Feel Good: Are You a Bionic Woman?
Remember the 70's TV show The Bionic Woman? I use to love that show. Watching a smart, savvy and strong woman take on the bad guys and win was awesome. I had all the toys; the doll, her blow up house (that took all Christmas Morning to inflate), her bionic station, the outfits....EVERYTHING. I wanted to be the bionic woman. Yet, I was only a little girl that hadn't experienced tough life occurrences. I only saw the end product. The bionic woman kicking butt and taking names. But who was Jamie Summers before her bionic prowess? How did she get ...
Karen’s New Radio Job
Happy New Year! I have some exciting news to tell you. I am moving to Cleveland for a new radio job in February. Thank you to everyone in South Florida for supporting my radio career in Miami, my wonderful listeners in Charleston, SC and Florence, SC., and of course everyone on the Working Divas Network. I have been absent for a minute trying to get my professional and personal life in order for this cross country move. Once I am settled, (sometime in February) I will be more active on the blog and network. I can't wait to reconnect with ...
Archive for Work It @ Work
September 25, 2009 at 2:48 pm · Filed under Work It @ Work
Job interviews… Most of us have been on a few (or more) and many consider them to be nerve-wracking (at best) and downright painful (at worst). We can’t really tell you how to land the ideal job, but we can give you a few pointers on what to avoid. While it’s important to let your personality shine through in an interview and to be sincere, it’s not the right time to let it all hang out. Here, our list of top things to avoid uttering…
- “I Need The Money…” Even if the fact that you only have $25 in your bank account is the reason you’re going back to work after a hiatus (traveling through Europe, raising the kids, laid off, etc.), don’t ever mention it. The interviewer doesn’t need to know you’re hard-up for cash. It may unintentionally sound like you’re there only to earn money and that you’re not really interested in working. The goal is to always show passion and enthusiasm for the company and the position you are being interviewed for.
- “My Last Boss Was A Jerk…” Dissing your previous employer has no upside, no matter how awful he/she treated you. Even if he/she made “Ari Gold” on Entourage look like an angel, sharing the details can come off sounding rude and disrespectful to potential co-workers and those who are “higher up” on the food chain than you. So remember to ban the bad-mouthing. Read the rest of this entry »
September 21, 2009 at 8:25 am · Filed under Work It @ Work
We’ve all heard about Murphy’s Law (whatever can go wrong, will). And the Law of Averages (everything evens out in the end). And Newton’s Third Law of Motion (every action has an equal and opposite reaction).
Well, The Laws of Working Moms incorporate a little bit of each — and then some. To wit:
1.) If you have an early meeting, or if the children need to be at school early for a field trip or other event, someone will be up at least twice during the night — which means you will be, too.
2.) The toddler will sneeze mightily in your face the day before he comes down with a ferocious cold.
3.) Your kids’ school or daycare will shut down due to Swine Flu the week after your kids have been out sick with a cold. (Corollary: Your kids will not have the H1N1/Swine Flu virus.)
4.) You will spill coffee (hot or cold, doesn’t matter) on yourself if, and only if, you wear a freshly pressed white blouse to the office.
5.) If you are the working mom of an infant, you will discover a cascade of dried spit-up on the back of your jacket, but only after you’ve worn it for at least two hours (or to at least one meeting).
6.) Any electronic device that’s absolutely necessary to your sanity will be a.) missing or b.) out of batteries when you most need it.
7.) If you carry a purse, you will always have some sort of kid-type food in it, which you will discover when you are looking for something, like your ID. What you will not have in it is whatever you were actually looking for, like your ID.
8.) You will slave over an amazing meal that the kids won’t touch, and you will throw together a last-minute “gotta get them fed” meal that they devour.
9.) Your kid will have severe Mama Drama on the mornings when you most need to be at work by a certain time. (Corrollary: You will be late on those days.)
10.) You will go to work more than once with a sticky, kid-applied kiss on your cheek — and you deliberately won’t wash it off.
Lylah M. Alphonse writes about juggling career and parenthood at The 36-Hour Day and Work It, Mom!, is the Child Caring columnist for Boston.com/Moms, and blogs at Write. Edit. Repeat.
September 14, 2009 at 7:40 am · Filed under Work It @ Work
If you want to increase your net worth, increase your self-worth first! It sounds like your confidence at work could use a raise as well. My guess is you are under-valuing yourself and bringing insecurities from your past into your present. I encourage you to make a list of all of your strengths, skills, completed tasks, and lessons learned from not just this job but your entire work history. While you are doing this, do not minimize anything you have done. Every task is relevant and significant. Reach out to past bosses and co-workers and ask them what they appreciated and observed when working with you and add those things to your list. Reread this list aloud every day for at least a week and feel free to add to it as you go. Reframe your perception of who you are as employee. If you want your boss to see you as a valuable employee, you need to see yourself that way first.
To boost your confidence a bit, practice being a bit more out-going and assertive with your coworkers. Ask one of your colleagues out to lunch, join in a water cooler conversation, make a comment or raise a question at a meeting. If your boss is intimidating to you, then practice approaching people who are not your direct superior to build your self-esteem muscles. Read the rest of this entry »
September 10, 2009 at 8:17 am · Filed under Fashion and Glam, Work It @ Work
Just as the summer heats up, fall fashions begin their trickle onto retailers’ shelves. But instead of buying the season’s trendy leather motorcycle jackets (so chic!) or designer acid wash denim (rockin’!), many women are getting a start on fall with practical pieces for the office. Why now?
With the joblessness rate at 9.5%, a 26-year high, a share of that percentage are women who are either not working or hoping they don’t end up on the “redundancy list.”
These savvy shoppers are seeking interview outfits that will impress prospective (and current) employers and ensembles that set them apart from the throngs of others in search of new jobs.
In Pictures: Interview Outfits For The Right Price
Carefully constructing the perfect interview outfit is worth the effort: It can be a deciding factor in whether or not you pass muster with an interviewer. Read the rest of this entry »
September 9, 2009 at 7:03 am · Filed under Work It @ Work
It’s only Wednesday and you can’t wait for the weekend. The boss is driving you crazy. You don’t know if you can make it through the day without an outburst. You feel lost in the corporate maze. Abandoned by your boss. Out of control of your career. Or maybe he’s breathing down your neck so often you could scream.
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August 4, 2009 at 12:38 pm · Filed under Work It @ Work
Tough times, we’re often warned, bring out the worst in people. Does that mean you should sharpen your stilettos in self defense? I don’t mean your Taryn Rose boot heels. I’m talking about protecting yourself against a sisterhood of back-stabbers, the wicked witches of the workplace who, instead of developing one another’s careers, publicly criticize ideas and purposely try to sabotage promotions or high-profile assignments.
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July 23, 2009 at 11:01 am · Filed under Work It @ Work
Looking for your next opportunity? Before you start sending out your resume, let’s make it interview ready. Your resume is the key to getting you in the door to speak with your future employer. Spell check and proofreading are your best friends. Take these tips from Shine @ Yahoo and get busy making your resume shine! Also you must have a decent credit score. More and more companies are using it as a measuring stick to select potential employees. Get a copy of your credit report to find out where you stand.
No Typo Is Harmless
A recent survey by the financial staffing firm Accountemps shows that three out of four executives (76%) said just one or two typos in a resume is enough to knock applicants out of the running for hiring consideration.
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July 8, 2009 at 9:02 am · Filed under Work It @ Work
The 2009 job market is very different from job markets of the past. If you haven’t job-hunted in a while, the changes in the landscape can throw you for a loop.
One of the biggest changes is the shift in what constitutes a strong resume. Years ago, we could dig into the Resume Boilerplate grab-bag and pull out a phrase to fill out a sentence or bullet point on our resume. Everybody used the same boilerplate phrases, so we knew we couldn’t go wrong choosing one of them — or many — to throw into your resume.
Things have changed. Stodgy boilerplate phrases in your resume today mark you as uncreative and “vocabulary challenged.” You can make your resume more compelling and human-sounding by rooting out and replacing the boring corporate-speak phrases that litter it, and replacing them with human language — things that people like you or I would actually say.
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