Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom HR Folks Why Not Develop Your Own Apps

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom HR Folks Why Not Develop Your Own Apps Over the past five years, many organizations have moved their HR systems into cloud platforms and are looking for add-on tools that allow them to access/integrate â€" or build their own â€" mobile apps. This has led to the rise of what we call citizen development. According toGartner’s IT Glossary, acitizen developeris a user who creates new business applications using development environments sanctioned by IT. Citizen development is possible because as long as users understand the basic principles behind application design and development, they do not have to learn the programming languages that were necessary in the past. Mobile app development has been officially democratized. Integrated, DIY app development platforms reduce IT backlog and enable HR citizen developers to quickly build and implement applications that mirror IT solutions but don’t require the same level of technical sophistication. Their reporting capabilities also provide greater visibility into which projects can be potentially offloaded, and their customization facilitates greater user adoption. HR apps are more essential today given their intimate connection to the employee experience. Apps allow HR departments to provide employees with tools that work where they work and don’t impede their day. They also provide an opportunity to create a continuous experience for both HR and the employee. When it comes to development, HR professionals who know their business inside and out will be most effective if IT leaders set the stage, offering governance, implementation guidelines, and best practices. Citizen development doesn’t eliminate the need for IT to be involved; it merely elevates it to a more strategic level. Instead of giving away permission, which can quickly turn ugly, proper citizen development involves knowing who is doing what, bridging communication gaps between IT and HR, and having a shared accountability for and participatory working relationship in developing and maintaining strong applications. For more on HR citizen development, check out my full article on the SilkRoad blog.

Job Hunting - Resume Writing Skills Can Help You Land That Great Career Opportunity

Job Hunting - Resume Writing Skills Can Help You Land That Great Career OpportunityA well written resume is an indispensable part of the job search. It is a visual representation of your skills and experience to potential employers, in their own words. Therefore, it is absolutely essential that you have good resume writing skills to make your resume stand out from the rest. If you are not that confident with writing a resume, perhaps you would like to take the easy way out, and learn some effective resume techniques.There are many people who think that having good resume skills are enough to land the job that they want. A well written resume is only one aspect of the job hunt, and unfortunately, it can sometimes be very difficult to effectively convey your skills and experience without a professional-looking resume. Fortunately, there are plenty of tips for writing a good resume that do not require you to be a professional writer or to have extraordinary writing abilities.First of al l, if you do not have any good skills in this area, it is a very good idea to at least practice on a sample resume. One of the easiest ways to do this is by downloading a resume template that is available online. These templates are easy to follow and will help you learn how to write a resume as soon as possible. Once you have practiced writing a resume in your own words, the next step is to try to do it using your own unique perspective and style. Once you know how to write a resume, the next step is to be very careful with your choice of words and phrases, and choose your main points carefully.Another thing to keep in mind is that impressive quality is never enough. Keep your resume appealing by using colors that attract attention, and make it easily readable and understandable. Be sure to use strong fonts and bolder colors, and if possible, avoid using any distracting graphics or pictures.Be sure to use different versions of your resume. You may put it in many formats, such as a Word document, a PDF file, or even a scanned document. Every version will be different and will express your skills in a different way. Do not forget to save a copy of your resume for yourself as well.Try to keep your resume easy to read and make it short, to give the impression that it is short. Employers will be more impressed with a fast and clear resume. Use your resume to build your references. The more references you make, the better.When you are writing a resume in Word document format, make sure that you use colors that catch the eye, and do not use graphics or photos. Also, do not forget to save your resume in a format that is compatible with Word document format. Also, try to keep your resume short and to the point. Also, make sure that you find a nice and easy to read font for your resume.Finally, if you have the ability, try to write your resume in a way that will appeal to a wide range of potential employers, because if you have great writing skills, you can almost alwa ys land a great career opportunity with little effort. Remember that good resume writing skills are not a requirement for a great career, but they can definitely help to make your chances better.

What to Consider When Accepting a Job Offer

What to Consider When Accepting a Job Offer Why is it extremely difficult to decide which job offer to accept when both offers have very attractive rewards and perks?  What would you prefer, a role with fantastic benefits, career progression and overall job satisfaction, or a role that offers a competitive annual salary with uncapped commission? With the current cost of living in London today it is difficult not to opt for the role that offers a fantastic earning potential. Then on the other hand it is hard to change career paths later down the line, with employers wanting candidates to have relevant industry experience for the position advertised. So do you risk going down a career path with fantastic earning potential, to attempt to return later on down the line in your career, to your ideal role and industry. What should you prioritise? When at this cross road and faced with two attractive career opportunities, how do you decide? I decided to run a little poll on Twitter, as you do these days, and 67% of the general public answered that they would rather be happy in their jobs in their desired industry, earning less;  than to earn substantial amounts of money and not really know where their position may lead to in the future. For career prospects? Personally, I would suggest that you accept a job offer that provides you with long term career goals. The proud feeling you get knowing you are doing something that you have been working towards for several years is worthwhile and putting your heart into making a difference everyday will also improve the quality of your work. No doubt that your employer will spot your passion for the industry and the role being offered to you during the interview stages and in your attitude and work ethic when you start the role. Speaking from previous experiences this will lead to progressing quicker and becoming a valued member in the team, with added responsibilities. You will very quickly be involved in bigger decisions and your ideas will be heard and more than likely taken on board and brought to life. For  earning potential? If you are in a role simply for the financial gain, you will become bored very quickly. Motivation to exceed personal expectations and that of your employer cannot solely stem from earning potential. The chance to progress in the company, grow personally, learn from those around you, develop your skills and understanding of  the industry, and to teach those around you are also very important factors you need to take into consideration when deciding which job offer to accept. What should you consider? Are your tasks and expectations set out for you clearly prior to starting the role, so you know what you need to achieve within the first 6 months? Will they block your development if they feel you are progressing too quickly and are scared you may out perform others, or get too big for the company and move on sooner then expected? This is something I constantly talk about, company culture, this can play a big part in improving your overall job satisfaction, but also a big part in overshadowing the earning potential of a commission based role. Do your colleagues motivate you and drive you to want to continuously improve your personal performance and be an active contributor and advocate? Overall it comes down to your personal ambition. Do you simply want to make a lot of money quickly and potential set up your own small business or businesses, or do you want to be involved in much more around the company, part of wider teams and more engaging creative projects? What are the company values? Do they align with your personal values and what is important to you? The final aspect I would also take into consideration are company perks.  What else is on offer to you, is there a benefits package, cycle to work scheme, referral scheme, pension, gym, company holidays? Those types of perks again lead to overall job satisfaction. [Image Credit: Shutterstock]

The Language of Talent

The Language of Talent Marcus Buckingham  was recruited out of Cambridge by psychologist Donald Clifton for a company he founded called Selection Research, Inc. (which took on the Gallup name in 1988 after being acquired.) The company helps business identify talent based on strengths. The partnership between Clifton and Buckingham produced several bestselling books, including Now, Discover Your Strengths. An instant business classic, the book was written to “start a strengths revolution.”   Thousands of companies have used the book and the accompanying “Strengthsfinder” profile to understand talent and how to find the right match for their jobs. Buckingham starts out by defining “strength” as “near perfect, consistent performance.” Being pretty good at something is not enough. It starts with talent, which Buckingham describes as an innate ability something you may have been a natural at all your life. In fact, being a natural is what keeps many of us from understanding true strengths; if it’s that easy for me, doesn’t everyone find it to be easy too? The answer is often a resounding “no,” but we still tend to disparage talents that don’t take enormous, painful  effort on our part. Turning a talent into a strength takes time and experience. You’re born with talent, but you must add knowledge and skills in order to excel. Learning and practice over time are what make your gifts consistent and useful on the job. Even elite athletes practice and get coached every day, no matter how great their natural athletic ability may be. Talent doesn’t guarantee you’ll win the competition. It doesn’t work in reverse, however; if you work on a skill, it will make you a little better at performing a task, but it won’t compensate for a lack of talent. Here are some basic premises about working with your strengths: If you are using a strength, you must be able to perform extraordinarily well every time you use it, and you must derive great satisfaction (even joy) from doing the task. If you’re good at it but don’t enjoy doing it, it’s not a strength. You do not need to be well-rounded in your role at work. In fact, Buckingham wants to dispel the notion that high performers must be well rounded. In Buckingham’s experience, many high performers had very sharp peaks of talent, and may have been average   or worse at performing other parts of their jobs.   They excelled by playing to their strengths. Lastly, Buckingham asserts that you will excel only by maximizing your strengths, and not by fixing your weaknesses.   He hopes to persuade workers and managers to let go of the notion of training to overcome weaknesses; it doesn’t move the needle very far. His recommendation is to redistribute work so that each team member is working primarily from his strengths. Find a partner, outsource some work, or delegate to someone who can do the task well. Buckingham asserts that our language for speaking about strengths is very rudimentary. Take for instance the ubiquitous “good with people” skill. Using the language of the Strengthsfinder profile, Buckingham asks: “”What does that tell you about [two people with that strength]? It doesn’t tell you, for example, that one excels at building trust once contact with another person has been made, but that the other is brilliant at initiating contact. You wouldn’t put the great trust builder in the same role as the great networker.” If you’ve managed customer service or sales teams, this makes perfect sense to you, even if you’ve never used those words. Your performance when using your talent is instinctive, natural and probably locked in by the time you turn 16 years old. By that time, your brain has discovered what comes easily to you, and starts spending its energy on the synapses that work best and eliminating unused synapses. It’s why we lose much of our ability to master foreign languages after our childhood; our brains gradually specialize, and focus on the things we do best â€" our brains become more efficient. Next post: Now, Discover Your Strengths.

How to Start a Freelance Resume Writing Business?

How to Start a Freelance Resume Writing Business?If you are wondering how to start a freelance resume writing business, then read on. We will discuss what to expect in this field and we will also look at the difficulties that you might encounter along the way.There are many places that you can find freelance resume writers. Some of these places specialize in certain types of positions. These specialty companies generally give you a chance to choose from the resume writers that they have available. The decision is yours but it does take a little bit of time to find one that fits your needs.When looking for the right writer for you, there is a big problem with your options. You must consider who will be reading your resume. People who are reading resumes for a living will be looking for a lot more than just an employment history. What they will be checking out is the skills and experience that you have in the areas that they are looking for.Most people that are looking for a career in resume writing are in a position where they need to fill the position quickly. To get this job done, you are going to need to write at least three resumes in a day.In order to make it look like you can be trusted, you must have a new line up each day. If you do not have someone else take over to do this for you, you are going to have a problem on your hands when you are trying to get the job you want.To do this, you should have some sort of small writing project that you can complete as well. This will help the reader to see that you can write fast as well as have knowledge about what you are writing about. You will need to be able to take criticism well.It is worth it to consider doing this if you are looking for freelance resume writers. It is good to know that you have other options in case you cannot find the one that you need.The right person will get you a job fast. But in order to get your first job, you will need to learn how to write a resume. Learn the right steps to take so that you can avoid failure when you are trying to start a freelance resume writing business.

Whats Your Biggest Weakness - Some Tips For That Most Dreaded Of Interview Questions - CareerMetis.com

What's Your Biggest Weakness - Some Tips For That Most Dreaded Of Interview Questions Going for a job interview is never easy. But some questions come up time and time again that seasoned professionals need to have an answer to.One of those questions is the dreaded “What’s your biggest weakness?” For most people, their biggest weakness is not being able to answer that question, despite the fact that they’ve usually had weeks to think about it.Not to worry. Here are some tips for how to talk about your biggest weakness in the job interview.1. Be Honest About Your Weaknesses, But Don’t Mention Essential SkillsevalBeing honest and authentic is a good thing, except, however, when you suggest that you don’t have the skills an employer wants for the job. Instead of going to an interview to become an IT professional and talking about how bad you are at IT, focus on some other area that isn’t directly related to the job.Perhaps you’re a genius when it comes to getting networks to work, but not so good with your finances. The interviewer will take on board what you say, but they’re not likely to care. After all, they’re employing you for your networking skills, not your ability to stay away from the slot machines on the weekend.2. Talk About How You’ve Overcome WeaknessesPhoto Credit â€" Pixabay.comDylan Schweizer is the talent director at Enterprise Rent-A-Car. He says that the best way to deal with this particular question is to highlight a weakness but then talk about the things that you have done to turn it into a strength. Talk your interviewer through what you did and how you managed to solve the problem.But Schweizer recommends against going into detail about areas that you’re still working on, or situations in which you tried to improve one of your skills but hit a snag.For instance, suppose you tell your interviewer that you used to struggle to come into work on time. You say that you’ve been working really hard and now you get less drunk on Sunday night and so you’ve been showing up to work more often on Monday morni ngs.While this might be a significant improvement over the previous situation, you’re still unlikely to get hired, says Schweizer. Instead of going on about the fact that you sometimes show up to work, make the point that now you take timeliness very seriously, not only for yourself but also other people. This will make it clear to the person interviewing you that you empathize with why they might want somebody who cares about punctuality.3. Don’t Learn Your LinesComing across as authentic can be tricky, especially if you’ve been to a dozen or so interviews already. It’s a good idea to be prepared for various categories of questions in advance, but not to repeat the same answers word for word in every interview. Doing this will be obvious to trained interviewers. Instead, try including bits of detail from the rest of the interview to show that your answer is authentic.4. Find Out What Your Weaknesses Actually AreevalOne of the reasons this particular question is so difficult to answer is that, as people, we spend a lot of time and energy avoiding finding out what our weaknesses actually are.A good piece of career advice, therefore, is to test yourself to find out where you might need to improve, instead of just guessing. This will actually give you some concrete answers you can give to your interviewer.Penelope Trunk, a career coach, says that everybody has weaknesses, even if they aren’t willing to admit it. Interviewers, she says, will be more suspicious of what you claim are your strengths if you’re not also clear on your weaknesses.5. Only Talk About Work-Related WeaknessesLifestyle blogger, Amanda Abella, says that any weaknesses you mention should be appropriate to the company you are applying to. It turns out that businesses don’t really care about your person weaknesses. They’re interested in your weaknesses when it comes to doing the job.evalFor instance, if you’re applying for a clerical position at a finance firm, it probably isn†™t all that relevant to tell the hiring manager that you struggle with confidence when speaking in front of large numbers of people. Chances are, that won’t be a part of your role.From a professional point of view, she says, it’s also a good idea to avoid going into detail about personal dramas. Hiring managers know that everybody has their own personal issues, but they usually don’t want to hear about them. It’s not work-related, and it’s not very professional.

How one IT company created an internal academy - on little or no budget - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

How one IT company created an internal academy - on little or no budget - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog How do you best promote learning and development in a company? As Chief Happiness Officer of the Czech IT company Avast, Michal created the Growshop -?an internal academy where coworkers could teach each other relevant skills and share their passion. Learn how he did it?and how it made coworkers a little happier and?smarter. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Employment and Student Loans

Employment and Student Loans One of the biggest problems for those entering college is that they tend to choose a career based only on their current interests or what is in demand at the moment. What students need to do is plan for life after college and to use that time to maximize their future hiring potential as well as financial potential. Most people have many interests but only a few of those interests are marketable enough to be a viable career. You should not expect success if the majority of your plan is to be in the o.o1% who are professional athletes. Its far better to diversify and have a fallback plan. A solid practical major that will be marketable for years to come makes sense for your immediate future as well as your financial future. Many students will take out thousands of dollars in student loans on majors that will not translate into a viable career. As a result, they get strapped with student loans and rob themselves of a decent standard of living. There are several ways around this trap. The most common sense approach is to stay away from borrowing money for majors that will not earn you enough income to pay those loans back. The other way is to take out smaller loans by attending schools in your own state and taking advantage of tuition reduction for in-state students. Whatever you decide, consider that your future employment can be hindered if you default on student loans. In some cases you can be denied a professional license for as long as you are in default. Its important to pursue your dreams but to do so prudently.