What Got You Here Wont Get You There The 3 Career Rules Keeping You Trapped In Your Shift

What Got You Here Wont Get You There The 3 Career Rules Keeping You Trapped In Your Shift Expert Advice > How to develop the mindset you need to shift What Got You Here Wont Get You There: The 3 Career Rules Keeping You Trapped In Your Shift * You're not stupid. So why are you so stuck? Natasha shares 3 'common sense' ideas that are so ingrained, you can't even see them â€" and how to un-learn them to start making progress in your career change. It was about 8 p.m. on a Thursday evening, and it was raining. The sun had gone down an hour earlier, but I hadn't got up to turn the lights on. Instead, I was sitting on my couch in the dark, staring into space. On the outside, I was perfectly still. But on the inside, I was churning. That day at work, I had, quite frankly, rocked the house. I had given a talk to the local police service on homelessness, submitted a 22-page report to help the organisation I was working for access more funding, convinced the local council to give an army veteran another chance to apply for housing, and helped a young woman fleeing domestic violence to move into her new home with her baby daughter. Problems solved, left, right, and centre. Solutions found to complex situations, a bit of creative thinking here, some solid planning coming to fruition there... and then I came home, put the kettle on, and commenced my regular ritual of sitting on my couch and feeling utterly lost and confused. I remember that sensation as being one of the most uncomfortable of my career change. I wasn't stupid. I wasn't helpless. I was smart and committed and I solved problems every day. So why couldn't I solve my own? Why couldn't I make sense of â€" or do anything about â€" my own career change? Sound familiar? You're an intelligent human being. You probably get paid to solve problems. And you do, all the time. So why does nothing you try seem to work when it comes to your shift? Why are you still so stuck? What got you here won't get you there Whether at school or at work, there's a set of skills that you've learned and refined over the years. Those skills have helped you progress and move up the ladder, whether from year to year in your education, or from promotion to promotion at work. But although career change happens in the world of work, moving sideways is not the same thing as moving up. You're on the same pitch, sure. But you're playing a new game, with a different set of rules. And yet, this isn't just about learning new skills and rules. It's about un-learning old ones, too. Because the ways of thinking and acting that work in career change aren't just different from what works to progress in one career. Many of them are actually polar opposites. The accepted rules that have helped you up to this point could actually be hindering you in your shift. And the toughest part? These ideas are so accepted, so well-practised, that they're automatic and almost invisible. Like gravity, you arrange your whole life around them, never imagining that they might actually be the cause of your stagnation. There are three fundamental ideas that are the biggest culprits. Let's take a closer look. 1. Know where you're going before you begin (a.k.a. “Start with the end in mind” / “Set a clear goal, and then make a plan” / “Eyes on the prize”, etc. etc.) Got your eye on a promotion? You know what to do. You find out everything you can about the new, superior role. What's required? When is a promotion likely to happen? What skills will you need? How can you prove your capabilities? Who do you need to impress / get noticed by? You get clear on the goal, and then you plot a path to get there. Running a business? Any successful company has a strategy and a business plan to achieve it. You envision the ambition, articulate every nut and bolt, and then you make a plan to move from where you are now to where you want to be. It's obvious, right? It makes sense. If you're considering a career change, it's also probably exactly what's keeping you stuck. You don't know where you want to end up yet. There is no 'end' in your mind. If you're like most of the career changers we work with at Careershifters, it's quite possible that the most specific you can get about where you want to be is “Not where I am now.” So you find yourself paralysed, waiting for inspiration to strike, loitering about miserably, in the hope that clarity will just arrive one day (preferably in the form of a well-articulated job title with clear candidate requirements) and then you can begin plotting your path to your future career. Here's the thing: 95% of the time, career change doesn't work that way. And to make a successful shift, you'll have to un-learn the by-now automatic urge to know what you're doing before you start. You have to learn to start anyway. In the face of huge uncertainty, with no idea if the action you're taking is going to get your closer to your ultimate goal, you have to act. Yes, it feels counter-intuitive. Yes, it feels like whatever action you take might be a massive waste of time. But the thing is â€" that time is going to pass anyway. And sitting on the couch waiting for a lightning bolt isn't getting you anywhere in the meantime… Clarity arises through action. With each thing you do, you learn something new. Whether it's discovering what you love or understanding what you really don't, every step you take (even in the darkness of uncertainty) gets you somewhere â€" somewhere you'll never reach if you're standing still. So what does this look like in practice? It means looking at every hunch, every 'maybe', as a thread to tug on â€" and then tugging on it. Like Willow Hearne, who had an idea for a business… but no idea where to start, or even what it would look like once she'd set everything up. But she made a start anyway: “I wanted a career that I could move around the country with, but that could also be flexible around my children. “I spent a long time contemplating what this could be and how I could make it work: it's not an easy thing to come by and it felt like I was asking a lot! “I didn't think [my business] was something I could do because I didn't know enough. “So I went to trade shows, read lots of articles online, studied lots of other companies, and talked to lots of contacts, printers and factories. Eventually my understanding of the processes grew enough for me to realise it was something I could do. I was also really enjoying learning about it all, so I decided to go for it. “I didn't have anything to lose by trying. Worst-case scenario was I sold all my stock at cost price, didn't earn anything, repaid my business loan and learnt an awful lot along the way.” It would have been easy for Willow to stay where she was, waiting until a perfectly formed 'future' fell into her lap. But she didn't. She made a start. Even with no idea what it would look like in the end, even with no idea if she could actually do it. And with every step forward she took, the clearer the final image became. “Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.” â€" E. L. Doctorow 2. Get it right (a.k.a: 'Success' = progress, messing up =embarrassing, wrong = bad) To get ahead in school, you had to get the answers right. If you answered questions correctly, people applauded. You moved up a year. If you failed the exam, it was embarrassing. Maybe you were held back. You were 'stupid'. It's not too dissimilar at work. Your project bombs, and people come by your desk to try to make you feel better about your embarrassing failure. You don't apply for the top-level role at your company, because you're not fully qualified and you don't want to look pathetic if you get rejected. And this career change you're considering? It's a ripe old festering ground of potential failures. You can smell the humiliation from here. What if you quit your job and it doesn't work out? What if everyone sees you fail? What if you try out that business idea you've been sitting on for months and nobody buys? What if you reach out to that person you admire and they don't get back to you? So much potential for screw-ups. So many things you could get wrong. And you've been taught your whole life that getting things wrong is a bad thing. So now, you're sitting at your desk like a rabbit in the headlights â€" frozen in fear of messing up, and making no progress whatsoever. Except… in career change, progress requires you to get things wrong. You have to un-learn the instinct to do only what you know can succeed, and instead learn to celebrate dead ends, mistakes, and out-and-out flops. You need to re-frame your relationship to failure. If you're not failing, you're not growing. One of the most famous examples of this different relationship to failure is billionaire founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely, whose father used to encourage her and her brother to share (and celebrate) their failures at the dinner table each week. In an interview for Fortune, Blakely said: “I didn't realise at the time how much this advice would define not only my future, but my definition of failure. I have realised as an entrepreneur that so many people don't pursue their idea because they were scared or afraid of what could happen. My dad taught me that failing simply just leads you to the next great thing.” This doesn't mean you should be setting out with the express intention of failure (although, like entrepreneur and TED speaker Jia Jiang, you might be surprised by how hard that can be). But it does mean allowing yourself the space to fail in small, low-risk ways. It means finding ways to explore your ideas (that won't leave you homeless and hungry) and replacing the pressure to win with the curiosity to learn. Maybe your request for an informational interview won't be accepted. Maybe you'll advertise your service on a local noticeboard and nobody will respond. Maybe you'll teach a class / give a talk / go to an event and it won't go as well as you'd hoped. Maybe you'll experiment with an idea you've kept (with a hopeful heart) on the back burner for years, and then find out that actually, it's never going to fit with your lifestyle. But if you don't try, you'll never know. And even if you do get a different outcome than you'd hoped for, you'll have discovered something you can learn from. When Lee took part in our Career Change Launch Pad, his approach to 'failure' transformed. Every dead end he hit, he turned into an opportunity to learn... “I applied for a programme called On Purpose, which teaches you how to shift out of the private sector through two six-month placements in socially minded businesses. “I went through the three stages of interviews and failed at the last one â€" I didn't make it onto the course. “But with a Career Change Launch Pad tool named 'The Bold Request' in my back pocket, I decided not to let that stop me. I went back to the head of the organisation, and said to him: “'Look, I know I didn't get through the interviews, but I think I've got something to offer this sector. Would you meet me for a 15-minute coffee one morning before work?' “And he did. So we had a coffee, and I told him what I was interested in, and where I thought I might fit, and he gave me the names of three people he thought I should speak to.” And then…. “I made an offer to the guy who's now my boss.” The offer was this: “'I'll come and work for you for a week, for free. And if at the end you like what I've done, you can pay me â€" and if you don't think I'm any good at it, don't pay me.' “I took this really unconventional, exciting action and then… nothing happened. “I thought, 'OK, that's another failure'. “But then, the following January, he got in touch to ask what I was up to. “I met him on a Thursday for a couple of hours, and on the Tuesday I had a job offer in my inbox.” No more straitjacket of success, ladies and gentlemen; no more uptight-but-getting-it-right. It's time to get gloriously, playfully unapologetic about trying and trying and trying again. It's time to fall flat on your face and come up smiling, because you've discovered something new. Because you've been brave enough to make the attempt. And because a dead end is not, in fact, an end â€" it's a roundabout. “Failure is success in progress” â€" Albert Einstein 3. You're on your own (a.k.a: “Your career, your problem”, “keep calm and carry on”) How you do in the world of work is up to you. At school, nobody can take the exam for you. When it comes down to what matters, you're on your own. Nobody can take a job interview for you, either. You're on your own. Up for a promotion? Either you get it, or you don't. It's down to you. You're on your own. So if you've wound up in the wrong career, it's nobody else's fault. And it's not their problem, either. Other people have their own lives to think about, their own issues to deal with. The question of your work is a question of your work. It's up to you. Right? Except…. your career isn't just about your work, and it's not just about you. How you feel about your career has an impact on every area of your life: your physical health, your energy levels, your sleep patterns, and, crucially, your relationships. When you've had a tough day at work, your partner knows about it (and when every day is a tough day at work, they really know about it.) Your friends have heard it all a thousand times. Your family has watched you struggle for months, for years. What you do for work â€" and how you feel about it â€" has an impact on everyone around you. And frankly, the more help you get with anything in your life â€" be it moving house or moving a bookshelf â€" the faster it moves (and the faster you can stop chewing everyone's ear off about it, too). So you have to un-learn the habit of struggling alone. You have to start letting people in. Actually, it goes further than that. You have to start inviting people in. Asking for their support. Some people in your life will be supportive from the outset. Others will take some persuading. A few will be staunch naysayers from start to finish. And there are thousands that you haven't met yet who would love the opportunity to help you out. You just haven't asked them yet. Alison Hall took part in our Career Change Launch Pad, a big part of which is focused on building a powerful community to support you. After years of keeping her misery at work secret from the people around her, she started sharing her career change dreams with as many people as possible. And at every stage of the game, it paid off. She found support from people she knew and loved â€" and discovered (to her amazement) that her favourite career idea came from someone she'd known for years... “My biggest turning point on the course was when I started the Connecting section â€" when we learned how to reach out and connect with people who could help you with your shift. “I suddenly had this influx of people all getting in touch and offering their help and ideas and support, and one of them was a woman I'd known for 16 years. “She looked at what I'd written in my email, and she said: 'You know, everything you've described here sounds a lot like Business Psychology…' “It felt like a jigsaw puzzle clicking into place.” But it wasn't just old friends coming through for her. Alison was also blown away by how ready â€" how hungry â€" total strangers were to get in her corner and help her succeed. “So much of making a successful shift is about making it clear to the world that you're interested, and eager, and open to playing. Once you start doing that, people just pop into your life and offer you amazing things. “For example, I signed up to go to a conference run by the Association for Business Psychology. “It was slightly intimidating being there, surrounded by all these business psychologists while I was still a lawyer, but within about ten minutes I'd met this woman in the hallway who'd transitioned herself from banking. She was also doing her Master's, and she'd volunteered to help organise the conference. The next day I got an email from her saying, 'I think you should join the team to organise next year's event.' “We're now three months into organising the conference, I'm having a great time, and it's been a huge asset to my Master's applications. “I've asked people if I can work-shadow them, I've connected with strangers on LinkedIn who ended up being great assets and supports… before the Launch Pad I just wouldn't have had the confidence to do things like that.” There are a whole host of skills to learn as a career changer that will help you move faster in your shift. But before they can be put into practice in their fullest expression, you have to un-learn the skills and rules and grand narratives of the old games you've been playing for years. That un-learning process can be hard. You have to start by seeing the old rules for what they are â€" made-up guidelines that have worked for you thus far, but might not be in your best interests any more. And then you need to train yourself out of them. Many are so ingrained by now that they're knee-jerk responses; behaving any differently feels as counter-intuitive (and potentially risky) as giving up on gravity. But with every little nudge toward a new way of being, a whole new world of possibilities open up in front of you. Which of these career 'rules' do you most need to un-learn? Let me know in the comments below!

11 Tips for Building a Strong Personal Brand Online (INFOGRAPHIC)

11 Tips for Building a Strong Personal Brand Online (INFOGRAPHIC) Have you ever noticed how you’re more likely to opt for a retailer or service provider that you’ve heard of, or whose profile seems more convincing online that a competitor with a good offer but whose name means nothing to you? That’s branding at work â€" and these days, it’s more subtle and complex than ever. When you’re searching for a job, or making yourself available to approaches, your own brand needs to be just as sturdy as that of the businesses to whom you offer your patronage. And while yes, this can mean using symbols, designs and paid publicity, it is important to match your online ambitions to your own character and skills. After all, it is more important for your brand to be strong and consistent than showy and hi-tech. Indeed, the first place you need to visit is not Photoshop or GoDaddy but your heart. Your online brand can never be fully deleted â€" it will be comprised of every manifestation of yourself you leave online over the years â€" so once you decide to take control of it you need to be specific about just what it is you stand for. Decide what makes you unique, what your ambitions are, what value you can offer, and the tone with which you would like to convey yourself. Most importantly, be consistent across platforms and across time. Putting together these platforms is the easy bit. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook â€" they all put the tools in your hands, and anything you’re not sure on how to setup, you can quickly Google a tutorial for. What’s tougher is maintaining these profiles and your general online presence with regularity and consistency, and that’s where you’ll need to find your voice, and your imagination. Help is on hand with the infographic below from Headway Capital, which guides you through the steps you need to find that momentum â€" and create the brand you need to get you where you want to go.

How to look younger for your career

How to look younger for your career Maybe you think Im taking a cue from Cosmo here: Look Younger at Any Age! Before I lose you, let me just say that its pretty true that anyone, at any age, is better off being younger when they interview. Example? This is what the age problems looks like, at each age: Age 15-20. People hate entitled upstarts. I know because I was one.  When I was 16 and working for my grandma at her bookstore, I staged  an insurrection due to low pay. I went to the bookstore at the other end of the street and asked for a job. Believe me, when I was complaining about my grandma as a boss, it would have been better if I were five years old, because thats pretty much how I sounded. The best way to get your way and not be annoying is to look young while youre getting your way. People think maybe you dont really see what youre doing. Think about it: who  can begrudge a seven-year-old a raise? Age 20-30. If you have a straight career path, with no jumps, gaps or leaps, you will be in a race against all the other perfect performers. Your age is the signifier of how fast you could get to the top. The younger you seem, the more of a workforce prodigy you appear to be. If you have a winding career path while you figure out what you want to be when you grow up, then you are constantly finding new, entry-level jobs. But the entry-level jobs most often go to the youngest person, in the hope that this is one of those prodigies  who is going to have a straight career path. The older you get the more mistakes you needed to make in order to still be looking for entry level jobs. You can only pull off that routine if youre 20. And if youre 23 competing with that 20-year-old, then youre too old. Age 30-40. This is when your life should be closing in on you. People no longer shower you with platitudes like Youre so smart! You could do anything! You get married, have a kid or two, and get the sense that you can see the rest of your life ahead of you. You can keep your options open longer by pretending to be at the beginning of this decade instead of the end. People will be willing to take more risks on you. If youre a man. If youre a woman you need to look so young that no one thinks youre going to spend the decade pregnant, taking off work to go to  doctors appointments. In any case, 40 looms large, because everyones salary pretty much tops out at age 40. The best way to keep that from happening is to be like Jessica Chastain  and shave some years off your life. Age 40-50. If you can fake being 10% younger, you will face 50% less discrimination. This is not based on anything but my own experience. But the numbers are pretty much right. Otherwise youre competing against 25-year-olds. And they will work for  very little money  because they are stuck in extended emerging adulthood  and theyre hoping the best is yet to come. For a great primer on these problems, watch the TV show Younger. Its about a woman who is 40 who has to get a job, and after getting turned down everywhere, she pretends to be 25 and gets a great job.  I cant decide if its painful to watch her have a 25-year-old boyfriend, but its fascinating to watch her fake it at work. Which brings me to proposed solutions for aging, which are, in some cases,  less drastic (and preposterous)  than that  TV scenario. Botox. Start when youre 25 so you dont get a wrinkle above your nose. This is not controversial. The controversial Botox is on your temples, where its $3000 to fill them in and, just, why? I never hated my temples until my last Botox trip when the nurse  pointed out to me how we subconsciously judge someones age by the caved-in-ness of their temples. Okay. Face lift. Breast lift. Hair lift. Whatever. These are obvious and do them if you have that much money. But then Im thinking, if you have that much money to spend, why are you worrying about getting a job? So surgery is of course the best way to shave a decade from your life. But if thats not an option, you can go the opposite direction, and specialize. If you specialize then you do not have to compete against younger people. The more specialized you arewith a stellar track record, of coursethe more immune you are from the young people nipping at your heels. Another tactic is to  take a decade off your life on your resume. Literally. Just  delete any job from more than ten years ago. And take the dates off your education section. But be careful: a lot of people do that, but then they give themselves away by being an oldster and not even knowing it. So pay heed: Use only a Gmail address. Nothing else. No street address. Just the city. Put dots  in your phone number. (Melissa.tells.me.this.is.modern.) Put something weird in your school section. Only young people put clubs or awards or junior year abroad because they are still so proud. Its too much detail for an older personschool is too far away. So add something extraneous down there in the education section. Itll make people think you need to grow up. Take better selfies because Google never forgets. There are rules, based on science.  Use them. Good lighting. Soft filter. Face is 1/3 of the picture. I was going to put this  photo up top. But I broke two  important rules, which is that if youre a woman, show long hair and cut off your forehead. (Though maybe I mitigated that by following a bigger rule, which is have a Millennial edit your photos.) So instead, for my picture at the top I used another rule, that I just made up, which is know your best body part. (Also, do those burrs stuck to my  skirt make me look younger? A good question for an enterprising researcher.) Speak their language.  Lets call this generational code switching.  If youre in your 40s you  could try doing a lot less work at work. The Economist reports that after polling representatives of all three generations, it turns out that Gen Xers (entering their 40s) work much harder than Millennials (entering  their 30s). If youre in your 50s you can fake people out by wearing a Bernie Sanders sticker, because old people like Hillary. If youre in your 30s you could try ditching Facebook and act like the younger generation that  thinks Facebook is  stupid.  But nothing  here is foolproof. And eventually  the age thing catches up to you: I would never have guessed, in my 30s, how much attention I was getting  in my career just because I was young and hot. I thought I was simply a genius. But good looks are to a career  like a lighthouse is to a ship: you dont know whether you can actually navigate until the light goes out. Something I noticed about investors is that a lot of them have piles of money that they really dont need any more. But they do want a more interesting life. And for sure they need to look younger. So they invest in crazy, fun, innovative entrepreneurs.  Female entrepreneurs are even better, because  who doesnt want to hang out with a smart, hot, woman? So you see my problem: its hard to sustain that game. So I found a solution: I go to as few meetings as possible. The older I get, the more work it is to deal with the investors in person. So two weeks ago, I just cancelled. I said I couldnt make the flight that week and offered the next week. The investors looked at their calendars. They are busy. Looking took a while. They could both do it at the beginning of the week. Oh shoot! I said. I cant get there til the end of the week. So we did the meeting on the phone. Great. I was in my pajamas. I was happy to be talking to them. I like them. And  I like that theyre old: they dont mind  when I need more money. And they dont ever  suggest we  use FaceTime. And I hope, in twenty years, when Im their age, people will be  glad that Im old, too.

100 Inspirational Graphic Design Blogs For 2019 - Algrim.co

100 Inspirational Graphic Design Blogs For 2019 - Algrim.co Looking for a creative jolt to make 2019 your best design year ever? Look no further than this list of 100 of the most inspiring, thought-provoking graphic design blogs from expert designers all over the world. I hope you enjoy this list as for me, it was difficult to find a list of great graphic design blogs. It seems as though its something not too many people are blogging about, which is a true shame. Some of these on the list are sites you might not have heard of, which is the hope. If you have any other inspirational graphic design sites that aren't on this list, please email me and I would be happy to consider them as part of this effort. Any social share or link from your blog or website to this would be truly appreciated and would show these amazing writers and creators how much you enjoy the time they put into what they do. 1. Smashing Magazine Smashing Magzine offers insight on design usability, how to improve SEO and UX, and best practices for intelligent mobile design. 2. Envato Tuts + Envato Tuts + is a great resource for tutorials on skills and shortcuts for all design element, plus articles about new design trends and tools. 3. Noupe Noupe is a great resource for designers who need to align with corporate marketing standards but don't want to stifle their creativity. If you're a corporate designer with an itch to color outside the lines, check out this blog. 4. Design Soak Design Soak shines a spotlight on the best design talent from all over the world. Articles feature project displays and inspiring visual imagery. 5. Telepathy With a large focus on UI and UX, Telepathy offers a huge library of articles for designers with an interest in functional design and a better user experience. 6. Creative Overflow With articles encompassing professional advice, tutorials, visual inspiration, and design resources, Creative Overflow has something for design professionals of all backgrounds. 7. Creative Bloq Creative Bloq offers its readers daily tips, visual inspiration, and complementary resources to help designers hone their skills and grow their talents. 8. Graphic Mama One of the foremost leaders for vector graphics, infographics, and illustrations, Graphic Mama offers its audience free templates and graphics and a wealth of design tips and articles. 9. Dribbble As unique as its name, Dribbble is a playground for designers to show off their best work and receive feedback from their peers. Browse work, promote your own designs and give and receive advice on design elements. 10. Graphic Design Junction With hundreds of articles featuring topics like logos, fonts, and typography, Graphic Design Junction has information on all facets of design, as well as freebies and monthly giveaways. 11. How Design Blog How Design Blog features the latest news, trends and cutting-edge design samples to inspire creativity. 12. TemplateMonster Post TemplateMonster Post focuses on WordPress-related design. With free resources, best practices, and helpful tips for navigating the WordPress niche of the design world, it’s a valuable resource for web designers. 13. From Up North From Up North features a gallery-style collection of inspiring designs and themes. It’s updated bi-monthly with fresh, new work from all over the world. 14. You the Designer As one of the industry’s foremost design lifestyle blogs, You the Designer focus on industry trends and highlights from designers of all styles. 15. Logoed If you’re looking for beautiful logo designs and inspiration for new layouts, look no further than Logoed. 16. Trendland Trendland has a huge menu of topics to choose from, including tech, fashion, and design illustrations from all industries. 17. Booooooom Based in Canada, Booooooom features edgy and avant-garde illustrations to inspire thought-provoking new perspectives on design. 18. Packaging Digest For industrial designers, Packaging Digest showcases industrial designs from all industries and offers best practices for designers in the packaging industry. 19. Packaging of the World Even if your primary focus isn’t packaging design, Packaging of the World is a great resource to inspire creativity about product and brand design elements. 20. I Love Typography I Love Typography features the world’s most popular fonts, as well as training articles, tips, and interviews with experts in typography. 21. Type everything Type everything features letter types of all colors, types, and sizes, handpicked by artists. You can browse information about fonts as well as purchase the fonts that catch your eye. 22. Incredible Types With beautiful typography from across the globe, Incredible Types features each design in both black and white and color. 23. Motionographer Motionographer is a unique blog for designers who focus on animation and telling stories through moving designs. 24. Juxtapoz Juxtapoz highlights illustrations from both established and emerging new artists. The blog is always fresh, with updates every day. 25. Logo Pond For small business logo design, Logo Pond is a great resource to check out work from your peers and share your own work to promote your business. 26. Brand New Although Brand New has been around for about ten years, it holds true to its name, posting new updates almost daily with content and insights from designers. 27. DavidAirey.com David Airey is the author of Logo Design Love and Work For Money, Design For Love. He is world-renowned for his graphic design talent that extends from logos to swimming pool design. 28. Onextrapixel Onextrapixel gives its readers free resources, tutorials, freebies, and giveaways every month. With articles about photography, illustrations, and fonts, Oneextrapixel is a one-stop shop. 29. CreativeNerds In addition to blog articles and creative roundups on a variety of topics, CreativeNerds offers a YouTube channel with helpful tutorials for designers. 30. Designhill For design entrepreneurs looking for inspiration to grow their businesses, Designhill is the place to not only get valuable insight and interactive guides but to also submit work to be featured on their website. 31. Specky Boy Design Specky Boy Design’s online magazine features new posts every week for tips and articles to inspire creative web and graphic designs. 32. Line25 Although Line25 has a heavy focus on website design, it is managed by graphic design expert Chris Spooner and incorporates resources and tutorials for designers of all kinds. 33. Inspiration Feed Inspiration Feed features helpful information for start-up design firms, along with social media advice and business tips. 34. Graphic Design Blender Graphic Design Blender offers think-outside-the-box for dealing with difficult clients, pricing your services and designs and building a website that will get noticed by your audience. 35. DesignBeep With tutorials, freebies and other free resources, DesignBeep offers weekly roundups with inspirational web design and creative visuals. 36. Design Festival Design Festival is one of the premier blogs for step-by-step guides and design inspiration. With plenty of free resources, designers of all interests and backgrounds can find something to spur creativity. 37. AisleOne AisleOne is a diverse blog that features resources for both minimalist and modern design, as well as a wide range of typography styles. 38. 99Designs Blog 99Designs Blog is a UK-based site that includes some of the industry’s best crowd-sourced content and is updated frequently with engaging, thought-provoking content. 39. The Next Web’s Creative News The Next Web’s Creative News is a supercharged resource for design professionals looking for the latest trends and tips to keep their design skills on the cutting edge. 40. Hongkiat Hongkiat has one of the largest repositories of design tutorials, resources, and inspiration boards available. Topics include design strategies from a wide variety of niches. 41. Designrfix Designrfix offers frequent “design deals,” freebies and resources as well as articles from expert designers. 42. Designer Daily Design trends change at the speed of light. Blogs like Designer Daily that are updated every day are a great resource to stay ahead of trends in the industry. 43. Graphic Mania With free vector packs, captivating imagery and numerous design tutorials, Graphic Mania is an all-in-one resource for designers. 44. Company Folders Blog The Company Folders Blog is full of easily digested listicle-type articles and resources for designers, with content updated frequently. 45. Design Juices Design Juices spotlights interviews with designers and offers follow-up articles and materials to support new design trends. 46. Roberto Blake Roberto Blake does an excellent job of using video tutorials as an educational resource for great design. His blog and channel are full of advice for designers of all experience levels. 47. Creative Roots With art and design from all over the world, Creative Roots also lets readers filter resources by country. 48. Dexigner Dexigner is an intuitive resource portal for creative professionals of all types, including designers, illustrators, and artists. 49. HND Graphics HND Graphics approaches design from an academic perspective. It’s curated by Richmond Upon Thames College and offers resources and advice to young designers. 50. Boagworld Paul Boag, the graphic design expert behind Boagworld describes his blog as a source for “Advice on Every Area of Digital and User Experience.” It’s entertaining and chock full of great information. 51. Designmodo While Designmodo focuses heavily on developer-related resources, it does an excellent job of tying in UI and UX best practices for graphic designers. 52. Spyre Studios Spyre Studios is a crowd favorite for designers looking for intermediate web tutorials and design inspiration. 53. Vandelay Design A popular blog for general interest articles, Vandelay Design offers resources from a wide variety of design topics, for both web and print design. 54. Spoon Graphics The UK-based blog Spoon Graphics covers nearly every touchpoint within the design process and also offers free web-based tutorials. 55. Awwwards Blog The Awwwards Blog is known for their web design awards, but their blog content is not to be overlooked. It’s a wealth of valuable information on design topics and trends. 56. I Can Be Creative The I Can Be Creative blog offers free design resources and information about the latest trends to fuel design inspiration. 57. Design Follow Design Follow offers just what its name implies-- a resource for designers to follow for the latest design trends and topics. 58. Interactive Red Blog For designers who focus mainly on the digital and interactive side of design, the Interactive Red Blog is a valuable source of information for the latest on mobile and digital design technology. 59. Web Designer Depot Web Designer Depot isn’t just popular with web designers. It’s also a comprehensive resource for general design topics and trends. 60. UX Magazine UX Magazine links design trends to the world of user experience, with resources explaining how to apply design techniques to UX. 61. The Logo Smith Graham Smith’s Logo Smith Blog is an endless resource for design inspiration and stories about Graham’s personal experience as a freelance graphic designer. 62. Branding Served Branding Served curates and “serves up” the industry’s best design resources and content. 63. Logogeek Logogeek is a collection of exceptionally well-written and thoughtful articles related to logo and branding. 64. Lovely Stationery Offering a curated collection of the most creative stationery designs, Lovely Stationery is a source for inspiration for designers of all kinds. 65. Type for You A blog about typography, Type for You includes font inspiration and news, along with interviews from design experts. 67. Type Token Type Token shines a spotlight on the latest trends in typography and visual languages, prompting conversation and collaboration among readers. 68. Iain Claridge Blog Ian Claridge’s blog is described as “a repository for random morsels of ocular delight” and for good reason, with its host of beautiful imagery. 69. We and the Color With daily posts containing new art and design, there is almost something new to see at We and the Color. 70. Inspired Mag True to its name, Inspired Mag is a design blog that focuses on the inspirational side to design and development. 71. Site Inspire Site Inspire showcases the world’s most beautiful websites for design inspiration. 72. The Inspiration Hut The Inspiration Hut offers not only daily doses of art and design but also makes free downloads available to readers. 73. Co. Design With a wide range of topics from gadgets to global news, Co. Design adds an interesting spin to design topics and keeps readers engaged. 74. Justcreative Justcreative is a must-read resource for young designers. It not only offers information about the latest trends but also explains how to break into the design business. 75. NuSchool NuSchool has an endless repository of articles that approach design from an educational angle. 76. Freelance Folder Freelance Folder is one of the best blogs for design freelancers, offering tips about successfully managing an independent design business. 77. Clients from Hell Clients From Hell offers hilarious and cringe-worthy stories about terrible design clients. Sure to make you feel better during a bad day. 78. Paul Jarvis’ Blog With a simple, but beautiful site construction, Paul Jarvis offers expert insights to designers based on his own experience. 79. Cameron Moll’s Blog In his blog, Cameron Moll talks about all things design, putting a witty spin on each topic he touches. 80. Subtraction With a sleek, minimalist layout, Subtraction is a simple, easy-to-navigate resource for busy designers. 81. Stuff and Nonsense With a site description like “stuff and nonsense and all that malarkey,” you can be assured that the content on Stuff and Nonsense is always witty and interesting. 82. Ciera Design Ciera specializes in helpful tips for freelance designers with a range of topics and resources. 83. Rair Rair goes beyond traditional design advice to provide helpful hints for design start-ups and legal issues. 84. Pinnate Road Kelsey, of Pinnate Road, is an expert on running a successful freelance design business. 85. Brent Galloway’s Blog Brent shares experience about his day to day life as a graphic designer, with helpful best practices and tips for success. 86. Siever’s Creative For insights about marketing, web design and advertising, check out Siever’s Creative. It is updated frequently and always has something new. 87. TheHotSkills TheHotSkills is a design gallery site teeming with creative ideas for websites that also offers tips for design success. 88. CSS Tricks For designers who want to brush up on web skills, CSS Tricks offers posts and tutorials to help hone development abilities. 89. Shopify Blog Even if you don’t specialize in retail-focused design, Shopify’s blog will inspire creativity with articles and tips from expert designers. 90. Wix Wix offers the latest news and information about web design tools and elements for web and graphic designers. 91. Good UI Good UI is a frequently-updated library of inspiration for UI designers. It also offers a tool to track your skill development as you work through the library. 92. Naldz Graphics Readers of Naldz Graphics have access to daily freebies and tutorials to incorporate into their own designs. 93. SitePoint SitePoint is a hub for web and design professionals with an interest in development, SEO and entrepreneurship. 94. Codrops Codrops is a wealth of tutorials, design blueprints, and content focusing on the latest in design trends. 95. Web Designer Wall A little over ten years old, Web Designer Wall is one of the industry’s most-featured blogs for its beautiful design and rich content. 96. Web Design Ledger With several new articles available every single day, Web Design Ledger’s sole goal is to provide valuable information to designers in the form of tips, articles, and interviews. 97. 1st Web Designer 1st Web Designer teachers designers how to design a website from scratch with tips for using CSS templates and WordPress themes. 98. Bashooka Developers and designers alike will benefit from Bashooka’s creative design ideas and tutorials. 99. Instant Shift Instant Shift is a community of designers providing information about plugins, Photoshop, CSS and virtually any other design tool. 100. 24 Ways 24 Ways publish a different design-related post every day in December to set designers up for success in 2019.

Tips For Writing a Resume For a US Customs and Border Protection Job

Tips For Writing a Resume For a US Customs and Border Protection JobThe first step when writing a resume for a US Customs and Border Protection position is to think of your strengths. Make sure to mention your skills and qualifications and how they can help the agency. There is more than one service that US Customs and Border Protection provide to the nation, so you need to create a positive impression about what you can do for the agency.Ask yourself a specific detail about the position. You want to list the specifics of what you would be responsible for and what kind of work you will be doing. You also want to outline any special qualifications you have such as experience in drug smuggling or intelligence activities. These are some of the key things to include on your resume.Next, take note of your weaknesses and what those are in addition to your strengths. These will help you become an excellent applicant. You need to include them because the US Customs and Border Protection cann ot afford to have applicants who lack the required skills for the job.When you write your resume you need to consider certain things. First, you must put your best foot forward. Your resume must be formatted in a way that allows the applicant to see and understand what you have to offer. One way to make this possible is to make sure that you use the right font size and the right typeface.Do not just rely on the first resume that you see because it is often not the best. If you are applying for a new position or if you want to add your expertise to the already existing personnel that work in the agency, then read through the requirements for the position. That means double-checking the job description, listing out what you can do, and making sure to list any special qualifications you may have. Write the best resume possible. When writing your own resume, you should keep in mind the points outlined above and take it to the next level. If you want to write a custom resume then you can contact one of the companies that offer this service. Another option is to use one of the resume services that will do the work for you. They will find you a virtual resume that they can design and send directly to the agency.One of the many benefits of using one of these services is that they can create one of many different versions of your resume in a matter of minutes. All of them can be tailored to specific job listings in a matter of hours. That will save you time and allow you to focus on other aspects of your job search.Writing a resume for a US Customs and Border Protection job can be done quickly and easily. It is important to know exactly what the agency is looking for so that you can highlight your qualities. You can tell how to write a custom resume and go on to gain the necessary experience to get the job you want.

Where Have all of the Jobs Gone - CareerAlley

Where Have all of the Jobs Gone - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Some people dream of success while others wake up and work hard at it. Author Unknown Author Byline: Frank B. Leibold, PhD. Author Website: www.CareerSuccessSkills.com Increasingly newspaper headlines across America are asking this question. In addition to cutting jobs due to the recession and to increase profitability, companies are looking overseas to save money in labor costs. According to Forrester Research, over the next fifteen years over three million US service industry jobs and up to $136 billion in wages will move overseas to countries including India, Russia, China and the Philippines. Forrester also notes that 88 percent of the firms said they got better value for their money overseas and 71 percent said overseas workers did better quality work. A Deloitte Research survey reports that the worlds 100 largest financial-services companies expect to transfer about $356 billion of their operations and two million jobs offshore over the next five years. Its not just technology jobs that are leaving the United States. Jobs in just about every sector are going abroad including mortgage processors, claims adjusters, financial analysts, telemarketers and a variety of other job titles. I believe the US economy has absorbed the current unemployment level through innovation, re-structuring and productivity gains. With 70 million baby-boomers yet to retire the workforce is at its peak to accomplish this. In my view these 15 million underemployed jobs are structurally gone! The Labor Departments DLS indicates that there are six job seekers for each job opening and 46 percent of those unemployed have been for over six months both historical highs. But there is a more important issue facing future job seekers and the US economy. Closing Americas Global Skills Gap Many American companies find themselves ill-equipped to grow because of a lack of skilled workers according 2005 report by the National Association of Manufactures The Growing Skills Gap. Interestingly, the skill gap is no longer in the high technology area but rather in workplace attitudes of dependability, attendance and the basic skills of the 3 Rs. But the skill gap is also not just a large manufacturing company problem. A 2002 U. S. Chamber of Commerce report Keeping Competitive indicates that 73 percent of surveyed small companies with less that 50 employees are experiencing severe or very severe problems in hiring qualified workers. The study also indicated that 40 percent of all job applicants had poor or no employment skills. The National Business Alliance (NBA) co-sponsored, along with the American Council on Education (ACE), the Business Higher Education Forum (BHEF) a group of CEOs and university chancellors examining and speaking jointly on issues of national concern. The BHEF has issued three reports Spanning the Chasm: Corporate and Academic Cooperation to Improve Workforce Preparation , Spanning the Chasm:A Blueprint for Action and in 2008 Corporate Investment in College Readiness and Access. All three focus on the connection between higher education and the world of work, specifically how well the linkage works for employers, graduates, and institutions. Americas competitive edge in the 21st century global economy will greatly depend on a healthy spirit of collaboration between business and higher education as colleges and universities prepare graduates to take their place in the nations workforce. The American Council on Education indicated in 2002 that the quality of the nations elementary and secondary schooling is inadequate to meet the needs of the 21st century. The US Department of Educations 2001-2002 biennial survey of over 35,000 faculty at 358 American colleges disturbingly revealed that the surveyed faculty believed that only 32 percent of new students are academically prepared for college. In 2003 ASTD issued a white paper titled The Human Capital Challenge. It indicated now more than ever the success of public and private organizations in the United States depends on the knowledge and capabilities of their employees. Followed in 2006 by ASTDs Bridging the Skill Gap, which focused on talent management and the coordination required between training and human resources to develop lacking 21st century skills in the workforce. In 2005, Deloitte Consulting surveyed human resource executives nationwide and more than 70 percent of the 123 respondents said incoming workers with inadequate skills pose the greatest threat to business performance over the next three years, followed by baby boomer retirement (61 percent) and the inability to retain key talent (55 percent). They also found that respondents indicated that they expect to lose 11 percent of their workforce by 2008 due to boomers early retirement at 62. These findings are highlighted in the Deloitte Research report Its 2008:Do you Know Where Your Talent Is? This American awakening of the lack of competitive global skills and how damaging it is to our international competitiveness has been most recently discussed by US president Barak OBama, when he addressed the nation to discuss his 2009-2010 budget and the national priorities of his administration. The only way we can compete globally is to provide our young people with a world class education, he said. Unfortunately, we have only made marginal progress as a nation in the last two decades since the problem has been documented and its cause has been squarely place on Americas public school system. The president is pushing for not only higher standards but longer school periods the Japanese have had longer school days including Saturdays, for over two decades. Invented Here: The Report on the Future of the South, issued by the Southern Governors Association (SGA) says, A regions performance in the knowledge economy can rise no higher than the sum of the knowledge of its people. At a recent conference concerning human capital strategies held by SGA, the U. S. presidents of Mercedes Benz, Toyota, and Michelin spoke on their rural Southern workforce. Their factory workers make $60 to 85,000 a year managing computer integrated manufacturing lines that control robots at several work stations. Employees rotate jobs on a daily and monthly basis, meaning that workers need to know how to perform eight to ten different jobs. The skills these workers need to succeed are related to their knowledge and conceptual talents. Success in the new technology-driven economy will require new skills and competencies that allow people to perform multiple assignments; have over a dozen different jobs and five to seven distinct careers necessitating possession of universal portable core competencies. So transferable skill-sets, or competencies, have become the new currency for success and future employability. In the near future skills defined as critical thinking, creative problem solving, communication and collaboration (the four Cs) will become even more important to organizations according to a new survey conducted by American Management Association (AMA) issued in April 2010. The AMA recommends that public education merge the four Cs with the traditional three Rs in its curriculum as it acknowledges the skills gap. Losing Americas Economic Dominance In 2006, the US Conference Board surveyed 431 human resource managers and issued its report, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnerships for 21st Century Skills. It revealed that Americas future workforce was ill prepared for the required 21st century skills; 70 percent of those surveyed indicated new employees had work skill deficiencies; and almost four out of ten didnt have a high school education. A 2006 report by the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), America In The Global Economy looked at Americas last 50 years of economic dominance and concluded: The US superiority came from scale, innovation and educational achievement. That 5,000 companies were spending 2.7 percent of GDP on research and development.. Through the late 1970s, America far exceeded other nations in the 25-64 age bracket of those who had graduated from high school. In the late 1990s we had the most college graduates. From 1980-2000, 58 percent of the workforce had some college education. However, by 2030, Indias population will exceed Chinas, and China will have the largest economy by 2040. Now Canada has proportionally the most college graduates, and shortly Russia, Norway, the Czech Republic and Japan will have more high school graduates than the US. So Americas scale advantage will be exceeded soon by China and India and its educational advantage has slipped to sixth. Additionally in 2004, the US graduated 70,000 engineers, India over 280,000 and China greater than 800,000potentially threatening Americas third dominance factor: innovation. The Six Lifelong Transferable Competencies (LTCs) These six LTCs, are reflective of new millennium challenges. They are not traits, habits, or specific activities; but individual competencies that require a sub-set of related activities that must be mastered. To succeed today one and ones organization must be driven by satisfying the changing customers needs. Your customer may be either external or internal. All organizations need effective and efficient problem solvers who can utilize technology to meet the customers need in a response time that provides a sustainable competitive advantage through added value and service. In order to perform effectively in todays multicultural society it is important to have a global perspective and cultural understanding and sensitivity. One must be motivated and persistent for the right reasons; realizing that you can increase your motivation substantially to face unforeseen future challenges. Managers must also motivate their organizations towards the same goals. The root of all effective motivation is a healthy amount of self-esteem. Managing ones career to have multiple and varied job assignments, including an international position, will develop the needed skill-sets. A formal career plan, along wi th feedback from candid and trusted friends for realism, and a mentor to assist you is navigating ones career moves is critical to career success. Finally, living a balanced and healthy life with time devoted to family and outside work activities is now recognized as also essential to life and career success. The Conference Boards research confirms that American business finds new entrants to the workforce lacking in the skills required to be globally competitive both today and for the demands of the coming years. Frank Leibold, in his new book-Competencies That Close Americas Global Skill Gap- recognizes and analyzes this deficit and offers individuals specific guidance on how to overcome these skill gaps. His advice is important for those just entering the workforce who may find they need skills heretofore unlearned. However, his advice may be even more critical for those more seasoned workers who are challenged by having to reinvent themselves in this new economic reality, where companies are requiring employees to take on more responsibility for their personal and professional well-being? Mary Wright, Project Leader, Workforce Readiness Initiative,The Conference Board Summary Despite a $862 billion job stimulation legislation last year the slow and unsteady economic recovery has been jobless. Some claim that the uncertainties of new medical and financial legislation have prevented companies from spending an estimated $1.3 trillion in capital. Others point to jobs moving to lower wage rate countries. However it should be clear that tomorrows jobs will require new competencies that close Americas global skills gap. Author Bio: Frank Leibold after a distinguished 30-year business career with three multinational corporations-culminating in the position of Group President-re-tooled himself and obtained his PhD.. Frank then became a nationally recognized university professor of marketing while founding his own global management consulting company. He and his wife reside in South Carolina and spend time traveling to visit and spoil their nine grand-childrentwo in Australia. His new book: The Key To Job Success In Any Career will be published in October 2010 by Outskirts Press excerpts form the basis for this article. Good luck in your search.//

I Just Did My Job

I Just Did My Job If I had a dollar for every time I heard a job seeker say, I just did my job, I dont have any accomplishments, I would be so rich.   So why are you so humble?   Why cant you take some credit where credit is due?   Thats all we are asking you to do.   But, why, you ask, are accomplishments important?   Because, your next employer wants to see and hear a demonstration of your skills. They want to know that you will be a good hiring decision and that means, you will stick around, pitch in and help out when asked, do your job well, and ultimately help make the company money. An accomplishment is any time you successfully did your job.   It is a short story.   Think of a time when there was a problem (probably daily). Try and brainstorm answers to some of these questions: What were you proud of doing at work? What did you do better than others around you? Were you ever recognized (formally or informally) for work that you did? Did you ever go above and beyond what was required of you? Were you ever selected to be a part of a team or train others? Did you identify and solve a problem? Did you save time and/or money? Have you improved productivity? Have you ever streamlined operations? Did you devise new strategies? Did you minimize customer complaints? Did you provide a service that did not exist before? Did you develop an idea that was used or presented? Did you help others achieve their goals? Now, recall the specifics of what you did and how you did it and what was the outcome.   Also think about what the outcome would have been if you had not been there to do your job.   You can download this simple document to record your stories Accomplishments-1. I dont remember This is too hard It happened daily I was just one of many Please, dont use these excuses.   Look at it this way.   If you were called into your managers office one day and they said to you, I need you to tell me what you did this year to deserve a raise.   What would you say? How would you prove you were worthy of a raise? Documenting your accomplishments isnt just to get a job.   It is about taking accountability to manage your future.   Today, more than ever, managers and leaders are expecting you to prove to them why they should keep you on the payroll.   Keeping track of your accomplishments is expected.   It is an easy insurance policy for justifying your work. When do you use these stories?   On your resume, in your interviews, while networkingthe answer is, all the time.