New Course Resumes and Self-marketing (for Software Developers)

New Course Resumes and Self-marketing (for Software Developers) Last week my newest Pluralsight course went live: Resumes and Self-marketing for Software Developers This is a course on what to do with your resume how to use it to self-market, and basic understanding of the resume as a marketing tool. Remember, for any Jason Alba course you watch on Pluralsight, and as many times as you watch it, you can get an additional 7 days of JibberJobber Premium no limit! Follow these steps  (or scroll down and watch the new video below the image to see exactly how to watch this for free, and get additional Premium on JibberJobber!). Heres Pluralsights announcement on Facebook: Not sure if Ive had anything on Facebook associated to me with that many likes! Heres the video on exactly how to do this: New Course Resumes and Self-marketing (for Software Developers) Last week my newest Pluralsight course went live: Resumes and Self-marketing for Software Developers This is a course on what to do with your resume how to use it to self-market, and basic understanding of the resume as a marketing tool. Remember, for any Jason Alba course you watch on Pluralsight, and as many times as you watch it, you can get an additional 7 days of JibberJobber Premium no limit! Follow these steps  (or scroll down and watch the new video below the image to see exactly how to watch this for free, and get additional Premium on JibberJobber!). Heres Pluralsights announcement on Facebook: Not sure if Ive had anything on Facebook associated to me with that many likes! Heres the video on exactly how to do this: New Course Resumes and Self-marketing (for Software Developers) Last week my newest Pluralsight course went live: Resumes and Self-marketing for Software Developers This is a course on what to do with your resume how to use it to self-market, and basic understanding of the resume as a marketing tool. Remember, for any Jason Alba course you watch on Pluralsight, and as many times as you watch it, you can get an additional 7 days of JibberJobber Premium no limit! Follow these steps  (or scroll down and watch the new video below the image to see exactly how to watch this for free, and get additional Premium on JibberJobber!). Heres Pluralsights announcement on Facebook: Not sure if Ive had anything on Facebook associated to me with that many likes! Heres the video on exactly how to do this:

5 Things That Happen When You Volunteer

5 Things That Happen When You Volunteer I know with work and school and family and friends and relationships and #SideHustle there are many ways to spend your time and many people with which to share it. If you are considering giving back, here are 5 things that happen when you volunteer. 1. You learn new things. When I was locked in a giant bird-cage (and for those of you who read my Overcoming Conflict, post, this is quite the emotional triumph over my ornithophobia), I learned about repairing habitat, rehabilitation for injured birds, and about the mission of the organization. (Whilst bonding  with my fellow Young Professionals Group volunteers, I also discovered  that if you just ignore the birds and continue repairing their roof, they will not fly around or make loud noises. WIN.)   2. You make friends. Last night at dinner a friend was asked one of my favorite relationship questions, “How did you guys meet?” “We were both volunteers at an event handing out programs,” she replied. They are still together, and that was over a year ago. 3. You improve someone’s life. Let this one really sink in. Savor it. It’s awesome! 4. You inspire other people to improve someone’s life. One of my colleagues is a volunteer at a local animal rescue organization. A fellow coworker contributes to a childhood literacy program. A third teammate has partnered with an organization to help victims find their voice and reclaim their purpose. My company shares these wonderful merits on our internal blog and social channels. I believe that it not only boosts awareness of these organizations, it also inspires our audiences. 5. You get healthy. Volunteering is excellent for you mentally and socially. It prevents certain risk factors of depression and can boost your self-esteem and confidence. Not to mention, if your work involves physical strength, it’s also a great workout! Share your giving back thoughts with us @MsCareerGirl Columnist Archive Kids, Sports, Books

8 Lessons about money I learned from my family

8 Lessons about money I learned from my family When I was growing up, we had stuffed lions from Harris Bank. We had enough Hubert Harris lions to make a whole zoo.   The lions made sense to me, because I thought of the bank as a warm and fuzzy place. Really, to understand what I’m talking about, I need to tell you about money in my family. And what I learned about money from living the life of a rich kid 1. Big money comes from areas of big chaos. The money started coming to my family when my great-grandpa got a law degree in the 1920s in Chicago. He didn’t have any clients, so he hung out at the jail, looking for people who needed a lawyer. It turned out that the only people who landed in jail who could reliably pay for a lawyer’s help were prostitutes. My great-grandpa did a good job representing them, and consequently, he met Al Capone, who was the money behind the prostitutes. Soon my great-grandpa became Al Capone’s lawyer. 2. You can buy luxury but not family. As you can imagine, there was a lot of money to be made. My great-grandparents did what rich people did in Chicago at the time: They bought a big house in Evanston, IL and they hired black people to serve them. If you think story in  The Help was a only southern thing, I can assure you that the same stuff was going on in the Chicago area. Sula was five when she became a servant to my grandma, who was also five. It was a fine line between servant and playmate, but Sula was black and her mom was hired help. Sula worked for my grandma for her whole life. My grandma, who slept on ironed sheets her whole life, always said that Sula was like family. I always believed her, until I went to college and realized that other kids did not have a black laundress who only came into the house via the back door. I also realized that you cannot pay someone to be family. 3. It’s difficult to have both high moral ground and high income. My grandma married a guy who was soft-spoken and smart enough to get into University of Chicago even when there were quotas at universities to keep the Jewish population low. It makes sense that if your dad is a lawyer for the mob, you’d react by marrying someone who is a stickler for morality.   But of course, my grandpa was no match for my great-grandpa, so he called the shots. 4. The people with money control the shots. For people who want the money. This became very important when my dad went to graduate school. He wanted to get a PhD in history. My great-grandfather wanted him to become a lawyer. “Just apply!” he told my dad. So, reluctantly, my dad applied to law school and got into Harvard. “No one turns down Harvard law!” my great-grandfather told my dad. Everyone in the family repeated that. And my dad went to law school. He was not a good lawyer. Which, maybe, is the genesis of my obsessive writing about how you shouldn’t go to law school if you can’t market yourself to potential clients. 5. Lots of money means lots of false relationships. The biggest and maybe only client my dad landed was my mom. She was in college with him. On scholarship. Her parents were both invalids and she knew it was a matter of survival to marry someone rich. She would tell you that she loved my dad. Unfortunately they saved all their love letters in a box, to give to one of their kids one day. The love letters are a documentary of what it looks like to marry for money. My mom is the hot, popular girl who is too much for my dad to keep up with. My dad is the annoying social outcast she can’t stand. He grovels, she pushes him away. There is nothing in the love letter box about what makes them ever decide to get married. So it is an easy leap to think my mom had a financial issue at stake and my dad had no social IQ to know the difference. 6. Rich people are never happy just being rich. They want to look smart. Harvard was really important to my great-grandpa because the history of my family is, perhaps, the struggle to look classy when all your money comes from the mob. To this end, my great-grandfather subscribed to the Book-of-the-Month club.   If you could buy learning, my great-grandpa would have done that. The library in the Evanston house was huge and well-stocked. The book collection became mythic in the family. Who would inherit it? That was the prize. Forget the museum-quality, yellow-glazed porcelain imported on ocean liners between the wars. People wanted the books. My dad got the books. After all, he got the law degree. The books were stored with the dust jackets in a separate box. The books were all first editionsfirst edition Hemingway, Steinbeck, Wharton. The books were in pristine condition, of course, since no one had ever read them. The day my dad went to go collect his reward for doing what my great-grandpa told him, we realized that no one knew where the dust jackets were. The value of the books was gone: it’s all in the dust jacket. 7. The money never lasts as long as you think it will. So my dad gave the books to me, since I’m the only person in the family who reads fiction. I shipped the boxes to my apartment in LA. I found, underneath Finnegan’s Wake and Tender is the Night, a collection of pornography. Not smutty, cheap porn, but famous, specially-bound books like Lady Chatterley’s Lover illustrated by Rockwell Kent. I sold the books to a used book dealer. People always ask me how I supported myself while I was trying to get on the professional beach volleyball tour. Now you know how. 8. Stability and sanity make better memories than luxurious excess. The whole time my brother and I were growing up, we heard about The Trust Fund. It was where all the money came from. It was what all the family meetings were about. It was why my parents could buy overpriced 70s art  and a BMW E21they didn’t have to save for our college. “The trust fund is paying for it.” My brother got a PhD in economics. Surely my great-grandfather would have favored law school again. But he was dead. When I told my brother that Harris Bank was sponsoring a post on my blog, he wrote to me, “I love thinking about life as a rich kid back in the days of interest rate regulation and no interstate banking. You know, I really thought that every kid walked into a bank and was greeted by a private banker holding a stuffed lion.” We had a lot of lions. We had a lot of mayhem. The family seemed to be in constant turmoil over money, and who was getting it and who had it, and how to get more. But everything was calm at Harris. The bankers were sane. There was never screaming about money at Harris. It was safe there. For a while I thought my memories of Harris were so nice because it was the only place my parents couldn’t bite each others heads off. After all, who wants to be removed from the trust? But as I get older, I realize that our Harris bankers (believe me when I tell you that my family had a bunch) were a calming, dependable force for our family. My family needed outside help to think through money issues in a rational way. Harris Trust provided that. And those lions. Which, I noticed are selling for $100 each on eBay. I could have never predicted that the only money from the trust that would trickle down to me as an adult would be in the form of a stuffed Harris lion.

How Solopreneurs Can Look Professional on a Tight Budget - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

How Solopreneurs Can Look Professional on a Tight Budget - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career When I started my first home business in the early 1990s, working from home was considered suspect and technology wasn’t as advanced as it is today. As a result, I spent a fortune on services to make it look like my business was run from a traditional office. I hired a service to answer my phone and take messages when I wasn’t available. I rented a box in a mail place to get a “professional” looking address. Today, running a business from home isn’t considered odd and technology makes working from anywhere a breeze. Even so, many free and low cost options for running a business from home can appear amateurish and unprofessional. Boosting your appearance doesn’t have to cost a fortune, but it should be an expense you’re willing to pay to attract top clients. Here are tips for looking professional on a budget. Invest online The Internet leveled the playing field between large and small businesses. Creating a presence online is affordable and easy, but that doesn’t mean you can throw together a website using free resources. Online service you need to pay for to look professional include: Domain name: At $10 to $12 a year, it’s an expense every business can afford. Not only does owning the domain name of your business or given name make you look more professional, it makes marketing easier. ABCCompany.com is much easier to say and promote than ABCcompany.freewebhost.com. Web hosting: My first web host charged $22 a month. Today, you can get webhosting for $4 to $8 per month. Just like the domain name, it looks professional and gives you more control over free hosting options, which will run ads that compete with your business. Professional web design: You don’t necessarily need to hire a designer, although if you can afford it, it might be worth it. However, you should invest in a professional looking theme or template. There are free options, but similar to free webhosting, they’ll include an ad in exchange for using the theme or template. Themes and templates are affordable, usually $25 to $99 depending on the features provided. Email: Domain and web hosting purchases offer the ability to have an email using your domain name. This is a must, as commercial and free accounts, such as Yahoo.com will make you appear unprofessional. Choose your name or business name for your email, as well. Prettykitty@yourdomain sounds unprofessional unless you’re a cat grooming service. Invest in marketing materials For a long time, I made my own business cards using a template and business card stock from the office store. Unfortunately, even the best template designs don’t quite meet professional standards compared to ordering business cards. Today, you can design your own card and get hundreds, even thousands printed at very little cost. This goes for brochures and other handouts as well. In fact, many business card companies offer a full range of marketing products so all your materials match. Invest in communications I struggled with whether or not I should include this because phone and fax services have changed. But if you have a business that requires use of phone and fax, you should consider investing in a separate phone line, 800# and fax number. A second phone line into your home is tax deductible and makes it easy to separate business from personal calls. Or you can add distinctive ring to your existing phone line for a few dollars a month, which gives you a second number on your line that rings differently from your personal line. Eight-hundred numbers are affordable and can forward to any phone line including your cell phone. You don’t necessarily need a fax machine to send and receive faxes if you have an all-in-one printer (that includes scanning and fax) or by using an online service. Invest in personal appearance It goes without saying that you should look nicely groomed when you’re out in the world, particularly if you’re working. That doesn’t mean you need designer clothes and a manicure. It means you should look clean and tidy. You can get a trim for $20 or pull your hair back if it’s unruly. For clothing, buy basics on sale such as khaki or black pants and white shirt. Buy work clothes that will mix and match so you have more outfit options with fewer clothing items. You are judged by your appearance and it’s true that you have one chance to make a good first impression. As a result, you need to make sure everything you put out in the world to represent you and your business is professional. Today, it doesn’t cost very much to create a professional image, and the expense is well worth it.

5 Ways to Unlock the Power of Google Calendar CareerMetis.com

5 Ways to Unlock the Power of Google Calendar Google Calendar has a lot to offer, and we’re not just talking about keeping track of next week’s meetings.Using Google Calendarfor the occasional meeting or lunch break is excellent. But, if you have yet to take advantage of all its features, you might want to kick it up a notch.evalIt turns out that Google Calendar has some incrediblefeatures.You can set up multiple calendars for each part of your life, and add attachments to events. And that’s only for starters! Who knew?There’s no doubt about it â€" you’re going to like the info we offer in this article.Follow these five tips, and you’ll be able to turn Google Calendar into the most exceptional planner on earth!1) Set Up Different Calendars for Different Parts of Your LifeThe basic calendar feature is great. It allows you to schedule tasks and set reminders.But to use the calendar feature to its fullest potential, you should create many calendars. This allows you to maintain separate calendars for each area of your li fe.For example, you can have a work calendar, a personal calendar, and an exercise calendar. That way, you won’t flood your professional calendar with information about how many leg-lifts you have to do at the gym that night.evalAnd Google is smart, so it will remind you when it’s time to work on a project You couldstick to one calendar only, but it’s likely that your schedule will get confusing. Having the option to sync many calendars will make it easier to manage your busy life.2)Manage Appointments Across Multiple Time ZonesTime zones can get confusing. If you work in New York City but your client works in Italy, what time are you actually supposed to meet?Google Calendar makes it easy to answer this question. With their secondary time zone feature, you’ll always know what time it is in other parts of the world.To access this feature, go to the Settingsicon This app is great because it allows you to synchronize your schedule with your friends, family, and co-workers. If you share your calendar with them, they’ll be able to see your availability weeks, months, or even years in advance.But this presents a problem…What if you don’t want them to see your schedule? What if you’re going on a date that you don’t want your mom to know about, or you’re planning a surprise party for a friend.Well, Google Calendar allows you to hide the details of your meetings. If you’re hosting or attending an event and don’t want people to be able to see, all you have to do is block them from seeing it.Keep in mind, however, that anyone you block from the event will see an empty hour displayed there. So if you use this method, they might think that you’re free.evalBut, there’s another way to hide the event, and this one lets everyone know that you’re busy.By marking the time block as “private” you’ll be able to hide the details and show people that you’re booked. When someone on the other end views your calendar, they’ll see the word “busy ” on the block of time.And even though they won’t know whyyou’re busy, they’ll see that you’re not available during that time.4) Add Attachments to EventsThere’s nothing more annoying than sitting in a meeting and waiting for someone to search through their inbox for a document.Why couldn’t they just have shared it with everyone ahead of time?Or sometimes, a person might have shared the document but forgot to send it to you. That’s a bummer because everyone is discussing it during the meeting, and you don’t have it. Then you’re stuck wondering what the details are!Luckily, Google Calendar solves this problem. To make sure everyone has access to the same .doc or .pdf, you can add it as an attachment to the event. That’s pretty cool!Sharing a document ahead of time will make sure everyone in the meeting is on the same page. Then, you can open and review it before, during, and after each meeting. This simplifies the whole process and keeps every team member in the know!5) Change Your Calendar’s AppearanceGoogle Calendar allows you to completely customize the way your schedule looks.And I’m not just talking about changing the color or font. No, this app lets you see exactly which days you want to see at any given time.In other words:Most of your work meetings happen during the week, right? So when you want to view your meeting schedule, there’s no reason to see the weekend on your calendar.With Google, you can hide the weekends and only view the days you need to see at that moment. With a simple click, you can temporarily show the day, week, month, or year.You can activate this feature by first looking at the top. To the right of the Settingsicon is a dropdown menu titled Week. Click on that, and you can display whatever days of the week you’d like!There’s also a way to change the structure of your week. If your workweek starts on Tuesday or Wednesday, for example, you can reorient your calendar to accommodate it.To find this featur e, click the Settingsicon and go to View Options. From there, you can select which day to start your schedule on.Hey, that’s pretty cool you can switch your days around like that! This feature will hopefully make your schedule come together and be less confusing.Bonus: Use Desktop NotificationsIf you want, Google Calendar will send you email reminders. These reminders will let you know when important events are coming up.But, you can also enable desktop notifications. That way, you’ll see your reminders without having to open your inbox.Let’s imagine a situation for a second:You’re sitting in your home office, toiling away on a project. You’re so wrapped up in work that you’ve forgotten about an important Skype meeting you have this afternoon.You almost missed it entirely, but ten minutes before the meeting â€" boom â€" Google hits you with a desktop notification. Thank goodness!In situations like this, notifications can be a lifesaver. So if you want to take full advant age of this powerful app, make sure to turn your desktop notifications on.Google Calendar is truly one of the most powerful planning apps available on the internet. It can truly transform your life!You may use it as your primary time-managementtool like some of us do. Or, you might just use it occasionally to keep track of a few appointments.Whatever the case, this is a very helpful program.And if you think you’re too busy to keep a calendar, stop right there. At some point, you’re going to miss something important, and then you’ll kick yourself for not setting up a calendar sooner.So what are you waiting for?Take advantage of the features the Google Calendar offers, and watch how it becomes the greatest planner on earth!