Monday, April 20, 2020

Making Your I Have Great Writing Skills (Resume) Stand Out From the Rest

Making Your I Have Great Writing Skills (Resume) Stand Out From the RestAre you looking for ways to make your I have great writing skills (resume) stand out from the rest? If you're not sure what to do, it's best to do some research on the subjects. You'll find tips and suggestions to help you put together a more convincing resume and cover letter that will sell your services to an employer.There are a number of different ways you can use to make your I have great writing skills (resume) stand out from the rest. By using the correct presentation, writing style, and organization, you will find your qualifications and skills will come across well. Here are some suggestions to get you started.First, before you start to write your letter, make sure you know your topic. You need to write about something that interests you and is relevant to your field. You don't want to put in a lot of time trying to figure out what to write on your I have great writing skills (resume). It's best to find your passion, then go with it. If you enjoy writing and can think of an interesting story or idea, this can be a good way to add some creativity to your writing.Next, to make sure you write well, try to write in a format that makes sense to you. Don't let your thoughts become jumbled or rushed. It should flow from the beginning to the end and at the end be a few sentences long. The more sentences you write, the more time you're wasting. Also, do yourself a favor and separate your topic from your resume by using bullet points.A good suggestion to help get you started is to start writing in your area of expertise. You can write about what your strengths are, your interests, and what you like to do. You'll also want to mention your skills and your experiences. Make sure you show how you could be of benefit to the employer. If you don't feel comfortable in sharing your skills and experiences, leave them out. You don't want to alienate the reader or let them feel you don't care about the m.Finally, if you want to look professional, keep your letter and resume to about three pages long. Use only one page per paragraph to give the appearance of substance. If you need to use more than one page, avoid using them all together.As you can see, there are many ways to make your I have great writing skills (resume) stand out from the rest. Start now by researching your area of expertise, coming up with an interesting story, and researching your skills.

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Phased Retirement How to Scale Back at Work Without Giving Up Your Career

Phased Retirement How to Scale Back at Work Without Giving Up Your Career The youngest baby boomers have just turned 50, bringing retirement within sight for the entire generation. But many boomers don’t expect to work at full throttle until the last day at the office. More than 40% want to shift gradually from full- to part-time work or take on less stressful jobs before retiring, a recent survey by Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies found. It’s a concept called phased retirement, and it’s catching on. Last November the federal government okayed a plan to let certain long-tenured workers 55 and up stay on half-time while getting half their pension and full health benefits. Says Sara Rix, an adviser at AARP Public Policy Institute: “The federal government’s program may influence private companies to follow their lead.” Formal phased-retirement plans remain rare; only 18% of companies offer the option to most or all workers. Informal programs are easier to findâ€"roughly half of employers say they allow older workers to dial back to part-time, Transamerica found. But only 21% of employees agree that those practices are in place. “There’s a big disconnect between what employers believe they are doing and what workers perceive their employers to be doing,” says Transamerica Center president Catherine Collinson. So you may have to forge your own path if you want to downshift in your career. Here’s how: Resist Raiding Your Savings Before you do anything, figure out what scaling back will mean for your eventual full retirement. As a part-timer, your income will drop. Ideally you should avoid dipping into your savings or claiming Social Security early, since both will cut your income later. If you’re eligible for a pension, the formula will heavily weight your final years of pay. So a lower salary may make phased retirement too costly. Cutting back your retirement saving, though, may hurt less than you think. Say you were earning $100,000 and split that in half from 62 to 66. If you had saved $500,000 by 60, and you delay tapping that stash or claiming Social Security, your total income would be $66,700 a year in retirement, according to T. Rowe Price. That’s only slightly less than the $69,500 you would have had if you kept working full-time and saving the max until 66. Start at the Office If your employer has an official phased-retirement program, your job is easier. Assuming you’re eligible, you might be able to work half-time for half your pay and still keep your health insurance. Then ask colleagues who have made that move what has worked for them and what pitfalls to avoid. Devise a plan with your boss, focusing on how you can solve problems, not create new ones with your absence. Perhaps you can mentor younger workers or share client leads. “Don’t expect to arrange this in one conversationâ€"it will be a negotiation,” says Dallas financial planner Richard Jackson. Without a formal program, you’ll have to have a conversation about part-time or consulting work. To make your case, spell out how you can offer value at a lower cost than a full-time employee, says Phil Dyer, a financial planner in Towson, Md. Giving up group health insurance will be less of a financial blow if you are 65 and eligible for Medicare, or have coverage through your spouse. If not, you can shop for a policy on your state’s insurance exchange. “Even if you have to pay health care premiums for a couple of years, you may find it worthwhile to reduce the stress of working full-time,” says Dyer. Do an Encore Elsewhere This wind-down could also be a chance to do something completely different. Take advantage of online resources for older job seekers, including Encore.org, RetiredBrains.com, and Retirement-Jobs.com. You can find low-cost training at community colleges, which may offer programs specifically to fill jobs for local employers. Or, if you want nonprofit work, volunteer first. Says Chris Farrell, author of Unretirement, a new book about boomers working in retirement: “It’s a great way to discover what the organization really needs and how your skills might fit in.” Close Modal DialogThis is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button. Sign up for a weekly email roundup of top retirement news, insights, and advice from editor-at-large Penelope Wang: money.com/retirewithmoney.

Friday, April 10, 2020

How to plan successful events and meetings -The JobNetwork

How to plan successful events and meetings -The JobNetwork Whether you’re an admin or an engineer, there are some skills that will come in handy no matter what. Being able to organize events and meetings effectively is one of those skillsâ€"good organizational skills and tools will help you in virtually any field. If you’re in an administrative role and need to take the lead on planning a meeting or event but don’t know where to startâ€"we’ve got you covered! Let’s look at the basics you’ll need.Pre-organize your meeting or event.Before you get started, make sure you understand everything you’ll need to have in place. Take notes so you remember all the elements. (Nothing fancyâ€"this is for your own reference.)For meetings, that means making sure you know…What’s the topic?What’s the goal (desired outcome) of the meeting?Who needs to be there?Is it happening in your office, or somewhere else?Will people outside of your company be attending?Should you arrange for food or drinks to be available (like coffee, breakfast foods, sandwiches)?What kind of tech or tools will the attendees need (like access to presentation software, a projector screen, a white board, etc.)?For events like conferences or parties, that means making sure you know…Who should be attending?Do speakers’ schedules need to be coordinated?Is there a tentative schedule for the event, or will you need to figure out the timing?Does a location or facility need to be booked? If so, how many rooms are necessary?Will people be traveling to attend this event?Will attendees need to have any travel arrangements made?Is there a social component (lunch, dinner, drinks)?What are the catering needs?What kind of technology will presenters and attendees need?Does the event require programs, handouts, or anything else that needs to be designed or printed?If you’re being asked to organize the event, make sure you have all of the details from your boss or whomever is requesting the event. Don’t be shy about asking questionsâ€"you don’t want to m iss something, and have to scramble later.Choose an organizational tool for your event.Ask yourself: how do you best stay organized? Do you function best when you have information physically in front of you? Or do you function best when you have all the information you need at your fingertips on your phone or tablet? The great thing is that you can go as technological as you want hereâ€"there are a number of helpful business event planning apps out there, like Sched or Planning Pod.Create specific folders on your computer, so you can store any documents, emails, and notes. If you prefer a more old-school method, try using a binder, which you can divide into relevant sections:Vendor informationSchedulesReceipts and invoicesAttendee informationOrganizational planners with calendars (like the kind you get at your local office supply store) can also be helpful, especially if you have a long lead time and specific deadlines you need to meet along the way. The most important thing is to p ick a method that works best for you and  stick with it.Set a timeline for your event planning.Before you move ahead with inviting people or booking a space for your meeting or event, sit down and plan a timeline.When is the event taking place?What milestones will you need to hit before then?How much time will each of those steps take?Once you know your own planning schedule, set reminders along the way to make sure you’re checking everything off from your to-do list. Again, whatever format works best for you is good. You can build reminders in via your work email platform (like Outlook or Gmail) or set them on your phone or tablet. The most important part is that the reminders aren’t easily missed or ignored.Master your meeting plan.If you’re planning more of an everyday meeting, many of these principles still apply. Being organized is the key; even if it’s a budget summit with five people or a basic sales meeting, you want it to run just as smoothly as if you’re planning a conference. The timeline for meeting setup is likely more condensed; you or your boss may need to set up a meeting in the near future, so your timeline is even more important, even if you have fewer to-dos.Get your meeting on everyone’s calendar.One of the first things you should do for your meeting (after answering the questions outlined earlier) is make sure that everyone who needs to be there is available. Juggling multiple calendars can be tricky, especially if your company doesn’t have a synced calendar system (like Outlook) where you can see if another employee is booked during a particular time, or if you’re including people from outside of your company. One way to get the ball rolling is to send out an email to the necessary attendees, offer them blocks of time for potential meeting slots, and let them weigh in on what works best. For example:Hi all,  I’m setting up a one-hour meeting to talk about the year-end results, and wanted to confirm what time works best f or the group. Can you please let me know if any of the times below do not work for you?  Monday 12/1, between 2:00 and 4:00Wednesday, 12/3, between 10:00 and 11:30Thursday, 12/4, between 9:30 and 11:30Thanks!Ideally, everyone in the group can make one (or more) of the times you give them. If they can’t, well, then you have to start playing a bit of meeting Jenga, finding a time that works for the most people (while making sure that you’re not excluding someone who absolutely needs to be there). But at least you have a starting point for everyone’s availability.Set your meeting agenda.One of the biggest meeting pet peeves is that the meetings aren’t focused enough or don’t have a set agenda of discussion points, and waste time on things that might not be necessary. The best way to counteract this is to send a detailed agenda ahead of time, making sure that everyone involved knows what will be discussed. That way, Bill can prepare his notes on the project status and Susan ca n be ready to talk about her recent trip to corporate headquarters to talk about quarterly earnings. If you’re running the meeting yourself, the agenda gives you a ready outline to keep things moving. And if you’re not the one running the meeting but are organizing on someone else’s behalf, you can ask him or her for the agenda points they’d like to discuss. That not only helps keep you on track for organizing everything well, but also helps your boss prepare as well. It also gives you a ready-made template for notes after the meeting because then you can just add bullet points and next stepsWhen you send out the agenda, be clear about the expectations of the meeting. Is it just an informational meeting? Will there be a presentation? Are participants expected to brainstorm? If everyone knows what’s expected of them, then it will be a more productive meeting (and if someone isn’t prepared after you did all this advance work, that’s not on you as the organizer!).Be ready to follow up on your meeting.This is especially important if you’re running the meeting yourself. Make sure you take notes during the meeting, keeping track of the main points, conclusions, or action items that people will need to do next. Afterward, send out those notes to the group. I find that these notes don’t need to be super-detailedâ€"an outline with bullet points and clearly identified sections is usually welcome. People tend to skim or glaze over large chunks of narrative text and may miss some crucial information. If there are any next steps that are required from any meeting attendees, make sure those are presented clearly so that everyone understands what’s expected of them.If you’re organizing the meeting for a boss or someone else and you won’t be attending the meeting yourself, be sure to ask if that person wants you to send out any notes or follow-up correspondence to the group. And if a follow-up meeting is necessary, restart this whole process as soon as possible so that it’s still fresh in everyone’s mind.Organizational skills are a resume winner for just about every field. And if you’re going into an administrative job, being able to wrangle every kind of eventâ€"from small meetings to big to-dosâ€"will make you extremely valuable. These are skills everyone can develop with a bit of practice, diligence, and help from organizational tools that can save you from your own human forgetfulness. Before long, you’ll be impressing your bosses with how smoothly your events go and earning much deserved credit for getting and keeping everything organized and running well.