There Are No Age Barriers to Entrepreneurship

There Are No Age Barriers to Entrepreneurship Your Career Plan B: Self-employment If you’re approaching (or over) age 50, it can be a tough job market out there. Maybe you’ve been laid off and can’t find jobs in your career fields with positions or pay commensurate with your experience. For those with an entrepreneurial spirit, the best option may be to launch your own solo or micro businesses. I asked Doug Freeman, who has studied and written about the transition by older workers to self-employment, for his advice. Freeman, founder of Ideascape, Inc., and author of Workarounds: 50+ insider tactics for age 50+ entrepreneurs, offers practical business-building advice for Boomers and Gen Xers considering “Plan B” or self-employment. “My overall approach is based on creatively and strategically working around age-related barriers by re-purposing deep knowledge, skills, and experience to focus on solving problems,” Freeman says. A big challenge for mid- to late-career entrepreneurs is exactly how to repurpose and repackage their value to sell as consulting or services. “Older entrepreneurs must deconstruct their knowledge, skills, and experience so they can package their most marketable assets as servicesâ€"sometimes as productsâ€"designed as solutions,” he says. “It’s really a marketing exercise, to customize services in just the right way to offer exceptional value to niche markets or the organizations they previously worked with. For example, a former public relations professional could turn networking skills into strategic partner matchmaking services or written communication skills into courses to train startup founders.” What’s the most underappreciated asset that mid- to late-career entrepreneurs have as business-building tools? Freeman says it’s their powerful networks of contacts. “Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs don’t understand how to convert those relationships into referrals and uncover opportunities for contracts,” he says. Here are three tips Freeman offers regarding contact-based marketing: 1 Approach contacts to initially have conversations with them, not to pitch them directly on your services. Ask about their current work, the challenges they face, the needs their company has, and trends regarding mutual interests. Share your work interests and thoughts about industry trends or issues. 2 When natural opportunities arise to pitch your services, focus on your prospect’s needs or pain points firstâ€"it’s not about you and what you want. It’s all about them. Then, frame the solutions you could provide in terms of those needs or pain points. 3 Inquire about contracts available directly through your contacts, but also ask questions to reveal opportunities with your contact’s team and other departments. Launching your own business to avoid employment barriers makes sense in many cases. You’ll find plenty of books, courses, and coaches to get you up-to-speed on weak areas and help you create the business that best fits your goals. There are no age barriers to stop you from building your own successful enterprise. Join Dana Manciagli’s Job Search Master Class now and get the most comprehensive job search system available!

Improve Workplace Satisfaction for Employees

Improve Workplace Satisfaction for Employees Improve Workplace Satisfaction for Employees Before you can improve representative fulfillment and worker commitment, you have to realize what to improve. The yearly Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 2017 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement Survey recognizes the variables that are significant in representative occupation fulfillment and worker commitment as saw by representatives. The review's motivation is to help managers to build up the correct projects and practices when they try to affect these two factors that are basic to worker spirit and inspiration. Understanding worker inclinations give direction to the learned assignment of assets. Something else, managers can burn through a large number of dollars on projects and practices that their workers really dont need. Also, heres a mystery you have to know beside these official overview results which give direction. You will gain proficiency with the most about what will draw in and fulfill your representatives by asking them what they need the most. At that point, as you can, sensibly suit and give what they are looking for. Your working environment will thrive when representatives address their issues. The Employee Satisfaction Survey The review investigated 44 parts of worker work fulfillment, separated into four theme territories profession improvement, associations with the executives, remuneration and advantages, workplace, commitment suppositions, commitment practices, and conditions for commitment.. Included 2011, the review likewise investigated representative commitment. Fulfillment Survey Results As indicated by this investigation, 89 percent of U.S. workers report that they are by and large happy with their present place of employment. This is the most significant level of fulfillment detailed in the previous 11 years.The U.S. has an issue with worker engagement. U.S. workers revealed that they were decently drawn in averaging 3.9 on a 5 point scale where 5 is profoundly connected with and 1 is unengaged. What's more, discoveries by the Gallup association about withdrew representatives were featured in the Wall Street Journal. Gallup discovered 19 percent of 1,000 individuals who were talked with felt effectively separated at work. These laborers gripe that they dont have the devices they have to carry out their responsibilities. They dont realize what is anticipated from them. Their managers dont hear them out. Top Contributors to Employee Job Satisfaction Representatives distinguished these elements as their best 10 most significant supporters of their activity fulfillment. Aware treatment of representatives positioned initial (65 percent) on the rundown of occupation fulfillment perspectives that add to generally worker satisfaction.Combined pay, advantages, and pay positioned second (61 percent).Job security which positioned first for workers during prior reviews had sunk to fourth (58%) perhaps on the grounds that monetary occasions have improved.Opportunities to utilize aptitudes and capacities in your work (56 percent).Also significant is the money related soundness of the association, the workers relationship with their quick chief, having a sense of security in your workplace as showed in having a sense of security, with businesses taking measures to forestall brutality in the working environment and demonstrations of psychological warfare, and the prompt boss' regard for your thoughts. Generational Results While Baby Boomers, Gen-X, and Millennials scored comparatively in numerous zones identified with commitment, they likewise showed a few contrasts. As indicated by the SHRM report, They esteem a couple of different parts of their occupations in an unexpected way. Twenty to thirty year olds (88%) set more noteworthy significance on vocation advancement openings than Baby Boomers did (76%), for instance, and individuals from Generation X (89%) all the more oftentimes refered to association's pledge to proficient improvement as a supporter of occupation fulfillment contrasted and Baby Boomers (79%). Laborers in every one of the three ages put a high incentive on remuneration and advantages related components. Twenty to thirty year olds put more significance on work explicit preparing, profession improvement openings, and professional success as adding to their activity fulfillment contrasted and more seasoned ages. This isn't astounding given the phase of their vocations, yet bosses need to see that distinctions exist now that Millennials are most of laborers. Worker Engagement Conditions Worker commitment, as indicated by the SHRM report, is bound to happen when certain conditions exist. Bosses can augment worker commitment by means of improving these elements. The rates demonstrate the general fulfillment of representatives with the recorded state of commitment. The things are recorded all together from the representative study results: generally fulfilled to least happy with the condition in their association. Chances to utilize aptitudes and capacities: 100%Relationship with quick manager: 96%Organization's money related solidness: 87%Relationships with collaborators: 87%Communication among representatives and senior administration: 85%Meaningfulness of occupation: 81%Management's acknowledgment of worker work execution: 78%Overall corporate culture: 77%Job-explicit preparing: 75%Organization's promise to proficient turn of events: 75%Contribution of work to association's business objectives: 73%Variety of work: 71%Organization's duty to corporate social obligation: 69% Professional success openings: 69%Networking: 65% With the rates noted in both the fulfillment part of the study results and the commitment parts of the review, managers have some work to never really fulfill and, particularly, connect with representatives. Is it true that you are up for the test?

What Absolutely Everybody Is Saying About Pretty Resume Templates

What Absolutely Everybody Is Saying About Pretty Resume Templates There are many free imaginative resume formats you'll have the option to utilize, empowering you to concentrate your vitality on everything else you ought to do. Free resume formats download is a most loved procedure which loads of people follow to draft resumes for proficient elements. The occasions you should utilize an inventive resume are less than when you should utilize a conventional resume. There are bunches of wonderful resume formats out there, yet by and by, it very well may be easy to feel as a ton of the best cost a crazy amount of cash, require uncommon plan programs so as to alter, or both. For nothing out of pocket innovative clean resume format for all intents and purposes any opening for work. Building up your resume is essential. The Truth About Pretty Resume Templates Creative Resume Content Whichever inventive resume plan you pick, the substance must be no issue to discover and intelligently compos ed. The customary counsel is you ought to make extremely simple, organized resumes which don't go amiss much in style or organization. Arrangement is included significant than you accept. In case you're hoping to make a fancy new resume that is beautiful and appealing at that point stop as of now! Verify you get the data you're searching for. You should join the exploration information about the association and the work portrayal in building up a persuading resume. Pretty Resume Templates - the Conspiracy In any field any place your character or master appearance is an essential piece of the activity, a photograph is an incredible method to exhibit that off. Along these lines, it's critical to make a resume successfully and actually so as to make an incredible picture as an applying young person. Verify that your photograph is proficient. Counting a specialist photograph of yourself is a smart thought for innovative resumes. It is conceivable to likewise observe continue layout. The web formats are made so that they make the resume stick out. Our inventive layouts grant you to stand out from the group. Utilizing a resume format spares you a decent arrangement of time. Pretty Resume Templates Options Regardless of what realistic you select, be certain that it is of premium quality and that it fits with the substance of your resume. A few destinations exist explicitly to help you make an alluring visual resume. There are bunches of free resume layouts promptly accessible on the web yet now and then it tends to be very difficult to settle on the best one that is generally fit to you. Resume positions are effortlessly found and downloaded from the web. What Everybody Dislikes About Pretty Resume Templates and Why Writing an expert resume a business will find overwhelming will improve your likelihood of handling your fantasy clinical examination help work. The objective of your resume is to make sure about you the meeting. The overabundance time spent is frequently reimbursed looking like meetings. Pretty Resume Templates - Dead or Alive? In the event that you might want to be a visual architect, you can feature your visual communication capacities. Top resume manufacturers show up furnished with various highlights that makes continue composing appear to be easy. You'll venerate the split plan. Every last one of our inventive style formats offer you a totally adjusted blend of character, polished skill and a little style. New Step by Step Roadmap for Pretty Resume Templates Creative resume formats will have the option to assist you with building a record that shows your imagination while as yet keeping the polished skill you ought to be paid attention to move beyond the watchmen. Utilizing activity action words is especially crucial in an expert resume. Kind of Pretty Resume Templates The Illustrator record makes the most of shading to support its straightforwardness. The up and coming free resume layout is made looking like a pamphlet. Its t wo-segment design will permit you to incorporate a lot of data without jumbling the report. It's conceivable to stop attempting to locate the best resume formats for Word as of now.

What You Need to Know About Personality Tests

What You Need to Know About Personality Tests Congratulations, you aced the interview! You’re feeling positive and think you may really have a shot at landing the job you’ve been aiming for. There’s just one thing in your way: you’ve been asked to take a personality test.If you’ve never taken a personality assessment before, an employer asking you to take one as part of the interviewing process can feel a bit unsettling.   Personality tests are nothing to fear, however. They are merely tools that interviewers use to gain a better sense of your perceptions, personality, and communication style.If you’ve been asked to take such an assessment, there is no need to feel singled out. In fact, according to data from the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 13% of employers utilize personality tests and a whopping 68% utilize job skill testing of some kind during the hiring process.With so many applicants applying for every open position, it has become necessary for companies to narrow down the pool of candi dates to the most qualified for the role, both in terms of skill set and personality.Why Employers Use Personality TestsOnboarding is time-consuming and expensive, so it’s in the employer’s best interest to vet potential candidates carefully.Especially considering that the median amount of time an employee stays with a company is 4.2 years, it behooves the employer to know their new hire is a good fit, and will, therefore, be more likely to stay around, saving the company the time and resources it would take to re-fill the position.It’s hard to truly know if someone will be a great fit through interviewing alone. Some employers feel that personality tests can give them a bit of extra insight to make a better hiring decision.Of course, personality tests vary greatly in terms of quality and reliability. Meanwhile, many candidates skew results by trying to give the “right” answers instead of answering candidly.We aren’t saying that all personality tests are accurate or usef ul. In fact, some are downright misguided. However, if you’re asked to take one, it’s smart to go into it with some understanding of why the company is using it and what to expect.Reason 1: To See if You Are a Good Fit for the Company CultureEvery company has a particular workplace culture, and it’s important to some employers to determine if your personality will be a good fit with the overall culture of the company.For instance, if you are a very serious-minded person, you may not do well in a company that has a more laid-back and easy-going atmosphere. By the same token, if you value a looser environment, you may not do so well in a more stringent corporate setting.In this scenario, it’s unlikely that they’re looking for everyone to fit into a narrow personality profile. Rather, they are most likely trying to get a general sense of work values and/or preferences.Reason 2: To See if You Are a Good Fit for the Role/TeamSometimes a company uses a personality test to determ ine if a candidate has the right attitude for a particular type of work.We see this most often with sales roles. Not everyone is cut out to be in sales and deal with rejection and the pressure of meeting a quota. An assessment can help the manager see if you have the potential to thrive in a sales role, especially if you don’t have sales experience.Reason 3: To Determine Your Communication StyleGood communication is essential in any work environment . Your communication style may be particularly important to the company if you are interviewing for a management and/or customer-facing position. This type of assessment is designed to help them understand how you prefer to communicate, handle conflict, and collaborate with teammates.What a Personality Test is NotNow that you have a sense of why a company might use a personality assessment during the hiring process, it’s important to remember what a personality test is not.Because of the language surrounding assessments and the proce ss of answering a long series of questions, it can be easy to slip into the mode of thinking you are taking a test in an academic environment where passing or failing may have far-reaching consequences.Before your imagination can run away with you, let’s take a look at some of the things that personality assessments are not:A Judgment on Who You AreThe very mention of the word “test” can bring to mind painful flashbacks of anxiety, school days, and late-night cramming sessions, but a personality assessment should not be anxiety-inducing.What’s important to remember is there are no wrong answers; you are not receiving a grade and you cannot pass or fail. The results of the assessment are not a judgment on who you are as a person or a reflection of what you are capable of achieving in your career and other areas of your life.A Magic “Tell-All”While it’s entirely possible that your assessment may lead you to some discoveries about yourself, it is not a magic formula that will reveal every aspect of who you are and how you handle every situation.Human beings are multi-faceted and, as much as we may desire answers about who we are, there is no way to be given those answers from a personality test.Most companies understand this and will be far more interested in your experience and what you convey in your interviews. The personality test is never going to be the primary consideration in a hiring decision.What to Expect from Personality TestingThere are many, many personality assessments available, but we’ll take a look at two of the most common in order to give you an idea of what to expect:Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI) â€" Perhaps the best-known is the Myers-Briggs Type Inventory (MBTI). The MBTI was inspired by the work of Carl Jung and designed to assign one of 16 possible personality types to the test taker.The MBTI is intended to assess how you work, learn, and communicate by measuring preferences regarding four primary factors:How we recei ve energyHow we take in informationHow we make decisionsHow we organize our worldYour type is determined by how you answer a series of questions, and your results will include an assignment of a four-letter type to describe your personality. The letters indicate personality traits in four different dichotomies: Extraversion/Introversion, Sensing/Intuition, Thinking/Feeling, and Judging/Perceiving.For instance, you may be an ESFP, (extroversion, sensing, feeling, and perceiving) or an INTJ, (introversion, intuition, thinking, and judging) depending on how you answer the questions on the assessment.The MBTI is formatted to ask questions in 93 sets of two. For each set, you will be given two sentences and asked to choose the one that best describes you.Though the MBTI uses words like “sensing” and “judging,” the terminology can be misleading. Ideally, the MBTI will be taken with a qualified coach who can guide you through the interpretation of your results to avoid any confusio n and gain the clearest insights possible into your personality.It’s important to note that there is no “bad” MBTI type. The focus is on preferences, not capabilities. The assessment is not meant to be used to judge a person’s potential or performance. There are countless books and articles about the MBTI and many viewpoints on its validity. Many corporations use the MBTI for internal career development and team-building purposes.If you’re asked to take the MBTI assessment as part of the hiring process, your best approach is to relax and answer the questions honestly. An attempt to “game” the process won’t get you anywhere.DiSC â€" The DiSC is another assessment that is widely used and particularly favored in corporate training programs.Similar to the MBTI, the DiSC assigns a combination of dominant traits to the individual, operating on the assumption that everyone is made up of a blend of four primary qualities: Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousne ss.Typically, each individual favors one of these qualities over the others (though there are some people who score similarly in multiple categories). Broadly, the understanding of these traits can be broken down as follows:If you favor Dominance, you are likely:Strong-willedResults-orientedDirectForcefulIf you favor Influence, you are likely:EnthusiasticEnergeticSocialOptimisticIf you favor Steadiness, you are likely:CourteousSupportiveTactfulPatientIf you favor Conscientiousness, you are likely:LogicalFact-focusedAnalyticalReservedInstead of choosing one sentence out of a set like the MBTI, the DiSC offers a series of statements that may include some variation of the following:I work best as part of a teamI tend to avoid conflictI am very goal-orientedI can be very vocal with my opinionsFor every statement, the test-taker can choose from a scale ranging from; strongly disagree, disagree, neutral, agree, or strongly agree.Again, there are no wrong answers. Be honest and as specific as possible to get the best results from your assessment.Result AnalysisResults from personality tests will likely provide some general assumptions about your preferences and/or personality. There will be no magic, incontrovertible decree that you are a fit or not a fit.You may disagree with some of your results, and that’s okay. Some of the findings of your assessment may be true in certain circumstances and completely untrue in others.It can be frustrating if you feel that your results are not accurate and put you at risk for being passed over for a job you want. However, keep in mind that personality assessment is just one small part of the hiring decision for most companies.We have never heard of a great candidate missing out on an offer solely due to a personality test.And if a company is overly focused on specific personality test results, you’re probably better off focusing on other opportunities.Should you Prepare for a Personality Assessment?Since personality tests are not “tests” in the sense that they are not meant to measure knowledge and memorized facts, there is no need to study for a personality assessment.However, if you find yourself feeling anxious about the test, you may find it helpful to do some research on the assessment you will be given and see some sample questions to help give you a more concrete idea of what to expect.Beyond that, your time will be much better spent preparing for the interview!The Crux of the MatterPersonality tests are used by many companies during the hiring process. They are designed to help employers gain more insight into each candidate’s work style and preferences.It’s important to remember that your assessment is not a complete picture of who you are or a judgment on your personality. There are no wrong answers and no way to fail, so relax, be yourself, and remember you’re taking one step closer to landing the job. Dont obsess over this step. Focus on preparing for your interview instead!