Which European City Should you Take your First Graduate Job in

Which European City Should you Take your First Graduate Job in Whether your degree comes to an end this winter or you have one more semester to go, you’ll already be thinking about your first serious graduate job and where it might take you. But perhaps this is a topsy-turvy way to look at things. No job or career takes up every moment of your life, and it can be healthier in the long-run to start out thinking about how you want to live, not just how you want to work. Ambition is great, but too many of our parent’s generation hit a wall when they reached retirement because they never worked out how to live. There are many different factors to take into consideration, including the culture, arts scene, fitness opportunities, costs, and yes economy and job market of a town you’d like to live in. Thankfully, the people at resume.io have done your homework for you and researched the best cities in Europe to live as a graduate, depending on what you’re looking for. Let’s be serious and start with that all-important career consideration: where are the jobs? While different cities have opportunities for different expertise, the researchers found that the overall best city to move to for work is Munich, in Germany. Munich has a thriving economy and just 3.5% unemployment, plus average wages of €2,645.98 ($2,965.06) each month. This is the top average wage of the cities the researchers looked at. Jobs in Munich are particularly on the rise for architects, engineers, and information/communications graduates. Munich also has a pretty hot cultural and social life. But if these aspects are your priorities, you may be better off heading for Austria. The capital, Vienna, came out on top for arts and entertainment in the study. The researchers found that pound-for-pound, Vienna has more museums, theatres, concert venues, and libraries than other European destinations. But just as crucial is an element that can’t be measured: the Viennese ‘culture of culture.’ While a city such as Oslo in Norway may pile hundreds of millions into new opera houses and galleries to make a name for itself as a cultural hotspot, in Vienna the locals (and international art students) simply breathe art and creativity. Just look at the tradition of concert cafes, where music flows as even more freely than the coffee. There is another aspect that will be playing on the minds of many near-graduates thinking of a new city home: can I afford it? The cost of living and average apartment rental were also factored into resume.io’s research. The cheapest place they looked at when taking into account variables such as public transport costs, utilities, grocery shopping, going out, and working out, was Bucharest in Romania. The ‘Paris of eastern Europe’ costs a fraction of the real Paris, with a single person able to cover the costs mentioned for around €439.13 ($492.08) a month. As for rent, it is Sofia in Bulgaria. A one-bedroom apartment in the country’s capital and largest city costs around €364.56 ($408.52) a month maybe one-third of what you would pay in London! Sofia also has the second-lowest cost of living of the cities the study looked at. You might not find all the amenities or attractions of some of the pricier cities on the chart, but you can afford to have a lot of fun looking! Why not take a good luck at the study to see if there is a city that appeals to you or if the city you’ve been dreaming of is as affordable/fun/prosperous as you’ve been told! Even if you don’t see yourself graduating to any of the cities in the chart, it is a great way to start really thinking about what you want from your graduate life. About the author:  John Cole  writes on behalf of NeoMam Studios. A digital nomad specializing in leadership, digital media, and personal growth topics, his passions include world cinema and biscuits. A native Englishman, he is always on the move, but can most commonly be spotted in the UK, Norway, and the Balkans

Taking Stock Of Your 2011 Branding and Writing Progress - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Taking Stock Of Your 2011 Branding and Writing Progress - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career As the Memorial Day weekend approaches, its time to take stock of your 2011 progress writing a book to build your personal brand. In particular, did you make significant progress towards your goal of writing and publishing a brand-building book during the first-half of this year? The following are some questions to help you evaluate your accomplishments, progress, and obstacles. Writing book publishing accomplishments During the last 6 months, did you pass any of these writing and publishing landmarks: Receive your first shipment of printed copies of your book? Sign a contract with a trade publisher for a book to appear during 2012? Submit the entire first draft of your book begin the editing process? Commit to working with self-publishing vendors like designers, book coaches, printers, or distributors? Obtain an ISBN for your book and create a business structure for publishing and selling your book? Writing publishing progress If you didnt get published, did you make on-going and significant progress during this year in any of these areas? Identifying a topic for your brand-building book? Choosing and testing a proposed book title and subtitle? Analyzing the pros and cons of existing books in your field? Creating a table of contents and content plan for your book? Preparing a book proposal for a trade book or self-publishing action plan? Building and strengthening your author platform and ability to promote your book? Identifying back-end profit sources from speaking, coaching, consulting, or information product? Most important, How many chapters have you completed? and How many more chapters do you need to write first drafts for? Identifying the obstacles to getting published Even if you didnt get published so far, or make significant progress, you still may have made significant progress if you have identified the obstacles that are keeping you from writing a brand-building book. Once you identify the obstacles, any competent book coach can probably help you overcome them. No problem is insurmountable if it can be identified. There are always workarounds. But, if you continue to rely on hope instead of addressing your publishing obstacles, youre likely to remain disappointed. Youre also likely to have failed to make significant progress publishing a brand building book whenin 6 short months2011 turns into 2012. What types of obstacles are holding you back? Start by addressing questions like the following. Do your obstacles to writing and publishing involve: Ideas and content? Do you have a good idea of the book youd write, and the book your ideal readers are waiting for? Or, do you need help focusing your ideas? Do you need help choosing a title or creating a table of contents? Time management? Do your obstacles involve finding the time to write and keeping on schedule without sacrificing family or job? Project management? Are you looking for direction and a way of breaking the writing and publishing process into simple, daily tasks? Book marketing and promotion? Are you unsure how to market and promote your book, or build a following? Confidence? Are you unsure of your qualifications or your ability to write? Are you looking for writing tools? None of the above obstacles are legitimate reasons to abandon your dream of writing and publishing a book to build your brand. Although you may think youre the only one to face the obstacles, youre not. All of the above can be addressed, one way or another, if you are truly committed to writing and publishing a brand-building book during 2011. Congratulations on your accomplishments and progress so far, even if you feel that obstacles remain to getting published. By identifying the obstacles, you can overcome them! Please share your comments and experiences below. Author: Roger C. Parkers Published Profitable blog contains over 1,100 ideas and tips for planning, writing, promoting, profiting from writing and self-publishing a brand-building book.

Do You Know Your Audience - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Do You Know Your Audience - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career A friend sent me an email the other day asking for help. Can you read through my blog post and make some suggestions for how to improve it? he asked. Sure. I replied. Could you tell me who your audience is? I cant evaluate anything without knowing who youre writing for. His response showed that Id thrown him for a loop. I dont write with an audience in mind. Is that a problem? Know your audience and increase your effectiveness Actually, it is a BIG problem. What impresses one person could mean absolutely nothing to a different kind of person. Its incredibly important to think about the kind of person or employer you want to appeal to in order to create your personal brand strategy. Some of you will be shaking your head at this. There are a lot of people who never think about their audienceand they do fine. You might already be doing well without considering your audience. Why add in the extra step? The truth is, knowing your audience can drastically increase the effectiveness of your personal branding efforts. Thats because if you know who you are trying to reach, its easier to determine where to concentrate your efforts. Lets say you want to work at a small, cutting-edge marketing company. Then you need to make sure your personal brand shows that you know and understand all the new marketing trends. You should actively be using multiple forms of social media and focusing on building connections with other online marketers everywhere from Facebook to Twitter. If youre not, it will have a negative effect on your brand. Know how you measure up In fact Joseph Jaffe of the new marketing firm crayon just declared, If you dont blog, you cant work at crayon. Hubspot, an inbound-marketing company, looks at the Twitter Grade and the Website Grade of potential employees personal websites or blogs to see if they have their act together. Those companies want to potential employees to be connected online and actively using social media tools. If youre looking to participate in a more conservative field, however, your personal branding needs to be drastically different. On your blog, you need to focus on serious material that shows you are constantly learning about the field and have a strong depth of knowledge. Youll want to focus less on Facebook, and more on building your profile on LinkedIn. A good example of this is Jeff Ogden, who is looking for a job as a senior executive. On his blog, CEO Ideas, Jeff writes about the studies, white papers and articles he reads, and shares his advice on how to grow a business in tough times. His blog demonstrates strong thought-leadership in his field. Having a clear idea of your audience is important because it gives you a barometer to to determine if youre accomplishing your goal or not. Every time you participate online, you can quickly check to make sure it supports your personal brand by asking “How would example person of your audience view fill in what youre doing online? Would this impress them?” If the answer is yes, then you know youre on the right track. If not, you can change what youre doing until it does fit. Get lucky by doing everything possible Of course, theres always the possibility that you could get lucky and naturally create a personal brand that will catapult you to fame and fortune in the exact area youd love to work in. Some do. But in a tough hiring market with hundreds of others looking for work, wouldnt you rather do everything possible to make sure your personal branding is as effective as possible?

Manchester Made Me University of Manchester Careers Blog

Manchester Made Me University of Manchester Careers Blog “What do you do with a BA in English?” While laughing at a puppet sing about his life troubles post-graduation  in the opening of Avenue Q during my third year at University it suddenly dawned on me, what exactly can you do with a BA in English, or for that matter a BA in History? When I applied for University I had chosen to study History as it was something I enjoyed, rather than it being because I had a particular career in mind.   The fact was I didn’t have any sort of career in mind as making decisions isn’t a particular forte of mine. (My decision to study at The University of Manchester was made by a coin toss in a Debenhams café).   So in my final year at University when my housemates were preparing for life after University I was a little bit stumped to say the least. Unlike my friends who were either studying vocational courses like medicine or would be in demand as physics graduates, like many other arts graduates, I had no idea what job I wanted to do. So I start ed with what I did know. During my time at University I had fallen in love with Manchester, so I knew I wanted to stay in the city. I also knew that not being sure about a long term career path I could use this time to find out what I was good at and what I liked. I didn’t need to decide on a job that I would be doing for the rest of my life. On top of this, during the summer holidays while at university I had worked as a teaching assistant in my old secondary school, and also did some administrative work at a haulage company. I hadn’t done these jobs thinking they would help me after graduation; I had wanted to go traveling over the summer and needed the money. This summer work had fulfilled its purpose of enabling me to go abroad, but they also gave me the extra benefit of having some work experience to go on my CV. I started looking for jobs in the Manchester area on the Careers Service website and found MGIP the Manchester Graduate Internship Programme. This was perfect for me, jobs in Manchester that were 6 â€" 12 months long. I could apply for a short term role that would give me the experience and skills that I would need when I did know what I wanted to do. I applied to be the Personal Assistant to the Programme Manager of a University Research Institution, and was offered the position the day I graduated. I then spent a year doing a variety of tasks, from managing diaries, planning meetings, making cups of tea, taking minutes to organising international events, writing funding proposals and attending a conference in Barcelona! My first job after graduation was amazing and I’m extremely grateful for it â€" so it may not have been the most glamorous job in the world or the highest paid, but I had the opportunity to develop my skills and experience and figure out what I wanted to do in th e professional world. From my graduate internship I applied for a job at the University’s Careers Service organising careers events on campus, a job which I’m currently in now. In my previous role I had realised my skills lied in event management and I enjoyed working in higher education. Three years on from graduation and I still don’t know what I want to do long term, but that doesn’t matter, I’m still figuring out what I like, and still building up my CV. While in the Careers Service, I joined the marketing team, which has become my favourite part of the job, so now I’m doing a part-time marketing course in the evenings. Not knowing what you want to do after University is scary, but scary because you have so many options, not because you’re limited and this is the thing to remember. “What can you do with a BA in English?” anything you want. Definitely get to Barcelona! All Manchester Made Me Undergraduate Undergraduate-highlighted my story

Resume Writing on Committees and Subcommittees of Congress

Resume Writing on Committees and Subcommittees of CongressWhen it comes to resume writing on committees and subcommittees of congress, it is important to be aware of the importance of knowing the procedures and structure of those panels. Most individuals interested in a career in politics are able to come up with some great ideas and will be eager to help in the committee process. They are going to be eager to be involved in the committee meetings and will want to be recognized for their help. It is important to understand that people who seek positions in Congress are going to have a good idea of what they are interested in working on.In resume writing on committees and subcommittees of congress, it is important to not place all of the emphasis on your own contribution to the committees. After all, you may want to be recognized for your experience. Instead, be sure to recognize the members of the committees for their work and help them out as much as possible.Many people work in com mittees that are quite closely associated with one another. The political staffs in these groups can be very busy and it can be difficult to get an individual recognized for his or her contribution to the committee. If you are not aware of the processes in the committees, you will not be able to help the individual in his or her work.Also, many people simply do not take the time to learn about the inner workings of the committees. While it is not an easy task to do, it is important to spend some time researching the committee. Even if you think that you know about the committee, it may be time well spent to make sure that you know the members.When you take the time to learn about the different groups that are involved in the committees, you will be more prepared to write a resume that will impress your potential employer. The inclusion of a committee in the resume should include a brief description of the committee. You can also include biographical information about the committee m ember and give references that the person has worked with in the past.The resume should also include some details about the candidate's basic skills. Perhaps a more interesting portion of the resume is the list of accomplishments that you have worked with. This section may include how many bills the committee passed, what other legislation that you have helped the member of the committee move, or a quote from the representative or senator.A resume is an important tool for finding a job in politics. The resume will help you stand out from the crowd of other applicants. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the basic information that will help you get the best job and that will make you look the part of a professional candidate.In addition, you should have a little bit of knowledge about the laws that govern the committees that you are applying for. This includes knowing what types of laws and which laws apply to your particular situation. It is also important to consider if your profile is something that is worth the trouble of filling out the lengthy application.

Lebron James just left, now what - Wolfgang Career Executive Coaching

“Lebron James” just left, now what - Wolfgang Career Executive Coaching The point is this, much like Lebron James leaving the Cavaliers, the leader(s) within your organizations can derail your company when then leave too. So, you must be prepared. In case you don’t already know, Lebron James is likely the best NBA basketball player and leader whos currently playing (and some would argue the best ever to play the game, except for Amy Wolfgang who grew up watching Michael Jordan). So good in fact that he played a significant part in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ derailment after he left. Although it’s important to note that it wasn’t his fault, the importance of this situations documentation is worth us discussing. Look at these numbers: In the 2009-10 season, the Cleveland Cavaliers had 61 wins and 21 losses (with Lebron) In the 2010-11 season, the Cleveland Cavaliers had 19 wins and 63 losses (without Lebron) The point is this, much like Lebron James leaving the Cavaliers, the leader(s) within your organizations can derail your company when then leave too. So, you must be prepared. Maybe your team has its own Lebron James (a key leader). Maybe they: They are the leading sales person (90% of the company’s business) They know the ins and outs (Personally created multiple elements of the company) They have influence (The entire team follows their command) Each of these situations puts your company in an interesting, and even vulnerable position. So, how do you protect yourself if your very own Lebron James decides to leave? Understand, before leader(s) do, why they would leave: People leave organizations for a variety of reasons, some you can protect, and some you can’t. Thus, it’s crucial for you to make sure you understand why they would want to leave, and create appropriate roadblocks for your employee. Here are a few reasons people leave: Their job becomes stagnant (not challenging / exciting) Lack of recognition Excessive hierarchy They haven’t been invested in, just relied upon They aren’t paid enough Provide leader(s) with the right situation: Putting your top employee (leader) in the right situation to keep them isn’t just about paying them well (or overly well). It’s about understanding who they are, and the specifics that will keep them engaged and encouraged in working for/with you. A few ways you may be able to provide them with the right situation include: Give them more flexibility with hours Ask them to lead / develop a team to transfer their skills to others Engage them in leadership conversations regarding the business Send them to conferences to learn more about themselves and how they impact teams Prepare for the worst: Guess what? You can do everything correctly and still lose your Lebron James (that has even happened with the real Lebron James, a few times). So, prepare for the worst. Don’t build your business solely around the anomaly of your best employee. Companies who put all of their eggs in one basket are destined to succeed and fail with that basket. However, it’s important to note that this is the third point, not the first. You shouldn’t be living in continuous worry of losing your top employees. Unless you are experiencing cultural issues, this should not be a common occurrence. Here are a few ways you can put the process in place to be ready if the worst were to happen:   Have your top employee transfer knowledge / experience to other team members Stick to the mission of your organization, not your lead employee’s Save your profits Invest in the future of your people (current and future employees) Sometimes Lebron James leaves, and yes, it hurts. But, with the correct approach, you can be sure to keep your top employees within your walls, while also building your organization appropriately should they ever leave. Organizations are never built solely off of one individual. You don’t have to worry about leaders derailing your company if you’ve planned, invested, and built your company appropriately. By Wolfgang Career Coaching|2017-12-07T22:39:14+00:00December 7th, 2017|Career Coaching|0 Comments

Generosity in action - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Generosity in action - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog My good friend Lars Pind runs a company, Collaboraid, which embodies generosity in a number of ways. They develop e-learning software based on an open source platform, which is generous in itself, since they spend time and energy not only on creating solutions for their customers (among which youll find MIT, Heidelberg University and Greenpeace), but also on improving the platform itself. And now theyve taken it a step further, and have arranged a two-day conference about the technological platform for anyone whos interested, and people are coming from all over the world. Cost of participation: Zero! They spend a lot of time arranging this event but wont make a single buck on it. They do it simply for the sake of the community, and because they think it will be fun. What does it signify, when a company does something this generous? Most of all, it points to a commitment to something larger than and outside of the company itself. In this case, Collaboraid are committed not only to their own success, but are also working for the success of the OpenACS and dotLRN communities. This might even mean aiding your competitors, since they will also benefit from whatever improvements are added to the platform. It also indicates a belief, that together we can achieve results, that are not possible alone. That the collaborative contributions of many people from many companies can create something that is better for the customers than a single company could alone. To take it one step further, it also points to a belief, that to improve yourself, you must help others to improve and vice versa. The saying no mans an island refers to the fact that noone is completely isolated, were all connected. And when were connected through something like an open source community, helping the community means helping yourself. And lastly I think theres a belief, that working in this way, will always be more fun. When youre open and generous, youre working in a way thats more natural for most people. We like to be open and to share whatever we can it makes us feel good. Conversely, when companies hold on tightly to whatever they have, refusing to share, and working only for their own good, it introduces a certain closedness. They risk seeing everything around them as potential threats, and miss many opportunities for fruitful collaboration. All of this generosity seems to be working just fine for Lars and Collaboraid. Theyve recently completed a project which included a lot of improvements to the dotLRN platform. All of these improvements are now part of the platform, and anyone is free to use it, netting Collaboraid huge respect points from the community. Theyre also increasing the workforce by 50% soon, when theyre joined by a new Australian developer. All of this reminded me of an article in Fast Company Ive written about earlier, about the value of generosity in business. 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