Career Planning | Mike McRitchie | Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer | Telecom Marketing Content Writer

Could a Career Change be on the Cards for You?

July 27, 2022 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

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A career change can be a good thing, but it is not always easy to say goodbye to your old job and start over. There are many reasons why it might be worth it, like if you are not happy with your current job or you want to make more money. However, there are also some risks involved in making a career change that can make it difficult for some people.

What Qualities Make an Ideal Job?

It is important to know what type of job you want and what are the qualities that make it a good job. If you are looking for a career change, it is important to know which careers have the highest demand and what skillsets they require. A good job should not only be one where you get paid well, but also one that has growth opportunities and provides intrinsic satisfaction.

How to Decide Which Type of Job is Right for You

With the advancement in technology, people are constantly changing their careers. Some people decide to switch careers because of the changes in technology, while others decide to change careers because they want a fresh start. The most important thing when deciding which type of career is best suited for you is finding a job that you will enjoy doing. There are many different types of jobs out there and it can be difficult to decide which one is right for you.

If you don’t know what type of career would suit your skills and personality, ask yourself these questions:

– What skills do I have?

– What kind of personality am I?

– Am I motivated by money or satisfaction?

Tips for Choosing Your Next Career Path

When it comes to choosing a career path, it is important to know what kind of personality you have. If you are a creative person, then there are many fields that would be suitable for you such as graphic design, web design and marketing. However, if you are not a creative person but still want to work in the creative field then there are also many options available such as social media marketing or PR. There are also other factors such as salary and growth potential that should be considered when choosing your next career path.

How to Prepare and Plan Your Next Job Search

It is not easy to find a job and it takes time, effort, and persistence. However, there are some things that you can do to make the process less stressful. First of all, you should prepare for your job search. This means knowing the requirements and getting qualified, whether at flight school or University, before you go ahead. You will also need to do a lot of research on the company that you want to work at, their culture and benefits packages. You should also make sure that you have your resume ready for when it’s time for an interview.

Tips for Making the Leap of Faith and Taking on New Challenges in Your New Field

It’s always easier to take on a new challenge when you are motivated and excited about it. These tips will help you make the leap of faith and take on this new challenge with confidence.

1. Make a list of your skills and interests

2. Consider what your personal values are

3. Create a list of the things that scare you most

4. Write down the names of people who inspire you

Is a Career in Commercial Real Estate Development Right for You?

July 27, 2022 by Emma Grace Brown Leave a Comment

Image via Pexel

The prospect of moving into the highly-

competitive world of commercial real estate development may be an intimidating one. However, it doesn’t have to be, and there is nothing wrong with at least considering a new career, especially if you have experience in construction or real estate. Here’s some insight on how to break into this fast-paced profession.

Learn About Your Options

First, it’s important to know that you can have a career in commercial real estate development without actually being a developer. There are plenty of different careers that can help you enhance your family’s income and fulfill your life. Real estate company Crexi lists appraisal, asset management, and investor communications as a few of these.

Obtain Your License

You might want to start by becoming a commercial real estate agent. For this, you’ll need to obtain your license, which will have different eligibility requirements, depending on your state. You also have to take a pre-licensure course, pass your exams, and then find a brokerage that’s willing to hire you right out of school.

Get Familiar With Safety Protocols Like Lighting

There are dozens of ways to violate safety standards, and you should be familiar with both what is legally required and extra things you can do to keep your clients happy. One example, adding lighting in the parking garage. Parking garages are, by nature, dark, scary, and usually accessible to the public. The more light you can provide, the better off your clients staff and/or residents will be. A parking garage is ideal for a canopy or tunnel lighting system, which can help drivers and pedestrians alike see where they’re going. This can reduce accidents and adds to other measures to reduce crime.

Understand Marketing

Any time you’re building a new business, you have to create marketing materials. Creating a real estate development firm is no different. Start with an excellent logo, can be created online with a free or paid logo making software. Even if you don’t have visual design experience, it will have access to lots of complementary icons, text, and colors that can help you create the perfect brand for your new business. Remember, as Tailor Brands explains, the purpose of the logo is to grab attention, create a strong first impression, and to bolster your brand identity.

Understand Local Laws

Commercial real estate is full of legal issues that can stop some less-than-enthusiastic future developers in their tracks. We tell you this not to scare you off, but so that you are positioned to be more aware of the subtle ins and outs of commercial real estate. GetLegal offers lots of real estate resources, including information on real estate finance, land-use, construction law, and tenancy.

If the idea of making $3 million in gross profit every year sounds appealing, you might be motivated to begin a career in real estate development. But, you can’t let money alone decide if you are ready for a new career. You also have to be familiar with everything from laws to lighting and safety to marketing if you want to be successful. If you’re willing to do the research, go through the proper channels, and learn the ins and outs, you might just find the commercial real estate was your calling all along.
Advance your career, showcase your accomplishments, and get noticed by hiring managers with professional resume writing services from Mike McRitchie.

5 Ways to Boost Your LinkedIn Profile Visibility in 2022

July 15, 2022 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

Did you know that six people are hired through LinkedIn every minute? When used strategically, LinkedIn can serve as a highly effective tool in your job search efforts. However, with over 830 million members, how can you make sure that your profile gets noticed by employers?

Fortunately, LinkedIn has plenty of features designed to help job-seekers create stand-out profiles. This guide from Berkley Recruitment will walk you through five simple steps you can take today to boost your profile’s visibility in 2022.

Complete Your Profile

If you’re seeking a new role and want to promote yourself to employers/recruiters, then profile completeness matters.

The LinkedIn search algorithm prioritises complete profiles over incomplete profiles. LinkedIn has gamified the process and will reward users with an All-Star status upon reaching 100% profile completion. According to LinkedIn, All-Star profiles are forty times more likely to receive job opportunities.

So what do you need to do to reach 100% profile completion?

Upload a professional, high-quality profile photo.
Write a personal summary about yourself.
Include an engaging headline that succinctly sums up who you are.
Add at least two previous positions, along with written descriptions of your roles.
Add five or more skills.
Fill out your industry and location.
Include where you went to school or college.
Connect with a minimum of 50 people.

Add Skills, Skill Tests & Endorsements

Did you know that you can add up to 50 skills to your profile? Taking the time and effort to add a carefully curated list of hard and soft skills to your profile will make it easier for recruiters and hiring managers to see what you’re good at. It will also affect which LinkedIn searches you show up in, how many searches you show up in, and how highly you rank in those search results.

In addition, LinkedIn has launched many new features that allow users to validate their skills:

First-degree connections can endorse your skills. When someone gives you an endorsement, it further strengthens your profile and increases the odds that you’ll be discovered for opportunities related to these skills.
You can take a brief assessment to showcase your technical skills. If you score in the top 30% of people who have taken the quiz, you can earn a badge to display on your profile.
As of 2022, you can now add skills to each position within your work experience section.

Get Recommendations

Recommendations are a powerful tool that add greater credibility to your LinkedIn profile. These are written testimonials from your connections that offer a step up from the endorsement feature (which doesn’t have a written component).

Recommendations are a form of social proof and allow you to validate your skills and personality. What’s more, they can provide a way to draw attention to elements of your personality, skill set or experience that you may feel too awkward to mention yourself.

You can request recommendations from anyone in your network. As a starting point, we advise reaching out to your CV references, colleagues, clients, classmates and friends. You may wish to offer one in return.

Engage

Once you have completed your profile and generated some recommendations, now you can shift your attention to engaging with others. Ideally, you should dedicate a few sessions a week purely for LinkedIn engagement through commenting, writing posts and re-sharing content.

The strategic use of commenting and sharing can allow you to build connections, demonstrate thought leadership, and highlight your subject matter expertise. All of this will help you to get noticed by the relevant people.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when crafting the perfect comment:

Read the original content carefully to make sure you fully understand it before adding to the conversation.
Aim to write a relevant and thoughtful comment that enriches the discussion (e.g. add a practical tip, share your personal experience, ask a question, or make a respectfu counter-argument etc.).
Take the time to write an original and engaging comment that is at least 2-3 sentences long.
Avoid the temptation to be salesly.
Use the tagging feature to mention the post’s author and get their attention.

Try Out New Features

In order to keep the platform fresh and current, LinkedIn frequently rolls out new features. Oftentimes, they will prioritise profiles that use these features to encourage users to try them out. Some examples of new features launched in the past year or so include:

Video cover stories on the mobile app
The ability to add your preferred personal pronouns to your profile
The ability to upload an audio file to demonstrate how to pronounce your name
Image carousel posts
Newsletters that your connections can subscribe to

Molly Forsythe is a Digital Marketing Executive with Berkley Recruitment. As part of her role, she enjoys writing helpful guides for job-seekers who are looking for their next dream job. Berkley is an Irish-based recruitment consultancy specialising in the areas of Business & Technology, Life Science & Engineering, and Supply Chain & Procurement. To discover the latest career opportunities in your area, talk to Berkley today.

What hurts our work-life balance – the hustle culture or smartphone addiction?

July 5, 2022 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

Contacting employees after working hours is prohibited in some countries, such as Portugal or Belgium. In contrast, nearly 70% of US working professionals use mobiles for work during their downtime.

The question arises – is it the hustle culture or smartphone addiction?

The latest study conducted by Passport Photo Online about vacation smartphone usage shed some light on this issue. In their survey, 1,000+ Americans answered many questions related to their smartphone use habits, such as:

How often did you check your cell phone per hour?
Did your boss expect you to stay connected during your most recent time away?
Do you regret overusing a mobile phone during your most recent holiday?

Curious about the results? Read on to find out more.

Smartphone Use On Travel: Travelers’ Habits

In the past, to make a long-distance trip, people went to a travel agency. But times have changed. Now travelers have all functionalities at their fingertips – on their smartphones. Indeed, more and more Americans are comfortable planning a vacation using only a smartphone. As much as 84% of Americans feel at ease with it, compared to 48% in 2020.

But planning the trip is not the end. Of course, people use smartphones also during their holidays – and they use them a lot! Most American vacationers (71%) pull out cell phones 2–5 times per hour. Also, 10% admitted they take a peek 10+ times per hour. Assuming we are awake for 16 hours a day, it translates into over 160 times daily. So, it’s not surprising that only 14% of respondents can go longer than 4 hours without checking the phone.

Unfortunately, this smartphone addiction doesn’t work well for travelers. As much as 58% of people regret overusing mobile phones during their last trips, and at the same time, leaving a phone while traveling is not an option. A whopping 75% of American travelers claim that a smartphone is their number one travel accessory.

So maybe a return to travel agents will be a good idea after all.

The Hustle Culture – Working On Vacation

Vacations mean exactly a time without working, right? Well, not in our hustle culture. As mentioned before, a full of 68% of US professionals admitted they used smartphones for job-related purposes during their last vacation.

The consequences are unpleasant. As a result of using a cell phone for work, 62% of Americans could not recharge their batteries. Also, 60% of US travelers said using smartphones for work affected their vacation plan.

Unfortunately, the pressure comes from above. Nearly 6 in 10 US workers say their bosses expect them to stay connected during vacation.

But, on the other hand – maybe we don’t know how to relax? Over half of employees (55%) feel pressure to reply to work emails or messages during travel, even without any requirements from the employer.

Put the leisure time first

In the words of Winston Churchill –

Continuous effort – not strength or intelligence – is the key to unlocking our potential.

Without any doubt, we can’t expect results without putting some effort into our work, and at the same time, working too hard lead to burnout, low work satisfaction, and poor overall well-being. Unlocking your full potential doesn’t matter if you feel drained rather than happy.

So –

Maybe it’s about time to change priorities and put leisure over labor.

Interested in the complete study? Read Smartphone Use On Vacation [2022 Study].

Short bio: Karolina Zając, a writer at Passport Photo Online. With a background in cognitive science and communication, she is fascinated by how language influences our perception of reality. It’s more likely to find her in the forest than at the dance club.

Quick Tips To Help Progress Your Career

June 28, 2022 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Your boss is not in charge of your career development. You are in command. Your manager is in charge of the quality of your job. As a result, making decisions about your goals and results during your annual review is not the best option.

Photo by Brooke Cagle on Unsplash

These are some critical steps you may take now or in the coming months to assist develop your career.

Set Smaller Goals More Frequently

Goals receive a lot of attention during annual evaluations. Setting realistic, attainable goals in a year is difficult; in fact, it takes far too long. Setting smaller goals is thus more appropriate.

Examine what you do on a routine basis. Is any way to improve on that work? What can you do to improve your situation? Put these tasks on your to-do list and give them some thought. When you’ve chosen your goals, create a schedule for yourself to master these things. For example, it could be looking at the latest mechanic jobs or updating your CV after temporary work.

Develop Yourself

We feel that breaking out of our comfort zone is the best way to achieve success. As a result, you should learn to think outside of your area of expertise.

Dare to be scared. Do you have a phobia of speaking in public? Attend corporate presentations and networking activities. Do you want to know how to start a real estate syndication business? Then just do it.

Research Is Critical

Keep up with the latest blogs, big and small. Spend some time reading about your field of work. Start reading books on the subject that motivate you to think outside the box. As a reader, you can strike up a conversation with people you encounter at meetups. You can also develop your career by learning new ways to accomplish things and other life hacks that will make your life run more smoothly.

Networking

Sending a standard LinkedIn invitation is never a good idea. Never, ever, ever. Tell the recipient what you have in common and how you might help them. Request a face-to-face introduction from a member of your network. Making a strong first impression is the key to effective networking. LinkedIn, however, is not the only alternative. Attend as many trade shows, community events, and community functions as you can in order to meet as many individuals as possible. This should keep you focused on your work.

Transfer Your Knowledge

A good protégé can also be a great source of information. You can disrupt paradigms when you have a protege. They can present you with fresh insights and approaches to problems, as well as introduce you to new ideas.

Always Pay Close Attention

Even if you are happy in your current work, building new connections and being open to new chances is always beneficial. That is what you must-do if you want to advance in your career or improve your personal life.
Don’t be hesitant to seize your next opportunity or build a new connection. It’s a lovely feeling to be noticed by others! Do you have any other ideas that you think would be beneficial? Please leave them in the section below.