12 Ways to Put Your Best Face Forward on LinkedIn

12 Ways to Put Your Best Face Forward on LinkedIn What does your online presence say about you? Are you actively building a personal brand for yourself, or are you relatively low key when it comes to social media? Or perhaps you use social media, but pay little attention to how it may impact your career when you do so? Well youd be surprised how much your behaviour online could have an effect on future job opportunities and business prospects. The information that you share online is open for anyone to see, so for the sake of your career, you want to provide them with a positive and professional impression of yourself. Having a completed and detailed LinkedIn profile increases your chances of getting noticed by a recruiter or business prospect significantly, as it means that you will appear in searches and they can learn what they want to know about you with a quick glance over your profile. So its really worth investing a bit of time into polishing your profile off and making sure it sells your best qualities. Heres a quick guide created by Spring Professional to give your LinkedIn profile a bit of a fine tune. 1) Pick the right photo Profiles with photos are 11 times more likely to be viewed than those without, so its important that you do include an image of yourself. Make sure that it represents the professional you, so photos of you on a night out or on the beach are probably best kept for other platforms. A simple head and shoulders photograph that clearly shows your face, or a photo taken of you in a professional setting are the best options. 2) Use your real name As I said before, LinkedIn is a professional network, so avoid using nicknames on your profile. The same goes for adding your job title or company into your name, as these can be placed in your headline instead.  Provide your real full name and  avoid using initials. 3) An attention grabbing headline Your headline is the first thing that appears in search results, so make sure that it provides a clear representation of who you are and what you do. If you are currently in a job, your job title and company name, or the industry that you work in will suffice; alternatively you can use your headline to let people know that you are looking for new opportunities. Adding a bit of a creative twist can work effectively for catching peoples attention, but dont get too carried away! 4) Customise your URL Creating a custom URL will tidy up your LinkedIn profile and make it easier for people to find you, so make sure you change it so that it includes your full name, rather than the default string of random letters and numbers. 5) Highlight your best qualities in your summary Your summary should be your career in a nutshell. Keeping it short and sweet, showcase your top accomplishments, core skills, previous experiences and your future ambitions and goals. Try to reveal a bit of your personality and steer clear of  cliches to avoid blending into the crowd. 6) Use examples in your experiences Dont merely include a job title, company and work dates in the experience section; go into a bit more detail and explain what your responsibilities were for each role and details of any notable projects you were involved in. 7) Share any certifications or courses you have completed Be sure to add all of the qualifications and courses you have undertaken, as they will help to give an indication of the level of skills you have in certain areas. 8) Add Honours and Awards The same goes for any honours or awards you have received, as they give you a bit more credibility and help you to stand out from other professionals. 9) Outline your education This is your opportunity to show off your shiny degree that you spent years working towards! Provide details such as which University you went to, what course you completed and what grade you were rewarded. 10) Showcase your skills Adding skills to your profile is a great way to make yourself more visible in search results and they will work as keywords when people are searching for the particular qualities. List as many skills as you feel fit, that relate to skills you have picked up over your career, education and other experiences. Other users can then endorse you based on these skills 11) Get recommendations To give your profile an extra boost of credibility, get a colleague, client, business contact, etc. of yours to write you a recommendation,  providing a good word about your abilities, work ethic, customer manner etc. Hearing it from somebody else is much more influential than in your own words. 12) Join groups Joining groups and getting involved in conversation will get you noticed on LinkedIn and also enables other users who are not in your network to contact you directly. Join and contribute to groups that are related to your industry and interests in order to get noticed by other professionals and expand your network.

7 Incredibly Thoughtful Travel Gifts for Your Travel Freak Friend

7 Incredibly Thoughtful Travel Gifts for Your Travel Freak Friend We all have at least one friend in our group who loves to travel, rather lives to travel. While we are all busy taking oaths about quitting our bad habits when the new year or the new month begins, this friend is busy updating the bucket list with places to visit the coming weekend. We say, this year make your travel freak friend’s face glow with happiness by gifting any of the below-mentioned gifts. We are sure your friend will love this thoughtful gesture and would remember it for life. Go through this list of the best travel gear and gift your friend something worth remembering. You’re welcome! A Travel Pillow A travel pillow is undoubtedly a blessing for those who spend most of their time in transit. When buying one for your friend who is busy finding cheapest flight tickets in India, make sure you don’t pick those inflatable ones. They have a short life and don’t look cool as well. Instead, pick any of those that have a cutting-edge design complete with suction cups and magnets. A Travel Organiser Just like a travel pillow, travel organisers are nothing less than a blessing. They let you keep all the cords, wires, chargers and more intact at one place keep the mess away from the main travel bag. Your friend would love you for this incredibly thoughtful gift. A Backpack A roomy backpack is all a traveller wants to keep all the knick-knacks at one place. Make sure the one you buy is big enough to accommodate clothes and other stuff for a week-long trip. A Passport Cover For a friend who is always on the go, keeping the passport in perfect condition would be a challenge. As a solution, gift your globe-trotting friend a funky and stylish passport cover that will help keep the passport safe and always at one place. With a passport holder, your friend would no more have to carry an extra sling bag to keep it handy. A Portable Charger Not only would this gift of yours help keep the battery of your friend’s phone always up but will also never make him/her miss a chance to capture beautiful memories. Also, a portable charger proves to be one of the best gifts for a friend who loves being comfortable while traveling. The hassle of finding a charging spot would be easily eliminated with this gift of yours. An E-Book Reader Paying for extra baggage is always a worry for budget travelers. So, if your friend is a budget traveler and an avid book reader, one of the best gifts would be an e-book reader. With this amazing gadget, your friend would never have to carry a load of books when on vacation. Thousands of books would be at one place in this sleek, simple and stylish device. Most of the e-books come with a battery backup of more than 20 days, so charging is also not a thing to worry about. A Comfy Jacket If your friend happens to be a mountain lover and is always on an expedition to some or the other peak, gifting a comfy and lightweight jacket would be a great idea indeed. Head to any of the stores that have on offer an incredible range of mountaineering gears to buy a comfy travel jacket for your friend. While these are only a few things, you can do a little brainstorming to gift your travel-freak friend something they will cherish forever. Other options include a travel journal, coupons from travel websites like Yatra, customised luggage tags and more. Your travel freak friend would just adore you for being so thoughtful, that’s for sure!

Equity Crowdfunding Needs More Female Founders - Are You Next -

Equity Crowdfunding Needs More Female Founders - Are You Next - The Money Culture Clash Female startup founders might be able to identify with the following problem: their business growth is being seriously stifled by a lack of capital they need money in order to achieve their big goals. But getting that money necessitates going on bended knee to the banks and/or venture capitalists; those old-school institutions of (mostly) faceless men in gray suits acting as gatekeepers to their ambitions. Krissa Curran said as much in an earlier article, here on Ms Career Girl. Sure, some entrepreneurs feel at home navigating this space. But submitting themselves to the traditional financing system isn’t for everyone. Mortgaging your future with a bank loan is a huge risk, and isn’t even possible for many early-stage businesses. Meanwhile, taking venture capital money often means one of their representatives will end up with a big say over the company’s direction. Some simply do not gel well with the male-dominated “VC culture”, and don’t want one of them constantly peering over their shoulder. This doesn’t actually mean that their company is any less worthy of being funded, but until recently, there was very little choice. Arrival of Equity Crowdfunding Happily, there is a new game in town: equity crowdfunding. Instead of seeking out one or two large investors for all of the money needed, entrepreneurs can now publicize their company over the Internet, and get small chunks of equity funding from numerous small investors. This allows entrepreneurs to keep closer control over their company culture, while also bringing on new customer evangelists to help drive their company growth. So, how to crowdfund? Equity crowdfunding is quite different to the “Kickstarter-style” crowdfunding that most people are more familiar with. In a Kickstarter campaign, backers get delivered a pre-ordered product of some kind. Usually these are consumer items such as board games, clothing, and cool new widgets. But with equity crowdfunding, the money is an investment. So, rather than receiving the widget in the mail, the investor becomes a shareholder in the widget company. The fact that people are investing (rather than ordering a product) also opens it up to many more different business models, including B2B companies, services, high-priced goods, and items which are not easily shipped. The equity crowdfunding rules are different all over the world. Equity crowdfunding is regulated by each individual country’s securities laws.   In the USA for example, it is possible for a company to raise up to $1.07 million per year, without needing to prepare a prospectus. Case Study Alicia from NaturalBox Alicja Domelid runs Naturalbox, which delivers organic snacks, health, and beauty products. She is the kind of ethical entrepreneur for whom equity crowdfunding holds particular appeal. Her company raised €212,160 on Swedish equity crowdfunding platform FundedByMe in June 2016. She explains the problems with the traditional financing system as follows: “No banker would share the passion I have for my business. And most venture capitalists are pretty arrogant, greedy and difficult to work with, from what I know.” Strong words, but Alicja isn’t alone in feeling this way. Since finishing her equity crowdfunding campaign, Naturalbox has gone from strength to strength.  â€œIt really is possible! Ordinary people are actually interested in becoming investors in startups, and they actually will engage. I would strongly recommend startups to seek crowdfunding and to invite the crowd to become engaged investors… We now have a global network. Imagine that a local company can now go global with the help of crowd funders.” How To Get Started With Equity Crowdfunding Before launching an equity crowdfunding campaign, entrepreneurs first need to build and excite their own crowd. The equity crowdfunding platforms are host to their own investor database, but the initial momentum definitely needs to be driven by the entrepreneur. This provides the social proof to the platform’s crowd, who will be much more likely to invest money if the offer looks “hot”, with plenty of progress towards the funding target. Building a crowd is similar to any other kind of promotional exercise. First, you need to have a target investor in mind.   Then go where they naturally congregate, and present your company in a way such that people want to know more. This can be in-person, or online. Then, you must build a relationship with your crowd over time to make them know, like and trust you enough that it becomes natural that they want to deepen that connection through becoming a shareholder. Using a Landing Page Hosting a landing page on your own website, inviting them to sign up to learn more about your intention to do equity crowdfunding can be a great first step. You can do this well in advance of anything else.    Even before getting approved on a crowdfunding platform, and before creating all the marketing collateral. All you need is a signup form, and a connection to an e-mail management tool such as Mailchimp. For users who have built their website on WordPress, another low-touch way to direct attention to your pre-crowdfunding offer page is through the plugin Hello Bar which creates a small popup on every page of a website, encouraging website visitors to drop their email in. Once your crowd has been built, then there’s the choice over which equity crowdfunding platform to use which is an entire exercise in itself. Above all, look for platform size. You want your company to be featured on the largest marketplace possible, with the best user experience, and with a close brand match to your own company. Summary It’s exciting times for entrepreneurs. The ability to set their own offer terms, promote their company to the public, and let the crowd decide if they are worthy of being funded is a game-changer. It means that female startup founders can bypass the financial gatekeepers they have had to kowtow to for so long. They can raise money, and promote their company concurrently. This is a game-changer. This guest post was authored by Nathan Rose Nathan Rose is the bestselling author of Equity Crowdfunding: The Complete Guide For Startups Growing Companies. He has appeared at crowdfunding events around the globe, including in Toronto, Amsterdam, London and Paris. Nathan has written for Crowdfund Insider, the world’s most prominent crowdfunding news site. Today, he runs the website www.startupfundingsecrets.io, as a way of helping startups from all over the world use equity crowdfunding to gain marketing exposure and raise money at the same time.

9 Red Flags to Consider When Accepting a Job Offer - Classy Career Girl

9 Red Flags to Consider When Accepting a Job Offer Not every job offer is a yes. Sometimes there are some red flags that will really make you not want to accept. As much as you might be stuck in your current job or even unemployed, dont accept if you see any of these red flags. 9 Red Flags to Consider When Accepting a Job Offer 1. You felt uneasy about the interview. 2. It isnt a 100% yes. 3. Something just doesnt feel right about the job. 4. It wasnt clear why the person left before you and you feel like they arent telling you everything. 5. The job description is very vague. 6. You didnt meet the person you would actually be working for. 7. They are moving through the job offer process really fast through the hiring process and it seems like you are the only person they interviewed. 8. They didnt ask many questions during the interview. 9. They talked more than you in the interview. What to do if you are on the fence: First, tell them you need some time to think about the job offer before you make a decision. Ask for 24 hours to think about it. Discuss the red flags above with a trusted friend or family member. Write down all the pros and cons. Then get your mind off of it and go do something fun and relaxing. Then, come back to it with a fresh perspective. Now, what does your gut say? Journal and meditate about it. If you arent excited about it, there is nothing wrong with letting this opportunity pass. I once did this because the interviewer kept calling me over and over and was rushing the job offer process. I felt rushed to make a decision and overwhelmed. I felt like I didnt have enough information and didnt know what to do. I was also going through a hard personal time that week as well  so the rushing of the process was too much to handle.  I just sent an email that said I was no longer interested and was very much at peace about the situation afterwards. As much as I wanted a new opportunity, something didnt feel right. They eventually laid off thousands of employees a few months later so my intuition was very much right. And a new opportunity came up at work which was a million times better than that job ever would have been. Be patient! Keep in mind: To avoid jumping into the wrong job, before the interview and after the interview you should be talking to people that work for that company. You should be doing then best you can to get the insiders perspective on the company and the job offer. Do research online and see what reviews former employees had about the company. A great place to start is glassdoor.com. Also, look at Linkedin and find someone who used to work at the company and pick their brain. Never start a job where you havent talked to someone who already works there (and is not the interviewer). And if you need a resume boost to get a job offer, take a look at our Resume Makeover Course.

6 Top Productivity Apps Tools to Use in 2019 CareerMetis.com

6 Top Productivity Apps Tools to Use in 2019 We are moving to a fast-track world. This world is so fast-track that everyone breathes to be more and more productive.While you are in a race to overtake yourself from your last productivity report, we bring here a toolkit made up of multiple software to help you win.evalTo become productive means different to everyone depending on the tasks that want to complete.Thus, we have accumulated here a few apps that help you increase productivity with respect to completing different tasks.1) TeamViewerTeamViewer has been around with us for a long time and sometimes, it feels as if it is the grandparent of various other productivity apps out there.It is one software that has helped people completing a college project together to the people conducting meetings from distant places.Many times, it happens to be a case where you need to access things such as your file, your teammates, your clients or simply somebody, you need to work with who are quite far physically from you.In such cases, Team Viewer helps you all those files and communicate with the people you need to meet and it saves you a lot of time sorting out to travel.evalIt allows you to access not only the files but many remote devices and you can control them as if you were using them yourself.You can collaborate with 300 people at a time and you can record all your meetings to refer later as well.Not just computer desktops, you can share screens even on iOS and Android devices with easy login procedure and can have web meetings.2) G SuiteevalYou may be or may not be wondering but you can create documents, presentations, spreadsheets and much more right in your mobile device.With the help of G Suite, you can save much more time sitting around to create some files while you are traveling or about to go somewhere.G Suite proves to be a productivity tool which with very simple features allows creating a lot of useful files such as a word document, a spreadsheet, a presentation and much more.While you are discussin g something with one of your colleagues regarding a piece of document, instead of sharing long trails of emails or waiting for an online meeting setup, you can simply share the document with your colleague and comment in real-time on those.You can easily edit and share your thoughts with a particular part of the document as it suits you.Even if you are looking to change the format of the document, you don’t need to download another add-in feature from the app store, you can simply do it in Google Docs.You can open the PDF files, Office documents and get the data from the images to export in one of the reliable text or document formats.The good thing is, it does not eat a single bit of your Google Drive space, so you can store and create as much as you want with G Suite.3) SlackevalSlack is a productivity tool that has really turned the tables and has gained the hearts many corporations including Target, Oracle and Capital One and proves to be an incredible booster for their team†™s productivity.Slack is a tool that uses communication as a model of collaboration.While we consider email to be a robust and professional medium, it becomes clumsy when communicating with colleagues.When you are looking for a reply on a particular previous query of yours, you just drop an email on that trail, however, it becomes quite long to scroll through that trail and reply back.Whereas, you can implement the use of Slack among the team where they can simply view their messages and respond.evalAlso, for each different project, department, task, and client, you can create a separate channel and the team members can share their thoughts as and when needed.None of the team members will be notified if they aren’t part of the conversation.Also, it allows you to share files, documents, send GIFs and video chat too as needed inside the application.Moreover, you can enhance your productivity results by integrating other tools of yours such as Google Drive, Salesforce and Dropbox. It makes files sharing quite easier.4) ToDoistWhether you are an organized personality or not, in front of your eyes or in the back of your mind, you would definitely be having a certain to-do list, be it fair or rough.Some prepare long-term to-do lists, some prepare them to run through the day.Be it any reason, making a to-do list every day will consume some good minutes of your day.With ToDoist, you can prepare a to-do list as and when you get any task scheduled.For example, you have promised your client to call them at 6 on the coming Friday evening, so you can note it down in your ToDoist mentioning “Call Chris at 6 PM on Friday #calls”, it will schedule a reminder for you and will file this into your “calls” section.This was about your personal to-do list, how about maintaining one for your team as well.Yes, you can control your team’s productivity as well with ToDoist by sharing the tool and adding them in your network on the app.You can monitor their work, assign them tasks, plan projects, discuss details and manage the deadlines just with everything inside this application.Your team can also make a dedicated project group inside the application and share their thoughts on the project details and on-goings which will help them gain clear insights into their teammates’ ideas.5) AsanaAsana is a new-era web tool to help you keep an eye on your projects’ progress.It lets you create a team and group on the platform and you can manage one or multiple projects in this web app.You can assign the tasks to your team members with a simple process and keep tracking for the updates easily.It helps you manage your deadlines and keep track of your projects, the new comings, the one which is in progress and the ones finished.It helps you manage your to-do lists regarding the projects you are working on and it helps you quickly check through all your tasks in the “My Tasks” section.You can even make a subtask to any of your tasks.Also, you can now add-in Asana with your Gmail account and turn tasks into emails and email to tasks.6) CloudAppAre you looking for an extra week to complete something important but you have a deadline for finishing the next week?You can get up to 56 hours extra per week by implementing the use of CloudApp in your team. The question is how?Well, science says that a human brain can process images a thousand times faster than that of plain text content.CloudApp has considered this fact in building a useful tool where it lets you communicate with all media.You can share a quick screenshot, video call or a recording, a GIFfy, or an image with whomsoever you want, be it your colleague, your client or your customer.This image representation of your thoughts helps you get straight to the gist of the conversation and saves a lot of time in making things clear.Instead of writing a complete Summary on Paper, you simply need to show them what you want and they make it done.No wonder, Facebook, Adobe and Uber have thi s app in their favorites as it helps a lot in saving human hours in explaining things and achieve results quickly.Which one do you find the most productive?There are several productivity applications and tools available and introducing every day in the market.Here, we have mentioned the tools that help fulfill different requirements of the business, sometimes one and sometimes multiple at a time.

Skills and Responsibilities Required of a Job Seeker

Skills and Responsibilities Required of a Job Seeker You knew the responsibilities in your last job and your performance was measured against them, for the most part.  But in your new role as a job seeker, has anyone outlined what you are responsible for? In other words, what are the skills and responsibilities required of a job seeker today? Job Seeker Responsibilities A modern job search requires you carry out  these duties. Strategically manage online promotion of brand Plan and implement marketing strategy/campaign Develop new and manage existing relationships by systematic outreach and follow up Perform prospecting on the phone and in person to build a pipeline of opportunities Increase contact volume and enhance image in the community Monitor activities and performance to ensure activities meet or exceed established plan Balance a variety of projects simultaneously Write strong technical and marketing materials Other duties as assigned Skills Now, how about the skills required of a modern day job seeker. Keen understanding of business etiquette Attention to detail Strong active listening abilities Excellent written and verbal communication skills (Public speaking a plus) Organizational skills Self directed individual contributor Work well under pressure Sales and marketing skills Understanding of sales cycle and selling skills Demonstrated time management skills Leadership skills Use of social media and new technology Synthesize data Database management skills Familiarity of research tools and resourceful in finding market information Customer service skills Negotiating skills Infographic Job Posting But wait, it gets even more fun.   I recently ran across an infographic job description and it caught me eyeliterally. The service is called Jobgram.   (I also shared it on Google+ where there was some mixed response) Here is part of what a Truck Technician job with Waste Management looks like. Creating an infographic requires additional thought and effort on the part of the employer.   I like this a lot.   Too often we see bland, meaningless job descriptions. It may or may not catch on, but with the rise in awareness of employment brandingone never knows!

Good Format for Writing Resume Tips

Good Format for Writing Resume TipsAs with any other business, you have to pay attention to the presentation of your resume writing tips. This is not a good thing if you want your resume to be accepted by the employer. Although, it is important for you to understand that when you are aiming to write the perfect resume, it is imperative that you give more importance to the words on the resume.There are several different things that you need to keep in mind while writing a resume. These tips might seem like common sense but in the real world, there are many circumstances that can change the standard and the guidelines. When you are not following the right way of presenting your resume, you will not be able to get the desired results. You must be aware of this fact and you need to be prepared for it.You should never overlook the importance of having an idea of the content of your resume. Your resume is supposed to give the employer the impression that you are a good and competent candid ate who possesses all the qualities required for the job. With regard to this, it is essential that you put emphasis on the content. All the information and facts that are required for the job should be highlighted on the resume so that the employer gets the right idea of the applicant.One of the most common mistakes that most applicants make is that they tend to spend too much time on the resume writing tips. You need to be aware that no amount of effort can help you succeed if you do not have any particular competence and if you do not have the right presentation skills. It is one thing to know the resume writing tips and another thing to know how to use the tips. It is essential that you realize this fact and you need to be ready for it.Another common mistake that many people make is that they either forget the content or do not put the entire content on the resume. In order to make your resume professional, you need to put the best content and the most important information on i t. When you do this, you can be sure that the employer would be impressed by the content. If you do not, he will ignore it and your resume will not be accepted. Thus, you must be aware of this fact and be prepared for it.Try to forget the plain presentation. If you do this, your resume writing tips would be incomplete. If you focus on the content, you can easily improve the presentation by applying some effective tips. Do not forget the tips given by experts in resume writing because it is important that you are following the best ideas.You need to be prepared with these tips. The tips will enable you to create a professional resume that is attractive and appealing to the employer. When you are looking for the right resume, it is important that you check on the resume writing tips provided by experts. You can be sure that your resume will be appreciated by the employer and you will get the job you have been dreaming of.