What Do You Think is Your Greatest Weakness

What Do You Think is Your Greatest WeaknessWhat is Your Greatest Weakness?What Do You Think is Your Greatest WeaknessThe recent blog post, 5 Really Stupid Questions from Interviewers, elicited several comments about that oft-asked and much-hated interview question What do you think is your greatest weakness? Heres my advice on how to answer.First, ignore the conventional advice to state a weakness thats really a positive job attribute, such as, Im a workaholic and I spend too many hours at work. Interviewers have been hearing that for years, and they see right through it.And the truth is, they really dont care what your weaknesses are. They care about how you handle the question and what your response indicates about you.The trick to answering this question is to identify a new skill youre learning or planning to develop something that is only a weakness because you havent yet mastered it.Heres a five-step response strategy for this questionHighlight your strengths for the position.M ention a new skill or area in which you are not yet as strong as youd like to be (dont use the word weakness.).Outline what youre doing to master the new skill and overcome your so-called weakness.Describe how this new skill will improve your value to the company.Finish with a question that will redirect the interview back to your real strengths.Heres a fill-in-the-blanks template to help you start formulating your responseWhile there are several strengths I bring to this position, including _______, _______, and _______, I would like to improve my knowledge of _______. In fact, I have been involved in _______ and _______ in an effort to master ansicht skills. I feel this is important because it will allow me to deliver added results in the areas of _______.Heres how this example might sound if you were seeking a position in sales or customer serviceWhile there are several strengths I bring to this position, including a consistent record of being one of the top three performers in m y previous position, strong industry knowledge, and outstanding interpersonal skills, I would like to improve my knowledge of business finance. In fact, I have been taking courses in business economics and finance at the Institute of Advanced Training in an effort to master these skills. I feel this is important because it will allow me to directly relate the sales of products and services to a customers return-on-investment, and to recommend department cost-saving initiatives. Would you like me to elaborate on these ideas?Did you notice the question at the end? Asking a question will make the interview more conversational, help you gain more control, and keep the interview from becoming an interrogation.

dont use a functional resume

dont use a functional resume dont use a functional resume A reader writesIn your 7 Things To Leave Off a Resume article, you mentioned picking between chronological and functional resumes. Can you comment on why hiring managers prefer one over the other?When I apply to jobs that are outside my field, I generally submit a combination functional-chronological resume so the company can binnensee how my skills can be transferred to the new field/position but still see my employment history. Do you think this is effective, or am I hurting my chances?It sounds like youre using a chronological resume (one that lists your job history by position, with dates, so that its clear what you were doing when), with the addition of a functional summary. I think thats fine its when someone excludes the chronology altogether that I (and many other hiring managers) see a red flag.For people who dont know, a functional resume just lists skills and abilities, without including a chronological job history . Many hiring managers, me included, hate them.Generally, the first thing I think when I see them is, What is this candidate trying to hide? Thats because people tend to use functional resumes when theyre trying to hide an employment gap, or job-hopping, or outdated skills (because it matters if your Web design experience is from 10 years ago or one year ago), or other things Id rather know about. And if I do remain interested in the candidate, the first thing Im going to do when I talk to them is ask them to walk me through their job history, with dates and its going to annoy me that I have to, and if I have other good candidates I may not even bother.So never use just a functional resume. But what youre talking about chronological plus should be just fine.

Quitting alcohol may help your mental health, especially for women

Quitting alcohol may help your mental health, especially for womenQuitting alcohol may help your mental health, especially for womenA new study from the University of Hong Kong, however, says that stopping drinking alcohol completely can have great effects on our mental well-being and this effect is more profound in women.The study comes as a surprise, as for years, its been commonly thought that a glass of wine with dinner is good and good for your heart, to boot and that moderate drinking is fine as long as you dont overdo it.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and morePast research on alcohol has been conflictedBut research on alcohol has historically been conflicted.Some research has suggested that coffee and alcohol is the secret to a long life. Earlier this year, a study published in the Lancet suggested that even moderate drinking could increase cardiovascular risk. Last year, a study in the PLOS Medicineindicated that moderate drinkers were likely to outlive teetotalers. And thats only a sampling of studies on alcohol out there.To make things even more confusing, theres the current sober curious movement, a mostly booze-free lifestyle/health movement elend associated in any way with Alcoholics Anonymous. Its made up of people who are sometimes, mostly giving up alcohol because of the mental clarity and health benefits it gives them but theyre not against having a few glasses of wine here and there, either. There are even booze-free bars and the requisite crop of sober-curious lifestyle influencers.And yetThis new research is enticing improved mental well-being and all you have to do is swear off the firewater completely? A hard habit to break, but if youre a woman, in particular, it may be worth it for the benefits.Heres how the researchers came to their conclusion.Analyzed data from 10,386 participantsmostly middle-aged adults from a past study at Hong Kong who were non-drinkers or moderate drinkers between 2009-2013, they focused on the participants were either nondrinkers or moderate drinkers. Of the sample, 64% of the men were nondrinkers, and 88% of the women abstained completelyThey examined the link between drinking patterns and mental well-being in two phases, then compared that data with the participants in the U.S. National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions a separate group of 31,079 people.Major findingsThe researchers saw that people who had never drunk alcohol had the greatest baseline of mental well-being. They also observed that people who had quit alcohol especially women experienced the highest improvement in mental health for both the Hong Kong and US groups. (The people in the group who drank moderately didnt see any boost in physical or mental well-being.)For mental well-being, researchers recommend a teetotaling lifestyleThe researchers dont recommend alcohol as part of any diet not wi th your wine, not with your brunch, not with your baseball game. The actually recommend quitting.Ouf findings suggest caution in recommendations that moderate drinking could improve health-related quality of life, said lead author Dr. Michael Ni of the University of Hong Kong School of Public Health, in a release. Instead, quitting drinking may be associated with a more favorable change in mental well-being, approaching the level of lifetime abstainers.If you think that booze doesnt affect you, it may more than you think. Another recent study in the Lancet reported that global alcohol consumption has gone up a staggering amount in the last 30 years.

Help Develop Your Employees StrengthsNot Weaknesses

Help Develop Your Employees StrengthsNot WeaknessesHelp Develop Your Employees Strengths- Not WeaknessesA management philosophy, that flies in the face of conventional thinking, compels you to help your employees develop their strengths by deliberate practice. This is a substitute for helping employees develop their weaknesses, a concept more traditional in management thinking. But does helping employees develop their weakest areas of performance ever make any sense? Not really. This theory of helping employees develop strengths welches proposed by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman in First, Break All The Rules What the Worlds Greatest Managers Do Differently. The recommendations were made as a result of the Gallup organizations interviews with 80,000 managers who were rated as effective performers in their organizations. (Gallup also identified the twelve most important factors for employees to become or stay engaged at work.) On top of trying to complete their daily work and achie ving their annual goals, employees have a finite amount of time for development. Spend time on what matters. Develop employee strengths- elend weaknesses, and in the process, train your management philosophy and company culture. How HR Managers Can Hone Their Strengths Using an average HR professional as an example, the majority are good with people and good at conveying the simple, common sense, applicable information. Many HR people are not very good with mathematical story problems and other mathematical concepts- although exceptions exist. No matter what, some HR professionals will never be good at solving complex mathematical problems. Could they get better? Probably. But, why not spend their time honing their strengths? Yet, the traditional approach to developing employees, one of the critical factors in employee motivation, has been to identify weaknesses, often during an annual performance appraisal meeting. The employee is then sent to training, given mentoring and coac hing to help, or just told to get better at whatever his or her weak area is. Now, if the area of weakness is critical to the employees job success, developing the weaker area might make sense. But, it is more likely that the employee is just in the wrong job- a job that does not take advantage of their best strengths. Consider matching the employees best skills toyour companys needs in a different job. In another example, think about an employee who has always been a good writer. Giving the employee the opportunity to write every day as a part of their job description will strengthen their writing skill. Writing is a perfect example of a skill that you can develop if you approach it with deliberate practice a number of times a week. Once the employee started writing every single day, with hours of practice and a deliberate commitment to growth, they continued to develop the strength and became a better contributor to the business. This is an example of a mutual win- a win for the e mployee and a win for the employer. Imagine the difference and the frustration if the employer had asked the employee to spend her time trying to develop a skill she didnt already have in her tool bucket. You have an equivalent example in your own life- or your reporting employees do. What skill should you deliberately develop daily for your own career development and your employers needs? Why Develop Employee Strengths With Deliberate Practice? Experts and people who have studied the topic of helping employees develop their strengths as opposed to their weaknesses provide analysis about why this practice is important and worthy of your consideration. Deliberate practice involves two kinds of learning improving the skills you already have and extending the reach and range of your skills. The enormous concentration required to undertake these twin tasks limits the amount of time you can spend doing them, said Dr. K. Anders Ericsson, the Conradi Eminent Scholar of Psychology at Fl orida State University, in Tallahassee. Additionally, Stephen J. Dubner at the Freakonomics blog weighs in with these thoughts A while ago, we wrote a New York Times Magazine column about talent- what it is, how its acquired, etc. The gist of the column welches that raw talent, as its often called, is vastly overrated and that people who become very good at something, whether its sports, music, or medicine, generally do so through a great deal of deliberate practice, a phrase used by the Florida State psychologist Anders Ericsson and his merry band of fellow scholars who study expert performers in many fields. In the column cited in the quote above, Anders Ericsson concludes that the trait we commonly call talent is highly overrated. Or, put another way, expert performers- whether in memory or surgery, ballet or computer programming- are nearly always made, not born. And yes, practice does make perfect. ansicht may be the sort of clichs that parents are fond of whispering to their c hildren. But these particular clichs just happen to be true. Ericssons research suggests a third clich as well when it comes to choosing a life path, you should do what you love- because if you dont love it, you are unlikely to work hard enough to get very good. Most people naturally dont like to do things they arent good at. So they often give up, telling themselves they simply dont possess the talent for math or skiing or the violin. But what they really lack is the desire to be good and to undertake the deliberate practice that would make them better. So, it seems there is truth to the power of developing your strengths and deliberately practicing the areas you want to improve. You also have to love their plug for love your work, a concept that is discussed frequently by HR practitioners because of its power to impact your work life. Do you agree? More About Goal Setting and Personal Development Achieve Your Dreams Six Steps to Accomplishing your GoalsReasons Why You Need to Love the Job You Have

2015 Tax Tips for Small Business

2015 Tax Tips for Small Business2015 Tax Tips for Small Business2015 Tax Tips for Small Business Weltman, author of J.K. Lassers Small Business Taxes 2015 (Wiley, 2014)Now that 2014 has closed, its time to focus on your small geschftlicher umgangtax return for the year. Tax strategies, old and new, can help cut your tax bill. Here are five small businesstax tips to help you.1. Claim your full write-offsTax limits, thresholds, and ceilings change from year to year, so dont assume that deduction limits or tax rules from prior years apply now. Failing to learn whats new could result in your shortchanging yourself. For example, there is an increased tax credit for paying at least half the cost of health coverage for employeesbut check eligibility rules.If youre self-employed, dont forget to deduct one-half of your self-employment tax. Although its considered a personal (non-business) deduction, you dont need to itemize to claim it.2. Make decisions about writing off equipment purchasesFo r 2014, there are three possible ways to deduct the cost of equipment (such as smartphones and tablets) and machineryRegular depreciation, which spreads deductions for the cost over 5, 7, or other periods fixed by law for the type of property you buy.Bonus depreciation, which allows 50% to be deducted immediately.First-year (Section 179) deduction, which limits the first-year write off to $500,000 it can be combined with regular and bonus depreciations for an even greater deduction in 2014.The deduction rules vary with each option. For exampleA bonus depreciation applies only to new property (not to pre-owned items)It applies automatically, but can be waived.First-year expensing is only beneficial if you are profitableIf desired, it must be elected.Work with a tax advisor to review not just your 2014 tax picture, but look ahead to determine which write-off is best for your situation.3. Take post year-end actionEven though the tax year has closed, it is not too late to make certain p ayments that can still reduce your 2014 taxesContributions to qualified retirement plans. As long as the paperwork for schauplatz up a plan was signed by December 31, 2014, you can make a tax-deductible contribute up to the extended due date of your return. If you have not already set up a retirement plan, you have until the extended due date of the return to both set up and fund a SEP.Contributions to health savings accounts (HSAs). If you were covered by a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) in 2014, you can contribute to a health savings account for 2014 up to April 15, 2015 (no extra time is allowed, even if you obtain a filing extension). As long as you had HDHP coverage for all of December (typically a bronze plan in marketplace parlance), you can make a full years HSA contribution.4. Get a filing extension if you need itWhile the IRS may start to accept returns shortly, the filing deadline for 2014 returns is March 16, 2015 (March 15 is on a Sunday this year) for calendar-year corporations, and April 15, 2015, for individuals, partnerships, and limited liability companies (in most cases).If you do not have all the information you need to complete your return or for any other reason, you can request a filing extension. For example, if you are an owner in a limited liability company that has not provided you with a Schedule K-1 by the time you have to file your personal return, simply request a filing extension.Individuals requesting a filing extension should use fasson 4868 partnerships, limited liability companies, and corporations use Form 7004.The extended due date for filing a 2014 return depends on your returnCorporations (both C and S), partnerships, and limited liability companies September 15, 2015. This is also the deadline for S corporations, partnerships, and limited liability companies to give Schedule K-1s to their owners.Individuals October 15, 2015.5. Pay estimated taxes for 2015If you report your share of business income on your personal r eturn (e.g., youre a sole proprietor or an owner in a limited liability company), you probably have to pay estimated taxes to cover your anticipated tax bill for 2015. The first estimated tax payment for the year is due on April 15, 2015. This date applies even if you obtain a filing extension for your 2014 income tax return.You can pay electronically using EFTPS or the IRS Direct Pay to make a transfer from your bank account to the government. There are no IRS charges for these payment methods.Caution Dont wait until you file your return for the year to pay the tax you expect to owe. This will cost you in tax penalties. Even worse, come April 2016, you may not have the lump sum needed at that time to pay your 2015 tax better to pay in installments, as required.The Last WordAction on your part can minimize your small businesstax bill for 2014 and avoid interest and penalties both this year and next. The sooner you start, the easier it is to complete actions on time.Any questions? Ta lk with a tax advisor.Reprinted with permission of John Wiley Sons, Inc. Barbara Weltman, J.K. Lassers Small Business Taxes 2015. Legal Disclaimer None of the information provided herein constitutes legal advice on behalf of Monster.

Resume and Cv Secrets

Resume and Cv Secrets You must always strive to bring a summary at the peak of your resume. Off the area, it was a totally different story. If you did research with a person, its going to be expected they write one of your letters. It is a good idea to spare some time so you can create a personalized letter for the organization you want to submit an application for. What About Resume and Cv? The PhD research work involves in-depth study of this issue and writes in the very best thesis which would assist the reader to acquire complete comprehension of the topic. In general, the aforementioned outline is remarkably simple because the work search procedure, despite all of the anxiety and confusion, is remarkably easy. But at precisely the same time practice means a lot more than pure theory, which means you ought to go and do practical things. My colleagues have lots of experience in a variety of technologies and methodologies. Cover letter plays an important function in the hiring process of the candidate. This informative article will take you through the full procedure of applying to Ireland and the complications attached with that. Your university dissertation is among the critical characteristics of your academic life and itll stay together with you on your resume and CV throughout your life. Resume and Cv - Dead or Alive? Sometimes recruiters will attend meetups to seek out talent also. We are in need of a list of possible skills and a list of which consultants possess them. This usually means that its even more essential for you to offer a means for recruiters to swiftly receive a very good idea of whether youre a developer who can work nicely with other folks. If youre confident, the man hiring you are going to be confident that youre a great fit for the job. If possess any particular important abilities or strengths, then you have to mention them straight away as the prospective employer want to know them. You obtain an opportunity to b rief yourself and present yourself as the proper candidate for the work role. Odds are, youre likely to be applying for work in a city you are living in, and many folks attending meetups will be devs who have jobs and connections. The aim of your resume is to secure you the interview. The very first job is always likely to be the toughest step, but when you get past that line, your career would become smoother. Your objective is to quantifiably prove that you are able to. The target of the resume is to create the candidate stand besides the competition and find an interview call. So getting the very best impression on the employer only begins with the ideal cover letter. If you would like a job in the USA or Canada, odds are theyll request a resume. Rather, its a chance for you to permit the employer know why you wish to work with them. In addition, should your personal GitHub project gets contributions from some other folks, great Type of Resume and Cv You may want to add hobbies and any additional section depending on the need. For these reviewers, the option of phrases in the expert summary is particularly important. But your mileage might vary. People in the government appear to care about those issues but theyre facing more urgent troubles. Building websites has never been simpler to develop and bootstrap makes it happen. The Fight Against Resume and Cv Whats more, you also receive an internal satisfaction which youve tried at least. The logical size of the heap isnt the exact same as the sum of physical memory utilized by the heap. You use the service to acquire a call object. UIWindow class then demonstrate the perspective of that module. Whats more, additionally, it indicates youre able to communicate your ideas well enough for different developers to participate in your undertaking. Next project will be photoX, it is going to be the website about something like photography company. Building projects youre interested in is go od and all, but if youre likely to be working in a business, you are going to be shipping somebody elses product. Its possible to mention why you desire to apply to that organization and what precisely achievement about the organization youve heard. Blog You might not be the ideal programmer out there, but youre still able to package yourself. Free and very handy support.

Verbal Communication Is the Top Skill for New Grads

Verbal Communication Is the Top Skill for New Grads Verbal communication tops the list of skills employers look for in recent college grads. In fact, a recent survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) reports that verbal communication outranks both the ability to work in a team and the ability to make decisions and solve problems the two skills that tied for first distribution policy in last years version of the survey.Why is verbal communication so valuable to todays employers? Communication is directly linked to productivity, making it quite possibly one of the most critical skills for any candidate to have.Imagine youre in a sales role. Effective communication is going to play a crucial part in winning and maintaining accounts. If youre an internal management candidate, your ability to communicate goals to your team andyour ability to effectively communicate with cross-functional teams aretied to your success.Think abou t it this way If you have to keep explaining things to people due to poor communication skills, productivity will ultimately go down. Your team may have started attacking a project one way, only to be forced to switch gears once the communication is finally understood. The project will certainly get done, but was the completion of the project delayed? Absolutely, and in todays 24/7 work environment, the phrase time is money rings truer than it has atany previous point in business history.Poor communication skillscan also cause a lot of frustration on both sides. Managers may end up seeing their teams as lazy or not capable of taking direction, and team members may start to feel resentful of being told they didnt understand the objectives and now have to spend valuable time correcting the project. Over time, these seemingly small things cancause talented people to leave jobs theyd otherwise have loved to stay in.Communication Skills The Packaging That Makes the DifferenceBut back to our job seekers. Think of how you buy products. You read reviews and you look at the price. Things that tip the scales, however, are usually things like great packaging. You may not end up buying theproduct,but you certainly cant help being drawn to somethingingeniously packaged.Dont ever forget that you, the job seeker, are the product. Someone is going to look at your reviews in the form of references and, of course, the price has to be right. But your packaging might just be the thing that gets you hired over another equally qualified candidate.High-level verbal communication undeniably elevates you in the eyes of potential employers. For example, if you share the same idea as another candidate, but you do so much mora effectively and powerfully, youll come out on top.Whats Holding Your Communication Skills Back?The biggest factor that can damage the communication skills of an otherwise well-spoken candidate is nerves. Practicing is the best way to overcome this particular obsta cle. Most college career centers will have someone who can help with mock bewerbungsgesprchs. Use that resourcefor all its worth.The second biggest factor is unpreparedness otherwise known as winging it. The more in command you are of your content, the more effectively youll be able to communicate. Unfortunately, candidates make the mistake of not preparing for interviews because, well, its their experience. How could they not be in command of answers to questions about their own work history?However, when faced with specific questions that really go deep, its pretty easy to get flustered if you havent really thought about how to communicate your experience in very detailed terms.Interestingly enough, realizing that youve underprepared in an interview tends to make you nervous. So even if you arent naturally nervous, a lack of preparation may have you sweating in your seat.The interview isnt the place for you to test out material. Its not open mic night. Practice as much as you can with a few different people. Thatis the best way to build a consensus regarding your answers and what you can do to fix them.If you really struggle with nerves or putting together your thoughts, try a public speaking class. Many classes also tackle persuasive speech, so youll not only be comfortable talking in the interview, but you also just might convince the interviewer to hire you. The benefits will stay with you forever.Michele Mavi isAtrium Staffings resident career expert.