The Ultimate 4 Step Guide to Changing Careers

The Ultimate 4 Step Guide to Changing Careers Choosing a career is a tough thing- and a lifelong process. You might pick a job early, just out of school or based on your interests as a 20-something. It would be great if that were a direct path to your retirement decades later, after years of building a fulfilling career from that initial decision. But not every career path is quite that straightforward. You might wake up after 10 years and think, â€Å"I really don’t want to be a widget coordinator anymore.† Or maybe you’ve been laid off, and realize that hmm, you weren’t all that happy in your career even before the fact. Whatever leads to that revelation, you should embrace it as an opportunity when it comes.  If you are thinking about making a career change, here are the 4 steps you can take to make it a reality: Step 1.   Figure out what do you really want to be doing.Step 2.   What does the roadmap look like?Step 3.   Updating Your ResumeStep 4.   Build (and then work) your network  I f you’re thinking about changing your career, you’re in in good company. There are very few hard stats on how many people do change careers midstream- the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn’t keep data on career changers, mostly because the data is so unclear  and not really tracked anywhere- but we do know that some very famous people only achieved those heights only after they pulled the trigger on a career change.Did you know that:Walt Disney was originally a newspaper editor?Actor Harrison Ford was a carpenter before his first big movie role?Uber-chef Julia Child was a bureaucrat and spy for the U.S. government during World War II, before she mastered French cuisine?Actor Steve Buscemi was a New York City firefighter?Pope Francis was a chemical technician before joining the priesthood? One thing these people all have in common (aside from amazing success) is that they each made a career decision based on the difference between what they were doing, and what they wanted to do with their lives. This isn’t to say that everyone should drop a stable, bill-paying job in order to pursue that dream of opening a puppet theater. However, if you think that changing careers is the best next step for you and your goals, then there are ways to make the jump in a smart and practical way.Step 1: What do you want to be doing?The best thing you can do up front is to start thinking about what it is you really want to do. According to a Deloitte Shift Index survey in 2010 (which tracked workplace trends), a staggering 80% of respondents lacked passion at their jobs. That’s a lot of disengaged people, or people at risk of checking out. Still, it’s not enough to feel vaguely unhappy at your current job, or on your current path. You need a plan for finding what it is you would be passionate about doing as a career.80% of respondents lacked passion at their jobsIn the following Tedx Talk, career coach Scott Dinsmore offers some advic e on how to transition that dissatisfaction or malaise into real and lasting personal change. He recommends doing some soul searching on the following questions:What are your strengths? What are you good at doing? What would you do even if no one paid you?What are your values? Are you driven by people (family, friends)? Are you most concerned with success and achievement? How do those factor into your decision, and what is your â€Å"soul† made of?What are your experiences? What do you like, or dislike? What are you good at or bad at doing? What have your experiences told you about what you want, and what experiences inspire you? You have years of experiences, as well as successes and mistakes, which form a baseline of expectations. Together, these factors can be pulled together to help you figure out what you want those successes to look like in the future, and what kinds of jobs would help you get there.Step 2: What does the roadmap look like?Changing careers is a process. At an early point in said process, you can’t really predict the outcome. But you can definitely map out your expectations, and the likely steps it will take to get there.For example, take a look at this  career change roadmap:Step 3: Update your resume.This means updating your resume and your cover letter to align with your revised career goals. Many job hunters make the easy mistake of assuming that their same old resume will do, and that hiring managers will connect the dots on skills and experience. Don’t let that be you! Take the initiative to rebuild your resume for your soon-to-be new career. On your resume, you have a bit of an added challenge, compared to another candidate who has more industry experience, so you need to craft your resume 2.0 to reflect that reality.If you have a lot of skills that will be transferable from your old career to the new job(s) for which you’re applying:Your best bet is likely a combination resume, where you craft the stan dard linear list of your jobs, but kick off the resume with a bulleted list of qualifications/skills. The bullet points in the work history section should, of course, emphasize the skills you want to play up in the qualifications summary. You might want to get your resume evaluated by  a professional resume expert  as well. (For more on how to write a great qualifications summary, visit Resume Genius.)Here’s an example:Qualifications SummaryLeadership:Leading marketing teams of 5+ people.Creativity:Designing and implementing ROI strategies aimed at streamlining marketing campaigns.Communication:Presenting marketing proposals to clients. Combination resumes can be great for covering up gaps in experiences or long lags between jobs, but keep in mind that the lack of specific dates and other details might raise a red flag with hiring managers or interviewers. Be prepared to speak to those in the interview, as well as emphasize the transferrable skills you have.If you are bas ically starting over, and want to downplay your work history:Work on drafting a functional resume, where you group your skills into headers and bullets.Here’s an example:Marketing ExperienceCreated brand-awareness social media campaigns for a national car rental company.Improved engagement and conversion rates for 3 straight years.If you’re concerned that your career change narrative won’t overcome the relative lack of experience: Write a resume that covers the standard skills and work history, but write a detailed cover letter that explains a) your passion for the industry you’re trying to break into; b) why your experience travels well into this new arena; and c) your strong motivation to start over, or find a foothold at this particular company. Your resume will still need to stand on its own, but you want to make sure the hiring manager is clear that you know your experience may not be extensive, but you have the skills and passion necessary for this job.Step 4: Build (and then work) your network.The best new resume in the world may not mean much if you can’t get it in front of the right people. Online application engines and emailed resumes have their place (and will likely do so for a long time to come), but one of the most effective ways to get noticed is also one of the oldest and lowest-tech: word of mouth. If you know someone in a company who can recommend you for an open position, it’s like getting a gold star on your resume. It may not get you an automatic job offer, but having an insider vouch for you could very well increase the odds of getting your application a closer look. Plus, seeking out people in your target industry can help you get a better handle on the industry itself, letting you ask questions and get information that might not be as readily available from internet searches.And don’t discount your existing network: you never know who knows someone else, especially in this age of LinkedI n. Don’t be afraid to put it out there that you’re looking to make connections in a new area. Use your social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) to find new connections or experts to follow. However, make sure you’re discreet about it if you’re not ready to announce your career change plans to your current employer. (Maybe don’t post a status update that says, â€Å"Hate my job, want to know more about alpaca farming. Anyone know any local animal farmers I can talk to?†)If you truly don’t have any overlap between your current network and your new industry, start with some basic research. Look for groups online related to your target job, and â€Å"listen† in on message boards or email lists for a while. This can also let you know about industry events, job openings, or networking opportunities that you might not know about otherwise.Whether your new career is on par with the carpenter-to-Han Solo transition, well, that rema ins to be seen. But if you know that you’re ready to commit to a jump (or at least commit to the idea of jumping), there’s no point in waiting until the time is right. Because you know what? That time may never come if you don’t make it happen yourself. But you can set yourself up so that there’s a time that feels comfortable for making the transition.

Chokepoints Definition and Explanation

Chokepoints Definition and Explanation There are approximately 200 straits (narrow bodies of water connecting two larger bodies of water) or canals around the world but only a handful are known as chokepoints. A chokepoint is a strategic strait or canal which could be closed or blocked to stop sea traffic (especially oil). This type of aggression could surely cause an international incident. For centuries, straits such as Gibraltar have been protected by international law as points through which all nations may pass. In 1982 the Law of Sea Conventions further protected the international access for nations to sail through straits and canals and even ensured that these passageways are available as aviation routes for all nations. Gibraltar This strait between the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean has the United Kingdoms tiny Gibraltar Colony as well as Spain on the north and Morocco and a small Spanish colony on the south. United States warplanes were forced to fly over the strait (as protected by the 1982 conferences) when attacking Libya in 1986 since France would not allow the U.S. to pass through French airspace. Several times in our planets history, Gibraltar was blocked by geologic activity and water could not flow between the Mediterranean and Atlantic so the Mediterranean dried up. Layers of salt at the bottom of the sea attest to this having occurred. Panama Canal Completed in 1914, the 50-mile long Panama Canal links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, reducing the length of the journey between the east and west coasts of the United States by 8000 nautical miles. About 12,000 ships pass through the Central American canal each year. The United States retains control of the 10-mile wide Canal Zone until the year 2000 when the canal is turned over to the Panamanian government. Strait of Magellan Before the Panama Canal was completed, boats traveling between the U.S. coasts were forced to round the tip of South America. Many travelers risked disease and death by attempting to cross the dangerous isthmus in Central America and catch another boat to their destination to keep from sailing the extra 8000 miles. During the California Gold Rush in the mid-19th century there were many regular trips between the east coast and San Francisco. The Strait of Magellan lies just north of the southern tip of South America and is surrounded by Chile and Argentina. Strait of Malacca Located in the Indian Ocean, this strait is a shortcut for oil tankers traveling between the Middle East and the oil-dependent nations of the Pacific Rim (especially Japan). Tankers pass through this strait bordered by Indonesia and Malaysia. Bosporus and Dardanelles Bottlenecks between the Black Sea (Ukrainian ports) and the Mediterranean Sea, these chokepoints are surrounded by Turkey. The Turkish city of Istanbul is adjacent to the Bosporus in the northeast and the southeast strait is the Dardanelles. Suez Canal The 103 mile long Suez Canal is located entirely within Egypt and it is the only sea route between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. With Middle East tension, the Suez Canal is a prime target for many nations. The canal was completed in 1869 by French diplomat Ferdinand de Lesseps. The British took control of the canal and Egypt from 1882 until 1922. Egypt nationalized the canal in 1956. During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel seized control of the Sinai Desert directly east of the canal but relinquished control in exchange for peace. Strait of Hormuz This chokepoint became a household term during the Persian Gulf War in 1991. The Strait of Hormuz is another critical point in the lifeline flow of oil from the Persian Gulf area. This strait is closely monitored by the U.S. military and its allies. The strait connects the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea (part of the Indian Ocean) and is surrounded by Iran, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. Bab el Mandeb Located between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, the Bab el Mandeb is a bottleneck for sea traffic between the Mediterranean Sea and Indian Ocean. It is surrounded by Yemen, Djibouti, and Eritrea.

NHS omputer System Failures Affecting Patient Care Assignment

NHS omputer System Failures Affecting Patient Care - Assignment Example Computers have assisted man ever since their inception. This assignment describes the infusion of Information Technology in the field of health and medicine that has led to the rebirth of the said field. Technological advancements that have affected the field of health were described in the assignment and have affected the human society as a whole directly and have mostly proved to be beneficial rather than hazardous. The researcher focuses on analysis of the NHS OR NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE that is an organization that was established in UK. The core idea behind the establishment of National Health Services-NHS was to provide high quality of healthcare to all the patients. This was specially intended keeping in mind that no patient should be made to suffer because of his financial stature. Thus apart from very few procedures the NHS unanimously provides medical services to all its patients that are UK residents. Since its inception, there was always one issue or the other that inhibit ed the successful growth of the system, such as the delaying of computerized scheduled patient operations, subscription of timely and accurate medicines, failing to detect and ensure treatment of cancer patients within two weeks and those of emergent nature within four hours. The researcher analyzed and investigated problems, that were mentioned above and provided his own opinion on success of the National Health Services organization as well as some gave some recommendations and solutions found to solve the problems.

Finance Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Finance Paper - Essay Example Bahamas for example has 301 licensed banks whereas the British Virgin Island only has 7. Offshore banking has a countless number of rewards, ranging from low to no taxation, to greater privacy and anonymous accounts, as well as protection against financial instability. With that being said, I would like to emphasize what these banks also offer. Offshore banking has aided terrorist by laundering their financial resources, allowing them to fund terrorist activities that are partially impossible to detect. It also highlighted in the collapse of the company Enron, where the company used offshore banks to avoid paying millions of dollars in US Tax. Offshore financial centers have very significant reasons for their existence. These financial resources provide financial services; these financial services can be divided into three broad groups: (i) Private investments, (ii) Asset protection, (iii) Estate planning (Higgins, 2000). Private investments are the significant part of the offshore f inancial centers. In the private investments, investments are handled and managed with an intention of reducing the potential tax liabilities. Additionally, private investments are done to increase the protection which is granted or provided under the legal confidentiality provisions. Asset protection comes with the use of international jurisdiction. In this category, with the help of international jurisdiction, the residence of client is separated; and asset protection helps protecting the income and assets from political, legal and fiscal risks. Estate planning is about assets and their administration. In estate planning, mostly assets, all types of assets, are properly administrated with the help of legal and fiscal jurisdictions (Higgins, 2000). With the help of financial institutions; like, international business corporations (IBCs), insurance companies, mutual funds, offshore corporations, and some of the recent gaming companies, a large and huge amount of funds are deposited in OFCs. With these available funds, different types of investment are made to generate some economic and financial contributions in the economy. Little work has been done to understand and determine the role and contribution of offshore banking in the creation and generation of employment and employment opportunities. It is the creation and availability of employment opportunities by the OFCs that provide the importance and significance of offshore banks as far as their role for the development of economy is concerned. Any sector is valued and measured in the economy on the basis of its contribution to the economy. Mostly, there are two ways in which this contribution is measured and analyzed: One, the money contribution of offshore banking. This means the amount of tax paid by the offshore banks in the economy determines and measures its value for the economy. There is another contribution given and provided by the offshore banks. That is of economic nature- creation and generatio n of employment opportunities. Various examples are available that clearly indicate and highlight that offshore banks are licensed. After getting license, they have established various branches in different parts of the world. A large amount of investment has been made to make offshore banking functional and useful.

Green Computing Essay Example for Free

Green Computing Essay Green computing or green IT, refers to environmentally sustainable computing or IT. It is the study and practice of designing, manufacturing, using, and disposing of computers, servers, and associated subsystems—such as monitors, printers, storage devices, and networking and communications systems—efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the environment. Green IT also strives to achieve economic viability and improved system performance and use, while abiding by our social and ethical responsibilities. Thus, green IT includes the dimensions of environmental sustainability, the economics of energy efficiency, and the total cost of ownership, which includes the cost of disposal and recycling is the study and practice of using computing resources efficiently. To comprehensively and effectively address the environmental impacts of computing/IT, we must adopt a holistic approach and make the entire IT lifecycle greener by addressing environmental sustainability along the following four complementary paths: †¢Green use reducing the energy consumption of computers and other information systems as well as using them in an environmentally sound manner

Quit Watching Me! :: essays research papers

“Quit Watching Me!';   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Attempts to monitor employees have always existed in one form or another, from mechanical keystroke counters in the early part of the century, to the latest innovations in electronic monitoring. As technology advances, so do the monitoring possibilities in the workplace. As result of the endless possibilities in surveillance, anxiety in employee’s increase, which in most cases leads to illnesses. Studies have shown that individuals who are constantly being monitored at work suffer from inevitable effects, the majority being illnesses such as physical, emotional, and mental disorders. Employers feel they have the right to monitor their employees, however when extensive monitoring effects a employees health, then the employers has gone to far. Advance technology has lead to monitoring devices such as via computers, video surveillance, and active badges in the last decade, but as the intensity of the surveillance increases so do the negative effects on the empl oyees.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There has been a huge increase to pass legislation’s that will regulate the employer in monitoring his employees’ by via computer. Monitoring an employee by via computer is one of the latest innovations in electronic monitoring, which is done by purchasing and installing software in the companies computer system. Once the software is installed, it will be able to do a variety of types of electronic monitoring from keystroke counting and accuracy, time how long it takes to make a transaction, and how long the computer has been on idle. This type of electronic monitoring that involves advanced technology and “the constant monitoring to measure employees’ performance creates an enormous amount of pressure and stress…the stress that is created by monitoring has caused serious physical effects'; (Ternipsede 447) on employees in the work place. Many employees have been effected from such setting in the workplace, but they are unaware of the effects since they take many years to develop fully. Another type of electronic monitoring that can damage an employee’s health is video surveillance.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Video surveillance has existed in the work place since the invention of the television. Video surveillance cameras come in all shapes and sizes, from the obvious ones to some that are small as a dime. Many employers purchase such devices to capture employees and customers who commit theft and fraud, or any other illegal activity. The increase of technology in electronic monitoring is now able to transfer images from a camera to a computer where the employer is able to zoom in and make a positive identity of the employee or customer who is committing an illegal act.

Operations Management Exam 1 Review Notes

Basic info for Exam 1 Types of questions you can expect * Ones similar to assigned discussion questions, homework * How topics in assigned articles relate to key concepts below: test questions similar to these are fair game. * You will have the formula sheet handed out during forecasting section. The most important things to know from part 1 of this class 1) Chapter 1 a) How to measure performance of a process: financial measures, external measures, internal measures and why you would choose one over another. ) 4 product attributes and their corresponding process attributes i) This is something to memorize. c) Job shops vs flow shops: attributes of each and which products is each suited for? d) Will not cover product-process matrix. 2) Chapter 2 e) How process competencies support a firm’s strategic position. ii) Market-driven strategies (identify market needs and develop processes to support them) vs. rocess-driven strategies (Amazon hosting websites, cloud computing for othe r companies, G&H with financial aid call center branching out to other services) iii) Operational effectiveness vs. operational efficiency: low cost of operations does not necessarily support the business strategy iv) Focused strategies allow for competitive advantage (1) Plant-within-a-plant: why would companies do this and what makes this succeed or fail? ) Question about hypothetical company or companies we’ve analyzed in book, articles, class discussion—what are their business strategies/product competencies and how do their process competencies support them? g) Competitive product space 2-D graph: may ask you to interpret one but not to draw one v) Idea of operations frontier, that it represents the highest level of operational effectiveness (2) Effect of technology and improved management practices on the operations frontier. h) Order-qualifiers vs. rder winners (in slides, G&H discussion) i) Will not be tested on section 2. 7 j) Last 3 slides not covered: Disney and McDonalds 3) Forecasting k) Anything covered in book is fair game: Expect questions very similar to those in class, on HW. l) General categories: subjective, time-series, associative/causal m) What are key features of each forecasting method, why would you choose one over another? n) Trends, seasonality: know what these are, which methods account for these, and how they do it. ) Forecasting error and bias: why are these important to measure, what they mean, what are differences between methods for assessing them (MAD vs. MSE, for example) p) Use of control charts: how to make one and what are they used for. 4) Chapter 3 q) Takt time not covered but everything else is fair game. 5) Chapter 4: Flowcharting and network design r) Interpret or make a simple flow chart s) Using a flow chart to start to improve operations (esp. in conjunction with chap 3 and Little’s Law)