Ask BusinessWeek Columnist Christine Comaford Your Questions and WIN! - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Ask BusinessWeek Columnist Christine Comaford Your Questions and WIN! - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career We have had only a single contest here on the Personal Branding Blog. That changes today. Christine Comaford and I have been discussing a brand new contest, where 10 of you can win a free copy of her book and have your business challenges solved ON THIS BLOG. Christine has massive credibility and is willing to share her expertise with my readers (Brand You). Why is she doing this? She loves to hear from new audiences and I told her my readers will have some very interesting questions. Contest Rules 1) In the comments section, list your top 3 business challenges or questions for Christine. 2) She will pick the most common ones and do a guest post on this blog on Friday to answer them for you. 3) The first 10 to respond within 48 hours of this post will get a free copy of her book. Let the comments flow! Good luck and may the brand be with you. Christines background Bill Gates calls her “super high bandwidth.” Bill Clinton has thanked her for “fostering American entrepreneurship.” Newsweek says “by reputation, Christine is the person you want to partner with.” New York Times bestselling author Christine Comaford-Lynch is CEO of Mighty Ventures, a businessaccelerator which helps businesses to massively increase sales, product offerings, and company value. She has built and sold 5 of her own businesses with an average 700% return on investment, served as a board director or in-the-trenches advisor to 36 startups, and has invested in over 200 startups (including Google) as a venture capitalist or angel investor. Christine has consulted to the White House (Clinton and Bush), 700 of the Fortune 1000, and over 300 small businesses. She has repeatedly identified and championed key trends and technologies years before market acceptance. Christine writes the Growth Strategies column on www.BusinessWeek.com/SmallBiz. Christine has led many lives: Buddhist monk, Microsoft engineer, geisha trainee, entrepreneur, and venture capitalist. Her triumphs and disasters are revealed in her New York Times (and USA Today, Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, and Amazon.com ) bestselling business book: Rules for Renegades: How to Make More Money, Rock Your Career, and Revel in Your Individuality. Christine has appeared on Good Morning America, The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX Business Network, PBS, CNET and is frequently quoted in the business, technology and general press at large. Stanford Graduate School of Business has done two case studies on her and PBS has featured her in three specials (Triumph of the Nerds, Nerds 2.0.1, and Nerd TV ). CNET has broadcast two specials covering her unconventional rise to success as a woman with neither a high school diploma nor college degree. Christine believes we can do well and do good, using business as a path for personal development, wealth creation, and philanthropy.

Travel With MindShift Gears Rotation 180º Backpack

Travel With MindShift Gears Rotation 180 º Backpack With a big trip ahead, one of my biggest concerns is making sure that I am on top of my packing game. A trusty packing trick is to pack your carry on smartly. TravelAway helps you do exactly that. I have a big trip to London coming up and I would very much like to avoid the struggle and embarrassment from a poorly planned carry on situation. Have you fallen in line behind someone who is holding the queue because he is trying to desperately find his wallet or passport among his belongings? This is one of the struggles that many people experience in a check-in lane. When traveling to unfamiliar places, you want to make sure that your carry on is set up so that your items are secure and organized. Have you found yourself trying to find your wallet in a deep and cluttered handbag or gigantic backpack while making sure that no one suddenly comes around and runs away with your laptop bag? It isn’t just inconvenient; it can also spell out trouble in public places. This is what MindShift Gears Travel Away Backpack  solves. It puts all your important items in a two-in-one bag and makes organizing your belongings both easy and accessible. With MindShift Gear’s Rotation 180 Travel Away backpack, it is easy to stay organized. I think its best feature is its revolving beltpack where you can keep your important travel needs in. You can conceal the beltpack so that it looks like it is part of the back pack, and then twist it to the front in one swift motion to access your important items. I think this is genius, and so did the design and travel pros. This patented rotation180 ° technology recently won two of Europes top design awards, the Red Dot Award and the OutDoor Industry Award 2014. It can fit an IPad mini, small electronic, maps, travel documents, wallet, sunglasses, and many more smaller items. Since it is integrated into the bag, it looks cool and proves to be incredibly convenient. The backpack in itself has great compartments for many things to keep you organized. You get to stow away your 15” laptop in one pocket, a water bottle in another, and still have enough room for a jacket, a fresh set of cothes, a travel pillow and snacks. This was definitely a smart and worthy travel investment for $199.99. For all you travel junkies, or all you trying to figure out what to give travel junkies for the holidays, this one is a sure win! This post was brought to you in partnership with MindShift.

Top 3 Services Provided By Resume Writing Services For Educators and Military Personnel

Top 3 Services Provided By Resume Writing Services For Educators and Military PersonnelThe best resume writing services for educators are those that allow students to choose the specific service they want and ensure that the resume and cover letter to convey exactly what is expected. Individuals must give their best effort when it comes to this area, and the professionals at this business know that a job search takes priority over a formal letter or even an entire job application. That is why they focus on returning all submissions with all of the necessary skills required for the particular position that the individual is applying for.Teachers, academic personnel, and administrative personnel can each find some form of a career in the military. The military does have many great benefits to offer, but it also has its responsibilities. Individuals who are interested in teaching should seriously consider this opportunity as they will be required to spend a great deal of time with stude nts and under the direction of a supervisor. Individuals who are seeking to serve the military in an administrative capacity should also consider this option.Military personnel will find a variety of different careers available to them. These professionals will need to find a way to get involved in the community and see it from a variety of different perspectives. If you would like to help someone to advance their career opportunities and see things from a unique perspective, enlisting in the military may be the best option.All professional resume services are looking for the best candidates possible, so they understand that the person submitting the application will want to share a number of traits. Having these skills are important, as they will make or break the individual's chances of getting hired. This is the primary reason why educators and military personnel must choose to submit resumes that perfectly fit the specific requirements.Educators and other education professionals often find themselves faced with finding a job, while serving in the military. Individuals who have a degree in education or have spent their career in the field may find that they are in need of specialized services. Many times these individuals will hire a resume writing company to create a resume that will accurately reflect their current skill set.In general, individuals who want to go back to school can begin by taking an introductory course on the basic level. These professionals will find that they will need to submit their resume online to be considered for employment. Once you have been accepted into this program, you will then be able to submit your resume to any number of different companies and receive a range of responses.Teachers can use resume writing services for educators but may have slightly more freedom in the classroom. For instance, if the students are doing research and reviewing information in order to prepare for test day, educators may be free to include i nformation about the classes in question. They can also include a listing of class assignments and pertinent class discussion materials.Careers in the military include the ability to have the ability to add this detail, as the resume needs to highlight a variety of skills. The resume needs to clearly reflect the information that is included on the application. Both types of professionals should send resumes to one resume writing company, so that they can have the information submitted to the recruiter immediately.

Cookie-Cutter Resumes Can Leave a Bad Taste in the Hiring Managers Mouth

Cookie-Cutter Resumes Can Leave a Bad Taste in the Hiring Managers Mouth As a member of a new community of resume writers and career coaches called the Career Collective, this post is one of many responses to the question, Are you a cookie cutter job seeker? I encourage you to visit other members responses, linked at the end of my reply! Please follow our hashtag on Twitter: #careercollective.Frequently I meet job seekers who think that there is a strict format for resumes and refer to the resume format they used when they graduated from college or find something on Google templates to use as their guide. Some job seekers are fearful of changing up any of the content or adding any type of stylistic design elements to their resume for fear that their resumes will look different from others. Huh?Strong brands have a value proposition, look, and feel that separates them from the pack. Apple didnt become successful because it was just like a PC and Starbucks didnt become the powerhouse it is because they are just another coffee shop. Strong brands allow people to experience an important emotion and the packaging of the brand is all part of that emotional connection.A resume is a marketing tool designed to get the job seeker interviews. Every facet of the document needs to exude your promise to deliver, your passion, and your differentiating features. And this can never be achieved with a template resume or one that was created based on the way resumes were written many years ago when you graduated.Develop content and design based on that unique value. Write about your compelling stories of success and validate that success by showing the impact your actions had on the organizations you supported. Doing so will help build trust between you and your reader and solidify the emotional connection to your brand. Use design features such as bold, shading, graphs, charts, and even color if these elements better communicate your key selling points. Dont be afraid to do things differently if doing so will help you get you r message across.Heres what my colleagues have to say about this topic.Keppie Careers Conscious awareness and your job hunt*Career By Choices Expat Success Tips Ongoing Career management is No Longer Optional for the Expat in Todays New World of Work Top Margin: Gayles Blog Sabotaging Your Prospects: Cookie-cutter Style CAREEREALISM: Cookie Cutters are for BakingNot Job Searching! The Emerging Professional: On the Cookie Cutter Approach to Job Search: Do You Need a Recipe? Sterling Career Concepts: Job seekers: Break out of the mold!Dawn Bugni The Write Solution: Dawns Blog Is your job search cookie-cutter or hand-dropped? Rosa Vargas, Creating Prints Resume-Writing Blog: Being a Cookie-Cutter Job Seeker is a Misfortune Heather Mundell, life@work: How Not to Be a Cookie Cutter Job Seeker Sweet Careers:Passive Job Seeker=Cookie Cutter Job SeekerJacqui Barrett-Poindexter, Career Trend Blog: Eating Bananas Doesnt Make You an Ape,http://careertrend.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/eating-b ananas-doesnt-make-you-an-ape/ Miriam Salpeter, Keppie Careers: How Can a Job Seeker Stand Out?http://www.keppiecareers.com/2009/10/07/how-can-a-job-seeker-stand-out/Quintessential Resumes and Cover Letters Tips Blog:Avoiding Being a Cookie-Cutter Job-seeker In Your Resume and Throughout Your Job Search: Heather R. Huhman, HeatherHuhman.com: Break the Mold: Dont Be a Cookie Cutter Rosalind Joffe, WorkingWithChronicIllness.com Forget the cookies! Start with vision Hannah Morgan, Career Sherpa   Are You a Cookie Cutter Job Seeker?

This Is How You Can Financially Support Yourself While Job Hunting - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

This Is How You Can Financially Support Yourself While Job Hunting Looking for a new job can throw up a myriad of different problems. Not only can it be stressful trying to get your resume, cover letter, and interview preparation  in order, but it might also be a period in which you aren’t earning. This is usually the case for people who have been made redundant and aren’t able to find a job before they leave their current one. In this case, supporting yourself financially while job hunting can be very difficult indeed. It’s not completely impossible, though. Here are a few tips that might help you. Continue Working If Possible Of course, the best thing you can do is to try to continue working while you are looking for a new job. That way, you still have a steady stream of income to rely on. If you have already quit your job then you might want to see about finding some temporary part-time work to support yourself. If this isn’t possible, then you should read on for the next few tips. Monetise Your Hobbies These days, it is ever so easy to monetise your hobbies and earn a bit of cash with them. This is all thanks to the internet and social media. For instance, many amateur writers have been able to start blogging and earn a bit of extra cash from that. There are plenty of online guides to help you monetise a blog. It’s also worth thinking about trying to become an Instagram influencer. Whether your hobby is running or crafting, you’ll be able to start a profile dedicated to it and should find that it’s easy to find a sponsor once you build up a strong following. Consider Online Cryptocurrency Investments These days there are lots of ways that people are making money online, and one of these is by investing some money into cryptocurrencies. It’s easy to get into even if you don’t have any previous experience of cryptocurrencies. You just need to use one of the peer-to-peer platforms to buy some. Thats what ripple is; you simply need to sign up and start trading a cryptocurrency. Thanks to the volatility of these currencies, you could make some big returns if you make some smart decisions. Tighten Your Purse Strings It also makes sense to reign in some of your spending while you are focusing your efforts on job hunting. It’s a good idea to look at your weekly or monthly budget to see which expenses you can do without completely or try to reduce. At least you can then relax your spending once you find a new job. Look For Government Benefits Don’t forget that you might also be eligible for some financial benefits from the government. Most countries provide financial support for people who are out of work but actively looking for a new job. As you can see, you don’t have to struggle with your finances too much while you are looking for a job. All of these tips above should help you get by.