Resume writing 2.0

Posted on October 24, 2011
Filed Under Cover Letters and Resumes, Employment, Finding a Job | Leave a Comment

It’s simple economics. When supply goes up, ceteris paribus, demand goes down and price, to put it simply, is tied to each of these things. While economic laws may seem sufficiently abstract in a discussion about resume writing, they can be used to demonstrate a simple principle no job seeker in the Information Age should forget: the Internet. The Internet enables 2,044,000,000 global users easy access to an incalculable number of job postings worldwide and has significantly expanded the pool of applicants against whom you must compete for a job. In fact, with so many job seekers vying for the same position, the number of both qualified and unqualified candidates will undoubtedly sharply increase, making it necessary to establish yourself not just as a qualified candidate, but one decisively different from all the rest. You must distinguish yourself from the existing supply to generate demand for your services. Read more

Workplace philanthropy

Posted on October 20, 2011
Filed Under Corporate Policy, Employment, The Workplace | Leave a Comment

An office, in many ways, is a microcosm of society—a self-sustaining, isolated, small-scale replica of society at-large. Although one could argue Americans are actually working less when compared to the amount of time Americans spent winning bread in the mid-19th-early 20th century, the workplace has, over the past two centuries, retained its status as a social center even if we’re no longer sleeping next to our workstations or forced to live in factory-supplied housing. Nevertheless, assuming an employee works over forty hours per week and sleeps an average of eight hours per night, that employee is left with only 72 hours per week—three days—of extra-office social interaction. The fact that most social interaction occurs within the workplace, makes the workplace the perfect place to engage in all kinds of social activities, including the solicitation of donations from coworkers for your favorite charities or the organization of benefit drives with your close professional friends. Or does it? Read more

The chain of command

Posted on October 18, 2011
Filed Under Corporate Policy, Employment, Keeping your Job, The Workplace | 1 Comment

Last year, a friend of mine interned at a corporate firm. Daily, I would hear horror stories about one of her fellow interns who projected an unprofessional attitude and whose lack of professionalism caused her to become an outcast of the workplace. Naturally, feeling that she had been unfairly targeted and treated by her coworkers—who, in reality, made good faith efforts to improve her stay, this intern’s indignation grew until she decided to take matters into her own hands. With the same unreasonable sense of entitlement and cavalier attitude for which she was notorious in the workplace, the intern ignored the usual chain of command, and left a letter on the desk of the firm’s chief executive officer. Contrary to her expectations, the letter, when put within the context of her repeated offences and carless self-serving behavior, resolved nothing, and only reinforced those uncomfortable negative perceptions her coworkers routinely tried to prove wrong. This intern violated an almost inviolable rule of any well-ordered workplace: the chain of command. Read more

Dress to impress

Posted on October 15, 2011
Filed Under Employment, Finding a Job, Interview | Leave a Comment

Have you ever watched the show, “What Not to Wear”? Each of the show’s hosts, Stacy London and Clinton Kelly, might be accused of perpetuating superficial conceptions of beauty and a superficial aesthetic governed by arbitrary trends in fashion. However, each adheres to the valid yet unpalatable truth that how you project yourself—the clothes you wear—helps to determine how you will be received by society and can affect how you measure your own self-worth. London and Kelly’s mantra, which is an extension of this view, is repeated in almost every show, “Dress for the job you want, not the one you have.” Read more

How plagiarism could ruin your career

Posted on October 10, 2011
Filed Under Corporate Policy, Employment, Keeping your Job | Leave a Comment

Have you ever heard of Chris Anderson? No? How about Joe Biden? Or perhaps William Swanson? Believe it or not, each of these individuals—the first of which is editor-in-chief of Wired, the second of which is the United States’ current Vice President, and the third of which is Raytheon’s CEO—all have something in common beyond being figures of both immense power and authority: plagiarism. While Anderson may have successfully dodged allegations by admitting that certain citations in his book Free were removed during the editorial process, and all eventually recovered, each figure’s image suffered in incalculable harm. Anderson’s work and creditability as an author were ferociously scrutinized; Biden was forced from the 1988 Democratic presidential nomination race; and Swanson received a $1 million pay cut. Read more

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