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We’ve all done it — listed “proficient” next to a language or software on our resume  and prayed to all the gods the hiring manager didn’t really mean it when he listed it in the job description. Because, as you know deep down, “proficient” doesn’t mean you can say “Hello” in Spanish, or you know how to plug numbers into a spreadsheet. By including this, you’re stating that you can use your knowledge in your day-to-day job to improve and streamline a process. You should know that while some hiring managers will skim over this section, others might test you. Former recruiter Richard Moy says, “Whenever ‘language proficiency’ was included in a job I was recruiting for, it wasn’t enough for candidates to just add it to their resumes. I knew whoever we hired would actually have to speak that language. Therefore, we’d have to test their abilities during the interview process.” But have no fear, every skill can be learned, and I’ve got just the thing to learn them and boost ...

If the company you’re interviewing with invites you to drinks or a happy hour at the office, you’re probably thinking one of two things: “Um, what?” or “THIS IS IT! I’M IN!” If you’re in the first camp, here’s the scoop: While the idea of selling your skills to a hiring manager over Sauvignon Blanc might sound bizarre, it’s actually not uncommon, particularly if you’re interviewing for a client-facing role or with a startup. In either case, this phase of the process could mean any of the following: They like your skills and background, but they want to make sure you pass the airport test . (A.k.a., They want to work with you, but do they want to hang out with you?) They want you to meet several more people, but they don’t want to put you through the process of sitting down for hour-long interviews with all of them. They’re hiring you for a role that interacts with people regularly, and they want to make sure you don’t transform into a different human being in a non...

Here are the 10 best sites for searching for scholarship cash — along with one scholarship from each to get you started! 1. Zinch.com Zinch is a college students one-stop-shop for scholarships that are creative, easy and fun to apply for and win. To apply for scholarships via Zinch, you’ll have to create a username and profile that will help the site find scholarships that are specifically relevant to you! One of Zinch’s most popular awards is the Weekly Three Sentence Essay Scholarship, where applicants must generate a 280-character essay (that’s only two tweets!) while vying for $1,000 of cold, hard cash. Visit http://www.Zinch.com for more scholarships. 2. Fastweb.com Fastweb is another terrific, free resource where you’ll find thousands of scholarships at your fingertips. Not only does Fastweb offer a massive database of monetary awards, but it also features helpful career planning services and learning tools for its registered users! One of Fastweb’s most recently featur...

Books To Read If You Are Leader. Being a leader is sometimes tough work. And what makes good leader even better is a desire to learn and self-improve. Broad reading habits are often a defining characteristic of our greatest leaders. Critical requirements for an effective leader are communication, emotional intelligence and organizational effectiveness and reading improves all of them. Whether young or old, experienced or inexperienced, the best way to approach personal and professional development is to always stay in the learning zone. So we’ve compiled a list of 12 books everyone should read to improve their leadership skills and to impress everyone around: 1. Rework: Change the Way You Work Forever by David Heinemeier Hansson and Jason Fried "Although it’s been out a few years, Rework is still one of my favorite business books for employees because it challenges traditional ideas about “corporate America” and helps un-teach bad habits. You can’t be a good leader...

This Is How You Lose Respect At Work Without Realizing It. Even if you are working as a robot and do it flawlessly - there are little things that can drive your colleagues crazy and lowers the level of their respect for you. 1. You Are Constantly Late Punctuality is the politeness of kings - we all know that. And you can be brilliant from head to toe, but if you can't make it on time all the time it might be a reason why your colleagues don't respect you the way you deserve. And it might be not so bad if you're simply late for work, but if you are constantly being late on meetings and everybody has to wait for you to start - it's a surefire way to become someone everyone in the office hates. What To Do Simply, work on your time-management skills. Re-make your schedule and make sure that even if you can't do something on time it doesn't affect anyone but you. 2. You Are 'Glued' To Your Smartphone Checking your smartphone eve...

How to Make a Great First Impression: Tips to Try It takes between few seconds and few minutes to make a first impression. When you meet someone for the first time, they are taking a rapid inventory of your gait, your smile, your handshake, and how you present yourself. As you are making your approach, they are deciding if they can trust you, if you are genuinely nice, if they want to know and work with you--so many questions are answered in those first few critical seconds based on what they see, and how you make them feel. The best way to make a positive first impression, especially in business, is to embrace uncommon common sense. Many entrepreneurs overlook the importance of poise and professionalism. A few common courtesies will help you make a positive impression when you meet someone for the first time. Use these tips to guarantee you’ll make a great first, and lasting, impression — no matter the circumstance. 1. Smile First impressions are formed in 7 seconds. ...

Never Use These 10 Words to Describe Yourself . When someone calls you strong and confident - thats great and you should feel flattered. On the contrary, when someone calls himself strong and confident - it sounds weird. Thats why we've gathered some words that are great when other people use them to describe you--but you should never use them to describe yourself. 1. Humble It is strange to hear someone's bragging about how humble they are. It just doesn’t work. Don’t walk into this unfortunate contradiction and try to talk your way out of it. The more you try to explain this, the more you wear down your interviewer’s trust. Just by saying it, you prove that you are not. 2. Generous Being described as generous is similar to respect, in that it is something you earn, rather than something you can claim for yourself. You may be, but if you are prepared to say it in public then you are not humble (see above). And we value ‘humble’. And we want our ‘generosity’...

Career development: Words That Can Ruin It. Sometimes even a couple of words you say can end your career. In order to help you avoid such mistakes and know when it is better to keep your mouth shut – we’ve collected top 5 most dangerous expressions at the work place. Let’s begin with the most annoying expression for the most employees. 1 . ‘I don’t know’ These words are perhaps the most annoying words any employer ever heard from his employees. It does not matter the situation, the question asked, you should try to avoid these words at all times. When the employer hears these words, he thinks several things – first, that you are incompetent, second - that you are not interested in the job and not able to organize the work on his own. You may be tempted to think of something and start lying just not to show that you do not know. Instead – the only right way is to get out of this situation is to say that you will figure out how to do this task in the next hour/day/two days....

Resume Update In Less Than 30 Minutes. The worst part of the whole job-hunting process is crafting a resume that explains who you are and what you’ve done before any sort of personal introduction. But it doesn’t have to be such a daunting task. Here are seven ways to help you update your resume in less then 30 minutes. 1. STYLE YOUR NAME Your name is your calling card. Make sure it pops with a font that’s heavier and several sizes larger than the main text. Try stacking your first name on top of your last name, using all caps or making one name bolder and/or a different color than the other. Keep the font for your contact information within the same family, but make it smaller and lighter. Centering this section can come across as a bit too conservative, so try aligning left or right, or using a column format. 2. CHANGE THE ORDER Rearrange your resume so your job history is in reverse chronological order, beginning with your present position. Your education comes next, ...

7 Overlooked Habits of Great Leaders You Should Pick Up Most leaders want to be great at what they do, but far too many fall short. Why is that? What do great leaders have that not-so-great ones don’t? There are many different ways of leading, but great leaders have a few important habits that anyone can cultivate in themselves. 1. Listen More Than Speak "Most of the successful people I've known are the ones who do more listening than talking." --Bernard Baruch The most successful people don’t use conversations to fuel their self-worth, but rather as a way of learning from another person. Stop talking before others stop listening. The less you say the more interesting and inviting you become. You can always say more but you can never take back. 2. Be Flexible Leaders need to have a flexible and fluid mindset to adapt to changes and new challenges, which is fostered by being open to new perspectives and ways of doing things. If you are managing people, ev...

5 Phrases To Improve Your Leadership Words you are speaking to your team are really powerful. Words have a lasting impact on everyone's lives both for good and for bad. A good leader needs to be aware of the power of their words and be careful not to use them carelessly. Whether you are speaking to your client, motivating your team or simply having a small talk before the meeting or a chatter around the water cooler - you want to make sure you use phrases that are improving your leadership. Luckily for you, we have gathered a couple of such magical-powered phrases that you can use. And it doesn't matter whether you are a vice-president of the company or an HR manager. This 5 phrases will improve your leadership and earn you some respect: 1. "Let Me Write That Down" If there was at least one time you forgot important information or failed to keep your promise - you might want to use this phrase more often. And let's be honest - we all are so busy sometim...

7 Worst Career Advice Ever There is never lack of advice from people who have “been there and done that.”And at the start of your career it's hard to understand which pieces of wisdom are helpful and which will actually do harm. We've asked couple of dozens of people: "What was the worst career advice you have ever received?" and here is a list of the best ones: 1. “Hard work alone equals success" This is far from the truth. There are so many factors that contribute to career success, such as being a team player, having soft skills, and fitting in to the company culture. 2. "Flirt with clients to get cases, sales, and to ‘strengthen’ relationships" You should respect yourself and your clients and never play into this behavior. 3. "If work was meant to be fun, it wouldn't be called work" You should at least like your work to do it well. It doesn't have to be party all the way, but you shouldn't w...

3 Tightropes Every Entrepreneur Must Walk As I continue down the path of building a business, I’m learning that part of the reason it’s so difficult to win as an entrepreneur is that there is a constant balancing act that must be mastered. Entrepreneurs have to walk a number of tightropes, and they’re not for the faint of heart. Here are three tightropes I’ve noticed through the years. Learn to master if you want to find success as an entrepreneur: 1. Healthy Expansion vs. Overextension One of the biggest reasons small businesses fail? They spend more money than they should and overextend themselves. Another top reason? They fail to expand their business and aren’t built for sustainable growth. There’s not a uniform test to discern the difference between healthy expansion and overextension, but there are two concrete things you can look at: your bank account and the structure of your business. This may seem obvious, but it can be hard for the overambitious entrepreneur to...

5 Reasons Why You Should Have A Collaborative Hiring Process When I was younger, and knew absolutely everything, I was sure that interviewing and hiring needed to be done by the hiring manager only. I had read about collaborative hiring, 360 interviewing, and the like. And I thought they were all signs of a weak leader. I remember thinking to myself, “If I’m the leader, I should be able to do this hiring thing all on my own. That’s what a real leader would do!” Now that I’m older (and don’t know everything), I’m pretty sure of this: I was wrong. Collaborative hiring is a must, and smart leaders will learn that lesson quicker than I did. There’s not one cookie cutter to a collaborative approach. Out of the hundreds of organizations I’ve helped with hiring, I’ve learned that every organization is different in how they add new team members. The best teams and smartest leaders all tend to have some reflection of collaborative hiring.  They use teams to interview. They include p...

5 Career-Boosting Moves You Still Have Time In 2017  (Can this even be possible?) How’s your career humming along? Did you vow to make this the year you make a change, snag a promotion or gain new skills or credentials? Are you there yet? If no, fear not. You’ve still got plenty of time before the holiday season, when companies typically start winding down on interviewing and hiring for the year. Now the hard question: Are you ready to set aside a bit of your summer sun time and get going? I’ll assume you said yes: That’s excellent. Here are five things you can still accomplish career-wise in 2017, instead of putting things off until next year: 1. Better Your Position At Your Current Employer So many people, when feeling unhappy in their current jobs, assume that they need to go find another job, at another company. But, what if there’s a way to make your career situation happier, more lucrative or more fulfilling—without leaving? Is there another department you’ve got your...

4 Key Ways To Maximize Productivity. No morning commute. No open floor plan that makes it challenging to focus on your work. No boss looking over your shoulder or co-worker who insists on showing you photos of his cat every morning. The sweet freedom of working from home can seem like a dream come true for some—and the number of people doing so is growing. For example, Global Workplace Analytics found that the work-at-home population increased by 103% between 2005 and 2014, with a 6.5% rise in 2014—the largest spike since before the recession. U.S. Census data also show that working from home is more popular than ever. In 2010, 13.4 million people worked at least one day at home per week, an increase of more than 4 million people in the last decade. Although statistics indicate that the trend is picking up steam, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to work from home successfully. Whether you’re telecommuting to a full-time job or running a home-based business, there are distinct challenge...

Reasons Why You Should Not Follow Your Passion… Credit : Original article written by E.C.LAW In my opinion, you have been given some very terrible advice all your life. And that advice is: Follow Your Passion Every time you watch an award show, say it’s HIP TV Headies Awards, the Grammys or the Oscars, you hear a famous local or international celebrity, trophy in hand, say something like: “Follow your dreams! Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t have what it takes!” Anytime I hear statements like this, I cringe. It’s horrible advice See, I understand the importance of persistence, and the value of encouragement, but who tells a stranger, someone they probably will never meet not to give up on their dreams, without even knowing what it is they are dreaming about? It’s quite like posting on Facebook that you’re having stomach pain and people telling you which variant of “Agbo Jedi” you should drink. How do they know it’s not appendicitis or ulcer or just ordinary dysentery....