5 quick things you can do to spring-clean your office for maximum productivity

5 quick things you can do to spring-clean your office for maximum productivity5 quick things you can do to spring-clean your office for maximum productivityIts officially the first day of springWhether youre already soaking up the sun on a park benchor still digging your home outfrom recent winter weather,warmer temperatures are around the corner- its time to lighten things up in your workspace. Heres how.The best office workspace is round and colorfulColors can influence how you feel at work, so you might as well incorporate deskorganization tools in colors and shapes that you like.Colors have a notable effect on productivity, a study published in Science found. Red helps recall and attention to detail, while blue fuels creativity and imagination.In fact, the exacting, focused power of red may be why The New York Times chose the color to accent its newsroom walls.Another factor choose desktop items that are cylindrical or round.A 2012 study published in Environment and Behavior fou nd that rounded furniture could be more pleasing than pieces with straight edges.The right colors and shapes just might do the trick to get you into the spring mood.Clean your desk and get rid of clutterWe all know the trend started by organizational expert Marie Kondo respectfully discard anything that doesnt bring you joy.The same principle is applicable to your desk and files toss anything that doesnt bring you productivity.That means, yes, set aside some time toclean out your email inbox heres our advice on how to do that.Keep pleasant-smelling things on your deskCertain scents can benefit your productivity and your health, so why not bring them to your desk? Aromatherapy, or using scents to heal, may be helpful for worries ranging from anxiety to insomnia. There are no human studies to show that aromatherapy is as effective as, say, pills, but in offices filled with recycled air, it cant hurt to have something pleasant nearby.For a way to bring your favorite scents to your work space, check outGood Housekeepings video on how to make your own essential oil diffusers.Two things to watch out for keep a tight lid on any scents, since colleagues may have allergies or sensitivities to certain scents. It should be something you can smell, but which wont push your choices on the entire office.Grab a bouquetTake advantage of Mother Nature at this time of year. Since you probably wont be able to work outside for a whole day, consider bringing a piece of the outdoors inside, like a bunch of your favorite flowers or apottedplant.A 2014 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology Applied found that plants can help workers. That happened by changing lean stripped and depersonalized office spaces into green ones with plants. The study specifically found that simply enriching a previously spartan space with plants served to increase productivity by 15%.A little bit of greenery can go a long way, however a small plant is all you need, and it should be hardy enough to survive being left alone during three-day weekends. House Beautiful has a handy list of the best office plants.Use attractive notepaper or stationery to jot down thoughtsRemember that side project you stopped working on when you started your new job? Carve out time to focus on it again andmake a list of goals you want to accomplish this season.Mark Banschick, M.D., told Greatist about how to get your creative juices flowing. He suggested brain dumping (also known as free association). Its a method of brainstorming that involves writing down all your thoughts in the present moment (no matter what they are), and if you want, revisiting them later to cut out ideas you dont need.To make it more appealing, use attractive notepaper, or supplies that make you feel creative or powerful. Pinterest always has good ideas that may inspire you.Spring is about renewal, so making gains toward something you havent made progress on in a while is sure to boost your sense of purpose, and hel p you take on other challenges you face at your day job.Our workspaces could use a little spring cleaning after this past winter season.

Top 6 Mistakes Made by Overeager Candidates and How to Fix Them

Top 6 Mistakes Made by Overeager Candidates and How to Fix ThemTop 6 Mistakes Made by Overeager Candidates - and How to Fix Them As in romantic relationships, hiring managers avoid an over-eager suitor. You know the type - after one date or one conversation, theyre calling, texting and wanting to see you every day in a constant attempt to convince you that theyre the one. Unfortunately, this only has the opposite effect. Desperation is relationship repellant, and thats true when it comes to hiring as well.If you want to avoid turning hiring managers off with an excessively keen attitude, make sure to fix these bad habits.Have you ever been to a department store where the salespeople keep trying to push the store credit card? With every No thanks the salesperson gets, the more they list benefits and tell you how great the card is and why youd be a fool to walk out without it. Interviews can go the same way. You have to sell your strengths without overselling . The Fix Ask strategic questions, listen and treat the interview like a business meeting - which is what it is.If the interviewer says, Were looking for someone who can expand our product market to Canada, your response should consist of more than, Sure, I can do that Go deeper. Ask about their strategic plan and the biggest issues they face as they try to accomplish the expansion. You may not have the job yet, but offer suggestions as if you do. Tie the topic to an example from your own career, where you overcame a business expansion challenge. Give them specifics about the results you got. By simply having a business conversation, youre able to sell yourself without overselling. Remember, its not about you - its about the companys needs. How can you solve their problem?When you give answers to questions you werent asked, or go on at length, you can ramble yourself right out of a job. Unfocused talk shows you dont listen well and cant answer a simple question. I get it One top ic often leads to another, and you get excited about the subject, but be careful. In addition to being rude, you can open yourself to questions you dont want to answer.The Fix Trim the fat by practicing your answers ahead of time. Your interview isnt a therapy session, and practice really does make perfect. With practice, you get your answers right and tight. Try to do a few mock interviews too, with a friend who will be honest with you when you get off track. Its one thing to perform in-depth research on a company or interviewer, but its another to list all the ways youve stalked them online. Dont get me wrong, Im in favor of Googling companies and interviewers, but you have to keep it professional. Be careful not to get into their personal life. The Fix Dont focus on personal pages during your interview prep. With Google, everything comes up, but in an interview, you have to avoid initiating topics that you found on non-business-related sites like personal social media pages. If the interviewer brings up a personal topic, dont respond with something like, Oh yes, I saw your Facebook deutsche post dhl about that Follow their lead.Well be in touch doesnt mean show up to the office unannounced to drop off materials and check in. Once the interview is over, the last thing recruiters or hiring managers want to see is a candidate returning when they werent invited.The Fix This comes back to preparation. If you have prepared properly, there should be no need for additional materials. Leave the ball in their court. In your post-interview thank-you email , say youre available if they need additional materials or information. Thats whats expected. Dont follow up multiple times, especially when you havent heard anything back the first time.The interviewer is not your friend and shouldnt be treated as such. The best interviewers have a way of making you relaxed and comfortable, but be careful not to get relaxed to the point where youre talking in a manner and to ne thats unprofessional. No matter how casual the environment, or how much rapport you have with the interviewer, keep it businesslike.The Fix Always remember that an interview is a business meeting, and dont do or say anything that you wouldnt in that context. Simple, right?Its tempting to think that saying Yes to everything the interviewer says gives you an advantage, but it doesnt. When an employer is seeking new employees, theyre looking for fresh ideas, new insights and immediate impact . Theyre not looking for people to agree with everything they say or maintain the status quo. The Fix Remember that they want to hear your ideas, and theyre not looking for cookie-cutter answers. They decided to call you for an interview because YOU had something they were looking for. Be yourself, and give them something only you can giveInterviewing is hard enough. Dont give interviewers a reason to eliminate you from the process before youve even had a chance to showcase your skills. But if youve got the right qualifications and can maintain a healthy balance between interested and overeager, youve got a great shot at scoring the job.Niya Allen-Vatel is a 3x-certified certified rsum writer, career coach, and brand strategist helping ambitious leaders build their brands to boost credibility, increase opportunities, and establish themselves as an expert in their niche. She is the owner of the premier career branding service, Career Global , based in New York City.

Strings Attached

Strings Attached Strings Attached Strings AttachedFour years ago, researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a major study, Production in the Innovation Economy, which analyzed how the United States might recapture its manufacturing mojo. Buried in the report was a disturbing assessment of a group of 150 manufacturing startups founded between 1997 and 2008. These firms were based on advanced MIT technology and were, arguably, among the fruchtwein likely to succeed.The authors, led by Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of MITs Industrial Performance Center, analyzed funding, customers, supply chains, buyers, and mora. The goal was to understand how those 150 companies flourished or failed in international marketsand why they were increasingly looking overseas for support when building their geschftlicher umganges.Their answer, in a word scale.The U.S. provides fertile ground for startups, the authors wrote. It has the rich infrastructure of specialized skills an d equipment needed to build and reengineer prototypes rapidly, develop pilot production facilities, and even reach low-volume commercial production. Yet when these firms were ready to take a giant step up to large-scale processes, the search for additional capital as well as scalable production capabilities drove many firms to relocate their production abroad.This migration, the authors argued, did mora than move equipment and jobs over- seas. It took with it the hard-gained tacit knowledge needed to make that equipment operate at peak performance. It led to the migration of key skills, technical capabilities, and the ability to fully understand and improve the manufacturing process outside of the country.It also ate into the returns the public expected from investments in innovative companies through research grants and tax abatements. Even more importantly, the move overseas was dragging down the countrys future capacity to innovate by gifting other nations with tacit product and process knowledge that had taken years to attain.Four years later, we are having the saatkorn conversation all over again, albeit this time, with political undertones. As the United States and other parts of the world appear to be pivoting to more protectionist policies and attitudes, the idea of Us vs. Them is very much in the public eye today.It is happening at a time when the lives and fortunes of entrepreneurs in a wide range of different industries are more weltumspannend than ever. Today, founders are accepting funding from overseas investors, setting up supply chains in different parts of the world, servicing customers internationally, and even selling their businesses to foreign government-backed funds. It is truly a international economy.As more and more U.S. manufacturing startups are becoming involved in the international economy, we have to ask how all of this is changing the landscape for U.S. entrepreneurs. Is overseas funding altering the way companies in this country do business? Are international asset sales shipping the fruits of our labor and investment overseas to help U.S. competitors?And are domestic investors and innovators losing out?A Changing WorldThere is some reason for concern here.According to a report released in March by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, an organization that represents European overseas business interests, China will invest $300 billion to become self-sufficient in 10 advanced industriesfrom aerospace and next- generation wireless to semiconductors and electric carsby 2025. It plans to accomplish this by creating a host of new government-subsidized competitors, enacting policies to favor their products, and investing in technology firms overseas.If China can pull it off, this new production would effectively close off the worlds fastest-growing market from overseas competitors like Apple, Ford, General Electric, Tesla, and others. According to the report, China Manufacturing 2025 aims to secure as much as 80 percent of the domestic market in each of the target industries over the next eight years. The remaining 20 percent would be all that is left for the rest of the world.This is just one example of an ongoing trend. According to the online startup investing firm FundersClub, U.S. venture capital investment quadrupled to $83.2 billion in 2015 from $20.1 billion in 2005. In this same period, funding from overseas venture capitalists soared nearly 44 times, to $57 billion from $1.3 billion. According to the National Venture Capital Association, growing overseas funding diluted the U.S. share of global VC investment from 81 percent in 2006 to just 54 percent in 2016.I travel to about two dozen countries a year, and I see a lot of investment going into science education, said Vitaly Golomb, a California-based venture capitalist and startup business advisor. And not just software development, but physics, mechanical, chemistry, etc. China is quite strong in this.As of 2017, the U.S. still has the largest number of top 20 science universities, but that lead is shrinking quickly because of the work being done in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere. This has helped spawn rapid growth of startup activity worldwide.The numbers are staggering. According to the Chinese government, an average of 12,000 new companies, including both tech companies and others, were registered every day in China in 2015. That totals more than four million new companies in one year.Areas like Shenzhen came out of nowhere and in the last 20, 30 years have become major areas for manufacturing, Golomb said. A lot of the worlds mechanical work is happening there now, much more than is happening in the Bay Area surrounding Silicon Valley.The trouble, he explains, is that the United States, and Silicon Valley in particular, effectively gave up its role as a manufacturing center decades ago, opening the door to new competition from China and elsewhere. Over the last 20 years, as the Bay Area became hyper-focused on software innovation, it lost its base of mechanical engineering and production talent.This did not look like a big problem when apps were the primary growth engine fueling U.S. technology, but now that we are transitioning to more complex, more advanced platforms including virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and autonomous transportationthe shortfall has become noticeable. Meanwhile, as innovation has shifted away from what Silicon Valley does best, the rest of the world has not been sitting idly by, but is step- ping in to address these opportunities.For the first time in its history, Silicon Valley and the U.S. tech industry are being forced to play catch-up to more developed international competitors.Business as UsualStartup founders themselves do not see it that way however. For many, success in business is a zero-sum game they either win or lose. When building up a new company, particularly in manufacturing, where barriers to market entry are steep and startup costs prolonged, there is little room for kralle wringing over funding sources, U.S. economic growth, or international relations. Founders need what they need, and if they find a better deal outside U.S. borders, then so be it.Whats more, accepting international investment often means access to markets that otherwise might be difficult for a small startup to crack, explains Scott Thielman, CTO with Product Creation Studio, an engineering and design consulting firm in Seattle that helps large brands partner with local startups.Today, the appeal of Chinese investment goes beyond just the cash, Thielman said. Access to an emerging market that is approaching the size of the U.S. market is also part of the siren song.But many market segments are strategic to China, and the investment may be tied with building capabilities in-country, he continued. I have seen this in the medical device space where small companies can access Chinese capital if they are willing to loc ate the RD at a tech center in China. For the most part, entrepreneurs report that these arrangements, particularly when accepting investment capital from overseas sources, have little to no impact on day-to-day operations or their long-term strategy. On the contrary, access to Asian supply chains, scale-up and manufacturing talent, and other resources that simply are not available in the U.S. today, is often highly appealing to entrepreneurs as they enter the global market.And these relationships work both ways. When overseas parties look at buying or investing in U.S. companies, it is often because they want or need access to Western design, technology, and talent. They want to partner with the startups that are driving consumer and tech trends, said Michel Marasco, director of the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northwestern University, who advises startups on overseas takeovers and investment deals.International investors are very much interested in understa nding more about what the companies are doing, he said. They seem to be fairly interested in using these companies as a way of establishing operations in the United States, when they dont already have some form of operations here.The cost of this activity to the U.S. GDP, if any, can be difficult to determine. Although the idea of losing American inventions and technologies to international investors and buyers is not generally good for public relations, the current landscape of global startup development has winners on both sides, and overseas involvement in U.S. companies does not necessarily mean a net loss domestically.Thats the thing with a global economy, Thielman said. You cant define hard borders when materials, people, and manufacturing processes are required from around the world. We should be patriotic about growing companies and technologies from the U.S., but that doesnt mean we cant leverage foreign investment to accelerate that and let them share in the winnings.Indus try InvolvementFor the past 20 years, American policy has failed to help manufacturers cope with overseas competitors whose governments provided financial incentives for exports. At the same time, many established firms have moved their own production overseas, chasing low wages and lax regulations rather than investing in productivity-boosting technologies at home.The job losses and economic issues associated with this trend are well known, but the impact on RD is less discussed. In a 2010 essay published in Bloomberg Businessweek, long-time Intel CEO Andy Grove argued that the knowledge gained commercializing volume production was critical to improving new products.Without scaling, we dont just lose jobswe lose our hold on new technologies, Grove wrote. Losing the ability to scale will ultimately damage our capacity to innovate.Tom Kuczmarski, a Chicago-based product development consultant who works with both startups and Fortune 500 companies, would agree. In an environment where national policy and many corporationsundervalue manufacturing at home, why, he asks, wouldnt entrepreneurs look overseas for funding and support?Yet Kuczmarski is not a pessimist. He sees the U.S. manufacturing sector embracing innovations in production, management, distribution, and more.I think as weve gotten a little smarter, its now about specialized manufacturing, he said. Its more about creating an environment that is really aimed at entrepreneurs.Ultimately what it comes down to is that the growth of the economy comes from small companies and businessesit doesnt come from Fortune 500 companies. So, are they able to ultimately make pieces and parts and the like within the U.S.? The answer is that its still hard to do that, and I think thats ultimately where the challenge still lies.The good news, Kuczmarski explains, is that more and more large corporations are figuring this out and are taking steps to actively engage with small, entrepreneurial companies and the innovators i n their industries. Those who do this well will be the most successful in the global economy, whereas those who dont are going to struggle to adapt to a world where in- novation is the currency of growth.We live in a global marketplace. Each manufacturerfrom a startup to a multinational corporationmust come to terms with that fact, if it wants to grow. The U.S. government must find a way to move the U.S. economy forward, preventing predatory pricing and mercantilist practices by exporters while at the same time reaping the international flow of ideas and funds that power innovation.Ignoring the rest of the world would not only limit the growth profil of U.S. startups, but over time would reduce Americas global leadership in innovation. If that were to happen, everyone loses, at home and abroad.Anybody thats had Economics 101 understands that protectionism doesnt work, Golomb said. And as much as it sucks that there has been a lull in manufacturing in the U.S., theres no going back. Its a global market, and theres no reason for U.S. companies to sit there ignoring the rest of the world.Tim Sprinkle is an independent technology writer.Read more articles from Mechanical Engineering Magazine.I travel to about two dozen countries a year, and I see a lot of investment going into science education. Vitaly Golomb, venture capitalist and startup business advisor

5 Interruptions to Successful Talent Acquisition

5 Interruptions to Successful Talent Acquisition5 Interruptions to Successful Talent AcquisitionThe job market is moving faster than ever, and itll grow even more competitive in future years. Recruiters are up against the speed of the industry, the speed of applicants expectations, and the speed of change. Its an uphill battle when talent acquisition specialists are attempting to court top talent to enhance growth and company revenue. Recruiters and human resources professionals simply cant afford to procrastinate when it comes to making hiring decisions. Many recruiters are hyper-focused on thoroughness in analyzing and hintergrund checking an applicant. They are not realizing that the longer they consider their decision, the more likely it is that they may lose out on a worthy applicant. Top Hurdles for Recruitment Several roadblocks exist today that are derailing what should be fast-moving and efficient talent acquisition processes. These are five of the top hurdles facing rec ruiting and HR teams in their talent acquisition efforts, and a strategy for maximizing their efficiency. High-Volume Screening Recruiters are facing one of the busiest, yet best, times of their careers with a low unemployment rate and a record-high number of job openings. In this demanding, candidate-driven market, screening the high number of candidates necessary to fill open positions is a big challenge for recruiters.Companies are willing to shell out higher salaries and offer better perks ?to attract top talent, making it a great market for recruiters. But that also means theyre playing a numbers game in their talent acquisition and need to screen a high volume of talent. Technology, like text-based recruiting, is making it easier- as much as 10 times easier- to screen a high volume of talent daily. Lack of Candidate Engagement Recruiters spend their days attempting to facilitate outreach for open positions to attract top talent. Theyre calling potential candidates, promoting j obs, attempting to connect via LinkedIn, and hosting employment fairs.Despite the massive output, recruiters often see a flat response to their talent acquisition efforts. It seems surprising given the effort put in, right? Well, the problem is that these attempts at outreach dont allow for actual engagement with candidates. This leaves potential applicants disinterested, unimpressed, and likely to disengage early in the process. Wasted Time on Manual Documentation Documentation is an enormous time suck for recruiters who spend hours each day on this task between detailing candidate conversations, creating reports and importing data into applicant tracking systems.Unfortunately, talent acquisition leaders are often slow to change outdated recruitment tools. Automation is the way of the future that can result in an incredible ROI and increased efficiency.Personal Bias Affecting Hiring Decisions Unconscious bias persists across the recruiting industry and with talent acquisition speci alists at companies of all sizes. Unfortunately, this unconscious bias gets in the way of evaluating candidates objectively for the particular skill set of the position.A 2016 study by the Harvard Business Review detailed the reality of personal bias, noting that when there is only one woman or minority candidate in a pool of four finalists, their ?odds of being hired are statistically zero. The Next richtungeration of Talent Is Hitting Ignore Young professionals today may be sending videos via Snapchat or getting breaking news updates on Twitter, but its not likely that theyll answer a phone call from an unknown number. Thats why talent acquisition leaders must ditch outdated recruiting practices and replace them with modern ways to connect with todays on-the-go workforce. In fact, a KPCB 2016 Internet Trends Report shows that only 12 percent of millennial employees and 29 percent of Gen Xers favor the phone for business communication. Top recruiters and hiring managers are alignin g with this preference and utilizing text messages to reach potential candidates for interview screens. Texting is effective to begin the conversation with applicants but is not meant to replace in-person or phone interviews. Following an initial text-screen, talent acquisition professionals often choose to continue the interview process ?through a phone interview or in-person discussion. The information from the text screens provides excellent background and can ultimately allow for better hires. Talent Acquisition in Action One company that is using text screening is Aegis Worldwide, an organization focused on manufacturing and engineering job placement. Aegis recruiters have reported that text screening has improved their ability to screen high volumes of applicants daily. Whats better, theyve also improved the quality of candidate and hastened the hiring process for all types of jobs, including positions that pay upwards of $100,000 a year. When companies implement text scre ening, theyll grow recruitment power and engage top talent, all while helping minimize their disruptions to talent acquisition. - Aman Brar has an extensive background in leading technology companies through periods of high growth, and has also held key corporate strategy and finance roles at Fortune 500 companies.

If You Read Nothing Else Today, Read This Report on Generic Objective for Resume

If You Read Nothing Else Today, Read This Report on Generic Objective for Resume Where to Find Generic Objective for Resume A brief paragraph which you put at the peak of yur general resume that brings attention to your very best achievements. A superb objective will encourage them to read the document further, and a bad one is going to discourage them sufficient to leave it to the table. Make certain that you know of the things which can function as your strengths. Next enaya use of good resume keywords. Things You Wont Like About Generic Objective for Resume and Things You Will You might not know where to start in regards to writing a resume objective. The purpose on a resume tells a possible employer what your teen hopes to escape from his job. Your career objective will permit the employer to understand whether they ought to consider your resume. A clearly defined career objective will convey skills, training and experiences you will bring to a specific organization i f youre given the opportunity. An objective can be a really effective approach to present yourselfyou just will need to ensure that youre writing a fantastic one that deserves to take that space. In lots of ways, an objective replaces a lot of the detail you would set in your professional experience section. My purpose is to find the job. As a result, while your resume objective should incorporate information on the career you want, you also wish to spell out why you are the perfect candidate for the job. Managers seek employees that are results oriented. In the majority of cases, a resume objective is simply a couple of sentences long. Generally speaking labor, its important to tailor your objective to the position you would like. An objective needs to be personally-tailored to the employer. Clients who opt to employ the aid of a Certified Professional Resume Writer only after theyve been unemployed or underemployed for a year or longer. Savvy resumes are anchored by a thor ough summary that permits the reader to rapidly find salient details about the applicant. Employers seek employees that are successful. They expect to contact you via so be sure to include. Definitions of Generic Objective for Resume An objective is a brief statement that clarifies your goals about the form of employment desired and the way in which your skills make you a nice fit. Your objective ought to have a positive impact on the organization, employer and yourself. To summarize, your objective summary should specify your target and the value you are able to increase the organization. A well written objective summary must include your precise skill set, your primary goal and the way you are able to be of help to the corporation. Also, explain why you are a great fit for that specific position and demonstrate that you have researched the organization and know what it offers. Focus on how you wish to grow within the provider. In your objective statement demonstrate what you are able to add to the new position and the organization and why youre a superior fit for your new career. Make certain its tailored to not merely the position, but the provider too.There are various requirements which should be included in a resume based on the industry where the applicant would love to be a portion of and the work position which he or shed love to have. Although our company has many diverse varieties of positions we look to fill on a continuing basis, there are a few pretty obvious backgrounds that wont be a fit for our company. Whether an objective statement is used, one particular thing to remember is to state it with respect to advantage to the employer. In contrast to popular opinion, acquiring an objective statement on top of your resume isnt necessarily to your benefit.

Job title decoder have you been uptitled

Job title decoder have you been uptitled Job title decoder have you been uptitled?Posted August 22, 2013, by Julia Watters If youre on the job hunt, one thing you may have noticed is an abundance of high-falutin job titles. But what do they actually mean? How many times have you had to refer to the role description just to get an understanding of what it actually entails? And even then it can leave you scratching your head. A friend of mine once had a job as the Director of First Impressions at a radio station. She was the first to point out that she was, in fact, the receptionist. It turns out theres a word for this. Its called uptitling, and our good friends at Collins define it as the practice of conferring grandiose job titles to employees performing relatively menial jobs. For those of you leise unsure of how uptitling works, here are a few Ive come across Sandwich artist = Subway employee Chief happiness officer = customer service assistant Eviction technician = bouncer Visual clearance engineer = window cleaner Horticultural maintenance officer = gardener And this is where it can get really tricky. You could end up wasting your time applying and possibly even interviewing for a role which isnt what you thought it was, all because of an inflated job title and misleading description. Even if you know what youre getting yourself into, an exaggerated job title can cause you grief down the track. Just as you can be confused by your title, so can future employers when they try to understand just what your