Your Next Economic Crash (aka, Recession)

Your Next Economic Crash (aka, Recession) Did you see the interview with Jim Rodgers about the pending recession? Bigger than anything any of us have ever experienced? I saw it last week and meant to blog about it but was trying to figure out how to do it without being a star is falling guy. Its worth the few minutes to watch click this image and youll go to the website with the video: So, thats pretty gloomy. But wait, theres good news!  Kendall Baker wrote a piece on this showing he did some research, and he found that Jim Rogers is always predicting a huge crash even saying its 100% inevitable that it is right around the corner. Check out Kendalls article here you can scroll through it quickly to see evidence of Rogers consistent claims. Kendalls conclusion is even a broken clock is right twice a day. The video, by the way, was posted this month. Kendalls article was posted a little over a year ago. So what if Jim is right? What if we see the worst recession in our lifetime? What will that mean?  More importantly, how can we prepare? Let me share something I learned in January of 2006: no matter how the economy does, you can experience your own personal recession at anytime, for many reasons that are out of your control. I speak from experience. When my boss(es) said were going to let you go, the economy was great. But my personal economy was about to take a serious turn for the worse. The stress was almost enough to break me. I have seen this same thing play out thousands of times since then. I have met users from all over the world some are from countries where there is no economic positive outlook and no jobs (Greece and Spain), others are from places rich with opportunities (Silicon Valley) but no matter whats going on with the economy, something happened maybe between them and the boss, or a customer, or the company owner was crazy something outside of my users control, and viola jobless. Months away from being homeless.  Despair without end. If you havent been there I hope you never go there. If you have been there you know how dark it is. Whether Jim Rogers is right or Kendall is right, what I know is that YOU MUST PREPARE.  Prepare for a fallen economy, or for a closed company (Enron), or for a crazy boss, or for the time when you are asked to do something that goes against who you are as a person (lie, cheat, or steal).  If I havent gone through it, Ive seen it. And its no fun. But, you can prepare. I see people do it all the time. People who are serious about maintaining a living. These are people who prioritize networking, relationships, branding, and career management.  These are people who use JibberJobber, who read books to get better, who self-educate. Its a lot more fun to be prepared for a huge change, and to handle it well because you are empowered, than to take only what you can get and continually feel like you are daily become less and less of a person with a reason. Prepare, now! Your Next Economic Crash (aka, Recession) Did you see the interview with Jim Rodgers about the pending recession? Bigger than anything any of us have ever experienced? I saw it last week and meant to blog about it but was trying to figure out how to do it without being a star is falling guy. Its worth the few minutes to watch click this image and youll go to the website with the video: So, thats pretty gloomy. But wait, theres good news!  Kendall Baker wrote a piece on this showing he did some research, and he found that Jim Rogers is always predicting a huge crash even saying its 100% inevitable that it is right around the corner. Check out Kendalls article here you can scroll through it quickly to see evidence of Rogers consistent claims. Kendalls conclusion is even a broken clock is right twice a day. The video, by the way, was posted this month. Kendalls article was posted a little over a year ago. So what if Jim is right? What if we see the worst recession in our lifetime? What will that mean?  More importantly, how can we prepare? Let me share something I learned in January of 2006: no matter how the economy does, you can experience your own personal recession at anytime, for many reasons that are out of your control. I speak from experience. When my boss(es) said were going to let you go, the economy was great. But my personal economy was about to take a serious turn for the worse. The stress was almost enough to break me. I have seen this same thing play out thousands of times since then. I have met users from all over the world some are from countries where there is no economic positive outlook and no jobs (Greece and Spain), others are from places rich with opportunities (Silicon Valley) but no matter whats going on with the economy, something happened maybe between them and the boss, or a customer, or the company owner was crazy something outside of my users control, and viola jobless. Months away from being homeless.  Despair without end. If you havent been there I hope you never go there. If you have been there you know how dark it is. Whether Jim Rogers is right or Kendall is right, what I know is that YOU MUST PREPARE.  Prepare for a fallen economy, or for a closed company (Enron), or for a crazy boss, or for the time when you are asked to do something that goes against who you are as a person (lie, cheat, or steal).  If I havent gone through it, Ive seen it. And its no fun. But, you can prepare. I see people do it all the time. People who are serious about maintaining a living. These are people who prioritize networking, relationships, branding, and career management.  These are people who use JibberJobber, who read books to get better, who self-educate. Its a lot more fun to be prepared for a huge change, and to handle it well because you are empowered, than to take only what you can get and continually feel like you are daily become less and less of a person with a reason. Prepare, now!

Monday Motivation Welcome to Book GIveaway Week!

Monday Motivation Welcome to Book GIveaway Week! Happy Monday! This week we are giving away 5 books! I love to read and if you do too, then you dont want to miss out!  I love escaping into a good book and learning something new! The Holidays just seem like a perfect time of year to do that. I will be giving away fiction and non-fiction books that are all perfect books for the classy career girl! Even if reading isnt high on your priority list right now, the books I am giving away are sure to be a perfect present for someone on your Christmas list. Make sure you stop by and enter the giveaways each day this week! Lets start our reading habit! Here are your career links to start your week off right! Why You Should Read Books ( How to Find Time) by Pickthebrain.com Twenty-One Women Entrepreneurs Reveal Their Favorite Business Books by Forbes A Book A Week    (a blog about a girl reading a book a week) by abookaweek.blogspot.com How to read a business book by Seth Godin Practical Tips on Writing a Book from 23 Brilliant Authors by Steve Silberman  (in case you want to write a book someday!) “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places youll go.” by Dr. Seuss  

The Ultimate Guide to Films About Job Searches

The Ultimate Guide to Films About Job Searches Unfortunately, Hollywood, independent film producers and cable channels all have the same goal with movies:  to entertain you and make money. Therefore if one is looking for a movie about an interesting career to pursue that is both fulfilling, lucrative and legal, they may be a bit disappointed. Most job related movies are about greed, corruption, breaking the law by aggressive, desperate folks. However, keeping that in mind, there is always an upside to the movies getting an insight into various industries like automobile sales, fashion, real estate and or business in general. This list is geared toward presenting lively entertainment, good acting and directing, and what NOT to do when climbing any particular corporate ladder. Not listed in any particular order. 1) Big Kahuna: A Danny DeVito and Kevin Spacey movie depicting the lonely life of sharp edged but funny salesmen. 2) Glen Garry Ross: The incredible, competitive world of Real Estate sales, with Alec Baldwin as an unscrupulous boss who presents a contest for his staff which will result in losers being fired. 3) Cadillac Man: Robin Williams stars as an enterprising, aggressive, desperate automobile salesman who uses all the skills in his repertoire to prevent mayhem and murder. 4) Working Girl: Life within an office, dated perhaps back to pre-computer technical days; if not entertaining, will make one appreciate todays technology. 5) Wall Street: The 1987 Wall Street corruption movie featuring Charlie Sheen and Michael Douglas doing anything and everything to get to the top. 6) The Wolf of Wall Street: The 2013 Wall Street corruption movie featuring Leonardo DiCaprio. 7) Deal: 2008 movie featuring Burt Reynolds, an ex-gambler teaching a college kid and law clerk how to win at Poker.  Of course it ends with a teacher versus student finale. 8) Hot Spot: Dennis Hopper directs this 1990 movie based on the book, Hell Hath No Fury, about a drifter who takes a job as a car salesman in Texas, but spots a way to rob a bank. Another what “not to do” story. 9) Boiler Room: Ah yes, the movie based on the term “boiler room,” which was meant to mean a windowless room in the basement with nothing but phones and desks.  This movie deals with the sales tactics of ambitious and less than honorable tele-salesmen. 10) The Devil Wears Prada: The highly competitive field of fashion publications is excellently portrayed in this 2006 film starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway.  Believed to have been inspired by real life situations at Vogue Magazine, most fashion designers refrained from being mentioned in the movie. However, for those loving fashion, design and color, the costuming budget for this movie was the highest ever.

Interview tip How to talk about your weakness

Interview tip How to talk about your weakness When someone asks you, in an interview, What is your weakness? do not give a bullshit answer. Saying something like, I pay too much attention to detail is actually a terrible answer for someone who is getting hired to do detail work. It means you have a deficit in the exact area youre tying to get hired for. The best answer to the question is when you tell a truthful answer, because its very unlikely will be hired for the thing you are most weak at doing. For example, my weakness is details. I hate them so much that I simply dont think about them. And if you talk to me about them, I tune you out. I get hired to think big picture. I get hired to create big plans with big results. So no one cares that I dont do details. Someone who is a production artist could say his weakness is finance. When people start talking about budgets, he just wants to back to his cube and work on design. So what if he doesnt like finance? He is not getting hired to do it. If you dont know your weakness, take a personality type quiz and the results will show you. Everyone has specific strengths and everyone has specific weaknesses. Its pretty certain that if you are not clear on your weaknesses then you are not clear on your strengths, and your value at the office will be questionable. I am writing this post from the Hampton Inn in Skokie, IL. Its my favorite hotel when we have to stay overnight for my sons cello lessons. I thought Id wake up early and drive over to Wilmette to get his new cello. Because hes outgrown his current cello, (which is 1/8 the size of the cello you are used to seeing). He is moving up to a 1/4 size. But hes not moving up because I forgot to pick up the cello yesterday and now the shop is closed. The teacher will be incredulous. We drive four hours each way to go to a cello lesson. We do it twice a week. Which means we are planning our whole lives around cello. So it seems absurd if we are thinking this much about cello that I would forget something so fundamental as getting the right instrument for the lesson. This is what my real weakness is: mishandling hierarchies of information. Other people have the ability to sift through information faster and decide what is most important. I dont have shoes on to have breakfast at the hotel. Its a buffet. Why does everyone wear shoes to breakfast? It doesnt make sense to me. We are not going outside. Its like eating at home. And I dont put on shoes to eat at home. But there are about fifty people here and no on is wearing socks except me. I have to work very very hard to look normal because I miss 90% of these moments when Im doing something that makees sense to me but its totally out of step with everyone else. People do not like if you are clearly not following the rules of being with people. There are unwritten agreements that bother people if you dont know them. This is what a job interview is about: seeing if you know the unwritten agreements. Did you wear the right clothes for the interview? Do you know the social convention of looking at people when you talk to them? Is your hair in a style that is socially acceptable? Doing one of these things poorly is forgivable. People are forgiving. Doing a lot of them is too  off-putting. People like you when you follow social rules. I study social conventions obsessively because I know its the only way Ill learn them. So when someone does something that Ive studied, and they do it wrong, I know there is something wrong with them. There is very little variance in social skills, which is why Aspergers is a disorder. I dont know why, for instance, everyone is wearing shoes at breakfast, but I know its a disorder to not know why. Maybe you think to yourself, I am out of step with people all the time. That doesnt mean I have Aspergers. If you think that, youre right: no Aspergers. Because you know youre out of step. People with Aspergers are also out of step, but have no awareness about it. Fundamentally, I dont care if I dont follow rules. I dont have that thing in my head that makes me scared of upsetting social conventions. My brain is good at other things. But its hard to tell people that. Its hard to tell the cello teacher that I really do care so much about my son and his cello playing and I try very hard to remember things like the cello and the music. I know no one else would forget those two things on an eight hour car trip to a cello lesson. I want to tell her Look, I dont know left or right either. Its all incredible. I know. No one can  believe  how dumb I am! Im sorry! Please  believe  me that Im trying! But in a job interview I know how to talk about my strengths and weaknesses. I am great with big picture. I can see the future clearly for ideas and for people. I know where ideas are changing the way we work, I know what people should do with their lives. I can see how everything works in the future but I cant see whats going on right now. The feelings people have right now are lost on me. The tasks that could be done in the next five minutes are infinite, most people can sort through them. I cant. Some days I think I should stop writing about work because when I write about work, people say, I hate your workplace posts. I just want you to write about you.  But I love writing about work because the rules are so clear. Its a game thats organized by categories and you figure out your personality type and then you go to your category. Then you follow the rules to win by getting influence or power or both. And you get those by being honest with yourself about work, starting with the interview and the question about your weaknesses.

I Just Became a Reach Certified Online Identity Strategist - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

I Just Became a Reach Certified Online Identity Strategist I love studying for and earning new credentials. I  like the challenge of working toward a personal goal while learning new strategies that help me, and help  my clients compete and achieve their executive job search  and career  goals. And there’s something SO satisfying in having another shiny new logo to slap on my websites, and anywhere else I can find. So I’m thrilled to have just earned my seventh credential, Reach Certified Online Identity Strategist, after completing the in depth 5-week training program. Reach Personal Branding offers the program to  people who have already earned the Reach Certified Personal Branding Strategist credential. My classmates and I were  trained to leverage social networking  and  social media â€" websites, blogs, , Twitter,

Vizify Has Officially Launched - CareerEnlightenment.com

candidates, it’s not to dig up the dirt. It’s to find out who that person is. The Vizify platform allows job seekers to storyboard who they are, while quickly communicating to their target company the information they need.There are four main areas that recruiters or hiring managers care most about when they decide whether to pursue you as a candidate:where you work(ed)where you went to schoolwhat you talk about, what your values arewhere you liveThese data points are the largest areas in the Vizify platform, and the online visitor can quickly figure out the answers to these questions. I would even say that in some cases, a recruiter will find this information faster on Vizify than on a résumé. I wouldn’t claim this about any other online profile.Just take a look at my Vizify Profile. You have two seconds to figure out how many years of experience I have and five seconds to see which degrees I’ve earned. Pretty impressive huh! Try doing that with a paper résumé!Though th is is a great tool, what will make Vizify successful, versus just another online profile aggregator, will be how open recruiters and hiring managers are to accepting Vizify in lieu of a résumé.  According to Todd Silverstein, success stories are already piling in.

Writing A Resume For Yourself? Here Are The Latest In Self Help Articles

Writing A Resume For Yourself? Here Are The Latest In Self Help ArticlesThe latest in self-help articles comes from a recent post in an online community that helps with resume writing and interview preparation. The guide in question is entitled 'Rebuttal to Resume Writing Tips: How to Write a Resume for Yourself.'This article contains a number of suggestions that are often overlooked when you are trying to write a resume. For example, it mentions writing a letter first and then a resume. There is also this: When it comes to resume writing tips, do not forget the importance of personal references. And here's another one: 'An interesting strategy that you can use if you think that your career options are limited is to search the Internet for topics about specialties that you're interested in.'There are many things to learn about writing a resume, but perhaps one of the most important things to learn is that this form of advice is not good to take from a professional resume writer. If you have some experience as a resume writer, this type of article will be valuable, but it is not a good thing to rely on. It will give you a head start in completing your resume, but then you have to take it all to the next level and start adding substance to it.Many professional resume writers will offer such advice in a trade magazine. It is better to go the extra mile to find a professional resume writer than to take their word for it. If you are looking for help on resume writing tips, you should seek it out from someone who has been there and done that.If you haven't been there and done that, you may need some professional resume writing help. And while it is true that you may not have much of a chance to learn what you need to know from a professional resume writer, you might want to spend some time reading up on the basics and picking and choosing from a few of the better books available.Sometimes the best resume writing tips can be found online. You can get the resume writi ng tips you need to know from the article or blogs and other sources that tell you what to look for when you are applying for a job. It is almost like you are preparing for the interview, even if it is only to get some ideas for a resume.Not all of the tips offered in a resume writing tips article are helpful. For example, the article does not mention the importance of having an office background when it comes to resume writing. However, you will find that this can have a dramatic effect on the way that you look and feel at the interview.While some resume writing tips may help, there are still many more things that you can learn by doing your own homework. After all, your resume is only as good as you make it and the resume that you write yourself is one that will stand out among the rest.