4 Resume Tips- Four A’s for Success

First Tip – Abilities We all have skills and talents that separate us from our competitors. Demonstrate to the prospective employer what you are capable of doing, but do so in a way that expresses your enthusiasm and dedication to the job. Show the employer what you can do and how well you can do it. Are you proficient at a particular skill? Let the employer know. This is not just a boring list of what you have done before. It is a marketing piece directed at exciting the prospective employer about hiring you to be a part of the organization. Second Tip – Achievements What have you accomplished thus far in life and how will it enhance your ability to do a great job for your next employer? Don’t just list what you have achieved, but go the next step and be bold about what you have undertaken in the past. Give examples. If possible, use numbers to quantify the work that you have done. For instance, “Utilized new workflow procedure to increase the efficiency of the plant by 20%.” Be realistic, but don’t be afraid to sell yourself. Third Tip – Action Use strong action keywords (verbs) within your resume to convey your ability to take action. Showing problem solving skills and initiative are essential in today’s job market. Think of the responsibilities of your former employment and how you were challenged to excel. Focus on the challenges and how you overcame them. Define the opportunities where you used your resourcefulness and innovative thinking to do something in a different way and how it benefited the company you worked for. Fourth Tip – Arrangement Look at the overall layout of your resume. Demonstrating your amazing abilities and quantifying your accomplishments with bold action words are meaningless if they are convoluted in a format that is unreadable. Use a format that is recognized and that suits your background as well as your goals. The Four A’s of Resumes are important resume tips to keep in mind as they will guide you to prepare resume materials that are of the highest quality.

                                            

What Employers Look in You during the Interview

What Employers Are Looking For When an employer decides to conduct an interview with you, there are certain things that they are looking for from you. Naturally, you are likely to focus on these things during an interview, but you should remember all of the tips in this manual because following those tips is what is going to make the employers see all of those things in you. Since everybody wants to have a leg up when it comes to an interview, it naturally seemed to be appropriate to let you in on what the employers are evaluating you on during an interview. So here is that list. • Your Enthusiasm: Employers want to know that you are willing and eager to be a part of their company. Being fully stocked with knowledge about the company is a sure fire way to show your enthusiasm. • Your ability to speak clearly: If you approach an interview mumbling and speaking slang, a prospective employer will not see you as a professional. • Showing your teamwork skills: You should show an example of your ability to work as a team during your interview. • Leadership skills: You should show your leadership abilities by approaching your interview with an offensive train of thought. • Problem solving ability: Employers needs to know that you can handle yourself when a problem arrives. • Work related experience: You definitely want to show that you have some experience in the field already, so that the employer knows that you will not be overwhelmed. • Community involvement: Employers love to see that you have done volunteer work. It shows that you take pride in your community, and a willingness to be a team player. • Company knowledge: Again, this stipulates that employers like to see that you have done your research about their company. It shows that your interest in working for them is sincere. • Flexibility: Employers want to know that you are able to go with the flow. It proves that they can depend on you later. • Ambition and Motivation: Ambitious people are generally motivated enough to make great improvements in the company as they are working their way up the ladder. Ambition usually means more money for the company. • People skills: Your ability to get along with others is very important to an employer. They need to know that you won’t ruffle any feathers when you are hired. • Professional appearance: Nobody wants a slob working in their office. Be certain to dress appropriately for the job that you are applying for. • Ability to Multitask: This is getting to be a very necessary skill in the workplace. Most days, you will be required to multitask. Even if you are not, employers need to know that you can do it without freaking out on them. • Computer ease: These days, just about every company in the world is running on computers. The ability to work a computer with at least minimal amount of ease is important. It is best to keep a leg up on the most common software like MS Office, Quark Express, and Linux. • Reliability: Employers want dependable and reliable people to work for them. Your ability to arrive on time is a good place to start when trying to prove that you possess this quality. Best of luck to you!

Increase your Self Control in 5 Ways

Increase Your Self-Control in 5 Steps     It takes self-control in order to reach your goals. You increase it the same way you beef up your self-confidence, by mastering smaller steps one at a time, and building up trust in yourself. Step One: Making the Commitment You’ll find your goals are easier to reach once you can focus on them in your mind. What exactly do you want to do? What – exactly – are the steps needed to take you there? It’s easy to say you want to live a healthier life, but you won’t accomplish anything by trying to cover everything at once. Look at your current abilities, and what you’re able to tackle right now. Using your strengths, how can reach your overall goal? Eating more Vegetables? Cutting down on smoking? Exercising with friends? Pin down your goal and focus your efforts on taking manageable steps in that direction. Step Two: Put it in Writing Making a commitment is a lot like making a map. It’s easier to follow your decisions when you’ve laid them down on paper. When you can see your plan, when you have a chance to check items off one by one, you feel powerful and in control of your situation. Writing things down strengthens you focus, and gives you a reminder of what you have to work on. Step Three: Kick into Action Start once you make your commitment. If you wait for the next day, or the next week, or after the holidays, etc you will keep coming up with reasons to avoid starting at all. Worse, you’ll find reasons to stop midstream. If you find yourself tempted, it may be a sign that your baby steps aren’t small enough. “Never drinking soda pop ever again” may work for someone who drinks a very small amount, but for someone who lives on carbonation, it’s not realistic. Remember, self-confident people honor their abilities and know their limitations. They don’t set themselves up for fairly. Be good to your spirit by setting goals that won’t drag you off-course. Step Four: Let the Daydreams Begin Motivation fuels your efforts. Daydreams fuel your motivation. Take some time today to imagine your success. See yourself drinking bottled water, or chewing on gum instead of taking a drag. Envision your thinner thighs or sparkling white teeth. Most importantly, see yourself smiling. While visualizing the life you want to lead is a powerful tool in creating the self-confidence, you can also use visualization techniques to fight off negative thinking. The next time stresses come to call, close your eyes for a moment and breathe deeply. Imagine yourself walking into a blooming garden. Stop in front of a rose bush, littered with vibrant blooms and wilting ones. Put on your garden gloves, and pick up your shears, then stop to smell the roses. With every sniff of a vibrant bloom, here the whispering positive messages in your mind. “You can do this.” “You will reach your goals.” “You deserve your success.” The wilted blooms have an acrid smell, and whisper negative comments. Snip them off the bush before they have their whole say, but them in your basket and once back in your office, throw them away. Step Five: Celebrate Your Success However little they may be, make a display when your plans reach fruition. It takes focus, commitment, and effort to make even the smallest baby step turn out. Take a moment to feel proud of yourself and realize that improving your life isn’t so tough. You may even want to reward yourself when you reach certain milestones, but be careful. You want to make progress for yourself, not for the latest CD or a new watch. Sticking to your goals isn’t so much about willpower as it is making your choices realistic, and aligning your actions with your overall purpose. Be forgiving, hopefully, and celebrate your successes. Soon you’ll be living the life that you want, and you’ll have the trust that you need to meet future obstacles head on. Best of luck to you!

Blowing off steam may bring your Goal Closer to Reality

When working toward a goal, it is common to encounter obstacles and stressful situations. The difference between those that go on to achieve their goals and those that do not is their ability to handle the stress and to move on. Therefore, it is a good idea to come up with a few different stress-busting ideas before starting your journey – and to avoid a few others that will get in your way. [b]Exercise Perhaps the best way to blow off steam and get rid of stress is through exercise. Many people that become stressed or angry begin to feel an adrenaline rush. If used inappropriately, this rush can be destructive. For example, if you yell at people or even physically harm people as a way to blow off stress, you will alienate others and perhaps find yourself in legal trouble. Exercise, on the other hand, provides you with a safe outlet for that adrenaline. It also releases “feel good” hormones that will make you feel better when you are done. In addition, exercise is healthy for you. The healthier your body is, the better capable you will be of handling stress when it hits you. Meditation and Relaxation Techniques Many people also used meditation and relaxation techniques to help themselves cope with stress. It is best to already have an established relaxation technique before you encounter stressful situations. Otherwise, you will have a difficult time successfully implementing these techniques if you only try to use them when you are angry or stressed out. When you engage in a relaxation technique, you concentrate on clearing your mind and controlling your body. Many individuals who use these techniques find that their thinking is at its clearest after engaging in meditation or relaxation. Once you have mastered these techniques at times when you are not stressed, you will be better capable of clearing your mind and getting your body under control when you are stressed. Talk it Out Sometimes, simply talking to someone is a great way to relieve stress. The person you talk to doesn’t even have to offer advice or solve your problem for you. The act of simply talking out the problem and knowing that someone is lending a sympathetic ear is often enough. In addition, talking through the problem often leads to moments of clarity and can actually help you find the answers to your problem. It is best to talk it out with someone after the initial adrenaline rush is complete. But, if you have an understanding spouse or friend, you might even be able to “vent” while you are still angry. Just be sure you are not verbally attacking or otherwise insulting that person while you blow off steam. What Not to Do Just as there are positive ways for dealing with stress, there are destructive ways. Those that utilize the destructive methods for coping are the ones that fail to meet their goals. Drugs, including cigarettes and alcohol, are a popular choice for those having difficulty achieving their dreams. Drugs of all types are unhealthy to the body and cause people to engage in destructive behaviors. In addition, most people who experiment with drugs become addicted. When this happens, the battle of addiction takes over and leaves no room for working toward goals. If you are someone who enjoys having a drink now and again, make sure you never do it in response to a stressful situation. Before you know it, you will become dependent on the alcohol in those situations and addiction will ensue.

How Infosys turns staff in to LEADERS

NEW DELHI: The spirit of professional growth keeps Infosys at the forefront of the fast-changing IT industry. This is quite evident in the fact that the company lays emphasis on its leadership development programmes designed to create leaders of tomorrow.1.What is the vision behind Infosys leadership programme? One of the areas for improvement was the need to have a structured way of developing leaders. So, the vision behind the leadership institute is to create leaders of tomorrow. Our programmes focus on nurturing leaders with a global perspective. We groom leaders and provide them the opportunity to shape the future of Infosys. Every year, we groom about 700-800 employees. 2.How do you identify the leaders in your organisation? There is no specific mechanism by which we identify leaders. We invite application from employees at middle and senior level management to undergo the leadership programmes. We also have a leadership competency department which evaluates these applications on the basis of these nine leadership competencies and selects employees for different set of programmes. 3.Can you throw light on your grooming process and the stages that the participants go through after being selected? Leadership is a continuous process. This is because leadership is all about mastering yourself at some level. Infosys leadership modules cover all sorts of programmes where employees are taught how to manage teams, negotiating, handling conflicts and cultural diversity. We have ‘Leaders Teach’ series where leaders actually share their experiences in particular area. Also, we invite speakers to discuss team strategies, share their experiences and involve teams in group activities. 4.How do you measure the success of these programmes? For every leader we develop a leadership index which is the ranking or the rating that he has been given on a five point scale against each competency. We measure each leader’s score at the year end and draw analysis. 5.How is your leadership programme different from  other IT majors Wipro and Satyam? Our aim is to ensure the proper execution of such programmes to groom potential leaders. We have a leadership index which measures how you have achieved and what you have achieved. So our programmes rate each competency. Also, our leadership development is not time-bound. It runs parallel in our day to day functioning. That is where Infosys makes a difference. We also emphasise that to develop a good leader, no one else can develop him, but himself. Only you as a person can develop yourself. We provide the frameworks and the support mechanisms, but the responsibility for development needs to taken by each leader. The definition of leadership that we have is that a leader must go above and beyond expectations. 6.What are the typical challenges that you have faced? The challenge is to get everyone spend an adequate time on development. To keep telling people to further develop is quite a challenge. This is where rating competencies help and we discuss with employees about the skills they have developed and areas of improvement. 7.What do you think should be the role of a leader in tough time ? In any situation, a leader should be able to bring in a lot of positive energy. A leader is someone who raises the confidence of employees and makes them believe that working in this team is a great experience. Employees get motivated when they feel they are adding value to themselves and the organisation. Also, one of the most important qualities of a leader is to listen.