, it is critical to know where you stand in relation to your peers.
• Before you meet with your boss to negotiate salary, make a list of what you’re willing to give up and what’s non-negotiable. Knowing your walk away point will help you discuss terms more easily.
• Learn how to talk about your achievements in relation to how they affect your company’s bottom line. Whenever possible use numbers to quantify your accomplishments.
• Anticipate questions that your boss will ask and work from a win-win perspective. What’s important to your manager? Why do they need you? What is the current demand for your position in the market?
• See the potential to negotiate everything and everywhere both personally and professionally. Negotiating salary is never only about how much you make. Health benefits, flexible time, title, working from home, expense account, an assistant, and so on, are all items that you should consider negotiable.

This is not your grandmother’s workplace. It’s yours. It’s more flexible than even a few years ago, and companies everywhere are struggling to help their women advance. Let’s do what is in our hands to make sure we continue landing positions of leadership and that along the way we are compensated for our efforts as much as our male counterparts.