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Best Colors to Wear for an Interview

By leidson on Monday, January 27, 2014

When it comes to dressing for an interview, conservative is always the best way to go. With today’s ever-changing trends, it’s important to wear proper attire and appropriate colors to allow your interviewer to see you in a good light. Making a positive first impression is vital to getting the job you’ve been waiting for, so keep your attire simple.

What do the colors you wear say about you? Harris Interactive, one of the world’s leading market research firms, recently performed a national study with 2,099 hiring managers and human resource professionals from various industries and company sizes. These professionals were asked to advise job seekers on the best colors to wear to an interview and here are their recommendations provide valuable insight for job seekers.

Dress for Interview Success
Responses show the most recommended colors to wear to an interview are black or blue because these colors show leadership and professionalism. You don’t have to stick to a plain color of blouse and it’s okay to wear small prints, but keep in mind you don’t want the interviewer to be distracted by your wardrobe.

What Not to Wear
Bright orange topped the charts for being the worst color to wear to an interview, because it is the color that is mostly associated with unprofessionalism.

On the other hand, gray portrays a logical and analytical attitude. White shows organization, brown shows dependability, red shows power, and green, yellow, and purple show a creative side.

CareerBuilder offers these tips on dressing for success when preparing your interview wardrobe:

Don’t ever go to an interview too casual, be sure to dress for the environment, and always look polished. Before your interview, do your research on businesses that are interviewing you so you’ll know what their environments are like. For instance, you wouldn’t want to wear shorts and flip flops to a strictly professional business and you wouldn’t want to interview in slacks and a dress coat at a business that is laid back and less professional or you may not come across as the right fit for the job.

Have you been job searching and recently been asked to come in for an interview? Keep these interview wardrobe tips in mind as you’re preparing for your next job interview.

For more advice on interview wardrobes check out these blogs:

Men’s Work Attire That Never Goes Out of Style
Women’s Work Attire That Never Goes Out of Style
Dress For Success: What to Wear for an Interview
Putting Together a Work Wardrobe

Career Advancement Career Options New Job Tips The Daily Grind The Job Search Uncategorized Work/Life Balance

What to Look For In Career Technology Education

By leidson on Friday, January 24, 2014

Whether you’re considering expanding your education for the first time or wanting to learn a new trade, your local career technology school could be just what you’re looking for. A career technology education often provides quality training for less time and money than more formal university programs. And, with Harvard University’s 2011 “Pathways to Prosperity” report showing that more than 25% of those holding post-secondary licenses or certificates from a career technology education earn more than the average bachelor’s degree recipient, getting a career technology education is a great way to further your career and increase your earning potential.

If you do decide to attend a career technology education, you still need to do a little research to make sure you’re choosing the best one for your needs. Here are four things to keep at the top of your checklist as you make your decision.

The Program You Want
Not all career technology education’s offer the same programs and certifications, so start out by finding the ones that offer what you’re looking for. If you aren’t quite sure what type of career you’re interested in, career technology schools are also great places to try different fields of work until you find one that fits. According to the New York Times, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that “of the 30 jobs projected to grow at the fastest rate over the next decade in the United States, only seven typically require a bachelor’s degree.” So you might take job security, projected growth, and earning potential into consideration as you decide on a program.

A Price You Can Afford
One of the best aspects of a career technology education is its affordability. “Because trade and technical schools are often directly tied into the employment needs of their region or state, prospective students can find low cost or free programs,” Mary Docken, director of market development at Hobsons, an education solutions firm, told Fox Business News. It is important to compare all the career technology schools within driving distance to see if one is cheaper than the others or if one has better scholarships or financial aid options.

Quality Teachers
Once you decide on your area of study, take a look at the various career technology teachers. What type of training do they have? Have they worked in the real world? What’s their reputation among their students? Often times, the instructors are more down to earth and approachable than university professors. “Instructors are usually well seasoned professionals with direct experience in the field, which is often not the case in the traditional college setting,” Erin Davis, director at McGraw-Hill Higher Education, said in a Fox Business News article.

A Good Reputation
Attending a career technology school that has a good reputation with local professionals and employers is critical if you want to maximize your chances of quickly landing a job after completing your training. So try to talk with some potential employers and find out what schools and programs they prefer to hire from. When a career technology school has a good enough reputation, some employers will even hire students before they graduate.

Just because career technology schools don’t receive all the hype that universities often do doesn’t mean they aren’t a great, viable option for you. Many of the jobs you can receive training for from a career technology school will provide stable, well-paying careers. And, even if you were already proficient in your field of work, sometimes getting that formal certification is what it takes to make you stand out from other job seekers.

Did you attend a career technology school and now have a great job? Do you think career technology schools can prepare you for a career just as well as universities? Let us know in the comments sections below.

At Work Career Advancement Career Options New Job Tips The Daily Grind The Job Search Uncategorized Work/Life Balance Workplace Relationships

Achieving Your Goals in 2014

By leidson on Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Now that 2014 is in full swing, it’s time to take a good look at your goals for the year. What are you doing to reach your goals this year? Are you working hard and setting a good pace to accomplish your goals and new year’s resolutions or have you already gotten off track? No matter what the case may be, you can still achieve the goals you’ve set to better yourself this year.

Goal setting is needed to succeed in everyday life especially if you’re searching for a job or working to advance your career. Without goals, you’re letting life push you around. It’s never too late to set goals and make positive changes in your life. Here are some tips and easy steps to follow to accomplish your goals in 2014.

Write Them Down
The secret to achieving your goals starts with writing them down. When you have to make decisions being able to see your goals will help you stay focused on what is most important. Make sure to write down your goals and post them around your house and workplace to help keep you focused. Regularly seeing the goals you’ve written will help motivate you to take action and help you become more successful. Try writing your short-term milestones on a poster board or dry erase board, so you can see them every day and check off each goal as you accomplish it.

Take Action
You could write down goals all day long, but until you take action, they amount to nothing; and you could possibly be right back where you are a year from now, still wishing you’d made a difference in your income, found a better job, or changed your eating habits. Writing down your goals is only the beginning. Next, you have to make a move! Be intentional by pursuing your goals daily and taking action to accomplish them.

Stay Positive
Forget the negative and dwell on the positive. Sometimes, you may feel like giving up, but you’ll eventually overcome if you stay positive and keep your eyes on the prize! Just remember every meaningful endeavor, dream, or goal will encounter resistance. Overcome the obstacles by focusing on the positive.

Celebrate Your Accomplishments
When you’re experiencing success, it’s easy to celebrate. But if you’re not seeing results, it’s difficult to see the silver lining. Think about how far you’ve come and what you still need to do to accomplish your goals. Remember to look at the goals you’ve written down. Think of those goals as mile markers on a highway. Don’t turn around if you make a mistake. Keep moving forward and take time to celebrate your accomplishments!

What steps are you taking to accomplish your goals? Share with us in the comments section below.

At Work Career Advancement The Daily Grind The Job Search

Leadership Quotes From Martin Luther King, Jr.

By leidson on Monday, January 20, 2014

Today we observe the life of a great leader and icon in America, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Although best remembered for his “I Have A Dream” speech, King’s legacy reaches beyond to his lasting beliefs of equality in race, gender, and age. Today we can learn a great amount about leadership, justice, and equality from the life he lived and his groundbreaking accomplishments. Whether you’ve been job searching for a while , looking to advance your career, or if you’re a seasoned professional, you can gain effective leadership qualities from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here are some leadership quotes from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”

“A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus, but a molder of consensus.”

“The time is always right to do what is right.”

What are some of your favorite quotes from Dr. King? Share with us in the comments section below.

At Work Career Options New Job Tips The Daily Grind The Job Search

2014 Hiring Forecast

By leidson on Friday, January 17, 2014

Most people enter a new year with a positive, hopeful outlook of what the next 12 months will hold for their lives. Unfortunately, that positive attitude is a little more hit-or-miss in regards to what 2014 holds for the job market.
Our recent poll of Movin’ On Up readers found that more than a third believe the market will get worse in 2014, with only 24% feeling tentatively positive and 19% feeling very positive about job growth this year. In contrast to last year’s similar poll of 2013 job market predictions, this year’s results seem to indicate a negative trend. For 2014, positive predictions fell 10% compared to 2013. However, national resources take a different view.

The Big Picture
The Wall Street Journal reports that “absent an economic shock, total jobs finally could surpass their pre-recession peak by mid-2014.” A recent WSJ survey revealed a general feeling of optimism from economists who predict that 198,000 jobs will be added each month. The chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, Mark Zandi, had an even more positive prediction, telling USAToday that he anticipates a monthly job gain of 225,000.

Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, has a good explanation of why there doesn’t seem to be a consensus on what hiring will look like in 2014, based on the results from CareerBuilder’s Annual Job Forecast. “The general sentiment shared by employers whom CareerBuilder talks to every day is that there will be a better job market in 2014. What we saw in our survey was reluctance from some employers to commit to adding jobs until the outcomes of debt negotiations and other issues affecting economic expansion are clearer.”

What This Means for You
All of this uncertainty isn’t a license for you to give up on your job search this year. If these predictions are accurate, the farther into the year we get, the more companies will begin hiring. CareerBuilder’s survey also showed that 51% of the employer respondents currently had open positions for which they couldn’t find qualified workers. This skills gap can be a great advantage in your job hunt if you take the time to build up your knowledge and experience. Plus, almost half of the employers said they were willing to train employees who lacked the skills required for a position.

Some of the areas associated with the most hiring in 2014 include business development, sales, technology, and operations, according to Forbes. More than 25% of those employers surveyed by CareerBuilder reported they plan to create new jobs this year in science, technology, engineering, and math, with the biggest salary increases associated with sales and IT.

Whether you’re expecting good things or bad things from the job market over the next 12 months, don’t let your feelings or predictions affect your own personal job hunt. Take charge of your situation, get your name out there, and do what it takes to make yourself a desirable employee. At the end of the day, most employers are always looking for quality, hard-working people to add to their teams.
Do you have any specific predictions about this year’s job market? What do you do to make yourself a top candidate and increase the likelihood of getting hired? Please share your thoughts with the rest of us in the comments section below!

At Work The Daily Grind Work/Life Balance

Safety Tips – How to Prevent Back Injuries

By leidson on Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Proper lifting techniques are important when moving heavy loads, but did you know they are equally important when picking up something as small as a pencil? We’ve all heard the cautionary instruction to lift with the legs and not with the back. But the reason why is not simply because the weight of the object; it’s also because of the weight of your upper body.

Think About This

If you bend across a desk or counter to pick up a pencil, you are lifting the whole top half of your body that is extending past your midsection to reach for that pencil. This can cause your back to “go out” due to overexertion of muscles that support it. Over time, this bending and weakness in the muscles can cause long term damage to your spine.

Our spines are made mostly of bones (vertebrae), discs and nerves. Discs keep the bones from crushing down on the nerves, but when we bend our backs, one side of the disk is being pressed down with all the weight being lifted. The pencil example, extended over a whole career, illustrates how easy it is to damage your back.

Tips to Avoid Back Injury

Try sliding objects toward you before lifting them off a surface. To access something close to the ground, whether the lower drawer of a file cabinet or an object that has been dropped, always bend your knees and squat close to the object before lifting it. The most important thing you can do to avoid lifting hazards over time involves avoiding these situations as much as possible by taking control over your own workspace. Consider how often you perform certain lifting tasks. Try to place the things you access most often close to you and between your hips and shoulders. This includes organizing desks, counters, cabinets, drawers, and shelves so that frequently accessed items as well as heavy ones are in this zone. A regular review of your workspace can help protect your back throughout a long career in any field.

For more important safety topics check out these articles:

Hands Off: Leave Mechanical Maintenance to the Professionals
3 Ways to Stay All Ears: Protecting Yourself from Hearing Hazards
The Shocking Truth Behind Electrical Safety

Career Options

Poll Summary Results: Job Market Predictions for 2014

By leidson on Monday, January 13, 2014

In a recent poll, we asked what your job market predictions for 2014 were. The results show a majority of people aren’t very optimistic about the job market in 2014, but others are remaining hopeful that things will look up. Compared to the job market predictions of voters in 2013, there has been a slight positive change.

More than 36% of voters believe things will get worse before they get better, followed by 24% of people who are willing to take a risk and say they’re contemplating testing the waters to see what else is out there in the job market which is up 6% from 2013.

Coming in third, with 19% of the votes, are those believing they’ll see a promotion in their near future.
Another 13% of people moved from “staying put” to “testing job market water” in 2014 which is down 7% from last year. And 8% of the votes were for “other.”

The Up and Up
Regardless if you are optimistic and willing to take risks or if you’re not so hopeful about the job market in 2014, make each day count. You may not be able to predict your future, but you can work hard each day and help shape it.
For more insight on the job market or advice on your job search, check out these articles:
•   Use Networking Opportunities to Your Advantage
•   The Three Best Hard Skills to Have
•   Facebook and the Job Search
•   Job Search Success Simplified