It’s more popular and possible to work from home than ever before. Yet it presents challenges. If you’re a manager or strategist, it can be even more difficult because you have these problems for ten people (if you have a team of ten.) Long distance leadership is tough, but here are five ways to ensure […]
Continue Reading →You’ve been thinking and dreaming about starting your own company for some time now, and are finally ready to get started. There’s just one problem — you can’t figure out what to name your new business. Does this sound familiar? If so, don’t worry, you’ll be among the majority of entrepreneurs who struggle to come up with just the right name to put to their passion project when launching a new company.
When it comes to deciding on a business name, there are a huge number of factors to take into consideration. Apart from finding something that relates to what the business does, and that sounds good to the ear, you also need to keep in mind things such as the future outlook or potential of the business, and the availability of domain names and trademarks. After all, there’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve come up with “The One,” only to find that you can’t source any URLs to match the name — a big factor in today’s Internet driven age. Before you trademark a name, you’ll want to make sure no one else is already using it and that it’s really what you want.
If you’re stressed about finding a business name that’s right for now and into the future, remember that there are a number of guidelines you can follow that will help ensure you choose something you won’t regret. Read on for some top tips to help you name your new company today.
The starting point for coming up with a great business name is to decide what the title needs to communicate to potential customers. You want a business name that is effective as possible, and to do this, you want to make sure that it helps to reinforce the key features of the company and indicates to customers what the business is all about.
In order to start brainstorming names, you’ll want to first make a list of the key attributes that make the business unique. Once you’ve done that, start thinking about what words might communicate this to investors, suppliers, and the general public. Select a business name that helps consumers to understand what the company is all about, and how its products or services can help them.
When coming up with a great title for your new company, it’s best to search for something that is simple, as this means it will be easier for consumers to read, pronounce, tell their friends about, and remember.
People hesitate to recommend a business when they’re not sure of the correct pronunciation of its name, as they don’t want to appear ignorant in front of their friends and family. As a result, ensure you choose a business name that people will automatically know how to say. Similarly, also try to find a name that is easy to spell too.
You also want to select a name that is as unique as possible because this helps to make it more memorable. However, when you’re comparing ideas, try to give priority to names that use real words or combinations of words, rather than fabricated monikers. Consumers tend to prefer to say names they understand and can relate to, and made-up words won’t have that advantage.
When choosing a business name there are also things you’ll want to avoid. For starters, try to steer clear of limiting names that will impede the potential growth of the business. For example, names that are geographically based or that revolve around an owner’s name can lead to potential complications in the long run if the business wants to go global, start franchising, or be sold to a different owner.
It’s also generally a good idea to avoid names that might have bad connotations for consumers. People often subconsciously (or even sometimes consciously) avoid a business with a name that gives them the creeps or that they feel fearful of. If you want to take the business international, also investigate any negative connotations that words might have in other languages.
Another thing to do when selecting a business name is to check out the competition. Have a look at other companies in the same field and see what names are already being used or well established (as well as what has been trademarked already).
Since the major point of a name is to help distinguish a business from others, it’s important that the title of a company is different enough from that of competitors. If any of the names you’re considering are close to that of your competitors’, it’s probably best to eliminate them before you proceed further.
Once you’ve whittled your ideas down to a shortlist, make sure you conduct a trademark and domain name search. This not only helps you to feel secure in the fact that you can trademark a name yourself and purchase a URL, but also ensures that you don’t accidentally start operating a business with a name that infringes on another company’s rights.
Any office has two kinds of people, a group that works hard but is never noticed and the other who immediately spring to mind. The second kind are the ones who are noticed and at the forefront of all activities. Career success means more than working hard, being qualified, meeting crazy deadlines, and being diligent. To be truly successful you need recognition from the boss.
In order to be remembered and noticed by the boss you will need to:
1. Be friendly and pleasant. Have a nice thing to say to everyone, ooze good manners, and have a ready smile and caring attitude. Don’t be brash and ride rough shod over others or be judgmental.
2. Refrain from gossip. It is the one thing that can make life uncomfortable. Know what’s happening in the office but stay away from discussing it or spreading things however tempting it may be.
3. Update your skills and knowledge constantly. The world today moves at a fast pace and one needs to keep up with technical innovations as well as global business trends. Make all efforts to be ahead of developments in your field of work.
4. Be efficient in your work and have facts and figures at the tips of your fingers. Always prepare for meetings well be a visionary and make suggestions that can be backed up by action. When you speak it must be “pearls of wisdom.”
5. Practice the art of listening. Analyze what others know and can tell you. Absorb knowledge like a sponge. Never restrict yourself to only your department. It pays to know other functions of the organization.
6. Be a leader in all aspects. Be the first to accept extra responsibilities, to take over someone else’s load when they have problems, lend a hand when a team is working to achieve a deadline. Make valuable suggestions. Let people know they can depend on you for just about anything.
7. Respect and obey the rules of the office. Be disciplined and spread the culture to all others.
8. Always be in control, never appear to be stressed. Keep personal life and work separated. Never form a relationship with a colleague or boss. Dress well everyday and stand tall.
9. Be methodical and organized in your work. Use filing methods that anyone can use. If you are away anyone in your department should be able to locate the papers. Keep your work area neat, computer files uncluttered. Device a workable backup schedule such that under no circumstance is your work lost. Disaster management measures must be in place.
10. Be poised, stylish, and approachable. Look good and smell good. Excellent personal habits are always appreciated. Carry breath mints in your pocket along with a fresh hanky. Keep a laundered shirt on hand for emergencies.
It takes more than talent to impress a boss. Be ahead in the race for success.
Getting a break in film special effects is hard, but not as hard as you may think. The following ten things will go a long way to help you achieve your dream job.
1) Understand the Industry
If you want to work in special effects, it’s important not just to know the difference between a Stag (stagehand) and a Director, but know how special effects itself is divided up. Long gone are the days when Ray Harryhausen (Jason and the Argonauts) would lock himself in a shed with a small team of people and do all the special effects himself. Now, everything is spread across different teams and departments. So, if youíre interested in sculpting sets and large monsters, you want to work as a film sculptor; if you’d prefer smaller more technical projects youíd be better off choosing the model unit.
2) Be a Realist
Working in the creative industry and particularly the film industry is not easy. You’ll often be faced with challenging projects and demanding deadlines and there’ll be dozens of different people waiting for you to finish so they can complete their own jobs. Youíll have to strike a balance between the time allowed and quality of what you produce; you canít get too precious about your work. Not only that, you’ve got to promote yourself in all special effects artists are freelance and you’ve got to hunt down the jobs out there.
3) Study Art
Whether you’re self-taught or went to Art College, it is vital you have a keen interest in Art to work in special effects. If someone asks you to sculpt a life-size Roman-style Statute or an Egyptian sarcophagus it’s invaluable to have a point of reference in your own mind. But more important than this, it’ll make the job more enjoyable. You may be flicking through an art book over the weekend, and on Monday morning youíre asked to recreate one of the pieces youíve been admiring.
4) Drawing
In the film industry all technical drawings are done by draughtsmen in the Art Department. So is this just padding to reach the magic ’10’ steps? No. If you want to create any 3D object, particularly the human form, it is vital to learn to draw and keep practicing. Sculptors regularly liken sculpting to drawing their subjects in clay from various angles. The key to good sculpture, like drawing, is defining the lines and shadows.
5) Practice
This is obvious but it’s also vitally important. If you practice creating and sculpting things in your spare time, you will improve. It is also very valuable to recreate a film working experience, so limit yourself to reference photographs (rather than a life model) and give yourself a challenging deadline for the job. A little more difficult, but just as valuable, is to try different mediums. You may be an expert in steel construction and welding, but unless you join the engineering side of special effects or metal work team, these skills are useless. The materials of choice in the films tend to be low-grade potterís clay and polystyrene.
6) Approachable
Almost everyone in the film industry is self-employed and so they understand the only way to get work is to promote yourself. This doesnít mean you should go around to a potential employerís house or create wacky self-marketing campaigns; it means most people in the industry are approachable. If you cold call a relevant Head of Department (HOD) and show commitment and desire to learn theyíll often agreed to meet you for 5-10 minutes to look over your portfolio.
7) Persistence
When you do finally meet the man or woman you’re hoping to be your future boss, don’t stop there. They’ll take your details but it might be 18 months before they have a suitable project and give you a call. You need to make sure you meet as many future employers as possible, and stop and have a chat with other people in the department if you feel brave enough. Try and leave a card or better still, copies of your favourite 1 or 2 pieces of work with your contact details on (and ideally your online portfolio address if you have one). Then, give them a quick catch-up call every 6 months or so ñ even if they canít offer you a job, itís amazing how much information youíll get about different opportunities.
8) Portfolio
In a word the key rules to a good portfolio are simple:
>Diversity: show different types of work you may have done ñ you may be proud of the series of 18 statutes you’ve done, but don’t show them all. Also, you may not think that 30ft polystyrene snow drift shows youíre finesse as a sculptor, but it shows your versatility so put it in.
>Honesty: it should go without saying but it doesn’t. Only one thing gets a HOD’s back-up more than seeing a large piece of work with someone claiming to have created it single-handedly, and thatís seeing a piece of their own work being claimed by someone else. Believe me, it does happen. So, be honest. If you did the left foot of a giant, then say so and donít be ambiguous about it.
>Concise: use your opportunity wisely. 10-12 photos are definitely enough to show a range of your work and skills.
>Best Foot Forward: most people will make a decision about your work within 2-3 examples so put your best work at the very front.
>Presentation: try not to have scraps of paper tumbling out of your moth-eaten portfolio. Invest in an easy to carry A4 portfolio and use plastic binders. If you have any Photoshop skills to improve the presentation of your work then use them. Donít feel the need to take in an example of your sculpture ñ you will be showing your work to professionals who are very used to assessing work through photographs.
>Information: you may have produced a full-scale replica of Michelangelo’s David, but if it took you three years it’s no good to the film industry. Make sure you note down the scale of each example of your work, what material you used and how long it took. These simple pieces of information are important for HODs and will be appreciated.
>Online Portfolio: if you can, get an online portfolio designed and make sure any contact details contain the address. Ideally, try and get the HOD’s email address so you can send them the link. Any time you update the contents of the portfolio, itís a good excuse to contact the HOD with another link to your work.
9) Networking
Networking can feel a bit uncomfortable and embarrassing at times, but it is important to get to know what jobs are out there. After you’ve worked on a job or two you’ll get the phone numbers of a few fellow workers ñ make sure you give them a ring. But be warned, if youíre first to hear about the new James Bond film and then tell everyone, youíll find yourself joining the queue to show your portfolio. This doesnít mean you shouldn’t share information you may have about up coming jobs, it means you should bear in mind that everyone is trying to get employment. It’s also a good idea to keep an eye on movie news websites.
10) Watching Films
A great perk for those times when you’re not in work. You can watch films and claim it’s research. Obviously, itís a great feeling to see your own work on the big screen, but itís also exhilarating to see the work and names of people you know. After your first job or 2 youíll very quickly start to feel part of the industry and start recognising names and faces. Also, for those jobs you missed out on, you can go and have a good grumble about how you would have done it better!
Working in the film industry is not for everyone; but if you’re keen and develop you’re skills and knowledge, then you’re likely to get an opportunity to show what you can do. Best of luck!
People with disabilities remain an untapped resource in the nation’s work force, facing an unemployment rate of 70 percent.
NISH, a nonprofit organization that helps secure federal contracts for agencies that employ people with disabilities through the Javits-Wagner-O’Day Program, is working to change the status quo. The organization has introduced a new program whereby agencies designated as “Centers of Excellence” serve as mentors to other agencies to help them improve the quality of the service and products they provide to the federal government.
The Javits-Wagner-O’Day Program is the largest single source of jobs in the U.S. for people with disabilities. Often referred to as the JWOD program, it provides employment opportunities for more than 45,000 people who are blind or have other severe disabilities.
Through the JWOD program, NISH works with a network of more than 600 nonprofit agencies that employ and train people with disabilities.
The program stems from the Wagner-O’Day Act, passed in 1938, which provided employment opportunities for the blind by allowing them to manufacture mops and brooms to sell to the federal government. In 1971, Congress amended the act to include people with severe disabilities and to allow the agencies to provide services as well as products.
According to a recent Harris Interactive survey, two out of three people with disabilities who are not working want to work, but the lack of opportunities and accessibility issues prevent them from finding employment.
Do you stick only to the top name job boards or portals? If yes, you are denying your chances of getting into specialized positions. Specialized groups or non-enterprise companies often steer clear of top names. Choose your resume posting based on the kind of recruiters that visit a given job boards.
GOING ONLY FOR BRANDING
Do you stick only to the top name job boards or portals? If yes, you are denying your chances of getting into specialized positions. Specialized groups or non-enterprise companies often steer clear of top names. Choose your resume posting based on the kind of recruiters that visit a given job boards.
OUTSOURCING YOUR JOB HUNT
If you are getting a peer or a consultant to do your job hunt to the level of making contact with a prospective employer – stop doing this now. You can get help to the level of someone gathering job order description or information for you. You make connect – use the opportunity to create an impression.
RESUME BLASTING
Do you treat your resume like a promotional mailer? Distribute it all over the place or get a group email ID and broadcast? This means (1) Your cover letter or your resume is not customized for the job order in hand – Resume customization in lieu of arranging the skill sets for the given job order. (2) You do not follow up; there are employers who seek to measure your interest with the follow up method that you adopt. Plus your prospective employer or their job consultant knows that you are hunting around, which will reduce your market value.
Another aspect of mindless blasting is clicking the APPLY FOR THIS JOB button wherever you see it. When you submit your resume to a job where you do not have minimum qualifications – and you have a reason to doing so – make an offline connect.
75% of email traffic received by a generic ID such as careers@bestemployer.com is junk. If you rely only on email to get your next job – forget it. Your resume is probably in the junk folder.
PRIVACY
Do not write a tell tale resume with private information. We’ve heard enough and more about misuse of private information. Another aspect of privacy – using Internet at work to coordinate your job hunt. Wake up – Even a mom & pop street corner store can afford a network and a firewall in it.
INTERNET JOB HUNT BALANCE
You do not want to rely entirely on the internet for your job search. You do not want to deny the abundance of information that is available on the internet either. Depending on your skills and where you want to be working next, see if your target employers and their head hunters are hanging out in Print Classifieds or Job boards.
BEING COOL
Email is new age – it has been for over 15 years now :), but an email ID such as kewldude800@xyz.com is not a great identification. Also see what your social networking page is saying about you – from the eyes of a headhunter, hiring manager or recruiter. Please blogpost here about ‘Big Brother is watching’. Also your resume or your job hunt webpage is a business document; it is not your platform to express political views.
Balance 994 things you do not want in your job hunt come under ‘common sense application’. We do not want to question your CSA quotient by putting down all of those 994. (Actually, 6 things as a title did not sound grandiose enough to attract your attention)
Are you one of the many people on the planet who wishes that you were doing something else? Do you absolutely hate going to work every day? Just like everybody else, you probably have a dream job that you aren’t working because to you, and many others, it seems nearly impossible to achieve. The honest truth is, your dream job is not hard to reach.
Today, you can turn your passions into your career. All that is required for this is a little bit of hope, determination, the right help, and hard work. Founder of CareerGlider,com Sunil Sani is there to help you make your career dream come true. Thanks to Sunil, CareerGlider.com can match you with the right schooling with all the right courses in order for you to learn the essentials of your passion to achieve creating it into your own business. All you have to do in choose the industry that you are interested in and the career that you would like to have, and career glider will go hard to work finding the correct colleges and programs for you to achieve all of your business goals, while fitting in to your busy everyday life without complicating your schedule.
Having the career that you want has many, many advantages. The first and most important one is and key when it comes to living here on earth, and our jobs take up most of the time that we have. So, why be stuck in a job that you hate and be miserable? There may or may not be a few legitimate answers to that, but I can promise you that none of those answers can justify not going to school and getting the correct education and credibility for the career that you truly want. Schooling does take time, but it is definitely worth it. Picture this; 4 or more years of schooling and happiness for the rest of your life, or no schooling and remaining in the miserable job that you wish you could get out of. Which one seems better? All that has to be done is fairly easy. All you have to do is pick yourself up and get to work finding the correct way to reach that dream career.
If you aim for what you really want out of life, it is impossible to miss, if you go about it in the correct fashion. Join the millions of people who are following their dreams, and check out CareerGlider.com as soon as possible.
With the world constantly expanding its horizons, more and more buildings are being constructed and rules and regulations are getting tighter. Your construction resume will reflect your technical skills and advanced knowledge.
Basically a construction resume should contain your full name, permanent address, telephone numbers and email addresses. Apart from that a construction resume should include the following information.
A clear cut career and job objective which shows your sense of direction to the employer.
Your construction resume should have the names of each of your employers and your corresponding job titles.
Give a brief description about the employer like what they are doing, if they are not well known.
Highlight any community activities and membership with professional organizations.
Mention the size, value of the project and the number of staff that you manage.
Your construction resume should mention your roles and responsibilities in a detailed planning of all stages of construction, equipment, materials and including workers.
Your contact with planners, surveyors, buyers, supervisors, managers, clients and other subcontractors etc.
Highlight your budgetary and financial responsibilities on major projects that you worked on.
Your construction resume should mention your responsibilities in designing and purchasing.
Highlight any new procedures, practices, processes and techniques that you have introduced or developed in your department or organization in general.
If you had budgetary responsibilities, specify some of the important impressive projects that you have worked on and whether you completed the projects on budget and on time and accomplishments gained.
To make your construction resume stand out mention your contribution in reduction of cost, improving efficiency and productivity with in your department or the company in general.
Highlight any other achievements that have benefited your department and obviously your organization in general.
A computer software engineer resume must highlight your technical skills. This article gives you some ideas of the sort of information that an employer is looking for in your resume.
Apart from the basic resume requirements like contact details, experience etc, a software engineer resume should include the following information:
A clear cut career and job objective which shows your sense of direction to the employer.
Your resume should have the names of each of your employers and your corresponding job titles.
Give a brief description about the employer like what they are doing, if they are not well known.
The number of staff that you manage (if applicable)
Include some of the topics that are applicable to you like technical certifications, hardware knowledge, operating systems, networking/protocols, programming/languages, web applications and database applications etc.
Include a statement of your goals which is the clearest indicators to a prospective employer to match you with the job position.
Include projects done with a brief description about it and the platform used, front-end, backend and programming languages used.
Mention any technical or computer qualifications and personality development, marketing diploma etc done as a course with its content in brief, the duration, institute and also its result.
Planning, analysis, design, implementation and testing responsibilities as computer software engineer.
If you had budgetary responsibilities specify some of the important impressive technical projects that you have worked on and whether you completed the projects on budget and on time and accomplishments gained.
Highlight your initiatives and performance that resulted in enhanced efficiency, faster work, and money savings.
Highlight your certifications like Sun Certified Java programmer or Microsoft certified programmer to stress your skills in that particular language.
Highlight, if you presented any white papers, or addressed any group of audience to showcase your expertise.
Showcase your learnability. With the changing technology every month, you are required to be a quick learner in the IT field.
Highlight any other achievements that have benefited your department and obviously your organization in general.
Should include the following information:
A clear cut career and job objective which shows your sense of direction to the employer.
Your resume should have the names of each of your employers and your corresponding job titles
Give a brief description about the employer like what they are doing, if they are not well known.
The number of staff that you manage(if applicable)
Include some of the topics that are applicable to you like technical certifications, hardware knowledge, operating systems, networking/protocols, programming/languages, web applications and database applications etc.
Include a statement of your goals which is the clearest indicators to a prospective employer to match you with the job position.
Include projects done with a brief description about it and the platform used, front-end, backend and programming language used.
Mention any technical or computer qualifications and personality development, marketing diploma etc done as a course with its content in brief, the duration, institute and also its result.
Planning, analysis, design, implementation and testing responsibilities as computer software engineer.
If you had budgetary responsibility specify some of the important impressive technical projects that you have worked on and whether you completed the projects on budget and on time and accomplishments gained.
Highlight your initiatives and performance that resulted in enhanced efficiency, faster work, money savings.
Highlight your certifications like Sun Certified Java programmer or Microsoft certified programmer to stress your skills in the particular language and your interested to go one extra mile for learning.
Highlight if you presented any white papers, OR addressed any group of audience to showcase your expertise.
Showcase your ability tolearn. The changing technology every month, you are required to be a quick learner in IT field.
Highlight any other achievements that have benefited to your department and obviously your organization in general.
With almost 2.6M registered nurses (RN) in the United States, nursing is now the largest health care profession in the country. If you think that hospitals are the only place a nurse could be found, you are certainly misled. Public health agencies, communities, ambulatory care centers and other places where health care services are rendered also commonly have nurses employed.
1. The Nursing Practice
Nursing covers a wide area of practice. It includes:
– Childcare
– Elderly care
– Services for pregnant women
– Services for newborn infants
– Specialty area – injury nursing
– Specialty area – cancer nursing
– Specialty area – forensic nursing
2. Choose Your Nursing Program
The first step to be a nurse is to graduate from a nursing program. This would enable you to take a state licensure examination. In the US, more than 1500 nursing programs are offered. Three of these programs prepare you in assuming different tasks once you graduate.
A. A Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)
This is a four-year curriculum offered in colleges and universities. A graduate of this course has the advantage of learning health care settings that includes leadership and management. A degree in BSN is preferred and often required in many fields of nursing.
B. Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN)
This is a 2 to 3 year program offered in community college as well as in junior collages. This program prepares the student in handling direct patient care.
C. Hospital Diploma
This is a 2 to 3 year program that is based in hospitals.
3. Nursing Positions
Now that you’ve covered the basics, let’s take a closer look on some of the nursing positions you can occupy. These positions are based on your experience and education.
A. Entry-level nursing position
This is the Staff Nurse Position. The nurse takes on making judgments based on scientific knowledge. You have to rely on procedures and standardized care plans.
B. Certified Mid-wife
This is a specialty nurse position where the nurse aids childbearing women. It starts during the preconception stage and goes through the prenatal, labor and delivery. Postpartum period care is also included in her duties. The nurse also provides family planning counseling as well as gynecological care for women.
C. Case Manager
Over time, a nurse can become a nurse case manager. In this position, the nurse will be involved in the process of organizing as well as coordinating the resources and services of an entire group of nurses, such as an entire hospital.
D. Nurse Educator
This is also a position a nurse could get involved with. Educating people about proper health care needs and procedures would be the basic tasks for this position. A Nurse Practitioner on the other hand conducts physical exams on patients, conducts diagnoses and provides treatments. A nurse practitioner could also write prescriptions and could also manage patients with chronic conditions such as diabetics and those with hypertension.
E. Nurse Anesthetist
A Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist assists during operations. They give anesthesia to the patients before and after the operation.
There are also various specialty nursing programs that would help you specialize in a specific area. Radiology Nursing, Rehabilitation Nursing, AIDS Care Nursing, and Forensic Nursing are few of these specialty areas. Radiology Nurses are concerned with patients that undergo diagnosis in radiology imaging environments. It also includes Ultrasonography, magnetic resonance and radiation oncology. Rehabilitation Nurses or Psychiatric Nurses takes on providing physical and emotional support both to the patient and their families. They deal with patients having mental incapacities. An AIDS Care Nurse manages the physical, psychological, spiritual and social needs of a patient suffering with AIDS. A Forensic Nurse works in a different environment with other nurses. They work with the law enforcement officials to help in the investigation of crimes like sexual assault and accidental death. They also help in the treatment of the victims of these crimes.