How to Adapt to a Flexible, Tech-Driven Workplace

How to Adapt to a Flexible, Tech-Driven Workplace The way we work is changing, we negotiate a globalised, tech-driven working environment that is characterised by 24/7 connectivity and must learn to thrive in the gig economy and navigate the internet of things. The job for life and the 9 to 5 have disappeared. The labour market is unstable and competition for roles is globalised and building a sustainable career is a challenge. The FT recently reported that the ideal working life for many millennials is not finding a safe job that will last them a lifetime, but creating a technology start-up. They go on to point out that the average income from self-employment fell 22 per cent in the UK between 2009 and 2014, even as self-employment contributed 732,000 of the 1.1m rise in total employment. Once upon a time we had to go into the office or factory to access the data and tools we needed to facilitate the production of whatever it was we worked on. Technology has revolutionised the workplace and made our working environment more flexible and accessible, in ways we could not have imagined twenty years ago. Now, cloud computing and mobile devices mean we can work anywhere and mastering the technology is a key competency, enabling productivity and driving revenue growth. Career management in the cloud Employees expect to work in an open-ended mode, when they want and where they choose, using their own devices and collaborating in online and virtual environments. Our connected, mobile, social work practices are allowing employers to redesign jobs and workspaces while workers are choosing non-traditional and non-linear career paths. We work in an ecosystem of partners, clients, collaborators, customers and co-workers building and exploiting networks of contacts to form teams and manage projects. Working in an information rich environment more of us are knowledge workers engaged in integrated, multifunctional and self-coordinated work and we value flexibility and autonomy. In the old workplace the psychological contract was about job security and the career ladder. In the 21st century we focus on competency development, continuous learning, and work-life balance. The brightest and best will manage their careers aiming to be versatile and agile in exploiting the opportunities available to them. Better than machines The world of work is evolving at breakneck pace and sophisticated software technologies are no longer confined to routine manufacturing tasks, machine learning means that tasks undertaken in a whole swathe of workers in skilled and professional careers will see structured, predictable work taken over by computers. The good news is that employers value innovative thinking, flexibility, creativity, social capital and the strategic intelligence that characterise the things humans still do better than machines. More of us work not for an organisation, but using a co-worker platform we market our skills and work on specific projects using social technology to network and build our brand, reputation and reach. There’s little job security and no benefits package, but a whole lot more freedom and happily for most organisations competitive advantage will continue to be based on people rather than microprocessors. Technological advances have been changing the nature of work for hundreds of years. Agricultural workers resisted the introduction of farm machinery, hosiery workers forced the inventor of a stocking knitting machine to leave the country, the introduction of computers to our offices in the 1970’s worried many but we survived. Technology changes the way we work but it’s not the end of work, not yet, just the way we work now.

What It Means To Be a Female Executive In The Media Space

What It  Means  To Be a Female Executive In The Media Space The following is a guest post by Stephanie Mark.  Her bio follows. Ive said this many times but when we started Coveteur it was never in my roadmap to start my own company, it just sort ofhappened! On top of that,  setting out to be a woman in a field  traditionally run by men was also not something I deliberately planned. But lo and behold here we are and I would like to think I have gained some  nuggets of wisdom about being a female executive in this space and would love to share them with yall. Lesson One: Im in great company.   One of my favorite things about working in media is all the other great women I can call on for advice. I think people are usually too proud or even shy to admit that they need help, but help is all around you! There have been  countless times I have relied on the many other women in similar positions for advice and guidance. If you are feeling overwhelmed or in need of advice, just look to your other powerful females and lean on them for support! Lesson Two: Things are changing, fast! Media was traditionally a mans world, not only is that changing (WhoWhatWear, Coveteur, Refinery29, Zoe Report) but the landscape of media is changing rapidly as well. It is important to know that during these times of change you will feel like you are in the eye of the storm but thats ok! You will constantly have to prove yourself (to yourself and to others) and feel a pressure to stay ahead of the  curve. Knowing  that these feelings are normal and that you are not alone in feeling all of the changes is important to remember.  Responsibility.   To me, being a woman  executive in media also means I have a big responsibility to  make sure the content we are publishing is  informative and empowering for our readers. We have the  privilege of having millions of smart, savvy, fashionable, political, (the list goes on  and on) women  and men visit our site and knowing that they are coming to Coveteur for  information that will shape their day and their lives is a huge responsibility. It is important to think into the future  about the causes you want to stand behind and the messages you want to give to your readers. Even superwoman had sidekicks.   Straight up, you cant do it alone. No one can. As much as we are powerful kick ass  girl bosses, we all need help. Plus- it is way more fun to do things with a great team than a party of one. Bringing great people into our company and growing it together has been the most valuable lesson I have learned. About Stephanie Mark Stephanie Mark is the Co- ­-founder and Head of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships for Coveteur, the leading destination for a luxurious, behind- ­-the- ­-scenes look at all things fashion, lifestyle and culture. She uses her innate sense of style to help drive creative direction for the company’s partnerships and collaborations, and her serious street cred in the fashion industry has led to explosive growth for the brand. As a graduate student from Parsons with a focus in Fashion Marketing,  Mark interned with Kate Lanphear, Style Director at ELLE. She then assisted celebrity stylists Leslie Fremar and Annabel Tollman with dressing and accessorizing their A- ­-list clientele, including Michelle Williams, Charlize Theron and Julianne Moore, among others. Got your sights set on leadership positions?  Find out which companies are best for female executives in the video below! Main image credit.

Personal Brand and Word of Mouth, Part 4 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Brand and Word of Mouth, Part 4 - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career This is part four of a five part series of the importance of personal branding in garnering positive word of mouth. In our hyper-connected society, word of mouth has become “world of mouth” and recommendations truly craft your online and offline persona and value.   It makes all the difference between positive or negative word of mouth about you, your service, or your business. In discovering our personal brand, we found out what the perception is “out there” about us.   We also extracted what made us unique, what we felt our strengths were, what others felt our strengths are and crafting a way to help those we connect with know exactly how to speak positively on our behalf.   Read Personal Brand and Word of Mouth, Part 1; Personal Brand and Word of Mouth, Part 2 and Personal Brand and Word of Mouth, Part 3 â€" to catch any of those components you might have missed. The question remains who do we teach this “word of mouth” curriculum to? Critical connections We are all connected. Most of us, on average, according to Sandler Sales Institute, know 200 to 250 people that we have some sort of influence over. They could be contacts such as   immediate and extended family members, co-workers, and team or committee members. They also include people in industry associations, social service groups, volunteer activities and past supervisors.   Yet, it extends even further to whose your child care provider, the realtor you bought/leased your home from, where you buy your office supplies, where you take your dry cleaning, your dentist, optometrist, tax preparer, eye doctor and the many professionals in their field that you purchase services from.     That study doesn’t even include the many online centers of influence that are now “your connections” through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. So, what are your critical connections?   Critical connections make a difference in the Three Ps: Personal Life, Professional Life, and your Profitability Step 1: Take an inventory of the people that you know One of the areas, when I work with people on making SMART connections that they don’t understand is Step 1   you must take an inventory of the people that you know. Just like inventory in a business your connection inventory makes a difference on your personal profit line. Whether or not you own your own business or if you’re an executive or an employee with a firm or organization, who you know is an important part of your social capital. So, who do you already know? That’s the questions to ask and the point to start in identifying your critical connections. Often I’m asked, “Maria, who do I need to know? What do I need to do? What networking events do I need to become involved with?”   Start with first things first, go back into your database of clients, customers, contacts, employers, fellow employees, co-workers, people that you know in groups â€" review or resurrect that list.   This list represents people that you have direct contact with.   Key question:   do you have their information and do you have current information? This is what I call a “database cull”. When someone reviews their database,   they realize they have people at positions they haven’t been at in the last 4-5 years, wrong phone numbers, old email addresses, wrong cell phone numbers. People have even passed away. On the average, there’s about 5 to 8 people on your database that have passed away and you have them currently on your database.     Clean up your database. Discard and delete those people from your database that are no longer alive.   Keep those who are and begin taking steps to find out their current information.   It could be a past coworker and they’ve left the company that you both worked at.   Work to find out current information and put a plan to get reconnected.     Your social inventory   is important and costly. It is where you’ve invested time already â€" time that can neither be retrieved or recreated.   Are you willing to just throw that time away? You might ask, “do I really need to stay connected with this person?”   If it’s someone that you feel strongly about steering clear of, then of course the answer is no.   Yet, if you’re not sure and there was no significant event that drove your apart then why not at least find out their newest contact info.   You may be able to do that fairly quickly through LinkedIn, Facebook or other mutual contacts.   If you’ve already built some rapport with someone, no matter how long ago, if they’ve had a chance to sample your character and competence and   you have some level of “know, like and trust” with them and they with you, then why throw that connection away?   Too much time is spent in “grip, grin and graze” events or networking activities where you are starting from scratch having to build all of those things in a series of connections.   Be sure to look at “who you know”, chance are you already have some of that built with people that you’ve lost touch with .     I’m of the mindset that â€" you never know who someone is, who they will become or who they influence.   Review your database. There’s a whole process to how to rank your database that I walk clients through that yields a strategic plan to connect with your “18 Critical Connections”. The most important part of that process is to have a clean, active and up-to-date database. In general, you’ll review your database four times, each sweep looking at: Who knows you by name Who enjoys spending time with you and you enjoy/enjoyed spending time with them Who has some sort of idea what you do and you have some sort of idea what they do Who has recommended or referred you to others In the last installment, I’ll cover what a good social inventory looks like and the best zone to help them speak positively on your behalf that moves, touches and inspires others to action. Author: Maria Elena Duron is chief buzz officer, coach and speaker with buzz2bucks.com. Buzz2Bucks | a word of mouth firm serves as the community manager around your personal or business brand online and offline, and coaches community managers on how to be buzz-worthy. Buzz2Bucks is known for the talk that yields profits. She is author of the book “Mouth to Mouth Marketing” and the ebook “Social I.R.A.” She’s been quoted as a marketing and word of mouth expert by Entrepreneur Magazine and contributes to several publications and is the creator of #brandchat, a weekly twitter conversation about all aspects of branding. She broadcasts weekly as the business coach with CBS7. Duron will speak at the 2009 Massachusetts Conference for Women. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 This is part four of a five part series of the importance of personal branding in garnering positive word of mouth. In our hyper-connected society, word of mouth has become “world of mouth” and recommendations truly craft your online and offline persona and value.   It makes all the difference between positive or negative word of mouth about you, your service, or your business. In discovering our personal brand, we found out what the perception is “out there” about us.   We also extracted what made us unique, what we felt our strengths were, what others felt our strengths are and crafting a way to help those we connect with know exactly how to speak positively on our behalf.   Read Personal Brand and Word of Mouth, Part 1; Personal Brand and Word of Mouth, Part 2 and Personal Brand and Word of Mouth, Part 3 â€" to catch any of those components you might have missed. The question remains who do we teach this “word of mouth” curriculum to? Critical connections We are all connected.   Most of us, on average, according to Sandler Sales Institute, know 200 to 250 people that we have some sort of influence over. They could be contacts like immediate and extended family members, co-workers, and team or committee members. They also include people in industry associations, social service groups, volunteer activities and past supervisors.   Yet, it extends even further to whose your child care provider, the realtor you bought/leased your home from, where you buy your office supplies, where you take your dry cleaning, your dentist, optometrist, tax preparer, eye doctor and the many professionals in their field that you purchase services from.    That study doesn’t even include the many online centers of influence that are now “your connections” through LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. So, what are your critical connections?   Critical connections make a difference in the Three Ps: Personal Life, Professional Life, and your Profitability Step 1: Take an inventory of the people that you know One of the areas, when I work with people on making SMART connections that they don’t understand is Step 1 is that you must take an inventory of the people that you know. Just like inventory in a business your connection inventory makes a difference on your personal profit line. Whether or not you own your own business or if you’re an executive or an employee with a firm or organization, who you know is an important part of your social capital and so who do you already know? That’s the questions to ask and the point to start in identifying your critical connections. Often I’m asked, “Maria, who do I need to know? What do I need to do? What networking events do I need to become involved with?”  Start with first things first, go back into your database of clients, customers, contacts, employers, fellow employees, co-workers, people that you know in groups â€" review or resurrect that list.   This list represents people that you have direct contact with.   Key question:   do you have their information and do you have current information? This is what I call a “database cull”.   When someone reviews their database,  they realize they have people at positions they haven’t been at in the last 4-5 years, wrong phone numbers, old email addresses, wrong cell phone numbers. People have even passed away. On the average, there’s about 5 to 8 people on your database that have passed away and you have them currently on your database.    Clean up your database. Discard and delete those people from your database that are no longer alive.  Keep those who are and begin taking steps to find out their current information.   It could be a past coworker and they’ve left the company that you both worked at.   Work to find out current information and put a plan to get reconnected.    Your social inventory   is important and costly.   It is where you’ve invested time already â€" time that can neither be retrieved or recreated.   Are you willing to just throw that time away? You might ask, “do I really need to stay connected with this person?”   If it’s someone that you feel strongly about steering clear of, then of course the answer is no.   Yet, if you’re not sure and there was no significant event that drove your apart then why not at least find out their newest contact info.   You may be able to do that fairly quickly through LinkedIn, Facebook or other mutual contacts.   If you’ve already built some rapport with someone, no matter how long ago, if they’ve had a chance to sample your character and competence and   you have some level of “know, like and trust” with them and they with you, then why throw that connection away?   Too much time is spent in “grip, grin and graze” events or networking activities where you are starting from scratch having to build all of those things in a series of connections.   Be sure to look at “who you know”, chance are you already have some of that built with people that you’ve lost touch with .     I’m of the mindset that â€" you never know who someone is, who they will become or who they influence.   Review your database. There’s a whole process to how to rank your database that I walk clients through that yields a strategic plan to connect with your “18 Critical Connections”. The most important part of that process is to have a clean, active and up-to-date database. In general, you’ll review your database four times, each sweep looking at: Who knows you by name Who enjoys spending time with you and you enjoy/enjoyed spending time with them Who has some sort of idea what you do and you have some sort of idea what they do Who has recommended or referred you to others In the last installment, I’ll cover what a good social inventory looks like and the best zone to help them speak positively on your behalf that moves, touches and inspires others to action.

Social Media and Job Searching Should I Follow up on Social Media After I Apply

Social Media and Job Searching Should I Follow up on Social Media After I Apply Dear Classy Career Girl, Many of the companies Ive been applying to lately have a vast social media presence. On their Facebook pages, Ill often see people post comments on their wall that they have submitted their resume (ex.: Hey, Company X! I would love to work for you just sent you my resume! Hope to hear from you soon!).   Part of me views this as desperate and nagging. However, maybe this is our generations way of following up a social media post instead of a phone call.  How do companies see this? Do you think this would be beneficial in a job hunt, or would the company see it in a negative way? Would love to hear your thoughts on this! -Social Job Searcher Social Media and Job Searching Social Job Searcher, I dont think it is nagging. I think it shows that you are really excited about the opportunity and know how to use social media and technology. If you are applying for a marketing job I think it is really important. If you have an online resume or even a LinkedIn page (that looks amazing) you could also send them a link to it. Why not? I think the most important part of applying for jobs these days is to stand out.  If you can do that in any way that you can think of to be creative and to think outside of the box. If you can do that in any way that you can think of to be creative and to think outside of the box.  I am not saying that doing this follow up on social media is actually going to work and you will get the job.  But I can promise you that you will stand out from a sea of applicants. The only thing to make sure is that you have a very professional looking picture and that your public photos are either professional or you have them private.  It definitely requires some careful thought before you start doing it. Also, you want to make sure you only do that at one company.  Why?  Because companies can look at your status updates usually and tell if you have said the same thing to multiple other companies. So just make sure you do that are your dream company and that is  it.  I also think you could use Twitter and do the same thing. Why not?  If you know of a person that you can find from the company on Twitter that might be even better. Of course I always recommend that you meet them in person or over the phone but this could be a great way to start the conversation.  If you dont get the job, you could always reach out to them later on and ask them for an informational interview.  At the informational interview, you could ask them questions like what you would need to do in order to get into the company someday in the future. Social media is huge right now and most companies know it. That is why I wouldnt hesitate to send them a little not on Facebook or an enthusiastic tweet that you have submitted your application. An email might be going too far but the reason I like a social media update is that it is only a gentle nudge. A lot of companies who work in non-social industries often find trouble in getting people to interact with them. So, using your time to tweet, share, or Facebook with a company might be a great boost. However, using social media can also be an application downfall. Showing your online presence to a company can lead them to check out your profile or online history. Even if you keep your profile squeaky clean you might want to make sure you have a  positive online reputation  throughout the entire web. A simple Google search of your name might yield negative results outside of social media platforms so be careful! Thoughts from a Manager of Social Recruitment I thought it would be interesting to get a companys perspective also so I reached out to Melanie Tom,  Manager, Social Recruitment Employment Branding at  Fresh Easy Neighborhood Market, Inc  and asked her the same question. Here is what she said: I wouldn’t consider it desperate or nagging. It’s a great way to capture an employer’s attention and consideration for a role as we all want to hire employees who are engaged from Day One (and as studies show, the more engaged an employee is from Day One- the higher retention rate the company will have vs. low engagement = turnover). We love it when candidates are proactive about  expressing their interest to work for us. I recently had a candidate tweet to us that he was really interested in working for us yet hasn’t had the opportunity to interview. We had our recruiters look up his application and placed him in the forefront of the interviewing process. Now he’s being reviewed by the hiring manager for an in-person interview. It never hurts to express your interest as long as you’ve applied for the job and you’re qualified. This approach definitely helps individuals stand out from a pool of candidates.   Two things to keep in mind when posting your comment: Make sure you’re really interested, you’ve applied and you’re qualified (don’t waste an employer’s time by saying you’ve applied yet you really haven’t and you only want to see if they’ll respond… that’s desperate) 80% of the time, an employer will respond to your post and when they do, make sure you thank them! Keep in mind that employers don’t have to respond to your application inquiry as every other candidate is vetted through the same recruitment process but if they are going to take the time to review your application, thank them! The only other advice I would provide is to refrain from using social media as your venting vehicle to bash employers- I’ve seen it before where candidates get upset and take the social media route to “vent” about why they didn’t get the job or why they didn’t get an interview. Bashing an employer publicly isn’t going to increase your chances of getting a job so don’t do it. Thanks Melanie for your tips! I know they will be very helpful to CCG readers!! Also, make sure you check out Melanies journey to a job she loves guest post! Have you used social media and job searching together? What are your tips for Social Job Searcher?

Nursing Resume Tips For New Graduates

Nursing Resume Tips For New GraduatesYou might be trying to get your nursing resume up and running in no time at all. With the busy schedules that nurses face, it can be hard to know where to start. After all, you probably have a list of degrees already that you want to add to. So how do you figure out which degrees are important and which ones should be left alone?One way to decide what is important for your nursing resume is to take a look at your work experience and then look at the numbers, if you really want to get a handle on what is important. Remember, when it comes to nursing resumes, you can't overlook what has happened in the past. That will give you an idea of what will show up on your resume. You can also get a feel for what is important for your nursing resume by reviewing the titles of your degree program.Even if you have already received your degrees, it won't hurt to review what has happened with the schooling. You might be surprised at what you find, or how your car eer has changed since you started. It is also nice to see what your future outlook looks like.Nurses who have a good blend of everything on their resume should receive a higher rate of pay. There are many factors that go into this, but one of the biggest things that you need to remember is that it all starts with how you write. That means that the nursing resume you are writing now should have a good storyline.When you are putting together a nursing resume that is written well, make sure that you have a good job description attached. Not only will this help you write the better nursing resume, but it will help you in getting the job. Your career outlook is always important.Another thing that should be on every nursing resume is the type of position you want. Careers such as nurse practitioner, RN, NP, LPN, and BSN can all help you look more professional. It will also make it easier for you to cover your back up options, such as certified nursing assistant and family nurse.Now, when you are looking for jobs, make sure that you keep in mind your nursing career. At some point, you will want to have a nursing resume with a medical tag on it. If you really have the love for the field, you might want to consider going back to school to get your master's degree or to become a doctor.Do whatever you feel comfortable with, but make sure that you have something you can get back to at your own pace. A nursing resume should not be a never-ending task. It should provide you with some ideas about what you are looking for. If you are not happy with the first one you wrote, then find a new one.