The Pros and Cons of Being a Veterinary Technician

The Pros and Cons of Being a Veterinary TechnicianThe Pros and Cons of Being a Veterinary TechnicianThere are many reasons that the veterinary technician career path is one of the most popular in the animal industry.The vet tech profession has grown exponentially in recent years, and demand for qualified technicians remains strong.Here are some of the pros and cons of this very rewarding but demanding profession. Job Security and Opportunities There is a strong demand for veterinary technicians.The projected rate of growth for the profession is 30 percent through the year 2022. A veterinary technician should have no problem finding a job with such sustained demand for the foreseeable future. The nature of veterinary work virtually guarantees that no two days are alike.Technicians get to perform a wide variety of procedures, see many different patientsand interact with a dozen or more owners each day. There are usually opportunities for advancement in the veterinary office.Technic ians may be promoted to a supervisory role over time (either working as a head technician or in an administrative position such as veterinary practice manager).They may also advance their careers by achieving a specialty certification that can lead to a higher salary and more specialized duties. Working with animals in hands-on capacity is a huge selling point for this career path.Veterinary technicians have constant interaction with their patients ranging from general exams to post-surgical care. Downsides The clinic can be a stressful work environment.Technicians must be able to deal with upset owners, aggressive or uncooperative animals, euthanasia, and seeing severe injuries caused by trauma or neglect.Stress is one of the biggest factors cited by techs that decide to leave the profession. You wont starve working as a vet tech, but you are likely to only make a moderate salary for your efforts.Even techs with specialty certification do bedrngnis earn particularly large salar ies. Long Hours and Risk of Injury Many veterinary technicians work longer than the traditional 40-hour work week.Many clinics are open on Saturdays, and some clinics are open 7 days a week.Emergency clinics may be staffed around the clock.Even in a clinic that keeps more traditional hours, there are often occasions where they are understaffed, resulting in mandatory overtime work. One of the biggest drawbacks to this and many other hands-on animal career paths is a higher risk of being injured at work.Veterinary technicians must work with animals under considerable stress from injury or being in an unfamiliar environment (and sometimes both of these things play a role simultaneously).A tech must be very careful to avoid bites or kicks from their patients, taking extreme care to handle and restrain animals properly at all times.

How to alleviate your lower-back pain from the comfort of your desk

How to alleviate your lower-back pain from the comfort of your deskHow to alleviate your lower-back pain from the comfort of your deskOne of the leading causes for missing work around the world is lower back pain, according to the World Health Organization. When our backs feel like theyre shooting lightning bolts up our spine, its understandably hard to focus on the task at hand.Recentordnungsprinzipatic reviews into the problem have found that the most important thing you can do to combat your chronic back pain is to move your body, even if the pain makes you want to lie down on the couch. The medical researchers concluded that adding just 20 minutes of any kind of aerobic exercise could significantly alleviate pain. In fact, improving the flexibility in your lumbar spine and hamstrings could reduce back pain by 58%.Although science recognizes time and again that our sedentary lifestyles are bad for us, many of us are still working jobs that necessitate sitting down for long periods at a time.Here are simple stretches you can do to alleviate some of the tension stiffening your lower back without needing to get up from your deskSeated hip stretchThis is a stretch recommended by the University of California school system that can simultaneously stretch your hip, and lower and middle back. Put your left leg over your right leg. Then put your right elbow on the outside part of the thigh of your left leg. Hold this position for at least 15 seconds as you look over your left shoulder to deepen the stretch. Now switch sides and do the same stretch with the opposite leg.Dont worry about how far youre able to stretch, its more important that youre doing it at all. Your back muscles will thank you.Hug yourselfIf making yourself a stretchy pretzel seems too intimidating, this next back stretch keeps your feet on the ground. Yoga teacher Zotos Florio calls it the thoracic rotation stretch, but you can call it hugging yourself with purpose.Sit in your chair with your feet flat on the ground. Sit up straight so that your spine is in a neutral position and your weight is evenly distributed in your hip bones. Then cross your hands over your chest so that each hand is unternehmensverbund an opposite shoulder. While you hold yourself, twist to the left and hold for three breaths. Return to the center and then twist to the right side and hold for another three breaths. Try doing this once an hour.Touch your toesYour tight hamstrings can affect the natural curve of your spine and may be the cause of your lower back pain. This is a stretch to loosen them up. While sitting on the edge of your chair, straighten your legs and try to reach your toes as you keep your back and spine straight. When you get as far as you can go, hold the position for 30 seconds before releasing.Once you master these easy stretches, you can incorporate many other advanced stretches into your daily work routine.Get moving

How to Hire a Data Entry Specialist

How to Hire a Data Entry SpecialistHow to Hire a Data Entry SpecialistTodays strong economy has spurred business growth and increased business activity throughout the U.S. And when business expands, demand for administrative professionals often grows right along with it. Because of this, many companies are investing in additional office stab und sttze to help them navigate increasing workloads and even leverage new technology. One particular administrative position gaining demand is data entry specialist. Professionals in this role are invaluable, inputting business data into digital platforms and helping companies implement technology solutions to eliminate paperwork and streamline processes.Here are five tips to help you hire a data entry specialist for your company1. Identify the dutiesBefore you begin your hiring process, clearly identify your business needs and determine the tasks you need your new employee to perform - and the challenges you would like them to help your organi zation overcome. Some common duties of data entry specialists includePrioritizing and batching material for entryInputting material from a wide variety of sources quickly and accuratelyTaking customer orders and entering them into tracking systemsIf your company uses any specific systems, add that to the list, as well. Sometimes, experience with a database like Salesforce or Zendesk is crucial so a new hire is already up to speed on Day One, said Kim Garstein, an OfficeTeam senior vice president in Los Angeles.2. Find the right candidatesEmployers want accuracy and speed, but prefer accuracy over speed, Garstein said, suggesting a benchmark of someone who can accurately type at least 50 korrekts-per-minute.Sandy Saylors, vice president of OfficeTeam in Chattanooga, Tenn., backs up these points with even more specifics. In my experience, companies are in good shape with someone who can achieve at least a 98 percent degree of accuracy while hitting 8,000 keystrokes-per-hour, she said. Data entry positions may be entry, mid- or senior level, so they can appeal to a wide range of people. Many of our candidates for these positions are new graduates who are looking for entry-level positions within large companies, wzu siche getting your foot in the door can be challenging, Saylors said. They may also be individuals who have worked in retail or restaurants and are looking for a regular Monday-through-Friday, 9-to-5 schedule.As such, it can pay to think outside of the box if you want to know how to hire a data entry specialist. One of our best candidates was a woman who had been a stay-at-home mom for five years, Saylors said. Shed struggled to find employment because she had a large employment gap in her resume. She had just enough technical skill for what one of our clients needed, and they ended up liking her so much they hired her full time.This illustrates a trend in the administrative industry, as well as others. According to the OfficeTeam Salary Guide, employer s are realizing there is no perfect candidate. Instead of waiting on a prospect that checks every box, many are hiring for their most critical needs and offering training as needed to help new employees succeed.SEARCH JOB CANDIDATES3. Interview wiselyDont give this critical part of the hiring process short shrift. As an employer, this is your chance to speak with candidates face-to-face and get additional information about their experience and technical skills.When einstellungsgesprching for a data entry specialist, ask about the candidates preferred work environment. According to Garstein, This type of work can be on the mundane side of things for long stretches, and you want someone who is comfortable in front of nothing but a computer for substantial periods of time.Here are some examples of interview questionsHow do you establish accuracy while you input data?What experience do you have with office applications?Can you give me an example of a time you found and corrected a data entry error?How do you organize and prioritize your work when youre compiling and sorting large amounts of data?The interview is also your time to gauge soft skills. For example, ideal candidates for data entry positions will be reliable, eager to learn and coachable. Carefully planned interview questions can help you get a measure of these traits and get a glimpse of how well the applicant will fit with your workplace culture.Here are some sample questions to gauge appropriate attributesWhat is it about this job that appeals to you most?Data entry can be tedious work. What are your strategies for staying focused?What is your ideal workspace to do data entry? Describe how your attention to detail had an impact on your last project or job.Do you consider yourself an introvert or extravert?A solitary job such as this calls for an introvert rather than an extravert, says Saylors, or someone who is energized more by working alone than in social situations.This is also the candidates opp ortunity ask questions and get into details about the role. Remember, hiring is a two-way street, and this dialogue is invaluable in determining if the candidate is likely to be successful in the position and with your team.4. Determine fair payCompensation is another crucial aspect of your hiring strategy. In order to attract the best candidates, you must offer competitive pay. Keep in mind that the best candidates may be considering multiple job offers and may attempt to negotiate a higher salary or additional benefits, which is why its best to pay at the saatkorn level as or higher than your competitors.Salaries can vary depending on the type of role, the duties assigned and the candidates work experience. The Salary Guide can help. For instance, the 2019 Salary Guide indicates that starting pay for data entry specialists in the U.S. ranges from $25,000 to $36,500. Salaries for senior data entry specialist positions, which require additional experience, may range from $31,000 to $43,000. And those can increase or decrease depending on where youre located. Our online Salary Calculator can help you determine the local variance for your area.5. Edge out the competitionWhen you find the right candidate for your open position, timing is critical - especially for in-demand candidates. Dont hesitate in making an offer. In times of low unemployment, people who are well-suited for a role may be interviewing with several companies, so be ready to extend an offer as quickly as possible - even one thats conditional upon reference checks. Both Saylors and Garstein caution that companies they work with have lost out on top candidates by dragging out the hiring process and not making the offer soon enough.START HIRING NOWFinal word on how to hire a data entry specialistRemember you can provide training to help inexperienced workers succeed. Youre also more likely to earn their loyalty if you create an office where you show how much you recognize their value, celebrate t heir achievements and contribute to their career development.Though an ideal candidate may not be available, you can increase your chances of a great hire by identifying your needs and expectations ahead time, interviewing efficiently and thoroughly, and offering a competitive salary.A staffing agency can help you find the right person. Recruiters have access to a broader range of candidates, can vet applicants more quickly, and will keep you abreast of the latest hiring and compensation trends.

Optimize for Innovation

Optimize for InnovationOptimize for InnovationRecognize behauptung 8 conditions to reach your full potential.Recently I read the books Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and Michelangelo and the Popes Ceiling by Ross King. Turns out they were the same story. They both told the story of neuerung.Without the ability to innovate, an organization will eventually be left behind and will degenerate. This is true in every industry, every country, every for-profit organization, and every notlage-for-profit organization.I like to define words before digging into the details. To me, innovation means creating greater value for other people, delivering it through a better experience for them, and basing decisions on a deep understanding of what they really need. The purpose of innovating is to help your organization achieve better sustainable success. You do that by consistently creating greater value for other people and improving the way in which you deliver that value.In this article, I will expla in a variety of the conditions that increase your chances for creating and delivering great innovations, the kind that really make a difference for your desired customers. At the end of each condition is a question to help you clarify whether or not you are meeting that condition.Condition 1 for Innovating Define the parameters you will innovate within.You cant do it all. I know thats an obvious thing to say, but when a business needs to deliver a good result every quarter sometimes the low-hanging fruit can look tempting, even though its not at all related to what you want your business to focus on. Without realizing it, you can end up with people throughout your organization working on all kinds of things in the hopes to generate some short-term cash. The problem with that approach is it rarely creates meaningful innovations.Even when he was painting the 12,000 square feet of ceiling space in the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo knew he still had a defined space to work within. It was a big project, but it had parameters. Even when Apple expanded its strategy to focus on The Digital Lifestyle, it still had a defined area to work within. It didnt go off and build pbrdeic toys for children or reinvent the assisted living industry.By defining the boundaries for your innovations, you are also defining what you are not going to do. This is a critically important condition. Without it, you will be tempted to dive into every type of product or tafelgeschirr that you might be paid for. It would be like a kid wanting to earn extra spending money and so he sets up a lemonade stand for a week and then mows lawns for a week and then watches peoples dogs for a week. Its hard to really become great at anything if you constantly change it.What are the parameters you are going to innovate within?Condition 2 for Innovating Develop an improvement mindset.In my opinion, a great book is both simple and powerful. Mindset by Dr. Carol Dweck, a psychology professor at Stanford Univers ity, is an example of a great book. She focuses her attention on a simple concept whether a person has a fixed mindset or a growth mindset will greatly impact his or her future behaviors.She wrote, The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your effortsBelieving that your qualities are carved in stone - the fixed mindset - creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. If you have only a certain amount of intelligence, a certain personality, and a certain moral character - well, then youd better prove you have a healthy dose of them. It simply wouldnt do to look or feel deficient in these most basic characteristics.If you have a fixed mindset, you are unlikely to create a great innovation. Innovations are messy. They dont always look good. They require the old try, try, try again approach. If you believe that every attempt is an opportunity to learn something that can be used in a future attempt, you will likely h ang in there when others might not. You will see each step as being valuable because it will help you to improve. If you have a fixed mindset, the messiness can feel overwhelming. You might feel that if what you know right now is all you are ever going to know than you might as well not embarrass yourself any further.How can you get better at creating the innovation you are working on?Condition 3 for Innovating Know that the lone genius is pure mythology.Here are two fairly common myths Steve Jobs invented the first personal computer and Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel by himself while lying on his back. They sound good, but they arent true. The Apple I was formalized by Steve Wozniak, but even his efforts were based on numerous conversations within The Homebrew Computer Club and fueled by the January 1975 issue of Popular Mechanics magazine. Michelangelo didnt lay on his back and he didnt paint the chapel by himself. He recruited a team of people to paint the chapel as a te am project. He organized them into sections and outlined the work they needed to do. Parts of the project he painted by himself, but not all of it.When Jim Skinner announced he was retiring as the CEO of McDonalds, the headline at forbes.com stated, McDonalds Innovative CEO Sets Retirement Date, Names Successor. At age 67 and in his forty-first year as a McDonalds employee, why was Jim Skinner suddenly being called innovative? The reason is because under his watch from November 2004 to March 2012, McDonalds came out with a series of successful innovations including new looks for the restaurants and the McCafe. However, Skinner didnt come up with all of these innovations on his own, nor did he execute them on his own. He created an environment where innovations had a chance to gain momentum from the efforts of lots of people.Recently I facilitated a meeting where eight senior executives debated the topic of whether a group of people is always smarter than any particular individual. I s it true that eight people discussing a topic will always come up with a better idea than a single person, or is it true that one individual could have a better idea than a group of eight people can come up with by bouncing their ideas around the table?In the end, we landed on the idea that any one of the individuals in the group might have the best idea at any given moment, but we wouldnt know which person had the best idea unless we let each person share his or her insights. Sometimes a great idea is the synthesis of two ideas that were stated by different people in the group sometimes one person in the group will come up with the best idea. However, what is least likely to be true is that the same person will always have the best idea in the group. That is the mythology of the lone genius. Dont allow yourself to fall into that category. I encourage you to read Chapter Five in the book The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley.What insights are you gaining from other people?Condition 4 for Innovating Practice in a deliberate manner over a long period of time. (A salute to mit anderen dingen Ericsson)Over the past several years Ive read a variety of interesting books on high performers including Talent is Overrated by Geoff Colvin, Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, Bounce by Matthew Syed, and The Genius in All of Us by David Shenk. Their messages were remarkably similar that great performance is primarily generated by purposeful effort rather than innate talent. They all referred to the idea of the 10,000-hour rule, which refers to the idea that it takes 10,000 hours of purposeful effort to truly master any skill.The other thing these four books had in common is they all based their comments on the work of Anders Ericsson, a psychology professor at Florida State University. Anders Ericsson is practically a national treasure and yet very few people know of him because his work focuses on learning about expert performance rather than on promoting Anders Ericsson. He ha s spent virtually his entire career studying how extraordinary performers reach their pinnacles of success. He has studied memory experts (You might want to read the new book, Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer), pianists, military leaders, medical doctors, and a wide range of other great performers. In the end, he found repeatedly that the greatest performers developed themselves through what he calls deliberate practice over a period of 10,000 hours.To develop a truly great innovation, you need to actually work at the details of the product or service. You need to work to understand the needs of your customers better. You need to work to deliver the product or service in a way that is better for your customer. Look at your efforts in all of these areas as a series of practices or training sessions where each one is preparing you to become even better at creating a great innovation. Learn from every one of them and continually compile your ideas toward making something magnif icent.How are you continually practicing the skills you need to create your desired innovation?Condition 5 for Innovating Avoid the futility of avoiding failure.In 1995, the film Apollo 13 first hit the big screens. Two phrases from that film have lived on Houston, we have a problem. and Failure is not an vorkaufsrecht. In that scenario, failure would have meant that astronauts died and so the phrase made sense in that context. Over the last fifteen years, I have heard failure is not an option in countless meetings where peoples lives were not at stake, but as so often happens a phrase from a film got embedded in society and we accepted it as the absolute truth.Let me clarify. In business, failure is always an option. In your attempt to create greater value for your customers and deliver it through a better experience, you might fail. People might not like it. They might not buy it. They might get angry and say bad things about your organization. If youre not ok with that, then you truly do have a problem, which is you are highly unlikely to ever create something of great value. Do your very best, make the very best product or service that you can, deliver it as well as you can, and then be okay with the response. Whether its loved or hated, you can learn something from the experience and apply that something in the future to make an even better product or service.Another great book (remember simple and powerful) is The Innovators Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. He uses a variety of examples to show why highly successful companies tend to lose their momentum. In essence, they stop innovating. They dont want to risk sabotaging one of the successful products or services they developed in the past by developing a more innovative product or service in the future. Instead they let somebody else pass them by. In other words, they fail as an organization because they want to avoid failing.Are you ok if your innovation is not successful? Are you okay if your new innov ation wipes out your old innovation? If not, then youre going to have a problem.Condition 6 for Innovating Create a crisis if you need one.Crises can be wonderful things. They can stir successful companies to new heights of focus and attention and innovation. They can get people to work together who could barely speak to one another during good times. They can force people to make decisions and get on with the business of making significantly better products and services.Question what do you do when you are not in a crisis? Answer make one.Create a crisis by hyping the importance of a deadline, by praising the competition and all they are doing to advance past your team, and by talking about the historic mark your organization can achieve and the legacy it will leave behind if only it would become more urgent. Im not talking about beating people up or wearing them down. Im talking about increasing the sense of urgency in the organization to continually become all that it is capable of being. Talk about how every day matters because it might be the day you develop a breakthrough idea for your customers.Its nice to talk about putting action items in an important, but not urgent bucket. The problem is they tend to stay in that bucket. You need to create a sense of urgency in the absence of emergency. You need to believe that you absolutely, positively need to focus today on finding some insight to improve your product or service or otherwise your whole organization might collapse. If your organization, your work group, your career, your family, and your life depended on you creating a product or service that delivered greater value to your desired customers in a more effective way for them, would you get started today? You need to have that sense of urgency regarding innovations every day.How can you increase your teams sense of urgency?Condition 7 for Innovating Be willing to stop and start over.Two of my favorite stories about Steve Jobs and Michelangelo are wh en they brought their innovations to a complete halt. Steve Jobs bought Pixar Animation Studios in January 1986 and funded it for a period of ten years with no profits. Zero. Zilch. Every quarter was a losing quarter. But he, Ed Catmull, and John Lasseter had a dream of creating the first-ever computer generated feature-length animated film. They named the filmToy Story. After two years of effort, it became painfully clear to John Lasseter and Steve Jobs that the script needed to be rewritten. The characters needed to be friendlier. Jobs continued to pour his own money into the project even though it would now take two more years to complete.Michelangelo was given a fixed amount of money to paint the Sistine Chapel. From that money he had to hire his assistants and purchase the paint, brushes, plaster, and scaffolding to complete the project. He began on May 10, 1508. After a great verstndigung im strafverfahren of effort in painting the scene called The Flood, he and his team membe rs realized something was terribly wrong in January 1509 when they saw a fungus appear on their paintings. In the end, they realized they had put the plaster on the wall when it was too wet. Michelangelo realized that nothing great would be created if he continued on. Consequently, he buchened his employees to scrape the plaster off the wall and to start all over again.Great innovators have the guts to say, We made a mistake. We need to stop and start over. How embarrassing and frustrating and costly that must have been for Steve Jobs and Michelangelo. Yet they did it over and over again. Near the launch of the original iPad, Jobs realized that he and the other team members had made a mistake. They needed the glass to go all the way to the edge. So they halted the project and redid the glass. And the rest is history.Are you willing to start your project over again when you realize there is a better path? If not, dont innovate.Condition 8 for Innovating Understand the importance of p assion.In August 1990 I returned to the high school I attended to be an Algebra I teacher. My degree was in Mechanical Engineering and I had taken Calculus IV and Differential Equations. I had the technical knowledge to teach Algebra I and I had an ability to explain ideas in a way that other people could understand them. The problem was I had zero passion for math. I just didnt care about the Quadratic Equation. I didnt care to dig into the details of the subject to learn it better. I liked teaching and I liked the students, but I didnt care about my subject. Consequently, I never improved as a math teacher over the next seven and a half years. I taught math exactly the same way on my last day as I did on my first day even though there had been significant advances of the graphing calculator during my tenure. I was competent, but I never improved. My passion was learning ideas on how people achieved great successes. So at every opportunity I went to the school library with a book i n my hand about how individuals and organizations achieved great successes. I wrote down every good idea I could find.Sitting four feet away from me in the math department office was Tom Becvar, my former high school teacher, the chairman of the math department, and a true teacher extraordinaire. Tom taught the BC Calculus course. He had been a great teacher for twenty years when I arrived. Yet he still worked at understanding the details of every problem before he taught them to his students. He went on to develop innovative ways to teach Calculus. He taught other high school teachers how to teach Calculus. He became a nationally respected advisor on the AP Calculus tests. He was named High School National Teacher of the Year by several organizations. Many adults today in the St. Louis area will say Tom Becvar is the greatest teacher they ever had. Tom was my mentor. He taught me a great deal about how to be a teacher.What was the difference between us? I had taken math courses far beyond high school math. I could explain information well to other people. I liked being with the students. The difference was our passions. Tom loved math. I loved learning and teaching ideas on improving individual and organizational performance. In 1991 I created a week-long course for high school students called The Adventure of Life Course. It was about strengthening self-confidence and self-esteem. That course laid the groundwork for the business I eventually created in 1998. Ultimately, our passions took us down two different paths.To be a great innovator, you have to truly care about the products and services you are creating. You have to be over-the-top passionate about the value you are creating for other people. If you dont passionately care about what you are doing, how can you possibly expect your customers to care?In 1997, upon his return to Apple, Steve Jobs said, Marketing is about values. Apple at its core value believes that people with passion can change the worl d for the better. Steve Jobss passion and the passion of Apple has always been to democratize great electronic technology. He wanted simple, great tools in the hands of as many people as possible so they could go and do what they were passionate about.Ive attended meetings at Anheuser-Busch InBev where senior-level engineers stood together with passion as they studied how the lids were sealed on precisely to the cans in order to maintain the quality of the beer. Ive been at McDonalds meetings where McDonalds corporate staff members and owner/operators studied intensely the exact positioning of a fry station so that it would optimize the speed with which customers were served. Ive sat in Toyota meetings where Finance Insurance Managers would huddle together to figure out the simplest way for the customers to understand the details of a leasing or loan agreement. I have facilitated meetings with Marriott employees where they were engaged in intense conversations about how to provide more effective leadership for their associates. Great companies have people who care about the value they are creating for other people. They get emotional over the details. They have a Tom Becvar-like passion for what they do and how they can do it better.Do you really care about the product or service you are creating for other people? If not, is there someone else in your organization who is passionate about this project? If not, dont go after this innovation.Innovating sounds so sexy and glamorous. It sounds refreshing and exciting. The reality is innovating is work, really, really hard work. You have to be passionate and purposeful and committed. You have to look at every setback as a learning experience, not as a defining moment. You have to persevere beyond anything that you used to think was reasonable. You will have to observe people for a ridiculous amount of time until you really understand what they truly need.But in the end innovating is how you will make the world a be tter place and your life a better existence. And that is why it is worth it.

This is the best way to relax at the end of a seriously long day

This is the best way to relax at the end of a seriously long dayThis is the best way to relax at the end of a seriously long dayHave you ever had the kind of day where work never seems to end, a million different tasks land on your plate all at once and you feel so overwhelmed that youre legitimately dizzy by the time you get home and collapse on your couch? Yeah, us, too.Being pushed to your absolute limits can be helpful for your resilience and self-confidence down the line, but in that moment, it just makes you feel like one giant ball of anxiety rolling down a huge hill thats engulfed in flames.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreAnd thats not even the worst part. Its one thing to deal with heart-palpitating stress all day and another to hold onto it once youre home and trying your hardest to relax.Winding down after a day from hell can be a pretty complicated task, and fruchtwe in of us end up unsuccessful, struggling to fall asleep or tossing and turning all night once we do.If this sounds like you, its time to explore the magic that is journaling before bed. But we dont mean a Dear Diary kind of entry or a stream-of-consciousness rant about how horrible and difficult your life is right now.Theres a particular style that can help you transform that frenetic energy into a grounded sense of gratitude, clear that mental chatter and help you breathe easy again.Grab your favorite color pen, turn to a blank page andstart listing off all of the good things that happened to youtoday.It can be as big as My major presentation went flawlessly or as small as I made it to work five minutes before my boss walked in the door. Anything that could be considered a success, jot it down.Replay your morning routine, your commute to work, the tasks you powered through like a boss (even if you were stressed AF), your phone call with your mom before leaving the office, the 10-mi nute walk home to your apartment that served as your bout of exercise for the day,allof it.Now, look down at that page. Notice how many things there are to be pleased with yourself about, to be thankful for as another day of your life comes to a close. That visual is mighty powerful in helping you reframe how youre feeling about what you just went through.And, by listing all of the good, the bad seems to seep out of your pores and away from your personal space, leaving youcapable of (finally) taking a deep breath of satisfaction and relaxing.Phew.Add a cup of herbal tea to the mix, and youll be good as new in a matter of minutes.This article first appeared on Swirled.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will ersatzdarsteller your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs1 0 habits of mentally strong people

The Downside Risk of Intership Resume That No One Is Talking About

The Downside Risk of Intership Resume That No One Is Talking About The Honest to Goodness Truth on Intership Resume No matter what you do, dont set your internships at the base of your resume or in the Education section. Internships are real-world experiences, and ought to be given as much weight for a job. Internships exist in a vast number of industries and settings. Internship programs are pursued after youve just completed a course and want the internship. They will vary according to industry. Hence any applicant who would like to make an application for an internship program will secure the sample internship cover letter useful. In any event, you will need to assess your experience during the internship. Ask About Full-Time Positions There is generally no guarantee an internship will cause a permanent placement at the organization. If theres an internship program which youre truly interested in, do it An excellent internship resume is tailored especially for the job whi ch you desire. It resume may help you secure a fleck that firstly helps you get your qualification, and secondly helps you become better at your job and may even help you get a job when you have graduated. Another sort of internship growing in popularity is the digital internship, where the intern works remotely, and isnt physically present at the work location. Starting the internship search procedure either freshman or sophomore year enables you the flexibility to complete many internships in a number of fields. The Pain of Intership Resume The most essential part of an internship resume is making sure the abilities and experience you do have, while you could be very early in your career, are excellent for the job which you need to do. Internships say to an employer that you were ready to work for little if any money in your preferred career field, because youve got an intense interest within it. Many internships in america are career specific. The ideal method is to look f or patterns in the activities and courses you have selected. Landing a huge internship for a college student is an excellent means to get ready for the challenges of life after the university. Generally speaking, higher school students have a tendency to concentrate on their club participation whilst college students often incorporate major class projects. A student who makes the decision to undertake an internship program during their summer break is indicative of someone whos intent on staying ahead of the competition. The Hidden Gem of Intership Resume Your internship experience ought to go right at the very top of your resume, below your title, in addition to the remainder of your work experience. If youve had a job or internship experience before, your supervisor or anfhrer is a good reference. The character of an internship is dependent upon the company itself and can vary greatly. Sometimes employers will ask you to attach your cover letter file as a portion of the ap plication. You can begin by looking thoroughly at the work description of the intern position youre applying for. Always be sure you dont turn in a resume without an expert summary as thats the best method to let your employer understand what youre good for or at. Based on the employer, an intern could have a part-time job or may have to work full-time like every other regular employee. Your cover letter or other expert correspondence stipulates the chance to. Aside from the obvious information like the quick points about who you are and indicating your anticipated level, have a moment to consider whatever you have done up until now and begin writing out a few of your experiences. If you want to kick-start your career, landing an internship is just one of the greatest methods to learn, grow, and boost your probability of getting a full-time job down the street. On the flip side, if youre writing an advertising internship resume, then youre probably writing to an exact ruthle ss person whos very good with people in any type of situation. Additionally, there are employers who give out weekly allowances based on the corporations directive regarding interns. Google is among the most coveted businesses to work for, but its notoriously difficult to enter. Some men and women get so involved in the facts of their CV they dont make it quite clear they want the internship. Finding an internship at Google is no simple fit either, because there might be thousands of applicants competing with you for the exact same position.

Why So Many People Won#8217;t Talk to You, if You Aren#8217;t a Wireless Phone (Part II)

Why So Many People Won8217t Talk to You, if You Aren8217t a Wireless Phone (Part II) In Part I, a disturbing paradox of the wireless phone and other digital communications technology was identified. Because of such technology, people who are physically distant are treated as though they are near, while most of those who are physically near, e.g., at a bus stop, in a hostel or in an elevator, are treated as though they are distant, out of view, out of mind and out of boundsexcept for those already admitted into ones digitally-welded, pre-existing social (media) circle.Here, in Part II, the reasons listed in Part I for the massive disconnect with the mass of other humanity are explored in greater detail1. The rise of the cyborgs and other machines The machines have spokenthey, e.g., iPhones, computers and iPads, are more interesting than we are, so when we are given a forced choice between spending time with a new iPhone and a new person, the machine wins. Ask any kid given the choice between saying hello to a visitor or continuing to play his computer game.The extreme manifestation of this is trans-humanism, in which human perfection is a blending of man and cyborgish add-ons, surrogates or prosthetics that make humans seem lame and the gleaming machine an ideal to aspire to. Movies like Iron Man are the tip of this steel-and-chromeberg.As a result, ordinary humansespecially those bedrngnis already in ones inner circleseem boring, limited and otherwise imperfect.In fact, it may be argued that the only reason our friends we phone do elend seem equally boring is that they give us one more excuse to use or celebrate our wireless phones, or because their participation is required for some of its applications, just as many kids computer games still, but perhaps only temporarily, require other human rivals or partners.2. Stranger danger The more strangers there are, the greater the number, if not percentage, of real or imagined psychopaths in the population and the larger the anonymous crowd into which they can blend and hide.Add sensationalized news coverage of the nut jobs and criminals to the fearful mix, which ensures that stranger conceptually and emotionally morphs to strangler.Hence, time on a mobile phone is perceived as a safer choice than time chatting with a stranger, especially more fun than the time spent on making 911 calls about the weird ones. Ditto for digital social media like Facebook or Skype.In fact, these digital technologies are now laminated onto or compete with each other to create an even thicker security blanket. Mike Lewthwaite, 24, manager of the St. Andrews Tourist Hostel (where I was comfortably ensconced for the New Year holiday, in St. Andrews, Scotland, 2013), expressed his puzzlement at how young women in local pubs will ask for a guys Facebook page, rather than a phone number (at least in part, it seems, to confirm identity , credibility and innocuousness).The embedded (digital) message Your Facebook page is more you than you are, stranger.3. Time stress In an economy in which money muscle means money hustle, time is micro-managed. As digital technology makes contacting those we already know easier, it also makes it more professionally or socially obligatory as prescribed digital etiquette, since easier communication not only allows, but also demands more frequent communication.Hence, for every minute a mobile phone saves, theres probably one it uses up in the process of social or job-network maintenance/lubrication and making those one already knows feel special.In any case, there are obvious tradeoffs, in terms of time saved, gained and lost. Such time stress and tradeoffs leave little to no time for strangersanywhere, anytime.4. Increased conversational and social control There is brilliant underlying social engineering embodied in a mobile phone. It increases control over ones social interactions t o levels hard to reach in face-to-face conversation.For example, all manner of unchallengeable excuses for terminating a conversation become available when the talk switches from face-to-face to place-to-place phone-mediated talk, since disproving that you are walking into a meeting (when you arent) is all but impossible in phone conversations. (However, some control is lost in having no place to hide from the technology, even after work.)5. Homogenization and trivialization of strangers As Ive argued elsewhere, we have become social victims of our economic successes. The triumph of 20th-century democracy and capitalism has not only leveled many playing fields, but has also made the players more indistinguishable from each other.What seems like eons ago, interacting with strangers who didnt appear to be dangerous previously held some promise of a mini-adventure, since there were expected differences in outlook, education, life experience, values, possessions and interests associated with them, kinds of books enjoyed, pastimes and hobbies, travel stories and venues, etc.In those perhaps over-romanticized days, there was an easily imagined opportunity cost associated with not engaging a safe-looking stranger when there was absolutely nothing else to do under the circumstances (except silently stand in line, sit on a bench, look out a bus window at the rain, stare at the elevator buttons, etc.).Thats completely changed Now, the homogenization of human types and talents, through mass higher education, mass-media and marketing-driven personality shaping, easy and affordable access to the same mass-marketed toys (such as iPhones, SUVs, running shoes, a safari in Kenya, a masters degree), and the standardization of the appetite for and response to the entertainment culture have made the prospect of talking with a stranger generally unintriguing, unexciting, unentertaining, and neither exotic nor adventurous.More commonly, that stranger is now seen as boringly familia r and therefore predictable at best or an annoyance, a burden an invalidating, trivializing clone of oneself, a distraction, a competitor, or, worse, a menacing maniac or exhausting parasite.6. Intolerance and fear of homogeneity Sure, like Chinese senior citizens whose homogeneous circumstances and uniform taste for mahjong and cards fill the many tables in the many lovely parks throughout China (illustrated below), strangers can come together precisely because of, rather than in spite of, the perceived homogeneity of their interests and objectivesincluding for the purpose of mutually validating their homogeneous identities, opportunities and circumstances.But that works better in a culture in which homogeneity and being the same as others is not only well-tolerated, but also valued.It works less well in more individualistic (or narcissistic) societies like many of those in the West, in which not only do so many individuals want to be precisely thatand not just individuals, but als o special individuals who want to feel special, and preferably unique, by associating only with special (but not weird) individuals or groups (such as a Facebook circle).In highly individualistic cultures, the encroachment of homogenization as a threat to specialness of identity and experience is, where not strenuously resisted, assiduously exploited, e.g., in tattoo or Goth subcultures, which fight the homogeneity of appearance and values through artistic novelty of design and innovative technique, while exploiting the sameness for the purposes of specialness by excluding any stranger easily identifiable as outside the subculture.Ironically, the same exclusion can apply to a stranger who far from being outside the subcultural inner circle is clearly within it. In that case, such a like-minded, like-looking stranger may be shunned because of the trivializing, invalidating effect it has on ones presumptively special, yet fragile identity.For example, this kind of thinking and behavio r typifies the instinctive distancing, non-engaging, resentful response of many overseas travelers to other compatriot Cinderellas who show up at the same travel ball, e.g., trekking the Himalayas, as trivializing, and therefore invalidating clones.Its much better for ones ego to tell others back home about ones special experience by phone or email, since they will not be on hand to trivialize it by making it less rare. Interaction with strangers is desirable only to the extent that they validate, rather than trivialize us.7. Customization of strangers Ironically, concurrent with the boredom of homogenization of tastes and lifestyle toys is the chore of dealing with the customization of these, in the form of niche or merely radically different interests and other lifestyle dimensions.As the technological and marketing flip-side of mass homogenization, mass customization (brilliantly anticipated by Alvin Toffler in his now-classic Future Shock) creates huge numbers of strangers to wh om we can relate only by making an equally huge effort to do so.The guy sitting next to you on the train reading Credit Default Swaps and Other Derivatives has a niche interest that probably hasnt interested you and never will, especially if youre reading Arts and Crafts for Kids.Making the effort to change that seems to be too much of a chore, so, you remain silent, and return to your iPhone Google search, trout and bass fishing lures or history of Norwegian end tables.8. Superiority of digital to face-to-face information flow A traditional benefit of talking face-to-face with strangers was the information they hadExcuse me, where can I find a blacksmith?. No longer. The smart phones information access, including detailed maps and street views, dwarfs the archives of the average human mind, including the minds of travelers.Thats another reason why, these days, hostel guests seem to interact much less than one would expect. Compounding the disconnect on the supply side (in virtue of a much larger and better supply of zugnglich information than of private anecdotal knowledge) is the demand-side drawback of asking strangers for information Asking has come to seem suspicious, lazy or old, as a dated, obsolete alternative to rubbing the iPhone magic lamp for answers and wish fulfillment.Ironically, digital talk is often superior to face-to-face for the opposite reason It provides less, rather than more babble, e.g., in text messaging, which generally spares the reader the endless Im likes of modern youth-talk.9. Diminishing marginal utility of strangers Ive said it before and will say it again (having first said it when I was a teenager) People are like fractionsthe more you multiply them, the smaller they get. Besides causing disconnects with and disregard of strangers, the smart phones popularity may, ironically, be a consequence of precisely these two distancers, viz., disconnection and disregard.Tuning out of strangers because there are too many of us may driv e iPhone purchases as much as being driven by them. An independent variable driving both may be highoften absurdly highpopulation densities the higher the population density, the bigger the disconnect and the greater the disregard.Lower population densities and smaller total local population may be a factor in the incredible friendliness of the Scots toward strangers (including and not only me). With a total population of less than 6 million and smaller than New York Citys, Scotland (as well as Ireland) has a demographic framework highly conducive to the survival of a village mind set.The Scots and the Irish are uniformly (and here I mean 100% in my six weeks experience in Scotland and Irelands small towns and big cities during my 2013 visit) hospitable, relaxed, curious and friendly. One possible reason for this is that they seem to have healthy vestiges of the kind of village mind so prevalent among the comparably friendly mainland Chinese.The latter, despite migrations to Chinas huge population centers, retain (for now, at least) their village values, personalities and enjoyment (or at least civil acceptance) of the existence of another humaneven if (s)hes a stranger.(The only exceptions in my 2013 half-year travels in these countries were one cranky drunk on a Glasgow bus and a nutty old woman demanding money for taking a photo of someone elses water buffalo in Yangshuo, China.)Given the choice between having an iPhone or the mglichkeit to meet a Scottish, Irish or Chinese villager, Id take that chanceespecially since it would be offered by them.

What Employers Really Look for in a Resume

What Employers Really Look for in a ResumeWhat Employers Really Look for in a ResumeUnless you have a respectable resume, the chances of getting in the door for a job vorstellungsgesprch are pretty slim even if youre the most qualified person on the planetAs weve stated in previous posts, tracking systems are the first stop when applying to larger companies and only if they deem your resume to have the basic qualification levels will an actual employer lay eyes on it. Then the trick is to get them to look at it for more than 10 seconds.So what are potential employers looking for that the tracking systems dont catch?According to an article in U.S. News these are the top 4Clarity and consistency.These seem like simple concepts, but theyre missed astonishingly often. Everysection of your resumeand the way you set it up needs to be clear, so key information can be found easily. Look at your resume as if it were the first time you were seeing it. Can you quickly identify your organizatio ns, job titles and time periods worked?Expand.If you think its enough to drop in the language of your formal job descriptions at work, its not. Once a person decides they like what they see overall and to read your resume in more detail, your bullets will make a big difference. Tell them exactly what you do in your bullets. If the results of what you do arent readily apparent, question what you do or did. In other words, what would you ask yourself in an interview to expand upon your resume?Write well.Its a dead-end street if you are using clich phrases, making grammatical or spelling mistakes or writing poorly. Employers read a lot ofresumesand they do not like reading the same words and phrases over and over again. Be unique by putting thought into your document.Length.Though its routinely discouraged, people still believe that a resume can be more than two pages if they have more information to add. Dont fall victim to this grave mistake. In general, your resume should not creep past one page if you have less than 10 years of experience. It should not go past two pages if you have 10 or more years.

How I Learned to Put Profit First for My Business

How I Learned to Put Profit First for My BusinessHow I Learned to Put Profit First for My BusinessHow I Learned to Put Profit First for My Business Michalowicz, author of Profit First (Obsidian Press, 2014)I have co-founded, built and sold two multi-million dollar technology service firms admittedly, they were never truly profitable. Every increase in revenue seemed to be matched with an even greater increase in expenses. Every day I checked (and still do) my bank balances.As the balances would climb and fall, so would my confidence and my spending. I lavishly incurred new, unnecessary expenses when my bank account was fat. I panicked when it was thin.This behavior, I have found, is leid unique to me. In fact, of the hundreds of entrepreneurs and business owners I have asked, the vast majority also do bank balance accounting.It was with this realization that I started doing Profit First for myself five years ago. That is when I applied the pay yourself first principle to the operati ons of my businesses. I became my own guinea pig for Profit First.Every quarter since, I have posted a profit. Every business I have invited to flip the Generally Accepted Accounting Principle (GAAP) formula has also posted a profit or, unfortunately in some cases, decided to give up the system because it put too much downward pressure on expenses.GAAP offers so much more in business insights than most entrepreneurs could imagine, but it does fall short on working with an entrepreneurs bank balance habit.I have become an advocate for the Profit First approach to cash management because of the one thing it does do extremely well. It works with the natural habit of business owners. And it functions as a plug-in to all the GAAP accounting systems and processes I have place. It doesnt change GAAP, it simply sits on top.Profit First has transformed my own businesses for the better (if you consider consistent profits better.) Admittedly, Profit First is not the panacea to all cash flow pr oblems, but it surely makes profit a habit.And check out an archive of my recent webinar, Put Profit First. Always, in which I explain how to apply the Profit First strategy for your business.Author BioMike Michalowicz (pronounced mi-kal-o-wits) is author of numerous books including most recentlyProfitFirstas well asThe Pumpkin Plan and the cult classic business book, The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur.He began his first business at the age of 24, moving his young family to the only safe place he could afford a retirement building. With no experience, no contacts and no savings he successfully bootstrapped a multi-million dollar business. Then he did it again. And again. Now he is doing it for other entrepreneurs.Mike is CEO of Provendus Group, a consulting firm that ignites explosive growth in companies that have plateaued and founder of Profit First Professionals, a certification for accountants, bookkeepers, business coaches and other business financial experts, who help their clients maximize profitability he is a former small business consultant for The Wall Street Journal, MSNBCs business make-over expert and an internationally recognized keynote speaker on entrepreneurship.Visit MikeMichalowicz.com, check outMikes Twitter feed, or contact Mike online at MikeMikeMichalowicz.com or at888-244-2843.

Its Getting Better All The Time

Its Getting Better All The TimeIts Getting Better All The TimeIn honor of The Beatles streaming this holiday week, a fortuitous lyric from Sgt. Peppers above and a gratuitous link to a recent Beatles Revolution video.It does seem the employment picture is looking brighter this year than it has at any time in the past decadeThe Wall Street Journal reports 2.3% unemployment in Lincoln, Nebraska and 31 other cities across the countryGallup says in the past 15 years, only in 2007 were people more optimistic about it being a good time to get a jobAnd according to the Fed, we now have more people employed in the United States than ever before in our history - 150 millionSo perhaps, finally, we can have a year of plenty after seven years of lean, Readers. And thats good news for the new yearHappy New Year, folksIm rooting for you.p.s. Join the conversation on Getting Better on my blog.