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“My 5 year plan is focused on building my career.” “I have nothing to gain by going off on adventures.” “I’ll do my sightseeing later, after I’ve made it.”   If you had any of those thoughts as you read the headline of this post, you might want to think again.   What if we said to you that travel could actually help you achieve your career goals? Well, it can. Far from being a distraction or a delay in your agenda, travel will give you the behavioral skills employers want, maybe even more than they want technical qualifications.   Planning and Organization Budgeting, destination research, logistics, accommodations, equipment, safety: you need detail-oriented thinking to ensure that your trip goes well. It’s also exactly what you need to successfully plan and execute a work project.   Team-manship Unless you’re going solo, you’ll compromise with your travel companions on what to see, where to eat, etc. Communicating and working together, you’ll achieve the...

  By now, it’s probably a given that your company has a page on social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter; and you may be pleased by the number of visitors you’ve getting. But if you don’t know who those visitors are, how they found you and what they want, are they really doing your business any good?   This is where the new DIY engagement analytics come in. No need to hire a marketing expert who’ll charge you an arm and a leg; these tools are easy to use and usually free. They track your online presence and tell you everything you need to know to convert those visitors into customers … and connect with many more potential customers just like them.   Let’s have a look at some of the most popular offerings.   Facebook Insights (free)   If you have a Facebook page, you already have Insights. Just click the link at the top of the page to see metrics about your audience, such as:   Demographic data (gender, age, location) about the people who liked your page...

Your resume is the most impressive one in the recruiter’s pile. But when you meet your prospective employer for the interview, you avoid making eye contact, fiddle with your hair, mumble your words, or exhibit other signs that you lack confidence. Result: someone else who is less qualified — but makes a better in-person impression — gets the offer.   Why? Because your insecure manner has made the interviewer doubt whether you really command all the experience and skills that your resume claims. You’ve also shown that you may not be so good at integrating yourself with their team — an asset that is just as important to most employers.   It’s clear, then, that self-confidence will do more to help you land the job than your resume ever could. Here’s how to project that winning attitude.   Look Your Best Knowing that you’re perfectly dressed for the interview will go a long way towards boosting your confidence. In could pay off in other ways too: studies show that candidates...

If the thought of attending a professional networking event strikes terror into your heart, you’re not alone. Even the most socially confident people tremble at the prospect of a room full of strangers who could either help or hinder their career progress, depending on how they present themselves. What’s more, your fear is likely to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Your nerves will show in how you look, speak and act, making a bad impression on others and a bad experience for you. Take comfort — many, if not most, successful people have been in your shoes. They’re successful, not because they don’t feel any anxiety, but because they have secret tricks that help them handle it. Check out these 5 tips from the expert career coaches at Integrity Staffing Solutions. From Jaisha: Identify Your Problem. Then Solve It. Fears can seem more overwhelming when they all merge together in one huge mass. Make them more manageable by breaking them down into a list of specific sentences....

Probably the biggest productivity saboteur in the workplace today: the meeting. The meeting that was supposed to take an hour and ended up consuming the entire morning. The meeting where everyone talked in circles and nothing got decided or resolved. The meeting where information was pushed at people who barely even pretended to pay attention.   Wouldn’t it be great if those meetings could happen less often, in less time, and still achieve the same — or even better — results? We’re here to tell you it can be done! Here are the strategies we at Integrity Staffing Solutions use to make this dream a reality.   Eliminate the Non-Essential. Ask yourself if this meeting is really necessary. Do you really need production updates more than once a week, or is the same information being repeated from one meeting to the next? How about once a week, or even one every two weeks?   Ask yourself how many people really need to attend. Remember, the more man-hours are tied up in your...

There you are at a professional networking event, chatting with new contacts and (hopefully) making a fantastic impression. Suddenly, silence falls. And you can’t think of a thing to say. Awkward!   It’s bad enough if this happens when you’re among friends, but it’s a thousand times worse when you’re with people who could have a positive or negative effect on your career. So let’s make sure it never does happen to you.   Here are our top 3 successful talking points that will keep the conversation going; and make yourself look good in the process.   The News Ask people’s opinion of the latest news story, movie/TV show/viral video, or local sports team’s performance. If you don’t know what’s going on, take a few minutes ahead of time to read a newspaper, visit a news website and check out what’s trending on Reddit and Digg.   Stay away, however, from anything intense or personal like politics, religion and health problems. You never know what someone will find...

In this tough economy, it’s not always within your control, or even your employer’s, whether or not you get the pay you deserve. Many companies are struggling just to stay alive and can’t afford any wage increases. They may even be forced to hand out pay cuts or layoffs.   Along with the economic downturn has come a perceived decrease in employee work ethic, and a big debate over a possible relationship between the two conditions.   Does inadequate pay cause poor work ethic … or vice versa … or none of the above?   Some studies say that employees who aren’t rewarded for their hard work lose their motivation. Other researchers say that the millennial generation’s emphasis on work-life balance has caused traditional employers to view them as poor workers, and remunerate them accordingly. Still others see no correlation between pay increases and productivity increases in the statistics of the past several decades.   So, are you caught in a vicious cycle, where the less...

You’ve heard the rumors: your company will be laying off employees. And maybe you think there’s nothing you can do about it.   But you’re wrong. Someone will make a decision about which workers to keep and which to let go. That decision will be based on how valuable or essential each person is to the company’s future success. Factors considered could range from your productivity ratings to your enthusiasm in supporting the team’s morale.   Here are five steps you can take to get yourself on the “keep” list.   Outwork Your Peers. You want your employer to see you as the hardest worker on the team. Clock in before everyone else and leave after they do. Volunteer to help out a colleague who’s overwhelmed, and never say “it’s not my job” when asked to take on extra assignments.   Check Your Last Performance Review. You want your supervisor to have nothing bad to say about you. Were any weaknesses were pointed out to you during your last review? Focus on improving those...

What do all these successful people have in common? Einstein came up with the theory of relativity while riding his bicycle. Salvador Dali believed that his daily siesta boosted his creativity. Thomas Edison said he got extra energy to invent electrical devices from taking short naps.   What they (and many other famous people from Leonardo da Vinci to John F. Kennedy) have in common is that they used work breaks to get more done, with better quality, in less time. And a plethora of scientific studies prove them right.   A DeskTime time-tracking experiment showed that the top 10% employees in productivity actually worked less than eight hours a day. They alternated 52 minutes of work with 17-minute breaks.   A Mayo Clinic study found that workers who stay glued to their desks all day without a break have more health problems, including cardiovascular disease, gastro-intestinal damage, impaired memory, poor decision making, sleep disturbances, depression and anxiety....

Busy co-workers and supervisors are ... well ... busy. They may be putting out a "Don't bother me now" vibe that has stopped you from asking for the help or information you need. Or maybe you're afraid you'll come off as not knowing your job if you request their guidance. Rest assured, they would rather prevent your mistake before it happens than let you go cluelessly ahead and then have to clean up the mess afterwards. In fact, most people are flattered when their expertise is sought. Here are three better ways to get a positive response when requesting a colleague's input.   Ask for a Specific Length of Time (and Stick to It). "Do you have five minutes?" sounds a lot more doable to even the busiest person. The shorter time frame you can designate, the better. That's why asking for a working lunch or dinner is usually not successful: it takes too long. But be realistic with how much time it will take to get everything you need. Running beyond your allotted time will make a...