7 Ways to Build a Professional Network in College

7 Ways to Build a Professional Network in College Professional networking has to play an important role throughout one’s career. The benefits that networking brings can sometimes leave you amazed. If you want to achieve professional success, you should start career networking as quickly as possible. In fact, it’s a good idea to start building your network while you are still in college. Given below are some cool tips that college students can use to network and connect with influential people. #1. Meet as Many People as You Can While you are studying in college, you should never hesitate to meet with as many people as possible. You never know who you meet by regularly interacting with a wide variety of people. #2. Connect Online Thanks to the emergence of social media, you can now use a range of social networking platforms to connect with influential people online. Participate in online conversations on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus among others. Get in touch with employers, industry experts, recruiting agencies, passionate people etc. #3. Listen More Than You Talk If you want to expand your network and benefit from it too, you need to become an active listener. Listening is a great skill, which you can use to attract a lot of people. So, don’t just speak. Let other people share their point of views. And learn from what they say. #4. Attend Social Events Many college students are too shy to attend social functions. This is not the right attitude if you aspire to achieve career success. Whether a social event is organized by your college or the community where you live, you can use this as an excellent opportunity for connecting with influential people. To get social online,  LinkedIn is a great place to network with fellow students. More at  7 Ways College Students Can Benefit from LinkedIn.   #5. Be a Conversation Starter It’s always advisable not to wait for the other person to approach you or start talking to you. Be ready to take the lead and start the conversation yourself if the other person is not very comfortable. #6. Make People Feel Important People like to be heard. They want to be felt important. If you have the capability to make other people feel important, you can easily grab their attention. It is a great skill to connect to a lot of people and expand your network even while you are in college. #7. Get Rid of the Fear of Rejection When you start meeting people, you may have some fear of being rejected as well. Many people won’t simply want to connect. Don’t let this fear hold you back. Step up and march ahead. Always be positive! The professional networking that you do while in college can pay great dividends when you are out in the real world. Your network of contacts can bring you plenty of career development benefits. Start using the above mentioned tips and start to build you network right away. And when you finally graduate, heres How To Find Jobs as a College Graduate. James Tomerson writes regularly on career, education and latest job trends. To read more from him, you can visit Jobdiagnosis.com, which also offers jobseekers a free career aptitude test to choose a career which is in tune with their career, aptitude and skills.

How Form Follows Function In Digital Product Design - Algrim.co

How Form Follows Function In Digital Product Design - Algrim.co There was a time in history when the concept of minimalism was not even conceivable â€" a time when there was no relationship defined between form and function in design terms. In the late 1800s when the architectural industry was in search for a new design perspective, Louis Sullivan came up with the phrase ‘the form ever follows function’ in his article titled ‘The Tall Office Building Artistically Considered’ which talks about the architectural purpose of buildings. He spoke about the functional aspect of designing buildings rather than only relying on ornamental models which would merely be pleasing to the eyes. So, what was Sullivan talking about? What is Form? What is a Function? Moreover, the bigger question is how do they influence product designs? What is Form? A form is the outer surface or structure of an object. It is what people see and interact with. A form is the first thing that anyone notices about an object. It is the foundation of design of the product based on our perceptions and attitudes to things that we come across in our daily lives. The primary goal of product form is the achievement of the intended function. However, that’s not the only thing the form of a product is responsible for. What is Function? A function is the objective of form. It explains what a particular product needs to do to fulfill its aim of existence. It is a reflection of requirement or purpose behind the design of the product. Functions of the product are determined from what the consumer needs or wants. It is more than just fulfilling the expected goal. From a designer’s perspective, it might look like an excellent prospect to create designs which purely rely on the functional aspect. Although the product will be efficient concerning productivity, it will struggle to appeal the consumers. Hence, the product will fail when you look at it in a commercial sense. So, as Sullivan said, ornamentation is acceptable as long as it serves a function to support people's needs (i.e. appealing). A function can take various forms, but a form cannot have multiple functions. This statement holds from the point of practicality. When a function is hidden, there is scope for variation in the form of the object. However, one function could be shelled into multiple forms. Here’s an example in support. Consider a product that everyone uses in his or her day-to-day writing tasks, pen. The primary function of the pen is to help in writing something on paper. The primary objective is writing, so a single style of the pen should do the job. Still, we see pens of different shapes and sizes and even different ink color. Why? Why do we find so many variations in designs of a pen? What factors influence these variations and the bigger question, why do people prefer different pens? As you might be seeing, there more than what meets the eyes. Functions are complex. Products have more than one purpose. One is the primary function that helps in achieving the objective for what a product has been made (ex. Watch has to show time; the phone has to make a call). The other hidden goals (ex. Ergonomics) help an object to appeal to the user. The functional objective process results in everlasting design but are uninspiring and straightforward. Functional designs are suitable for large-scale projects (ex. manufacturing and production), but not when you have a business depending on it. So, what is a good design? A good design is easy to use and interpret. We humans have an attractive bias. It makes us claim that beautiful things are simpler to use, though it might not be the case. We like an association with exquisite entities. You can say it is how we have evolved. Good design incorporates temptation and practicality together. Functions follow needs and form follows behavior. Form acts as a catalyst for our behavior towards something while functions and features help to interact with the object in question. We have to consider people's understanding, thinking and practice necessary to design better products. What people think about a particular notion, what do they know about it? These are some questions to keep in mind when we start upon a new or existing design. A little bit of insight into consumer’s mind pays dividends in making products more intuitive. Forms and functions even in a digital design Digital designs play with user visual senses more than anything else. Hence, the way a designer implements the form-function formula will vary from that of when he/she designs a possible product. Digital design, be it the design of a website or blog, focuses on two things â€" visual and experience. Visual appeal gets them to the site; the user experience is what keeps them on it. To provide an engaging user experience, designers need to understand people. They need to gain insight into their mindsets to know what users want while keeping the design’s objective at the back of mind. o, the first step in the process of creating that people magnet design is gathering requirements. Collect information about potential users and clients. The service could be handling advertisements or generating leads to sell a service. All intents will have different blueprints on how to go about the business. Hence, the design will integrate similar aesthetics to match the notion. The emergence of minimalism has seen the importance of simplicity rise in design. The internet things now have to be fast, responsive and charming. Hence, there is more emphasis on functionality in design, i.e., function dictates design. Layouts have to work around theme while highlighting the purpose. The quest does not end here. Just questions about requirements won't do it. Consider the success criteria. Success criteria are a set of conditions that evaluate the design intent. Here’s an example to clear things. Consider the case of a watch. A watch’s primary objective is to tell time. While digital ones are accurate, the real aesthetics of watch lies in the rotating hands of minute and hour hands. Before embarking on the design process of designing a watch, we need to set our intent. Consumer feedbacks will play a significant role in determining the direction of design progress. Do you want aesthetics with the rotating hands or accuracy with digits? Answers to such questions will build our success criteria. Success criteria determine functionality and form any design should take. Both form and function play a significant role in shaping digital designs. One needs to consider the relative importance of form and function as criteria for success making design decisions. There is the need for maintaining a balance between form and function while letting success criteria guide the decisions related to design. Forms follow function. But do they? There are cases where function follows form too. Here's a simple example. Think of any machinery in a factory. I know they are appealing but not in visual sense. Any component on those huge metal machinery is meant for either of two things â€" operational or safety. One won’t find a hint of visual aesthetics on these. In this case, functions are king. So, designs are straightforward. In the Internet world, the best example is Craigslist. The layout is highly functional with total concentration on trading with minimum fuss. Up until now, we looked at designs from a designer’s point of view. Let’s consider the consumer’s point of view. So, what kind of design appeals to users? Although the design preferences will vary, there are some factors that help the user decide if they like a design or not. Perception. It is a pre-conceived notion about something. Perceptions influence how we see things. It evokes emotions and attitudes. Perception helps create a mental image of any element (designs included) when dealing with unknown or insufficient information. Hence, you can expect perception to impact the way users view the presented content. Aesthetic judgments and emotions. Whenever one comes across something, the eyes are the first thing to sense it (i.e. visual sense). Hence, we are kind of hard-wired to judge unknowns by visualizing it as it is. If it charms visually, people develop an affinity for it. We have been culturally conditioned this way. However, the tough part is that this aspect of our working is hard to measure, else we would have cracked the code to eye-catching designs. Then there’s user motivation and interest. There’s no point subjecting someone to dogs when they don’t like them. Interest orders how user gathers information about something. It also controls how much involved a person is with the corresponding topic. High involvement products (ex. cars) require a large amount of information seeking and consciousness. Examples are buying a house or a car. Since the risk is high in such cases, we look into the matter with full involvement while dealing with rational decisions. On the other hand, low involvement products have low stakes, hence, guided by effective purchase motives. One doesn’t put much thought into buying chewing gum. In such cases, users mostly go with gut feeling. The situation is similar when involving motivation. Highly motivated users will acquire detailed information while lowly motivated users will mainly intend for entertainment and could be persuaded easily. Complexity of design. It is clear. A user won’t associate to something that they don’t understand. Complexity affects the effectiveness of communication and perception of users. The key to designs is keeping things simple. However, there’s a degree to this simplicity. Higher complexity would be concrete while too much simplicity would fail to gain attention. A medium complexity design garners optimal results. The design process would become more simple if we could find relations between factors. However, upon researching, we received mixed results for the relationship between perceptions of aesthetics and usability. As such, there’s no correlation between usability and aesthetics; however, usability is more important to users. However, the thing is people are unable to distinguish between usability and aesthetics. As mentioned earlier, humans suffer from an attractive bias. The halo effect sets the tone of the way we perceive products by their appearance. There is something users realize later in their interaction with the product. Although aesthetics make them come close to an object, its usability is what keeps them attached. This behavior becomes imminent after a user spends some time with a product. Usability becomes an essential factor of product design after a limited interaction. Aesthetics guides the initial phase while both aesthetics and usability guide later phases. The solution After 1700 words, I think we have learned quite a bit about how forms, function, and design could be correlated. Let’s discuss the pointers to keep in mind when inducing forms, functions, and designs together. Achieve a balance between form and function. We started with how form follows function, then we knew function follows form too. The critical point that we learned is that the form-function relationship is a variable. Integrate aesthetic design with usability. Visuals are useful to attract users, but it is the combination and balance of both visual elements and usability that counts for the overall user experience. Here’s where the minimalist design will come to the rescue. Design with experience. Akin to aesthetic-usability relation, designs should portray same experience to every user. Moreover, designs need optimizing to draw and engross users based on the provided experience. So, prevention of elements like feature creep or software bloat is a must. Remember, functionality relies on the visual economy. How you expand space and features in conjunction with each other realizes if form follows function or function follows form.

Whos looking to hire our international students Accenture (Norway), McKinsey (Kazakhstan), EDF Energy (France) and more University of Manchester Careers Blog

Whos looking to hire our international students Accenture (Norway), McKinsey (Kazakhstan), EDF Energy (France) and more University of Manchester Careers Blog With so many UK jobs on Careerslink, you can be forgiven for not checking out our international posts. However, a quick browse through our vacancies across the continents has revealed a few interesting opportunities that have been posted in January recently   (such as these below). Also hot off the press and not yet on Careerslink, is that Accenture are looking for Norwegian students. 1) Accenture is calling on all Norwegians studying abroad Accenture seeks masters students from a variety of academic disciplines, including technology/IT, business/finance, economics, organizational psychology and the social sciences.   This is your invitation to join an organization offering opportunity,   challenge and satisfaction. An organization working in the forefront of technology, helping 92 of the Fortune Global 100 to reinvent business. Our capabilities are so broad, you can even change jobs without ever changing companies.   They are currently recruiting students for the following positions: Summer Internship (Technology/Management Consulting)             Job location: Oslo Technology Graduates   Job location: Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger Management Consulting Graduates       Job location: Bergen, Stavanger Check out their website at www.accenture.no/jobb. They are especially looking for students with an interest and relevant skills in Technology. Get in touch with them by dropping an e-mail to norway.recruiting@accenture.com. 2) McKinsey Company is looking for Kazakh or Russian speakers for a new office in Kazakhstan McKinsey is looking for undergraduate, masters or PhD students graduating in 2013 or 2014 for their new offices. Full details on Careerslink (Vacancy ID 17539) To register your interest or apply, complete the online application with CV and covering letter at: www.mckinsey.com/careers/apply   3) Other international opportunities to explore on Careerslink now are vacancies such as: International Analyst role   (Vacancy ID 18171) and International Negotiator roles (Vacancy ID 18172) with Focus Reports worldwide. Graduate Trainee role with Michael Page Recruitment roles across China. (Vacancy ID 18121) -Business/ HR internship with L-Oreal in France (French is not needed, but check out visa options if you are non-European)   (Vacancy ID 18012) Nuclear Engineering Program with EDF Energy in France   (EDF sponsor visas for the UK so there may be options to sponsor for France?) (Vacancy ID 18009) Merchandising Roles with Abercrombie Fitch in USA (but only for those who do not need visa sponsorship in the US) Vacancy ID 17833) Log in to Careerslink at: www.manchester.ac.uk/careerslink 4) Want to find out more? Remember, once you have searched on Careerslink (for example searching for vacancies in Africa or Europe) you can then set up for Careerslink to email you when new opportunities come up in that category (click Email me new jobs for this search). We would also recommend doing a search by language requirements for the languages you can speak. Firms both in the UK and overseas will often specify language requirements and you could be in with a good chance.   There is a good video on using Careerslink in this way at: http://www.careers.manchester.ac.uk/students/findingwork/ All International Careerslink international jobs international students

Innovation Technology at Americas Top 10 Banks

Innovation Technology at Americas Top 10 Banks Innovation and banking are two words not typically mentioned in the same sentence. But digitalization is happening, and it’s happening in the banking industry at a surprisingly quick pace with the continuous growth of the Fintech sector; new investment platforms, new banking apps, cryptocurrencies and much more. As Innovation and Technology is one out of 16 attributes that constitute the Employer Brand Index, we felt it necessary to do some research on this attribute within an industry that is seeing major disruption because of it. Methodology We looked through thousands of publicly available comments on the user-generated platforms such as employer review sites, forums, blogs, and others. We looked in places like Glassdoor, LinkedIn, Indeed, Instagram, Comparably, Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and much more. We collected all the English language-based comments we could find in Q3 of 2018 (July, August, and September) and then measured these findings using our Employer Brand Index methodology, scoring each company on our 1 to 10 scale, 1 being the best score you can get and 10 being worst. Everyone is aiming for position 1! We analyzed the following 10 US banks and this is how they scored: JP Morgan Chase (4.06) Bank of America (4.33) Citibank (4.96) Morgan Stanley (5.12) PNC Financial Services Group (6.20) Wells Fargo (6.57) Goldman Sachs (6.65) Bank of New York Mellon (7.25) TD Bank (9.28) US Bank (9.95) As this research is based on 3-months of online data, it should only be viewed as a snapshot of Innovation Technology at these companies and not an entirely accurate representation of the reality. Yet it should draw definite conclusions as to what the state of Innovation Technology is like within the US banking industry as a whole and what the most prominent issues might be. Analyzing these 10 banking giants, we found some common themes and one  strikingly consistent  problem that has to be improved upon. Old IT systems will make talent leave With all ten companies seeing significant issues with outdated technology, it is clear that there has to be more emphasis put on the tech infrastructure at banks. 30% of the combined data on all companies revolved around the outdated technology systems. People were frustrated by the lack of investment in new technology in the workplace and the damage this does their productivity. Citi Group’s CEO, Stephen Bird, recently  commented on this issue as an ‘extinction phase’when discussing the challenge the banking industry is faced with when trying to keep up rapid rise of financial technology, and other aspects digital banking. And while it is clear that this serves as a significant implication to how competitive banks are in the eyes of consumers, it is also significantly damaging to their talent attraction efforts and employer brand health. Because when it boils down to it, talent in today’s tech-centric working world wants to be afforded the best technology to do their best work. And that is why J.P. Morgan and Bank of America ultimately scored better than the other eight banking giants in this report. Continue to develop a culture of innovation While the topic of innovation was low in comparison to other themes, we did find that the sentiment on the culture of change within the banking industry was primarily positive for seven out of the ten companies. Only TD Bank, U.S. Bank, and Wells Fargo showed significantly negative commentary on the topic of innovation for the period. For example, people were happy to speak about the encouragement they receive to innovate and think innovatively in the workplace. And while the overall scoring was quite poor for most of the companies looked at in the period, this research does highlight the importance of innovation to the banking industry. It is clear that leadership is doing what they can to empower their employees to innovate while at work and think creatively to stay relevant in an ever-changing industry. We now live in a world where innovation and technology go hand-in-hand, and therefore you need to get both right. Promoting a culture of innovation will, of course, depend on a number of different things but having the right technology in place is definitely one of them. Below is the graphic we have to put together to illustrate and summarize what we found. If you’re interested in how your company measures up for Innovation Technology and other attributes, check out the  Employer Brand Index  today. For a more extensive report of these findings, head to Innovation Technology at the Top 10 US Banks.

Theresa May, Aleppo, and fake news Debuts weekly news recap - Debut

Theresa May, Aleppo, and fake news Debuts weekly news recap - Debut Keeping up with the news is hard. Weve got  sooo much to think about during the week not to mention all the Christmas shopping we havent got round to doing (oops). Lucky for you, weve decided to recap the most important bits of the week. Now when youre having one of your (hopefully numerous) Christmas meals, you can look totally well-informed and intellectual. As Maui would say: Youre welcome. 1. EU leaders spend just ’20 minutes’ on Brexit at summit Brexit, in a single shot. This morning at the EU summit. pic.twitter.com/1WlKeekRQy â€" Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) December 15, 2016 Ouch. In the GIF that rang round the world this week, Prime Minister Theresa May was seen left standing alone as EU leaders greeted one another at a summit in Brussels.   The EU summit ran three hours late after lengthy debates on the refugee crisis and ceasefire violations. The prime minister elected to leave early, flying back to London and stating “It is right that other leaders prepare for those negotiations as we have been preparing. The remaining 27 EU leaders went on to discuss Brexit without May, wrapping up their talking points in only 20 minutes. It is safe to say Brexit doesn’t seem particularly high on the EU members states’ priority list.   2. Diversity charity dedicated to championing young POC in creative careers lose £2 million in funding Source: Creative Access (Twitter) This is disappointing. Creative Access, a charity that funds internships for BAME candidates in creative industries, has just had a whopping £2 million pounds of funding withdrawn.   Since 2012, Creative Access has helped secure internships for more than 700 people. Vice reports that  82 percent have ended  up in full-time positions after they completed their placement definitely something to shout about. We spoke to Arub Ahmed, who got her first placement in a publishing house through Creative Access. Creative Access provided a paid placement and a foot in the door to a traditionally white, middle-class industry, she said. I have experienced being the only brown girl in the office and considering that 40% of my city is made up of ethnic minorities but only 11% of creative industries are, it is really disheartening to think that the progress were making is coming to a halt. Theres a petition going round that you can sign to help save Creative Access right here.   3. Syrian Civil War reaches its painful climax, mass atrocities perpetrated across the devastated city Final message I am very sad no one is helping us in this world, no one is evacuating me my daughter. Goodbye.- Fatemah #Aleppo â€" Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) December 12, 2016 For once, we here at Debut are at a loss for words. The Assad regime  captured the last districts still in opposition control in East Aleppo  on Tuesday night. Many Syrians in the area posted video message on social media, chillingly saying goodbye and predicting their potential deaths at the hands of the militia. A fragile ceasefire has been reached, however, civilian evacuations have been allegedly blocked by rebels, according to reports from the Syrian government. Its easy to look on the situation in Syria and feel hopeless. If you want to help (and we highly encourage you do), The Huffington Post has listed ten charities who provide aid to the war-torn city. 4. Facebook is finally tackling its fake news problem. (For real) Source: Facebook Newsroom Our pal Zuckerberg is finally owning up to the whole Facebook-is-disseminating-fake-truths problem. Facebook has announced that theyre partnering with organisations signed onto the International Fact-Checking Networks code of principles. Why is this big? Well, this is the first time Facebook has given a third party special placement in the News Feed, instead of using their automated algorithm. Considering Facebook is the worlds front page, this is highly significant. Facebook has also announced a slew of updates to their network. Tweaks to the News Feed algorithm, a flagging system for users, and theyre cracking down on financial incentives for spammers are among the new changes, they report. Well, its a start. 5. In Trump news: President-elect gets visit from Kanye West pic.twitter.com/tNMBk0sZJw â€" KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) December 14, 2016 Its Trumps world, and were just living in it. Well, most of us are. Others, like  Kanye, have now entered Trumps atmosphere and are orbiting around the President-elect like a particularly controversial satellite. The rapper and reality star recently paid Trump Tower a visit, but has remained pretty tight-lipped about the content of their encounter, tweeting that they spoke about multi-cultural issues. Wests decision to pay Trump a visit has been interpreted by some as a publicity stunt. All the more baffling, since he admitted he didnt even vote in the recent election. I aint sayin he a gold-digger 6. Government makes baffling decision to nearly halve student visas for non-EU students Sigh, sigh sigh. We  covered this in an in-depth post that you can read right here, but TLDR; Prime Minister Theresa May and her government are considering cutting non-EU student visas. By how much, you ask? From 300,000 to 170,000. Considering international students contribute £10.7bn to the UK economy, this decision has bamboozled the public with Professor Brian Cox stating the move has no logic. 7. U.S. officials announce ‘with high confidence’ that Russia has interfered in the presidential election Source: Pexels Eep. President Barack Obama has taken the proverbial gloves  off.  In an interview on National Public Radio this morning, the US president stated I think there is no doubt that when any foreign government tries to impact the integrity of our elections we need to take actions. And we will. The CIA has determined that the hacking of emails from the Democratic National Committee were indeed Russian cyber attacks, and has gathered evidence to prove that they were done in order to influence the elections outcome. Previously, a unanimous statement from all 17 intelligence agencies was released in October, which found only Russias senior-most officials could have authorised these activities. 8. South Korea has impeached its first female president After impeachment of South Korean president, anti-Park rallies resume https://t.co/sVFflGyGXw pic.twitter.com/N8ptkMc7WK â€" ABS-CBN News (@ABSCBNNews) December 11, 2016 South Korean MPs have voted by a huge margin to impeach Park Geun-hye, the South Korean president, from her position. The grounds for impeachment surround a corruption scandal as Park stands accused of helping longtime friend Choi Soon-sil to collect coerced donations from South Korean companies. Jubilant celebrations were held in the countrys capital of Seoul, with an estimated crowd of 500,000 celebrating the news. They burned an effigy of Park dressed in a prison uniform, and held impromptu firework displays. Park Geun-hyes impeachment has been the result of a series of bizarre events, including the outing of her relationship with an apparent shaman fortuneteller comparable to the hold Rasputin had over the Romanov family. (BRB while we watch Anastasia for the sixteenth time.) 9. The UN just fired Wonder Woman from her ambassador role for being too sexy Wonder Woman’s time as a UN ambassador is already over https://t.co/rAwKUCMojs pic.twitter.com/az5y9lvxVw â€" BuzzFeed (@BuzzFeed) December 13, 2016 Were conflicted about this, tbh. Were not particularly sure that Wonder Woman should have been kicked out of her position as a UN Ambassador for being too scantily-clad as a petition containing tens of thousands of signatures claims. Surely feminism is about not policing womens bodies and appearance, right? However, perhaps her appointment required a bit more thought. Why not appoint a real-life bad-ass, like Gal Gadot or Lynda Carter, who both play  different incarnations of the superhero? The UN claims this was all part of the plan, though. The campaign is not ending early, its ending when it was agreed to end, claims Jeffrey Brez from the UN Department of Public Information. Sure, Jeffrey. Suuuuuure. 10. It’s not all bad: this  Dad-narrated makeup tutorial will put a smile on your face Its been a bit o doom and gloom this week, we admit. But we guarantee this makeup tutorial will have you in stitches. Highlights include: This is a very expensive palette, and I only use a couple of them, but dont tell my dad because its kind of a waste. ?? Wed love to hear what you think about our first weekly news column. Tweet us @DebutCareers with your thoughts, or if you think we should have covered something different. Images via Pexels, Unsplash Download the Debut app and  get Talent-Spotted by amazing graduate employers! Connect with Debut on Facebook and Twitter

Being great at your work vs. feeling great about your work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Being great at your work vs. feeling great about your work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog If we?want to be happy?in our jobs, we?need to be good?at our jobs. We human beings have a basic need?to know that we contribute, create value and?can make a difference?and effect change in our environment. Thats why doing a good?a?job feels amazing. It gives us feelings like pride, accomplishment, fulfilment, growth and worth. On the other hand, when?we feel that we?dont perform well at work, it creates feelings like?inadequacy and lack of control plus of course fear that we?might lose our jobs. And its also in the companys best interest to make sure that every single employee and team is getting great results and living up to their potential. Companies typically focus on 4 areas to make that happen: Skills:?Training, competencies, job skills match, ? Resources:?Time, tools, IT-systems, Structure:?Organization, plans, goals, budgets, strategy, processes, Support:?Coworker+manager support,?coaches/mentors, These are all important and enable us to?get results.?If your?workplace is not giving employees?these 4 things, then how on earth can you expect them?to perform well? If we want people to be happier at work, we can definitely help them get better results. We can give them better training, more resources, more?support, etc. in order to help them perform better. However,?many people already get great results but dont?feel that way. And if thats the case, then they wont be very happy at work. This?is a crucial distinction that few companies make the distinction between getting good?results and feeling good?about those?results. If we want employees to be happy at work, they also need the latter?- and many dont have that. When that is the case, employees may get great results right now but it wont be sustainable. When people are not happy at work, it?hurts their motivation, productivity and creativity. Stress and burnout tend to follow. So in addition to?helping employees get great results, companies also need to make sure that people feel great about their results. There are 3 things?that give us that feeling of results. 1: Meaning I saw this sign in the lobby of Danish pharmaceutical company Xellia, carrying probably the simplest and most inspiring company purpose Ive ever seen. As you may know, one of the biggest current medical crises is the increasing risk of infection by multi-resistant bacteria, which?are immune to traditional antibiotics. Xellia produces an?antibiotic that is still effective against multi-resistant bacteria. Their research and products directly saves lives all over the world. Its crucial that we know what we have to do at work, but ?equally crucial that we know why we do it. That is what gives work meaning and purpose: when you know why you do each task and how it?somehow helps someone. And its not enough that your work is meaningful to the organization it must be meaningful to you. Your work must have a purpose?that you believe is worthy. On the other hand, if you?have no idea why your work matters and no sense that it makes any kind of a difference, it really doesnt matter how good you are at your job you?wont be very happy. Many workplaces take great pains to give?employees performance goals to clearly show?them what they are expected to do. But we must?make equally sure to show employees why their work matters and how it makes a positive difference. US online retailer Zappos are a great example of this. Whereas most customer service reps are measured on how many calls/emails they handle, Zappos employees are measured primarily?on how happy they make their customers. The former metric makes sense only to the company, the latter is meaningful for employees too because it shows them that they make a positive difference for the customers. 2: Autonomy When?you are free to do your job your way, you are much more likely to take pride in your?results and feel good about them. On the other hand, if a micro-managing boss is telling you exactly what to do,?how to do it and when to do it, you are much less likely to feel good about the results you get, because they wont be your results. As much as possible, we should?be free to choose: What we?work on Who we?work with What approaches and methods to use When and where we?work One of my favorite examples of this is Middelfart Savings Bank?in Denmark, one of the happiest workplaces in Europe. How did they achieve that??They gave their employees huge levels of?freedom and responsibility.?Their former HR directors said this: ?You?d be amazed what happens once people are empowered to make decisions.? Another amazing example comes from the?US Navy, where nuclear submarine captain David Marquet gave his sailors unprecedented autonomy. He explained how he did it at our conference in 2015: 3: Appreciation And finally, we feel good about the work we do when we are recognized?for it. Harvard Business School professors Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer talk about this in their awesome book The Progress Principle. They sum up the books main message like this: Of all the things that can boost emotions, motivation, and perceptions during a workday, the single most important is making progress in meaningful work. Even a small win can make all the difference in how people feel and perform. Creating a culture of positive feedback in an?organization is one of the?simplest and most powerful ways to?give employees a feeling of results. When your coworkers, your boss or even the customers praise your?good work, it clearly shows that you make a difference and get great results. On the other hand, if?you feel you do good work but nobody ever notices, it becomes much harder to maintain pride in your work. Some companies even take it a step further they never praise good work, but all mistakes are instantly and severely punished. Our absolute favorite way to praise others at work is The Poncho. Try it! The upshot Its not enough to help employees get great results we must help them get a feeling of results. Of course we first need them to do good work. No one?should expect to feel good about their?work, if theyre not doing a very good job in the first place. But thats not enough. Happiness at work?only comes when people?know that their work has meaning and purpose, when they have freedom and autonomy in how they work and when they are appreciated and recognized for their good work. Imagine the opposite. Imagine that youre very good at your job and get great results. But you have no idea why any of your tasks matter, somebody else has decided how you work on those tasks leaving you?no freedom?and autonomy and you are never recognized for any of your efforts. How?happy could you be at work under those conditions? How good would your results be in the long run? How soon would you lose all motivation and burn out? So improving how people feel about their?results is crucial. Its also a lot easier. Provided?a person is very good at their job already,?improving their feeling of results may be a lot faster and easier than improving their actual results. Its also a lot more effective, because if we cant figure out how to make people feel proud and appreciated about their work, it doesnt matter how stellar their results are they will never be happy at work and their performance will ultimately suffer. Related posts 3 reasons why leaders should recognize effort over results 10 simple things leaders can do to create a happier workplace Meaningless work makes us miserable heres why Should leaders focus on results or people? The answer is?YES! Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Writing a Resume As a Student Teacher

Writing a Resume As a Student TeacherWriting a resume as a student teacher can be quite difficult, but it is not as hard as you might think. The proper format is key to getting a job as a teaching assistant.If you're currently in the field of teaching, you've probably been working for several academic years already. The amount of experience you have also means that the prospective employer should give you some special consideration when they're reviewing your application. Your resume will definitely be the first thing they see, so it would be in your best interest to prepare one that's effective and professional.There are a few things to consider before writing your resume. Since you're a new teaching assistant, it might be a good idea to get some experience with your job application before submitting it. You can find many sample resumes on the Internet and use them to help you make a better first impression.If your resume is well-written, you're going to show the potential employer that you're willing to do whatever it takes to get the job. It's important to write about yourself and not about your educational background. You need to be able to demonstrate that you've learned how to run a classroom, what to teach, and the techniques to do it. Keep your writing to three or four pages, and add in enough personal information to provide an accurate impression.When you're writing your resume, be sure to include some job references, including names and phone numbers. You want to call the references to get their impressions of your work, but be sure to check your spelling, grammar, and punctuation. A poor presentation can reflect poorly on your teaching abilities, even if you think your references are honest and straightforward.One of the biggest mistakes made by new teachers when writing a resume is that they fail to put emphasis on the importance of being organized. While there are some very strict guidelines in place at your college or university, most other school s offer little supervision for their teachers. This means that your classroom should be organized to the point where your students know where they are going and when they need to be there. It's also important to be available when needed so that your students don't get lost or don't miss classes.Another thing to consider when writing a resume is to consider what the employment opportunity is for you and put all of your education and experience into perspective. Of course, a research paper would be useful, but isn't exactly the most impressive part of a job. Try to use that point to highlight the education you've had.In addition to your education and current job, make sure to mention any volunteer or leadership roles you may have participated in. These types of experiences could actually increase your chances of getting hired, particularly for positions such as administrative assistant or teaching assistant.