Five benefits of work-life balance

Five benefits of work-life balance by Amber Rolfe Wondering how work-life balance could benefit you? Look no further…No matter what career you’re in or how many additional commitments you have, creating a healthy balance between work and play is absolutely essential when it comes to leading a happy and productive lifestyle. But it’s not always easy â€" especially if you have a particularly demanding career.We’ve already covered how to achieve work-life balance, but to encourage you to apply it to your everyday situation, here are five benefits of work-life balance:  Your health and wellbeing will improve Overworking isn’t just putting you at risk of being a ‘very dull boy/girl’ (we’re looking at you, Jack) â€" it could also be affecting your health.In fact, if you’re sacrificing too much of your time for the sake of work, it won’t take long to start feeling the consequences â€" whether it’s through increased stress, constant bouts of illnesses due to a weakened immune system, or non-stop exhaustion.That doesn’t mean you have to stop working hard though. Many professions require a lot of time and effort, and sometimes large amounts of downtime just isn’t possible if you’re determined to do well. But it’s all about finding that balance.By recognising your own individual triggers and understanding when you’re overdoing it, you’ll be able to recognise the early warning signs before you start burning out.How to achieve it: Don’t ignore the signs. Feeling tired? Sleep. Getting ill? Take a sick day. There’s nothing wrong with giving yourself a break. Just make it’s on your terms. Six tips to improve your workplace wellbeingYou’ll be more productive Having a healthy work-life balance isn’t just essential to your well-being â€" it also boosts your productivity.From finally getting around to redecorating the house because you switched off your work phone for the weekend, to completing a work task you’ve been stuck on for weeks after being able to go ba ck to it with a fresh mindset â€" creating a good balance between your work life and your personal life will allow you to be more productive in both areas.And work-life balance doesn’t always refer to a solid line between work and play.Whether it’s by working from home when you need quiet space for a project, or dedicating time to group brainstorm sessions where collaboration is necessary â€" creating your own balance between team work and head-down work is equally essential to achieve productivity in all aspects of your job.How to achieve it: Keep your life a balanced amount of work, recreation, and rest in order to stay fully functional. Because too much of anything is never a good idea. Six things productive people do every dayYou can actually enjoy work Always dreading work? Find yourself ‘subconsciously’ setting your alarm on snooze every morning? Don’t know what a weekend is?If your work days begin with a search for an invisible light at the end of the tunnel, you pr obably need to give yourself a break. After all, if you don’t remember what home looks like and you haven’t worn anything but your work uniform for the past month â€" it’s no surprise that you’re feeling slightly delusional.And, a hatred for your job (or just about anything) is one of the most common signs of a non-existent work-life balance.But it doesn’t have to be that way. Knowing when to switch off is often the best way to give just the right amount of time to your job, not to mention, allow yourself to actually enjoy the time you’re there.Because who knows â€" you might actually start to miss it. Especially once you’ve exhausted the entirety of Netflix’s newly added section.How to achieve it: If you’re starting to resent your job â€" ask yourself why. Sometimes all it takes is allowing regular breaks to put things into perspective. And if all else fails, it might be time to find a new position… Eight signs it’s time to resign  You’ll have more ‘you ti me’  It’s easy to make excuses when you rarely get free time.And whether your devotion to overtime has meant you still haven’t taken that photography course you’ve been interested in for months, or working weekends has caused you to miss 99% of your yoga classes â€" you shouldn’t have to sacrifice that much of yourself to do a good job.After all, work isn’t the only place you can learn and develop â€" and from quantifying your skillset with a qualification, to learning a new language, taking up a hobby, or even just reading a book â€" making the most of your time will add some much needed variation â€" and enjoyment into your life.So not only will improving your work-life balance give you more control over what you do, you’ll also be able to use your dedicated ‘you time’ to do things you’ve been putting off for years.How to achieve it: Don’t sacrifice your free time just to put the extra hours in every single day â€" especially if it means giving up on your o wn personal development. There’s a time and a place for everything, and sometimes work isn’t it.   Personal development planning: What you need to knowYou’ll stop missing out Those who overwork have one thing in common â€" and that’s that everything in their lives except work probably isn’t going as well as it could.Common signs and symptoms include: always being the guy/girl who misses the best social gathering of the week, their anniversary, their child’s first word, or a really funny ‘you just had to be there’ moment â€" possibly involving their housemate, a dishwasher, and a family sized tub of vanilla yoghurt. But we digress…Whether it’s by sticking to a nightly dinner with your partner or a weekly film night with your best friend, there’s always time to actually have a life outside of work. And without it, you could be suffering from some serious FOMO.Remember: achieving a good work-life balance often comes down to your own ability to prioritise according to what’s most important to you.How to achieve it: Pick your battles wisely when it comes to what you sacrifice for your career. Working extra hard to earn bonus points at work can be a great idea, but your relationships and social life should never be sacrificed as a result. Six signs you’re working too hardSearching for a position with a better work-life balance? View all available jobs nowFind a job What Where Search JobsSign up for more Career AdviceSign up for moreCareer Advice Please enter a valid email addressmessage hereBy clicking Submit you agree to the terms and conditions applicable to our service and acknowledge that your personal data will be used in accordance with our privacy policy and you will receive emails and communications about jobs and career related topics. 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Keeping Your Office Uncluttered in 7 Easy Steps

Keeping Your Office Uncluttered in 7 Easy Steps Todays post is by, James Adams picture source:misocrazy A cluttered office can waste valuable resources including time, money, and energy. Lots of time can be lost searching for files and papers, finding a telephone number, or really any essential piece of information when you desk and office are covered in piles of unlabelled and unorganised documents. Since time is money, anything that results in wasted time leads to wasted money. Because of the negative effects of clutter, it is essential that work areas be cleaned and kept in order so as to improve productivity. The following are a series of several tips that will help you to keep order in your office: Set a Spot Aside for Incoming Papers Papers are largely responsible for office clutter. This is mostly because they easily find their way into different spots such as desks, counters, tables, and drawers. Because of this, you should create a tray for incoming papers and make sure that you do not put papers in any location except their designated location. Start By Clearing a Small Section The first step to clearing your office is clearing a small area which can be labeled a no-clutter zone. It doesn’t really matter which part of your office this is but it will be an essential step in eliminating all clutter. Once you have designated a zone which is clutter-free, make sure that it is kept that way. Gradually, you can work on expanding the no-clutter area until the whole office is free of clutter. Remove Everything From a Drawer Choose a drawer and empty all of its contents onto the top of the desk. Sort the contents of the drawer into three different piles. One pile will consist of stuff which should remain in the drawer, another should be stuff that belongs in another location, and a third should be items that should be discarded. After all of the items are removed, clean the drawer and place the necessary items back in the drawer neatly and in an orderly fashion. Address the remaining piles right away and don’t just leave them on your desk. Create Easy to Read Folders It is very common for papers to pile up when we do not have good places to keep them. Creating some folders that are clearly labeled for papers and documents can help put all of this to rights. Place all of your folders in a single drawer or specific area of your desk or office. If you are not able to do this with all of your papers, do it for as many as you can so that you can free up a lot of space for yourself. Learn How to File Rapidly Once you have established a system for filing, you will just need to become comfortable in placing files within the folders regularly and swiftly. If you begin to accumulate papers in your inbox, you can take them and separate them into the necessary piles and place them into the appropriate folder. Make quick decisions. If you do not need the paper, throw them away immediately. If you need them, file them right away. Never place anything that you have taken out of the inbox back into the inbox. Instead, put them in the trash bin, the recycling bin, or the appropriate folder. Create a Box for “Maybes” Oftentimes, when you are going through a box of papers, you will run across items that you are not sure whether or not you need. Sometimes, there are papers that you might need at a later date. Or, more simply, you are what is commonly known as a “pack rat”. A great way to resolve this issue is by creating a box for “maybes”. You can place these papers here. After all of the papers have been placed in the box, you should hide it in a location which you do not frequent. Make a note on the desk calendar for a day 6 months away when you should look in the box again. On this date, the papers should be looked at. If you did not need any of this information for six months and determine that that the papers are not needed, you should dispose of them at this time. Schedule a Day to Declutter Decluttering can become quite overwhelming if you try to do your entire office area at one time. However, if you set aside one day each month, you can keep your area clear without exerting too much effort at one time. If you can get your officemates involved, all the better. The more hands that you have working on the project, the quicker and easier the job will be. Acquire trash bags and boxes and get rid of any papers that you do not need.

Simple CV Template for Free - Shades of Black

Simple CV Template for Free - Shades of Black Simple CV Template for Free Shades of Black For when you are a seasoned professional and need no wishy-washy templates to derail your credibility, we present you with the Shades of Black resume template.Elegant and coherent, it commands instant attention to your credentials and past work experience, while leaving some space for your personality. The upper “Profile” section can be customized to present your resume objective if you are applying to a traditional company, or distill some personal insights, along with your career goals. The HR managers may not exactly know what kind of person they are looking for, but this resume template will make them consider you for the role. Command the attention your application deserves with this free classic resume template â€" a long-term “favorite” among corporate employers. File size: 3 MB Format: .doc Downloaded 29,410 times License: Free, personal use only. Please read the license terms for resources. Download One page is not enough to fit in all your career history? Conside r the premium version of this template for an upgraded design (+ sweet bonus) previous article Touch of Pink A Beautiful Free Resume Template next article Free Professional CV Template Honeycomb Photo you might also likeFresty â€" A Clean Simple Resume Template

5 Reasons Your CV Doesnt Get You Noticed

5 Reasons Your CV Doesnt Get You Noticed Why doesn’t your CV get you noticed? I’m a technical recruiter. I look at CVs all day long. I’ve been working for Conex Europe as a .Net specialist for over 6 years â€" if I said I look at probably 100 CVs per day, the math is astounding â€" I’ve viewed somewhere in the region of 132,000 CVs. So, why isn’t your CV getting you anywhere? Recruiters become conditioned to skimming CVs. When you’re looking at the quantity we do, you have to. But we also like ‘pretty’ CVs. The amount of times I literally just click off a CV as it is ineligible is shocking, people you need to realise that if I’m doing that you can bet your bottom dollar that end clients would be too. What should be in your CV then? 1) Size: The biggest CV I have seen was 37 pages long. It even had a contents page. Seriously, do you actually think that your prospective employer is going to kill a tree and print that out to take it home for some light bed time reading? No. CVs should be between 3 and 5 pages long. 2) Font: Should be nice and easy on the eyes, Arial, Calibri, size around 10-11. Why oh why people do their entire CV in BOLD and Italic or worse still BOTH! However, that said, I am a big fan of putting certain skills or achievements in bold to draw your eyes to them. 3) Skills: Do put a skills matrix in your CV, so that both the recruiter and client can see, at a glance, whether your technical skills are what they desire. Don’t list every software you’ve ever seen in person, online, in a magazine, capitalise on those that you excel at. 4) Mini-font: One of the most annoying things of all time, don’t put buzz words into the footer of your CV in font size 0.5 so that it gets indexed by the bots on the Monster or Jobsite engines. It’s certainly not big, and really isn’t clever as you end up with recruiters scratching their heads as to why they are looking at your CV all the time, and in the end they’ll just stop clicking on it in searches! 5) Format: Make your CV look nice, all fonts should be the same size, and should loosely follow this guideline: Name, Location, Phone Number, Email, LinkedIN (or other) profile. Personal Statement, including your desired role Education History, if you’re proud of it, SHOUT about it! Skills Matrix, nice and prominent on the first page Current Employment, including company name, dates of employment and title Previous Employment, as above Hobbies (this enables the employer to see that you’re a human, not a machine) References, enables the client / recruiter to find out if you really are who you say you are! By following these very simple steps, you will have more of a chance to let a recruiter see your CV in the best light and that phone should start ringing! [Featured image: Shutterstock]

The One Degree Shift

The One Degree Shift https://rebuildpostrehab.wordpress.com/tag/one-degree-shift/Recently I finished reading the book “Double Your Income doing what you love” by Raymond Aaron. The ideas in the book were very refreshing and original. Some of the ideas were different to what you typically read in other self-help books.However, one idea really hit home with me. The idea resonated with me a lot.Raymond Aaron talks about the concept of the One Degree Shift. He illustrated this with the example of a how a motorboat makes a course correction.evalLet’s say you are on a motorboat â€" you realize that you are going completely in the wrong direction â€" instead of going North you are going South. In order to reach your destination you obviously need to change direction. How do you do that?This is what I have learnt you need to do â€" you make a one degree shift using the rudder, then another one degree shift , and eventually step by step you are going in the right direction. A series of one degree shifts wil l eventually take you in the right direction.This is a great analogy to any lasting change you want to make in your life.Let’s take the example of your health. You realize that you overweight The same frustrating experience can happen when wanting to change your personal finance, career, etc.Now let’s go back to Raymond Aaron’s One Degree Shift. Remember the motorboat analogy.Instead of changing everything You are becoming more active ,you feel good, you feel healthy. Then you realize that you are not getting the proper nutrition â€" so you start cutting back on soda,chips,etc. And soon you are eating a healthy nutritious diet. Your outlook on life starts to change.You also realize that because you are now much healthier- you also have more energy. And you are happier..Suddenly it seems like you have more time because of the new-found energy levels. So you start signing up for a new courses/classes. Overtime you learn some new skill and maybe even smarter. And perhaps even be more productive at work, make more money and so on..You get the gist? Perhaps I rushed the sequence, but I am confident you can relate to this.Instead of making 25 changes at once â€" you make one small change, and do it well.That 1 Degree shift will slowly and surely start to impact your overall life. Instead of continuing to go downhill, before you realize it you are going uphill â€" in the right direction.What is the one small thing you can change today? And how will that impact your life one year down the line?“If you make a 1 percent change for a long enough time, you’ll be heading in the exact opposite direction sooner than you think. If you change your rudder by 1 degree, it doesn’t take you years to change” â€" Raymond Aaron

Enjoy majors

We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. English majors get a lot of flak from naysayers, calling their degrees useless and irrelevant. Tell anyone that you have a degree in Literature or Creative Writing and theyll give you a sympathetic look and perhaps even a reassuring tap on the shoulder. Its time to crush those misconceptions and prove to these unbelievers that English degree holders have a place in this world too. The old starving writer/artist clich is now long gone, thanks to the ever-changing media landscape. There are more opportunities for English graduates now as traditional media work hand-in-hand with new media in their quest to look for bright, creative minds who have a knack for words. This degree builds a strong academic foundation and a discerning mind in its graduates which are highly prized in fields as diverse as law, publishing and the arts. Simply put, English majors are more than just servers of French fries! With an English degree one can go on to become a(n): Writer They are the storytellers, the dream weavers, the visionaries; they capture your attention with words that seamlessly flow together like water. They take you to other worlds and to different times and eras. The best novels were made by writers. That blockbuster movie that you have seen on the cinema was just once an idea in some writers mind. Writers also bring the news to you from all four corners of the world. Ad copywriters, speech writers, public relations writers; many of these professionals with a writer suffix on their job titles were once all English majors. The demand for these jobs is growing steadily and does pay well in the long run. Entry requirements: Writers can come from various disciplines and backgrounds, though those who graduated with English, Communication and Creative Writing degrees certainly have an edge. The job does not require any form of professional qualification so aspiring writers can start right away! Salary expectations: The pay scale for working writers differ base on ones experience, training and medium. New writers may start out with 5,000. In contrast old-timers (those who have 10-15 years of experience in their belt) may earn up to 120,000. Writers in the media are often paid on a per word or per minute basis. For example, a freelance writer working for a large magazine earns 700 per 1,000 words, while those who write for BBC dramas get paid for 104.34 per minute. Lawyer The work of a lawyer involves more than just appearing in court, talking to witnesses and examining evidences. To get there, they need to conduct loads of research and writing. They have to go through countless documents and legal texts in order to come up with strong arguments in court. Communication and critical thinking skills are essential here and an English degree can prepare you for that. In fact, most experts would recommend aspiring lawyers to take up English and Communication courses as their pre-law degrees. Entry requirements: A law degree (LL.B.) is required, which is offered in many universities across the nation. For those who graduated with a non-law degree, a 1-2 year law conversation course is needed. From then on, the job entry path differs depending whether one wants to become a Solicitor or Barrister. Aspiring solicitors are required to enroll with the Law Society of England and Wales as a student member, take a one-year course called the Legal Practice Course (LPC), followed by two years of apprenticeship. Future barristers, meanwhile, must complete the Bar Professional Training Course, followed by a year-long training (known as pupillage) under the guidance of a trained barrister. Salary expectations: The good news is that lawyers are paid well, earning on average 52,049 yearly. Trainees may start with 18,590 as a salary, but can go up to 300,000 as one goes up the career ladder. Librarian Librarians are pros when it comes to organizing information, in print form or those found electronically. They work in curation and for corporations information management systems though generally they have careers in school and local libraries helping students conduct research. English degree majors, meanwhile deal with the creation and deconstruction of literary works. With all those elements in place, librarians who graduated with an English degree are very much equipped to handle your queries when you come visit them at their places of work. Entry requirements: Having a degree in Library and Information Management (LIM) will tip the scales in your favor if you want to take this career path, with those with a background in Language and Literary Arts also at an advantage but any degree will do. If you are gunning for professional posts, an MA/MSc in LIM is required. Salary expectations: Library assistants (entry-level positions) may start with 19,195 which may go up to 32,310 for professionals with 2-5 years of experience. Actor Going through hundreds of script pages to memorize can be a piece of cake for English majors who were trained to absorb loads of literary works in school. Critical analysis of these texts are also a core component of the degree which is a skill needed for a career in acting. Internalizing a character then comes much easier for actors with this degree in their belts. These are just a few career options that anyone with an English degree can look into. The secret here is to do research and work hard at networking as many more career paths (academe, advertising, government service) are just waiting to be discovered. Entry requirements: A degree in Drama or Theater is nice but not required. Many got into acting through informal training which includes local theater or school productions. Workshops also help and add to the training to get into the profession. Securing a job in the industry requires going to auditions. To get job leads, actors seek out the services of talent agents. Salary expectations: The pay for actors depends on the location, nature of the work and number of performances. Experience, popularity and the actors marketability also determines their worth. As an example, theater actors have a minimum rate of 350. Compare that to British actor Daniel Craig who is set to earn a 31 million paycheck after he stars in two more installments of the James Bond franchise. Still not convinced about an English degree holders place in our society? These famous people took up the course during their time in college: Stephen King Mario Cuomo Diane Sawyer Toni Morrison James Cameron Sting Barbara Walters Mitt Romney Conan OBrien So heads up, English majors! And if ever somebody still calls you out for having a worthless degree, just smile and just shrug off the comment. The truth is, English majors might be (secretly) running the world all along. * With additional info from: http://www.prospects.ac.uk/ About the Author: Sherry Franklin is an Academic and Career Consultant for a top UK essay writing company. Shes currently taking up her Masters in English Literature and volunteers for an animal shelter in her spare time. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Joey Trebif

Blog Carnival - Job search advice and food for thought! -

Blog Carnival - Job search advice and food for thought! - Several weeks ago, Ben Eubanks inaugurated the Career Carnival Blogging Event on Jobacle by showcasing a number of blogs and a variety of topics. He invited me to take the reigns this time to share some links and possibly introduce you to some new blogs to follow. So, I put out the call to many bloggers to share a link and a twit pitch or summary of the post. I heard back from some bloggers whose posts I never miss as well as several people whose blogs are new to me. I hope you will have the same experience and find some favorites as well as a few new blogs to review Tiffany Monhollon shared her post, Mature Workers Face Toughest Job Market in this Recession. She summarizes: The debate about youth versus age is hot again, as competition in the job market continues to increase. Research shows that both mature workers and new graduates face a difficult job search. But, a recent online poll on the Express Job Blog showed that 70% of over 950 readers agree the job market is more difficult for mature workers than for new grads. But, there is hope for both generations in todays job market. Trevor Wilson from Gradversity examines the benefits of sending individually targeted applications over a mass mailing approach with Quality vs Quantity in Job Applications. Ben Eubanks noted that leadership was born from an interesting conversation about bad leaders and the people that follow them.   Do Not Follow the (Bad) Leader reminds us of times and situations where we do follow bad leaders, and it also shows us how those experiences are short-lived.   Almost everyone has spent some time with a bad leader, but some of the articles comments show a different side of the story. Kirsten Grant summarizes: What do Batman, Spiderman and the Bat Mobile have in common with finding a job and your online profile? Its about consistency in online branding. You wouldnt expect to see Spiderman riding around in the Bat Mobile, nor Batman shooting spider webs from his wrists! This article discusses the importance of picking one area to be known for and gives tips on branding yourself online to ensure long term job search success. This blog topic provides a step-by-step guide to taking your social networking profile from good to great and increasing your chances of finding a job! Kristi Daeda shares a timely post about networking with confidence. She notes, People are nervous about networking because they fear failure, even though theres no such thing! Learn more about how to be successful in networking by enhancing your confidence. Jacqui Barrett-Poindexters, The Branded Resume: An Essential Tool,   illustrates the importance of convincing the hiring manager by creating the emotional hook with kernels of inspired resume writing to get the interviews you deserve. Stephanie Lloyd reminds readers that interviewing is extremely subjective, and if you apply to jobs that you meet the qualifications for, are prepared for the interview, and use common sense, there is no reason to beat yourself up if you did not get the job. Rather than second-guessing yourself or feeling defeated, after each interview take a few moments to do a self-assessment and write the answers down so you can use them to prepare for your next interview. Take a look at: 75 Reasons You Didnt Get the Job. My own most recent favorite post reminds readers that, to succeed in your job hunt, you need to know where you are going and what you want when you get there. So, its not a good idea to do the job search equivalent of going to a pizza place if you feel like eating sushi! (It will make sense when you read it!) Enjoy the holiday weekend! photo by wallyg