The Power of a Positive Attitude
“Our beliefs about what we are and what we can be precisely determine what we can be.” ― Anthony Robbins
“Cultivate an optimistic mind, use your imagination, always consider alternatives, and dare to believe that you can make possible what others think is impossible.” ― Rodolfo Costa
Throughout my many years as a certified professional resume writer, I have discovered that the most successful candidates are those that embrace a positive attitude throughout their career campaigns. Multiple sources of stress abound and anxiety is high in the midst of a career transition, however harnessing an optimistic approach always garners lucrative and auspicious results in a job search. Candidates that exude positivity also convey confidence and self-assurance to an employer, which are always attractive traits. No one wants to work with someone who exudes negativity. By demonstrating a positive attitude, you give yourself a competitive edge and you will instill confidence in hiring managers that you have unique value to bring to any new enterprise.
Throughout a job search, there is little that you have control over. There are no guarantees that you will impress a future employer or even make it past a phone interview. However, the one thing you do have control over in your job search is your attitude. Throughout my professional experience, I have observed that negative attitudes are most often based on fear, lack of confidence, or past defeats. With a negative attitude, you are fighting yourself as well as thousands of other applicants for the same job. However, choosing a positive approach even in the midst of adversity will instill the tenacity and intrepid resilience needed to persist in the face of constant competition and possible rejection.
Job seekers must also become keenly aware of how attitude affects everyone in immeasurable ways. Take several moments to reflect on your own attitude – regarding work, salary, career history, and your ideal future job. Consider how does one’s expectations influence attitude? How does one’s attitude alter expectations? How are positive attitudes displayed? How would an individual giving an interview know if the applicant sitting across the desk had a positive attitude or a negative attitude? What signs are given? What nonverbal cues are broadcast to others either consciously or unconsciously? Why would attitudes be taken into consideration in the work place? After all, an employee is there to work, not necessarily to make friends.
A positive attitude is a soft skill that inspires others. Anything less can and will affect the group. Consider examples of your favorite or least favorite managers and how they have displayed an attitude and what, if any, effect occurred as a result. Are people more apt to follow someone displaying a certain attitude or not? Positivity is also a trait found in strong and stalwart leaders.
Consider the following tips to follow throughout your job search in order to maintain a positive attitude:
1. Goal-Setting
Establishing a positive attitude is enabled by goal-setting. It begins with a strong belief system that anything is possible if you have the courage, commitment, and perseverance to achieve your aspirations. Develop a 5- year plan. Awaken each morning and review your goals in order to stay motivated throughout the day during your job search.
2. Take Charge
Be accountable for your own actions by taking responsibility for everything you do. You are in control of your destiny. Don’t let a challenging day or rejection send your search in the wrong direction. Take initiative in doing everything possible to prepare and position yourself for your ideal future job.
3. Don’t Take Things Personally
It’s all too easy to take your struggles within the job search process a little too personally. While it’s important to learn from your experiences, consider them as constructive criticism and grow accordingly.
4. Maintain A Schedule
Creating a schedule that you maintain can often send your job search in a new direction. Focus your attention on your daily tasks to prevent yourself from feeling frustrated.
5. Continue Enhancing and Diversifying Your Skill Set
A negative attitude might result from boredom and feeling stagnant. Work to ensure that your skills are staying fresh and cutting-edge during your search. Pursue a continuing education class, attend conferences and webinars, or even volunteer at a local nonprofit in order to strengthen your skills.
6. Take It One Day at a Time
Your attitude may suffer when you are continually spending your time worrying about the future. Take your job search one day at a time and understand that small steps get the job done just as well as larger ones. Remember, the only way to eat an elephant is one piece at a time.
7. Establish Rewards For Yourself
Make time in your job search for rewards. Even the smallest success is something worth patting yourself on the back for. By rewarding yourself for the various victories along the way, you become your own champion which will inevitably instill confidence and fortify your positive attitude.
By making a commitment to demonstrating a positive attitude throughout your career campaign, you will both make the process less painful and you will generate successful results. A hiring manager will be 100 times more likely to invite you back for a second interview if you demonstrate the exuberance and confidence that a positive attitude instills.
Guest author, Victoria Andrew, CPRW and Owner/Director of Words Prevail, LLC www.wordsprevail.com
Victoria Andrew offers resume writing solutions and will be happy to help position new grads for career campaign success with her diverse portfolio of services.
Kavaliro Employment Agency has offices in Tampa, Fla., Charlotte, N.C., Orlando, Fla. and Washington, D.C. and can make sure you find the right people for this important role. We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.
Read More...Kavaliro Featured on FOX Charlotte
Kavaliro’s Senior Resource Manager Matt Rowles sat down with FOX Charlotte to give recent graduates advice on entering the workforce.
Kavaliro Employment Agency has offices in Tampa, Fla., Charlotte, N.C., Orlando, Fla. and Washington, D.C. and can make sure you find the right people for this important role. We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.
Read More...Personal Mission Statement
“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.” – Marianne Williamson
As a resume writer, one of the first questions we ask a new client is, “What is your ideal job?” Even though we interview high-level executives with decades of experience in their chosen field, it is surprising how many spontaneously reveal their unfulfilled dreams. Sometimes their unrealized passions contradict societal paradigms of success and/or diverge from the career evolution their original resumes convey. Yet promptly, such an impulsive confessional is erased with a chuckle and air of sarcasm as they change their tone and launch into a discussion of their more pragmatic career goals.
Even if they have captured millions of dollars in annual revenue and their achievements surpass competition, some clients still struggle to articulate their true purpose and the unique value they bring to a corporation. A hiring manager may contemplate in response to their modesty and ambivalence, “Is this person in the wrong field? Do they have a clear direction in life?”
Also, many job seekers are apprehensive of acknowledging their greatness and the marketable value of their contributions. Sadly, they underplay their achievements and potential. As their resume writer, I wonder, “Are they afraid of their true power and are they lacking in self-worth?” Due to their modesty, they often fear taking ownership of their accomplishments. As a result, their resume is diminished and hiring managers will not realize the full potential they could bring an enterprise.
To remedy this, I advise building a mission statement to engage in the self-assessment needed to empower a career direction and to connect with a unique purpose. A concise yet compelling mission statement may also allow you to identify companies that have similar values. It may help to better analyze the costs and benefits of a new career opportunity. Lastly, such an exercise will crystallize one’s true self and talents with integrity and free of societal expectations.
A personal mission statement infuses you with the power to manifest personal vision in your life. It is a method of synergizing your unique abilities, authentic truth, and the person you are in the process of becoming.
Remember to be patient with yourself. Conjuring a personal mission statement shall merely provide the steps and inspiration you need to create a life and a career that revolves around your own truth. The process of crafting your statement may spark the motivation needed to fulfill your highest potential.
It will also bestow upon you the clarity needed to apply for the companies which truly resonate with your calling and purpose in this world. Your career search will be more proactive and driven by the enthusiasm of bringing your unique talents to the corporation, which shall inevitably enhance client satisfaction and value to shareholders.
So, the question remains, how do you concoct a powerful, personal mission statement? Consider the following steps:
1. Imagine that you have unlimited wealth, influence, and the ability to manifest anything you want. Yet, even with such luxuries and power, you are still obligated to pursue a profession. If money was not an issue and you have no limitatations whatsoever, what would you do with your life?
2. Envision your version of the perfect work day. Where would you be working? What projects would you pursue? What type of people would you interact with? What would give you a deep sense of fulfillment by the end of the day? Write down your story of a day in the life of your dream job.
3. Author your own obituary. Compose the succinct version of your contributions to this world during your time on earth. What has been important to you? What difference did you make to your clients, company, community, and society as a result of your profession? Consider what you would like your descendents to remember you by for generations to come.
4. Identify three or four of the greatest accomplishments in your career. Consider your most significant achievements which truly transformed a company where you have worked. Utilize as many quantifiable details as you possibly can and construct your answers in a results-oriented perspective.
5. Clarify your core values. Some people operate according to a spiritual compass and others fulfill a set of principles to live by according to their philosophies. Contemplate what you stand for and what you believe to be your truth. Write about the actions you are taking to fulfill these principles on a daily basis.
6. What inspires you? Consider the qualities they possess and of which you strive to emulate. They may be people you know on a personal level, or famous individuals who are known for their achievements. Compose a list of their admirable qualities.
7. Write about ways you can make a difference to the ideal company or organization of your dreams. Describe how you could add value to not just the corporation but to society as a whole when actualizing your specific talents and skills.
8. Make a list of your top goals, both professionally and personally. Write them with absolute confidence that one day they will be fulfilled.
Now, you are ready to write your personal mission statement. Study the answers you have composed to these questions and hunt for recurring themes that arise. Also, circle words you have repeated in order to discern subconscious patterns revealing what is important to you. Keep in mind that it would be useful to construct a mission statement that is short enough to memorize. As you evolve as an individual, your mission statement should be revised as well. You are a work-in-progress. Each day can become a masterpiece by practicing this invaluable self-assessment tool.
Guest author, Victoria Andrew, CPRW and Owner/Director of Words Prevail, LLC www.wordsprevail.com
Victoria Andrew offers resume writing solutions and will be happy to help position new grads for career campaign success with her diverse portfolio of services.
Kavaliro Employment Agency has offices in Tampa, Fla., Charlotte, N.C., Orlando, Fla. and Washington, D.C. and can make sure you find the right people for this important role. We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.
Read More...Social Media Marketing for New Grads
At its foundation, social media is a set of technologies and channels targeted at forming and enabling a potentially massive community of participants to productively collaborate. IT tools supporting collaboration have existed for decades. Yet, social-media technologies, such as social networking, wikis and blogs, enable collaboration on a much grander scale and support tapping the power of the collective in ways previously unachievable.
Six core principles underlie the value of social-media solutions and serve as defining characteristics setting social media apart from other forms of communication and collaboration. Principles include:
- Participation
- Collective
- Transparency
- Independence
- Persistence
- Emergence
Social media can include text, audio, video, images, podcasts, and other multimedia communications. Ultimately, it can be an effective tool to help with your job search. Sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn enhance and expedite your hunt for a new job.
For Generation X/Y, social media networking serves as the most potent catalyst to forming the vital partnerships, visibility, and opportunities needed to penetrate the job market for the first time.
Consider the following sample sites and exercises for working your networking muscles:
1) InternshipRatings.com
Thinking about applying for an internship? Wondering what kind of experience you’re going to get out of that internship? Internships are the most important thing students can do to prepare for their career, especially if you choose the ones which will grant you the important transferable skills needed for your future career. Internship Ratings offers you reviews from students that have already been through internships and know how valuable they are.
Activity:
Log on and create a free account with www.internshiprating.com.Complete a quick and easy survey to rate different aspects of your current and previous internships, including the level of “real life” experience, compensation, and networking opportunities you have garnered so far in your education and early career. Then, add a comment to describe a specific experience from your internship in more detail.
Ultimately, this site is a quintessential way to weed out the internships that will be a waste of your time and shall catapult you into the ones that will actually benefit you personally and professionally.
2) Create a Blog
Blog about whatever interests you – music, books, politics, sports, food, whatever it may be. In the perspective of social media networking for your career search, the content is not as important as revealing that you are opinionated and confident enough in your writing to share it with a community of online readers. You definitely garner bonus points too if you’re able to create a blog that has a substantial following, as this demonstrates an entrepreneurial side that most employers love.
Activity:
Write a list of ideas, topics, and issues you feel passionate about. Our of your lists of interests, passions, and even obsessions, choose one you can confidentially write about on a weekly (or even daily) basis. Then, set up a blog in just a few key strokes by utilizing services such as WordPress or Blogger. You shall definitely get bonus points if you’re able to create a blog that has a substantial following, since this shows an entrepreneurial side most employers appreciate.
3) Create a LinkedIn Profile
For those of you that don’t know. LinkedIn is essentially a Facebook for professionals. You’re able to provide a skeleton version of your resume and you can also connect to any professional or work-related relationships you have developed throughout the years. Employers are able to see this version of your resume, interests you have, and also the people that you’re connected with. By creating this profile, employers are able to see how you interact and communicate with other professionals like yourself.
Activity:
Launch your own LinkedIn profile! Even if you feel you have miniscule professional/corporate experience as a recent graduate, take inventory of your achievements in internships, volunteer work, and classroom projects producing quantifiable results. Having a profile will demonstrate a level of professionalism, ambition, and sophistication over and above typical college graduates.
4) Create a Twitter account
Twitter is an excellent way to get yourself involved in the community, show your thought process, and your opinions on many different subjects. Yes, you can tweet that you’re going to eat a sandwich or that you’re dressed in a red boa for Gay Pride, but we would recommend tweeting more on your thoughts, opinions, revelations, and discoveries on the job search quest. Employers will thus see that you’re an intelligent individual and that you’re able to communicate effectively, even if it’s only in the form of 140 characters.
Activity:
Create your own Twitter account and resist the temptation to tweet about trivial, everyday life experiences. Push yourself to a new level and tweet only about your career interests and job search. Demonstrating such discipline and restraint will set you apart from the crowd and reveal a higher level of sophistication than others your age.
Fine-tune your list of potential network contacts and set a goal to contact a certain number each week or month. Arrange to meet with as many contacts as possible, and always ask each one for more referrals. Send thank you notes, and update your contacts regularly on your progress.
Ultimately, job seekers should aspire to take advantage of any extra edge that they can get. Capitalizing social media is an excellent way to get your name out there, to brand yourself, and also to potentially network with future employers or references. By taking the fullest advantage of social media, the world shall be your oyster.
Guest author, Victoria Andrew, CPRW and Owner/Director of Words Prevail, LLC www.wordsprevail.com
Victoria Andrew offers resume writing solutions and will be happy to help position new grads for career campaign success with her diverse portfolio of services.
Kavaliro Employment Agency has offices in Tampa, Fla., Charlotte, N.C., Orlando, Fla. and Washington, D.C. and can make sure you find the right people for this important role. We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.
Read More...Four Reasons Why Job Seekers Need to Be on Social Media
In the relatively recent dawn of social media, employers have more access to information on job candidates than ever before– and don’t think they aren’t taking advantage of it. Forbes reported that one in five technology industry executives didn’t hire a potential candidate because of their social media profile.
It’s time to give a more optimistic look into social media and what it can do for job seekers. Here are four reasons why you should have a Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter when beginning your career search.
1. Develop Your Personal Brand
It’s almost a guarantee an employer will Google you. When applying for a job, you’re essentially marketing yourself and advertising your personal brand. Social media profiles allow you to define how your brand is portrayed. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook profiles are all easy branding initiatives. This seems like a no-brainer, however according to The Student Career Development Study, 93 percent of Millennials don’t understand personal branding. Despite having more than 95 percent on Facebook, only 34 percent of Millennials have LinkedIn profiles. Regardless of profession, it’s important to have a presence on LinkedIn, as it serves as a professional connection to your social brand.
2. Show Your “Organizational Fit” with the Company
Social media for companies is all about their brand’s voice. If an employer can look at an applicant’s blog or LinkedIn profile, they can identify if your voice matches with their’s. In a study issued by Youtern, recruiters hired 68 percent of candidates because a social networking site gave a “positive impression of their personality and organizational fit.” Having a positive voice and attitude on all social media channels is just as important as the experience listed on a resume.
The culture of a company is just as important as the job itself. It’s critical to make sure your values align with company values so it makes for a perfect match. For example, if an employer doesn’t see eye-to-eye with you in regards to business ethics then it might not be the best fit. A company’s social media page gives great insight into their culture and values. Connecting with businesses socially can help narrow down your list of jobs to apply to and help focus on the ones you could really flourish in professionally.
3. Establish Yourself as a Social Connector
Often companies consider your social influence as an advantage against other applicants. By establishing an online reputation you become valuable to a business. Brand ambassadors are crucial to businesses utilizing social channels as gateways for communication. It’s important for organizations to have ambassador type employees both internally and externally. Potential customers or clients will think about the relationships you’ve built through your social presence when they’re deciding where to do business. Social media is all about making real connections between a brand and its audience. The only way to make these connections is through trust and friendship created through social networking.
4. Social Media Savant
Social Media is a skill. More companies are recognizing the necessity of social branding and jobs are being created to incorporate it into all aspects of business. Employers are searching for web-savvy candidates skilled in communication and analytics. Social media profiles give visible proof of your abilities. The numbers of jobs or internships listed on a resume aren’t the only variables now looked at when applying for a job. Social media experience and skills give recent graduates and job seekers a leg-up over other candidates and provide a boost to a resume that has limited job experience.
Kavaliro Employment Agency, has offices in Tampa, Charlotte, Orlando and Washington, D.C. and can make sure you find the right people for this important role. We are ready and waiting to help you anytime and look forward to hearing from you.
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