Table for Two… or Just Me?

✨ Empower Your Journey: Tarot for Millennials ✨

In today’s fast-paced world, millennials are constantly seeking ways to connect, grow, and take charge of their lives. Tarot is the ultimate tool for empowerment and self-discovery—a way to tap into your inner wisdom, embrace your intuition, and understand your path forward.

Tarot readings are more than just a mystical experience—they’re a powerful way to gain clarity, make informed decisions, and unlock your true potential. In a world where uncertainty is a constant, tarot serves as a guiding light, helping you navigate your personal and professional life with confidence.

When you embrace tarot as a tool for personal empowerment, you open the door to your own inner strength. Here’s why millennials are turning to tarot as their go-to source of guidance:

🔮 Clarity in a Chaotic World: In times of confusion, tarot can help you see things from a fresh perspective, offering clarity on life’s biggest decisions.

💫 Strengthening Intuition: Tarot taps into your subconscious, helping you connect with your instincts and make choices aligned with your true self.

🌟 Empowerment through Insight: Tarot empowers you to take action with purpose. Each card drawn offers a glimpse into your potential, helping you manifest your dreams and desires.

Why Millennials Love Tarot:

Self-Reflection & Growth: Tarot helps millennials tune into their emotions, analyze patterns, and uncover new insights about themselves.

Empowerment Through Knowledge: By understanding the messages in each tarot card, millennials feel more empowered to make informed decisions and take control of their destiny.

Healing and Mindfulness: Tarot encourages mindfulness, helping individuals release negativity and embrace a positive mindset to create meaningful change.

Connect to Your Authentic Self: In a world of distractions, tarot offers a way for millennials to reconnect with their core values and desires.

🌙 Unlock Your Power with Tarot! 🌙

Tarot isn’t just about what’s to come—it’s about what’s possible when you tap into your own energy and potential. Every reading is a chance to empower yourself, learn from your past, and craft the future you desire.

replying to a blog entitled An Average Australian Woman's Perspective on Australia's Inadequate Unemployment Payments

Hey folks, just chiming in here as another Aussie trying to make ends meet in this wild job market! 🇦🇺 And let me tell ya, it's not just us sheilas feeling the pinch – it's blokes too, and heck, all Aussies in general!

I reckon we're all out here hustlin' and bustlin', trying to snag ourselves a decent gig to pay the bills. But gosh darn it, sometimes it feels like we're swimmin' against the current with a ton of bricks tied to our ankles! 💼

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for puttin' in the hard yards and makin' me job applications shine like a beacon in the night. But crikey, is it just me or is writin' about meself the hardest thing since tryin' to wrangle a kangaroo into a pair of board shorts? 🦘

I mean, who knew it'd be so flamin' difficult to sell yourself like a used car on Gumtree? 🚗 But hey, we're Aussies – we're resilient, we're resourceful, and we're not afraid to have a laugh along the way!

So here's to all of us, battlin' it out in the trenches of the job market, tryin' to make ends meet and maybe even have a bit of fun while we're at it. 'Cause let's face it, laughter's the best medicine – that and a steady paycheck! 💸

So, what did Jack do to score himself a gig at the bank? Well, he whipped out that trusty ol' resume of his and spruced it up real nice. He made sure to highlight any skills or experience he had – even if it was just from helpin' out at the local footy club or slingin' burgers at Maccas.

Then, he polished up his interview skills and rocked up to that bank like he owned the joint. And wouldn't ya know it, they snapped him up quicker than you can say "debit or credit?" 💳

As someone who's been in the workforce for a while now, I can tell ya, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to make ends meet. And hey, if that means sprucing up that resume and going after what you want, then it's worth every bit of effort.

Now, I'm no spring chicken myself, and let me tell ya, I've seen my fair share of ups and downs in the job market. But here's the thing – sometimes you gotta swallow your pride and ask for a bit of help.

I mean, heck, I've been known to hire someone to spruce up my resume from time to time. And you know what? It's worth every penny. 'Cause let's face it, a small investment now can lead to a bloomin' great career down the track.

Think about it – 250 bucks for a shot at a 90k a year job? That's a steal if you ask me! I mean, we'll drop 350 on a pair of shoes without batting an eyelid, but when it comes to investing in our own future, suddenly we're singing a different tune. 🎶

Now, let me tell ya, I'm from Poland, so English ain't me first language – you can probably tell from me fancy accent! 😄 But hey, I've been thinkin' about this paid service you mentioned. What do ya reckon? Worth a shot, yeah?

I mean, back in Poland, we don't have these fancy gigs like Jackson's – landin' a job at the bank sounds like a fairy tale to me! But hey, if a little investment can help me kickstart me career here in the land down under, then sign me up!

You see, I am also struggling to find job, and when I see someone like Jackson getting job at bank, it makes me feel hopeful, you know? It gives me motivation.

I'm curious, how do you all go about your job search? Do you rely on apps or do you prefer using your phones or websites? Personally, I find apps convenient, but they don't always allow for tailoring my resume to each application.

Gaining focus and creating a strong, content-rich resume is easy when you have a plan to follow.

Step One: Review Samples

As the job seeker, I am supposed to be responsible for conveying my goals, objectives, and a clear sense of job purpose. The information on my resume should respond and relate to the qualifications listed in the job posting. So I think you must create a powerful resume that mirrors your qualifications and follow that up with an interview that impresses the employers with your capability to perform the job.

You Have More Skills Than You Think

If we ever had coffee and I asked you what your skills are, after quoting Liam Neeson from the movie Taken, you’d probably tell me one of two things: 1. I don’t know what my skills are. 2. I don’t have (m)any. The first answer might be born from the simple fact that you haven’t thought about that question ever. I once had a job that required us to do self-evaluations of our own skills. This exercise felt like an invitation to invent new ways you were awesome. We were motivated to do this because we all knew our raises were dependent on it but we still had a hard time coming up with a list of skills. My coworkers and I would scratch our heads and write things like “numbers.” My skills are numbers. That’s not a skill, that’s The Count from Sesame Street’s passion. That’s a noun. The second answer, the belief that you don’t have many, is probably because you’re human. We humans have a difficult job seeing our own skills as skills. Roy H. Williams, author and marketing expert, says, “It’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the bottle.”1 We don’t consider them skills but rather just things we do.

So during this fictional coffee, the first thing I would do is to try to help you figure out what skills you already have. I’d even pull out a stack of note cards, which would probably make you recoil a little. Because once again, we’re about to cross the threshold between dreaming and doing. Dreaming is fun. Future results are enjoyable to talk about. Present efforts are not. But I’d push through all the hope you’ve stored in someday and try my best to get you to focus on the skills portion of your CSA today.

We tend to focus on “how to get more skills” first, which is understandable. “Get more” conversations invite you to dream. Assessing what you already have forces you to be honest. One of those is clearly more fun.

But this is a critical point in this section. Because now we’re going to do some work. The goal is to create a list of our current skills so that we know what we have to work with, what might be missing and what we want to improve. Don’t worry—we won’t be using note cards in the hustle or character sections—but when it comes to skills we need a method for figuring out where we are in order to head toward where we want to be.

We’re going to build on the approach we started with in relationships. In that section, there was only one step: Write the name of someone you know who can help with your Do Over. Skills take a little more detail, but I assure you this is just as simple as the first exercise you already crushed. ■ What We’re About to Do There are only two steps to this exercise: 1. Write down ideas. 2. Look for patterns. For my high-detail friends this is like some sort of dream come true. You probably already have a note-card drawer sorted by color and size. For my low-detail friends, you are among company. I feel your lack of organization but I assure you that your career is worth it. ■ Step 1: Write Down Ideas I have a stack of cards on my desk. One of them just says, “Naps.” I have no idea what that means now. It’s possible that at one point I was creating a list of things that are awesome or perhaps brainstorming activities Winnie the Pooh likes. Hard to say, but here’s what’s important: It doesn’t matter.

I don’t want your cards to be perfect. I just want you to write. I want you to work your way into the freedom to write down any skills that you like. I say work your way into it because like most people, you’ve been taught to be safe. Somewhere on the road to adulthood we decided that dreams were dumb. We stopped wanting to be firemen and astronauts and settled for stuck and predictable. We accepted the lie that Monday must be boring.

Step 1 is all about quantity. One skill per card, as many cards as you can come up with. This is not the time to edit. For now, we’re going for volume. Don’t ask yourself “Is this dumb?” It might be, and that’s OK. All I want you to do is write one skill you currently have per card. Don’t try to cram multiple ideas onto a single card.

To get started, here are some questions you can answer about your skills: 1. What are you good at? Screw humility. This is no time to be humble. This is the hero’s slow walk from an explosion moment. What’s something you’re good, dare I say, amazing at? Do you create great marketing proposals? Can no one balance a budget like you can? I’m not talking about just in your current job either. Go way back. If you were a fantastic paperboy, write down “On-time delivery.” With relationships, we surfaced the casual ones because there’s no telling where they might lead. Same with skills. Surface them all! 2. What comes naturally? This question will generate some “Oh, this?” skills, those things you don’t even think about because they come so naturally to you. You think everyone can do what you do, but we can’t. The elaborate dinner parties you throw so easily, like Sarah and her Neighbor’s Table, are indicative that you’re amazing at event planning and connecting with others. That thing that comes naturally to you is difficult for the rest of the population. Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s not a skill. 3. What do people pay me to do? If you’ve ever had a single job, this question is going to generate at least one note card. What were your responsibilities at your favorite job? Write them down, one card per skill. For instance, if you were in charge of quality assurance for software launches, write down, “quality assurance.” Increase the cards this question generates by asking, “What skill would people pay me to do?” (Hint: The answer is “Almost anything.”) 4. What are you afraid of? Bears, obviously, but besides these furred denizens of death there are plenty of important skills hidden inside our fears. The reason is that great passions usually come with great fears. You’ve known you were supposed to do something for years, but have been avoiding it because you’re afraid of it. Write that down. For example, I would list “writing” as one of my fears. Isn’t that stupid to be afraid to do the thing I feel most called to do? It is, but no one ever accused fear of being smart. This one might feel counterintuitive because we’re often told to answer the question “What do I love doing?” when it comes to figuring out our dreams and skills. I think that’s an important question and one you could certainly ask with this exercise, but I’ve also learned we can be afraid of the things that really matter to us. Be honest with yourself. Do you really dread public speaking or are you afraid of it because you’re worried you might not be good at it and it’s something you secretly want to do? 5. If you wrote an eBook, what would the topic be? Times are tough. Bills are due. Ma and Pa are about to lose the beet farm. The only way to save the situation is to write a twenty-page eBook that teaches eager shoppers to do something you’re good at. Are you renowned for your ability to pack ten days of clothes into a small carry-on for business trips? Have people marveled in the past at your skills in creating marketing strategies for book launches? Have you figured out a unique way to fit a fully functional wood shop in your garage but always thought of it as a silly hobby? If you had to create an eBook today, what would the topic be? If you had to write a series of three, what would be in your trilogy? ■ Step 2: Look for Patterns Now that you’ve got a few skills labeled you’ll start to notice something: Some of the ideas are related. They might not say the same thing, but they are at least cousins in the family tree of creativity. As you start to see some that are similar, begin grouping them together. Cluster them in a way that you can still see the nugget of each idea at a glance. If you create a vertical stack that covers up all the ideas except the one on top, you won’t be able to see them all at once and might miss something important. Group them in the way that works best for you. Maybe you want to group yours by “Skills I love doing,” “Skills I get paid the most for,” “Skills I want to improve” or “Skills I haven’t used in a long time.”

Don’t worry if you don’t come right out of the gate with some patterns. If this is your first go-round with an activity like this, you shouldn’t be great at it yet. Try tweaking this exercise to make it work the best possible way for you.

Please don’t get stuck using a tool that is designed to help you get unstuck. This shouldn’t be a perfect process. In fact, I hope it’s not. You should only spend a few minutes when you initially do this, then walk away. Building a Career Savings Account is a lifelong process; you’ve got time. Put your cards in a spot where you will see them during your average day. I want you to bump into them as you walk to the kitchen or garage. Some (most) ideas are elusive. They don’t walk into our heads and announce themselves; we have to capture them. And often they won’t come out until they’re positive we aren’t trying to find them. Don’t believe me? OK, so how come your best ideas come in the shower? Did you step into the shower and tell yourself, “Today I will condition my hair and try to brainstorm solutions to that problem at work”? Of course not. That wasn’t even on your brain and yet, mid “repeat as necessary” the solution hits you!

I don’t think you should bring waterproof note cards into your shower, but you should keep a stack of regular cards around. Fear would love to add the inconvenience of searching for one as a way to prevent an idea from seeing the light of day. Beat it back by keeping a stack in a few locations at home. And keep some in your pocket. It might feel a little strange, but anyone who judges you for writing down an idea and trying to be smarter about idea capture is a jerk. (You could always do this using an app on your phone but remember, there’s still something powerful about physically writing an idea down.)

The goal of looking for patterns is greater clarity into what skills you possess. If you have ten skills written down, for instance, and nine of them fall into the category “Skills I don’t use at my current job,” we need to fix that. We need to find a new job that uses more of your skills, bring more of your skills to your current job or learn the skills your job actually requires.

If you ended up with two note cards and a pattern of “I have no skills, I hate you Jon Acuff,” it might be time to phone a friend. Grab coffee with someone and ask them flat out, “What do you think my skills are?” If they’re like my friends their first temptation will be to say something about your ability to pay “da billz,” but immediately after they go to the extreme and rock a mic like a vandal they will surprise you with skills you forgot to write down. This conversation will definitely help you, but it will also be excruciating. It will feel like you’re asking a friend to list all of the ways you are awesome. Even if you set it up the right way and ask for a tangible skill and not a flowery compliment, you’re still going to squirm while they respond. Suck it up. You’re good at something. To pretend otherwise is a waste of time. The point of the note-card exercise is to generate two different things: 1. Hope 2. Awareness The first one is simple: Launching a Do Over takes a tremendous amount of hope. At the start of a journey like this, it’s very easy to get discouraged and think you currently don’t possess many career skills. Hopefully seeing them on a handful of note cards for the first time has encouraged you that just like with your relationships, you’re better off than you thought. The second goal, awareness, is something that will also come up in greater detail in the hustle section. In the skills portion, the purpose of increased awareness is to help you see new skills you might want to acquire. Whether you want to get better at your current job or find a new one, chances are you will need new skills. Seeing what skills you currently have on note cards often helps increase the awareness of what’s missing, those new skills you might need for a new job or to break through a Career Ceiling.

Remember Relationships get you the first gig, skills get you the second. You have more skills than you think. Writing them down and looking for patterns is a great way to discover that.

Don’t let fear hide a skill you’ve always had or wanted to pursue. Just because you’re afraid of doing something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. If you have a hard time filling out note cards, tag a friend in to help you.

Read More

You don’t like Brenda. She’s not just a foe, she’s your arch nemesis. Your Joker to Batman. You can’t stand the way she laughs, she’s not very good at her job and is a serial microwave popcorn burner.

It would be far easier to treat her with disdain. Perhaps not out-and-out disrespect, but it would be fun to talk behind her back. To join the “Brenda sucks” fan club, or if there’s not one, form your own. You could be the president. Your mom always said you were destined for office!

But here’s the problem: Brenda could be your boss someday. That might feel impossible right now. There’s no way management would promote her. She’s the worst! Can’t they see that? Don’t they know she’s a credit thief, a meeting elongater, and so dumb she makes up words worse than “elongater” in her e-mails? They couldn’t possibly make her your boss. And yet, that could happen.

I have seen far worse people than Brenda promoted. So have you. To argue otherwise is to believe that only amazing, noble, talented, kindhearted people hold positions of power at companies. Have you ever worked at a company for longer than seven minutes? Then you know that’s not true.

When I left my first job at Details Communications, I left like they had deeply offended me. I drove home t and actually stopped at the border to take photos commemorating my triumphant exit.

You Have More Skills Than You Think

If we ever had coffee and I asked you what your skills are, after quoting Liam Neeson from the movie Taken, you’d probably tell me one of two things: 1. I don’t know what my skills are. 2. I don’t have (m)any. The first answer might be born from the simple fact that you haven’t thought about that question ever. I once had a job that required us to do self-evaluations of our own skills. This exercise felt like an invitation to invent new ways you were awesome. We were motivated to do this because we all knew our raises were dependent on it but we still had a hard time coming up with a list of skills. My coworkers and I would scratch our heads and write things like “numbers.” My skills are numbers. That’s not a skill, that’s The Count from Sesame Street’s passion. That’s a noun. The second answer, the belief that you don’t have many, is probably because you’re human. We humans have a difficult job seeing our own skills as skills. Roy H. Williams, author and marketing expert, says, “It’s hard to read the label when you’re inside the bottle.”1 We don’t consider them skills but rather just things we do.

So during this fictional coffee, the first thing I would do is to try to help you figure out what skills you already have. I’d even pull out a stack of note cards, which would probably make you recoil a little. Because once again, we’re about to cross the threshold between dreaming and doing. Dreaming is fun. Future results are enjoyable to talk about. Present efforts are not. But I’d push through all the hope you’ve stored in someday and try my best to get you to focus on the skills portion of your CSA today.

We tend to focus on “how to get more skills” first, which is understandable. “Get more” conversations invite you to dream. Assessing what you already have forces you to be honest. One of those is clearly more fun.

But this is a critical point in this section. Because now we’re going to do some work. The goal is to create a list of our current skills so that we know what we have to work with, what might be missing and what we want to improve. Don’t worry—we won’t be using note cards in the hustle or character sections—but when it comes to skills we need a method for figuring out where we are in order to head toward where we want to be.

We’re going to build on the approach we started with in relationships. In that section, there was only one step: Write the name of someone you know who can help with your Do Over. Skills take a little more detail, but I assure you this is just as simple as the first exercise you already crushed. ■ What We’re About to Do There are only two steps to this exercise: 1. Write down ideas. 2. Look for patterns. For my high-detail friends this is like some sort of dream come true. You probably already have a note-card drawer sorted by color and size. For my low-detail friends, you are among company. I feel your lack of organization but I assure you that your career is worth it. ■ Step 1: Write Down Ideas I have a stack of cards on my desk. One of them just says, “Naps.” I have no idea what that means now. It’s possible that at one point I was creating a list of things that are awesome or perhaps brainstorming activities Winnie the Pooh likes. Hard to say, but here’s what’s important: It doesn’t matter.

I don’t want your cards to be perfect. I just want you to write. I want you to work your way into the freedom to write down any skills that you like. I say work your way into it because like most people, you’ve been taught to be safe. Somewhere on the road to adulthood we decided that dreams were dumb. We stopped wanting to be firemen and astronauts and settled for stuck and predictable. We accepted the lie that Monday must be boring.

Step 1 is all about quantity. One skill per card, as many cards as you can come up with. This is not the time to edit. For now, we’re going for volume. Don’t ask yourself “Is this dumb?” It might be, and that’s OK. All I want you to do is write one skill you currently have per card. Don’t try to cram multiple ideas onto a single card.

To get started, here are some questions you can answer about your skills: 1. What are you good at? Screw humility. This is no time to be humble. This is the hero’s slow walk from an explosion moment. What’s something you’re good, dare I say, amazing at? Do you create great marketing proposals? Can no one balance a budget like you can? I’m not talking about just in your current job either. Go way back. If you were a fantastic paperboy, write down “On-time delivery.” With relationships, we surfaced the casual ones because there’s no telling where they might lead. Same with skills. Surface them all! 2. What comes naturally? This question will generate some “Oh, this?” skills, those things you don’t even think about because they come so naturally to you. You think everyone can do what you do, but we can’t. The elaborate dinner parties you throw so easily, like Sarah and her Neighbor’s Table, are indicative that you’re amazing at event planning and connecting with others. That thing that comes naturally to you is difficult for the rest of the population. Just because it’s easy doesn’t mean it’s not a skill. 3. What do people pay me to do? If you’ve ever had a single job, this question is going to generate at least one note card. What were your responsibilities at your favorite job? Write them down, one card per skill. For instance, if you were in charge of quality assurance for software launches, write down, “quality assurance.” Increase the cards this question generates by asking, “What skill would people pay me to do?” (Hint: The answer is “Almost anything.”) 4. What are you afraid of? Bears, obviously, but besides these furred denizens of death there are plenty of important skills hidden inside our fears. The reason is that great passions usually come with great fears. You’ve known you were supposed to do something for years, but have been avoiding it because you’re afraid of it. Write that down. For example, I would list “writing” as one of my fears. Isn’t that stupid to be afraid to do the thing I feel most called to do? It is, but no one ever accused fear of being smart. This one might feel counterintuitive because we’re often told to answer the question “What do I love doing?” when it comes to figuring out our dreams and skills. I think that’s an important question and one you could certainly ask with this exercise, but I’ve also learned we can be afraid of the things that really matter to us. Be honest with yourself. Do you really dread public speaking or are you afraid of it because you’re worried you might not be good at it and it’s something you secretly want to do? 5. If you wrote an eBook, what would the topic be? Times are tough. Bills are due. Ma and Pa are about to lose the beet farm. The only way to save the situation is to write a twenty-page eBook that teaches eager shoppers to do something you’re good at. Are you renowned for your ability to pack ten days of clothes into a small carry-on for business trips? Have people marveled in the past at your skills in creating marketing strategies for book launches? Have you figured out a unique way to fit a fully functional wood shop in your garage but always thought of it as a silly hobby? If you had to create an eBook today, what would the topic be? If you had to write a series of three, what would be in your trilogy? ■ Step 2: Look for Patterns Now that you’ve got a few skills labeled you’ll start to notice something: Some of the ideas are related. They might not say the same thing, but they are at least cousins in the family tree of creativity. As you start to see some that are similar, begin grouping them together. Cluster them in a way that you can still see the nugget of each idea at a glance. If you create a vertical stack that covers up all the ideas except the one on top, you won’t be able to see them all at once and might miss something important. Group them in the way that works best for you. Maybe you want to group yours by “Skills I love doing,” “Skills I get paid the most for,” “Skills I want to improve” or “Skills I haven’t used in a long time.”

Don’t worry if you don’t come right out of the gate with some patterns. If this is your first go-round with an activity like this, you shouldn’t be great at it yet. Try tweaking this exercise to make it work the best possible way for you.

Please don’t get stuck using a tool that is designed to help you get unstuck. This shouldn’t be a perfect process. In fact, I hope it’s not. You should only spend a few minutes when you initially do this, then walk away. Building a Career Savings Account is a lifelong process; you’ve got time. Put your cards in a spot where you will see them during your average day. I want you to bump into them as you walk to the kitchen or garage. Some (most) ideas are elusive. They don’t walk into our heads and announce themselves; we have to capture them. And often they won’t come out until they’re positive we aren’t trying to find them. Don’t believe me? OK, so how come your best ideas come in the shower? Did you step into the shower and tell yourself, “Today I will condition my hair and try to brainstorm solutions to that problem at work”? Of course not. That wasn’t even on your brain and yet, mid “repeat as necessary” the solution hits you!

I don’t think you should bring waterproof note cards into your shower, but you should keep a stack of regular cards around. Fear would love to add the inconvenience of searching for one as a way to prevent an idea from seeing the light of day. Beat it back by keeping a stack in a few locations at home. And keep some in your pocket. It might feel a little strange, but anyone who judges you for writing down an idea and trying to be smarter about idea capture is a jerk. (You could always do this using an app on your phone but remember, there’s still something powerful about physically writing an idea down.)

The goal of looking for patterns is greater clarity into what skills you possess. If you have ten skills written down, for instance, and nine of them fall into the category “Skills I don’t use at my current job,” we need to fix that. We need to find a new job that uses more of your skills, bring more of your skills to your current job or learn the skills your job actually requires.

If you ended up with two note cards and a pattern of “I have no skills, I hate you Jon Acuff,” it might be time to phone a friend. Grab coffee with someone and ask them flat out, “What do you think my skills are?” If they’re like my friends their first temptation will be to say something about your ability to pay “da billz,” but immediately after they go to the extreme and rock a mic like a vandal they will surprise you with skills you forgot to write down. This conversation will definitely help you, but it will also be excruciating. It will feel like you’re asking a friend to list all of the ways you are awesome. Even if you set it up the right way and ask for a tangible skill and not a flowery compliment, you’re still going to squirm while they respond. Suck it up. You’re good at something. To pretend otherwise is a waste of time. The point of the note-card exercise is to generate two different things: 1. Hope 2. Awareness The first one is simple: Launching a Do Over takes a tremendous amount of hope. At the start of a journey like this, it’s very easy to get discouraged and think you currently don’t possess many career skills. Hopefully seeing them on a handful of note cards for the first time has encouraged you that just like with your relationships, you’re better off than you thought. The second goal, awareness, is something that will also come up in greater detail in the hustle section. In the skills portion, the purpose of increased awareness is to help you see new skills you might want to acquire. Whether you want to get better at your current job or find a new one, chances are you will need new skills. Seeing what skills you currently have on note cards often helps increase the awareness of what’s missing, those new skills you might need for a new job or to break through a Career Ceiling.

Remember Relationships get you the first gig, skills get you the second. You have more skills than you think. Writing them down and looking for patterns is a great way to discover that.

Don’t let fear hide a skill you’ve always had or wanted to pursue. Just because you’re afraid of doing something doesn’t mean you shouldn’t. If you have a hard time filling out note cards, tag a friend in to help you.

Read More

You don’t like Brenda. She’s not just a foe, she’s your arch nemesis. Your Joker to Batman. You can’t stand the way she laughs, she’s not very good at her job and is a serial microwave popcorn burner.

It would be far easier to treat her with disdain. Perhaps not out-and-out disrespect, but it would be fun to talk behind her back. To join the “Brenda sucks” fan club, or if there’s not one, form your own. You could be the president. Your mom always said you were destined for office!

But here’s the problem: Brenda could be your boss someday. That might feel impossible right now. There’s no way management would promote her. She’s the worst! Can’t they see that? Don’t they know she’s a credit thief, a meeting elongater, and so dumb she makes up words worse than “elongater” in her e-mails? They couldn’t possibly make her your boss. And yet, that could happen.

I have seen far worse people than Brenda promoted. So have you. To argue otherwise is to believe that only amazing, noble, talented, kindhearted people hold positions of power at companies. Have you ever worked at a company for longer than seven minutes? Then you know that’s not true.

When I left my first job at Details Communications, I left like they had deeply offended me. I drove home t and actually stopped at the border to take photos commemorating my triumphant exit.

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1. Think of a time when you felt especially good about your job. Why did you feel that way?

You like your job, but you feel your recent employment review doesn’t paint a good picture of you. First of all, many performance reviews (in my humble estimation) do more harm than good. Sure, some are done very well, but most employee reviews are done by people whose work isn’t in human resources. It’s time-consuming and tedious, like asking the head of the shipping department to review and report on the work of the manufacturing department. Sure, many people take the assignment seriously, but when they don’t, you can suffer—or even find yourself promoted to jobs you are not yet qualified to handle.

What if you work with and for idiots?

But it doesn’t matter who I work with they often provide the stimulus most of us need to get out of a rut. Keep in mind that if you feel your job might be on the block for reasons other than your performance, you might be offered significant incentives to take a hike.

focus your paragraphs on your cover letter

https://primpandpaper.tumblr.com/post/647125590599778304/special-circumstance-statements-on-your-resume

For any Special Circumstance Statements on your resume

These phrases convey a strong sense of enthusiasm and interest.

Administrative Assistant

Upon reading the advertisement in the Jackson Review, I was inspired to contact you immediately and offer this cover letter and attached resume to formalize my interest.

Assistant Curator

Please consider me a strong, enthusiastic, and focused candidate for the Assistant Curator position recently advertised on www.seek.com.au

Assistant Editor

Field Finance Manager - While my current position with (Boring Company, Pty Ltd.) is most challenging and rewarding, the opportunity to serve within the capacities described in the posting is professionally exciting.

Program Coordinator

I am particularly qualified for this opportunity as a result of my double language major, my current enrolment in two language-proficiency certificate programs, as well as past experiences within tutorial and teaching roles.

Site Location Supervisor

During the past fifteen years, my experiences as a developer, general contractor, owner, and property manager of residential, commercial, and industrial projects have been extensive. In conjunction with these projects, I was actively involved in investment analysis, whole loans and structured transactions, and financial control to assure quality completion within schedules and budgets.

You like your job, but you feel your recent employment review doesn’t paint a good picture of you. First of all, many performance reviews (in my humble estimation) do more harm than good. Sure, some are done very well, but most employee reviews are done by people whose work isn’t in human resources. It’s time-consuming and tedious, like asking the head of the shipping department to review and report on the work of the manufacturing department. Sure, many people take the assignment seriously, but when they don’t, you can suffer—or even find yourself promoted to jobs you are not yet qualified to handle.

What if you work with and for idiots?

But it doesn’t matter who I work with they often provide the stimulus most of us need to get out of a rut. Keep in mind that if you feel your job might be on the block for reasons other than your performance, you might be offered significant incentives to take a hike.

focus your paragraphs on your cover letter

https://primpandpaper.tumblr.com/post/647125590599778304/special-circumstance-statements-on-your-resume

For any Special Circumstance Statements on your resume

These phrases convey a strong sense of enthusiasm and interest.

Administrative Assistant

Upon reading the advertisement in the Jackson Review, I was inspired to contact you immediately and offer this cover letter and attached resume to formalize my interest.

Assistant Curator

Please consider me a strong, enthusiastic, and focused candidate for the Assistant Curator position recently advertised on www.seek.com.au

Assistant Editor

Field Finance Manager - While my current position with (Boring Company, Pty Ltd.) is most challenging and rewarding, the opportunity to serve within the capacities described in the posting is professionally exciting.

Program Coordinator

I am particularly qualified for this opportunity as a result of my double language major, my current enrolment in two language-proficiency certificate programs, as well as past experiences within tutorial and teaching roles.

Site Location Supervisor

During the past fifteen years, my experiences as a developer, general contractor, owner, and property manager of residential, commercial, and industrial projects have been extensive. In conjunction with these projects, I was actively involved in investment analysis, whole loans and structured transactions, and financial control to assure quality completion within schedules and budgets.

You like your job, but you feel your recent employment review doesn’t paint a good picture of you. First of all, many performance reviews (in my humble estimation) do more harm than good. Sure, some are done very well, but most employee reviews are done by people whose work isn’t in human resources. It’s time-consuming and tedious, like asking the head of the shipping department to review and report on the work of the manufacturing department. Sure, many people take the assignment seriously, but when they don’t, you can suffer—or even find yourself promoted to jobs you are not yet qualified to handle.

What if you work with and for idiots?

But it doesn’t matter who I work with they often provide the stimulus most of us need to get out of a rut. Keep in mind that if you feel your job might be on the block for reasons other than your performance, you might be offered significant incentives to take a hike.

focus your paragraphs on your cover letter

https://primpandpaper.tumblr.com/post/647125590599778304/special-circumstance-statements-on-your-resume

For any Special Circumstance Statements on your resume

You like your job, but you feel your recent employment review doesn’t paint a good picture of you. First of all, many performance reviews (in my humble estimation) do more harm than good. Sure, some are done very well, but most employee reviews are done by people whose work isn’t in human resources. It’s time-consuming and tedious, like asking the head of the shipping department to review and report on the work of the manufacturing department. Sure, many people take the assignment seriously, but when they don’t, you can suffer—or even find yourself promoted to jobs you are not yet qualified to handle.

What if you work with and for idiots?

Job-hunting is not a science; it is an art.

Some job-hunters know instinctively how to do it; in some cases, they were born knowing how to do it. Others of us sometimes have a harder time with it, but fortunately there is help, coaching, counselling, and advice—online and off.

  Job-hunting is always mysterious. Sometimes mind-bogglingly mysterious. You may never understand why things sometimes work, and sometimes do not.

There is no “always wrong” way to hunt for a job or to change careers. Anything may work under certain circumstances, or at certain times, or with certain employers. There are only degrees of likelihood of certain job-hunting techniques working or not working. But it is crucial to know that likelihood.

  There is no “always right” way to hunt for a job or to change careers. Anything may fail to work under certain circumstances, or at certain times, or Fact: You interviewed with two employers (or six, or twelve) and they wouldn’t hire you. ‘

  Fact: “Employers” are individuals, as different from one another as night and day. “Employers” span a wide range of attitudes, wildly different ideas about how to hire, a wide range of ways to conduct hiring interviews, and as many different attitudes toward handicaps as you can possibly think of. You cannot possibly predict the attitude of one employer from the attitude of another. All generalizations about “employers” (including those in this book) are just mental conveniences.

  Fact: There are millions of separate, distinct, unrelated employers out there with very different requirements for hiring. Unless you look dirty, People change jobs for a variety of reasons. Some do it to advance their careers and others are motivated by the prospect of making more money. It’s common for people to move on when they are bored, unchallenged, and even when they find that they simply can’t get along with some co-workers. Being passed over for promotion, feeling overworked, or knowing that people in other companies are being paid more to do the same work are also reasons I hear regularly. These are all valid reasons to move on. But in some cases the stated reasons often mask other, unstated reasons. One of my goals in writing this book is to help you discover the real reasons why you may want to

    Try to answer what’s actually happening to you and how that varies from what you wish was really happening.

  • When you talk about your career, how do you sound to others? This kind of self-analysis isn’t easy. You may find it easier to ask a trusted friend for his or her comments on how you sound. You’re looking for words like enthusiastic, disappointed, discouraged, excited. Forget any deep analysis, just look for the high and low markers that punctuate your comments.

  • What do you see yourself doing a year from now? Five years from now? Answer in terms of both your hopes and actual plans.

Jobsearching The Social Media Way

Social media is pretty empowering to you as a job seeker. Think about it. Thanks to Facebook and corporate blogs, you can gather all kinds of research about companies to determine which companies (and positions) you really want to pursue. LinkedIn allows you to see how you may be connected to people who work at your target companies. If someone you know directly happens to know someone at one of those organizations, you can ask for an introduction to that contact. When you get it, boom! You now have a relationship with someone who, as long as you nurture and don’t manipulate that relationship.

Find companies (as well as people and opportunities) you want to target.

 If you want the best results, you need to be very specific about what you’re targeting in your search, whether that’s a company or even a particular position at a company. You also need to know who in those companies you should be networking with. Fortunately, social media, as well as the tips I provide in Chapter 15, make it easy to hone in on your target company and identify potential decision makers.

2. Get to know what the company and/or contact cares about and considers to be relevant.

Have you ever watched a good spy movie? The agent profiles his asset so he can understand what makes him tick. That’s what you need to do in order to get noticed by very busy hiring managers in a very competitive job market.