8 Things You MUST Do Before You Go on Vacation

8 Things You MUST Do Before You Go on Vacation Whos counting down the days until they go on vacation? Sometimes you cant help but feel like all you ever do is work, work, work Needless to say, holidays can feel like the light at the end of a tunnel! Whether youre  going to spend quality time at home with the people you love or go on an amazing adventure to somewhere new, youve earned your time off, so you want to make it as relaxing as possible. Part of enjoying your time away means wrapping up loose ends and dealing with dramas before you leave, so you dont need to be disturbed while youre away, or have to return to an absolute car crash. Theres nothing better than waking up on the first day of a vacation  knowing everything work-wise is where it needs to be and you can just switch off taker the break you deserve. To ensure this is the case, heres  what you have to do before you go! 1. Check in with clients If youre a recruiter, this includes candidates.  Regardless of how many plates you are spinning at work, its so important to check in with your clients and business partners before you leave even if they dont require immediate attention. Let them know how long youre away for and resolve any potential issues early. Dont just leave them wondering where youve dropped off the face of the earth to without a care. 2. Have  a plan of attack ready for your return If youre leaving for Christmas holidays, its important to make sure January doesnt look completely bare. You want to hit the ground running upon your return to work not sit down at a desk with an empty calendar and a million emails. Having an action plan to crack on with upon your return will save you time fumbling around trying to remember who you are and what you do, giving you a kickstart into the new year or quarter! 3. Remember to put your out of office on If I had a dollar for every time Ive forgotten this, Id  have about $7. Put a nice message on there and let people know when to expect to be able to contact you again. You also need to have  another point of contact they can be referred to in your absence. Even if youre still responding to emails while youre OOO, at least let people know to expect a delay. 4. Do a proper handover Whether its another colleague or your boss, write out an easy to follow and thorough handover document. Dont annoy your colleagues and have them waste their time playing the guessing game while youre away. The more thorough you are, the higher the quality of coverage youll get from whoever is looking after your work. 5. Clean your desk Before you go on vacation  is a great time to clean out all those old files and papers you never use. Wipe down your keyboard (youll be surprised at how disgusting they get over the course of a few months) and empty your drawers of Tupperware and ink-less pens. When you return to work, youll feel fresh not to mention, you wont get a bad rep while youre away for being a grot. 6. Update your admin Go through your customer files and pipeline records etc. Make sure of all your administration is up to date and accurate. It will make your colleagues lives easier as theyll be able to find what they need from your work quicker and easier, without having to phone you to ask questions they really shouldnt have to. Itll also make things easier upon your return to work, starting from a clean slate. 7. Dont do things you regret at social drinks Especially around Christmas time, theres no shortage of social activities put on by your employer! Dont go absolutely off the charts and do embarrassing things, thatll make you leave the office feeling paranoid! No one wants to be that person who gets talked about, let alone when youre not there to defend yourself. dont get too carried away with holiday excitement and stay professional. 8.  Say thank you Finally, remember to pay thanks where its due. Simply showing your appreciation to people will make people want to help you more. Dont take things for granted and remember to always be grateful. Once youve done all these things, youll be closer than ever to sitting back, relaxing and rejuvenating! Happy vacation. You deserve it!

New Year, New You How to Reinvent Your Look for 2018

New Year, New You How to Reinvent Your Look for 2018 As we get close to the end of another year, you may be looking for a fresh start in 2018. One of the ways that you can do this is by reinventing your appearance. However, you may be struggling to decide on what changes to make. Discover some great suggestions below to reinvent your look: Change your hair â€" There is only one place to begin, and this is with changing your hairstyle. There are a number of different ways you can do this. Of course, you can change your hair colour, or you can add some length with tape in hair extensions. Or, why not go for the chop and embrace a pixie crop? When choosing a hairstyle, it is important to consider the colour and style that will suit your face shape and skin tone. Revamp your wardrobe â€" Have you grown fed up with the clothing you have in your wardrobe? Do you find that you always wear the same garments all the time? It’s time for a complete wardrobe revamp. Christmas is the perfect time to do this. Not only can you ask for new clothing or vouchers as gifts, but you can take advantage of the amazing sales that are onto. When it comes to completely revamping your wardrobe, you need a plan. If you just shop aimlessly, you are going to end up with numerous clothing pieces that don’t fit right together. Instead, assess the trends, and discover the different fashion looks that you like. Buy pieces that work with these trends, and make sure you are buying outfits, rather than solo garments. Statement lipstick â€" One of the easiest ways to make a real statement is by changing up your lipstick. Do you currently wear a lot of nude lipsticks? If so, dare to be different and go for a statement red. If red is already a colour you wear a lot, why not opt for dark shades like violent and plum? Re-think your office wear â€" If you cannot afford to completely revamp your wardrobe, one area you should focus on is the clothing that you wear to work. Do you find that you always wear the same white blouse and pencil skirt? If so, it’s time to make a change. After all, you are going to spend five of the seven days a week wearing office garments, and so you need to feel confident and stylish in what you are wearing. Don’t be afraid to mix things up a bit by adding some colour to the mix and statement accessories. You will be surprised by how much of a difference this can make. Modernise your manicure â€" Last but not least, take a trip to your local beauty salon and modernise your manicure. Your nails may seem like a very small detail, but they actually say a lot about your personality and who you are. If you currently opt for pale-pink polish and oval-shaped tips, try something different. Why not go for a coffin tip and a metallic finish instead? Whether it’s a statement red lipstick or a new work wardrobe, there are many ways you can reinvent yourself for 2018. A new look can give you the confidence you need to tackle the new year ahead! Who would have thought that a fresh manicure could make such a difference?

Follow the Bouncing Ball - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Follow the Bouncing Ball - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career If you’ve job hopped a lot, you’re in really good company. The average person changes jobs 11 times within 32 years, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Hence, your average tenure at one workplace will be slightly below three years, as reported by economist Chuck Pierret who has followed 10,000 workers since 1979. So much for the gold watch or golden parachute! Because you will frequently bounce from one job to another, you’re more likely to win an Olympic gold medal than vest in a company’s pension plan.   You have heard this before. You are “You, Inc.” You alone have the responsibility to prepare yourself for your future. And, it will be a bumpy ride. You’re going to need personal resilience and strong relationships to help you between jobs, more than any other skills or abilities that can land you a job. According to the American Psychological Association, resilience is the capacity to cope with traumatic and stressful events in life. This includes the ability to feel the pain of loss, and not curl up and want to die. Almost all change is loss at some level, so resilience is a life skill. Supportive relationships are key to resilience. Meaningful, trusted friendships are something to build now, before anything happens. If you only reach out to us when you hit bottom and the pizza boxes are blocking the door, we might not work very hard to come in and console you. And, 500 virtual Facebook friends won’t do you much good. You need real friends. If you can’t remember, friends are people you see or speak to, share experiences with and meet for a meal. Resilience also means you can manage strong feelings and resist impulses. When you feel wronged, it’s okay to indulge a revenge fantasy. It’s not okay to act on that fantasy. You may have sacrificed your personal life, worked long hours, or gone to extraordinary lengths to keep a project or client on track. That doesn’t mean you can throw any of that in the face of the person who’s letting you go. Reframe your dedication or contribution as simply those which you needed to do in order to keep the job as long as you did. You also need to maintain a positive view of yourself, despite what’s happening on the job, or off it. Only a calm mind allows you to make realistic plans and take steps to carry them out. Control your self-talk. Speak to yourself in encouraging words. Celebrate small triumphs on the way back up. The great thing about expecting endings is that you can prepare for them. All great business leaders start with the end in mind. From the onset, they ponder various ways they might exit their going concerns: sell, franchise, move online, move offshore, and so on. Lance Armstrong starts every race with the end in mind. He doesn’t get on his bike and wonder where the finish line is. He doesn’t hope the race will never end. Choose an icon you like â€" maybe a big red bouncing ball or a sleek yellow road bike. Keep it where you can see it. You just might need a reminder of what you are likely to face, so you can prepare and succeed. Author: Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers. Read more at NanceRosenBlog. Twitter name: nancerosen

Your Personal Branding Business Model - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Your Personal Branding Business Model - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career One of the most important aspects of creating a personal brand, is first attempting to determine what your goals are. Are you trying to become the President of the United States, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a serial entrepreneur, a social activist? This will certainly help you understand how to frame your brand, how to develop it, and how to continually move you towards your end goals. In order to do this systematically, you should think of your personal brand just as a company does of its own brand; like a business. It starts with the product Thats right, it starts with the person. After all, it is a personal brand, and you ARE the product. Write down how you want to be defined. What are the attributes of your product. Are you innovative? Are you a trendsetter? What are your specialties? If you were sitting on a shelf at a store, why would someone choose you over the competition? Make sure you can deliver Great customer service defines companies. It also defines you. Great customer service means you are servicing people who have already given you a chance. That means creating deep, meaningful relationships. It involves listening as much as it involves talking and responding. Personal service involves great follow-ups with great communication. You have to remember that your customers have immense power, and if you service your following correctly, they should be creating word of mouth for you. If theyre not, then you need to either re-vamp your product or your customer service. Sales cures all ills There is an old saying that sales cures all ills. Its the fuel for your brand. When trying to determine the right strategy of how to sell yourself, you need to re-visit your goals. Are you trying to attract recruiters or gain a reader base? Are you trying to get a promotion at work? For the sake of simplicity, you should look at sales in 3 ways: Direct Sales, Channel Sales, and Marketing. Direct Sales Model: This is your business. Its what happens when people interact directly with you, whether thats in person, on email, or on the phone. Social aptitude, charisma, and authenticity are extremely important here. This is why written and verbal communication skills are so valued in the workforce. Its something everybody says they have, but in reality, its not something people have worked to improve. Alliances Channels: As a Partnerships Director, I am deeply familiar with the power of channels and alliances. Companies have been doing this for years. One brand alone is strong, but with the correct alliances, a brand can be propelled much further. As a quick example of how this can be applied to your own brand, I am a contributor to Personal Branding Blog and Im also syndicated to Brazen Careerist. Just last week, I was interviewed by Ryan Paugh. Creating different channels helps expand your exposure and create thought leadership around your brand. Within your own organization, this can be applied by working on cross-function projects and taking initiatives that involve branding yourself across the organization. By reaching out and creating relationships with those adjacent to you, you can help expand your presence, both on the internet as well as within your organization. Marketing: Marketing is about amplifying the success youre already seeing to attract customers. Much on this blog and others in the blogosphere have talked about personal marketing. For example, using tools like Twitter help you expand your reach to new people, LinkedIn can help you with existing business contacts, and Facebook can help you market to personal contacts. Hopefully by this point, marketing is the easy part. If youve created a great product, treated your customers the right way, and have been able to sell your brand, then youve created a base of followers and customers that will help spread and build your personal brand. Author: Adam Salamon is Partnerships Director at Bazaarvoice, Inc., blogs about social media, entrepreneurship, and pop culture. Follow him on Twitter for daily updates.

The Resume Writing Group Scam

The Resume Writing Group ScamA good resume writing service is an invaluable resource for employers. You cannot just send out any old resume and expect to get a call back from the employer of your dreams. With a bit of research, you can make sure that the writer you choose is a reputable business with good credentials.The next step is to make sure that the company is a legitimate service. What are some of the factors to look for? There are a number of reasons to look for a professional service. A trained professional should be able to handle all the difficult tasks involved in writing a resume.A professional resume should be ready before you apply for any job, even if it is in the mail. It must be well written, informative, and to the point. If there is not an urgent need for your services, then there is no reason to pay an arm and a leg for a resume that is not going to land you the job.Another reason to avoid this service is the job market right now. Companies that hire these servic es have been hit by lay offs, and they are not getting as many resumes as they once did. The economic downturn has a lot to do with this, but not all of it.Some businesses will actually offer to write your resume for free or for a low fee and then charge you a huge amount to be able to submit your resume to an employer. This is a real scam. Resume writing services that charge fees up front are not likely to be legitimate. They are likely to simply be another group scammer, and if you let this one get your resume writing project, you could lose a lot of money.If you do decide to go with a writing group scam, you may be better off hiring a professional resume writer than a freelance writer who charges a flat fee. Because a professional writer will not be paid to get your job, he or she will be able to give you more honest reviews of his or her job.Freelance writers may be able to get you a lower price, but this is often the case in a situation like this. In the long run, your resume w riting service may be paying you more. This is the way things are with large companies with complex processes; they do not have the resources to deal with a bunch of independent writers who want to publish their resumes.Resume writing groups are a legitimate service. Anybody can join them, including you, if you ask. So, whether you have a current job or not, it may be worth your while to check out the writing group scam out.

Summary Sunday Boost Your Career and Job Search

Summary Sunday Boost Your Career and Job Search As we head into the final weeks of 2016, many of you are probably thinking about what you can do to boost your career and job search. This collection of articles addresses many of the popular job search and career issues faced by people like you.  I hope you find something here that will shift your thinking and give your career and job search a boost! CAREER 12 Weekend Habits of Highly Successful People by  Emma Rushton | Lifehack.org If you are bound and determined to make changes to improve your career, then why not follow in the footsteps of uber-successful folks. See  what they do on the  weekend. 12 Supplemental Income Jobs to Help Pay Holiday Bills by Brie Weiler Reynolds | FlexJobs Sure, were already into the holidays, but these jobs offer great flexibility and are in demand year-round. If youve ever thought you wanted to take on a second job, this list has some good ideas.   FYI, these are real jobs, not work from-home scams. JOB SEARCH Youre Fired: Heres A 9-Step Plan To Bounce Back by Gwen Moran | Fast Company Losing a job is painful, to say the least. But it is how you bounce back after being let go that will determine your success during job search. Every single one of these steps is important so I hope youll read this article or share it with someone you know who has recently been laid off. How to Find a Job Without Using an Online Job Board by Susan P. Joyce (WorkCoachCafe) | YouTern Stop relying on job boards! Want to know why? This is what Joyce says: Among the disadvantages of focusing your job search on an online job board, these are the most important: Limited options | You only see the employers and opportunities published at that moment in time! So, you miss the employers who don’t post at that moment or who post elsewhere. Intense competition | When a job is posted, an avalanche of applications typically follow. In fact, an average of 250 applicants for every job. Not every job posting is real | The scammers of the world see job boards as an opportunity. Too often, they use a job posting to collect personal information to use or to sell. Five Myths About Landing a Good Job Later in Life by  Anne Tergesen | Wall Street Journal So youre over 50 and convinced youre not going to get a good job. Read these debunked myths and begin to feel more optimistic about your job search. Workers age 50 or older now comprise 33.4% of the U.S. labor force, up from 25% in 2002. And more than 60% of workers age 65 or older now hold full-time positions, up from 44% in 1995. PayScale’s VIP Blog Roundup: How to Get Hired in 2017 by  Jen Hubley Luckwaldt | PayScale I was thrilled to see my article featured in PayScales roundup along with articles from two other experts Meghan M.Biro and Lolly Daskal.  See the 4 signs of a toxic workplace and how to decode facial expressions. Free New Year, New Job! 101 Top Tips from Job-Hunt Experts for Your Holiday Job Search: How to Use the Holidays to Advance Your Job Search 26 of the job search and career experts who write columns for jobs portal Job-Hunt.org have contributed their tips for helping job seekers successfully continue their job search during the year-end holidays, from Thanksgiving through New Years Day in the USA. This was originally published several years ago, but the tips are all relevant! (And I was pleased to be included in this helpful collection.)

Detective Constable Everything You Need To Know

Detective Constable Everything You Need To Know The UK police force has a strong and stable ranking structure. Amongst the higher ranks, is the role of Detective Constable. Detective Constables are required to participate in difficult and complex criminal investigations, interview victims of crimes (and suspects), and play a leading management role within the police.In this blog, we’ll provide you with some key responsibilities of the Detective Constable role, and the behavioral expectations that you must abide by.Detective Constable responsibilitiesAs a leader within the police force, Detective Constables have a number of core responsibilities. These include:Directing and participating in criminal investigations.Assessing a range of information and data, to come to accurate decisions.Developing strategies for managing investigations, and evaluating existing strategies to determine how they could be improved.Using the latest technology, to assist ongoing investigations.Making cost-effective decisions, with the police budget in m ind.Ensuring that interviews and interrogations are carried out with the utmost professionalism.Participating in, and conducting, interviews with victims, witnesses and suspects.Working closely with fellow police employees, to provide the best possible service to the public.Liaising with employees from partner agencies.Maintaining your own professional standards.Naturally, this is all pretty difficult! The police won’t expect you to just walk into the job and start solving crimes. You’ll be given extensive training to prepare you for all this, and to make sure that you are ready for the challenges ahead.Detective Constables are expected to operate under what are known as ‘building blocks’. These building blocks essentially underline the way in which you will work as Detective Constable, and they will be especially useful when you sit the assessment centre. Think of these as a framework or structure for how you would tackle tasks when working in the police:Preserving Life. Th is should be the immediate priority for any person who is sent to a crime scene. First aid should be provided to any victim in need, and an ambulance should also be requested if necessary. Preserving life should be the mandatory first protocol, even if it risks tampering with the crime scene. Preserving the Scene. Your next priority should be in preserving the crime scene. You need to look at the crime scene as an area, and secure all routes to and from the scene, by placing tape over the entrances, assigning officers to guard entrances and deny access from civilians. You also need to ensure that steps are taken to secure physical evidence, without disrupting or damaging this evidence.Securing the Evidence. Following the above, it’s imperative that you take steps to make sure the evidence is handled carefully. This could be in the form of taking witness statements, or even seizing crime scene items.Victim Identification. Next, you need to make identifying victims your priority. By doing this early, you stand a better chance of identifying suspects, and in doing so solving the case. Suspect Identification. Finally, you need to engage in identifying and arrest suspects. This is extremely important, as suspects could pose a risk to others, or destroy essential evidence before it can be seized by police.Detective Constable Core CompetenciesOn top of this, in order to behave in an exemplary fashion, Detective Constables will need to adhere to the core competencies of the role. Core competencies are essentially a set of behavioural guidelines, which you are expected to demonstrate whilst working in the role. Below we’ve listed the core competencies that would be expected for candidates on the Direct Entry programme:Emotional Awareness The first competency on the list is emotional awareness. Emotional awareness is extremely important for Detective Constables, and indeed for any police employee. As a member of the police force, it’s crucial that you can learn to understand the needs and feelings of your colleagues, and your own emotions. Part of doing this is your ability to listen to others, making a genuine attempt to empathise with them and appreciate their viewpoint.Positive DrivePositive drive is all about being the change that you want to see. It’s about being a force for positive development within the police, and motivating others to improve their own working practice. You must take a positive and enthusiastic attitude to your work, keeping other colleague’s spirits up. As a leader, you must be decisive and proactive, showing a confident and assertive attitude. It’s extremely important that every single employee of the police is capable of adapting to new working methods, and constantly improving. Criminals are becoming more and more intelligent in their attempts to evade the law. The use of modern technology has aided criminals in this regard, but it can also aid the police. Using the most up-to-date methods, you will be res ponsible for tracking down and detaining criminals.Resilience Resilience is an extremely important quality for Detective Constables to have. Working in the police is an exciting and hugely rewarding career, but it is also extremely challenging and can push you to your limits. In order to succeed, you’ll need to be a resilient person. You must be able to face challenges and hardships with an open mind and a calm approach. Obviously, the police do not expect you to be a robot â€" they know that their employees are human beings and that some of the things you’ll experience when working will have an emotional impact. However, it’s imperative that the police know you can handle this. They don’t want to hire someone, only to have them drop out a few weeks later because they can’t deal with the difficult aspects of the role. So, with this in mind, it’s important that you are resilient.Team Working Teamwork is extremely important when working in the police. Your ability to work in synchronisation with your colleagues, to create an effective and organised policing unit, will be paramount to the success of the force. The better police staff can work together, the stronger the level of care that you can provide to the public. Policing is not a one-person job. It takes the combined efforts of the entirety of the police to fight crime successfully. As a Detective Constable, you will need to call on the help of many other specialists working within the police, and in outside agencies, so it’s essential that your teamworking skills are top notch. You’ll also be a leader, required to manage teams, so it’s vital that you have an understanding of how to work with others.Communication Communication is incredibly important when working in the police, and therefore it is essential that candidates for Direct Entry can demonstrate an ability to put across their ideas in a clear and concise manner, in both written form and verbal. Working in the police will put you in contact with a wide variety of people, from different backgrounds, and therefore it’s vital that you can communicate effectively. Not only will you utilise your communication skills when dealing with members of the public, and with your own team, but you will also need to communicate with different members of the law enforcement team, and professionals from outside of the police â€" such as social workers or lawyers. You may also be asked to appear in court, where you will need to communicate verbally. Alternatively, your written reports could be used in court as evidence. These are just some of the many reasons that communication is essential for Detective Constables.Professional Approach As a Detective Constable, it’s imperative that you can take a professional approach to your work. The police are role models in society. They need to set an example, and this is especially true for high ranking officers â€" such as Detective Constables. The public look to the police for gui dance and reassurance, and you can only provide this to them, and build up a level of trust, by acting with the utmost professionalism.You might be familiar with the term integrity. A Detective Constable with integrity is someone who can act with decency, honesty and kindness, whilst still upholding the values and beliefs of the police service. Your professional standards are incredibly important, and you must be able to uphold these.Investigative Mind Naturally, this is one of the core skills for any Detective Constable. The clue being in the name â€" detective! Having an investigative mind means that you are someone who can think analytically about your work, deciding on factors such as investigation planning and how the investigative process will be carried out. Since you are a Detective Constable, this will form one of the key parts of your role, so it’s crucial that you can lead these initiatives. Furthermore, you’ll also be involved in improving the way that future investi gations are conducted, through using self-evaluation and team evaluation to determine what worked well, and what didn’t.At all times, you will need to think logically but creatively, coming up with alternative solutions or methods where others have failed, whilst still maintaining the highest possible standards.Learning No matter what rank you are in the police service, you will always be learning from your experiences. It’s essential that Detective Constables can learn and grow from each and every investigation. Every single person, in every walk of life, makes mistakes. Whether these are major or minor, it’s important that you can learn from these mistakes and improve for the next time. Whilst your initial training will prepare you for the role, at the end of the day it can’t prepare you for every single eventuality, and therefore you need to be able to think on your feet and develop strategies for dealing with unexpected scenarios.This is not an easy role. Working as a De tective Constable will require you to give 100% of yourself every single day. If you aren’t learning from your experiences, then you will have a big problem, because improvement is a key part of doing this job successfully. This entry was posted in Career Advice. Bookmark the permalink. Jordan Cooke Tips For Passing GCSE English LiteratureUSA Police Officer Tests â€" Sample Comprehension Questions 6 thoughts on “Detective Constable: Everything You Need To Know” sally says:Hi, having gone through this process, I am afraid the details given here are partially incorrect. April 15, 2018 at 10:11 am Reply Joshua Brown says:Hi Sally,Thank you for your comment and info. We’d love to hear how your experience differed? We are aware that there is a new police constable assessment centre process being used by the MET (which is being finalised) but we have guided a few applicants in the last month through the MET’s Detective Constable Direct Entry route and they have all had the process described in the blog. E.g.:Online Application FormOnline Verbal Reasoning TestsStandard Police Constable ‘Day 1’ Assessment CentreDetective Constable Assessment Centre (In-Tray, Briefing Exercise, and Interview)If you process did differ we’d love to hear more from you. Please feel free to contact us at: info@how2become.co.ukWe wish you all the best as a DC and if there is anything we can do to help, please drop us a message ?? April 20, 2018 at 2:06 pm Reply Isidora says:Hello. I am interested in this role and I planning to apply in Bedfordshire. So, I need some information about the training, how difficult it is, and if there are any books for this role to buy to prepare myself correctly. Many thanks. February 7, 2019 at 11:07 pm Reply Jordan Cooke says:Hi Isidora,It’s great to hear that you are interested in the role! We have a fantastic book on How to Become a Detective Constable, so hopefully this helps you out!Sincerely,How2Become February 8, 2019 at 5: 15 pm Reply ravi says:its so great helping July 24, 2019 at 7:03 am Reply yuvraj says:its a great thuoght July 24, 2019 at 7:05 am Reply