10 Strategies for Career Advantage

Some people have all the luck right? Set their mind to do something, and voila it happens for them, almost effortlessly. What is the secret, and how can you experience more of this type of fortune in your career.

1. Focus on identifying the career that fits and take actions every day towards that vision.


2. Keep an open mind to possibilities, there are vast opportunities, many with companies you might have never heard of, that would be perfect opportunities .

3. Keep your image, sharp, crisp, and your keywords matching your career ideals.

4. Choose the most direct way to get your career portfolio ( cover letter, Linked In Introduction, or resume ) in front of the hiring authority. Networks willing to introduce you to the hiring company or carry your resume creates unique opportunities, more directly.

5. You are what you think. Therefore you can not afford the luxury of a negative thought. Find your inspiration, and work to maintain it. A big part of the open mind, is the belief that consistent, persistent action towards a dream, can make it so.

6. You follow through as a professional. Set expectations for the next steps in the process and follow up at the agreed time. Follow through on Thank Yous for the interview that let them know of your interest.

7. You realize interviewing is interactive, and come prepared to identify if this opportunity is a fit.

8. You remember that while job boards and email and faxes might create opportunity, there is no substitute for communications to clarify expectation and interest.

9. You release the results of every interview, knowing that the action you are putting forth to discover your next career opportunity, coupled with your skill set, is sufficient and you go through each job interview, giving it your best, and most honest evaluation. You are not just getting 'picked' by them, you play an active role in 'selecting' the company you choose to work for.

10. You are never alone in your search. Don't choose to isolate when you are job hunting, leverage the ideas, input, and inspiration of others.. Success is the outcome of thinking, visualizing, planning, and taking action!

Resources:

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There is abundance. Our thinking defines "the what"..

I believe that suffering from life circumstance is often related to an overwhelming attachment of what you feel should be happening. We really do have control of more than we give ourselves credit of, and sometimes we set unreasonable attachments to what we expect of ourselves.

Imagine the liberation of a life free of judgment, criticality, and shame.
Imagine the possibilities in a life full of opportunities, wonderful experiences, and possible dreams. It's really no fun to keep score of bad experiences, situations, unfairness, and "just" reasons for disappointments.

We can change that all, with a decisive moment of stepping into control of our experience.

The key to creative resolution is remembering that our thinking creates the seed of intentions, the intentions create the roots that give way to our flowering thoughts- whether they are prickly thistles or precious orchids.

Substitute lack for abundance, bad focus for good. Guilt for action. Focus on what you lack will continue a consciousness of lack.

Clarity and expression, gratitude and appreciation.. Deciding to shift feelings of fear, unworthiness, and lack to an active appreciation of who we are and what resources we possess is empowering to help us take stock of what is working well and write it down. What you focus on is multiplied.

We have alot more choice into our bad days and good, our bad experiences and beautiful, when we can realize the amazing powers we have to dream, to resolve, and to choose. Pain comes when we are living outside of our "vision" or expectation... OR as a transition to that better place. Pain gives us an opportunity to get back in touch with what success, serenity, and creative, empowered choice is all about.


TURN THIS EXPERIENCE AROUND ALREADY!!

Affirm an appreciation for what is working with deliberate receptiveness to alternatives, solutions, and new ways of thinking that produce a desirable outcome.

This week, I have been practicing this thoughts creates reality for some time with some very tangible results. Most tangible in my mind was that I was making unreasonable and unfair expectation of myself. I fell ill on Saturday, and have had an acute condition of sinusitis with raging fever and migraines since. Now that has been part of my story, so when I start keeping score, it is almost like asking the universe to give me more of this pain until I learn the lesson... I decided it was time to try something different.

My usual experience is I have got responsibilities, I don't have time to be sick. I would keep working, cancel nothing, and show my way through this by sheer stubbornness. I used to prize my stubborn-ness as a quality necessary for survival.. and that was actually part of the lesson I was to take to heart, and head, and health.

Stubborn is an act of holding on to something well after it no longer serves you. Persistence is an act of continuing a regular activity until it is recognized. The difference may seem subtle, but the awareness is a big part of it.

Pulmonary disfunction is the physical manifestation of an attachment to something.

I am attached to my responsibility. I am a mom of 2 beautiful kids. I work full time at a job I love. I am launching the business of my dreams. I have cared for my job meticulously. I have cared for my clients, my kids, my business, my husband, but whew I had forgotten me entirely. Since Saturday the fever and pain has rendered me able to only work and live in shifts, with much rest and liquids required. I am not working out, I am not working my program I am failing myself and my family. I don't want to fail!

Okay that is a picture into my own neurosis, shared because i am amusingly telling you a story of how I choose to make better choices. It is time to stand on my own two feet and take care of myself as part of that whole life balance thing. My new choices.. I will let this run it's course, and for the time being, set lower expectations of the workload, and instead explore realistic expectations of aligned purposeful activity. I will return to the gym when the fever subsides, and I can get my pulmonary function out of the "orange" and into the "green". This is taking care of myself and setting a vision for improvement. Stubborn would be continuing all activity until I needed steroids or rescue breathing.

Bodies need rest. I am not the exception to this rule, although I like to think I am unique.

As I end today it is with an appreciation and loving connection. So many great things are happening, despite my being sick, and with that state of mind, it is a matter of my body catching up with the new orders before the fever has done it's job and fights off the illness, and my lungs fill again to capacity, giving me the endurance to do and see and be even more.

I think another part of that lesson is that meditation throughout my week, would be immensely useful in being able to see, and breathe in wellness, rather than breathing very shallow, because who has time for the full thing.. There is an abundance-- plenty of time, money, resources, opportunities to succeed, opportunities to learn from mistakes... All is well and I will let it be.

Part of my new strategy involves absolute focus on the key areas I will continue to sustain, while trading in my type A, unreasonable self for a more patient, and creative person. If I always find solutions to what I say I am going to do, then I need to trust that the universe will provide solutions to those things I can not of my own do. There is plenty of time in the day to live, love, and serve.. Let me focus on pledging my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, and my health to better living for my well being, my family, my community and my world. (4H is a very balanced pledge, I still think the 4 leafed clover of lessons is where it is at!)


But enough about me! What are you doing to create beauty and purpose in your masterpiece of life? Love to hear about how and what you are doing to recognize your amazing on purpose life. :D

Dawn
http://linkedin.com/in/dmular

Savin Money, Savin the Environment , or Salary Suicide?

What's the buzz currently on Telecommuting? As you likely know this is a subject near and dear to my heart since I have a growing community of highly experienced telecommuters looking for the progressive companies that can put them to work.. They are out there, the opportunities are coming in as well. I think as change evangelists we need to help people see the possibility..

• Small changes at an individual level CAN make a difference.
• Larger changes like we are seeing at a State level will most certainly make a difference.
• More employers viewing both the opportunity and the limitations can discover new benefits while they make a world of difference!

Global Warming is a growing environmental need and certainly a documented climatic crisis shift. Did you know that reducing drive time by 10 miles every week eliminates about 500 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions that are causing the earth to heat a bit more each! The objective is not to force everyone to work from home, but it also is not to force everyone who needs to earn a living to the highway and bordering town offices to earn a living. When we left the agricultural society for an information society, with it came bigger and bigger commutes.. longer and longer drives to a very large building with extra HVAC in all the right places, bigger servers, bigger demands, higher real estate to keep housing the offices, data centers, parking lots, people, and storage a traditional office requires.

Employers in Massachusetts who found their company growth constrained by the dearth of skilled workers should study how to employ the options that support a recent Simmons/Hewlett Packard Study found that only 18% of woman were opting to stay home, contrary to popular opinion.

Telecommuting has not reached it's maturity point where it's benefits clearly are integrated into many companies DNA as a competitive benefit. Some 61% of executives surveyed recently by Korn Ferry felt that regular telecommuting would adversely affect their career advancement. More from that study however, 48% of respondents would consider a telecommuting job on a regular basis even with carer advancement issues considered, and the vast majority, 78% felt that telecommuters are either equally or more productive. ComputerWorld's Opinion of the study seems to support the notion that it is cultural bias that is creating limitation news more than performance. Since 1990 Teleworkers have increased from 4M to 45M, according to the Telework Coalition.

It appears that the traditional dependency on "face time" is still an executive advancement challenge. Still those companies that realize the competitive, environmental and cost savings could stand to make a significant difference while other companies struggle to hire the right type of candidate, companies with telecommuting or flexible work have greater retention value and the ability to be more selecting in the hiring process.

The U.S. Department of Commerce is one of the pilot telecommuting programs whereby state employees would be allowed to telecommute up to 4 days per week from approved alternative work sites, sometimes including employees homes. This program is expected to have some 3K telecommuters within the next 4 years.

Some states, including Georgia, Maryland and Virginia, have established serious intent and tax incentives forth to businesses who implement a telework program.

One size does NOT fit all for telecommuting or telecommuter programs. The decision for telecommuting to work is a very individual one. More traditional organizations or operations will adopt the face time strategy on the basis of ease of management. Much easier to assess performance if you have more elements in play than monthly reports... However, if more executive managers were able to embrace the freedom and clarity of strategy that could be executed from home or work, then it would matter less, where the computer or deliverables are housed, and more matters how effectively service is delivered.

As a Business Continuity Measure, companies with a telecommuting program get a more productive environment during a flu pandemic, a storm sweep, and during heavy traffic days. In Oregon for example when a storm hit, Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield was able to allow 1,000 of it's 2,600 employees to work from home, losing no productivity.

When I lived in Colorado, an area particularly hit by storms this year a few companies had telecommuting operations, and Alpine Access was representative of completely mobile support operations. With a series of 3 major storms hitting a community over the course of a few weeks, the ability to stay productive from home, was a benefit that far exceeded risking life and limb for the chance to get in the office or snowed in at another location.

RESOURCES:

• Guidelines for Implementing Telework
  
• Inteleworks.com Professional Telework Services
  
• Interagency Telework
  
• NoCommute.org Telework Savings Calculator.
  
• Sun And Lucent enabling mobile productivity as seamless as from the office.
  
• Green Means Business Energy Efficient, Eco Responsible Technology.
  
• TelCoa
  

Dawn Mular http://linkedin.com/in/dmular
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Permission to Prosper: Its all okay..

Jenn Givler today featured an inspiring article, "Why it's OK to Want Money". Our thoughts on resourcefulness and prosperity are often governed by our ability to accept goodness into our lives. Prosperity is an equal opportunity to all willing and available to us if we are willing to claim it.

Somewhere many of us have conditioned ourselves to stop dreaming as a "wellness" tip-- better to be neutral and bored than risk losing everything we have worked so hard on. Supporters of the notion that "money is the root of all evil" further confuse the issue that not money but lack of resource, is the root of much evil!

Claiming prosperity means a certain number of sacrifices and belief system checks.. It is not in "wistful want" that we create prosperity or resourcefulness. It is not in observing, re-experiencing, and justifying why prosperity has alluded us. It is when we stop "seeking" and start choosing our outcomes that goodness starts to happen. Amazing to thing htat so often it is our own belief system that gets in the way of our more resourceful steps. It is however as simple as choice!

As is often the case, I go to the Abraham - Hicks Teaching page, and the thought for the day that came up for me absolutely supports this.

"Complaining about anything, holds you in the place of refusing to receive the things you've been asking for. Justifying about anything holds you in the place of refusing to let in the very things that you've been asking for. Blaming someone, holds you in the place of refusing to let in the things that you've been asking for. Feeling guilty, feeling angry, it doesn't matter what you call it, it is a refusal, not a conscious one. You're asking; you can't help but ask. The Universe is yielding; it must yield. It's a big question, folks: why aren't you letting it in? --- Abraham"

If your objective is to solve a familiar problem, "find a job", "fix a problem", "start a business", "pay the bills", the only real evil is not having enough belief in your resources to solve the problem. However imagine if you can, the feeling of being able to trade in some of the old belief systems, for a more supportive system that meets your needs. That resource is out there and available to anyone willing to pursue it. Doesn't need to cost you a dime, but does mean to sharpen your skills to dream, to believe, to ask, and to achieve. It is all there for you, will you allow it in?

If life and creativity had no bounds, whsat would you aspire to do? Deeper thoughts on The Secret and Laws of Attraction.

Wishing you a little more joy, prosperity, and happiness than you think you can handle for this day!

Dawn Khan  http://linkedin.in/dawnckhan
Helping Friends Career Network http:hfcnglobal.com
Linked In Helping Friends Business Blog: http://linkedinhfcngroup.blogspot.com/
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Implications of Extended Deployment for our Military

As you may know, some of our members are either active duty soldiers, or the spouses of active duty reserve soldiers.

Workforce Management reported some of the implications of the recent policy decision to increase the duration of tour to 12-48 months, non-concurrent. Meaning that a reservist could be called for initial tour of 12 months, with more or less than a year off before being called to serve again for up to 24 months. This puts a strain on the soldiers, employers and the family of military members, who essentially must put their life on hold and some their businesses suffer for an extended duration, trying to remain in compliance with the line of duty.

An example of this productivity task a small business might take on, is a Houston based shop which went from 21 to 12 employees during employment to Afghanistan. Imagine the productivity loss in having to recruit 57% of your workforce, and to stay in compliance, find a qualified civilian experienced temporary workforce willing to flex work for an extended indefinite period of time. It stands to reason this would take a toll on the family at home, and the businesses that employ them.

PCUSA offered some nice community suggestions to support our troops and the families of troops who are serving active duty. This really is a noble and honorable cause extended by military families as well as the businesses that employ them.


One of my friends, in active reserve duty in Iraq, "telecommuting/consulted" from email in Iraq so the small family IT Business did not suffer from his service. The ability to hire a telecommuting workforce could be a great relief to employers who could hire the talent they need from anywhere. Could benefit military families, who can work hard, with the flexibility of telecommuting allowing them to productive for the family and the companies they serve.

Home Work, Telecommuting Technology does much for our enterprise today, but it's benefits have not been adopted fully to offset the positions at companies that could temporarily shift the work from one person to another for up to 4-5 years sporadically.

The "Secret": Mindful Results and Artistic Vision!

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How do we cultivate a mindful gratitude for being present and appreciating the progress while on the path to meaningful change?

Leonardo Da Vinci studied the mastery of life and body in motion. He acted on the belief that while we are diversely different, at the core we are all lead by a common underlying principle of being and harmony and this is represented in the universe and in the body.

What ever thought has been done in your life, is a signal that attracts results that match our quest for meaning, for transformation, or for consistency.

The artist has an amazing ability to understand things as they are, and as they must be in their ideal-- a guided exercise into creating a vision for what success looks like, and more importantly visually representing how it would look when one had reached it. So if the artist is creating harmony and beauty by the creative process, how does the average person adopt the artist's eye to appreciate the present, and the journey?

The Secret, and prepares a few key stepping stones of this Journey:

Step 1 is Asking with clarity what it is that you aspire to create.
Step 2 is Believing and Acting on a path that generates that reality.
Step 3 is Recieving the results of a person who is living in accordance with the creative ideal.

Free Work and Money Teleconference

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For those unfamiliar with Ryze, here is a great resource for career seekers. Accessing this powerful business and professional network is as simple as 1, 2, 3 before you can use the tool look for networking events and jobs. Here is a Getting Started Guide into the Features of benefit to a job seeker on Ryze.

Ryze allows professionals to add links to blogs and a company web site (job seekers might elect to provide a link to their online resume or a professional portfolio that summarizes their professional skills).