Cinco de Mayo Important to me because

Cinco de Mayo â€" Important to me because… There are two reasons why Cinco de Mayo is important to me: First, Cinco de Mayo is a significant Mexican holiday. My dad was born in Mexico, and I have plenty of family that still lives there.   I lived in Mexico for almost two years and fell in love with a land and culture that is so often misrepresented and stereotyped it is disgusting. Living there helped me come to terms with a heritage I didnt understand, and wasnt proud of. Wikipedia says Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday, and seems to indicate it isnt celebrated much outside of Puebla (the state in Mexico where the events of May 5, 1862 made it a holiday).   Having lived in northern Mexico for a while, I can attest that its a BIG deal.   From wikipedia: In 1861, Mexico ceased making interest payments to its main creditors. In response, in late 1861, France (and other European countries) attacked Mexico to try to force payment of this debt. France decided that it would try to take over and occupy Mexico. France was successful at first in its invasion; however, on May 5, 1862, at the city of Puebla, Mexican forces were able to defeat an attack by the larger French army. The post also notes that May 5 is not Mexicos Independence day, which is September 16th (although it is big enough that it feels like it). Second, Cinco de Mayo is LinkedIns birthday. This year LinkedIn celebrates its sixth anniversary (they launched May 5, 2003).   Last year at this time they had 22 million signups Im guessing they are over 40 million now.   LinkedIn isnt my website, nor is it my business, but I wrote the only LinkedIn book I know of to have a second edition, and that has changed my business. I have done over 100 webinars or trainings on LinkedIn, or including LinkedIn, and recently created LinkedIn for Job Seekers, a DVD that helps people go in-depth to get value out of LinkedIn. Looking back on this journey, tying LinkedIn to my JibberJobber business, I have to thank Andy Sernovitz, for the kick in the pants to get my book written, Scott Allen, who introduced me to my publisher (and serves as my Executive Editor), and Mitchell Levy, who has put up with a lot from me as I have more demands of him than I should Its been a good ride!   Happy Cinco de Mayo! Cinco de Mayo â€" Important to me because… There are two reasons why Cinco de Mayo is important to me: First, Cinco de Mayo is a significant Mexican holiday. My dad was born in Mexico, and I have plenty of family that still lives there.   I lived in Mexico for almost two years and fell in love with a land and culture that is so often misrepresented and stereotyped it is disgusting. Living there helped me come to terms with a heritage I didnt understand, and wasnt proud of. Wikipedia says Cinco de Mayo is a regional holiday, and seems to indicate it isnt celebrated much outside of Puebla (the state in Mexico where the events of May 5, 1862 made it a holiday).   Having lived in northern Mexico for a while, I can attest that its a BIG deal.   From wikipedia: In 1861, Mexico ceased making interest payments to its main creditors. In response, in late 1861, France (and other European countries) attacked Mexico to try to force payment of this debt. France decided that it would try to take over and occupy Mexico. France was successful at first in its invasion; however, on May 5, 1862, at the city of Puebla, Mexican forces were able to defeat an attack by the larger French army. The post also notes that May 5 is not Mexicos Independence day, which is September 16th (although it is big enough that it feels like it). Second, Cinco de Mayo is LinkedIns birthday. This year LinkedIn celebrates its sixth anniversary (they launched May 5, 2003).   Last year at this time they had 22 million signups Im guessing they are over 40 million now.   LinkedIn isnt my website, nor is it my business, but I wrote the only LinkedIn book I know of to have a second edition, and that has changed my business. I have done over 100 webinars or trainings on LinkedIn, or including LinkedIn, and recently created LinkedIn for Job Seekers, a DVD that helps people go in-depth to get value out of LinkedIn. Looking back on this journey, tying LinkedIn to my JibberJobber business, I have to thank Andy Sernovitz, for the kick in the pants to get my book written, Scott Allen, who introduced me to my publisher (and serves as my Executive Editor), and Mitchell Levy, who has put up with a lot from me as I have more demands of him than I should Its been a good ride!   Happy Cinco de Mayo!

How Not to Manage a High Performer Marla Gottschalk

How Not to Manage a High Performer Marla Gottschalk Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash Note: I originally posted this piece at LinkedIn. Ive observed high performers drowning within their own work environments. Their days are consumed with tasks that drag them far from where they would bring the most value. They are overworked â€" but vastly underutilized. They can feel stuck and frustrated. They often spend their days putting out their colleagues fires and must literally hide to secure uninterrupted periods of focused work. In some ways, they are punished for being well-versed in how things get done. This is wrong on so many levels. If these practices are commonly occurring within your organization, you should proceed with caution. At the very least, you are tempting the workplace fates â€" and the fates may not be kind. Research has indicated that your least engaged employees,   may actually be your high performers. This flies in the face of conventional lore and contiguously sets up a dangerous, high risk scenario. The practice of your high performers picking up the slack for under-performers for example, can drone on for a time. However, this will likely create a whole new set of problems. At some point, the gig is up. Youll look up one morning to find your high performer, standing in front of your desk, giving notice. Why, you ask in complete and utter shock. The most frustrating element in this dynamic? We can do something to prevent their exit. Youll be left at a loss â€" but they may feel as if they have narrowly escaped a hostile environment. Here are a few things to avoid where your top performers are concerned: Punish them for competence. If Ive heard this once, Ive heard it one thousand times. Often competent, established employees become responsible for each and every problem employee or departmental snafu. In essence, they have two sets of challenges â€" those of the entire group â€" and their own. Fail to challenge them. When things are the busiest and work simply needs to get out the door, you rely on your top performers to keep things flowing. However, this doesnt mean they wouldnt like the opportunity to tackle a stretch assignment that utilizes their skills and strengths, when things calm down. Fail to consult them when key changes are considered. We dont always need a hired consultant to guide decisions affecting the business. Consult your established staff. Tapping their knowledge base helps us see the bigger picture for what it really is. Fail to share what they know. It is critical to share their depth of experience with others (not just those in trouble). Set up a master series â€" and let your high performers lead the way for your less established employees. Have you had this experience? How do you recognize your committed, high performers? Share your strategies. Ready to work with Dr. Gottschalk?   Schedule s strategy session here. Dr. Marla Gottschalk is an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist. She is a charter member of the LinkedIn Influencer Program. Her thoughts on work life have appeared in various outlets including the Harvard Business Review, Talent Zoo, Forbes, Quartz and The Huffington Post.

5 Ways to Stay Informed About Workplace Diversity

5 Ways to Stay Informed About Workplace Diversity Workplace diversity is about accepting and valuing all employees’ differences and encouraging them to use their unique knowledge and skills to create a stronger and more competitive organisation. A lot of corporations have already recognized the multiple benefits of workplace diversity. Employees with different backgrounds and views are more likely to produce innovative and creative solutions to existing problems. Fostering diversity within the company can further attract a more diverse audience and clientele, thus expanding the customer base and increasing profits. In fact, in the McGregor-Smith Review, it was estimated that an extra £24 billion can be generated in the UK economy every year, simply by using the full potential of the black and minority ethnic (BME) community. This amount corresponds to 1.3% of GDP. Nevertheless, BME individuals in the UK are still underemployed with 15.3%, in comparison to white workers’ underemployment rate of 11.5%. These facts are undeniable and any respectable company nowadays accepts and pushes the diversity agenda. That is, on paper atleast. Goals are set and reviewed each year, but are they met? Is your company doing enough to promote diversity in the workplace? As employees, we all have the right to know how our company is supporting minorities and what initiatives are undertaken to reach the diversity goals. The infographic below will show you a glimpse of how Britain is performing on gender and ethnic diversity.             How to stay informed If you want to stay up to date with the latest on workplace diversity and keep an overview of the world’s progress, there are some great resources out there that can be accessed freely. We have made a list of some of the most popular ones below. 1. Official sources If you want more information on overall national development, you can always reference official governmental sites. For example, on the gov.uk website one can download the Davies Review Annual Report on “Women on Boards”. Amongst other things, the report reveals the percentage of women in FTSE 100 companies, which currently lies at 25%. 2. Equality and Human Rights Commission A lot of useful information and trustworthy data is also provided by independent sources like the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is a non-departmental public body. We suggest you take a look at their “Sex and Power Report” from 2011, which is still relevant today. 3. Stonewall Workplace Equality Index Stonewall’s Workplace Equality Index is a UK exclusive annual benchmark conducted by the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) charity Stonewall. It is basically the most comprehensive list of Britain’s best employers for the LGBT+ community.  The index is based on criteria such as employee policy, training, career development etc. 4. Company annual reports Companies themselves who are committed to their diversity objectives are usually quite transparent and publish a lot of reports and information on their sites. All big multinationals like Procter and Gamble, YE and PwC offer diversity reports free to download. Since potential employees value a diverse workplace, being open and honest about the company’s situation can attract more talented applicants. Is your company doing the same? 5. Wikigender And of course, we can always trust in Wikipedia to satisfy our curiosity. The Wikigender platform is a project by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge on gender equality issues. If you are looking for statistics on gender diversity for different countries, this I a good place to start your research. If companies want to stay relevant today, they have to embrace the changes in society and adapt accordingly. We, as employees and citizens carry the responsibility of holding them accountable for their actions. And the only way we can do that is by staying informed and opening our eyes to reality. About the author: Maria Boradjieva is a Communication Assistant at Market Inspector UK, a digital market place for businesses in Europe that offers free quotes from B2B suppliers.

5 Tools To Help You Track Down a Candidates Email Address

5 Tools To Help You Track Down a Candidates Email Address When it comes to recruiting, finding the right candidate profile isnt the hard part. The real hard part is  getting in touch with that person! However, it doesnt have to be, and is probably much easier than you think. If you utilize the right tools and know where to look, you will be able on your way to a more meaningful and successful approach, that doesnt have to begin with Id like to connect with you on LinkedIn. Below are 5 tools and tips I use on a regular basis to make sure I can locate the best email contact information for a candidate. 1. Hunter (formerly known as Email Hunter) Hunter is a Chrome extension that uses the email naming convention of a company to guess the proper email address. For example, if your name is Joe Smith and your company uses the email template of jsmith@company.com, it is easy to guess another employees email if you know their name; its clearly the first letter of the first name followed by last name at company.com. So, if you are on Sally Andrews LinkedIn page, Hunter would come up with the guess sandrews@company.com. Hunter will only find work-related emails and you are allowed 150 uses per month for free. The search is based off of the most recent employer on that persons LinkedIn page, so if the individual no longer works for that company, this will be a dead email. 2. Lusha Another Chrome extension called  Lusha will find both personal emails as well as phone numbers. It scours the web to pickup anywhere this persons email and or phone number is located. It is important to note that Lusha only allows 10 free uses per month (however for a price you can upgrade this option) and the free uses are shared between organizations. So, for example, if someone else from your company uses a company email address to sign up for Lusha, you are both sharing the 10 (imagine when an organization of 50 signs up?) 3. Prophet This is also another chrome extension, Prophet scours the web for contact information as well as other sites this candidate may own or be on. Prophet works like Lusha and Hunter combined. It will search the web for a personal email address, however if it cannot find any it will take a guess of the email based on where the individual works. Like Hunter it uses the most recent work information listed on LinkedIn. If the candidate hosts any blogs or other sites it will list those as well in the extension. 4. Basic GitHub search A good portion of Github users have an email publicly listed on their main profile page. Just perform a simple Google search of the candidates name + GitHub and you will bring up their profile, if they have one. Once on their profile site more times than not you can see their email in their contact info. 5. GitHub API search GitHubs API feature allows you to open a page of code associated with the user you are searching. More times than not lying within this code is their email. First you will use the following web address: api.github.com/users/xxxxxxxx/events/public. Then you will replace the xxxxxxxx portion in that address with the GitHub username of the person you are searching for. More times than not this will open a webpage of this persons code. Click ctrl + F to open the find function and then enter the @ symbol. This will find any @ symbols listed in the code, which most of the time is their email address. And of course once you have the candidates email, you want to make sure you are writing an email worth responding to.   Send a poorly written email and all of this work goes to waste. Happy sourcing and good luck!

#2 - A Day in the Life of A Marketing Manager - Arnov Rahman

#2 - A Day in the Life of A Marketing Manager - Arnov Rahman The Career Insider Podcast Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSSFor Episode 002 of The CareerMetis Podcast, we will learn about : A Day in the Life of a Marketing Manager. Our guest Arnov Rahman will share his experiences on how he went about becoming a Marketing Manager.evalA key takeaway from this interview is how Arnov managed to win his dream job unconventionally. Instead of applying for jobs on Job Boards â€" Arnov went about a completely different route. Listen to the Podcast to learn how.He also shares his day-to-day as a Marketing Manager. And also some of the things he enjoys in the role; and also some of the challenges one might face in the job.Arnov Rahman can be reached here for additional questions on a Career in Marketing.Intro Music provided courtesy of Accelerated Ideas (www.accelerated-ideas.com). Soundtrack â€" Siren KickbackEnding Music provided courtesy of Accelerated Ideas (www.accelerated-ideas.com). Soundtrack â€" No Need to Rush

Considering a Career as a Small Business Owner Opportunities in the UAE - CareerAlley

Considering a Career as a Small Business Owner Opportunities in the UAE - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. Becoming a small business owner is a great career choice for entrepreneurial minds. But how do you know if you have one? For starters, were you the child who went door-to-door selling things? When others were content sitting back, did you find ways to make money and save for that favourite toy, always managing to find creative ways to earn and save? Or perhaps now, as an adult, the first thing you still notice anywhere be it at a football match, French market, travelling abroad or whilst taking a walk along your local high street is the business thats missing there but would do well in that environment. If this is you, perhaps you should consider a career as a small business owner or entrepreneur. It takes some savvy marketing skills and an analytical business mind, plus the willingness to take calculated risks, the work ethic to put in long hours (especially in those first few years whilst getting your business started) and a love of connecting people with the products they need, but if all of these things sound a lot like you, you might have found your calling. Of course, you have to determine not only what kind of product you want to sell, but where you want to sell it. Though the Internet allows you to sell anything to anyone, anywhere, studies continue to show that face-to-face contact with investors and employees matters; furthermore, being physically located in a place near other entrepreneurial, creative minds helps foster your own ideas and ambitions, and exposes you to opportunities you wouldnt have encountered otherwise. If you are looking for a place that offers access to venture capital, creativity, entrepreneurship, and a dynamic work force located in a strategic region of the world near emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East and Africa Dubai or Abu Dhabi in the UAE are great places to consider basing your business. And we havent even mentioned the tax-free enterprise zones located throughout the country that could potentially make your UAE business even more profitable. However, many businesses are hampered by their inability to access capital for start-up costs, but the good news is that in the UAE, there is strong support for British and Western businesses from both the UAE government, business banking services in the UAE and from British trade and commerce groups that encourage investment in the country, and help budding entrepreneurs and small business owners establish contacts, find investors, and become acclimated with the UAE business community and UAE banks, which are among the best in the world when it comes to the business banking services they offer in the UAE (such as HBSC). Economic activities in the UAE are diverse, and including global banking, tourism, entertainment, luxury services, oil services, import-export businesses, port and shipping services, retail, agriculture and many other industries. The UAE government and UAE banks are eager to see these sectors developed by international businesses and small business owners. All of these activities are possible thanks to industrious small and large businesses, and all are boosted by the UAEs globally renowned banking sector, which includes a strong group of UAE banks offering strong business banking services in the UAE. This is a Guest post. If you would like to submit a guest post to CareerAlley, please follow these guest post guidelines. Good luck in your search. Visit me on Facebook

New York Times Job Market Article

New York Times Job Market Article The New York Times www.nytimes.com ran an article on 5-14-06 in the job market section titled Training to Work in the Home (Someone Elses). The article said that the occupation of home health aide is the fastest growing occupation and that the growth predictions for this position will remain strong as the baby boomer population ages.Monitoring business, social, economic, and demographic trends is an important component of a successful job search strategy. Rather than spending time on job boards trying to fit yourself into a job description, job seekers should focus on trends to uncover which industries are growing and which are contracting. Healthcare is a strong example of a growth industry and theres ample evidence that its growth is fueled by the increased demands of the baby boomer population. Consumers between the ages of 40-65 command exceptional buying power and they are spending their money on ways to improve their health and well being and protect themselves as they age. By identifying trends, job seekers can stay ahead of the curve during their search and create more opportunities for themselves within the hidden job market.