Giveaways Advertising – Marketing with Specialty Advertising Products

In your lifetime, it is very likely that you have been exposed to giveaways advertising in some way. Specialty advertising products are free gifts that you, as a business owner, give away to your current or potential customers. This form of marketing is a very popular.
Everywhere you look, you can see advertising giveaways in some form or another. These items are literally everywhere. Using specialty advertising products is a very effective way to create brand awareness.
Products Used for Giveaways Advertising
Popular specialty products used for advertising include calendars, coffee mugs, calculators, key chains, bumper stickers, and the list goes on. There are literally thousands of items that can be used for this form of advertising.
But is this method of advertising effective? The answer is yes! Promotional items are relatively inexpensive and a great way to continuously remind your customer about you and your business. Using specialty advertising products to promote your business is definitely effective, especially if you select promotional items that are useful and directly relate to the service that you offer. Continue reading …
Article by, Nicholas G. and courtesy of Associated Content, Inc.

Five Qualities of a Good Nurse

Nursing is a profession that can be as spiritually rewarding as it is financially lucrative, but to achieve success at any level, one must, as this article from Associated Content points out, have qualities besides a great bedside manner. ca
There are many qualities to becoming a good or even a great nurse. Nursing school focuses on developing strong clinical skills but there is much more to being a good nurse than just your clinical skills. You need to have all five of the following qualities in order to be a great nurse to both your patients and in your clinical practice.
Good Nurse Quality: Organization
Every good nurse that I have ever met has excellent organizational skills. These skills may or may not come naturally. You can learn good nursing organizational skills by following a few simple rules.
To be an excellent nurse you always need to have pen and paper handy. Taking a few notes on each patient will help you throughout your day. Having a pen and paper handy may seem like an obvious thing but I have seen nurses take notes on their gloves and then toss them out before they had a chance to record their findings. Continue reading …
Article by, Ann Davidson and courtesy of Associated Content, Inc.

The Successful Negotiator

The Art of Getting What You Want
Being a successful negotiator requires a person to have other critical skills- such as having effective communication skills, and learning to listen more than you speak. Patience is also not only a virtue, but will but will benefit you greatly in a difficult negotiation. Mastering the art of negotiation can be beneficial to anyone from all walks of life and help you get things you want in life; as well as be a driving force in progressing your career. Here we will review some successful negotiating tips; and how to get what you want without being pushy.
Information is something all parties strive to learn in any kind of negotiation. Learning what other’s goals and objectives are early in the negotiation process can be beneficial to everyone. Another characteristic to learn from is body language; being able to interpret body language as well as being conscious of the signals you are sending with your own body language. Continue reading …
Article by, Tonia Hooper and courtesy of Associated Content, Inc.

A Career as a Wildlife Conservationist

If you enjoy the outdoors, think about a fascinating career as a “wildlife conservationist.” A wildlife conservationist works to protect the environment by protecting and managing grasslands, woodlands, mountains, rivers, coastal areas and marine habitats. As a wildlife conservationist, you will encourage communities to understand and preserve the natural environment around them. Wildlife conservationists also work to save endangered species and protect their habitats.
Habitat Conservation
An important job of a wildlife conservationist is preserving the habitats of animals. This may include planting trees or working in coastal areas to battle “coastal erosion.” Some animals in danger of becoming extinct are kept and cared for at places such as “wildlife refuges ” or “big game reserves.” Wildlife conservationists work closely with monitoring the progress of these endangered animals. Continue reading …
Article by, Janet Hunt and courtesy of Associated Content, Inc.

How to Write a Cover Letter for Your Resume

It is customary to send a cover letter along with your resume when you are looking for a job, and in fact the cover letter is very important. It’s really your first chance to make a good impression. A well-written cover letter could just win you the interview you need.
Write your cover letter like a business letter. Put your name and address at the top of the page, followed by the address to which you are sending the letter. Then put the date. Address your letter “Dear Mr. Smith:” if you know the name of the person who will be receiving your resume, or “To Whom It May Concern:” if you do not know the person’s name.
Begin your cover letter by saying which position you are applying for. Remember, the company may be hiring for a number of positions at this time. Say whether you are looking for a full time or a part time position. Continue reading …
Article by, Kelly Morris and courtesy of Associated Content, Inc.

Best On-Campus Jobs for College Students

Best Campus Jobs
During these troubled financial times, finding a good job is difficult. And, for today’s college students, newfound independence comes with a price- some degree of financial responsibility. With parents already financially strapped, students have to find ways to cover some of their own costs. Finding an on campus job will be a great help for so many reasons; however, some campus jobs are better than others for college students. Here are a few suggestions of primo college employment opportunities.
Campus Guides/Student Ambassadors
Welcome to college! One of the first people you’ll meet won’t be the President or a Professor, it will be a campus guide or a student ambassador. All colleges have them and it’s a wonderful job for students. Work hours are easy to schedule around classes. This position also is a great resume boost for those interested in marketing and community service positions. Little experience is necessary. All you need is a positive attitude, a welcoming smile and great walking shoes. Continue reading …
Article by, Ramona Taylor and courtesy of Associated Content, Inc.

Tips on How to Focus and Improve Productivity

You know what a photo looks like when it’s out of focus. In some ways it seems as if it’s really multiple images of the same thing, all stacked up and a little out of sync.
Just the same, it’s hard to tell what you’re looking at.
But when you lose focus in your career on a long-term, or even a short-term basis, your problems start because you don’t know what you’re looking at, or you’re looking at too many things. Your energy becomes scattered and you become less effective.

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A Little Thank You Goes a Long Way

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I’ve never hired a candidate who didn’t send a thank you note after our interview. As a hiring manager, it’s just one simple way to compare my top candidates. If I have an open position and two of the candidates are evenly matched skill-wise but only one sent a thank you note, the latter is likely to receive the offer.
The general rules
If you aren’t following up every interview–and by that I mean each individual person with whom you meet or speak–with a thank you note, you are likely costing yourself the position.
But, the simple act of saying “thank you” is not enough. To really put yourself ahead of your competitors, consider the following elements.

• Send your note within 24 hours. Send your thank you e-mail as soon as you arrive home from the interview (or within 24 hours) so you don’t forget what was said. Waiting longer than that tells the potential employer the position is not that important to you. You are also encouraged to send a personalized handwritten note via “snail mail” for that added touch.
• Reference your conversation. Ask each individual you meet with for a business card at the end of your interview, and make notes on the back about what you discussed to help you remember later. Show them you were really paying attention.
• Emphasize your strengths. Review the position description and your notes about the actual conversations you had, and express exactly why you are the best person for the opening.
• Reaffirm your interest in the position. Remind each interviewer that you are truly interested in the position and why. Or, if you are no longer interested after having been through the interview process, tell them so. Send your thank you note regardless because you never know when the interviewer will cross your path in the future.
• Keep it short. Two paragraphs are plenty. Quality over quantity.

What do thank you notes have to do with your personal brand?
Under the assumption that you’ve built your personal brand to advance your career, what’s the point of having done so if you aren’t going to land the job? Your brand should position you as more than just an expert at something–it should also say you are a hardworking, humble jobseeker.
I always tell candidates that three qualities can really help sell a hiring manager: passion, enthusiasm and a willingness to learn more. And a thank you note is an excellent opportunity to showcase all three.
Don’t let the interview process morph your brand
Of course, thank you notes come near the end of the hiring process, but you should be careful how you present yourself throughout. As a hiring manager, I review applications all the time–mostly for internship and entry-level positions. It’s interesting to me how candidates come across in their cover letters and resumes, which is often completely different from the online brand they’ve worked hard to build.
Know yourself, the position, the organization, the industry and even your interviewers extremely well–and how all these pieces fit together. Be true to your brand and use it to advance your career–not hinder it.
Heather R. Huhman is a career expert and founder & president of Come Recommended, an exclusive online community connecting the best internship and entry-level job candidates with the best employers. She is also the national entry-level careers columnist for Examiner.com and blogs about career advice at HeatherHuhman.com.
Article courtesy of Dan Schawbel, the leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y. He authors the Personal Branding Blog and publishes Personal Branding Magazine and authored the upcoming book, Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, Spring 2009). Dan has been called a “personal branding force of nature” by Fast Company and his work has been published in BrandWeek Magazine, Advertising Age and countless other publications.

Co-workers donating PTO “gives me hope”

They say that time is the most precious gift you can give. And if that time is paid time off – and the recipient is truly in need – it is beyond precious.
This deeply meaningful gift is being given not by friends, not by family… but by co-workers. I’m talking about a trend in generosity that should be quite interesting to HR professionals: employees donating their Paid Time Off (PTO) to colleagues who need it to treat an illness or care for a family member who is chronically ill, or for employees who have gone through a major disaster.

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6 Reasons Staff Evaluations FAIL

I’ve worked on staff evaluations before, but this year, as I pressed forward on a batch of them, it occurred to me how royally f’d up the system is. With the economy still ‘uncertain,’ many companies are stingier than ever when it comes to raises and praise. Apparently the two go hand-in-hand. The suits think that if you shower an employee with commendations, they will expect a raise to match. But since 2009 is the year of the tide wad, it appears most organizations are holding back in all categories.
The annual review is designed to keep employees happy – but not too happy. In other words, staff evaluations are approached as a mechanism to maintain the status quo. As a younger worker, I lived and died by the annual review. Now I see what a useless gauge it really is. Every company handles evaluations and merit raises differently, but in my experience, here are a few reasons why staff evals FAIL.
1) Evaluations are like a child’s report card. From the silly grading system (Excellent, Satisfactory, Needs Improvement) to the ‘teacher’s’ comments at the end – there’s even a comments box for you to fill out just like mommy and daddy once did for you. You’re not going to get too many ‘excellents.’ Why should the company give you a glowing eval? They are afraid that anything too flattering will have you resting on your laurels and embracing mediocrity – at least for the first part of the year. From the start, you are set up to fail. Continue reading …
Article by Andrew G.R. and courtesy of jobacle.com – your cure for carbon copy career advice!