10 Best Cities for Young Professionals

10 Best Cities for Young Professionals In a world full of opportunity, how do you decide where to live as a young professional? Whether you’re an entrepreneur, freelancer, or employee at a traditional company, when you’re just starting your career, you’ll want to consider the following factors: Starting salary: What is the average starting salary of the city? If you’ve been in your field for a few years, you’ll likely earn above this figure, but it’s good to have a baseline so you know generally what to expect in terms of compensation. You can search for starting salary by city here. Job opportunities: Which cities have the most entry-level or associate-level opportunities in your field? If you don’t have any professional connections in the city you want to move to, conduct a quick search on LinkedIn to get a general idea of a city’s opportunities. If job prospects look sparse, consider another location. Affordable housing: What is the average rent or home price in the area? How does this compare to the salary you’re expecting? As a general rule of thumb, 30% of your pre-tax salary should go to rent. If rent is higher than this, you may need to prepare to make budget cuts in other areas or look at other more affordable cities. Networking opportunities: Sometimes the most valuable business lessons are learned outside of the office. Happy hours are a great way to network with other professionals in your industry or get to know your coworkers better. Does your city have a good bar and restaurant scene? To find out, conduct a quick Yelp search for happy hours in your city. While many recent college graduates flock to cities like Los Angeles and New York City, the high cost of living makes these cities unrealistic for those just starting their careers who may be financially independent. Instead, turn to nearby smaller cities for the best of both worlds: access to jobs and networking associated with a big city, but with more affordable housing. Once you’ve moved to a city where you can thrive as a young professional, you’ll want to excel in your field and hit the ground running. Here are some early career tips: Find a mentor. 70% of Fortune 500 companies offer employee mentoring programs. Mentors help develop your leadership skills and increase your confidence and motivation, which is crucial early on in your career. Keep up with industry news. Ask coworkers what publications and websites they keep up with or what podcasts they listen to. Being educated about what’s going on in your industry will show your supervisors that you care about your field. Be solution-oriented. Always look for solutions to problems to show that you’re invested in project outcomes. If you need to report an issue, your boss will be more receptive to your asks if you’ve already formulated a solution. Stay engaged. Your supervisor will notice. Engaged workers are 27% more likely to report “excellent” performance. Companies with highly engaged employees see lower turnover rates and increased productivity. Take risks. Even though you’re just starting out your career, be confident and don’t be afraid of failure. There are valuable lessons in mistakes! Just make sure the risks you take aren’t big enough to cost you your job or the trust of your colleagues. Balance work and life. You’ll avoid early-career burnout, and employees with a good work-life balance are less likely to develop anxiety and depression. Establish boundaries and avoid checking your email early in the morning or late at night. Go for a walk. Stanford researchers found that walking boosts creative output by 60%. Getting out of the office is a great way to feel refreshed and get a change of scenery, which is especially valuable if you’re stuck in a creative rut. Esurance analyzed the top 100 most populous U.S. cities and ranked them based on starting salary, job opportunities, home prices, networking opportunities and median city age to find the best cities for young professionals. You can check out the winners in the visual below. Courtesy of Esurance.

Tips For Resume Writing 2020

Tips For Resume Writing 2020In case you are trying to write a resume but are too busy or not sure how to go about it, then I suggest you start your new career in the summer of 2020 with tips for resume writing 2020. This is going to be a helpful guide that can help you keep the correct style and structure in writing your job resume, along with other essential facts that you need to know about employment.If you are already employed, you probably want to impress your boss by your professional skills. For your resume to be effective, it must contain the right information. You need to make sure that you put everything you have learned in your professional life on the page. Here are some tips for resume writing, 2020.First and foremost, always make sure that your CV is neat and organized. You should place your contact details somewhere prominent in the middle of the CV. Don't forget to make a nice layout of your CV. This will be very helpful when your employer looks at your CV. Also make sure that you have all your information right so it is easy for your interviewer to read.Remember that your CV is not the place for jokes and fluff. No one wants to read some silly humor or jokes on their resume. So, put in all the important and useful information on your CV. By putting all your job achievements, education, skills, and training, you will definitely make your CV professional. It will make your employer feel comfortable talking to you and looking at your CV.Also, don't use false or overblown references. Keep it clean and professional. Do not write what you think the employer wants to hear. Employers know exactly what they are looking for and you would do yourself a favor if you make them read over your CV again before sending it out.Always give your job title in its entirety. If you are applying for a job as 'Project Manager' don't put 'Project Manager' in the first paragraph. Never use abbreviations. Do not use adjectives that are self-explanatory. Your CV should be professional only.Just like the job description, make sure that you don't include irrelevant information on your CV. Include your experience, education, skills, and the relevant certification. There are CV templates online that you can follow that are professionally designed. Don't make it easy for them by using overly technical language. Keep it professional and avoid sarcasm.You will have to edit your resume until it is polished and professional. You will be amazed at how much your employer will like and appreciate your CV.

5 Tips to Rock Your Next Presentation

5 Tips to Rock Your Next Presentation Great ideas are useless if you are unable to present them to people in a clear, concise and confident manner. This makes the ability to articulate information to an audience one of the most important skills you can possess. There are plenty of sites and blog posts offering tips for improving presentation skills. While these tips are certainly helpful, they tend to be basic pieces of advice, such as looking up when you speak and keeping your hands out of your pockets. In an effort to take these tips and your presentation skills a step further, here is a list of five advanced tips for succeeding in your next presentation. 1. Pay Attention to Your Non-Verbal Communication What you say is only a fraction of the message that you are delivering. Your body stance, hand gestures and facial expression are all non-verbal forms of communication that impact your presentation. When you stand in front of a group of people to present, you should stand with your feet roughly shoulder width apart with your head held high and your shoulders square. Also, your hands should stay above your waistline, and folded rather than keeping them in your pockets or crossing your arms. Pointing to items during your presentation to draw attention to them, using your fingers to signify numeric portions, and using your hands to indicate size and shape are all appropriate hand gestures. As for facial expressions, maintaining eye contact and keeping your brow high indicates that you are enthusiastic and interested in the topic. Also, smiling from time to time can make you seem even more passionate about the information. 2. Plan Segues in Your Presentation While avoiding memorization helps to make a speech sound natural, segues are an area that is exempt from this common rule of thumb. If you don’t plan the transitions from one idea to the next in a presentation, you will likely default to filler words such as “um” and uh”. These filler words take away from your presentation’s focus and make you sound unsure of yourself. In order to avoid filler words, plan and practice your transitions ahead of time. Transitions that seamlessly relate one topic to another improve the overall quality of your delivery and can easily be developed through practice and preparation. 3. Record Yourself Even a well-planned presentation may sound different in your mind than it does when you actually present it. Recording yourself can help you determine whether there is a discrepancy and make improvements on your presentation’s delivery. Things such as pitch, pronunciation and volume are all nuances that can be analyzed by listening to a recording of yourself. Utilizing your phone or computer as a recording device will allow you to practice and correct these issues. 4. Inflection Is Key Zig Ziglars book, Secrets of Closing a Sale,  points to the importance of inflection while trying to sound convincing in a sales setting.This same idea holds true for presentations, as the way in which you say something is just as important as what you are saying. When you listen to the recording of your presentation, ask yourself whether your tone of voice and the words you emphasize send the message you actually want to deliver. Inflection, or the modification of word’s pitch and tone, plays a large role in conveying the meaning of a sentence. For example, emphasizing the final word of the sentence “you did not” changes it from a simple statement to a question. Taking these ideas into consideration when planning for a presentation will ensure your sentences send the intended message. 5. Dress to Impress When dressing for a presentation it is important to consider your audience. If you are presenting to your company’s board members, a sharp suit and tie will express professionalism. More informal presentations, such as those at a conference, may be more suited to business casual attire. Also, take into consideration the color of the presentation room and your PowerPoint or Keynote slides. Clashing colors can take away from the overall appeal of your presentation. Technology is another element that often gets overlooked when it comes to planning presentation attire. If your presentation requires that you wear a microphone, then you need a place to clip it, like a tie or a jacket lapel. Also, if your presentation is going to be videotaped, avoid stripes as they tend to look blurry and out of focus on video playbacks. There are many factors that go into delivering an engaging and successful presentation. If there is one theme that you take away from the aforementioned tips it should be preparation. While there are some aspects of presentations that you cannot control, these tips can go a long way toward helping your prepare for the elements that you can. About the Author: Alicia Lawrence is a content coordinator for an inbound marketing company and blogs in her free time at MarCom Land. Her work has been published by the Association for Business Communication, Yahoo! Small Business, and Spin Sucks. You can connect with her on Twitter:  @Alicia_Lw. Image courtesy of VladKol.

Personal Branding Interview Kathryn Hall - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview Kathryn Hall - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke to Kathryn Hall, who is an internationally known book publicist, and author of the forthcoming book Plant Whatever Brings You Joy: Blessed Wisdom from the Garden. In this interview, Kathryn talks about her book, things we can learn from nature, how to stay focused and not spread yourself too thin, cleaning up negative publicity, and she shares secrets for getting media attention. How did you come up with the name for your new book, Plant Whatever Brings You Joy? Plant Whatever Brings You Joy is one of the 52 metaphors or lessons on which my book is built. All the metaphors were garnered by working in gardens over a period of years. As I worked in the various gardens I created I always had a mind to be answering the question, What is this garden teaching me that also applies to my life in general? Since the garden is a place responding to the organic wiring of the planet it seemed like a healthy and wise exercise to be engaged in. I also found it enormously entertaining to do this, a kind of intellectual and spiritual practice full of heart. Planting whatever brings you joy was one of the obvious observations I arrived at, and it lended itself to being the flagship lesson for the book. It is also the name of my blog which currently is one of the top gardening blogs in the world and welcomes over 37,000 visitors each month from around the world! What are some things that the nature world has to offer? There is an intrinsic rhythm and balance in the natural world that is built upon thousands and thousands of years of evolution, literally. And as much as we unwittingly work at forgetting that fact, the truth is we are part of that system. The more we return to our essential roots, working in the earth, observing the earth, caring for the earth, the more we are likely to begin to build a bond which has been tragically broken, most likely with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, which, of course, was very exciting for humans, but unfortunately we threw out the baby with the bathwater. Notice we are now scrambling to reintegrate what our Grandparents knew and we rejected learning. We cant face tragedies like the Gulf Oil Disaster and the current economic climate and not notice that we have to start making new life choices, like growing our own food, buying locally to stop the expensive transfer of goods that are out of season and not in keeping with our own environmental needs, cooking at home, canning and drying foods and using less energy! Nature is a balm to our hearts and minds and souls. We dont have to wait to go vacation or for a weekend hike to tap into it and be restored by it. We can get into the practice of going outside in the early morning before our neighbors are up and about and taking in the quiet, filling ourselves up with the stillness, the wisdom, the fresh air our bodies need to energize us for the demands of the day. Even better if you are working on a garden! And in that quiet eventually we will find the treasure of all treasures: the ability to hear the still small voice within that will lead us on the path of our own highest good towards our own unique destinies. Yes, really. How can someone prevent themselves from biting off more than they can chew? Setting healthy boundaries is one of the challenges of being human. We all have this lesson and we all will learn to master this differently. Your attention is energy. Wherever you put your attention, you will get more of that back,be it the amount of attention you put on food, exercise, television, work or play. So the first step is to begin to take notice about where you put your solid gold attention. You may have to keep a journal to do this effectively. Then once you become better aware of how you are spending your time (reallyas in, dead honest) you have the beginnings of being able to make a more conscious choice about whether that really is how you want to spend your energy, which is limited, like your life. How were you planning on spending your life? If you are one of those folks who is very very clear about what you want and how you want to be spending your energy you might need to ask yourself if your life is balanced. In the Native American tradition each of the four directions means something. The direction of north is rest. In order to have a balanced life and not be overextended one must have rest. I used to have an issue with doing n othing. I learned to tell my inner critic when I chose to do nothing that I was doing North. It worked. Another issue for folks who might be biting off more than they can chew is that they simply have not learned to say no. Usually the person who can not readily say no has a very strong Pleaser archetype in their personalities. Its not easy to disengage from the Pleaser, maybe because he or she is so nice. There are a lot of strokes for being a pleaser coming from the outside. But eventually this imbalance catches up with the person being run by this part of him or herself and the day will come when self love becomes the binding commitment and that works wonders! If you get negative publicity, how do you clean it up? Switching hats to publicityId say its imperative to manage what one puts out into the world from the outset. This requires asking oneself what ones intention is, intrinsically. If one has a pure intention one is much less likely to attract negative publicity. The Dutch say, In the seed is the tree. If you are putting yourself out into the public and its coming back negatively you might ask yourself about the form in which the message was put out into the media world. When Im really stuck I take a couple of steps backward and reflect. Then ultimately I rely on the teachings I learned from a very wise teacher I had in grad school who said, Show up. Pay attention. Tell the truth. And dont be attached to outcome. That will pretty much get your through anything. I suppose another good resource if one is trying to clean something up might come from the wise words of the I Ching, which counsels, The best way to fight evil is to make energetic progress in the good. So in the situation you are describing, Id get busy. What are some of your secrets to getting attention from the media? Again, I believe that the secret to true success with the media is to put something out there that the world needs. Add value. So the very first step is in the very first building block. What is your intention? If your intention is to make a lot of money, spare us. If your intention is to be of service (even if you do happen to make a lot of money!) and to offer something you truly believe will make the experience of life on earth (including all its creations) a better place to be, i.e., youre leaving it better than you found it, then I think thats the very best prescriptive for approaching the media. Mind you, you might be ahead of your time. The first book I promoted over thiry years ago was Shakti Gawains book Creative Visualization. The only folks in the media who had a clue what I was talking about were the Olympic trainers I found in CO. Everyone else pretty much thought I was a loony. Now that book has sold millions of copies and has been translated into countless languages. Shakti made a difference. In my early years as a book publicist I was often promoting books that had not mainstreamed yet. Its important to remember that the media are people, individuals. So in promoting books you really just need to find that person, regardless of what publication he or she may be working for, who gets you and your book. Building relationships with these people is critical to the success of any media campaign. But you cant be attached to where or with whom you might find that connection. In my experience its often a big surprise. Kathryn Hall is an internationally known book publicist, who has spent the major part of over three decades promoting books designed to make a difference, expressed in her popular tagline, “Changing the world one book at a time.” Kathryn is also a writer, a passionate gardener, a devoted mother, a keen Nature observer and an animal lover. She holds a B.A. in English from Kent State University and did graduate work in the field of Social and Cultural Anthro-pology at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. She was the contributing health writer for The Financial Times Guide to Business Travel (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, London). Her articles have appeared in Bird Watcher’s Digest, the San Francisco Business Times, and Journal for Quality and Participation. She is the author of the forthcoming book Plant Whatever Brings You Joy: Blessed Wisdom from the Garden. Kathryn is a member of the Garden Writers Association of America and of Northern California Book P ublicists and Marketing Association for whom she wrote a column called “The Publicist’s Journey.”

Find Out How to Find the Best Online Resume Writing Services

Find Out How to Find the Best Online Resume Writing ServicesThe need for best online resume writing services in 2020 is now much greater than ever before. Companies are looking for fresh new graduates to fill the vacancy they have in their company and many of them simply don't have the time to write their own resumes. For this reason, outsourcing a service to write the perfect resume is becoming more popular.When outsourcing a service to write your online resume, you will be providing them with all of the information about your past and present employment, as well as a writing sample. The question you have to ask yourself is, do you really want to spend your valuable time writing up a resume for an individual who is going to sit down and read it. It's simply not worth it. The person is going to look at your work history and read your skills and determine if you meet the criteria.Of course, there are some people that can't keep a job for too long because of their past employers. This is probably something that you do not wish to deal with when you are looking for a new job. So, when you are looking for the best online resume writing services, you have to make sure that they can focus on a singular situation, rather than several different jobs and get you ready for the interview in a much quicker and less stressful way.For this reason, it is important that the writing service you choose is someone who is knowledgeable about the particular position that you are applying for and can clearly tell you if you will fit with the specific qualifications for the position. They will also be able to tell you whether or not the position is in high demand or not. When you use a best online resume writing services, they will also help you prepare your cover letter, which is generally required for this kind of job.The process that you go through for sending your resume is very important as well. In most cases, it's very simple to send your resume to a prospective employer, but there are times where you will have to wait until they get it in the mail to figure out how to send it in the first place. There are some services that will automatically forward your resume on to the right person for you, and if this isn't an option for you, you can just follow the instructions provided in the email.These services offer you the ability to upload an unlimited number of resumes into their system, and then you will be given the opportunity to review and edit as many as you want. You can make minor changes to some of the information or make major changes to everything. Whatever you choose to do, just make sure that it is correct.Some of these services will also charge you by the hour, and the way that they calculate these prices is based on the number of hours that you will spend in their system. If you are unable to provide the specific amount of time needed for each resume, you can consider hiring in-house employees to do this for you. However, as most of these onlin e resume writing services are very flexible with time and budgets, this shouldn't be a problem.Remember, outsourcing a service is going to save you money, and you can find these kinds of services in all kinds of industries. If you want to save money and don't have the time to write your own resume, finding the best online resume writing services is the way to go. The bottom line is that you have to spend a lot of time in front of a computer with a poor resume, and then send it off to the wrong people in order to get the job.

5 Networking Tips For Shy or Introverted People

5 Networking Tips For Shy or Introverted People 9 Flares 9 Flares Being shy can be a networking asset, you just need to know how to use it.  Remember, the world craves balance.  If networking events were made up of entirely extroverts, they would drive themselves crazy.  Here are COTJs 5 networking tips for shy or introverted people: 1. Utilize Social Media Begin networking first on Linkedin, Facebook, Myspace, or any web 2.0 destination that connects you to people with similar interests.   Start building up your contacts/friends list, and build up your relationship with these people.  Once you feel comfortable, invite them to join a networking event with you.  This may help the lessen any intimidation you may feel of going it alone. 2 . Use being shy to your advantage People absolutely love carrying on about themselves, so provide an ear for them to let loose on, and you’ll make a friend in the process.  Don’t be intimidated by louder, extroverted net workers.   They need you, and they know it.   Just be yourself, be polite, listen, and sacrifice your ears over to the extroverts. 3 â€" Set networking goals Make it your mission to talk to X amount of people and/or set a goal on how many events you’ll attend each month.   If nothing else, just set your mind on having fun and enjoying each event.   A positive mind set is critical. 4 â€" Know when to speak up Lay low until a question surrounding your area of expertise is brought up.   Once you feel confident, speak loud and clear.   Keep it short and to the point, and you will look like a star. 5â€" Smile Simple right?   Not only does the upside down frown bring a look of confidence, but you’ll instantly become easier to approach as well.   Heck, smiling may even force/trick you into having a good time.  Not smiling can leave a negative impression that you’re intimidated, uncomfortable, uninterested (maybe the worst), tired, or just sociably awkward.  I know this is weird, but just in case you honestly dont know how to smile, click HERE TO LEARN.

Crafting an Excellent NHS Application Cover Letter - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

Crafting an Excellent NHS Application Cover Letter Every day the NHS cares for millions of people throughout the UK, undertaking around 820,000 consultations and 192,000 outpatient appointments. They receive almost  60,000 visits to accident and emergency departments, 14,000  emergency admissions, as well as 21,000 elective admissions and around 108,500 patients receive dental treatment. To deal with this huge level of activity, there are currently 1.6 million people working throughout the organisation which, alongside McDonalds, Wal-Mart and the Chinese Armed Services, makes the NHS one of the world’s largest employers. Because of its humanitarian and inclusive nature, treating the population without discrimination and regardless of economic and social standing, for many, being an employee of the NHS is a great source of pride and privilege. And, with more than  350 different careers  on offer in both medical and non-medical capacities, new workers of varying skills and experience are taken on every year, with a very competitive application process deciphering who will be fortunate enough to join the fleet of NHS workers. Read the job description thoroughly Applying for an NHS role is not something to be taken lightly, so before you start your application, read the advertisement carefully, paying particular attention to the job description and person specification. Whereas in many industries making a statement and trying to be different can be a great way to standout to employers, the NHS is renowned for being more conventional, and a well executed curriculum vitae and covering letter is still the preferred approach. Your application should demonstrate a thorough understanding of the role that you are applying for and the skills and responsibilities necessary to undertake it. The NHS is not known for taking chances on their employees. If you are seen to not have the essential requirements, you will almost certainly not progress to the next stage of the interview process. Due to the competitive nature of the application process, it’s also important that you present yourself to meet as many of the desired skills as possible. Craft the perfect NHS covering letter Again, contrary to many industries where attaching a CV to an email is the standard procedure, the NHS uses its own application process in order to ensure it seeks out the prime candidates for the role in question. However, adding a covering letter to your application can be an effective way to personalise it while providing you with an opportunity to discuss your motivations for applying for this particular role. A covering letter is a way to highlight your relevant experience and the qualifications that make you the right candidate for the role. Keep the letter general and make reference to your application, where you can discuss your skill set in further detail. Consider the small details, spell the recipient’s name correctly and triple check your use of punctuation throughout your letter â€" attention to detail is a valuable asset to an organisation such as the NHS. Complete a detailed application form Consider the skills, qualifications and experience that you have gained in your working life and relate them to the role that you are applying for. Include specific duties and responsibilities, the skills and knowledge required for the role and, for the additional information section make sure to highlight any extra-curricular and voluntary work that you have completed. If you’ve worked in the NHS beforehand, now is the time to shout about this experience, such as familiarity with in-house systems and procedures etc. Providing three years worth of references is mandatory for the application process however, you have the option to provide more. This should include people in positions of responsibility from your two most recent employers, who can make accurate comments regarding your competence, reliability and suitability for the post. Include contact details to avoid any potential delays to your application process. Bear in mind that making a good first impression is vital and your application form will set the tone for your interview, and potentially your working life with the NHS if you are successful. Before submitting your application read through the form to check for any errors or omissions, as you will be unable to make any changes once the form has been submitted. Author Bio Scott Beaman is digital writer for Go to Job Board, specialists in non-medical and non-clinical jobs with the NHS.