20+ Skills That Will Look Great on Your Resume

20+ Skills That Will Look Great on Your Resume 20+ Skills That Will Look Great on Your Resume Given that we just published an article about the skills you should not list on your resume, it may be helpful to present the opposite side as well. Just what skills, exactly, will make your resume stand out from competitors?This new infographic from online resume builder Novorsum comes at exactly the right time, containing as it does a list of more than 20 skills you may want to consider including on your resume before you send it out again.Of course, you dont want to claim any skills you dont actually have, but if you can credibly assert you possess any of the following skills, then you should definitely add them to your resume ASAP.Master the art of closing deals and making placements. Take our Recruiter Certification Program today. Were SHRM certified. Learn at your own pace during this 12-week program. Access over 20 courses. Great for those who want to break into recruiting, or recru iters who want to further their career.

Making the Grid Really Smart

Making the Grid Really Smart Making the Grid Really Smart There have been a great many smart people promoting the smart grid, or the transformation of the nations electric grid into one that anticipates and interacts with user demand. Over the past six years, a combination of utilities, industries, and the federal government actually put together the nations largest smart grid, a vorfhandrangg project in the Pacific Northwest. The fledgling system, a two-way interactive model to better connect energy providers and users, sprawled over five states as a dozen participating utilities integrated a wealth of new equipment and technologies including smart meters and transformers, batteries and even controllable therfruchtweinats. But its backbone, and what researchers say is key to further development, is a new signaling and communication system called transactive control that facilitated and coordinated the needs of the network.The five-year, $178-million Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demo nstration Project centered on development of transactive control, conceived by Battelle-led Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Its development of a two-way interactive smart grid is being bolstered with a slug of federal research dollars aimed at establishing a comprehensive research and development effort anchored by the National Laboratories and the Department of Energy. The Bonneville Power Administration shared responsibility of the grid demonstration with Battelle.Solar panels and wind turbines at the Renewable Energy Park, a part of the Pacific Northwest Smart Grid Demonstration Project. Image PNNLControlsTransactive control is an automated system that connects energy providers and users, constantly exchanging information on the availability of power and price. For the demonstration, signals were sent every five minutes using information on bulk generation including hydropower, wind and thermal power. Utilities could then send the signals to assets or smart equipment such as electric hot water heaters, smart meters, or grid-scale batteries. When the transactive signals predicted peak power demand and corresponding high-energy costs, the projects smart grid technologies responded by reducing power use and lowering demand. Mostly.While project participants are happy with results, they point to some glitches and areas needing further work. First, better tools are needed to ensure data is of high quality and the equipment generating data works correctly. Many participants were not prepared to deal with the quantity of data generated and sometimes mislabeled it, according to the projects final report.It was evident to us that utilities are having challenges in the introduction of data-rich technology into their systems, says Ron Melton, who led the demonstration for Battelle. There was a lot of noise in the data. There is a need within industry for better tools to operate equipment with all of these sensors. We just dont have the tools now to do that well .It also reported a need for smart grid technologies to be designed to work together and called for smart grid standards to be developed. The report noted tremendous effort to make equipment from various vendors work together.One of the challenges most utilities face is that they run with very thin staffs, says Melton. Vendors need to make it easy to do these things.As an example, Melton points to Portland General Electrics installation of a 5-MW, 1.25-MWh battery, estimated to save the utility up to $146,000 annually by providing an alternative power source during periods of peak power demand, up to 300 times per year. Melton says the battery and inverters were purchased from different vendors and took the utility about ten times longer to assemble and complete than expected. There are not well-developed interoperability standards, he says.Further, smart grid technologies need to mature and stabilize for deployment to proceed. The report noted that some equipment manufacturers went out of business during the five-year demonstration, which ended in late 2014. Some equipment simply failed.Finally, officials say public involvement is key to a successful smart grid. For instance, Flathead Electric Cooperative, a Montana utility, started its Peak Time program, offering to install water heaters and equipment in residences that help reduce peak time costs. Users obtained a monthly credit and the equipment was installed at no cost to the owner.Pullman smart grid demonstration project. Image Avista UtilitiesSensors and MoreDuring the project, utilities and customers installed $80 million in smart grid equipment. Fifty-five different technologies were evaluated, many showing they can reduce energy use and cut power bills. Besides Portland General Electrics 5-MW lithium ion battery, the utility connected to a local solar project and installed new controls to build a micro grid. Nearby customers now can voluntarily reduce power usage and avoid times of peak power demand. Avista Utilities installed smart meters with remote capabilities allowing it to start and stop electric service in Pullman, WA. The utility claims the meters could eliminate more than 2,000 service calls per year and save $235,000 annually.The University of Washington in Seattle upped the number of electricity meters monitoring the flow of power to its main campus of some 250 buildings from seven to 200. The new meters give managers a much more granular view of how energy is used and where it is needed.SuccessResearchers were most pleased with the success of transactive control testing, validating that the technique works, notes Melton. As part of the project, Alstom Grid built a model of the regional grid that ran in parallel with the actual grid, using real data and estimations. IBM created another model to evaluate impact of the control system beyond the project and the regional grid. Tests showed the regions peak power demand could be reduced some 7.8 percent if 30 percent of th e regional grid used transactive demand response equipment.In the Northwest, wind is the most abundant renewable energy source. The modeling showed transactive energy controls can lower the regions overall costs by integrating it into the system when it is abundant and inexpensive.One of the challenges in applying transactive control technology is integrating numbers of different devices. There is a need to interface with various devices, and now it is largely done by hand, says Melton. We still need to develop custom interfaces with existing battery storage or SCADA, for example. That takes a fair amount of effort. Theres a need for better operability standards.For the next step, DOE through its Grid Modernization Laboratory Consortium, in January awarded $220 million to national laboratories for another string of grid research projects. Among them, PNNL will create a new grid architecture to determine how each part of the grid affects others. Separately, it will develop protocols to test how distributed smart devices can help balance supply and demand to maintain the frequency and voltage required for grid stability.Learn about the latest energy solutions at ASMEs Power Energy Conference and Exhibition. For Further Discussion There was a lot of noise in the data. There is a need within industry for better tools to operate equipment with all of these sensors. We just dont have the tools now to do that well.Ron Melton, Battelle

Customize this Outstanding Healthcare Sales Representative Resume Template

Customize this Outstanding Healthcare Sales Representative Resume TemplateCustomize this Outstanding Healthcare Sales Representative Resume TemplateA strong resume is important for any jobseeker, but in ausverkauf, the competition is notoriously fierce. Yur resume has to stand out among your competitors to guarantee you an interview slot. Will your current resume cut it when compared with other applicants?Our healthcare sale representative resume sample serves as an example of the professional skills a hiring manager will look for as well as a great organization and format. Feel free to model your own document after the sample, using the custom writing tips to craft a winning resume. If you are starting over, try the resume builder - it creates a new resume, step by step, from the information you provide.Writing the Healthcare Sales Representative Resume TemplateReferrals are a big partee of the success of a sale professional and there are some industries where generating referrals is part of the job description. When you are selling in the healthcare industry, it is your job to act as a focal point for information that flows in from a variety of medical and health versorger professionals. For your Healthcare Sales Representative resume template to get attention, you need to show that you can develop effective networks and bring in those referrals.Resume Templates for Healthcare Sales RepresentativeA strong resume is important for any jobseeker, but in schlussverkauf, the competition is notoriously fierce. Your resume has to stand out among your competitors to guarantee you an interview slot. Will your current resume cut it when compared with other applicants?Our healthcare sales representative resume sample serves as an example of the professional skills a hiring manager will look for as well as a great organization and format. Feel free to model your own document after the sample, using the custom writing tips to craft a winning resume. If you are starting o ver, try the resume builder - it creates a new resume, step by step, from the information you provide.Writing the Healthcare Sales Representative Resume TemplateCreate Resume Referrals are a big part of the success of a sales professional and there are some industries where generating referrals is part of the job description. When you are selling in the healthcare industry, it is your job to act as a focal point for information that flows in from a variety of medical and health provider professionals. For your Healthcare Sales Representative resume template to get attention, you need to show that you can develop effective networks and bring in those referrals.Resume Templates for Healthcare Sales RepresentativePaula HasterProfessional SummaryDynamic Healthcare Sales Representative capable of developing extensive referral networks that include doctors and other medical professionals. Primarily known for maintaining and growing lucrative professional contacts, establishing a strong presence in a sales territory and developing sales initiatives that stay ahead of the competition. Works constantly to reward a strong referral network and make it difficult for the competition to infiltrate a territory.Core QualificationsProfessional Contact DevelopmentCertified Medical Sales ExpertDatabase ManagementSpreadsheet DevelopmentField Sales ManagementResource UtilizationExperienceHealthcare Sales Representative, April 2010 May 2015Ultman Home Healthcare New Cityland, CABecame the default home healthcare provider for four large medical practicesDeveloped custom sales materials to keep referring physicians updated on servicesGrew territorial sales by 23% in the span of two yearsSales Support Associate, June 2003 April 2010Vent Home Health Services New Cityland, CAProcessed all new service requestsMonitored ongoing service contracts to make sure each customer got the services they were signed up forNotified management immediately when a customer issue aroseEducation2003 Bachelor of Science, BusinessPrettor University New Cityland, CACustomize ResumeWhy Is This a Good Healthcare Sales Representative Resume Sample?This healthcare sales representative resume sample radiates strength, assertiveness, and competence right from the first line. The structure and focus of the professional summary statement create a memorable impression that commands attention. This jobseeker expresses her sales experience in terms that assure hiring managers and recruiters that she will not only survive but excel in the cutthroat world of healthcare sales territories. The core skills section is short, concise, and to the point. This jobseeker shows an ideal skills section with powerful, condensed information and lots of white space for visual appeal and easy scanning. Use this healthcare sales representative resume sample as a model of the relevant skills your recruiters are looking for as you write your own resume.Similarly, the experience section reflects the type of pr ofessional accomplishments that employers typically seek in this field. Each entry has three compelling bullet points beginning with dynamic verbs that accurately and vibrantly show her range of skills and experiences. The format and organization are easy to follow and unobtrusive, allowing her skills to speak for themselves. Recruiters do not want to be distracted by fancy formatting and special fonts they are seeking the kind of straightforward, information-rich entries that tell them quickly whether to invite a candidate in for an interview. The education section is kept short with no frills. This jobseeker listed only the graduation year, the degree earned, the major area of study, the educational institutions name, its city, and its state. This is all that is necessary for an applicant with experience in the field, and additional information can be discussed during the interview. The only exception is recent graduates with little or no experience and a grade point average of 3. 0 or higher. In that case, it is acceptable to also list the GPA. High school information is generally unnecessary, provided you have more advanced education.Why You Need a Strong Healthcare Sales Representative ResumeIf you are involved in sales, you already know there is stiff competition among salespeople, and nowhere is this truer than when vying for an open job posting. Your resume has to shine the brightest to gain you an interview slot. Just as you market the products and services of company you represent to your clients, your resume must market you to your future employers. This compelling healthcare sales representative resume sample can be your guide to crafting your own document that sells your skills, education, and experience to recruiters and closes the deal on an interview for the job you want.Costly Healthcare Sales Representative Resume Mistakes To AvoidMost sales professionals are effective communicators and aware of common errors to avoid, such as data and typing errors, incorrect grammar and usage, and inaccurate statements. Some mistakes are still often overlooked. You want to present a polished, professional resume to reflect your professional persona.It may be surprising to think of salespeople underselling themselves however, by choosing mundane verbs in the experience section, many do just that. Those few action verbs you choose, usually only five to 10 total, represent everything youve done for previous employers, so make them count. Refer to our writing tips and this healthcare sales representative resume sample for ideas.Another mistake that could cost you the interview is being too wordy, especially in the core skills section. This section is meant to be taken in at a single glance. Keep it succinct, but show hiring manager you have what it takes by mentioning your aptitudes for developing contacts and umgang databases and spreadsheets.ConclusionPutting together an excellent resume is one of the most important contributions you ca n make to your future career prospects, so give it the attention it deserves. Use our healthcare sales representative resume sample for inspiration and formatting hints along with the writing best practices tips. Keep each section as concise and powerful as possible, and close without distractions in the education section.Paula HasterProfessional SummaryDynamic Healthcare Sales Representative capable of developing extensive referral networks that include doctors and other medical professionals. Primarily known for maintaining and growing lucrative professional contacts, establishing a strong presence in a sales territory and developing sales initiatives that stay ahead of the competition. Works constantly to reward a strong referral network and make it difficult for the competition to infiltrate a territory.Core QualificationsProfessional Contact DevelopmentCertified Medical Sales ExpertDatabase ManagementSpreadsheet DevelopmentField Sales ManagementResource UtilizationExperienceHea lthcare Sales Representative, April 2010 May 2015Ultman Home Healthcare New Cityland, CABecame the default home healthcare provider for four large medical practicesDeveloped custom sales materials to keep referring physicians updated on servicesGrew territorial sales by 23% in the span of two yearsSales Support Associate, June 2003 April 2010Vent Home Health Services New Cityland, CAProcessed all new service requestsMonitored ongoing service contracts to make sure each customer got the services they were signed up forNotified management immediately when a customer issue aroseEducation2003 Bachelor of Science, BusinessPrettor University New Cityland, CACustomize ResumeWhy Is This a Good Healthcare Sales Representative Resume Sample?This healthcare sales representative resume sample radiates strength, assertiveness, and competence right from the first line. The structure and focus of the professional summary statement create a memorable impression that commands attention. This jo bseeker expresses her sales experience in terms that assure hiring managers and recruiters that she will not only survive but excel in the cutthroat world of healthcare sales territories. The core skills section is short, concise, and to the point. This jobseeker shows an ideal skills section with powerful, condensed information and lots of white space for visual appeal and easy scanning. Use this healthcare sales representative resume sample as a model of the relevant skills your recruiters are looking for as you write your own resume.Similarly, the experience section reflects the type of professional accomplishments that employers typically seek in this field. Each entry has three compelling bullet points beginning with dynamic verbs that accurately and vibrantly show her range of skills and experiences. The format and organization are easy to follow and unobtrusive, allowing her skills to speak for themselves. Recruiters do not want to be distracted by fancy formatting and specia l fonts they are seeking the kind of straightforward, information-rich entries that tell them quickly whether to invite a candidate in for an interview. The education section is kept short with no frills. This jobseeker listed only the graduation year, the degree earned, the major area of study, the educational institutions name, its city, and its state. This is all that is necessary for an applicant with experience in the field, and additional information can be discussed during the interview. The only exception is recent graduates with little or no experience and a grade point average of 3.0 or higher. In that case, it is acceptable to also list the GPA. High school information is generally unnecessary, provided you have more advanced education.Why You Need a Strong Healthcare Sales Representative ResumeIf you are involved in sales, you already know there is stiff competition among salespeople, and nowhere is this truer than when vying for an open job posting. Your resume has to s hine the brightest to gain you an interview slot. Just as you market the products and services of company you represent to your clients, your resume must market you to your future employers. This compelling healthcare sales representative resume sample can be your guide to crafting your own document that sells your skills, education, and experience to recruiters and closes the deal on an interview for the job you want.Costly Healthcare Sales Representative Resume Mistakes To AvoidMost sales professionals are effective communicators and aware of common errors to avoid, such as data and typing errors, incorrect grammar and usage, and inaccurate statements. Some mistakes are still often overlooked. You want to present a polished, professional resume to reflect your professional persona.It may be surprising to think of salespeople underselling themselves however, by choosing mundane verbs in the experience section, many do just that. Those few action verbs you choose, usually only five to 10 total, represent everything youve done for previous employers, so make them count. Refer to our writing tips and this healthcare sales representative resume sample for ideas.Another mistake that could cost you the interview is being too wordy, especially in the core skills section. This section is meant to be taken in at a single glance. Keep it succinct, but show hiring manager you have what it takes by mentioning your aptitudes for developing contacts and handling databases and spreadsheets.Healthcare Sales Representative Resume Questions1. If youve never held a healthcare sales representative job before, how do you make a healthcare sales representative resume?Pay close attention to the job description. Whether it emphasizes customer service, communication skills, or client management software, review your professional past for the experiences that relate to these topics. Include them on your resume. Maybe you worked as a pizza salesperson or a home furnishings consultant. Both these undertakings include the customer services skills and sales and marketing knowledge relevant to a healthcare sales representative position.Show hiring managers that even without previous experience in the specific position advertised, youve got everything theyre looking for in a new hire. Visit our healthcare sales representative resume sample for examples of relevant experience.2. What sections should you include in your healthcare sales representative resume?Stick with five voreingestellt sections header, summary statement, skills, work experience, and education. The header contains your title and personal contact information. The summary statement functions as your elevator speech, showcasing your top skills, abilities, and successes. Most jobseekers use professional summaries to set off their work experience. However, many still use a resume objective when applying for a first job, undergoing a career change, or returning from an extended professional absence. Find e xamples of professional summaries in our healthcare sales representative resume sample collection.3. How do you write about hobbies on your resume?Its acceptable to write about hobbies on your resume if you dont have a wealth of professional experience or if they are relevant to the advertised job. For example, perhaps you sold T-shirts for a local performing arts center or led a fundraising effort for your favorite charity. Both these scenarios involve marketing and promotional know-how, merchandising familiarity, and accounting acumen. Further, healthcare sales representatives work face to face and by phone and email with clients, so any hobby that showcases your social skills is valuable. Browse our healthcare sales representative resume sample collection for ideas on how to promote your hobby-related skills.4. Which skills are the best to list on a healthcare sales representative resume?Communicating with managers and clients in person and from a distance is a major aspect of th e healthcare sales representatives work. Look through our healthcare sales representative resume sample set, and youll see that customer service, active listening, critical thinking, and public speaking skills are critical. Make sure you showcase your technology skills by including customer relationship management, financial, and medical software on your resume. Hiring managers look for candidates who can communicate healthcare products and services to clients with skill and ease.5. How do you list references on a healthcare sales representative resume?Avoid listing references on your resume. Visit our healthcare sales representative resume sample and youll find no mention of references. In the past, jobseekers included a closing line References available upon request. Todays hiring managers dont need a prompt they will request your references if you are a candidate of interest. Format your references on a separate print or digital document so youre all set when hiring managers requ est them.Ready to create your resume in minutes? Use our step-by-step resume builder. Its a quick and effortless way to say goodbye to writers block and hello to the job market.ConclusionPutting together an excellent resume is one of the most important contributions you can make to your future career prospects, so give it the attention it deserves. Use our healthcare sales representative resume sample for inspiration and formatting hints along with the writing best practices tips. Keep each section as concise and powerful as possible, and close without distractions in the education section.

What Three Bullets Represent in Military Funerals

What Three Bullets Represent in Military FuneralsWhat Three Bullets Represent in Military FuneralsA standard part of anymilitary funeral is the ceremonial shooting of three volleys in honorof the deceased. Thethree spent shell casings are presented to his or her next of kin. Anyone who is entitled to a military funeral (generally anyone who dies on active duty, honorably discharged veterans and military retirees) are entitled to the three rifle volleys, subject to availability of honor guard teams. But where did this tradition come from? Battlefield Custom of Three Volleys The tradition dates back to the European dynastic wars, which were between 1688 and 1748.The volleys were shots fired on the field during a battle, signaling a pause in the fighting. It was intended to allow time for both sides to remove the bodies of their fallen soldiers from the battlefield. The two warring sides would cease hostilities until the firing of three volleys meant that the dead had been properly cared for and the side was ready to resume the battle. The three bullets represent the three volleys fired and the three words duty, honor, and country. Service Members Needed for Three Volleys The firing team in this ceremony can consist of any number of service members, but one usually sees a team of eight, with a non-commissioned officer (NCO) in charge of the firing detail. Whether the team consists of three, eight, or 10 service members, each member fires three times. Three Bullet Casings Slipped Into Folded Flag The military funeral honors also include a ceremony in which the honor guard removes the flag from the casket and carefully folds it, with the blue field of stars facing up. Then, the folded flag is presented to the deceased persons family as a token of gratitude for that persons service. The flag detail often slips three shell casings into the folded flag before presenting the flag to the family. Each casing represents one volley. This gesture provides a sligh tly different meaning for the symbolism of the three bullets in a military funeral. Some militarytraditionalists argue that the shell casings should bedrngnis be slipped into the flag as its being folded since doing so would require opening a flap of the flag. Instead, the shell casings should be retrieved and presented separately to the next of kin. Not a 21-Gun Salute This funeral salute often is mistaken by people who arent involved in the military as a 21-gun salute, although it is entirely different. The three volleys in the funeral salute are fired from rifles, not guns. Therefore, the three volleys arent any kind of gun salute. In the military, a gun is actually a large-caliber weapon, such as a cannon. The 21-gun salute stems from naval tradition, and it is used to mark certain anniversaries, salute heads of state, and reigning royalty and honor national flags. The number oflarge-caliber guns used for the 21-gun salute varies depending on the protocol rank of the person being saluted. For example, if a president, former president, or president-elect dies, 50 guns will be fired at sunset at all military installations that are equipped for the salute depending on the protocol rank of the person being saluted.

Measure Your Employer Branding Content to Green Light Its Growth

Measure Your Employer Branding Content to Green Light Its GrowthMeasure Your Employer Branding Content to Green Light Its GrowthMeasure Your Employer Branding Content to Green Light Its Growth ShawIs your employer branding content doing what you want it to do? Are you tracking the right metrics to prove its value to higher ups? Do you know if its working?If mastering the measurement of your employer brand content seems a bit daunting, weve got a clear plan of action to help you get it right. After all, your employer brandingis essential to the success of your companys recruitment and zurckhalten goals.Just how important is having an employer brand strategy? According to a 2017 Workforce Employer Branding Practices survey conducted for Monster, nearly four in ten mature organizations surveyed have vanguard employer branding practice in place. Surprisingly, 40 percent of those companies reported a lack of budget as a roadblock to strengthening their employer brand.Perhaps youre in a si milar situation. What metrics will give you the proof you need to know youre moving in the right direction? What are you going to measure? How will you measure it? And more importantly, how will you build on those findings?Read on for valuable expert insights to help you grow the value of your companys employer branding content with better measurement. Measure what matters mostEver bake a cake without a recipe? Likely not. In the same way, youll need to know what to measure and why those metrics matter before you can assess your brand strategy (your yummy cake.)According to The Foundrys director of innovation and consulting Kareen Emery, employer branding can fix many things, she noted. It can help retention, time to hire and quality of hires.The top priority is to clearly define your employer brand needs and priorities. Only then can you determine which metrics matter.Those metrics are used by a majority of mature organizations who responded to the 2017 Workforce Employer Branding Practices survey. Sixty-three percent said they use employee retention or turnover to track the strength of their employer brand. Forty-eight percent use it to track time to fill per open position, while fifty-three percent use it to track the quality of their candidate pool.When developing your own strategy, focus on metrics that are directly tied to your content goals. For example, if quality of hire is a key priority but retention isnt, base your decisions about content on the former metric. Use your priority metrics to drive content decisions. Avoid letting non-priority metrics distract you from your primary goals.Set a baseline, and revisit it oftenDo you know your target audience? If not, you wont know how to reach them or how to accurately measure their feedback.Lets say the primary audience youre trying to reach is engineers. Your goal is that they see your organization as an innovative industry leader. To reach them, find a place where they congregate on the web, like Reddi t or Github. Then, conduct a short survey with this group that reveals their perceptions of your employer brand.Imagine that 25% of those responders see your company as an innovative industry leader. That gives you a baseline to work on your employer value proposition (EVP) and start building targeted content.This baseline is simply a starting point. The next important step is to measure your progress against that baseline and to do so repeatedly.Six months after your content has gone live, target those same people again, Emery recommends. Ask the same questions another time. Hopefully, you should see the needle move. This is how you know youre really making an impact with what youre doing.Tracking the impact youve made on your target audience is valuable information to make the case for growing your employer brand budget. Optimize your content for humansand machinesCreating an effective employer value proposition is, in Emerys words, a fine art. Your content must resonate with huma ns while also navigating the complex world of search engine optimization (SEO).SEO will help drive besucherzahlen to your company website. Youll want to measure the content that these visitors are consuming, as well as how often they share it. Be sure to measure these engagement metrics on a monthly basis. Then, use your findings to create more content thats similar to whats already performed well.Emery views this process as a feedback loop. Your SEO drives people, people drive the analytics and the analytics drive your decisions, she said. Youre going to learn from your content. The goal is to always stay on top of it, understand it and evolve with it.Dont forget to tell great storiesNow that you understand how to track your employer brand results, theres one more step that you dont want to overlook, says Emery. All the planning and measuring in the world wont get you anywhere if you arent telling great stories.I always tell my clients three things, she said. Be bold, be compelling and be genuine with your storytelling. These three things are key to making sure the messaging youve put together will make a difference on your key performance metrics, or KPIs.Most of all, says Emery, be sure you deliver on the promises that your content gives readers. If you over-promise and under-deliver, your KPIs are likely to go down. Your audience wont forget that.Now youve got your grocery list of ingredients to measure the results of your employer branda solidstrategy and key metrics, a target audience and data-driven content decisions. Use them to track its success. Then share that story with your team. Armed with these metrics, youll be ready to make the case for taking your employer branding content to the next level.

Life After Two Page Resume Format

Life After Two Page Resume Format The Basic Facts of Two Page Resume Format The duration of your resume is dependent upon the kind of candidate you are and your degree of experience. The Career Summary section ought to be restricted to a few sentences that emphasize your relevant experience, skills and distinctive abilities. Overview of someones qualification is also advisable to put your very best foot forward right at the start of the resume. Utilizing a resume template is getting an acceptable and smart practice for numerous factors. You have to make sure the absolute most important details in your resume appear on the very first page rather than the second. Candidates are a lot more likely to find the interview when theyve crafted a well-written two page document in distributions-mix of a longer one. 1 Resume is a completely free one page web template that includes a smooth jQuery slide between sections of the webpage. Two Page Resume Format Can Be Fun for Everyone Ba sed on the business or position youre applying for, it may ask that you bring some personality. The further skills can be in accord with the job or completely different. If youve been promoted into jobs of raising responsibilities inside your industry or profession, then the chronological layout will generally be the format of choice as it easily demonstrates progression with time. If you look at the templates weve listed below, you will see that they all are similar in the manner your information is prioritized and structured. When youre asking for a job which relies on the strengths of the person, you want a resume template you may inject a little more personality into to make it pop. You may edit the color and the content with no trouble. Sometimes all you will need is a timeless style template thats clean, clear and right to the point. In your interview, the employer may request more details from work seeker. DONT consist of anything irrelevant to the job youre applying for. Instead you might want to incorporate an expert summary that states what you need to offer you the employer for a candidate, instead of what youre searching for. Professionally, our resumes are often the very first impression a possible employer gets of us. What Does Two Page Resume Format Mean? Deciding upon the most suitable fonts for your resume is essential so choose wisely. More frequently than not, customizing your resume does not indicate a major rewrite, but instead only a few tweaks. The entire selection of resume templates is composed of an assortment of creative resume designs. In case the template appears different than the example it might be because you dont have the right font. Personal achievement needs to be highlighted in detail. Timelines are a fantastic means to connect your previous experiences as a portion of your history. Resumes supply the all important first impressions to an employer an applicant cant give during the first phase of the appl ication practice. Two Page Resume Format and Two Page Resume Format - The Perfect Combination Templates from GraphicRiver are ideal once you recognize precisely what youre searching for in the job resume youre building. You must always tailor your resume to the job which youre searching for. Submit the same resume for each and every job. If you would like to receive a nice job, you require a good resume. Up in Arms About Two Page Resume Format? Always make certain it reaches the comprehensive length of the initial or the second page. Whenever possible, utilize a style much like the header on the very first page. Finally, dont neglect to take a look at our professional cover letter examples. Include a header at the very top of the second page. Theres no doubt that a resume which is both cohesive and professional will have a much better likelihood of standing from the crowd even supposing its made utilizing a template. In the world today, a very first impression can either make or break your odds of landing your dream job. Youre able to leave every one of them as is or customize just a little bit as a way to bring a personal winzigkeit to the presentation of your candidacy. You want to select a resume template which will help you make an excellent first impression, even before people start reading. Most Noticeable Page Resume Format On the two-page sample resume format above, you are going to see that theSummary of Qualifications in addition to Other Qualifications show up on the very first page since they are definitely the most important portion of your resume. The upcoming free resume template was made in the shape of a brochure. Well, templates are the absolute most neat and organized structure for virtually any document. Resume templates are one method to guarantee structure behind your resume.

Mind Your Manners 4 Simple Tips When Using Technology At Work

Mind Your Manners 4 Simple Tips When Using Technology At WorkIn todays modern workplace, technology is everywhere you look. We use this technology to complete projects, keep in contact with customers, and facilitate clear communication between departments. We also use technology, including video interviews, to source and hire the best candidates.With 28 percent of iPhone users checking their phones before they even leave bed in the morning, its safe to say technology is here to stay. With our increasing tech addiction, it can sometimes be hard to mind our manners when it comes to our hardware and software. Just because we can communicate faster and easier than ever before, however, doesnt mean we should give up communicating well.Here are some simple tips for minding your manners when you use technology at workStop Checking Your PhoneAs mentioned, some iPhone users are checking their phones before theyve even eaten their breakfast. The need to compulsively check your phone for new em ails and messages can be particularly strong. This habit of obsessively checking your device is rude to just about everyone in your company. Whether youre in a meeting or performing a video interview with a top candidate, put the phone away. It will always be there for you when you finish. Focus your whole attention on the person talking, whether its an interview or just a discussion, to impress rather than annoy.Use Your Speaker SparinglyThere are few people who enjoy listening to a coworkers loud conversation over a speakerphone. Lets admit it, for the fruchtwein part speakerphones are annoying and everyone hates them. If youre going to use a speakerphone, make aya its part of a larger meeting and that it serves its purpose of allowing multiple people to chime into the conversation. If you need to do something hands free, turn off your speakerphone and invest in a headphone.Mute is Your FriendIf you communicate often using messaging services with all their bells and whistles (lite rally), be mindful of others. The constant pinging of an instant message might be just background noise to you, but it might be torture to an office mate. Do your coworkers a favor and mute these noises so they can concentrate without your conversations constantly being brought to their attention.Be Careful What You SayYou never know whos reading your Twitter feed or looking at your gchat status. Dont gripe about your idiot boss or you could be the dummy when it turns out your boss has been following your social networks. Err on the side of caution and make sure not to post anything negative about your job in the online space. You might think its innocent or no one will be reading, but odds are someone will see. Leave the griping to happy hour with your friends and leave your social networks out of it.Technology is a powerful tool when used correctly, but proper manners are still necessary. Think of the feelings of your fellow workers before you pick up your mobile device and youll be well on your way to minding your tech manners.What are some ways workers can better mind their tech manners? Share in the commentsSOURCEJobviteIMAGE Courtesy of Flickr by Geoff S.

Free Entry Level Clerical Officer Resume Template

Free Entry Level Clerical Officer Resume TemplateFree Entry Level Clerical Officer Resume TemplateWriting an entry level resume requires you to distribution policy a considerable degree of emphasis on your educational qualifications. This is due to the fact that as an entry level employee, you will more than likely lack an extensive employment history. Entry level resumes are ideal for recent graduates and working individuals who plan to pursue new careers. Unlike other resume styles, your work history section can include a variety of volunteer experiences, internships, and unpaid positions. If you are struggling to write a resume, use the entry level clerical officer resume and the accompanying tips below as a resource tool.Create ResumeCustomize ResumeWhat to Include in an Entry Level Clerical Officer ResumeWhen writing an entry level resume, your goal is to place emphasis on your education and previous unpaid roles. Providing information about volunteer opportunities and internshi ps can show that you possess knowledge and ambition. Be sure to offer in-depth information regarding your education as well any coursework you have taken. When employers post an entry level position, they understand that they may attract applicants with no work experience, so dont worry. Simply demonstrate that you possess the skills and drive to perform the job.Common Resume Fails Mistakes to AvoidApologizing Before you apologize for your lack of experience, remember that everyone has to start somewhere. As an entry level applicant, simply highlight your willingness to learn and work hard.Unprofessional Format As an entry level applicant, you probably lack in the professional experience arena. However, you will still need to write a professional-level resume that exudes maturity and intelligence. Write as if you are an experienced worker with a high degree of knowledge.Not Including Enough Information Dont let your lack of experience prevent you from writing a full, informative res ume. Remember, volunteer experiences and internships can be included in the work experience section.No Contact Info This is a rookie mistake. Be sure to include your contact information near the top of your resume.Resume Content Andrew Taylor 6014 Ridgeway Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 555.7421.993 ataylormail.com Summary Superior time management skills Ability to remain calm under stress Advanced knowledge of medical administrative practices Insurance claim filing and benefits verification Capable of inputting information into electronic databasesCommitment to punctuality Friendly and outgoing demeanor Prior experience in various medical settingsCurrently pursuing administrative degree Experience Administrative Volunteer Arizona Presbyterian Hospital Phoenix, AZ 7/1/2013 1/1/2014 Ensured that nursing station was clean and organized. Verified insurance benefits for patients in primary care department. Delivered messages, gesundheitsgefhrdender stoffs, and other items to surgery patients. Assisted administrative professionals with the filing of medical documents. Worked in gift shop and caf once a week. Ensured that medical supply room was well stocked. Answered phone inquiries regarding basic hospital information. Transported lab supplies to and from clinical research department. Received 2013 Volunteer of the Year award. Administrative Assistant to Dean of Medical Sciences (Internship) North Park Community College Phoenix, AZ 12/1/2012 6/1/2013 Answered phones and responded to general student inquiries.Relayed important messages to dean and other academic administrators.Provided basic program information to walk-ins.Scheduled college tours for prospective students and parents.Delivered mail to various departments.Greeted guests prior to meetings with dean.Education Associate of Applied Science in Medical Administration (In Progress)North Park Community College, Phoenix, AZDiplomaWest Desert High School, Phoenix, AZ

Engineers Fighting Depression Shouldnt Go It Alone

Engineers Fighting Depression Shouldnt Go It Alone Engineers Fighting Depression Shouldnt Go It Alone Engineers Fighting Depression Shouldnt Go It AloneA recent Harvard Business Review survey has found that engineers had the second loneliest profession. Lawyers take the lead. The researchers surveyed 1,624 full-time employees.The findings may not come as a big surprise. Engineers spend a lot of time working on their designs in front of their computers. Technology allows them to collaborate and coordinate with colleagues instead of meeting with them face-to-face. Their work environment doesnt always allow them to form friendships with colleagues.Research into the effect of loneliness on health continues to have a negative correlation.For You Creative Approach to Engineering Improves GradesOne in three adults aged 45 and older describe themselves as lonely, according to AARP. About 20 years ago, AARP compared the health risks of prolonged isolation to that of smoking 15 cigarettes per day.Those who are lonely are also likely to be depressed, which also can impair physical and mental health. Depressed people often further isolate themselves from others which leads them to feel even mora alone.The link to loneliness and depression can start for engineers even before the take their first job. A 2015 report from the Graduate Assembly at the University of California, Berkeley, found 42 percent to 48 percent of that schools Ph.D. students in science and engineering were depressed.Maybe youve been alone at work so long you dont even realize youre lonely. The polling organization Gallup has created 12 statements that best predict employee and workgroup performance. They include questions likeDoes your supervisor or someone at work seem to care about you as a person?Is there someone at work who encourages your development?Do your opinions seem to count at work?In the last six months, has someone at work talked to you about your progress?In the last year, have you had oppo rtunities to learn and grow?Do you have a best friend at work?As an indicator of on-the-job loneliness, the last question is particularly important. Engineers need to see their work valued and encouraged. But feeling alone can best be overcome when they have someone to talk to, to bounce ideas off, or vent to.If youre feeling lonely, take time out of your day to reach out to a friend.Admitting to being lonely or depressed to people at work, though, can actually make things worse, according to a 2011 study published by professors from California State University and Wharton School of Business. The admission provided stronger and more negative cues for co-workers about the overall quality of their relationship with the employee.The topic is taboo, said Karen Dolva, cofounder of No Isolation, a Norwegian firm that creates communication tools to help cut down on loneliness. People dont willingly admit to being lonely.Engineers battling depression and loneliness To battle loneliness and depress, experts suggest finding a hobby outside of work, joining Meetup groups, or seek medical help.Will Wright, who founded digital-health-coaching company Pack Health, believes some online interactions, especially with real friends, can help people feel less alone. He tells the story of a particularly rough time for himself, when hed be traveling and away from home and friends for weeks. A friend texted during one of behauptung times and Wright surprised himself by texting back an honest answer Im lonely.The friend said hed been where Wright was right then. Why dont you go for a run? the friend asked, offering a concrete way for Wright to help himself by exercising and getting out of his hotel surroundings.All this happened through texts, Wright said.Engineers can take time out of their days to email, text, and phone friends and family members to feel more connected.The answer is a bit different for Dolva of No Isolation.Loneliness can be tackled by opening up the conversation, Dolva said.She doesnt mean speaking about your depression and loneliness to your co-workers, but rather to talk about it with friends and familyeven via technology like Skype or Facetime. You can certainly tell them your job is isolating and leads to depression.I didnt understand how lonely I really was, Dolva said, speaking about her time in UX design and informatics. With loneliness, you dont want to let anyone in. And Im so far from being the only one who feels like this. Were built to be part of a group, to depend on others and have them depend on us.Call the friend and just be bored together. Let people in. When you lean on others youre helping yourself, but youre also helping them, Dolva added.Most people, after all, want to be of use. They feel good when theyre helping others. And sharing real feelings encourages friends to open up as well.Theres nothing cool or brave about going through life alone, Dolva said.Jean Thilmany is a freelance writer in St. Paul who frequently wri tes on engineering topics.Listen to ASME TechCast and learn how to communicate more effectively with your colleagues.Theres nothing cool or brave about going through life alone.Karen Dolva of No Isolation

This is how you can juggle your passion and your day job

This is how you can juggle your passion and your day jobThis is how you can juggle your passion and your day jobWe all know the story of creative people who work temp jobs waiting for a big break, but some people devote as much effort to their day job as they do their passion.Their day job is not just a paycheck, but gives an alternative fulfillment. Some of them keep their day jobs and passion as separate pspeciess of their lives, but others have found a way to incorporate what they love into their employment. The common link for all of them is determination, drive and focus. That means giving up traditional leisure activities like watching TV. And sometimes it means not spending a lot of time with friends and family to fit it all in. Want this lifestyle? Heres how they do it.The doctor-poetFor Dr. C. Dale Young, medicine and writing are callings hes pursued his entire adult life. A San Francisco-based oncologist, Young has published four books of poetry and won a Guggenheim Fellows hip. He also teaches part-time at Warren Wilson Colleges low-residency Master of Fine Arts program in Asheville, N.C. Even with full days at the clinic, Young makes time to write or read daily, even its only an hour or some time on the weekends. You have to commit to it and make time for it. Even small amounts of time, if done consistently, can add up to a great deal, he said.He takes vacation time to teach the 10 days for the MFA program, and during the semester he supervises two or three students, which means his weekend writing days from July to November are devoted to reading his students work.While he may feel tired at times, Young says he doesnt feel burned out. I make sure at least once or twice a year to take a vacation during which I do little except lie about and regenerate, he said.The company president-horse farm ownerPete Baldine is president of two businesses Moran Family of Brands, a national franchise specializing in automotive accessories, and Bella Rose Farm, his f amilys horse boarding and training facility about an hour outside of Chicago.Baldine grew up loving horses, as did his daughter. When she started working with horses professionally, he founded Bella Rose Farm in 2007, which has since grown to include 22 horses. His days are typically 15 hours long, seven days a week, fitting in farm work in between office hours, and on weekends. He said the company is very supportive of his passion, and rarely does farm business cut into his day job. Plus, he added sometimes he conducts Moran business on the farm. The company culture promotes flexibility for all their hard-working employees, not just him, he said.Every once in a while, there may be a situation where there is a sick horse. But thats no different than anyone else who might have a sick day and miss work. That doesnt happen often. Theyve never felt like they havent gotten their ritterlich share, and Ive never felt like if I needed to make a work change that they resented it, he said.His vacations are traveling to horse shows. He admitted this lifestyle isnt for everyone, especially for people who need a lot of downtime. Having the right frame of mind helps. With anything, even if you really enjoy it and like it, there are times when it can feel like a burden. If It does, you have to recognize it and deal with it and get your head screwed on right, he said.The journalist-musicianYoko Noge sang the blues professionally in Japan, but disliked the commercialization of music. Instead, she moved to Chicago to study and play with some of the greatest blues musicians including Willie Kent, Johnny B. Moore and others. Her day job is co-bureau chief for Nikkeis Chicago bureau, a Japanese media company, where shes worked for 30 years. At her peak, she would perform with her band two or three nights a week, often getting home at 2 a.m. and working at Nikkei the next day. Noge said over the years shes found the best balance is to focus completely at the task on hand when shes at the office, she concentrates on journalism, and when shes playing its all about the music. Only one time in her work career did she have an issue with a manager. Noge found out from colleagues he disapproved of her chosen music style and didnt think she deserved a promotion.I was fiercely angry about it My reaction was, if I was a classical violin player, would he have said the same thing? Probably not. If I were an opera singer probably he would have said different things. But I had enough supporters because they know how hard I work, Noge said.It didnt have any lasting repercussions, as Nikkeis president and chief executive officer come hear her play when she visits family in Japan and performs, which is a great honor, she said. Shes cut back on some of her performances lately because she is also caring for her husband, fellow musician Clark Dean, who is in hospice care. Sometimes I get depressed, of course, but then I tell myself, life has different stages. You do your best a t each stage and whats the best for yourself and others. This is my choice right now, she said.The educational publisher-creative writerZoe Zolbrod is a manager at an educational publishers literature division, and has written a novel and a memoir. She says her company appreciates how her ties in the creative-writing world help her spot new talent and different stories for textbooks.Zolbrod not only juggles writing and work, but she and her husband are also raising two children, ages 8 and 15. To write she takes vacation time from work, and on Sundays she leaves the house early, in addition to writing at night when she can.Being a parent adds to the juggle, but she added it can work. I think kids needs come and go, Zolbrod said.She tries to fit in a bit of yoga, too, and after her last book she took a break to spend more time with her family, which she cant always do when shes writing.Its a constant juggle, a constant negotiation, what am I willing to give up? Zolbord said.The comme rcial painter-artistGene Pellegrene, who owns the socially conscious painting company artist painters, looks at his company as a piece of conceptual art. Its a traditional commercial painting company, but he also uses the time to learn about the people who hired his crew. From that interaction he creates an original piece of art for the customer upon project completion.Youre around them in their most personal space, interacting with children and pets in this vulnerable place, and you pick things up. My job is to take that and turn that into inspiration and try to create an art object, he said.Pellegrene said incorporating art and business does a couple of things. If the business doesnt do a great job, then the art falls flat, so theres extra pressure on the company to deliver. It allows lets him focus on making art he finds important, rather than worrying about needing to sell pieces.In his downtime, he gathers and distributes toiletries and other essentials to his local homeless po pulation. Sometimes I can have meaningful conversations with people, he said. Thats helpful for reasons I cannot articulate.The life coach perspectivePeggy Caruso, an executive and personal development coach, and author of Revolutionize Your Corporate Life,worked two jobs, write a book and cared for a child simultaneously. She said to balance a lifestyle like hers, good time and stress management are critical.Keep track of your productive actions versus the nonproductive actions, she said.To manage stress, determine your priorities and delegate when possible, she said. That goes for working parents, too. You can juggle children, passion and career. I always tell working mothers, lose the guilt. Im not saying dont spend time with your child, but dont be so hard on yourself if you get a caregiver, to delegate, to hire a housekeeper, she said.

Everyday Metaphors and Similes Add Color to Your Writing

Everyday Metaphors and Similes Add Color to Your Writing Everyday Metaphors and Similes Add Color to Your Writing Metaphors and similes are both whats called figurative language, or figures of speech. Metaphors and similes are literary devices used to compare one thing to another. They add understanding, dimension, and vividness to writing. Metaphors say straight up that one thing is another (love is a flame), deeply connecting one to the other. Similes compare one thing to another using the word like or as (slower than molasses in January), and often are colorful sayings that are indigenous to certain regions of the country. The South is known for its abundance of memorable similes. Metaphors and similes also cut to the chase and say a lot in a few words. For example, rather than saying Bob is Janes old boyfriend; they were very tight for a while, and Im not quite sure whether theres still an attraction there, you can use the metaphor Bob is Janes old flame. An old flame, of course, is an old love that may or may not still burn hot. Metaphors and similes are used extensively in poetry. They are also a basic tool used in most forms of fiction writing. By comparing one thing to another, the writer can evoke a mood or memory, help the reader to make connections, establish a theme, and add interest and color to the writing. These descriptions of a sunset evoke completely different responses: No metaphor or simile: The sun was setting. The sky turned red. Then darkness fell.Both metaphor and simile: The sunset was like a glorious conflagration, blazing with fabulous colors but producing no warmth.  Metaphor: The sun dipped below the horizon, the last gasp of beauty before the death of the day.   Metaphors and Similes in Everyday Speech While many writers use figurative language in descriptions, it can be equally effective to put metaphorical language into characters dialogue. Metaphors and similes are regularly used in the language people use to talk to each other, so characters need not be poets to believably use figurative language. Some metaphors and similes are used so frequently they are sometimes categorized as cliches. Some examples: Fit as a fiddleHappy as a clamShe is an old flameDull as dishwaterSharp as a tackSilent as the graveTime is moneyHe is a pigYou are my sunshine Using Common Metaphors and Similes in Your Fiction It is certainly easy to add metaphors and similes to fiction, and its very often a good idea. But when and how you should use this language to the best effect is a question well worth asking. A cliched or mixed metaphor can sink a perfectly good story.

Teaching Tutoring Online Careers

Teaching Tutoring Online Careers Teaching Tutoring Online Careers Lets talk about teaching and tutoring online careers. Are you a teacher who is looking for some part-time work to supplement your income over the long summer? Or are you a person who has always wanted to share your love of helping others learn in a professional career? You’re in luck there are some great opportunities for teaching and tutoring online careers for professionals! This week on , we’d like to bring to your attention some of the many teaching and tutoring jobs that are out there courtesy of the Internet. As many more learners of every age have access to computers in their homes and workplaces, this opens up jobs that allow teachers and students to connect virtually. Online tutoring and teaching can happen in several different ways. One is by using the Internet in a live chat environment. Students can seek out help or support with their homework questions and teachers can provide help and learning resources in real time. In some forms of virtual learning, students call a toll free number of a tutoring provider to ask questions or they can get one-on-one telephone support from a teaching professional who is an expert in a particular subject. Sometimes, students just need support with writing a term paper or to get a document proof-read, so there are also learning specialists who can assist with that process. Since there are many colleges and universities that have online or distance learning programs in place now, there are multiple opportunities for instructors to work remotely. Sometimes instructors teach at several different colleges around the world so there is the added benefit of their global and cultural insight. Virtual instructors design and implement programs that are produced online for the convenience of adult students. There are also many bilingual or language specialist jobs available online. Since we live in a global economy, there is always a need for bilingual folks to work as language instructors. These can be fun part time gigs that help bridge the communication gap between business professionals or students on either side of the world. Often these jobs require no formal training, just a desire to teach others. Currently on our Education and Training Online section, we have many opportunities for teachers and tutors to find work. Please check them out when you have time and see what awaits you in the world of education and training! Readers, are you interested in teaching and tutoring online careers? What subjects?

What 30 Days of Productivity Taught Me About Finding Time

What 30 Days of Productivity Taught Me About Finding Time What 30 Days of Productivity Taught Me About Finding Time Article by Lydia Sweatt When I was 8 years old, I took piano lessons and singing lessons, and I played violin in the schools symphony â€" all at the same time. Except for the symphony, I didnt care for any of those extracurricular activities, but I especially hated learning piano. Twice a week, always on a school night, my mom would drive me to the piano school, hoping my music teacher would unlock some untapped potential deep inside of me â€" or at least expose me to something that might become a true passion. But things didnt work out the way my mom planned. My piano teacher was stern and classical, and I was young and unfocused. Every practice began with a warm-up and what felt like an interrogation about whether I had actually done my homework. When she asked me to play the assigned pieces, it was clear I hadnt touched any part of my keyboard or even glanced at the sheet music outside of  the practice room. My practice book was filled with notes from her, all expressing disappointment: Please practice! or Redo while counting! Well, the book was filled until page 32. Not long after that, I quit. Sixteen years later, Im a full-fledged adult with bills, very little free time, and just enough youthful indiscretion to blow my tax return on a MacBook. My old laptop had stopped working, and at first the MacBook was a simple upgrade. That sleek machine soon became much more, mostly because it came with an addictive music-production program called GarageBand. As much I wanted to hide from my strict piano teacher when I was little, I couldnt deny my love for music. GarageBand sucked me into a world of quantizing drum patterns and transitions from bridges to choruses â€" some mesmerizing blend of art and science. I spent hours transfixed by the music I could make. But for all of that musical inspiration, I didnt even consider getting back into piano, even though  its the main instrument in most modern music production. Oddly enough, I didnt even think of touching the keys again until I was confronted with a personal development challenge. It was a simple one: Find 30 extra minutes each day to do something productive and document it. If finding time for personal development is what truly separates achievers from the ranks of the ordinary, the thinking went, then by the end of the month I would be some 15 hours ahead of those who dont seek to push themselves. The simplest strategy was to make the most of my lunch break. In a busy working world, its always tempting to skip lunch,  because that feels more productive. In reality, skipping breaks entirely can have a lot of negative effects. Instead of eating lunch, resting for a few minutes, and getting right back to my day job, my idea was to try to get the benefits of a quick pause from work while still using every minute constructively. Laura Archer, author of Gone for Lunch: 52 Things to Do in Your Lunch Break, attempted a similar challenge after skipping lunches took a toll on her health. Missing a break here and there didnt seem like a big deal at first, but then Archer  started feeling  exhausted all of the time, even on the weekends. She knew something was off. She depended on caffeine more and more. At the office, she found herself surfing the web for vacation getaways. Archer wanted a way to incentivize her own breaks, to guarantee theyd be fun and rejuvenating. On her blog, GoneForLunch.com, she shared her experiences and challenged others to explore a range of sitting, active, indoor, and outdoor activities. What used to be months of endless work became a calendar full of activities Archer could reflect on with joy, like when she learned to knit or speak a little Italian. The hardest bit is getting away from your desk, Archer tells me. I think, for me, as soon as I was out of the building, I didnt look back. I think its just that initial hurdle of being like, Yes, you are going to do this. When I started the challenge, all of the things I wanted to do were quick and practical: grocery shopping, mailing a package to my brother in Japan, flipping through various mobile apps to pay bills. I built a typical to-do list and fragmented it into these daily 30-minute slivers of spare time around lunch. However, getting these kinds of things done wasnt particularly exhilarating. Aside from the occasional walk outside, or that one lunch break where I learned about the nuclear deadliness of a compound called red mercury via the Stuff They Dont Want You to Know podcast, none of my new-and-improved lunch breaks seemed especially fulfilling. To make matters worse, things became busier at work. I didnt take the time to think about what I wanted to do for lunch other than eat, so the productive part of my breaks always felt rushed. I also wasnt bringing my lunch to work, so I often had to spend some of what would have been productivity time picking up food. I didnt have a ton of time to go exploring, so I settled for quick-hit tasks like making phone calls that were long overdue. That wasnt much better. Soon, I came to dread  my lunch breaks. When I saw the clock nearing noon, Id sink into my chair and try to think of something new to do on my break. What started as a mission to free up my time had become a burden. At noon, Id still be sitting there â€" and the more I sat there, the better my chair began to feel. I really dont want to go out into the world, I would think to myself. Has my chair always been this comfortable? Most of my tasks had made me feel like I was scrambling for something to do, and now I didnt want to do anything. This was exactly what Archer had warned me about. Normally with my lunch breaks before, Id go for a walk or sit on a park bench or go shopping, and those were probably my three things I would do, she says. You kind of feel a bit weird sometimes. Youre like, I know that Im empowered by taking my break, but I dont really feel that different. I was starting to see where I went wrong. A lot of my lunch break decisions were made on-the-spot as a way to simply push me through the challenge. In Smarter Faster Better: The Secrets of Being Productive in Life and Business, Charles Duhigg writes that people fail more often when they make hasty, half-baked decisions. When you rush into something for the benefit of simply having a plan, things dont really pan out. Duhigg calls this need for decisiveness cognitive closure. Its a good trait to have when it keeps you from constantly weighing decisions, but not so great when you pick one just for the sake of being productive, he writes. Unlike cognitive closure, my lack of motivation at lunch had nothing to do with personality. Duhigg writes that scientists see motivation as a skill. That means even when you dont feel like getting things done, you can get back on track with sheer will. The trick is that motivation has to be practiced in a specific way,  Duhigg writes. To fully tap in, you have to feel like youre calling the shots. When I think about the moments when I feel totally in control, I think about being creative. I think about music. I think about those times when Im in flow, too engaged in what Im doing to worry about coloring inside of the lines â€" when I feel free to create, without hesitation. One of the places I get to exercise this kind of control is in GarageBand â€" or Logic Pro X, the new-and-improved version with a bigger sound library.  I can come up with a soothing melody and then layer it with a squeaky analog sound that probably breaks all of the rules of composition, but in those moments, if it feels right, its right. Suddenly, it all clicked for me. By the time noon rolled around on Day 10 of my challenge, I wasnt sinking into my chair for the regular what-should-I-do-today brainstorm. Instead, I raced over to pick up some pages from the printer. The sheets were lined with tiny pianos, all of them dotted on various keys that make up the basic chords I wanted to learn. I walked down to the office parking lot and lifted a huge keyboard from the trunk of my car ­ â€" the same Casio keyboard I used as a kid before I got bored with my lessons. I set it down next to a shady tree and  resumed my failed piano education from a decade and a half earlier. One by one, I pressed random keys. I remembered being told where middle C is and even the sequence of stepwise notes that snake their way from the white to black keys across the piano. For the most part, my skill level was right where I left it. I still had no idea what I was doing, and thats not a great feeling. I poked around for a few minutes. Then, I took one last look at my sheet of chords before folding it up and stuffing it into my pocket. One day I would learn how to play them, I decided, but not today. If I was going to do this, Id rather know how the chords are built, and that would mean avoiding the shortcuts. Instead of trying to play three or four keys at a time, Id have to master the individual keys first â€" and truly fall in love with the journey. The keyboard gained a permanent space in my trunk. Because I always had it with me (along with spare batteries), I could always find a way to practice. If I had to leave the office for food, Id have a quick meal and then start practicing on the spot, which sometimes meant propping the keyboard on top of my trunk, right in the parking space. Some days I would find a vertical slab of concrete high enough to stand and play. None of that was too embarrassing until people started to linger around me. I was learning to read sheet music during each lesson, so anyone who got close enough could hear me talking myself through it. Looking back now, standing on the side of the road playing random notes and talking to myself probably looked a little crazy. With consistent practice (including weekends), it didnt take long to break through some of the barriers I couldnt get past as a kid. It took a ton of brainpower at first. I went from feeling mentally drained while playing with two hands to doing it without much thought. By the end of my challenge, I had learned to play some basic practice songs, like The Woodchuck and Hannah From Montana. Sometimes, I was actually a little shocked at how easily my left hand answered the notes of my right. Now, when I flip open my MacBook to make a beat, its more than just fun. Its structured. When I load a beat-making program, I dont use the default audio setting that lets you use the laptop keys to make sounds. I actually prefer hooking up my keyboard. I take the time to wire it to my laptop because now I actually understand the formula behind what happens when I strike a triad chord or play A minor. I only wish my younger self could have known the joys of playing â€" and not just the agony of messing up  during a recital. The downside of keeping busy during a designated time of rest is that you dont always feel like squeezing productivity out of every minute. Sometimes you just want to eat, slowly in my case, and watch a couple of videos on YouTube. Sometimes you just want to sit with your coworkers and talk about how crazy Black Mirror is. Some days you might want to be completely alone, lost in your thoughts. The more I strung together a list of unrelated, random things to keep me busy, the less I became interested in doing anything at all. Until I decided to home in on one thing and truly work toward an exciting goal, everything else was just something to do. Ive decided to keep practicing the piano during my lunch breaks. I dont think Ill do it every day, but I keep my keyboard in the trunk of my car, just in case. When I get that urge to practice, I just chew a little faster. Versions of this article originally appeared on SUCCESS.com  and in the October 2017 issue of SUCCESS magazine. Lydia Sweatt is the web producer for SUCCESS.com. She recently earned a bachelors degree in journalism from the University of Texas at Arlington and is a Dallas native. She enjoys painting, a hefty taco, and discovering new music.

4D Printing Advances Additive Manufacturing

4D Printing Advances Additive Manufacturing 4D Printing Advances Additive Manufacturing 4D Printing Advances Additive Manufacturing 4D printing is an emerging technology that 3D-prints solid components programmed to change into other shapes when certain environmental parameters - temperature, light, and humidity are reached. Thus, the fourth dimension is, literally, transformation. This ability depends on the development and use of unique programmable materials. Although 4D printing is still an emerging field, it has huge potential for expanding engineering design. Currently 4D printing requires complex and time-consuming post-processing steps to mechanically program each component. Also, most commercial printers can only print 4D using a single material, which greatly limits design choices. But a research team led by Jerry Qi, a mechanical engineering professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, along with scientists at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, have developed a powerful new 4D printer that can create self-assembling 4D-structures much more quickly and efficiently. For You: The latest in manufacturing and design breakthroughs Glaucio Paulino (left) and Jerry Qi lead a team of researchers that has developed a way to use 3D printers to create objects that expand dramatically. Image: Georgia Tech We call it the multi-material multi-method [m4] 3D printer, Qi says. It is a very powerful 3D printing system that integrates four printing methods into one single platform, which enables the efficient printing of complicated parts that can change shape, thus expanding future printing applications. The researchers envision it being used for a variety of applications in such industries as aerospace and medicine. Their paper about the technology was recently published in ScienceDaily. The m4 3D printer is a very powerful 3D printing system that integrates four printing methods into one single platform.Prof. Jerry Qi, Georgia Institute of Technology How It Works Qis printer combines four different printing technologies: aerosol, inkjet, direct ink write, and fused deposition modeling. It can make products from a variety of materials including hydrogels, conductive inks, elastomers, and shape memory polymers, which can be programmed to remember a shape and then transform into it when heated to a certain temperature. Using his printer and a special composite material made from acrylic and epoxy, Qi successfully 4D-printed objects that transformed shape up to 90 percent faster than previously possible because the tedious mechanical programming steps were already integrated into the 3D printing process. Composites can offer significantly improved physical properties and greater functionality, compared to single materials. When two or more materials that respond differently to environmental stimuli are combined together into a composite material, there will be some incompatibility in the structure, Qi says. We can thus harness this incompatibility and design structures that can dramatically change in shape. For multiple polymers, their property-structure-processing relationships can be very complicated and very material-specific. For example, Qi combined an elastomer and a glassy polymer to create a one-way 4D printing transformation, where the shape is permanent and cannot change upon later cooling or heating. In another case, Qi combined an elastomer and a liquid crystal elastomer to create a product with a reversible shape capability, where the shape can change back and forth with changes in temperature. A key engineering challenge in designing the system was the integration of the control modules for the different printing methods. The printer is controlled by an in-houseDeveloped software platform using Python code. So, you can hit one button and then the printing job starts, without human intervention in the middle of the printing process for multiple material and multiple methods printing, Qi says. This requires very careful design of software, including passing control commands to different printing modules, transforming coordinate systems when different printing methods are used, and coordinating printing layer thickness. The system also requires a very large, 6,000-pound granite table. This is because we need to shuttle the printing platform to different printing modules and the zDirection variations must be within three microns, Qi says. Any steel board will warp more than 3 microns when the temperature changes slightly. Thus, only a large piece of granite provides the stability to maintain such accuracy. Future Possibilities Abound When most people see the m4 printer for the first time, the aha moment is when they realize the level of integration it takes to combine four different printing capabilities into one single printing platform. Qi is collaborating with several companies to see how the m4 printer might be helpful in solving some of their unique product design challenges. He is also working with Childrens Healthcare of Atlanta to determine whether this new technology can print prosthetic devices for children. We are on the cusp of creating a new generation of devices that could vastly expand the practical applications for 3D and 4D printing, says Qi. Our prototype printer integrates many features that appear to simplify and expedite the processes used in traditional 3D printing. As a result, we can use a variety of materials to create hard and soft components at the same time, even incorporating conductive wiring directly into shape-changing structures, and ultimately set the stage for the development of a host of 4D products that could reshape our world. Mark Crawford is an independent writer. Read More: How to Pump Extremely Hot Metal A Robotic Gym For Babies Robots Modeled on Bees Sense Rather than Think For Further Discussion

4 ways to add more meaning to your day, life career

4 ways to add more meaning to your day, life career 4 ways to add more meaning to your day, life career The everyday work grind can sometimes feel like, well, a bit of a grind. So, when your enthusiasm flags and every day feels as blah as the one that came before, how can you find ways to add meaning to your day, much less your life or career?Share spaced, shared valuesEven if your own zest for life seems to be lacking, sharing a work space with people who are on a similar mission might help buoy you up when you’d otherwise be bummed. “Working on something you believe in and surrounding yourself with people who share your values will always provide meaning and purpose to whatever you choose to do in life, especially when it comes to your career,” said Max Spielberg, co-founder and President of Genexa. In his own work life, Spielberg firmly believes “business should be used as a force for good and that’s what keeps us coming into work every day.”Scare yourself a littleAfter almost a decade running an outdoor retailer in Canada, Jamie Clarke became frustrated at how inaccessi ble and expensive quality gear had become to the average consumer. Along with a partner, Clarke launched LiveOutThere.com, a direct-to-consumer outerwear brand. “Transforming our business into a direct-to-consumer offering was as much about sound business as it was about infusing more meaning into our work day at every level,” he said. “Our work is more urgent, more meaningful and more important now that we are responsible for the entire supplier chain. We dream up our products, manufacture them, and make them available to our customers. We own and are responsible for every step of the value chain. It’s scary, but I love it. We’ve never been more engaged or passionate about our mission than we are now.”Have a big missionMany businesses have internal and external marketing messages as well as a mission that guides their everyday path. As Clarke explained it “Everything comes back to our mission to: Get the World Outside. When we remember that people who spend time outsi de are happier, healthier and more creative and that our products and knowledge helps make this happen - challenges, setback, rejections all seem a little smaller because our mission is so big. So important.” For Clarke, it’s as much a vision and mission as a business: “This is not just about making money - it’s about saving and improving lives. When we remember this - nothing can stop us.”Make someone happySometimes finding your path toward a more meaningful career can take a circuitous trajectory. Melissa Ben-Ishay, founder, president and Chief Product officer of Baked by Melissa, started her booming business after being unexpectedly fired from her advertising job.“I did not think I was being fired when I was called to HR over the loudspeaker. I actually thought I could have been up for a promotion! Needless to say, I was shocked” Ben-Ishay admitted. In the days after, she thought it was completely unjustified. “I regained confidence by surrounding myself with p eople who love and support me and working hard towards something I love and am super passionate about â€" Baked by Melissa.”More than that, Ben-Ishay realized she could combine her career and her passion with an end result of adding joy to people’s lives. “I started baking cupcakes long before we started Baked By Melissa for that very reason - they make people happy! That’s why I kept baking them - giving cupcakes to someone and seeing their happiness is the very best feeling.”And she turned that into the overall company ethos: “We know the most successful people are happy and passionate about what they are doing every day. We hire like-minded, hardworking, passionate people who love to get sâ€"t done and that’s what makes our team so amazing.”

This is the one key word to attaining happiness

This is the one key word to attaining happiness This is the one key word to attaining happiness We all want to be happy. That’s obvious. But how much would people pay for a moment of happiness?Researchers did a survey -  and the answer was about  $80.Follow Ladders on Flipboard!Follow Ladders’ magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more!Other than pure love and dodging discomfort, people were willing to pay  the most for happiness.Via  The Upside of Your Dark Side: $ 44.30 for calm tranquility, $ 62.80 for excitement, $ 79.06 for happiness, $ 83.27 to avoid fear, $ 92.80 to avoid sadness, $ 99.81 to avoid embarrassment, $ 106.26 to avoid regret, $ 113.55 for love. (Suddenly heroin is looking pretty  cheap, and Starbucks is an absolute steal.)At $80 a shot, well, I’m about to save you a lot of money.What’s it take to become happy very  quickly without dramatically changing your life (or spending $80)? The key to happiness really comes down to one word:Attention.We all have regrets and worries. We all have bad things we could think about. But they don’t bother us when we pay them no mind. The  Buddha once said:We are what we think.   All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world.And research is agreeing with him. People always think more money or a better this or that - a thing or event - is going to make them happier.But when we look at the data,  very happy people  don’t experience more happy events  than less happy people.Via  50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior:Ed Diener and Martin Seligman screened over 200 undergraduates for levels of happ iness, and compared the upper 10% (the “extremely happy”) with the middle and bottom 10%.  Extremely happy students experienced no greater number of objectively positive life events, like doing well on exams or hot dates, than did the other two groups  (Diener Seligman, 2002).So it’s not really what happens. It’s what you pay attention to and the perspective you take on things.  â€œLook on the bright side” is a cliche, but it’s also scientifically valid.Paul Dolan  teaches at the London School of Economics and was a visiting scholar at Princeton where he worked with Nobel-Prize winner Daniel Kahneman.He explains the importance of attention in his book,  Happiness by Design: Change What You Do, Not How You Think:Your happiness is determined by how you allocate your attention.  What you attend to drives your behavior and it determines your happiness. Attention is the glue that holds your life together… The scarcity of attentional resources means that you must consider h ow you can make and facilitate better decisions about what to pay attention to and in what ways. If you are not as happy as you could be, then you must be misallocating your attention…  So changing behavior and enhancing happiness is as much about withdrawing attention from the negative as it is about attending to the positive.Make sense, right? So how can you and I put this to use?Here are 5 questions to ask yourself about attention that can have a profound affect on your happiness.Are you  actually  paying attention?“Savoring” is a powerful method for boosting happiness. It’s also ridiculously simple:Next time something good happens, stop whatever you are doing, give it a second and  appreciate  that moment. Pay attention to it.Savoring is all about attention. Focus on the bad, you’ll feel bad. Focus on the good and… guess what happens?Via  Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth:The key component to effective savoring is focused attention. By taking the time and spending the effort to appreciate the positive, people are able to experience more well-being.“Stopping to smell the roses”? It’s true. People who take time to appreciate beauty around them really  are  happier.Via  100 Simple Secrets of the Best Half of Life:Those who said they regularly took notice of something beautiful were 12 percent more likely to say they were satisfied with their lives.This isn’t speculation. Studies show slowing down and appreciating good things boosts happiness and reduces depression.Via  The How of Happiness: A New Approach to Getting the Life You Want:In one set of studies, depressed participants were invited to  take a few minutes once a day to relish something that they usually hurry through  (e.g., eating a meal, taking a shower, finishing the workday, or walking to the subway). When it was over, they were instructed to write down in what ways they had experienced the event  differently as well as how that felt compared with the times when they rushed through it. In another study, healthy students and community members were instructed to savor two pleasurable experiences per day, by reflecting on each for two or three minutes and trying to make the pleasure last as long and as intensely as possible. In all these studies  those participants prompted to practice savoring regularly showed significant increases in happiness and reductions in depression.Do one thing at a time. Pay attention. Enjoy it. You’ll feel less busy and you’ll be happier.(For more on how to savor those precious good moments in life, click  here.)Okay, you’re going to pay more attention. But maybe that’s not your problem. You might be paying attention to the wrong things.What  are you paying attention to?Why are lawyers 3.6 times more likely to suffer from depression and more likely to end up divorced?Training your mind to look for errors and problems (as happens in careers like accounting and law)  makes you miserable.Via  One Day University Presents: Positive Psychology: The Science of Happiness (Harvard’s Most Popular Course):I discovered the tax auditors who are the most successful sometimes are the ones that for eight to 14 hours a day were looking at tax forms, looking for mistakes and errors.  This makes them very good at their job, but when they started leading their teams or they went home to their spouse at night, they would be seeing all the lists of mistakes and errors that were around them. Two of them told me they came home with a list of the errors and mistakes that their wife was making.Don’t pay so much attention to the bad. Pay more attention to the good. Stop looking for problems. Enjoy what you have.Gratitude  is arguably the king of happiness. What’s the research say? Can’t be more clear  than this:…the more a person is inclined to gratitude, the less likely he or she is to be depressed, anxious, lonely, envious, or neurotic.You must teach your brain to seek out the good things in life. Research shows merely  listing three things you are thankful for each day  can make a big difference.Via  Flourish: A Visionary New Understanding of Happiness and Well-being:Every night for the next week, set aside ten minutes before you go to sleep. Write down three things that went well today and why they went well. You may use a journal or your computer to write about the events, but it is important that you have a physical record of what you wrote. The three things need not be earthshaking in importance (“My husband picked up my favorite ice cream for dessert on the way home from work today”), but they can be important (“My sister just gave birth to a healthy baby boy”).  Next to each positive event, answer the question “Why did this happen?”This technique has been proven  again  and  again  and  again.  One of the reasons old people are happier is because  they remember the good and forget the bad.And feeling gratitude doesn’t just make you happier. It’ s correlated with an  objectively better life:…we found that  gratitude, controlling for materialism, uniquely predicts all outcomes considered: higher grade point average, life satisfaction, social integration, and absorption, as well as lower envy and depression.(For more on how to use gratitude to improve your life, click  here.)Now I know what many of you may be thinking:  I agree, but my attention span is terrible.Well, we can do something about that too.Can  you pay attention?You spend up to 8 minutes of every hour daydreaming. Your mind will probably wander for 13% of the time it takes you to read this post. Some of us spend 30-40% of our time daydreaming.Via  The Science of Sin: The Psychology of the Seven Deadlies (and Why They Are So Good For You):Do you remember what the previous paragraph was about? It’s OK, I’m not offended.  Chances are that your mind will wander for up to eight minutes for every hour that you spend reading this book. About 13 percent of the time that people spend reading is spent not reading, but daydreaming or mind-wandering.  But reading, by comparison to other things we do, isn’t so badly affected by daydreaming.  Some estimates put the average amount of time spent daydreaming at 30 to 40 percent.As Daniel Gilbert, author of  Stumbling on Happiness, explained in the  Harvard Gazette, a wandering mind is not a happy mind:People spend 46.9 percent of their waking hours thinking about something other than what they’re doing, and this mind-wandering typically makes them unhappy.  So says a study that used an iPhone Web app to gather 250,000 data points on subjects’ thoughts, feelings, and actions as they went about their lives.This is why you keep hearing so much about mindfulness these days. Meditation can help you train your attention.  A 2011 Yale study showed:Experienced meditators seem to switch off areas of the brain associated with wandering thoughts, anxiety and some psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia . Researchers used fMRI scans to determine how meditators’ brains differed from subjects who were not meditating. The areas shaded in blue highlight areas of decreased activity in the brains of meditators.(For more on the easiest way to learn how to meditate, click  here.)Another issue may be that you’re not really noticing what truly makes you happy and unhappy. It’s a common mistake. But one we can fix.Are you paying attention to what makes you happy and what doesn’t?When something makes you really happy, jot it down. Then do that thing more often. Daniel Nettle jokingly refers to this as “Pleasant Activity Training.”Via  Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile:This staggeringly complex technique consists of determining which activities are pleasant, and doing them more often.Yeah, it’s stupidly simple. But as Stanford professor  Jennifer Aaker  explained in my interview with her, you probably  don’t do it:…people who spend more time on projects that energize th em and with people who energize them tend to be happier.   However, what is interesting is that there is often a gap between where people say they  want  to spend their time and how they  actually  spend their time.  For example, if you ask people to list the projects that energize (vs. deplete) them, and what people energize (vs. deplete) them, and then monitor how they actually spend their time,  you find a large percentage know what projects and people energize them, but do not in fact spend much time on those projects and with those people.(For more of the things research has proven will make you happier, click  here.)Okay, time to bring out the big guns. This is something you can do at any moment to make yourself happier. And all it takes is asking yourself one question.Are you paying attention to what’s going on  right now?You probably spend a fair amount of time worrying about the future, regretting the past or reliving an argument that ended long ago.And that means you’r e not paying attention to what’s happening  right now. None of those negative things are actually occurring  here in front of you. If you were focused on right  now, bang, you’d be happier.When happiness expert  Sonja Lyubomirsky  studied the happiest people,  what did she find?They savor life’s pleasures and try to live in the present moment.That thing you’re making yourself miserable about: is it here, right now, in front of you? Or are you projecting into the future or the past?  Pay attention to the present  and you’ll probably feel much better.(For  more on what makes the happiest people in the world so happy, click  here.)Still paying attention? Let’s wrap this up.Sum upMost people don’t do anything to make themselves happier.Via  100 Simple Secrets of the Best Half of Life:Researchers found that the majority of the subjects they studied were not able to identify anything they had done recently to try to increase their happiness or life satisfaction.Be the except ion. It’s simple. Try shifting your attention to the good around you.Worrying about the future or dwelling on the past or letting your mind wander is a prescription for unhappiness. Those things aren’t in front of you and they’re not real.  As  Mark Twain  once said:I have had a great many troubles, but most of them never happened.Join over 320,000 readers.  Get a free weekly update via email  here.This article first appeared on Barking Up The Wrong Tree.You might also enjoy… New neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happy Strangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds 10 lessons from Benjamin Franklin’s daily schedule that will double your productivity The worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs 10 habits of mentally strong people