Morning Productivity Do these 3 things before bedtime

Morning Productivity Do these 3 things before bedtime Morning Productivity Do these 3 things before bedtime My life was changed when I had my two boys. Yes, not only did I become a mother, but I also became … a morning person. Before I had kids, waking up at 10 a.m. on the weekends was a huge achievement. Now, I pop out of bed before 6:30 a.m. on any day, insufferable as that may sound. Waking up that early used to give me much-needed quiet time to sit with my coffee and read newspapers. I’m not sure exactly when this happened, but these days, the minute I roll out of bed it’s as if I’m at my desk, answering emails and putting out fires. By the time I arrive at the office, I feel like I’ve already put in half a day. Lately, I’ve been finding ways to cure my morning frenzy. In the search for a better morning routine, I soon realized I was only looking at half the problem. A great morning begins not from the moment you wake up, but from the moments before you close your eyes. Below are some of the things I’ve done to make sure I’m in the right mindset to power up the day: 1. Prep your clothes I got into this habit when I had to wake up at 4 a.m. every weekday for my morning television show. I laid out all my clothes and accessories the night before, as half the time I was getting dressed in the dark. The extra minutes I spent laying out the clothes at night made it so easy the next morning when my brain was still asleep. If only there was a robot that just put the clothes on you, too. 2. Stop answering emails and texts After a certain time in the evening, I do not answer any more emails or texts. Among the many problems with email is that during working hours, every email extends into a longer chain of emails that can eat up hours of your day. I find that if I answer an email at 10 p.m., I’m usually stuck in a real-time conversation with this person. So after a certain time, I stop looking at my inbox altogether and silence my phone. 3. Start a ritual Many successful entertainers, athletes, and speakers perform small rituals before they’re about to go onstage. Call it superstitious, but going through these motions- whether it’s saying a little prayer or touching home plate with your bat- helps calm the body and mind before stressful moments. Employing rituals at home right before bed has that same calming effect. It prepares your mind for what’s ahead. I vary my rituals- sometimes it’s as simple as lighting an aromatherapy candle (of course, blow it out before you fall asleep!) or listening to a favorite piece of music. These days, given my newfound experience in Pilates, I’m taking two to three minutes out of my night to breathe deeply and properly. Whatever your ritual, taking a few minutes to do something consistently and deliberately is a great way to slow down the pace of your day- so you can pick it up in the morning the right way! If you’re still looking for ways to power up, watch this Radiate video to learn what some CEOs eat to fuel themselves during the day. This article originally appeared on LinkedIn. Betty Liu is the founder and CEO of Radiate Inc.

Life and career biography of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk

Life and career biography of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Life and career biography of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Elon Musk is one of the most well known Silicon Valley CEOs of all time, but many only know what makes the headlines about the Tesla executive. Dive deeper with Ladders into the life and career of Elon Musk.Where is Elon Musk from?SSchietekat / ShutterstockMusk was born on June 28, 1971, making him 48-years-old at the time of publication.  Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, where he lived until he moved to Canada at age 17. He holds South African, Canadian, and U.S. citizenship.  As of 2019, he lives in Los Angeles, California.Follow Ladders on Flipboard!Follow Ladders’ magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more!What is Elon Musk’s net worth* over the years?September 2014: $10.3 billionMarch 2015: $12 billionSeptember 2015: $13.3 billionMarch 2016: $10.7 billionOctober 2016: $11.6 billionOctober 2017: $20.8 billionMarch 2018: $19.9 billionOctober 2018: $19.6 billionMarch 2019: $22.3 billion*According to ForbesWhat is El on Musk’s net worth in 2019?Forbes last reported Elon Musk’s net worth to be $19.7 billion in July 2019.When did Elon Musk reach millionaire/billionaire status?Musk became a millionaire in 1999 at age 27 when he sold Zip2 (his web-software company) for over $340 million. With a 7% share of the company, Musk received $22 million for the deal.He reached billionaire-status in 2012 at age 40, debuting on Forbes Billionaires List with a net worth of $2 billion. Musk’s estimated net worth was $680 million in October 2011. The jump had to do with Tesla Motors experiencing a 30% increase in stock price year over year. Tesla stock jumped when they introduced the Model X in February 2012. At the time, Musk’s 29% stake in Tesla was worth just over $1 billion.Elon Musk’s career pathZip2    Musk started his first company with his brother Kimbal in 1995 with money from a group of angel investors. The web software company developed and sold an Internet city guide for the newspaper publis hing industry, gaining contracts with The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Zip2 was acquired in February 1999 for $340 million.X.com and PayPalKen Wolter / ShutterstockMusk cofounded X.com in March 1999 using $10 million form the Zip2 sale. In 2000 the online financial services and e-mail payment company merged with Confinity, a company that had Paypal as a service. The company was renamed Paypal once the company decided to focus on that service. Musk was kicked out of his CEO role in October 2000. Paypal was acquired by eBay in October 2002 for $1.5 billion in stock. Musk received $165 million from the deal.Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (aka SpaceX)SpaceXMusk decided to launch SpaceX when he attempted to buy a rocket but was told it would cost him $8 million. Seeing this as far too expensive, Musk started SpaceX in 2002 as a quest to develop and manufacture affordable space launch vehicles.  SpaceX boasts to have completed more than 100 launches contracted, more than 6,000 employees, and three vehicles: the   Falcon, the Falcon Heavy, and the Dragon.Musk remains the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Technology Officer of the company.  The long-term goal of SpaceX is to make  commercial space travel possible and relatively affordable.SpaceX has had major achievements and pitfalls since its 2002 beginnings. Check them out here: SpaceX was awarded a contract from NASA to continue creation and testing of Falcon 9 and Dragon as cargo transport vehicles. In 2008,  Falcon 1 became the first privately developed liquid-fuel rocket to reach Earth orbit. SpaceX was awarded a $1.6 billion commercial resupply services contract by NASA in 2008. In 2010  Dragon became the first privately developed spacecraft in history to reenter from low Earth orbit, making SpaceX the first privately funded company to successfully launch, orbit and recover a spacecraft. On May 25, 2012, the SpaceX Dragon vehicle became the first private spacecraft to visit the International Space Station. On October 7 Falcon 9 launches Dragon on a mission to bring 1,000 pounds of food and cargo to the astronauts on board. In October 2013, Grasshopper, a program announced in 2011 to create reusable rockets, completed a half-mile flight, hover, and landing.   Falcon 9 lands in the Atlantic Ocean, but is destroyed by heavy seas. Falcon 9 flies 1000 m (3,280 ft), completing the highest leap to date and lands safely. SpaceX awarded a $2.6 billion contract to fly American astronauts by NASA in 2014. In 2015 the Falcon 9 completed the first orbital-class land landing. On March 30, 2017, SpaceX completed the first re-flight of an orbital class rocket. Falcon 9 returned to Earth after the second time following the delivery of the payload. June 2017 saw the first Dragon re-flight. Falcon Heavy, the world’s most powerful operational rocket, launched in February 2018. Crew Dragon became the first American spacecraft to autonomously dock on the International Space Station on March 3, 2019. TeslaTeslaIn February 2004 Musk led the Series A round of funding for Tesla, which was funded solely by cofounders Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning until that point. During this time, Musk joined Tesla’s board of directors as chairman.Musk became CEO and product architect of Tesla after the financial crisis in 2008 when cofounder Martin Eberhard was ousted from the company.In 2014 Musk announced that Tesla would release all of the company’s patents in an effort to fight climate change and advance sustainable transport.Tesla has put four cars on the market: Model S, Model 3, Model X, and Model Y. The Tesla Roadster is expected to be released in 2020. Tesla also sells electric powertrain systems to Daimler and Toyota.Musk ran into issues with the Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) after the organization accused him of lying. The trouble began on Aug. 7, 2018 when Musk tweeted that he was considering taking Tesla private and had the “funding secured” to do so. The S. E.C. subpoenaed Tesla, saying Musk’s tweet was “false and misleading.” The tweet sent Tesla’s stock price up, which benefitted investors. Because the deal never went through, those shareholders were harmed in the end.The trouble continued on Feb. 19, 2019, when Musk tweeted conflicting numbers about the amount of cars Tesla would produce in 2019. Musk agreed to have more official oversight about his tweets involving Tesla. The S.E.C. investigated Musk further and came to a new agreement on April 26, 2019. According to the agreement, Tesla’s securities lawyer must now pre-approve any public, written communication involving Tesla.SolarCityTeslaSolarCity was founded by Musk’s cousins, Lyndon, and Peter Rive, but the original concept and financial capital came from Musk himself. By 2013, seven years after the company’s founding, the company was the second largest provider of solar power in the country. In 2016, SolarCity was acquired by Tesla and remains a subsidiary of th e company.HyperloopMusk revealed the concept of Hyperloop, a high-speed transportation system, on August 12, 2013. Musk assigned 12 engineers from Tesla and SpaceX to create designs for the transportation system. The goal is to make transportation cheaper and more efficient.While plans have been drawn and Musk announced in 2017 that he had received verbal government approval to build a Hyperloop on the East Coast, there has been no real moves to begin construction on a Hyperloop system.OpenAIMusk announced the creation of Open AI in December 2015. The not-for-profit artificial intelligence research company aims to create AI that will benefit all of humanity.NeuralinkMusk cofounded Neuralink in 2016. The neurotechnology startup company is working towards creating devices that will integrate the human brain with artificial intelligence. These devices will be implanted in the brain in hopes to help people keep pace with advancements in AI.The Boring CompanyThe Boring CompanyThe Boring Company was born from a frustrating day sitting in traffic. In December 2016, Musk tweeted  â€œ[I] am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging …” By January 2017, conversation with regulatory bodies was underway.The company website explains that to reduce gridlock, traffic must either go up or down. Instead of investing in flying cars, The Boring Company believes that the answer lies in the creation of tunnels. Unfortunately, tunnels are expensive and difficult to create. The Boring Company is attempting to change the tunnel with innovative technology and smarter engineering.Elon Musk’s education historyMusk avoided mandatory service in the South African military by enrolling in Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, but didn’t finish his degree there. Instead, he left in 1992 to study business and physics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. In 1996 he received an economics degree from the Wharton School and a physics degree from the Col lege of Arts and Sciences.Musk then went to Stanford University in California to get his Ph.D. in energy physics but dropped out after two days to launch Zip2 Corporation.Elon Musk’s first wifeMusk met his first wife Justine Wilson, a Canadian author, while he was a student at Queen’s University. The couple married in 2000 and separated in 2008.Elon Musk’s second wifeMusk met his second wife, British actress Talulah Riley, in 2008 at a London club. The then 39-year-old Musk married the 25-year-old Riley in 2010 and separated in January 2012. The couple remarried in July 2013 but divorced again in 2016.Elon Musk’s childrenMusk has five children, all of whom are boys and were born through In Vitro Fertilization. Musk’s first wife Justine Wilson gave birth to a set of twins in 2004 (Griffin and Xavier) and a set of triplets (Damian, Saxon and Kai) in 2006.  Musk and Wilson share custody of their five sons.Musk’s first son (Nevada Alexander Musk) was born in 2002, but died o f sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) at 10-weeks-old.Elon Musk’s list of recommended books “The Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams “Benjamin Franklin: An American Life” by Walter Isaacson “Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down” by J.E. Gordon “Ignition: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants” by John D. Clark “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies” by Nick Bostrom “Our Final Invention” by James Barrat The “Foundation” trilogy by Isaac Asimov “The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress” by Robert Heinlein “Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” by Max Tegmark “Merchants of Doubt” by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway ‘Einstein: His Life and Universe’ by Walter Isaacson Famous Elon Musk quotesCareer advice“When Henry Ford made cheap, reliable cars, people said, ‘Nah, what’s wrong with a horse?’ That was a huge bet he made, and it worked.”“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”“Some people don’t like change, but you need to embrace change if the alternative is disaster.”“It’s OK to have your eggs in one basket as long as you control what happens to that basket.”Inspirational“I could either watch it happen or be a part of it.”“It is possible for ordinary people to choose to be extraordinary.”“The first step is to establish that something is possible; then probability will occur.”“You shouldn’t do things differently just because they’re different. They need to be… better.”Elon Musk’s car collectionTeslaFord Model TIt is said that Musk owned a Ford Model T, a car produced by Ford from 1908 to 1927, at some point in his life.1967 Jaguar Series 1 EMusk bought himself a 1967 E-Type Jaguar when he received an initial bonus check of $40,000 for Zip2.BMW 320IThis was the first car that Musk ever owned. He bought the car for $1,400 in 1994 and drove it for two years until one of its wheels fell off.Hamann BMW M5In 2007 Musk revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair that he owned a Hamann BMW M5.Lotus Esprit S1Musk bought the Lotus Esprit S1 at a London auction in 2013 for $997,000.Audi Q7Forbes discovered that Musk owned an Audi Q7 during a 2012 walkthrough of his house. His Audi Q7 inspired the Tesla Model S because he was frustrated at the difficulty of accessing the third row.Porsche 911Forbes spotted the Porsche 911 during the same 2012 walkthrough of his house.McLaren F1Musk bought himself this luxury vehicle after he sold PayPal. He later totaled the car while trying to show it off to Paypal cofounder Peter Thiel.TeslaMusk most likely owns each version that Tesla has released, including the Model S, Model X, Model 3, and Model Y.

How to Include Volunteer Experience on a Resume

How to Include Volunteer Experience on a Resume How to Include Volunteer Experience on a Resume Ask Amanda: How Do I Add Volunteer Experience to My Resume? Each week, TopResume's career advice expert, Amanda Augustine, answers user questions like the one below from Quora and the Ask Amanda form. A certified professional career coach (CPCC) and resume writer (CPRW), Amanda has been helping professionals improve their careers for over 10 years. Have a question for Amanda? Submit it here. Q: What's the right way toadd volunteer experience tomy resume? Someone told me it's OK to add volunteer experience to my resume, especially since I've been unemployed. What's the right way to do that? Gary H. Volunteer experience is a great way to pad your resume when you find yourself in any of the following situations: You recently graduated and don't havealot ofprofessional experience to share. You're currently unemployed and looking tofill the employment gap on your resume while you job hunt. You want to change careers and are looking for ways to demonstrate a skill set you weren't able to use during your regular 9-to-5 job. What type of volunteer experience should you include on your resume? The best volunteer experience you can add to your resume is skill-based volunteer (SBV) experience.These volunteer opportunities are considered very valuable for your resume because they allow you to donate your time and more importantly, the professionalskills employers care about to a worthy cause. Take a look atVolunteerMatch,Idealist,Catchafire, and Points of Light'sHandsOn Networkto find the right volunteer opportunity for you. However, you might not have to seek out a new charity in order to find a skill-based volunteer opportunity to boost your resume. If you're already involved in a networking group or other professional association, consider taking a more active role within your chapter. This could be anything from volunteering to manage the group's social media presence to becoming treasurer of the group, to heading up a new committee. Where should you place volunteer experience on your resume? There are a few different places where you can include volunteer experience on your resume the placement will really depend on what the rest of your professional experience looks like and your current job goals. Nine times out of 10, the best place to include your volunteer experience on your resume is within the Professional Experience section. This is especially helpful if you're trying to fill an employment gap on your resume or you're currently employed and trying to draw attention away from this fact. Sample resume: How to add volunteer experience to mid- or senior-level resume If you're about to graduate from college and you possessinternship experience that is relevant to your job goals and employers will find attractive, you may be better off creating a section for Relevant Work Experience and then adding another section called Volunteer and Leadership Experience for your volunteer and other club activities. Sample resume: How to add volunteer experience to an entry-level resume If you're currently employed, you don't have any employment gaps to fill on your resume, and you're not trying to parlay your volunteer experience into a new career, then your relevant volunteer activities can be placed in a separate section toward the bottom of your resume, either right before or just after the Education and Professional Development section on your resume. This is the only instance where you don't necessarily need to include many details about your volunteer work; it's enough to simply state the organization and your role within the group. How do you list volunteer experience on a resume? Write out your volunteer experience as you would any other position on your resume by including a blurb that describes your role within the organization and then calling attention to your main contributions and relevant achievements in a bulleted list. If necessary, you can get a little creative when it comes to selecting a Job Title for your volunteer experience. Select something that reflects your responsibilities, while incorporating terms that prospective employers will be sure to understand. This is especially useful if your organization doesn't have an official title for the work you've taken on for the group. In the spirit of transparency, I recommend adding the term Volunteer at the end of whatever job title you decide to use. Need help positioning your volunteer experience on your resume? Let a TopResume pro help! Recommended Reading: How to Handle Gaps in Your Employment History How to Bounce Back After Getting Laid Off #OfficeHours: How to Successfully Change Careers

5 Inspirational Quotes to Help You Navigate a Career Change

5 Inspirational Quotes to Help You Navigate a Career Change 5 Inspirational Quotes to Help You Navigate a Career Change Changing careers involves a lot of adjusting. You may feel a  little lost along the way. You might even have moments when you think itd be better to throw in the towel. Dont give up! Dig deep for motivation, never forget why you started this journey, and keep going  until youve accomplished what you set out to do. When I need motivation, I like to collect inspirational quotes  I can refer back to when I feel my drive start to wane. Here are five of my favorites - maybe they can help you, too: 1. It Takes as Much Energy to Wish as It Does to Plan. (Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady of the United States) You cant just sit at a job you hate, daydreaming about a different job, and then go home to daydream some more. You actually have to do  something if you want to get that different job. Make a plan. It doesnt have to cover your career change from A to Z; it just needs to entail some kind of action you will take in the real world. Then, once youve  accomplished that plan, start the next one. The key is to keep moving. Instead of getting bogged down in endless fantasizing, be energized by the momentum you build bit by bit as you navigate through the process. If youve actually done something to make your career change a reality, youre already ahead of the curve. Most people just accept that their work is a drudge and get on with it day in, day out. 2. Whenever You Become Empowered, You Will Be Tested. (Caroline Myss, Author) A  tremendous rush of excitement comes over someone when they decide to dedicate their time and energy to pursuing their true passion. However, things will get tough along the way. You may have to give up personal time to do some training or gain experience. Youll probably be pressed during interviews about why youre making this change now. Your family or friends may think youre making a mistake and withhold their support. All those things are tests of your sense of empowerment. Youve  allowed yourself to want more out of your work. That makes you different from most people, and you will meet resistance because of that. Some of that resistance will be positive, as when hiring managers want to make sure youre clear about what you want. Some of the  resistance will just be envy and cynicism. Its up to you to hold onto your sense of empowerment through it all. 3. Dont Stand in the Corner Waiting for the Chance / Make Your Own Music, Start Your Own Dance. (Madonna, the Undisputed Queen of Pop) Lifted from an infectious but mostly forgotten tune called Spotlight, these are lyrics to live by. Madonnas material is full of positivity, drive, and ambition - no surprise, considering shes still a force to be reckoned with more than three decades into her career. Whenever you feel  like giving in to doubt - whenever youre ready to throw your hands up and say, I guess it just wasnt meant to be! - resist it. Go back to that place of self-discovery where you first decided to embark on this new adventure. Recalibrate and try a different path. Whatever you do, dont just stand around hoping for opportunities to come. Put on your favorite 80s beats, roll up your sleeves, and get back out there. 4. We Must Be Willing to Let Go of the Life We Planned so as to Have the Life  That Is Waiting for Us. (Joseph Campbell, Author and  Professor of Comparative Mythology) It takes guts to try something new, especially in your career. Fear of failure or, even worse, obsessing over the correct way forward  can lead to inertia.  When a change is important to you, you may want to control everything, lest you make a mistake that could jeopardize your success. However, one of the most important components of a successful career change is the willingness to get lost  and explore. Dont be afraid to backtrack and start again. Approach every opportunity with a fresh perspective. Let go of your anxiety about not knowing what youre doing and just do it. You cannot reach a new destination by walking someone elses path. 5. You Dont Get What You Wish for. You Dont Even Get What You Hope for. You Get What You Believe. (Oprah Winfrey, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, and Talk Show Host) Anyone who has ever achieved anything will tell you about the importance of knowing they would  make it in the end. There are plenty of quotes  that refer to this principle, but none sums it up better than  Oprahs triple-punch reality check about the difference between wanting, hoping, and believing. Psychologists tell us our chances of making it in a life-or-death situation go up or down according to what were thinking. In other words, if you anticipate youll make it, you have a  better chance of making it. If belief can help save your life, imagine what it can do for your career change! No matter how many stumbling blocks you come across, know in your gut that success is already yours. You just havent arrived yet. Rui Betencourt is the editor of  Ruibetencourt.com. Follow him on  LinkedIn  and  Twitter.

How To Use Social Media Monitoring For Your Business

How To Use Social Media Monitoring For Your Business How To Use Social Media Monitoring For Your Business How To Use Social Media Monitoring For Your Business Portions excerpted from Real-Time Marketing PR: How to Instantly Engage Your Market, Connect with Customers, and Create Products that Grow Your Business Now by David Meerman Scott.Used with permission. John Wiley Sons, Inc., 2010. Meerman Scott Every second of every day, people around the world are talking online about the companies they do business with and products that they use. Simple and free social media monitoring tools allow you to listen in on these discussions as ordinary people talk about your company. Big or small, it doesnt matter: You need to know whats being said about you and about the issues critical to your business to help protect your companys online identity. And in order to react in real time, you need to know quickly. The first priority in your social media marketing strategy is to listen to bloggers, analysts, journalists, and others who talk frequently about you and your business. To find these voices, start by checking the search engines (Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and so on) for all the relevant keywords and phrases you can think of: your company, customers, competitors, prospects, product categories, buzzwords whatever you can think of. Tools for Social Media Monitoring Once you have identified key sources, the next step is to begin monitoring what they say in real time. As its name suggests, the really simple way to do this is using RSS, Really Simple Syndication a tool that allows you to harvest content from hundreds of blogs and news feeds without having to visit each one. RSS feeds update each time a site changes, alerting you to relevant information on topics that you specify. I use Google Reader for this, but there are many RSS readers to choose from. Twitter is another social mediaplatform to stay on top of breaking news. Many bloggers, journalists, and media outlets now use Twitter to drive traffic to fresh content as it appears. If these sources are active on Twitter, youll find a Twitter ID on their sites or blogs. Use TweetDeck or another Twitter-monitoring tool to aggregate your important Twitter feeds (that is, sets of tweets important for your business) so you can easily monitor whats being said by the people who matter to you. How to Stay on Top of the Millions of Discussions Going on Right Now Create a comprehensive list of search terms relevant to your activities. Include the names of your company, senior executives, competitors, customers, prospects, products; plus any relevant buzzwords or phrases every term you can think of! Use search engines (e.g., Google News or Yahoo! News) to set up a news alert using those search terms. This will automatically inform you in real time when any of your search terms crop up. Set up alerts on blog search engines, too. Note that if you choose Google Alerts, you can set the alert to let you know when a phrase appears in multiple content types, so one set of alerts can help you monitor blogs, newsfeeds, Web sites, and more. As monitoring progresses you will likely need to modify your search terms as some yield a flood of false hits and others nothing. Some services offer advanced features that allow you to refine your searches. For instance, Boolean operators like and, but, and not can make your searches more specific. If you need help, look for independent consultants with a background in library science. Add new search terms as you go along (watch for tags that authors apply to items that interest you). Its an ongoing process, so you cant just set your search terms and forget about them. Monitor your search terms on Twitter, too. Some tweets will show up in your news alerts if you use a service that indexes Twitter, like Google. Even so, I find its more effective to monitor Twitter directly. Use a Twitter monitoring tool like TweetDeck or HootSuite to catch your key phrases. You can also use Twitters own search function for one-off searches. Drive the Social Media Conversation The goal here is to know what people say immediately, so you can comment in real time, if appropriate. And that is certainly easier when you have already identified people who are likely to talk about you and your company. Its like joining a circle of your friends at a cocktail party: You can anticipate that their conversations will interest you. And because you are accepted by the circle, you can easily jump in with your own thoughts. So as you monitor the people who talk about you, it is good to get a sense of what each persons interests are. If someone writes about your industry, get to know their specific interests. Comment occasionally on their posts or articles even if they dont refer to your company or products. If youre already a known voice, your opinion will be taken more seriously when you jump in to discuss something directly related to your business. The benefit of reacting quickly and being among the first to comment is huge. You are seen as someone who cares and is on top of whats going on. Author Bio David Meerman Scotts book, The New Rules of Marketing PR, opened peoples eyes to the new realities of marketing and public relations on the Web. Six months on the BusinessWeek bestseller list and published in more than twenty languages, New Rules is now a modern business classic. Scotts popular blog and hundreds of speaking engagements around the world give him a singular perspective on how businesses are implementing new strategies to reach buyers. Now, in Real-Time Marketing PR,Scott opens eyes again with his groundbreaking ideas on the opportunities (and threats) inherent in todays always-on, 247, instant business environment.

Searching While Waiting on the Layoff List

Searching While Waiting on the Layoff List Searching While Waiting on the Layoff List Laid off after 17 years in one company, Nicholas Haaf needed to relearn the job-search ropes. He landed a new job by refining his area of focus and perfecting his message.By early 2008, Nicholas Haaf knew what was happening at his job: significant downsizing, merging of departments and numerous layoffs of executives. Nevertheless, he was still feeling pretty good about his chances of staying put in a company where he had worked for more than 17 years.After all, during his tenure with the data and analytics provider, working in the Dallas-Fort Worth Area with financial-services companies, he had managed some of the most successful offices in the company and established a reputation as a solid leader. But at the end of February 2008, his job was eliminated as the company merged divisions.“It’s still shocking,” the MktgLadder member said. “I had had several promotions, I was on a good career track; my sales team had grown the Texas division of this company into one of the top th ree revenue producing division in the country. And one day, it was gone.”But his shock did not translate to bitterness. In fact, he still felt a great loyalty to the company where he had worked for so long. So when his executive VP came to him asking him to stay on as a contract employee for a month to help with the transition, he didn’t hesitate. “I felt such a big part of the company’s growth and success that I felt a responsibility, even after learning that my position was going away, to help in any way I could.”Use the time to your advantageLooking back, Haaf said that the month he went to work knowing he was basically out a job was difficult. However, it also helped him segue into the unfamiliar role of job seeker. While he started looking for a new position right away, contacting people within his professional network and working with an outplacement firm to rework his resume, the fact that he had some time where he was still working was a great help.“While I worke d, I was thinking about how to organize my job search,” he said. “I hadn’t written a resume in a while, and it took a little bit of change in mindset to put myself in the job market again.”Haaf made several discoveries in the months between the time he was let go and when he was hired. It was a learning process he said, that led to him find a new position with a smaller, growing company.The first fact with which Haaf had to come to terms: It often takes higher-level executives longer to find a new job than mid-level executives.“The higher up you go, the fewer jobs there are, and the longer it can take to find a job,” he said. “I heard this from several people, executives that had been laid off. Hearing it helped me a lot, knowing that it wasn’t unusual for two or three months to go by without getting an offer.”But that didn’t mean he was taking it easy. He started his search by using his extensive professional network, built up over many years in sales and market ing. “I was connected to a lot of my former clients, and of course I reached out to them,” he said. “But most of the people I was reaching out to were in the data or financial services field and were also downsizing dramatically.”A new contact list, a new searchHaaf realized pretty quickly he would need to shift gears. He thought about what he liked about his job and what skills he could bring to a different type of company. “I loved selling and teaching people to sell. I enjoyed thinking about a company at a strategic level, what makes it successful,” he said. “It was midway through my search when I looked around and thought, ‘Among all this misery in the economy, who is benefitting?’ Bankruptcy-process outsourcing was one of many businesses fitting that description. That type of opportunity became one of my areas of focus.”His original resume spotlighted his experience working with financial-services providers in the lending and bankcard space. He decided to cr eate new resumes that would capture a broader audience. “I had one that positioned me as a financial-services executive; eventually I changed it to marketing-services executive,” he said. “They are all truthful, but they position me in different ways.”As he refocused his search, Haaf realized something else: Recruiters didn’t necessarily understand who he was and what he was looking for. So he used his networking skills to create a new list of contacts, and began to become more proactive in selling himself.“I’m relatively fearless about contacting senior-level people,” he said. “I found that initially, I wasn’t contacting people high enough in organizations. When I started reaching higher up, I started getting more respect about what I was trying to do, and people were more interested in what I had to say. I started to realize that the skill set that I wanted to promote was more attractive at a certain level in the company. I still talked to a lot of recruiters, but I was more active in doing it myself.“The value of Ladders,” he continued, “was that I was able to get on to a company’s Web site, see what they were looking for, study the business model and learn who the executives were. Things like that would help me form a more tailored value proposition. Ladders told me who was looking for positions. I started there.”Haaf described another important difference in the way he approached high-level executives: Instead of inquiring about job openings, he asked for advice or information about their business. “When you are trying to see people, you shouldn’t always present yourself as someone who is looking for an interview,” he said. “You just say you’d like to come by and introduce yourself. There’s a lot more to positioning yourself. Executives will perceive you differently.“People thought I had a lot of interviews,” Haaf said. “But a lot of those conversations weren’t interviews, they were just discussions with e xecutives.”Eventually, his leads panned out. After a couple of months of interviews, discussions and research, a friend referred him for a job at Ascension Capital Group.In early December, things really came together. He received an offer from a financial-services company, and then a second offer from Ascension, which he accepted on Christmas Eve, 2008. After several months of interviewing, researching and strategizing, it all came together in two short weeks.The “Four Ps”In his new role as VP of sales and marketing, Haaf said he brings business-development and thought-leadership expertise to a much smaller company than the one at which he’d worked before. When he set about looking for a new job, his priorities were to be able to sell, work on strategy and lead a team. He has been able to bring two of his three priorities to this new job, and, he said, “If we grow, I will have all three.”Haaf attributes his success to his own personal ” four Ps: planning, persistence, pals and prayer,” he said. “Keeping faith through this process was really critical. And, of course, having my network, my pals, who I met with on a regular basis just to keep me going in the right direction.”As for persistence, it’s the hardest thing to do when you have a bad day during the job search. “My advice to anyone looking for a job right now is to depersonalize it as much as you can,” he said. “Realize it is a job you are talking about, and it’s not a reflection on you personally. Stick to your plan, and have faith. It will happen. It takes time, sometimes longer than you would like.”He worked hard to remain optimistic throughout his search. “I had one company that I interviewed with for a senior position; I had interviews all the way up to the president, and it ended up not working out,” he recalled. “At that point, I thought, ‘How can I channel this energy? I could sit back and sulk, or I could use it positively.’“So I used it as a lesson for my sons, who are 18 and 19. I told them, ‘I want you guys to know, when you have a bad experience, you take what you can learn from it and be in a better position the next time around.’ Life doesn’t always work out like you want to, but you do have to keep going. And I got up the next day and kept going.”

get your salary off your resume

get your salary off your resume get your salary off your resume Your salary does not belong on your resume. Periodically I receive a resume that lists the salary for each position, alongside title and dates of employment. Dont do this.