How to Write a Standout LinkedIn Headline

How to Write a Standout LinkedIn Headline Youre on LinkedIn to be noticed for the rights reasons. Potential employers will search for you, and  colleagues, clients and customers are bound to check you out at some point too. Your profile is  your brand,  so dont let yourself be oh-so-bland. When it comes to acing your profile, the headline is arguably the most important feature.  Most users  will spend a lot  of time and energy on  getting their whole profile completed; theyll meticulously fill in their previous employer details, craft a compelling bio and tick all the relevant boxes, then feel theyve done a cracking job, and move on. This is all still important to do, but if there is one little field that is often overlooked, its definitely the headline. Why is the LinkedIn headline important? Your LinkedIn headline is critical as its the only customisable personal information people will about  of you in listings, group discussions and home feeds. When you appear in search results for instance, your name, location and headline will be the three visible bits. That bio you spent 2 weeks writing doesnt make the cut, nor do your Pulse posts. If you havent got something interesting written in your headline, youll just appear like every other Tom, Dick and Harry who does a similar job to you. Unless  your  name is Joe Kickass and you are based in a cool place like  Trollhattan or Xanadu, people wont necessarily feel compelled to click. How do most people  get it so wrong? Its actually very easy to get this wrong.  If you dont change your headline manually, it will default to your job title and company. Sometimes your job title is self-explanatory, but more often it isnt. what does Account Manager even mean? Who is Account, and why are you managing him?  A bad example of a job title is  Consultant at Smithers Smithers. Consultant could mean anything from kettle engineer to project director. Other variations are Founder (do they still work in the business?) and Partner (silent or active?). Smithers Smithers is not a household brand and you cant deduce what they do. This is a typical problem for consultancies, law firms, accountancy firms and other professional services organisations. My default would be to assume  theyre probably funeral directors, it kind of sounds like they are, especially if they added Son at the end. Mediocrity A decent example would be Life Insurance Broker at AIG Insurance. We can pretty much guess what this person does and what they sell. We also recognise the brand. What we dont know is who the target audience is; could be individuals and it could be corporate policies. Or excellence? The best example would be where you manually go in and change the headline to a marketing phrase that is relevant to your target audience. If you have a personal brand statement youll want to use it here. Helping Farmers Sell Truckloads of Turnips is a good start, but still, it can be even more targeted.  Helping British Farmers Sell Truckloads of Class I Turnips is even better. By reading this we instantly know what the person does, whom they do it for and that they have at least some sense of humour. 5  Tips to get you started: First think value proposition how do you provide value? Be as specific as possible here and remember the old saying: the nicher, the richer. Think target audience whom do you provide value for and who will read this? Its not always the end customer that is the decision maker. Unique selling point you are likely to be stacked up against your competitors and you had better have your USP in the headline already to stand out. Now think keywords, pepper your headline with the keywords that you think people will do searches for. The more technical terms here the better (software, standards, certifications etc). Finally, think memorable. Your greatest challenge online is to be remembered so be creative and/or funny so that your headline sticks with the people that matter. Sounds great, how do I actually change my headline? Simple! You login to LinkedIn, click on My Profile / Edit and Headline  then change it. You only have 120 characters so you have to be somewhat concise. Your turn Whats your LinkedIn headline? Please share it  in the comments below! Image: Shutterstock

Glass Ceiling Holding You Back Heres How To Break It

Glass Ceiling Holding You Back Heres How To Break It So, you have your sights set on the C-suite and you already know it’s going to take a lot of determination and grit to get there, but do you have a good grip on how to lay the groundwork for your journey and break through the glass ceiling? When it comes to leading the charge at a company, it’s critical to set a strong foundation to tackle the growing challenges women are facing today. For instance, as a female CEO, I have found that there can be an unconscious expectation that I should be less direct, which is seen negatively when compared to male counterparts. We’re sometimes exuded as “too bossy” or even fall victim to imposter syndrome â€" when one doubts her own accomplishments. The fact of the matter is, the glass ceiling is still a very real obstacle, but I’d like to challenge you to break it down. For those on the road to the C-suite, remember these three things as you build your foundation as a female leader:  Define your personal roadmap. Look at where you are now, where you want to be and start by putting your goals into a plan. As female leaders, we often have to balance family and work â€" this is important to consider in your plan and timing. Start simple, adjust as you go and find a few trusted mentors to reach out to for advice. I’ve found that a planning discipline and trusted advisors are critical whether I’m running a five-person team or a 500-person organization. Reflect on your goals every step of the way.   Identify professional milestones by assessing progress annually to allow for reflection, adjustment and the evolution of your goals. It’s important to keep in mind that becoming CEO doesn’t happen overnight. Patience and perseverance are not to be underestimated. I had a few years where my goals and aspirations weren’t on track for a myriad of reasons â€" which required me to step back and ask myself what was really important. Having personal check-ins to reflect on what is no longer relevant, what is holding you back, what you’re passionate about and what you need to develop are critical for growth. A lot can change within a year, and even more in three years. If you’re looking to evolve into leading a  company, build your plan and continually evaluate where you are on the path to achieving those goals. Remember â€" it’s not a linear process. Patience, perseverance and honest self-reflection are important traits in leading a large organization. There’s no such thing as a perfect plan.  I’ve learned the hard way that you can’t always get it 100% right, which is why I adjust quickly if something isn’t working. I say to my team often, “we reserve the right to get smarter,”  which helps them understand that it’s ok to adjust our plan. It’s meant to evolve. In our organization, we have a consistent review cadence so we can learn, adjust or accelerate as needed.  You need recognize that change and growth are not always a linear process. And when the glass ceiling is behind you . . . When you do land that leadership position, make sure to help guide others to define their own plans and set a foundation for success. Remember to empower one another, so we can shatter that glass together. This guest post was authored by Jennifer Quinlan As CEO for R2i, Jennifer is responsible for driving R2is strategic path to value, market focus, brand positioning, leveraging the agencys core capabilities, talent resources, and strategic partnerships to drive growth for the company. Jennifer’s experience in rapidly evolving and highly competitive environments makes her a highly sought-after leader to drive change, growth and overall results. She is an accomplished digital transformation leader in technology platforms and enablement, integrated and digital marketing, customer experience and operational enablement. Jennifer brings an emphasis on the use of marketing technology to enable digital experiences and is focused on ensuring R2i delivers measurable outcomes for its clients.  

The Key to Becoming Rich

The Key to Becoming Rich When I first started this budgeting process, I was under the impression that if I could just save more money, Id find my way out of debt. So I started out by cutting out my daily eating out habit, started doing my nails at home and started going for walks with friends instead of meeting for dinner. After a few months however, I realized that just being more frugal would take me a lifetime to be debt-free. I started to see how little I was contributing to debt repayment and I was beginning to get discouraged.   Now, Ive been guilty of having a few false starts when it came to paying off my debt. The only difference this time was that I had a new idea. Make more money! This realization changed the way I look at debt repayment and I couldnt believe I didnt get this before. I started a side hustle writing resumes and it was like my debt repayment was on steroids. I was able to pay off $34,000 of debt in a year because of the extra money I was able to bring in. I have to admit that I was exhausted that year and it felt like all I did was work, but seeing those debt numbers diminishing every month was motivation enough to keep going and thats exactly what I did. If youre barely managing to pay bills or paying bills and saving just a tiny bit of money, the likely that your financial situation will change much isnt likely. For example, lets say youre making $50,000 a year and comfortably managing your expenses. Lets even say that you save a few hundred dollars a month. It is unlikely that, under these circumstances,   that you will get any richer. Youre really just maintaining your lifestyle. They key is to either go out and find a higher paying job or make some extra money on the side doing something youre good at. Frugality and more money pays Theres no point making more money if youre just going to increase your spending. For that reason, a combination of budgeting and making more money is the way to become rich. I was lucky. The first few months of my debt repayment process, Id been budgeting like crazy. I had already gotten my spending under control and knew exactly where I did to cut my spending. I became pretty frugal and began packing my lunches and planning my meals around what was on sale at the the supermarket. When my side hustle started to make more money, it was easy to make sure I didnt spend through it all which is what I would have done just a few months before. Are you saving money or making more money?

Launching A Salon Everything You Need To Know

Launching A Salon Everything You Need To Know If you’re a qualified, then launching your own salon could be the perfect next step for you. Of course, just like starting any business, it’s important to think the idea through. You need to ensure that you’re aware of all the ins and outs that come with owning a salon, including how to make it successful. To help you ensure that launching your own salon is the right move for you, here’s a guide to everything that you need to know. Take this advice on board and you can make sure that you know everything you need to before taking the leap. Experience is essential Unless you’ve got prior salon experience, you shouldn’t be launching one. If you’re a qualified hairdresser and beautician with years of experience behind you, you’ll make a great salon owner. However, if you’re new to the beauty industry and have limited experience. It might be a good idea to build up some knowledge before launching your business. Even if you’ve worked in the industry before, it might still be worth attending a couple of courses. Working as a mobile hairdresser and beautician is very different to running your own salon there’s a lot you need to master. Think about startup costs and how you’ll cover them Launching a business is always expensive. The first thing you need to consider is whether you’ll rent or buy somewhere to run your salon from this is the biggest part of the investment. You also need to think about the cost of salon equipment and beauty supplies, marketing and PR costs, and also how much insurance will cost you. If you’ve got savings, that’s a great start. However, if you don’t, you’ll need to apply for a loan, to cover your start up costs. To do this, you’ll need a good credit score and a suitable business plan there are plenty of templates online. If you’re a little stuck when it comes to your business plan, find a business mentor to help you. Pick the perfect place To ensure that you pick the perfect place to run your salon from, you need to analyze the location. This means looking at how close to other amenities, whether it’s on a public transport route, and how accessible, the location is. It’s important that the site you choose for your salon is somewhere that gets a lot of foot traffic. That being said, the closer to the town or city center it is, the more expensive the rent or mortgage on the property will be. Think about staff Last but not least, you need to think about how you will run your business. Do you plan on running it single-handedly, or would you like to get some employees on board? You need to account for this in your startup costs, to ensure that you can cover the cost of taking on staff. Ask yourself whether you want a few helping hands or whether you want someone to run the business for you. If you want to be able to leave your business to run itself, you need an experienced salon manager. You’ll also probably need hair stylists, a receptionist, and a beautician. There you have it, all the ins and outs of launching a salon. Image Source; Image Source

5 Reasons to Encourage Entrepreneurship in Kids CareerMetis.com

5 Reasons to Encourage Entrepreneurship in Kids â€" CareerMetis.com Photo Credit -unsplash.comAccording to Eric T. Wagner ? 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs who start businesses fail within the first 18 months. These are some concerning stats which will certainly scare most of the parents, who will in return scare their kids away from starting businesses of their own. So, how can we simulate our kids to become entrepreneurs in today’s society?In this amazing Ted Talk ? “Raising Kids To Be Entrepreneurs”, Cameron Herold, one of the most sought after business minds in North America, remembers various businesses he had as a child. From drycleaning to buying and reselling comic books ? he has done it all. Let’s not forget that some of the today’s biggest entrepreneurs, like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Richard Branson, have started young and on their own.evalEncouraging your children’s entrepreneurial mindset makes them more adaptable to change, open to new ideas and not afraid to take risks. Still in doubt? Well then, here are some of the reason s why you should nurture entrepreneurial spirit in your kids.1. They’ll become better adultsevalTeach your kids skills which will help them become successful adults. Self-discipline ? Your child should learn about money, chores, homework and time management. They should understand that there are negative consequences for misbehavior as well as positive ones for behaving well.Social skills ? Be an example for your kid. Demonstrate how to use social skills effectively and praise them when they do.Healthy decision making ? Kids need help making healthy decisions on their own, so work together on developing a healthy solution. The important thing is not making all their decisions for them but guiding them instead. Impulse control ? Teach your children how to control their behavior in several ways. Provide them with feedback on their actions and praise them for doing well.Emotional balance ? Teach your kids healthy ways to deal with their emotions; emotional intelligence is as importan t as an IQ.evalConfidence ? Consistent discipline, positive and negative consequences are great ways for your child to gain self-esteem and confidence which will teach them to learn from mistakes, accept criticism, and face fears head-on.2. They’ll learn how to handle future life problemsTeach your kids to evaluate problems. Ask them what they think and involve them in the entire process. Also, allow for natural consequences. Your child should make a choice and then face the possible negative consequences. As future business owners, problem-solving will be their daily activity. They won’t be able to just turn their heads away.3. They’ll learn how to make money, not just ask for itTeach your kids the difference between wanting money and wanting to earn money. Making money teaches them the value of money. They won’t feel the same spending money they’ve earned compared to the money that was given to them. evalEvery parent should encourage their kids to have a job.4. They’ll make more secure job opportunitiesPulitzer Prize-winning author Thomas Friedman encourages young people to create secure job positions that will provide long-lasting employment. He’s a huge supporter of having students graduate high school “innovation ready”. This type of education is very beneficial because it teaches kids to think creatively, which nurtures their unconventional talents and skills.Having them as the future business owners will certainly boost the economy.5. Tomorrow’s business leaders are today’s young kidsevalNadia Goodman agrees that the future of successful business depends on young kids whose parents nurtured their entrepreneurial skills. “As a parent, you inspire entrepreneurship by fostering the emotional skills your child will need, such as comfort with risk, effective problem solving, and a positive attitude toward failure,” says Nadia.It is important for parents to encourage their children by giving them the right tools which will later help them succeed in the real world. Always lead by an example. Seeing their parents act creatively and not within the standard norms will help your kids grow up to become not only successful entrepreneurs but great people as well.

Starting a Career as a Freelance Software Developer - CareerAlley

Starting a Career as a Freelance Software Developer - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. If youre skilled in web and software development, the future is bright. Software developers are in a lucrative position; the skills you possess are highly prized in just about every industry, and youll have some flexibility when it comes to choosing a position. A bevy of startups and businesses are now electing to outsource their software development, and for good reason. Development costs can skyrocket, and hiring contractors can be a smart business move for companies of all sizes. If youve got development experience under your belt, these strategies will help you better infiltrate the freelancing market. Build Your Portfolio As someone just starting out in freelancing, youll have less of an edge against more experienced freelance developers, but theres one way to combat this competitiona bulky, impressive online portfolio on sites like Format.com or unsplash.com. Prospective clients will want proof that you can create quality content and work, and when it comes to distinguishing yourself from the competition, your portfolio is going to be your most valuable asset. If you dont already have work, consider doing some projects for free to make sure you have a variety of examples that display numerous skills. These free projects might be for family or friends looking to start a website, or you might approach low-budget startups that might be looking for some simple software development. A portfolio is solid evidence that you can deliver quality work as promised, so its a vital part of the freelancing process. Post your portfolio along with a detailed profile on freelancing site Upwork to begin contact with se arching companies. Improve Upon Current Abilities Technology is constantly changing, and so are the demands placed on web and software developers. To remain competitive in a field becoming more and more saturated with skilled developers, its important to put effort into expanding your skill set in order to make yourself more valuable in the eyes of prospective clients. Attend seminars and webinars, invest money into courses you know will have a significant impact on your productivity, and keep track of all of the classes and certifications you receiveemployers will want to see what steps youve taken to remain on top of the development game. Utilize Recommendations Word-of-mouth and personal recommendations could make or break you when it comes to locking down clients. Ask previous clients and employers for positive testimonials about your work. When listing your testimonial, be sure to provide the name of your employer and the company you worked for, as this will give the recommendation more credibility and appear more attractive to prospective clients. Use a Temp Agency Staffing agencies might be a great option to utilize if youre having trouble attracting a client on your own. Recruiters can serve as an excellent connection point to employers. While some of these may be regular full-time positions, there has been a rise in employers seeking remote, contract developers, and for good reason. Hiring an in-house employee comes with a bevy of expenditures on top of salary, including benefits and the provision of equipment. With the recent advancements in technology platforms that incorporate ALM software, employers are able to manage entire projects from afar, allowing outsourced employees to access projects in real-time, no matter where they are. This means the market is saturated with employers seeking out high-quality, but cost-effective, development optionscue the influx of freelancing developers. Social Networking Its true of any industry; social connections improve your chances of success tenfold. Its essential to attend meetups and other social networking events to make your name well-known and foster relationships with important individuals in your field. Attend seminars to visit with likeminded individuals, join web development chat rooms to get insight into others experiences (learn what to do and what not to do during your freelance career), and take any opportunity to become more connected in the industry. Practice Your Writing As a web developer, you know that quality content is king, so why not try your hand at writing? Putting your thoughts to paper (or to the web page) is an easy way to establish credibility in your field. Having an article or development tutorial featured on multiple websites will give you exposure to a wider audience and serve as an extra source of income. Writing quality articles will help you better build your brand; the more teaching moments you provide, the more trusted youll be as a source for quality web developmentbelieve that employers take note. Not a fantastic writer? Harness the power of social media to boost your personal brand; tweet out important news, maintain conversations and answer questions to software development questions. If youre looking to throw your hat in the freelance web development ring, utilize these strategies to best position yourself for success. What's next? Ready to take action? Choose the right tools to help you build your career. Looking for related topics? Find out how to find the opportunities that help you grow your best career. Subscribe and make meaningful progress on your career. It’s about time you focused on your career. 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How to Write a Music Resume

How to Write a Music ResumeFor the aspiring musician, you will need to know how to write a music resume. This is important since this will help you in the field of music-making since it shows your creative thinking and ability to make a record. You need to have your music profile ready when you are applying for different jobs.There are many companies who like to hire the complete package deal. So, they will look at your skill set and experience when making a decision.It is good to have a long list of people who will see you for jobs. You have to make sure that this list includes your colleagues, friends, acquaintances, teachers, mentors, parents, etc. All these people can give you ideas about the work that you can do and give you some experience in some of the fields.Sometimes, companies hire the person who applied for the job because there is no one else who is able to do the job well. The person who is ready to take up the job also has to be fully prepared.In this article, you will find out more on how to write a music resume. What you need to do is to make sure that you have some facts about you and your talents so that the company will know more about you.You need to provide some basic information on your music resume. This would include your professional profile, educational background, previous works, musical talent, and other things that can aid them in hiring you. Always keep this information simple. If possible, try to get it from the organization that hires you.They may ask you questions such as, what is your expertise, what do you like to do, where do you go, what is your favorite type of music, etc. By answering the above questions, you will show them that you are a nice person and are not someone who need constant supervision. Do not forget to include your birth date, address, email address, telephone number, and photographs.Do not forget to include your favorite music on your music resume. Try to have some of your favorite songs playing in your he ad while you are writing your resume. This will help you in writing a great music resume.