How to Get the Job You Want – 3 Keys to Success

interviewAccording to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, one in five workers was dissatisfied with their current job in 2012. A Jobviate survey also taken in 2012 found that three out of every four workers are actively seeking new positions, suggesting that even those who may be satisfied in their current employment will move to a “better” job, given the opportunity. If you are currently looking for the next position in your career, you have a lot of competition.

An understanding of an employer’s mindset and how it affects their decision to hire one candidate, rather than another, is critical if you want to be successful in your search. Employers hire those candidates whom they believe will bring the most value to their company relative to their cost just as you select which car, computer, or phone model and make to purchase. The product that best fits your criteria of features at the lowest cost is the product you buy. Your challenge as a job seeker is to convince potential employers that you are a better fit and can deliver superior results as compared to the other candidates.

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Life After Retirement – What Do I Do Now?

This article first appeared in Forbes.com on November 22, 2013.

retired man thinkingRetirement wasn’t working for Dwayne. A deliberate, thoughtful man, Dwayne spent 25 years with a Fortune 500 company rising through the ranks to Company Vice President of Logistics. When he retired, Dwayne expected to fall easily into a life of leisure – rising late, doing what he wanted when he wanted, and traveling frequently with his wife Mary. Now, three months post-retirement, he finds his days endlessly boring, spent mostly sleeping or watching television. He doesn’t like golf, gardening is too hot, and Mary has her own activities which don’t include him.

As many retirees discover, leaving one life to begin another is difficult. A May 2013 study by the UK’s Institute of Economic Affairs reports 40% of retirees suffer from clinical depression, while 6 out of 10 report a decline in health.

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How to Use Social Media to Increase Sales

social mediaThe business marketplace now is more fecund than at any point in history. Yet it is harshly discriminating, rewarding only those who are able to master its complexity and rise above the cacophony of simultaneous competitive messages. Traditional marketing avenues – print, radio, and television – have lost their dominance in the last decade as the use of the Internet and new social media has exploded. The time spent by Americans on the Internet has risen more than 25% year-over-year (320,689 million minutes, 2011; 401,699 million minutes, 2012) according to the Nielson 2012 Social Media Report – and if you want to sell anything in today’s market, you must be visible online.

Josh James, founder of Omniture (now part of Adobe), writes in Forbes about the value of social media: “Social media isn’t a passing fad. The primary reason you have to be social is because that is where your customers live.” Having recognized the way social media is transforming consumer purchasing decisions, James has made social media usage a condition of employment at his new startup, Domo.

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5 Financial Tips for Recent College Graduates

This article first appeared on the Beyond.com website on July 30, 2013.

girl with cashCollege graduation is one of the more memorable moments of a person’s life. Parents beam with pride, thrilled with the knowledge they can at last begin to save for retirement. Many graduates, those who have accomplished good grades and academic honors, see their futures as best expressed by Buzz Lightyear in the movie “Toy Story”: “To infinity and beyond!” Others console themselves with the words of our 43rd president, George W. Bush, in his 2001 commencement address at the Yale University: “And to the ‘C’ students, I say you too may one day be President of the United States.”

While graduation marks the end of one period of your life, it is also the beginning of a much longer period of achievements, failures, triumphs, and disappointments. What you make of your life and the path you choose are measures of your values and integrity; in the words commonly attributed to another president, Theodore Roosevelt, “A man who has never gone to school may steal a freight car, but if he has a university education, he may steal the whole railroad.” Con man or corporate mogul, the choice is up to you, but your decision will be easier if you understand and master the role that money will play in your future.

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